Secondly a covenant plainly argues an agreement at least in tender from one and professed acceptation from the other party A covenant of parties at a distance either party holding his distance respective to that where the distance is held is the greatest absurdity Now in this absolute covenant as it is called there is not so much as a tender from God much lesse an acceptance from man and so as yet a distance held and therefore no covenant or agreement Thirdly this supposed absolute covenant Jer. 31 33. Heb. 8. 10. hath mercies of two sorts graces priviledges And though men contend that the promise of grace is absolute seeing there is nothing pre-required of us for the writing of this Law in our hearts yet the priviledge of remission of sins hath its conditions Act. 10. 43. Act. 13. 38 39. Act. 3. 19. Fourthly none can claim any interest in or take any comfort from this absolute covenant depending on the antecedent love of God preceding the conditional covenant depending on the consequent love of God before he hath entered the second which is conditional and performed the conditions and knows that he hath performed them This is clear it is made all say with the Elect now none can claime his interest till he knows his Election which is made sure only by our saith and new obedience by the knowledge that we have of our faith and new obedience But it is enough to me that a covenant comprizing a restipulation of our duty is here confest which is the Gospel way to salvation without which the acquiescent love of God is not attained As to that Text Heb. 8. 10. the Reader may see more elsewhere CHAP. IX Further Objections against the former doctrine Answered THe covenant of grace entred with fallen man saith one is called an everlasting covenant and Heb. 8. 12. God saith I will be merciful to your iniquities and your sinnes will I remember no more Now suppose there were conditions for man to performe and man did faile in those conditions what were become of the covenant Ans The conditions failing of the covenant is broke the everlasting covenant is broke which though it seeme a contradiction to some yet it is not so to the Prophet Is 24. 5. They have transgressed the Law changed the Ordinances and broken the everlasting Covenant It is said to be everlasting because it shall not be antiquated for another to succeed it or at least that man is not to put a period to it so Circumcision and the Passeover are Ordinances for ever not that non-entring into it never break or transgresse it The Elect of God Regenerate do indeed keep covenant so do not all that enter into it There are frequent Scripture-complaints of Breach of covenant Secondly It is said Man hath no tie upon him to perform any thing whatsoever with covenant as a condition that must be observed on his part let the covenant it self be judge in this case mark it in Jeremy Ezekiel or in Heb. 8. Answ In those Texts there are graces mentioned as Gods work on the soule and priviledges promised to be enjoyed Whatsoever is there set forth as Gods work upon the soul is also required of man as duty namely to be renued in the spirit of his mind Eph. 4. 23. To make him a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 18. 31. That the Word of Christ dwell in him richly in all wisdome Col. 3. 16. It will be hard for any to point out a promise of this nature but it may be answered with a command as an obligation unto duty As the precepts must not thrust out the promise nor duty shoulder out free grace So the promise must not destroy the precept In that of Jeremy conditions on mans part are included so as by the assistance of grace to be performed The tie lies upon us on pain of losse of all that the covenant promiseth and bearing all that-it threatneth Thirdly Suppose saith one there should be a fault of performing in this Covenant whose were the fault Answ The fault is his who is chidden in Scripture and beaten for it namely those that did flatter God with their mouth and lied unto him with their tongues whose heart was not right with him nor were sledfast in his covenant Ps 78. 36 37. They upon whom he will bring a sword to avenge the quarrel of his covenant Lev. 26. 25. are in the fault Fourthly if there be conditions then the covenant is not free gifts must be of absolute grace and bounty if a condition be required the freedome of the gift is destroyed Answ This is true of such conditions where there is merit in the condition whereby benefit accrues to him that engages by promise holding proportion with the reward But here is nothing indented by way of covenant but that homage which is naturally due which God may challenge from us as creatures without either engagement unto or exhibition of any reward at all for their paines and what he may require without reward when he covenants for it the reward is free If Abraham had made Eliezer of Damascus his heir upon his faithful service the inheritance had yet been a free gift and of grace conferr'd upon him Make the Proposition universal All conditions in promises destroy the nature of a gift in the thing promised and then it is to be denied A covenant of grace would then be a contradiction seeing it is no covenant as hath been demonstrated without a condition Then the Prophet doth contradict himself in the tender of a covenant in the most free manner as is possible Isa 55. 1 2. Ho every one that thirsteth c. even their conditions are required Incline your ear and come unto me Hear and your soul shall live Let the wicked for sake his way the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon Here are free promises with conditions Men who have not that sovereignty account their gifts free and yet require conditions from them on whom they are conferred An Alms-house is founded and endowed with revenue conditions are put upon the Almes-people to reside in such an house assigned to wear clothes of the colour and forme prescribed or whatsoever else the Founder please and yet the gift is free Finally God cannot covenant with man and keep up his sovereignty if we leave out obedience in the Articles of the covenant The covenant is upon equal termes if subjection be excluded to be a God in covenant and not require subjection is the highest of contradictions A Learned Writer after a large discourse held of the right that Redeemed ones have to the death of Christ before beleeving saith Here may be observed the mistake of those who winde up the merit of Christ as affecting God as I may so speak unto a conditional engagement viz. that we shall be made partakers of
VINDICIAE FOEDERIS OR A TREATISE OF THE Covenant of God ENTERED WITH MAN-KINDE In the several Kindes and Degrees of it IN WHICH The agreement and respective differences of the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace of the Old and New Covenant are discust The Conditions of the Covenant of Grace on mans part are assigned and asserted The just latitude and extent clearly held forth and fully vindicated Several Corollaries containing many heads of Divinity now controverted and practical points singularly useful inferred In particular the necessity of a constant settled Ministry to bring men into Covenant and to bring them up to the termes of it and of Schooles and Nurseries of Learning and an orderly call in tendency to it Infant Baptisme in that latitude as now in use in reformed Churches maintained Newly corrected and much enlarged in many places cleared by its Author Thomas Blake late Minister of the Gospel at Tamworth in the Counties of Stafford and Warwick Whereunto is annexed a Sermon preached at his Funeral by Mr. Anthony Burgesse and a Funeral Oration made at his death by Mr. Samuel Shaw The second Edition All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in the Covenant Psal 44. 17. London Printed for Abel Roper at the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1658. To his Reverend and much Honoured Friend Mr. SAMVEL HILDERSAM Bachelar in Divinity and Pastor of West-Felton in the County of Salop Together with Mrs MARY HILDERSAM his pious Consort NO time can wear out the memory of those favours which I have received from your hands You were of the first that gave me a visit when few durst adventure themselves under the same roof being by the good providence of God necessitated to leave a place sorely afflicted with the Pestilence and labouring under a Feaver wherewith presently on my departure God pleased to afflict me and were eye-witnesses of the mean accommodations which in those straits could be provided for me and my reverend brother with both our wives and families all cast upon the same condition at that time you made it appear that your eyes affected your hearts in giving a free invitation to me and those that had dependance upon me to your house assoon as with security we durst adventure over any mans threshold where for many moneths we had free and liberal entertainment If Paul in an Epistle did remember the like from Onesiphorus with special observation that he was not ashamed of his chaine my heart must needs have checked me if having opportunity of Epistling according to received custom you should have been forgotten I shall not be ashamed of the language of beggers if they have learnt it from such a hand The Lord grant unto you that ye may finde mercy from the Lord in that day In your house I had not only leisure to make a good progresse in this Work but singular accommodation from your accomplisht Library So that you have not only a deserved interest in the Author but in the Work it self upon sight of one part you have often called upon me for publication of the whole So that if the Reader reap any benefit he may see how large a share in the thanks is yours I know you affect not Panegyricks neither am I fitted for them nor was ever accustomed to them There is much published to the world of one of you in the life of your reverend Father to whom I have often in my thoughts applied that of Doctor Hall concerning learned Whittaker Who ever saw him without reverence or heard him without wonder Having led the Reader through his glory they adde And yet his name with the lively picture of his person lives in his worthy sonne Master Samuel Hildersam whose learning Cambridge West-Felton in Shropshire do perpetuate the honour of his Reverend Father whose memory he doth much reverence and whose rich vertues both personal and ministeriall he doth happily imitate And it is not little that is said of the other where it is remembred that you were propounded by him for a meet wife for his dearest sonne and recorded that he was heard with affection to ingeminate these words Never man had a kinder daughter in Law To be a follower of such a precident and to be found worthy of such a Testimony is a greater glory than all the noble blood that ran through the veines of the greatest of either of your Ancestors Let this small piece finde a roome in your Study and Closet and testifie to the world that gratitude lives in the breast of From my study in Tamworth Novemb 4. 