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SECT. II. Whence it is that the Law exasperates and increases Sin.

§. 1. LET us now come (having proved the Point) to look into the grounds of it, How it should come to pass that that which discovers sin, and forbids it, should exasperate and increase it; and that that which is a means to lead the people of God into ways of holiness, and to sanctify them, converting the soul, making wise the simple, should occasion sin and death to others. We must lay this as a ground, That the cause is not in the Law: the Apostles care is to remove any blemish that may be cast on the Law of God, as if God had given a Law to this end, to add unto the sin of man; whereas indeed before the Law sin was in the world, and it was out of measure sinful; but it did not appear so without the Law. There is a twofold cause that the Apostle does here point us unto. (1) There is causa per se, a formal cause; which does of itself and of its own nature properly produce the effect from some inward and intrinsical power and efficiency, and so the Law is not the cause of sin in a man, neither is there anything in the Law that should produce any such effect, but rather the contrary; for it doth forbid sin upon the highest penalties, it has upon it an impress of the Holiness of God, and is contrary to sin in all things, being holy and just, and good, and in its proper causality, does work holiness in the hearts of men, and a conformity unto the will of God as the rule of Goodness, as it appears in the Saints; all the grace that they have is nothing else but the Law written in their hearts, which is the grand promise of the new Covenant. (2) There is causa per accidens, an accidental cause; when the effect flows not from the nature of the cause, but from something else that does by accident cleave to it; so the Apostle says, knowledge puffs up: all true knowledge is humbling, and there is nothing that a man can know either of God or himself, but it does afford him great ground of abasement and self-denial; but yet through the lusts of men sin takes occasion by the knowledge that should humble him to lift him up: so fountains are hottest in the Winter, and the fire by reason of the cold of the circumstant air; not that the Winter does add heat to either by its own nature, but by accident and occasionally inclose the one and draw forth the other: so the Gospel meeting with the lusts of men, who either reject the Gospel, or else do turn the grace of God into wantonness, thence it becomes the savor of death unto death; not of itself, nor in its own nature, for it is the word of life and salvation: so does the Law draw forth sin, not of its own nature, for it forbids it, and curseth it; but yet sin takes occasion by the Law, and through many things that do adhere and cleave to the man by the Law, it does become the more exceeding sinful.

Let us therefore come unto the proper causes how it comes to pass, that sin by the Law, which is good, should take such an occasion of evil. The causes are many.

1. One cause of it is lust. There are in lust many things from whence it flows, but especially these. (1) Lust is carried towards its object with earnestness, violence, and vehemency; there is a lifting up of the soul to vanity, and the hearts going after covetousness; and therefore some render that of Laban when Jacob departed, and he saw that the hope of his gain was gone, that he stole away the heart of Laban. And as a godly man's desires are for God and Grace, so a wicked man's desires are after sin, and he thirsts and pants after it; and it is therefore expressed by greediness, as we may see it in Shechem, Amnon, and Ahab after Naboth 's Vineyard. All these set forth the violence of lust, how fully the soul of man is carried after sinful objects; and the ground is, because sin looks upon sinful objects as the husband of the soul, as the chief good, and therefore is carried after them, modo infinito, in an infinite manner, as a God; therefore they are said, to serve mammon; and their God is their belly; and they are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, and therefore desire them infinitely: the sinner is never satisfied, but like the barren womb cries, give, give; his desire is as Hell and the Grave, it never has enough. Now whatever comes in the way as a bar unto that which his soul does so infinitely desire, it is no wonder if his heart rise against it with an answerable violence. If Naboth come in the way of Ahab 's Covetousness, his life is little enough to make satisfaction; and if any man stand in the way of Haman 's honor, his life and the life of a whole Nation is but a fit sacrifice to expiate so great an offense. Now the Law of God putting a stop upon such vast desires, therefore the hearts of men do rise up against the Law, in opposition answerable to the desire that sin hath unto the object from which it is stopped by the prohibition of the Law.

(2) Lusts are proud, and do swell the heart, and cause it to be lifted up, Psal. 10.4, The wicked through the pride of his countenance doth not seek after God. Obed. 3, The pride of thy heart has deceived thee. And this fills the heart with a great deal of obstinacy and stoutness of spirit against God, and contempt and scorn of whatever comes in his way to resist it; as we see in Pharaoh, even against the Lord himself, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? And answerable unto a man's pride and exaltation of spirit, such is the rising of his heart against anything that makes against him; and the more full of lust any man is, the more the pride of his heart is drawn forth; for he is thereby made the more conformable to the Devil, who saith, I am a God, and so do all men's lusts say; and therefore the heart is lifted up as a God, answerable to the pride of a man, such is his impatience.

(3) Lust is resolute; this proceeds from the two former, it will go on whatever come of it, in despite of all opposition. There are wills of the flesh, as great resolutions as if there were many wills in one, as a wild ass alone by itself, i. e. that has neither rider to command it, nor bridle to restrain it, will venture any-where, Jer. 8.7, They go on in their own ways as the horse rushes into the battle. Christ warns Judas, The son of man goeth indeed, as it is written, but woe to him by whom the son of man is betrayed; it had been good for that man that he had never been born: And yet Judas went forth, and from that time he sought an opportunity to betray him. If the Lord make hedges about a soul, yet he will labor to tread down all with the greatest resolution, and with the highest contempt, as we may see it in Pharaoh after all his plagues, yet his heart was hardened, that is, his will remained obstinate, and he resolved not to yield unto God come what will come; yea though death to himself, and destruction upon his Kingdom did ensue. And therefore they say, What thou speakest to us in the name of the Lord we will not do, but we will do whatever proceeds out of our own mouths. And if anything come in the way to cross them in this resolution, men resolve to oppose it; see it in Saul, 1 Sam. 22.17, Go and kill the Priests of Jehovah, which some have made to be the sin against the Holy Ghost; and Job 15.26, They do prepare themselves thick-bossed bucklers, they resolve to make resistance, they harden their hearts, and stiffen their necks; though the law of God set the sin and the evil before them, yet men despise it and fear not the danger; let it be of temporal judgment, they say, The word of the Prophet is but wind, and the word of the Lord is not in them, it will come upon themselves, so let it be done unto themselves; let it be eternal judgment that is threatened, and men do scoff and say, Where is the promise of his coming. And the heart of man does from its pride infinitely scorn all those things, and goes on with the greater resolution in any evil.

(4) There is in every lust a principle and root of enmity against God; for men naturally are haters of God, and enemies to God, and there is nothing but lust makes them so: Now as in every man there is all sin virtually and seminally, so there is all sin in every sin, and there is in every sin a principle of sin that will produce all manner of iniquity, as we may see in the first transgression; it was but one sin and one act of sin, yet there was in it all manner of defilement that has filled the nature of man with all manner of pollution. The sin of the Devils was but one, and that a spiritual sin also, and it has filled the Devils with all that Devilish malignity, that has manifested itself in them ever since. Now as there is in every sin a principle of enmity against God, so radically and seminally there is in every sin the sin against the Holy Ghost even the great transgression; even secret sins they do make way for this sin against the Spirit of God, Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which is direct enmity against God, with despite and revenge; and it is opposition that above all things in the world draws it forth; and the more clear a man's light is, the more spiritual the opposition that is made against him is, the sooner the man comes into the great transgression. And these are the great grounds in lusts, which take occasion from the Commandment; the violence of lust the more it is opposed the more it desires, and desires by resistance are kindled and increased, and from the pride of the heart it raiseth opposition with the greater impatience and resolution, come what will come; and all this coming from a principle not only of collateral, but of direct enmity against God, it is with despite and revenge. In these sin takes occasion by the Commandment, and the opposition thereof improves it and draws it forth. As it is in grace, affliction improves it, and opposition draws it forth, temptations and desertions confirm it, as there were many acts of grace in Job that had not been drawn forth but by affliction; so it is with many of the Saints, many men had never been so gracious but by opposition, as we see it in Luther and in many of the Martyrs, that their Graces rose by their opposition and persecution. So many men had never been so wicked, as we see it in the Pharisees, had they not lived under such glorious means of Grace, and so clear Convictions which set bounds to their lusts, which made them break out with the greater rage: for Christ says to them, If I had not come and spoken to you, you had had no sin, but now there is no cloak for your sin: for by the opposition that their lust met with it was drawn forth more impetuously.