1652. Your most affectionate friend and servant THO. BLAKE READER THe Reverend Author of this Treatise is already known to the Presse by his former Labours which do give so faire a character of his worth and bespeak of thee so ready an entertainment of this excellent piece that were it not that in this glut of books wherewith the world is cloyed it might be unhappily buried out of thy sight We neither need nor should prefix these few lines tanquam digitum indicem to point thee to it The subject about which it is conversant is of noblest ranke viz. The Covenant of Almighty God with Man-kind which is distinguisht into its kindes of Works of Grace And this againe according to the several formes or modes thereof Old and New which how they respectively take hands and agree wherein they shake hands and part What the terms of the Covenant of Grace are as propounded by God and what the conditions on mans part whereupon he being thereunto responsal becomes truely a consederate what is the amplitude and comprehensivenesse thereof in respect of the persons that have right to claim to the priviledges or interests of it are all set forth in their various colours and so drawne to the life that thy spirit is not like to be tired with reading but led on with an appetite so sharp and quick that when thou arrivest at the end thou wilt complaine of the shortnesse of the way For in the doctrine of the Covenant truly stated an Orthodox Faith hath sure foundation thence practick godlinesse receives powerful influence and obligation Thereby very many errours of several sorts of Erronists as by a teste or standard are rectified or discovered from thence our Sacraments do as it were receive a soul and those pertinent and seasonable digressions following in this book concerning the necessity of a settled Ministry c. do by consequence receive both strength and usefulnesse As concerning the remains of a former controversie about Paedobaptisme which are presented to thee in this Book they are not out of their own place in a Treatise of the Covenant We shall not adventure to say any more thereabout but in imitation of that of Mr. Hooker in the Preface to his Ecclesiastical Politie shall crave leave to re-minde all agitatours of that or any other controversie
and upon him when the work was done he might have been justly annihilated If merit be taken in a proper sense Adam in innocency was too low for it all his work being an homage due no profit redounding to God and the work bearing no proportion to the reward But a more superabundant measure of Grace is seen in Gods entrance into covenant with man in his fallen condition and infinitely more savor is shewn in his reconciliation then in his preservation Therefore this by way of eminency hath the honour to be stiled the covenant of Grace the other retaines the name of the covenant of Works These two bearing these denominations have their respective agreement and differences which are to be enquired into but before I reach those it is necessary that somewhat be spoken to assert a covenant of grace in Gospel-times and to give us some further light for a right understanding of it CHAP. III. A Covenant in the proper nature of it between God and fallen man asserted BEfore I proceed any further in this work one great rub that lies in the way is to be removed otherwise not only all that which I have said but also all that which I shall speak on this subject will fall to the ground and that is their objection that say that God hath not entred any covenant properly so called with fallen man He hath by way of Sovereignty laid commands upon man Of free grace hath made rich and large promises by way of legacy bequeathed life and salvation to him but hath entred no covenant properly so called as these say with him which is purposely done to avoid those conditions which are asserted in this covenant If this stand the division before laid down of a Covenant into a Covenant of Works and a Covenant of Grace necessarily falls such a division must not be suffered where any one member of the division is not If therefore there be no covenant of God with fallen man nor no such thing as the covenant of Grace there can be no such division of the covenant and all agreement or differences assigned will be between an entity and a non-entity between that which hath a reality and a meer Chimaera A covenant therefore in the proper nature of it is to be asserted and the speedâ—est way to make this good is to prove from Scripture the name and the thing that the word Covenant is there and the thing in the proper nature of it which the words hold out and all of this respective to the transactions between God and fallen man The word we finde in places without number it were a needlesse labour to give instances when every Reader is able to furnish himself with such multitudes But when this cannot be denyed the impropriety of the speech is objected It is called by the name of a Covenant as is said when in strict propriety of speech it is no covenant But to avoid this the thing it self may be as easily proved as the word and when we have nomen and nominis rationem then we have a covenant not equivocally not yet analogically but properly so called And here I may deal liberally with any adversary and undertake to make proof not only of all the essentials of such a covenant in Scripture but the usual adjuncts not onely of all that makes up the nature but all accessories usually added to the solemnity of covenants The essentials or real properties of a covenant are contained in the usual definitions which afterwards we shall see laid down from several hands all of which are in short comprised in these words A mutual consent of parties with stipulation on both sides Parties consent and mutual engagement is all that is required to the same being of a covenant when two parties agree and either of them both have their conditions to make good there is a covenant or bargaine see it exemplified in several instances given Chap. 1. All of these we finde in that one place Deut. 26. 17 18 19. in the covenant that God enters with his people Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgements and to hearken to his voice And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldest keep all his Commandments And to make thee high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God as he hath spoken There are the Covenanters God and his people There is consent on both parties Thou hast avouched the Lord hath avouched And there is a stipulation on both sides On Gods part To make them high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour On the peoples part To keep all his Commandments to be an holy people There are covenant-covenant-mercies from God to his people unto which of grace he engages himself and there are covenant-duties unto which man stands engaged Psal 103. 17 18. But the mercie of the Lord is from euerlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousnesse unto childrens children to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments The usual solemnities of a covenant are also found in the transactions between God and his people as well as the essentials of it 1. Covenants used to be written for memorial for posterity and so is the covenant between God and man as in Old so in New Testament-times These things are written that you might believe and that believing you may have everlasting life John 20. 31. 2. Covenants used to be confirmed with outward visible signes as the killing of beasts Gen. 15. Jer. 34. this was done in the old administration Exod. 24. Half of the blood was sprinkled upon the Altar to denote Gods entering of Covenant vers 6. The people also were sprinkled with blood to shew their voluntary entring into covenant vers 8. And in the new dispensation a new and unheard of ratification was used the blood of the Mediatour of the Covenant Math. 26. 27 28. This Cup is my blood in the New Testament which was shed for you and for many for the remission of sins This latter is a plain allusion to the former in which you may finde 1. A threefold agreement Either of both these were covenants 2. Either of both these had their ratifications and confirmations 3. Either of both were confirmed with blood 2. A threefold difference 1. The former was the Old covenant which was antiquated This is the New 2. The former was ratified and sanctified with the blood of beasts This is ratified and sanctified in the blood of Christ 3. That blood could never take away sin Heb. 10. This was shed for many for remission of sins Thirdly covenants use to be confirmed by seal so is
Spirit This conviction unto change is hardly without compunction remorse and terrours in the soul It was not the single case of the Corinthians but common with other Christians as the natural work of godly sorrow that it worketh repentance not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7. 10. I will not stand to diâ—â—â—â— whether any ever are exempted from this preparatory work I question not Gods prerogative I am upon enquiry after his usual method I know some instance in Matthew who being called suddenly followed Christ and we heare nothing of any work upon his spirit to trouble But who knows whether Matthew a Jew were not called by grace before this call to an Apostleship and if not in grace whether it necessarily followed in that instant The like is objected of Lydia The Lord opened her heart that she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul Acts 16. 14. without any sorrow or trouble in spirit is mentioned Neither is there mention of any joy or rejoycing in spirit and she by many is believed also to have been a Proselyte Yet this of godly sorrow must be understood with some limit 1. An equal degree of sorrow and preparative work is not necessary in all One mans terrours and heart-breakings are no necessary precedent for all others to reach 2. An high degree is not necessarily required of any God can come sooner in with Gospel-cordials after Law-convictions unto one than another 3. No man hath reason to quarrel his conversion because his sorrow hath not been like some others each man hath not like paine in cure of a like malady 4. None should beg of God overwhelming and amazing shakings and humiliations of Spirit God better knows their frame than they understand themselves 5. None can judge of the truth of their repentance by the greatnesse of their trouble It may possibly end in horrour and work nothing better than it self It may only have its present work to cast hell in the face and then the person returne to his old byasse to his sinful pleasures his worldly advantages as Saul to his Musick Cain to his building of Cities yet when God thus plowes it is a hopeful signe he intends sowing and men in this case must not reason themselves to be such soyle on whom no good can be done as though they were past all husbandry of the Lord He can take away a heart of stone and turne a rock into a fruitful field This is Gods method do not dispute but believe 6. Then it is in a degree sufficient when it effects the work for which it serves when it brings the soul out of love with sin takes it out of the paths of sinne when it so works to an apprehension of dangers that it works the soul to cast it self on Christ Jesus When horrours work desires not of ease but of grace of Christ and of whole Christ of pardon of sin and power against sin there is a true work For the essential parts of this grace which I make a Gospel-engagement and condition of the covenant they are privative or positive Privative is the destruction of what hath been Positive is the introduction of what is not Every change hath two termes The one is terminus ad quem which is endeavoured The other is terminus à quo which is left and so in this change which grace works and to which the covenant of grace doth engage The privative part which we are to leave is sin the work of Satan The positive part which we are to endeavour is that which stands in full opposition Forsaking of sin we must follow after righteousnesse and turning from Satan we must turne to God and therefore the Ministery which findes men out of covenant and works them into it is to bring them from darknesse to light from the power of Satan to God Acts 26. 18. The privative part is frequently enjoyned as that which bindes at all times and to all times A man in covenant with God is to have no more to do with sin Cease to do evil put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes Isa 1. 16. Be ye separate touch no unclean thing 2 Cor. 6. 17. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousnesse which is idolatry for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience In the which ye also walked sometimes when ye lived in them But now you also put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth lie not one to another seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds Col. 3. 5 6 7 8 9. Old things with Christians are to be done away This is the duty of all those that pretend to Christ Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. All that is in Christ is wholly against it His Prophetick office leads us from it and gives us light to avoid it In his Kingly office his Law is against it and his Priestly office is to redeem from it They that are in Christ and learn him as the truth is in Christ Jesus attaine to it Ephes 4. 22. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts It is the character of a man in Christ Gal. 5. 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And this upon peril of bearing their sinne Ezek. 18. 30 31. Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O house of Israel No man in sinne is for glory 1 Cor. 6. 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God The works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleannesse lasciviousnesse idolatry witchcraft hatred varience emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkennesse revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Upon these termes it is that they obtaine pardon of sinne Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Grace is no where more freely tendred than there Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not hearken diligently unto me and eat you that
because their sanctification and good works have some imperfect agreement with the Law of Works This and much more to assert a personal perfect inherent righteousnesse as is said all which as it is here held out to me is new and I must confesse my self in ignorance all over I never took imperfect righteousnesse to imply any such contradiction no more than imperfect holinesse Isaiah I am sure saith All our righteousnesse are as filthy rags Esay 64. 6. No greater charge of imperfection can lie against the most imperfect holinesse than the Prophet lays upon our righteousnesse Neither do I understand how holinesse should be imperfect taken materially and righteousnesse perfect taken formally in reference to a rule We may for ought I know as well make holinesse formal and refer it to a rule and righteousnesse material in an absolute consideration without reference to any rule at all And in such consideration I do not know how there can be perfection or imperfection either in holinesse or righteousnesse it is as they come up to or fall short of the rule that they have the denomination of perfection or imperfection Pauls Gospel-frame whether you will call it righteousnesse or holinesse is set out Rom. 7. full of imperfection yet all this as in reference to the rule as it answered or fell short in conformity to it verse 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man And whereas a charge of ignorance is laid even upon learned Teachers that commonly understand the word righteousnesse and righteous as it referres to the old rule I professe my self to have little of their learning but I am wholly theirs in this ignorance I know no other rule but the old rule the rule of the Moral Law that is with me a rule a perfect rule and the only rule The perfection of this holiness and righteousness in mans integrity stood in the perfect conformity to this Law and the reparation of this in our regenerate estate in which the Apostle places the image of God must have reference as to God for a patterne so to his Law as a rule As an image carrying an imperfect resemblance of its samplar is an image So conformity imperfectly answering the rule is conformity likewise A perfection of sufficiency to attaine the end I willingly grant God condescending through rich grace to crown weak obedience in this sense our imperfection hath its perfectnesse otherwise I must say that our inherent righteousnesse is an imperfect righteousnesse in an imperfect conformity to the rule of righteousnesse and without thir reference to the rule there is neither perfection nor imperfection in any action See Doctor Davenant disputing against justification by inherent righteousnesse upon the account of the imperfection of it de justitia habituali pag. 349 and how fully he was perswaded of the imperfection of this righteousnesse appears in sentences prefixt before two Treatises as may be seen in the margent In the last place I shall conclude that sincerity in the way and work of God which Scripture also calls by the name of truth integrity simplicity uprightnesse perfectnesse an heart in the work of God whole and unfeigned is that which the covenant of grace doth require and that which it accepteth This God in covenant gives in charge and this he rewards and crownes The Law stands as a rule and the charge in it is the highest top of perfection without the least indulgence in any case of failing suitable to the abilities that once were put into our hands God in Gospel-condescensions will have this rule eyed with a single and upright heart universally eyed and observed both in our returnes from sin and in our application to God in new obedience This doing of the will of God from the heart with good will-doing service Eph. 6. 