§. 2. There is yet a further ground of this irritating power of the Law, and that is from the curse of God that is come upon all men under the fall, which came not only upon man but upon all things else for man's use; and so though it be the curse of the Law, yet it comes even upon the Law itself, (so far as it concerns man) as well as upon all the Creatures; yea the Lord Christ himself is so far a curse unto men in their sins, that as he is a sanctuary to his people, so a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, a gin and a snare unto others, for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel, Luk. 2.34. For judgment, says he, I am come into this world; and yet he says in Joh. 12.47. I came not to judge and condemn the world but to save the world. This indeed was his intent primarily and per se, but the other falls out through the sinfulness of men, occasionally and by accident; and that which is good in itself does become evil unto the man, and that which is a blessing in itself doth to him become a curse: so it is with the Gospel, and with all the ordinances thereof, 'tis the savor of life to some, but of death unto others; the same meat is wholesome nourishment unto some, to others, it feeds the disease in an unsound body; and the same light which is pleasant unto a good and a sound eye, is a pain and a trouble to a weak eye which is sore or bloodshot, &c. And therefore it puts no malignant nor sinful quality into the Law or Gospel, or the Ordinances, but only these meeting with a man of an unsound spirit do occasionally stir up these corruptions and sinful dispositions, which were in the men before, and thereby do increase them; and by this means it becomes a curse to the man, though it be a blessing to the people of God. There is a double curse that is come upon all things by the fall: (1) They are all of them empty and deceiving. (2) They are all of them corrupting and defiling, this is the curse that is come upon all the Creatures. (1) They do a man no good, for they are vanity; though a man looks for profit by them, yet they profit not; and that is one part of the curse that comes on the Law in respect of men, that a man shall receive no good by it; it shall be but an empty word, and it does fall upon a man as rain upon the Wilderness, it has labored in vain, as even Christ himself says, My work is with the Lord; but in vain to the people, for they received no good by it, but they have sown the wind: it is spoken of all their religious services, they were empty and unprofitable, and would do them no good at the last day, bring them in no more harvest than a man might expect that did sow but the wind. And in Jeremy 'tis said, They shall not profit this people at all; for there is a vanity in Ordinances as well as in Creatures, and the staff of the bread of life may be taken away, even then when our bread itself may continue, &c. (2) They are polluting, for though all the Creatures can do a man no good, yet they can do him much hurt, and add to the defilement of his spirit, and draw out his sins, and ripen them, and fill up his measure, they can ripen the briers and thorns; and this was all the fruit that many of the Jews had by the Ministry of Christ: If he had not spoken to them they had had no sin, but now they had no cloak for their sin. To the unclean all things are unclean. And all those things that are means of cleansing to the Saints they are unto unregenerate men means of polluting. Mercies, Afflictions, Ordinances, that which is the refiners fire and the Lord's furnace to the one, it proves not so to the other; but the bellows are burnt and the wicked are not taken away, yet the people are not purged, &c. and so by their means of cleansing they become so much the more exceedingly unclean; and above all things in the world herein does the curse lie, that it defiles the soul, and prepares it for eternal wrath: The word that goes out of my mouth shall not return unto me void or in vain. Though it may and commonly doth return in vain in respect of any profit unto them that hear it, but it shall not return in vain in respect of the corruptions and pollutions it leaves upon the soul; it may not profit them, but it shall pollute them.

There are in the Law of God several Properties, and sin takes occasion from them all.

1. There is a spiritual depth in it, that reason and all the natural abilities of a man cannot understand, as we see 1 Cor. 2.14, The natural man perceiveth not the things of God. The word in the Greek signifies a man with all the abilities and possibilities of nature, however raised and improved; yet there is something in the Law of God that it cannot attain unto: there is a literal rational part of the Law that men may know; but there is a spiritual part of it that they cannot know, and therefore Mat. 13.13, Seeing they see not: there is something in the Law that they do see, and something that they do not see; they cannot see that that is above the search and the discovery of reason at the highest and best, and therefore the wisest men in the world have been blind therein, so that we may say, where is the wise man, the scribe and the disputer of this world? Here is only place for Faith, the Law cannot be known but by a spirit of revelation, as David prays, Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wonders out of thy Law. Now from hence sin takes occasion by the Commandment, and it will not believe what it cannot comprehend. The Athenian Philosophers laughed at the Resurrection, and the Corinthian Doctors counted the preaching of the Cross foolishness, that ever any man should believe Salvation by a Crucified Savior; and the Jews derided it in Christ, that he should be the Savior of others who could not save himself, &c. And truly this has been the great reason of all the Heresies that have been in the world, because there is a wisdom of the flesh, that is not subject unto the law of God, neither can it be; that will undertake to try the deep mysteries of the Word, and to weigh them by her balance, and so because it cannot understand them it rejects them. This was the ground of all Heresy from the beginning: and Luther says, Superbia mater omnium haereticorum, pride is the mother of all heresies: and so Augustine, and Polycarp in his Epistle ad Philip. when he would describe the Heretics of those first times, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to methodise the Oracles of God according to men's pleasure is the first-born of Satan. And this has been the occasion taken by men to deny the Trinity of Persons, and the Personal Union of Christ, the Godhead of the Holy Ghost, and of all the errors of the Socinians and the Arminians. And this has made Popery and all those things take so with men, because they are both agreeable to reason and to lust; and Popery being a Doctrine so exactly fitted to corrupt reason, it did so easily overspread the whole face of the world: but sin takes occasion from a profoundness and depth of things revealed in the Law, to deny them, and deride them as foolishness.

2. They are not only above reason, and so rejected because they are above it, but there is a plainness and simplicity in the Gospel, and a great deal of seeming meanness and folly; and there is much in reason to be said against it, and here men are offended, and they stumble at it. For a man to forsake Father and Mother, and to hate them, yea, and his own life also, to lay down all when the Lord shall call for it, rather than to offend him, or dishonor him in the least; for a man to go sell all that he has, that he may have treasure in Heaven, there is much that reason has to say against this; a man looks at it as folly, and such Doctrines he is offended at. And this is the true reason of all the human ornaments and blandishments that men desire in the dispensation of the Word, that there may be something to take the fancy, while the Conscience does evade the blow.

3. The Law is hard to be understood, and therefore men put variety of interpretations upon it; and are said to wrest the word; they put false glosses upon it, and in this the corruptions of men are drawn forth, and take occasion to stand for them, being put to it, as the Pharisees were, who did unlord the Law, and take away the ruling power of it, by putting a sense upon it, that the Spirit of God never intended; and so by subtle distinctions and evasions take away the spiritual part of the Law.

4. The Law hath a difficulty and impossibility unto man fallen, and at this men are offended, and say who can be saved; and they reject it as impossible, for the law is weak through the flesh, and by the works of it can no man be justified in the sight of God. Men object, God does require that of the Creature which it cannot perform, and how can this stand with the justice of God? The Law was not originally impossible, for man had an ability perfectly to obey it, but it is now become accidentally impossible; it is through the flesh weak, and so Legally impossible, but Evangelically possible.