6 7. Serving with a willing minde 1 Chron. 28. 9. This preparing the heart to seek the Lord God of our fathers Ezra 7. 10. This delight in the Law of God in the inward man Rom. 7. 22. though it be in much weaknesse and with strength that is little Rev. 3. 8. by reason of inward corruptions Rom. 7. 23. Gal. 5. 17. enemies without Ephes 6. 12. is required of God in covenant and through grace accepted And as faith which as we have heard is the other new covenant-condition brings us into communion with God So this of a sincere heart and walk holds in communion Faith gives accesse to God in grace and through sincerity we walk with God in grace to glory Both of them are called for of God both accepted with God and both of them crowned with glory That in this degree obedience is both required and accepted in the Gospel is evident This where oever it is God observes and eyes 2 Chron. 16. 9. For the eyes of the Lord runne to and fro throughout the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him Herein thou hast done foolishly therefore from henceforth thou shalt have warres These have letters testimonial from heaven Job 1. 8. Hast thou not considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil Gen. 7. 1. Thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation According to the degree of this higher or lower they have praise 2 Chron. 29. 34. The Levites were more upright in heart to sanctifie themselves than the Priests yea where there is integrity in a single act this God notes Yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thine heart Gen. 20. 6. These God protects with his omnipotence preserves 2 Chron. 16. 9. The eyes of the Lord runne to and fro throughout the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly Prov. 2. 7. In these God takes pleasure I know my God that thou triest the reines and hast pleasure in uprightnesse 1 Chron. 29. 17. Unto these God speaks peace Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly Mich. 2. 7. This the people of God plead with God as an argument to finde favour in his eyes Psalme 26. 1. Judge me O Lord for I have walked in my integrity 1 Chron. 29. 17. As for me in the uprightnesse of my heart I have willingly offered those things Psalme 18. 23. I was also upright before him c. This hath been the high ambition of the servants of God in their most sad troubles to reach David begging mercy saith to God Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts Psal 51. 6. This hath upheld the souls of the Saints in their greatest difficulties with all joy and consolation 2 Cor. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simpliciâ—y and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we
suddenly on no man neither be partaker of other mens sins In case Timothy had had that power to have conferred with the calling qualifications for the calling he had no need to have been in that way advised to use such circumspection Why should he be so careful to see them first fit in case his laying on of hands would fit them There need not such trial whether they were gifted in case a touch of the hand would be the gifting of them And for Timothies Ordination in the place quoted 2 Tim. 1. 6. it followes not from our grant that extraordinary gifts are there specified that authority for the Ministerial work is denied It is plain that Moses authorized Joshua for succession in his place by laying on of hands Deut. 34. 9. The people upon that took him for his successor yet it is as plain in the Text that the Spirit of wisdom was then conferred upon him Authority and power are sometimes given at once yet all that are in power to authorize cannot impower for this businesse he that will see more may read Dr. Seamans Treatise on this subject and jus divinum Ministerii Ecclesiastici CHAP. XXIX Ministers of Christ must bring their people up to the termes of the Covenant pressing the neccessity of Faith and Repentance THen it farther yet follows that the Ministers of Christ are to call their people unto these duties before mentioned as conditions They must urge and presse the necessity of Faith and Repentance These are the termes of the covenant and stipulation to which God in covenant doth engage in which the Apostles of Christ spent their paines Testifying both to Jews and Gentiles repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20. 21. And this must be the businesse of those that make it their businesse to preach the Gospel in all ages Men must be taught to observe what Christ commands and teaches Matth. 28. 20. These Christ teaches and gives in charge Thus he begun his Ministery Mark 1. 15. Repent ye and beleeve the Gospel They must so preach that men may not perish that they may not be the savour of death But they only that beleeve shall not perish John 3. 16. They that repent not must perish Luke 13. 1. They must so preach Christ that men may have their interest in Christ that they may not be cast off by Christ But Faith gives this interest He dwells in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3. 17. Workers of iniquity must be cast off Mat. 7. 23. Depart from me all ye that work iniquity It is no plain dealing in any of the Ministers of Christ to make tender of promises to hold forth priviledges and conceale the termes upon which they may be obtained to speak of salvation to men in sinne without so much as the name of sanctification or application to God in a way of Repentance to tell men in the Prodigals course of the Fathers bowels and readinesse to meet them with kisses without mention of the Prodigals humiliation or coming in to tell them of the many sinnes forgiven to the woman in the Gospel Luk 7. 47. without once mention of those many tears that were shed in evidence of her repentance They say that these are the strongest motives to work men from sin This I gladly yeeld when the promise is tendered and with it repentance urged I know it was the way of the Prophet Esay 55. 7. and therefore a prevalent way Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon The way also of the Apostle 2 Cor. 6. 17. Be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you But the severing of the promise from the duty so that Christ is heard only in a promise not at all in a precept when they heare that Christ will save but are never told that they must repent These are but delusions Promise-Preachers and no duty-Preachers grace-Preachers and not repentance-Preachers do but as the Apostle hath long since given warning deceive with vain words Ephes 5. 6. This will never work men from sinne but strengthen men in sin Ezek. 13. 22. Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad whom I have not made sad and strenthened the hands of the wicked that he should not returne from his wicked way by promising life These promises of life thus tendered we see are lies for men in sinne are men for death Ezek. 18. 31. These promises strengthen the hands of men in sinne that they return not from it It is the observation of many that the false Prophets so branded in the Old Testament vented no errours in Faith but only misapplications of truths They promised peace where the Lord had promised no peace and therefore a false Prophet among the Jews is distinguished from a false Teacher among Christians 2 Pet. 2. 1. These latter bring in damnable heresies and so did not the former But as ours outstrip them in that they bring in errours in faith so they joyne with them in misapplications of truths If thou be a whoremonger a blasphemer a drunkard a mad man in iniquity saith one or words to that purpose and there be no manner of change wrought in thee yet come and take Christ c. Does any Gospel-Text speak of such a mans taking of Christ without any manner of change wrought Are not those the enemies of Christ that rise in hostile rebellion Psal 68. 21. And while they despise him can they receive him We would not have such a sinner if we can possibly imagine a great sinner kept from Christ Jesus but he must come in at the Gospel-door He must come in the way of his call He must come to receive whole Christ in each function of his He must come for every gift which Christ poures out He must come for repentance from Christ as a Prince as well as remission of sins as a Saviour Acts 5. 31. God hath exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes He must come by the way of Faith for forgivenesse This both Prophets and Apostles Old Testament and New Testament-Gospel calls for Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his Name whosoever beleeveth in him shall receive remission of sinnes They must come by repentance and conversion in order to forgivenesse Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. I do not say that there is no promise in Scripture made to a wicked man that is the greatest Gospel-paradox But I say they are not made good to wicked persons They are made to the wicked made good that