5. From Satan's working with the Law, and God giving a man over unto his power, and the efficacy of his deceit; to a blind mind and a hard heart, and a desperate resolution in a way of sinning. There is a double design that the Devil has upon man; (1) He would conform him to himself and stamp upon him his own image; and therefore in all bodily lusts and acts of collateral enmity, his aim is to draw men unto direct enmity: thence he can be content to go out of men in many outward and gross lusts, that he may draw them into spiritual wickedness the more; and the more any man comes unto that, the more perfectly he is a Devil: Satan's aim is even in all his temptations, of the Saints as well as wicked men, to touch them, and to leave in them an impression and stamp of his own devilishness; and therefore the more men sin against knowledge and with despite, and disaffection unto God, the more he is pleased with it: for as God loves holiness in the spirituality of it, and the nearer a man comes unto conformity to God the more God delights in him; so Satan loves sin in the spirituality of it, and the nearer a man comes in conformity unto Satan, the more spiritual his wickedness grows; and Satan delights to act that man of all other. (2) The dearer anything is unto God the more Satan delights to abuse it unto this end, and the more God hath set up anything against sin, the more Satan does endeavor to make that a means to draw men unto sin: sometimes he seeks to abuse the Creatures of God, and stir up lust by them, as when a man looks upon the Sun when it shines, and his heart is enticed thereby; sometimes he looks upon a Woman and lusts after her; sometimes he looks upon the Wine when its color looks red in the glass; and thus the Creatures of God are abused by Satan to draw out the lusts of men; and whatever is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the ey, and the pride of life, 1 Joh. 2.15, 16. Sometimes he abuseth the servants of God, he will enter into Peter and he shall become a tempter unto Christ, that he saith, Get thee behind me Satan: and the woman that God gave man to be a help, she shall by Satan be made a dart; and sometimes the Law and the Gospel, which specially God has set up as a remedy against sin, shall act it and improve it, and draw it forth. Now God leaving a man under the power and dominion of Satan the God of this world, who works effectually in the children of disobedience, he is as a conqueror over them, and triumphs in this, that he has made use of the Law of God, and the Gospel of God, that is made against sin, to increase and ripen it; yea, even the motions and common works of the Spirit of God, the heart of man rising and making head against them, are the great means by which Satan draws men to the great transgression, even to sin against God with despite and revenge.

§. 3. But here is a question, [Question.] Are believers who are engrafted into Christ, and come under him as a father, as the second Adam, that is, have their Covenant changed as well as their image, are these wholly freed from the law in respect of the irritation of it? Rom. 6.14. it is said, Sin shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under the law but under grace. Which, as has been declared, is not to be referred unto a man's justification, as being freed from the Law for righteousness and life, and from the curse of the law for death and condemnation; but it is spoken of a man's Sanctification: a man is not under the Law as irritating sin and increasing it, but under grace, not only pardoning but sanctifying and subduing it; and in this respect the dominion and the ruling power of sin is taken away in the godly, though the being of it remain. The Apostle speaks wholly in this place in reference to a man's state of unregeneracy, Vers. 5, When we were in the flesh, the motions of sin that were by the law, &c. And he speaks this in reference to his own estate before conversion, I was alive without the law once: and I had not known sin but by the law, nor lust to be a sin, and the danger of it, but that the Law of God discovered it unto me; and so in my former state, Sin took occasion by the Commandment, and wrought in me, &c. The word in the Greek signifies to work a thing 〈1 page duplicate〉〈1 page duplicate〉 thoroughly and effectually, and to work it out, Phil. 2.20, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And Rom. 7.18, To will is present with me, but to perform or go through with the work, I find not a power to do it. And so sin by the Commandment wrought in him effectually, or wrought in him (which we heard before) all manner of Concupiscence, all lust was thereby drawn out. Hath the law of God no such work upon a regenerate man, one that is a believer? does not sin in a regenerate man take occasion by the Commandment? Is a Believer as perfectly freed from the Law for irritation, as he is for condemnation?

[Answer.] Christ says, If the Son make you free you are free indeed: and the special part of our liberty, with which Christ has made us free, is in being freed from the Law as a Covenant. Some, as Pareus and others, do distinguish thus: Liberty from the Law is twofold; (1) Perfect, in respect of justification and condemnation, that their perfect obedience to the Law is no way required for the one, neither shall any of the transgressions of the Law be imputed for the other. (2) Inchoate, which is but begun in the Saints, and shall be perfected; and so they are delivered from the Law only for irritation and coaction, but so long as sin remains in them, so long they shall never be perfectly delivered from the Law in either of these.

But to make this plain, and bring it down in the particular branches of it unto the meanest understanding. There are many things to be considered, which I shall now proceed to lay down to make out this general and received Doctrine, that is so commonly delivered by our Divines.

1. There are remainders of corruption in the best of the Saints; Grace destroys the reigning of sin, but not the being of it. You read, how that Abraham the father of the faithful, had his unbelief, and Moses the meekest man in his generation, had his passion and provocation, and spake unadvisedly with his lips; David a man after God's own heart, yet he complains of his secret sins; and Paul that great Apostle had the law of his members rebelling against the law of his mind. There is a filthiness of flesh and spirit that is to be purged out: as there is something wanting in their Graces, and therefore they have a daily growth in Sanctification; so there is something remaining of their corruption, which requires a daily growth in their mortification, therefore they are compared to the Moon, Cant. 6.10. which has some spots in it, because not wholly enlightened by the Sun; they do defile themselves, and therefore had need daily to wash their feet.

2. These remainders of sin in them, as they are promoted by Satan, so they give Satan an access unto their spirits, and are as the seed for him to work upon; they are to him a seminary, and so much as Satan has in a man, so much power he has over him: says Christ, Joh. 14.30, The Prince of this world comes and has nothing in me. He came in his instrument Judas, and the Pharisees, and the high Priest, and the Soldiers, Satan stirred them up. And he has nothing in me; that is as some render it, nothing of his own; when he speaks a lie he speaks of his own. Let your conversation be yea and nay, for what is more is of the evil one. And he hath nothing; that is, no power and authority over me: by reason of sin all mankind is subject unto death, and therefore are under the power of him that has the power of death, that is, the Devil, Heb. 2.15. But where there is no sin, Satan has no power, and therefore they are called the rulers of the darkness of this world. He is a Prince of darkness, and his power lies in darkness: indeed Interpreters by darkness do understand ungodly and unregenerate men, who are called sometimes darkness itself, in the abstract, Ephes. 5.8, You were sometimes darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; and so Satan is a ruler over the wicked of the world, i. e. the darkness of the world: but it is sin that is this darkness, and gives them this denomination; and therefore so much sin as there is in any man, so much power the Devil has over him, because so much a party of his own he has within him.

3. This corruption is in the will of a regenerate man as well as in any other part; so that even in the very remainders of sin in the Saints there is an inclination to sin willfully against knowledge • even a tendency to the great transgression, the sin against the Holy Ghost; and therefore David prays against presumptuous sins, in reference unto the great transgression, So shall I be innocent. There was, looking on his own corruption, a tendency to presumptuous sins, and these in their own nature make way for the unpardonable sin. I confess a godly man cannot sin unto death, 1 Joh. 5.18, Whosoever is born of God keeps himself that the evil one does not touch him. He can never touch him with this sin because he is born of God, and the seed of God remains in him. But though a regenerate man cannot commit this sin against the Holy Ghost, nor the seeds and remainders of lust within him be ever so fat improved and blown up by Satan; yet there is a tendency in them thereunto, as Divines say in the matter of conversion. God works the will, that is, ex nolentibus, volentes facit, of unwilling makes men willing: Doth God at the same time take away all the unwillingness in a man? is not there then a principle that gain says and denies? they say there is, and something that does resist, yet so as it shall never overcome, but the Spirit of God and the Almighty Power of God in conversion gets the victory, and as it is in perseverance a regenerate man cannot fall away; Grace is an immortal seed, though not in its own nature so properly, for it is a Creature, and therefore subject to change; and the grace that was in Adam and the Angels, though perfect, was subject to change, much more imperfect grace cannot preserve itself: and therefore they say, Auferi actum deficiendi, sed potentia ad actum non aufertur, God takes away the act of failing, albeit the power to the act is not taken away. There is in the nature of Grace a possibility of decay, that shall never be reduced into act, but shall be preserved by the power of God and the Spirit of Christ, and the unchangeableness of the Covenant of Grace; so though a godly man by grace shall be preserved from the sin against the Holy Ghost, that he shall never actually fall into it, yet the remainders of corruption that are within him, have a tendency thereunto, and in themselves considered there is a possibility even for a godly man to sin the sin unto death, if they were left unto the violence of their lusts, and not supported by a supply of the Spirit of Christ.