confirmed at large but that others have fully done it and I know not that there is any adversary that appears in it The name of a covenant is frequently given to it Deut. 4. 13. He declared unto you the covenant which he commanded you to performe even ten Commandments See 2 Kings 18. 12. 2 Chron. 6. 11. All the essentials of a covenant before mentioned Parties Consent Conditions are found in it as we may see in that one Text Deut. 26. 17 18. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God to walk in his wayes and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee Yea the solemnities of a covenant as before hath been largely shewne are found in it Secondly This covenant delivered by Moses to the people of Israel was a covenant of Grace the same in substance with this under which we live in Gospel-times This is so largely proved to my hand by Master Ball in his Treatise of the covenant page 102 103 104. and Master Burges in his Vindiciae legis page 224 225. that I may spare my paines yet in brief That covenant which teacheth Christ in which men attaine salvation that accepts men upon repentance in which there is pardon of sinne and in which the heart is circumcised of God that is a covenant of grace One of these single will evince it much more in their joynt strength will they conclude it But the covenant delivered by Moses was such a covenant In that covenant Christ was taught John 5. 46 47. Had ye beleved Moses ye would have beleeved me but if ye beleeve not Moses how will ye beleeve my words Whence the collection is plaine Beleevers of Moses are Beleevers of Christ and Rejecters of Moses are Rejecters of Christ See Luke 24. 25 26. with 44 45 46. John 1. 45. Acts 26. 22 23. Rom. 3. 21 22. The Prophecies Promises Types Genealogies Sacraments under that covenant whether ordinary or extraordinary all held forth Christ as might be easily shewn in their several particulars In that covenant the people of the Jews attained salvation and were not only fed with temporal Promises and a covenant meerly carnal not looking above or beyond the land of Canaan as shall be shewen In this covenant men are accepted and received into mercy and favour upon repentance When thou art in tribulation and all these things are come upon thee in the later dayes if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shalt be obedient to his voice for the Lord thy God is a merciful God he will not forsake thee neither destroy thee nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them Deut. 4. 30 31. In this covenant there is pardon of sinne the great priviledge of the New covenant Heb. 8. 12. The Lord proclaimes himself to Moses The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Exod. 34. 6 7. See Exod. 32. 31 32. 2 Chron. 7. 14. Psal 25. 11. Psal 51. 12. 7. 9. 14. In this covenant the heart is circumcised another great priviledge of the New covenant Heb. 8. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God All of these any of these hold out a covenant of Grace Thirdly the ten commandments which are called the covenant of God Deut. 4. 13. 2 Chron. 6. 11. all that Moses delivered to Israel being there epitomized holds forth a covenant of Grace and not of Works This appears in the Preface intimating Gods grace and goodnesse to that people bringing them out of the land of Egypt and the house of Bondage Which deliverance had more in it than a bare temporal mercy otherwise their passage through the red Sea could have been no Baptisme as the Apostle calls it 1 Cor. 10. 1. Neither had it been any act of justifying faith in Moses to observe the Passeover which yet the Apostle observes Heb. 11. 28. Then their Rock and Manna had been a viaticum in the way but no Sacrament There God avoucheth himself to be the God of that people I am the Lord thy God and he was a God in covenant to none of man-kinde fallen but by an act of grace It appears in the first commandment where God requires them to accept him and cleave unto him which cannot be done but through Christ It appears in the second commandment in the preceptive part of it which contains the whole ceremonial Law in which pardon of sinne was found through Christ Thither Interpreters reduce all the Sacrifices Types Sacraments of the Jewes It appeares in the reasons annext to that precept which as it threatens judgement on transgressours of the Law so mercy to those that observe it Mercy is an act of Grace and not vouchsafed but in Christ It appears in the fifth commandment in the promise there annext and fastened to it So that this covenant or this summe or epitome of the covenant between God and his people which was put into the Arke and the Mercy-seat or propitiatory set upon it in the most holy place Exod. 26. 34. was a covenant of Grace Fourthly this covenant delivered by Moses and epitomized in the Decalogue being a covenant of Grace it could by no meanes be in the whole and entire nature of it a covenant of Works This is plaine God doth not at once with the same people enter covenant upon so opposite termes These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either of them destructive to the other We may argue concerning the covenant as the Apostle doth concerning Election If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work This I speak as for their sakes that make it a mixt covenant such a one as Pauls adversaries preacht in the Churches of Galatia so also for their sakes that assert it to be a covenant of Works never undertaking any answer to those arguments which so clearly conclude it to be a covenant of Grace Fifthly What this covenant is to any that it is to all whether it be of works or of grace what it is in it selfe in the tender and termes of it that is the denomination of it This is plaine Mens faith or unbelief Mens obedience or transgression cannot diversifie the nature of that which God doth tender And what God spake to the people he spake to all the people the same to all that he spake to any Exodus 19. 25. Exodus 20. 18. compared and therefore that is a mistake in some that say That the Law is doubtlesse a pure covenant of Works to some men but not to all It is a covenant of works occasionally and accidentally and not only to those which are not related to comprehended in or made
as it can reach yet they shall never wipe it off That all out of Covenant with God being no Church-Members having no title to Church-Membership are in a perishing condition is a Scripture-Position above all exceptions In case they will subscribe as they do to the Popish Tenent that Infants in their first birth state are out of covenant and in no better condition than the children of Heathens except the hope of better education then they must agree in Infants condemnation 3. Antipaedobaptists hence finde a way to keep Infants from Baptisme Being out of Covenant they have no right to any seale of the Covenant These several interests make them all to joyne in one to conclude that the first was a Covenant carnal and raising the men in Covenant no higher than earthly expectations But if truth may be heard none of these interests will hold certain it is that those that were in the Old Covenant had better thoughts of it The Apostle speaking of the Patriarchs confession that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth makes his observation upon it They that say these things plainly declare that they seek a Countrey A stranger or pilgrim is a man not at his home but seeks a countrey Now this countrey must either be Earthly or Heavenly there is not a third which men could have in desire That it was not an earthly countrey that they sought he makes good in that they had opportunity of return they might have gone back to Ur of the Chaldees at pleasure Then it follows as he inferres that they sought a better countrey that is an Heavenly Heb. 11. 16. Men of this opinion have not only the Apostles authority against them but putting himself on in a Logical dispute with them his reasons likewise yea those that were most carnal and earthly-minded among them were taught to judge better of the Promises that they lived under Christ gives that testimony of the Jewes with whom he had contest that in the Scriptures they thought to have everlasting life John 5. 39. They had no Scriptures but Old Covenant-Scriptures and of them they had this opinion which was no errour of theirs corrected by Christ but were by him confirmed in it Christ justifies them in their opinion that in Scripture they thought to have everlasting life and rectifies them in the way of finding everlasting life in it A great part of the dispute is about those words of God to Abraham in which the foundation of the Covenant stands I will be thy God and the God of thy seed whether in them there be promises only of earth or of heaven likewise And this Christ himself determines in his answer to the Sadduces about the Resurrection where he applies that speech of God to Moses at the bush I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob for proof that Abraham Isaac and Jacob live for ever Mat. 22. 33. How injurious are they to the Covenant of God with his people that put such unworthy limits upon it Other people that were without Covenant had temporal mercies from God they were protected and provided for by him Leave thy fatherlesse children unto me and let thy widows trust in me saith the Lord to the people of Edom I will keep them alive Jer. 49. 11. The woman of Canaan thought it a priviledge for dogs to eat of the crumbs that fall from the childrens table for Gentiles who were without Covenant to partake of any little of the mercy that the people of God in Covenant did enjoy But if this glosse of the Covenant may stand the dogs crumbs are beyond all the childrens provision They will not leave their crumbs for all that is set on the childrens table It may seem a high speech of Luther after his manner that the Turkish Empire how great soever is but a crumb that the great Master of the family casts to the dogs yet this is above all that Israel had in Canaan if we look at no more than a temporal possession Ishmael the son of the bond-woman must be cast out not to be heire with the son of the free-woman Gen. 21. 