4. Regenerate men may be given up unto spiritual judgments. They are left very far unto, and under the power of Satan; the Saints may be hardened from God's fear, Satan may harden them by temptation, and God may give them up in judgment thereunto, 1 Cor. 5.5, Deliver such a man unto Satan: a godly man may be rightly excommunicated; and if so, that which is bound on earth God will bind in Heaven, his sins may be bound upon his Conscience as unpardoned, till he does repent, and he be as it were under a sequestration for a time of all the benefits, comforts and emoluments of the state of Grace, and being without, left under the power of Satan, who would carry him to sin, whereby God would afterward awaken his Conscience, &c. for there are two ways that Satan does ordinarily work upon godly men, when they are given over unto him, and left in a measure by God in his power, either wasting a man's Conscience, and bringing a man unto such a hardness of heart, and a spirit of slumber, that a man lives in a wretched security and neglect of his duty towards God, or peace with God, and gives himself over to the pleasures of sin and the comforts of the Creatures, with a kind of greediness, and that for many days and years together; as we see it in Solomon, who under a spiritual judgment did not with hold his heart from any Creature-comforts, or delight whatsoever; or else Satan works upon the weakness of a man's spirit, and his apprehensions of wrath, God writing bitter things against a man, and Satan drawing conclusions out of them to draw the man to despair of mercy, and to seek his own destruction; and so a man may go despairing and disconsolate all his days, so that God may give him up to spiritual judgments.

5. There being this principle within him, and thus left in judgment unto the power of Satan, he does strangely raise and improve and draw out this corruption and blow these sparks, into a flame. As Job 3.1, Then Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Before under all his afflictions his mouth was full of blessing. The Lord gave, and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord: and shall we receive good things at the hand of God and not evil? There is a seed of corruption in those that are most holy, which if Satan improve he will draw forth in them very foul acts of enmity to God, and contrariety unto themselves: as we see in Peter, at first his mouth was full of nothing but promises and engagements of adhering to Christ, and though all men forsake thee yet will not I; but being left into the winnowings of Satan, at Satan's desire, he is first possessed with fear, and that grows to a denial of Christ, and that denial increaseth to an oath, and that swearing multiplies to cursings and to imprecations upon himself in the highest kind, as the word is in the original; as if he had wished, I would I might never find mercy at the hands of God, or come where God hath to do, that I might be separated from God eternally, and damned body and soul, if that I know the man. And Isa. 57.17, says God, For the iniquity of his covetousness I smote him and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart, &c. Theodosius was an Emperor of a very meek, sweet and gracious temper; yet a Temptation so far got the head of him, that upon an occasion of a Tumult in Thessalonia, a servant of his that he had in a special manner respect for, being slain, he commanded an universal Massacre throughout the City, that in a very short space 3000 men were slain by his command, and that by a wile, being invited to behold a Play; for which cause the Emperor himself was by Ambrose kept from the Sacrament. It were strange to consider unto what a height even the sins of godly men, from the remainders of corruption that is in them may be improved.

6. For the improvement of sins in godly men, Satan may and commonly does make advantage of the Law of God, and the commands and restraints thereof, whereby sin will take occasion. See it in King Asa, the Prophet did prophesy and he put him into Prison, because he shown him his sin, and instead of repenting for it he increased it, for he was in a rage, temptation had got hand over him, and by the reproof Satan did stir up his lust. And even the Gospel is by Satan turned into wantonness, and all the Grace of it; yea, and all the glorious works of Grace upon a man's heart: sin will take occasion from God's drawing nigh, and wax wanton under his love; there is not any part of the Law of God, or the Works of God, or the Providence of God, that Satan will not make use of, and sin take occasion by, to stir up and to improve corruption in a man, even those remainders of sin that are in a Saint.

[Quest.] §. 4. If a godly man be under the irritation of the Law, as well as a wicked man, where then lies the difference that a man in Christ is said not to be under the Law in this respect?

The difference lies in these three things mainly:

[Answ.] 1. An unregenerate man has no other use of the Law but this, all the fruit that he has by it is to improve, draw out, and increase his sins; but a godly man being under another Covenant, as he has the Law written in his heart in his regeneration, so he has by the Law Grace increased in the continued work of his Sanctification: there is in respect of his regenerate part a power of Sanctification, and the whole Law of God tends to that end in him; and this the Law works in him per se, as he is regenerate, though it works the other per accidens, as far as he is unregenerate: Grace receives strength by the Commandment, according to the law of the mind, as sin does according to the law of the flesh; in the one sin is restrained and subdued, in the other sin may be restrained but it is increased, and as a damm set upon the waters which ••• es them swell the higher.

2. Through sin may ••• e occasion by the Law in the regenerate, yet this does not constitute sin in dominion, it do •• never rise up so high in a regenerate man as to amount unto a complete reign and dominion, as Rom. 6.14, Sin shall not have dominion over you, so that a man should obey it in the lusts thereof; for in the highest improvement of sin by the Law in the regenerate, there is another law in the mind, a spirit that lusts against the flesh, that a man cannot be given up unto all iniquity; it does never work in him all manner of concupiscence, as it does in the unregenerate, so as to make a man always go on in a presumptuous way of sinning; but Grace and the spirit of Grace gives a check to it, because a man loves the law of God and its precepts according to his inward man.

3. Lastly, it does never so far prevail in the regenerate as to bring forth fruit unto death, as it does in the unregenerate. Rom. 7.5, The motions of sin that were by the law wrought in me to bring forth fruits unto death. But as the law is made a servant unto the Gospel, so both the precept and the curse of the law is made subservient and subordinate this way: for as the remainders of sin in the godly are sprinkled with the blood of Christ, so are all the temptations of Satan, and the improvements of sin by the law, (which is unto all unregenerate men a part of the curse of their Covenant) sanctified unto the regenerate, and are a means to show them their own vileness, and to humble them deeply before the Lord: as we see it in Peter and David, and to make them hate sin the more, and to make them the more watchful over their own hearts, and lay the faster hold upon Christ, and the Grace offered in the Gospel by faith, and to ply the Throne of Grace by constant and daily prayers, and the more to long for their adoption and redemption; and so this improvement of sin by the law does tend in the end to the further subduing of sin, and at last to the utter abolishing of it, that so the remainders of sin being wholly done away, Satan may stir up sin, and sin may take occasion by the Commandment no more. And so, as other fruits of the curse of the law are blessed and sanctified unto them as their afflictions, their temptations, and death itself; so shall these fruits of the curse be also sanctified unto them, and tend to their sanctification, and end in the perfection of their holiness at the last. So that as death is swallowed up in victory in a man's resurrection, so is sin also in a man's perfect sanctification, unto which (through the Grace of the Gospel) sin itself was over-ruled to be a means: for as there are two ways of a man's pollution, so there are also two means of a man's sanctification; there are proper and natural means, as Satan and a man's own lusts, &c. and there are occasional means, as the law of God; so there are of a man's sanctification, the Word and the Spirit, and the Ordinances; and there are occasions which in their own nature do work no such thing, but Grace takes occasion from the one, as corruption does from the other; the temptations of Satan and the improvement of sin by the law being sprinkled by the blood of Christ shall be as effectual to a man's sanctification, as the other being not sprinkled with the blood of Christ shall be effectual to a man's pollution.

[Use 1] §. 5. See here the malignity and the vile nature of sin, and what a deadly disease it is, when that which God did give of purpose to destroy it will increase it. We say that is a very deadly disease that you can apply no physic but it does stir up the disease, and it's increased by it, and all that you can take feeds the disease; so here, sin must needs be a deadly thing that the law should increase it, which in its own nature should abate it. There are two truths that should be always in a man's eye, God to be the chiefest Good, and Sin to be the greatest Evil. There is no one thing that does set forth the evil of sin more than this, that the Commandment of God which doth forbid it, curse it, condemn it, should improve it. It's no wonder then if mercies make men more wicked, and if crosses add to men's sins, for the very Law of God and his threatenings and restraints thereof will do it; if anything make sin appear to a man to be out of measure sinful, and a disease incurable in itself, this will.

2. See hereby the vanity of that Doctrine that says, Moral persuasion is sufficient unto conversion. God enlightening of a man's mind, and showing him what is his duty, and what is required of him, and persuading of his will, it is, according to these, able to embrace it, and so turn unto God and duty; and herein is the drawing of God the Father: when as we see that when God does set a man's duty before him in the Law with all the threatenings of it, and all the promises of it, this is so far from converting the man, that it improves his sin sin, and makes it the more to rage against God, and become out of measure sinful: therefore there is an inward work of God, an Almighty Power put forth in changing the heart and converting of the will. Moral persuasions may make a man more wicked, but they will never convert him, or make him the more holy, without this inward work put forth by God in changing the heart.

3. See here what is the proper rise and ground of that unpardonable sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost. It is by a curse of the first Covenant, coming upon to the word of God, that it is an occasional means, lust opposing it, to make sin rise the higher: and first it brings forth in a man sins against knowledge, and afterwards sins with malice and despite. If the Law had never been revealed again, but man had been left as many of the Heathens are, who have but that small glimmering of light, which some do call the remainders of the Law within them, which the Apostle speaks of, Rom. 2. They show the works of the law written in their hearts, this sin had never been heard of in the world; it is a sin proper unto the Church of God, and cannot be committed out of the Church, where men are enlightened in the truth, and sin takes occasion from the Law to break forth into despite against it.

4. See what a vain thing it is for a man to glory in any Church-privilege. The Jews did stand much upon it, and doubtless it was a great mercy that unto them did belong the giving of the Law and the Promises, and unto them were committed the Oracles of God, and therefore they rested in, and made their boast of the Law, &c. Rom. 2.18, 19. And what fruit had most of them by the Law? it did aggravate their sins in the guilt of them, and drew forth their sins in the power of them, unto the greater height, and in many of them even to the sin against the Holy Ghost. And so it does many men that live under the Gospel at this day, they have no other fruit by their ordinances, and of the word of God amongst them, but to make them more exceedingly wicked.

5. See what a misery it is to be in a state of unregeneracy; he that is so is wicked by nature, and everything w •• make him worse. See also what a mercy restraining grace is to a man that is unregenerate: when we read of Judas, and how Christ's reproof did heighten his malice, and of the Pharisees how by Christ's Sermon their rage was drawn forth, and they gnashed their teeth upon him, &c. What a mercy is it, should every soul say, that all the Sermons that ever I have heard of Christ, &c. should not have wrought the same effects in me long ago. Luther saith, that reading that place, Rom. 1.17, The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, and understanding it only de justitia activa scilicet puniente, of God's punishing justice; Non amabam, imo odiebam, justum & punientem Deum, tacitaque si non blasphemia, certe ingenti murmuratione, &c. odi istud vocabulum poenitentiae; I did not love but hate the just and punishing God, and by a silent great murmur, if not blasphemy, I did hate that word Repentance. Now that it has not been so to everyone of us, and we sinned against the Holy Ghost, and in the highest acts of direct enmity, that there had been no hope of mercy, seeing that we cannot say that we have done it ignorantly; Oh what a mercy is restraining Grace!

6. Lastly, how should it engage the people of God to thankfulness, that God has freed them from this great misery, that now the Law should subdue their lusts and not enrage them; and if it does at any time, yet it's not to bring forth fruit unto death; not to have a full dominion over them: how should it make them fear when they read or hear the Law, lest it should add to the disease: Oh! how ought people to pray, and Ministers pray, that they may not be a curse, and that the word which they hear and preach, may not ripen their sins, and draw out and improve their corruptions, but their graces, and make them holy.

CHAP. IV. The Rigor and Coactive power of the Law.

Gal. 5.18, But if you be led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

SECT. I. Wherein the Coactive power of the Law consists.

§. 1. THere is a double sense of these words given by Interpreters, and both may very well be put together. The Apostle having said before, That in a godly man there are two contrary principles, flesh and spirit, and they lust and act one against another, so that they cannot do the things they would, but when they would do good evil is present with them; he adds here a consolation to bear up their hearts in this, which is the greatest conflict upon earth, between flesh and spirit in the same heart, and that which made them to look upon themselves as miserable men all their days, Rom. 7.24, but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law: that is, though there be a principle of flesh in you, and this principle is sinful, contrary to the Law, and condemned by the Law; yet it shall never prevail to condemn you, though it will many times to defile you, for you are not under the Law for condemnation: they may be and will be matter of your trouble and affliction here, but never the matter of your condemnation hereafter. And so the meaning is, that the godly that have received the spirit of Grace, and submit themselves willingly to be acted and guided thereby, though they have the remainders of sin in them that deserve death, yet they shall never infer death; because they are not for the condition of their persons under the Laws condemning power, Rom. 8.1. Though there be in the Saints matter of condemnation, yet there is in them no actual condemnation. There is a second interpretation given of it, and that is, That though there be remainders of sin, contrary lustings within you, so that you cannot do the things you would do, but all your performances 〈◊〉 blemished and defiled; as a Collier and Fuller dwelling in the same house, what the one whites, the other pollutes: Yet this shall not make your services hateful before God, shall not hinder their acceptation; for you are not under the rigor and conviction of the Law, requiring perfect obedience, or else it cannot be accepted, as it is with all unregenerate men: but you are not so under the Law, neither shall this contrary principle be wholly able to hinder you in duties; for you are not under the Law constraining you, and forcibly compelling unto duty, without giving you strength to perform it; but you have a spirit within you, as well as a rule without you, the one directing, and the other assisting and enabling. Both these will make one complete sense, and are for consolation to the condition of those that are in Christ; that though corruptions may remain in them, yet they shall never prevail against them to their condemnation, neither shall they hinder their acceptation with the Lord in the midst of all their failings.

We must consider that the dispensations of God to every man are according to the Covenant under which he stands, and the administrations of both Covenants are ever since the fall in the hand of Christ as Mediator; he dispenseth the Curse of the first Covenant as well as the Grace of the second; and at the day of Judgment it is the Man Christ Jesus that shall say to the wicked, Go you cursed, as well as to the Saints, Come you blessed, &c. Now for the administration of all things according to this great trust, Jesus Christ as Mediator has received the spirit as a spirit of union, and a spirit of unction: and this spirit is the viceroy, or prorex, that works all the works and all the administrations of Christ in this great Kingdom: only he dispenses this spirit to some as a Lord, and to others as a head, unto some only as a spirit of qualification for service, unto others as a spirit of sanctification for their Salvation. So that all that Christ does, he does by the spirit; and answerable unto the condition of the person, so is the spirit that works in him: all is wrought suitably unto the Covenant under which he stands; if the man be under the first Covenant he is a bondman, for his Covenant genders unto bondage, and all the works of the spirit of God in that man are only the works of bondage, and this spirit is a spirit of fear. There is a double spirit by which wicked men are acted: there is a spirit of the world, that works effectually in the children of disobedience; the strong man armed keeps the house, and they are taken by him, as beasts taken alive and led captive at his will: and this spirit does act them wholly in most of the acts of their lives; but God has reserved unto himself a Judicature in the man, and that is Conscience, but this commonly works not: there is a fearedness, a spirit of slumber and senselessness, a being past feeling, that sin has brought upon it; but sometimes the spirit of God comes into the Court of Conscience, and awakens it, and then it speaks in God's name unto the man, and therefore it is said to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Conscience, and it is always a cowitness, Rom. 9.1. A renewed Conscience can never work of itself, nor witness of itself; neither does a natural Conscience, but as it is acted by the spirit of God. Now if the man be in the condition of a servant, the spirit does witness unto him, and speaks in his Conscience nothing but fear and bondage; and therefore it is called, answerable to the condition of the man, a spirit of bondage. But if the man be under the second Covenant, and in the condition of a son, then the spirit does speak peace, favor and acceptance unto him, and liberty, and is a spirit of Sonship. Not that in a godly man there is never anything else spoken; but from Rom. 8.15, where the Apostle says, You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, father, I conclude, The Spirit of God never speaks bondage to a godly man; that he is in a state of bondage and death, and binding a man over to wrath again; though sometimes God leaving a man unto the spirit of Satan, he may speak so in his heart, and tell him he is unregenerate, and then the darkness of a man's own spirit may be apt to gather such conclusions: but the Spirit of God does never speak anything unto a Saint concerning his eternal state but liberty, after his translation out of the first Covenant. Every regenerate man having received the Spirit of Christ, and his Covenant being changed, this spirit has undertaken to be dux viae, his guide, to lead him on in his way, till he comes to glory. Now a man that is in Christ, and has received the Spirit of Christ, and is led by that Spirit, Rom. 8.14. that man is not under the Law neither for condemnation, nor for coaction; therefore every man that is out of Christ, and not led by this Spirit, but has received a spirit of bondage, he is under the Law both these ways.