10. he and his posterity must be cast out of Covenant and in Isaac the seed must be called But if there were no more in Isaacs grant than the possession of Canaan the son of the bond-woman had had the better of the bargain Ishmaelites in earthly possessions exceeded Israelites And Esau had not need to have complained so much of the losse of his birth right and his brothers supplantation of him if Jacob had gained no more than a possession for his posterity in Canaan having that blessing both promised and performed That his dwelling should be the fatnesse of the earth and the dew of Heaven from above Gen. 27. 39. he had small cause of envie of his brothers felicity How did the Saints of those times boast of God exult and triumph in him proclaiming his goodnesse That there was no Rock 〈◊〉 their God If their portion did reach with the men of this world only to this life none can be able to give a reason of such triumphant exultations And the Psalmist had never spoken of it as the worlds portion in case himself had looked for no better an inheritance Providence was indeed singularly eminent over that people yet considering their great afflictions which they still bore and heavy chastisements wherewith they were exercised if that special care of God had not had an influence upon eternity that blasphemous conclusion of the Oratour that a man might see how much the gods esteemed the Nation of the Iewes in that they were so often carried into captivity would hardly receive a satisfying refutation Certainly their sufferings were above any other Nation Amos 3. 2. You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities if then they had their hope only in this life and were not chastened in the world that they might not be condemned with the world as the Apostle speaks of Christians so we might say of the Nation of the Jewes Of all Nations in the world they were the most miserable See Chamier lib. 5. de Baptism cap. 11. sect 11. Whitakers praelectiones de Sacramentis contra Bellar. pag. 125. Rivet in Gen. 17. Exercitat 87. CHAP. XXXV The Old Covenant was a pure Gospel-Covenant and not mixt 2ly OThers that rise not so high against the first covenant as to make it a covenant meerly carnal yet loth to yield to so much truth as to confesse it to be a covenant Evangelical have found out a middle way which yet they think may carry on their interests and say It is not a pure Gospel-covenant but mixt and therein differs from the second covenant which is wholly Evangelical In which they seem to go but one half of the way with their old friends the Jesuites from whom in this controversie
I will be their God That seed of Abraham that had possession of the land of Canaan through the gift and by vertue of the promise of God is the seed here taken into covenant to have the Lord for their God This is so plaine that nothing can be plainer to any that read the words But the natural seed of Abraham all the seed of Jacob in their several Tribes according as God set them their bounds inherited the land of Canaan which is called the land of their inheritance and not onely the spiritual seed Regenerate Look into the History of of Scripture who those were that inherited Canaan and you may see who were in this covenant The natural seed were there and not only the spiritual Even those of Abrahams posterity that died not having obtained the promises Heb. 11. 13. that only so journed in Canaan and were never possest of it had title to it It was theirs in reversion though they never came into actual possession My next Argument is drawn from the Seale that is annext in the words immediately following this additional promise ver 9 10 11. And God said unto Abraham thou shalt keep my covenant therfore thou aâ—d thy seed after thee in their generations This is my Covenant which you shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every man-childe among you shall be circumcised And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin and it shall be a token of the Covenant betwixt me and you They that had the signe and seale of the covenant that had it by divine appointment were a people in Covenant This is so plaine that nothing can be more plaine God doth not enter covenant with one and give the signe and seal to another but all the natural seed of Abraham by Isaac and Jacob had the seal viz. all the males all those that were in a capacity of it it was not limitted to the spiritual seed There had been no place for that distinction of Circumcision in the flesh and Circumcision of the heart if none must be circumcised in flesh but those that are circumcised in heart My third Argument is drawn from the Comment that God himself makes of this covenant in the whole Series of Scripture-history holding it out every where in this way of tenure to Abraham and his natural issue as before Where God himself speaks to the whole body of Israel when they were newly come up out of the land of Egypt he sayes I am the Lord your God Exod. 20 2. Deut. 5. 6. God owned all of that whole people as his all of them being Abrahams natural issue yet all of them were not spiritual and while they were in Egypt God speaks of them all in community as his Let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wildernesse Exod. 5. 1. We see the titles that he gives them Children of the Lord your God an holy People a peculiar People above all Nations Deut. 14. 1 2. That speech of the Lord to Israel Amos 3. 1 2. is very full to our purpose Heare ye the Word of the Lord that he hath spoken against you O children of Israel against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt saying You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Every one that descended from Jacob the whole of the family that came out of Egypt were a select people to God in covenant He was according to the termes of that Covenant their God There is not a place where God calls them by the name of his people which are almost endlesse but there we have this confirmed that that people were the Lords by vertue of this grant made to Abraham and his seed In the fourth place I argue from the practice of the people of God making this Covenant of God entred with Abraham and his seed a plea to obtaine mercy from God for all Israel the worst of Israel in their lowest state and condition Deut. 9 26 27. O Lord God destroy not thy people and thine in heritance which thou hast redeemed through thy greatnesse which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand Remember thy servants Abraham Isaac and Jacob look not unto the stubbornnesse of this people nor to their wickednesse nor to their sinne If this Divinity had been then known Moses might have been sent away with this answer That he spake for dogges and not for children not for Israel but for aliens and strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel But as this and the like requests of the people of God were made in faith so they prevailed with God Moses there urges They are thy people and thine inheritance verse 29. as doth the Church Isa 64. 9. Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are all thy people and Moses petition takes as the History shews Exod. 32. 14. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people yea when God vouchsafes mercy to his people thus in covenant Levit. 26. 42. it is upon this account of the Covenant Then will I remember my Covenant with Jacob and also my Covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember and I will remember the land Lev. 26. 42. And appearing for the deliverance of Israel out of their hard and pressing bondage he saith to Moses I am the God of thy Father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Exod. 3. 6. and that to stay up his faith in confidence of deliverance To this here in this place delivered one replies Object The Covenant saith he with Abraham and his seed I finde Gen. 17. 7. and the urging of this covenant I deny not Exod. 32. 13. Deut. 9. 27. Lev. 26. 42. Exod. 3. 6. And though I say not that it contained only the promise of Canaan but grant it contained the Promise of Redemption by Christ Luke 1. 17. yet I like not Chamiers saying to call the Promise of Canaan an appendant to the covenant sith the Holy Ghost me thinks speaks otherwise Psalme 105. 8 9. 10 11. I shall say no more but leave it to the Reader whether this be any answer only for his censure of Chamiers calling the promise of the land of Canaan an appendant to this covenant the thing is so clear in the narrative of it Gen. 17. that nothing can be more evident The Covenant is full vers 7. To be a God to Abraham and to his seed and this he might have been had he pleased in the land of Vr of the Caldees or in any land whatsoever where Abrahams seed had been planted But when the covenant is thus made there is added And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger
saying To you and to as many as the Lord your God shall call it plainly shewes that he does not limit but amplifie the mercy extending it not barely to the Jewes who in present by reason of fruition of Ordinances were a people near to the Lord Psal 148. 14. but also to the Gentiles who Ephes 2. 17. we affare off 2. In that he saith this promise belongs to them not simply as Jewes but as called is a full contradiction A Jew uncalled at this time before the Kingdome was taken from them is as much as a Convert unconverted or a Gentile disciple undiscipled In case they think to come off by limitting it to an effectual call the Scriptures by themselves quoted doth evidently contradict it Christ came to give them that effectual calling and not onely to those that were thus called It is yet said Peter doth exhort to repentance and Baptisme together and in the first place perswades to repentance then to Baptisme which shews repentance to be in order before baptisme To which I answer that these who had crucified Christ as a blasphemer a seditious person an impostour must needs repent before they would accept Baptisme in his name or hope for remission of sinne by him I had been lost labour for the Apostle to have pressed those that had crucified Christ and retained their former opinion of him to become disciples to him and to look to be saved by him To perswade them to look for remission of sinnes in his blood who took themselves to be without sinne in shedding of it Yet notwithstanding this guilt of which the Apostle would have them to repent he shews that they and their seed are under the promise of God and puts them into a way in acceptation of Christ in the Gospel-tender in his present way of administration to be continued his people still in covenant and that as is plainly enough signified that they might enjoy it in their former latitude to them and to their children The promise of which they were not yet dispossest but stood as a people of God in visible Covenant and their children is here brought as a motive to encourage them to hold correspondency with God as his covenant-people embracing the way which their long expected and desired Messiah had now instituted appointed But this promise was to them and their children Here is yet another evasion The text speaks not expressely of Infants but of children indefinitely And if infants be not children we will be content that they be cast out of covenant and will hold no more plea for their Church-membership nor Baptisme God in the Covenant with Abraham did not expressely mention infants but seed yet infants were his seed and as his seed by Gods command to be circumcised And all our infants are our children and consequently to be baptized Acts 20. 7. is an expresse Text with some of this party without any help of consequence to prove that women received the Lords Supper Because it is said that disciples came together to break bread as though woman and disciple were synonyma But here the promise being made to children infants must neither be comprized in the letter nor yet by any favour of consequence included It is further objected that the text speaks not of the children of the Gentiles at all of whom we are but of the children of the Jews and therefore if that promise be extended to infants which doth not appear the promise is to be expounded so as to note something peculiar to the Jews infants If the Gospel held out any such transcending priviledges appertaining to the seed of the Jews above the Gentiles they may do well to produce a Text for it otherwise we shall take it for granted from Saint Paul that there is none at all that in Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew Circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian nor Scythian bond nor free And when the Apostle addes To those that are afarre off even as many as the Lord shall call he plainly meanes the Gentiles as appears comparing Ephes 2. 13. and though I take not the boldnesse to adde to the words as some stand charged yet it is cleare that he same is understood there in reference to the children of the Gentiles that is exprest before to the children of the Jewes If any shall grant an inheritance to Titius and his heires for ever and to Caius every one will understand that the heires of Caius are meant as well as the heirs of Titius especially if it can be proved out of the Grant it self that the priviledges conveyed to Caius are as ample as that to Titius We can prove the priviledges granted to the Gentiles in the Gospel to be equal to those granted to the Jews when the Jews children then are under the promise with their parents the children of beleeving Gentiles cannot be excluded CHAP. XLIX Rom. 11. 16. Vindicated SECT I. The Series of the Apostles dispute opened and several Arguments deduced THe next Scripture for proof of the Covenant in New Testament-times takes in children with the parents is Rom. 11. 16. For if the first fruits be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches which Scripture that it may be aright understood we must look into the whole Series of the Apostles dispute in that place Having before largely discoursed of the rejection of the Jewes out of a present Church-state and fellowship with the call of the Gentiles and their present Adoption now somewhat to allay the seeming harshnesse of that doctrine of his against the Jewes and to take down the insultings of the Gentiles over that people in this chapter he speaks to both 1. To the Jews by way of mitigation limiting this doctrine of their rejection with a double caution 1. That it was not total 2. That it was not final That it was not total he first asserts secondly proves asserts ver 1. I say then hath God cast away his people God forbid Proves by a threefold argument 1. By instance in himself verse 1. For I am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the Tribe of Benjamin and he doth not dispute for his own rejection 2. By instance in the elect of God verse 2. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew 3. From a parallel Scripture out of 1 King 18. which parallel he first lays down verse 2 3 4 Wâ—t ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying Lord they have killed thy Prophets and digged down thy Altars And I am left alone and they seek my life But what saith the answer of God unto him I have reserved to my selfe seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the Image of Baal And afterward applies verse 5. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace And so falls into a digression
being sanctified they are holy Sixthly If children be not taken into Covenant with their parents then the most godly of Parents bring up children not in covenant but for a covenant not in any present interest of relation to God but at best in an hopeful expectation of it They bring not forth children to God but at best they have their desires to traine them for such a future visible relation But there is no such example in all Scripture of a parent in covenant training up the seed of their bodies for a covenant No one in all New Testament-Scripture ever bred up a childe in yeares to baptize him no more than in Old Testament-Scriptures they bred their children to circumcise them we read of many baptized in years but we read of none borne of Christian parents kept till yeares of discretion to be baptized Seventhly If children be not received into covenant with their parents but stand without covenant and in no right of Church-membership then they are without any Scripture-ground of hope of salvation then they are as all others that are out of covenant without Christ without God without hope And because some have risen up against this Argument with high clamours though hitherto with feeble or rather no reasons I shall somewhat more enlarge my self in confirmation of it That which the prime authours of and chiefest sticklers for the non-federation of infants freely confesse which the general consent of their adversaries Protestant Writers unanimously upon Scripture grounds conclude that the present Patrons can maintain with nothing but clamours and such reasons improved to the highest which will equally conclude the hopes of the greatest Drunkards Idolaters Adulterers Heathens that must be taken for an Argument of force and a reason conclusive this cannot be denyed But so it is here as I shall make good in several particulars 1. Those of the Church of Rome that have stood up against Infants covenant-holinesse do confesse that all infants going out of the world as they came into the world in that estate perish and so have provided a chamber in hell which they call by the name of Limbus Infantum and now since their Limbus Patrum by Christs death is made empty by the fetching out all that were there in expectation of him and the number of infants thus dying increasing it is said by some that these two are laid together howsoever it falls out with these places about which we have no reason to busie our selves this position that infants thus dying without any covenant or Church-interest do perish followes as directly from their principles as any conclusion from its premises 2. Protestant Divines who assert Infant-salvation and beleeve no such division of hell into chambers and have other thoughts of the condition of Infants still bring this interest of theirs in the covenant of God as their ground not prying into the secrets of Election nor urging prerogative above that which is written the covenant of God Gen. 17. 7. confirmed by the New Testament-Scriptures before mentioned They very well know that in case Papists can wrest this covenant-interest of infants from them they conclude according to Scripture-ground their damnation Luke tells us there were daily added to the Church such as should be saved namely to the Church visible as the Text is clear Acts 2. 47. Now if they stand not admitible into the Church they stand without hope of salvation see how the Apostle joynes these together Ephes 2. 