§. 2. Hence we observe, [Doct.] That every man that is out of Christ is under the coaction and rigor of the Law. Austin upon this place in the Galatians makes a fourfold state of man. (1) Ante legem, before the Law; when a man did sin without the knowledge of sin, and committed it without restraint or control; and so it is with many men that lay the reins upon their lusts necks. (2) Sub lege, under the law, &c. when a man does strive against sin, his Conscience being convinced that it is sin, but yet he is over-come though he does strive. (3) Sub gratia, under Grace; though many times in the flesh they serve the law of sin, consuetudine paenali, by a penal custom, yet they do strive against it, and they are not wholly overcome; sin doth not reign in their mortal bodies. (4) In pace, in peace, when the conflict is perfectly ended, the victory is won, and sin is perfectly overcome; as it is in Heaven, when they shall enter into rest and peace, &c. Every man out of Christ is in the first, or the second rank; either he is without the Law, as Paul was, and does go on in sin without control, because without the Law sin is dead; or else he is under the Law in the condemnation of it, and in the rigor and coaction of it. They that are in Christ here are under grace; and the souls of just men made perfect, that are translated into Glory, they are entered into peace, each walking in his uprightness while they were here below.

The best way to open this rigor and coaction of the Law, will be to show wherein it does consist, and how a man out of Christ is under it, and how in Christ he is delivered from it. The Law exacts of a man perfect obedience, or else there is no acceptation either of his person or his works. God had no respect to Cain and to his offering, because of the failing that was in it, had he done well he should have been accepted: and therefore see the glorious service of Jehu, to which God gave so great a testimony, that he had done what was right in God's eyes, and according to all that was in his heart; and yet Jehu had a by-end, which blasts all his service, and turns it into murder in God's account; for Hos. 1.4, he says, He will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. So in all the services of unregenerate men their good works are mortal sins; God rejects them all for the least failing, and there is nothing counted a prayer, or an alms, or hearing, or any duty: and this is a rigor and a great straight that every unregenerate man is in, he must pray; and yet because he cannot pray without sin, therefore his prayer is an abomination to the Lord, and there is nothing that he can do is accepted with the Lord.

Now from this rigor a man in Christ is freed; there is an imperfection in the best services of the Saints, which they desire God not to enter into judgment with them for: and Nehemiah can pray to be pardoned, and yet to be remembered and rewarded for the same actions; for there is flesh and spirit in the same man, and they act and lust one against the other in whatsoever the man does; which have made some of the Saints look upon their life with horror: and yet if the man be in Christ the duty is accepted, and the other rejected that is out of Christ, because their persons and services are not accepted in the beloved; and if found in him the meanest service is accepted, if it be but giving an alms it is an offering of a sweet smelling savor, and is well-pleasing unto God; a willing mind is accepted according to what a man has: but a man out of Christ is under the rigor of the Law for the acceptation of his services; they must be perfect, or else they shall be rejected of God for their least failings.

2. The Law exacts duties of every unregenerate man, but it gives a man no strength to perform them; for Lex respicit hominem conditum, the Law regards man created, as having received strength from God to perform it, and requiring strength gives it not; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might; not only with all the strength thou hast, but with all that I gave thee in thy creation. But the Gospel does respect man fallen, and therefore requires not duty by a man's own strength. The Law forbids sin, and lays the burden of duties upon a man, but gives no strength to bear it, which because a man through sin has lost, therefore he sinks under it forever. So that the Law to a natural man is like the Egyptian task-masters, it calls for the whole tale of bricks, but yet there must no straw be given. The Law gives a man no strength, and yet it calls upon every unregenerate man for perfect obedience, though he be dead in trespasses and sins, and cannot so much as think a good thought. But to a man in Christ it is far otherwise, the Law calls for duty, and the Gospel gives the ability to perform it; for there is a promise goes with the command, if the Lord command you to cleanse yourselves, he saith, I will pour out clean water, and you shall be clean from your filthiness; if he requires, that you should be fruitful in every good word and work, he does promise, that you shall grow up as willows by the water-courses, and as calves of the stall, &c. The desert shall blossom as a rose, they shall bring forth fruits in their old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; their beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and their smell as Lebanon. He says, Make you a new heart, &c. a new heart also will I give you. Again, saith he, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; and he promiseth, I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall never depart from me. He saith, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; and he promises, I will circumcise your hearts to love, &c. It is in Gospel, as it is in the body, there are veins and arteries, the blood is conveyed in the one, and the spirits in the other; if there were blood without spirits there would be nothing but weakness, but the Gospel takes both together, the spirits with the blood; so that a man in Christ is free from the rigor of the Law, also in this respect, that it requires duty but gives no strength to perform what it requires.

3. To an unregenerate man though it command duty, yet it lays it upon him as a burden which he hates; it commands duty but it gives him no inward love to it, or delight in it, and yet he must do it though he hates it: a duty without is required, but a principle of love within is not engrafted, so that a wicked man doth duties as a godly man does commit sins, Rom. 7, That which I hate that do I. 1 Tim. 1.9, The law is not made for a righteous man. Some place the emphasis in the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is not laid upon him as a burden, which he hates and desires to be freed from, but he has a law of love within him, an inward principle that answers the law without, a law written in his heart, an inward and secret Bible, that he always carries with him, that though he were not forced to it by a law without, yet there is in his heart an inward principle, a law within. And therefore Chrysostom doth distinguish men into two sorts that make use of the law, men that live under the law, and men that live above the law; that is, that have not only a law without commanding, but within a law restraining; so that a man out of Christ is under the law as a yoke, and as a burden that no man is able to bear, which he hates but cannot love.

4. To an unregenerate man though the law command duty, yet as he cannot love it, so he can take no delight in it: it does indeed exact it of him, but so as he groans under it, and does snuff at it, and says, what a weariness is it; and his heart loathes it, and he can take no pleasure in it, from day today, he looks upon it as his only misery, chains and fetters of iron, &c. But to a godly man the Commandments of God are not grievous; it is a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , meiosis, that is, they are very pleasing and delightsome; they are dearer than thousands of gold and silver, they are sweeter than honey and the honey-comb. Mat. 11. ult. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light, is taken from the agility of Harts to escape; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , you may delight yourself in it: It is so far from taking away the comfort of your lives, that it will exceedingly add thereto; it is a regenerate man's meat and drink to do the will of his Heavenly Father, and his soul is satisfied in it as with marrow and fatness; he binds the law of God as frontlets upon his eyes, and as a chain about his neck; they are the great ornaments that he delights to wear; the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace. And this I conceive to be the meaning of the Apostle, Rom. 7.6, To serve in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter: the oldness of the letter is only the letter requiring duty without, and the newness of the spirit is the heart delighted with duty within, to serve God with a free and a Princely spirit.

5. The law forbids sin, but it heals it not; it does revive it, but it does not cast it out, Rom. 7.9, When the commandment came sin revived and I died; it does show men sin, and trouble their consciences for it: but it is but as Ezekiel's pot, the scum rises and boils in again. Had Paul gone no further than the Law, sin might have revived by that, and the man have died again, but sin would never have died, that he might live: for though a man do abstain from it for fear and out of a slavish spirit, yet he loves it still, and desires it still; because the law may keep a man from acting sin, but it will never stir up a man to the hatred of sin, and then a man is said to be under the law indeed. Luther has a story of one that did use to relate of himself, how it was with him before he was brought home to Christ; I more than a thousand times promised to God in duties more than I could perform; and so he came at last to be out of hope ever to perform them, which he says was to him pia & sancta desperatio, an holy despair; and this brought him home to Christ. When a man has looked upon the law long, that saith, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, and yet the heart of the man is carried after the sin; though he may abstain from the outward act, yet his spirit boils after it; he may pray against it, and vow against it, and yet still the grace that must subdue it must come from the Gospel. But now a man in Christ he has his nature changed, and so his pleasures and delights are changed, and he says, I am not I, as Augustine said. Others wonder how you can live without these things, that you were so much delighted with heretofore; alas! the new nature wonders as much at the old. A new nature brings new delights, and now suave est istis suavitatibus carere, it is sweet to want those sweets.

6. The Law carries a man to God as a Judge. God does give the Law a Sovereignty, and so doth judge all men according to this Law, without respect of persons, according to their works; which fills a man's Conscience full of doubtful inquiries, Rom. 10.5, And the righteousness of the law says, who shall ascend up to heaven or fetch Christ down, &c. And a man's heart is full of jealousy of God, and he does apprehend that he has offended God; he does wish there were no God. So the soul looks upon God as one that will strictly observe what has been done amiss, and he stands afar off from God, and cares not for coming near the Lord. But a man in Christ, the Gospel carries him unto God as unto a Father; My Father, says Christ, and your Father, my God, and your God. Mal. 3.16, He will spare them as a father does his son that serves him. He accepts of his endeavors, when there is a willing mind; he takes anything well because it is from a child. And there is an inward principle of affection and eternal love that carries God towards the man. And so in the man's approaches to God in duties there is a great deal of sweetness and confidence, when in another man's duties there is a great deal of terror and amazement; because in the one he comes to God as a Judge, through the exacting of the Law, and there he is full of fear, for he expects a doleful sentence; and the other man comes to God as a Father, and he fears not accusation nor a rejection.

7. It does force a man to see sin whether he will or no, and sets it, yea holds it before the man's eyes, when his desire is to cast it behind his back. There is no unregenerate man in the world, that is either willing to see his duty, or his iniquity and obliquity; not his duty, and therefore he casts the Law of God behind his back as a thing that he is not willing to see, and is most willing to put away from him, Neh. 9.26, And cast the law behind their backs, and slew the Prophets which testified against them; and therefore they are said, to hide their eyes, and to be willingly ignorant; neither would they see, and therefore they desire not to look into that glass which discovers their sins; but Isa. 29.21, They hate them that reprove in the gate: they have many pleas to justify themselves in an evil way, and to extenuate their sins; and they do call light darkness, and darkness light, evil good, and good evil; and they love to have Prophets that should call them so also.

Now comes the Law as a glass, and that discovers duty and makes men to see their sins, and the duties that they hate, and the evil of the sin which they love and delight in. The Law is in Scripture resembled unto a glass, and a glass it is two ways, as it discovers duty: and so it is of use in four things; (1) As a glass it shows to a man that holiness •••• ure and life that God did give unto him, and require of him in his state of innocence, which condition man has lost now; and if a man look into the nature and lives of the best men, he can find only some vestigia and poor beginnings of it, which are not indicia veteris hominis, but rudimenta novi, not indices of the old man, but rudiments of the new. (2) Christ was our surety made under the Law, and answered the precept and the curse; and the Lord rather required (if we may compare it) that the precept should be fulfilled, than the curse be born; because the principal intention of the Lord's giving the Law was obedience to the precept, and not the suffering of the curse: now all that holiness that was required of Christ and performed by him, either in nature or life, we may behold in the Law: thus the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us, there is in our justification a commutation of the person, but not of the righteousness. (3) The Law is unto the Saints a glass that shows them the obedience that the Lord doth require of them: the Gospel indeed gives grace to obey, but the Gospel requires no other obedience but that which the Law does discover as a rule, a man must look into the perfect law of liberty and continue therein. Psal. 119.6, I shall not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments, &c. (4) It is the glass of perfection in the life to come, Joh. 3.2, When he shall appear we shall be like him. There shall be a perfect conformity in nature, and life in us unto the Law in all things, and we shall be everyone of us living Scripture, and walking Bibles, for the word of the Lord is written in the heart, and turned into grace enduring forever, &c. Here indeed we have little conformity to the Law of God, but hereafter our holiness shall be perfected.

2. By the Law is the knowledge of sin; when the commandment came sin revived, and I died. As a glass set before a man discovers his spots, and as the light coming into a dark place shows our filthiness that before was hid. An unregenerate man would never see his sin, nor search himself, nor turn into his own heart and try his ways, if the Law did not make these discoveries. All reflex thoughts he hates; and if at any time he be forced into them, and hath a glimpse of himself, that does affright him, that he does begin to see his own ugliness and deformity, and smell the savor of his own filthiness, even the sepulcher that is within him; he doth immediately turn from it as an unpleasing sight, which he is no ways willing to behold and fix his eyes upon: Beholding his natural face in a glass he forgets what manner of man he was. Though he may remember the notions of a Sermon that are speculative to adorn his understanding, yet the discoveries of his own sin and self in a Sermon, he doth quickly forget, and therein the main forgetfulness of a hearer of the Law lies.

Now the Law has a constraining power, and sets a man's sins in order before him, and makes a man see his own vileness, and holds it to his eyes that he cannot look off it; but he cries out, my iniquity is always before me; as it was with Judas, his sin in betraying innocent blood was still so present with him, that he chose strangling rather than any income of comfort from any creature; he quickly returned the thirty pieces of silver again. So let all unregenerate men go from one creature to another, and build Cities like Cain, and add to their recreation and pleasures of sin; yet still the sight of sin is by the light in this glass set before them, and haeret lateri lethalis arundo, the mortal dart sticks in his side.

8. It forces men to a self-judgment and condemnation for sin, and an expectation of the judgment of God for it. Every natural man is willing to acquit himself, and to put off the thoughts of judgment; to put far from them the evil day, and to say, I shall sit as a lady forever, and shall see no sorrow: or, cry peace, peace, when sudden destruction comes upon him. For there doth two evils go with a way of sinning, (1) a hard heart; (2) a spirit of deep sleep, that a man is willing to sleep and not to wake to see his danger; as one that lies down in the middle of the sea, or as one that sleeps on the top of a mast: but a gracious heart troubles himself for sin, and lays the judgment of God to the sin, and labors to bring his heart to a trembling frame under the sense of it; as we see in Josiah and in Christ himself: and so do all the godly, if any affliction befall a child of God, if he be judged of God, he does clear God in it, and willingly takes the blame upon himself, that he may justify God; but the property of a 〈◊〉 regenerate man is to justify God; but the property of an unregenerate man is to justify himself and to condemn God. Says the Apostle Paul, is God unrighteous? I speak as a man. Says Job, Wilt thou disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? It is the disposition that is in the heart of men by nature, to condemn God, that they may justify themselves.

Now the Law of God comes in with the coaction of it, and that forces this man to judge himself, and to fill him with fear and expectation of wrath, Rom. 3.20, That all flesh may become guilty; that they may appear and acknowledge themselves guilty before God, Rom. 7, Sin revived and I died; that is, seeing self in a state of death; and this is called the spirit of fear, Rom. 8.15. and a receiving of judgment, Heb. 10. This we may see in the Devils, they know there is a time of torment coming, wrath unto which they are reserved, and they believe it and tremble; and that never-dying worm that shall be in Hell is nothing else but from this coaction of the Law, and the spirit of God setting a man's sins in order before him, whereon there follows self-accusation, and self-condemnation, together with perfect fear, perfect sorrow and despair forever.

SECT. II. Whence the Law hath this Coactive power.

WHence is it that the Law hath this Coactive power? It does arise from these ground:

1. From the Sovereignty of God in the Law, it is the Royal Law, as being the rule of man's duty, and the whole will of God concerning him; that rule according to which man should walk, in which he should be accept, and by which he shall be judged at the last and great day; for they that have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law. And Christ that shall be the Judge saith, I will not judge you, but there is one that judges you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. And though man has sinned and broken the Law, and endeavored to cast it off, yet he is held still under the authority and sovereignty of the same Law, Rom. 7.1, 2, A man is subject to the law as long as he lives: and so long as a man lives in a natural state, so long he is under this Law as a Covenant, and the Law does 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Lord it over him in full dominion; for the Law rules in the authority and sovereignty of God; it is the great Expansum that God has spread over the rational world of mankind while they • re in their natural state, by which they are to be ruled, and by which they shall be judged; • nd this is the main ground of all the rigor and coaction of the Law.