12. Without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the world If any can conclude against the interest of any in the Common-wealth of Israel that is the Church of God and the covenants of promise which those do that will have them to be no Church-members nor to be taken into covenant with Parents they sadly doome them to be without Christ without God without Hope Those that disclaime Zuinglius his opinion that Hercules Socrates Aristides Numa and such like Heathens are now in heaven would be desired to shew how they cast those out upon that account as Heathens and take in infants as great strangers according to them to any Church-interest Infants want not sin for condemnation our first Original estate being a corrupt estate and by nature children of wrath and putting them out of covenant they can finde no Scripture-way to entitle them to Christ for redemption They seeme to conceive other hopes of the salvation of infants of Heathens that upon the same ground they may be charitable to the infants of Christians that with them are in the same posture with Heathens when they speak of Hercules and other Heathens as before yet speaking of the infants of Heathens they say It is bad to say that God doth not save some of the infants of Indians pro bene placito according to his good pleasure For any warrant we can finde in Scripture it is as bad to say it of the parent as of the childe The Scriptures leave the whole of the Family root and branch under the fury and wrath of God Jeremiah 10. 25. Psal 79. 6. 3. The present Patrons of this non-federation of infants can maintaine their salvation with nothing but clamours and such reasons improved to the highest that equally conclude the salvation of the greatest drunkards adulterers idolaters Heathens I shall now purposely for peace sake passe by those high clamors and bitter invectives that we meet with on this occasion and come to take notice of the reasons produced to exempt infants from this doom of condemnation and all that I can find is one and the same thing to fly for refuge to prerogative This is my judgement saith one that God will have us to suspend our judgment of this matter and Rest on the Apostles determination Rom. 9. 18. For satisfaction of which I need to adde no more than what I have said page 15. of my Answer seeing it rests not one word yet replied to it The Text of Scripture which we have over and over is that God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy telling his adversary that it is bad to say that God doth not save pro bene placito which no adversary of his will deny But God is pleased in his Word to make known the way of the dispensation of his mercy otherwise the vilest person against whom in our ministerial way we denounce Gods judgments may reply that his hope of salvation is as good as the best for God saves ex bene placito and hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and the best soul in a case of disertion will take off all his applications of comfort with the close of that Scripture And whom he will he hardeneth Rom. 9. 18. And so the Jews even in their rejection of which the Apostle speaks so largely being cut off by unbelief might have pleaded their hope
shall not enter upon that controversie what there is of the being of a Church under the Papacy The Papacy it self is none of it but onely a botch bred in it and cleaving to it onely this I say That he that shall oppose a Papist under the notion of a Christian shall bear his sinne and that upon the grounds that have been given Though a Papists damnable errors in the faith shut him out from the happinesse of Christians yet such an adversaries persecution renders him guilty of opposing the faith of Christ Jesus And he that follows with injuries a carnal Protestant because of profession of the sincerity of Religion in opposition to Antichristianisme is formally guilty of persecution The hearers resembled to the rocky ground suffer persecution for the Word as doth the good ground that brings forth fruit with patience Mat. 13. 21. But to come home with more cleare satisfaction A people of foully polluted Ordinance standing in opposition to a people of a pure and untainted way are as a people void of Ordinances are as a people without God in comparison The opposition of the purity of his service God accounts as the opposition of his great name though it be by a people that go under that name of his people And therefore though Elijah take so much to heart the pulling down of Altars set up by Jeroboam looking upon them as Gods Altars when it was done by Israel apostatizing and turned to Baal 1 Kings 19. 10. and in opposition to the worship of Baal makes that way of worship at Dan and â—achel a following of God yet we know how the Prophet from the mouth of God did cry out against that Altar which Jeroboam erected and foretold the destruction of it and the slaughter of the Priests that offered upon it 1 Kings 13. 2. and with what honour that act of Josiah is mentioned in accomplishment of this prophecy 2 Kings 23. 15. and the brand that lies upon Jeroboam himself in bringing in that worship of his 2 Kings 15. 9. scarce the like on any man in Scripture the man of sinne onely excepted the high phrases also in which this worship is set out making Priests for the high places and devils 2 Chron. 11. 14 15. with the heighth of guilt to which he rose in casting the Levites out from executing the Priests office Hosea 4. 6. And howsoever God often calls that people of the ten tribes by the name of his people as having Ordinances though miserably polluted yet in opposition to Judah where more pure Ordinances were enjoyed they are said to be without God without a teaching Priest and without the law 2 Chron. 15. 3. And fighting against Judah who could reckon up the particulars of the Ordinances of God in their purity they are charged to fight against the Lord God of their fathers 2 Chron. 13. 12. To come nearer home in an instance If the Turkish power should fall upon a Popish State under the name and notion of Christians they were guilty with Saul of persecuting the Lord Jesus If this Popish State fall upon a reformed Nation they are much more guilty A fouler sinne for a people of God in name and title to persecute his people in truth than for a people strangers to God to persecute a people onely in name and title Scripture prayers against Heathens we may fitly apply in our sufferings under the hands of Papists Pilate might have been guilty of persecution of a Pharisee under the notion of a Jew and yet that Nation was much more guilty in delivering up Christ into the hands of Pilate though Christ had been no greater than the meanest of his Disciples A Papist persecuting a formal carnal Protestant under notion of a man protesting against Idolatrous wayes blasphemes and persecutes that faith which he holds in opposition against those Antichristian tenents This man being thus persecuted persecuting another for the power of godlinesse professing the same truth is equally ye more guilty The very sinne of Cain against his brother Abel 1 John 3. 12. their Religions were both one and the same but Cains was onely in forme and Abels in power The result of the whole is to let us see what it is to oppose a people under any notion of Gods people upon any such account as belonging to Christ A man may have his reward giving to any in the name of a Disciple though he to whom he gives be such as God will never owne for a Disciple and answerably may incurre vengeance in opposition of one under such a name though with those on the rocky ground he be nothing lesse than such in deed and truth Fourthly Abundance of sweet consolations yet flow from this birth-priviledge and covenant-holinesse and that in several streames 1. In regard of Nations 2. In regard of Persons In regard of Nations they have royal transcendency above all others as alone worthy the name of a people Nigh unto God A people of hope Enjoying light when others are darknesse without hope and without God in the world The Psalmist reckons up many and sweet-blessings of a Nation That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth that our daughters may be as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace that our garners may be full affording all manner of store that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets that our Oxen may be strong to labour that there be no breaking in nor going out that there be no complaining in our streets Psalme 144. 12 13 14. All these are singular National favours but onely serving to make up a comparative not an absolute blessednesse This one riseth higher and makes it compleat Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. The glory pertaines to a Nation thus honoured Rom. 9. 4. Of such a people though otherwise mean and despicable as was Israel in the Wildernesse comparative to other Nations it may be said What Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for Deut. 4. 7. No people can so bottome their prayers against adversaries as they who are the people of Gods holinesse This mercy is a birth-mercy to al such persons whose parents with Timothy from one to another have been Beleevers 2 Tim. 1. 5. and while national provocations break not forth which alone with God have separating and deafning power his eare is ready to hear and his hand to help while he sees not iniquity in Jacob nor perversenesse in Israel which I understand of National out-breaches from God which by Balaams counsel presently followed to Israels danger so long God is among them as the shout of a King and there is no sorcery nor divination against them Num. 23. 21 23. A Nation fast to God hath God fast to them The Lord is with you while ye are with him 2 Chron. 15. 2. In