2. There is in unregenerate men a natural conscience. I call it natural (as our Divines use 〈…〉 say) because it acts only by natural principles, and is in every man naturally, in opposi • on to a renewed conscience; which I conceive to be an ability in the understanding of a • han to judge of actions and states according unto the rule that is prescribed by God: (1) Con •• ience must have a rule, and that rule is the Law of God, which is regula regulans; where • s conscience is only regula regulata, as a rule ruled by the Divine Law (2) The things sub ••• cted unto the judgment of conscience are a man's actions and his state, and that not only • hat he has done, but what he is to do, and conscience does pass a sentence of Good and •• d Evil upon both, what is to be embraced and followed, and what is to be avoided: and •• ough custom in sinning wear out the power of conscience exceedingly; and in some men 〈…〉 is less than in others, for they have their Conscience seared, as the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sig • fies, and so to harden the place, or else to cut off with searing; some men have very brawny •• d insensible Consciences, and do seem to walk without any Conscience at all, as to live • ithout God in the world, and so walk without Conscience in the world, and are less un •• r the power of it than other men are: yet there is no man but his Conscience has a power • er him to constrain him to duty, and restrain him from sin in some measure, and that by 〈◊〉 authority of the Law of God. And if God awaken Conscience by some great affliction, •• our of death or judgment, the power of it will quickly appear over them; we may see 〈◊〉 Judas, who was a Devil, a man exceedingly given up to spiritual wickedness, and one 〈◊〉 had a very seared Conscience; for Christ had told him it had been good for him never to have been born: we see all the other Disciples did abhor and fear the very hearing of the • ct, yet Judas afterwards with a brazen face asks Christ, Master is it I; but yet when • od did awaken Judas 's Conscience we see the power that the • awe had upon him, &c.

3. The Spirit of God comes into the Consciences of men; for Conscience is a relative • culty, and does not work by itself, but does accuse and excuse by the concurrence of •• e spirit; and the spirit that is given a man, is answerable unto his Covenant. The second • ovenant makes men sons, and the privilege of it is the adoption of sons, therefore the • irit that accompanies this Covenant is a spirit of adoption, and makes them all free-men; 〈◊〉 the Covenant is a free Covenant, it is Gal. 4. resembled by Sarah the free woman; but •• e first Covenant unto man fallen, is a Covenant that genders to bondage, and there are • ne under it but bondmen, and therefore it is resembled by Hagar the bondwoman. Now •• e spirit of this Covenant is a spirit of bondage, and all that it works in a man, is fear and • rrour, binding a man over to wrath upon neglect of duty, and threatening vengeance, and • lling the soul with horror and amazement, telling a man of wrath and judgment to come; •• d the constraint that is upon his soul in reference to these is very great.

4. There is in a man a principle of self-love desiring good, and fearing of evil; for no • atural man can act from a higher principle than self, in whatever he does, and therefore it is • race that gives self-denial; So much self-denial so much grace; so much self-seeking so much •• rruption, there is in every man. Hence it is when a man's Conscience does tell a man of the • od of obedience, and the happy end thereof, as Balaam did see it, and therefore desired • at his death might be like unto the Saints; and a Herod may reform and do many things, •• d so many do good rationally, that never did it obedientially; do it to do good to them •• ves, but never to bring glory unto God, as we see it in Jehu; and yet many men having tasted of the powers of the world to come, and having had some great apprehensions of the good of the ways of God, they may go very far and be constrained to do much for God, as we see it in Alexander, that afterwards proved an Apostate and a Persecutor, and yet did much for God for a season, and afterwards fell away. And when Conscience doth tell a man of the danger of sin, and presents to a man Hell and wrath as the consequence of it, though it be a way that seems good to a man, yet it leads down to the chambers of death, and carries a man to the end of his journey, and tells him that the fiery lake is but a little before, and comes with the threatening of God as the Angel did to Balaam, with a drawn sword in his hand: a man may say I will turn back again if my way be perverse before thee, and he may turn away from the sins that he loves most dearly, he may cast up his vomit with the dog, and leave the mire with the swine; but it is only in fear of some evil, and not from a principle wrought in a man, that is the ground thereof. There is a double principle that moves all things, either a principle of life within, or else a principle from without; either weights or springs, as it is in Clocks or Watches, which makes the motion; so many men may move to duty, and abstain from sin not from an inward principle of life in the one or the other, but from a weight without.

5. There is in every unregenerate man a sinful and unrenewed heart, deceitful above all things, and desperately evil, a heart fully set in him to do evil; and because this is natural, therefore his heart is fully bent to go this way; so that let him be constrained to do duty, yet he will hate the duty that he does, and count it a weariness, and look upon it as a burden, and say, When will the Sabbath be gone? And let him be kept from sin, yet he will love it still: if you chain up a Beast from the prey, yet his inclination will be after it; and keep the stone from the Center and force it up into the air as often as you will, it will still return; and when it comes down to the earth, and can descend no further, yet it will have a tendency thereunto. So Conscience th •• is merely natural, counts it its misery and affliction to be kept from sin, for restrain it from sin never so much, it will at last break these bounds, and will be carried on with the greater fury, greediness and violence; because of the former restraint that was put upon it, and the Devil will enter with seven worse spirits; the dog will return to his vomit, and the latter end will be worse than the beginning, it had been better that man had never known the way of righteousness; for he will be more wicked than if he had never known it. Thus let the man have a heart set upon lust, and let the power of the Law come into his Conscience acted by the Spirit, it's no wonder if it so far over-awe the man as to restrain him from sin, and constrain him to duty.

§. 2. But is a godly man that is under the Covenant of Grace wholly freed from the Coaction of the Law?

Answ. This distinction was laid down in the beginning, that though the main part of our Christian Liberty consists in being freed from the Law, yet this liberty is in this life either inchoata, or perfecta, in respect of justification and condemnation. A godly man is perfectly freed from the Law as a Covenant, but in respect of Irritation and Coaction he is freed from these effects of it only in part. We have seen how far the Irritation of the Law remains even in the regenerate, and it is like lime which does quench those fires sometimes kindles 〈◊〉 Sin while it does remain and is acted by Satan, may take occasion by the Commandment, and produce woeful effects even in the Saints; so for the Coaction of the Law they are not wholly freed from it so far as they are unregenerate, and the law of the flesh remains in their members; the Law is of use to them, and a handmaid to the Gospel, and they do and ought to make use of legal motives to constrain to duty, and to restrain from sin; and the Law is to be preached to the regenerate to this purpose.

1. To constrain to duty many times. The Saints are to make use of the Law and the good things thereof; so did Moses, he had respect to the recompense of reward: and the Apostle saith, We labor, whether present or absent, that we may be accepted of him, for we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ: and knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men. Again, Let us have grace to serve him acceptably; for our God is a consuming fire. These be the helps that the Lord has given us, and it were our sin not to make use of them: there is no man but he finds so much deadness and backwardness in his flesh, that he shall be forced to call in this help many times.

2. And to restrain a man from sin also. Christ's exhortation is, Cut off your right hand, and pull out your right eye, for it's better to go to heaven maimed, than having two eyes to be cast into hell where the worm dies not, &c. And if Adam in the state of Innocency had need of the threatening of the Law to deter him from sin, much more a godly man that is holy but in part. Yet there is a great deal of difference (1) in a godly man, this is not the only principle that acts him, as it is in the unregenerate: for an unregenerate man would never do duty while he lives, were it not from this Coaction of the Law, out of a principle of self-love, and natural conscience; for he does duties as a godly man commits sins, and he must say, that which I hate do I: but in a godly man there is another principle also, there is a law of his mind, an inward disposition, the law written in his heart, a new and divine nature, and his obedience to God is natural to him as it is for a tree to bring forth fruit in its kind, and a fountain to cast out mud, and to work out anything that is contrary to it. (2) As this is not the only, so it is not the main principle that works in them, but there is the Spirit of Christ that dwells in them, and leads them; and there is a law of love that does mainly act them in all they do, 1 Joh. 5.3. they abstain from Sin as from Hell, and that which they see all evil in, and as that which is dishonorable to God, and defiles their own beauty: for Sin is the souls deformity, as Grace is the ornament of the soul: and he does duty from an ingenuous and free spirit. And therefore Christ says, Take my yoke upon you, for it is easy. Whence so far as a man is regenerate he is a law unto himself, and he would be kept from sin, and carried on to duty, if neither of these were, but only from a principle within.

3. The more a regenerate man is acted by legal principles, and the less love he has to spiritual duties, the less spiritual he is; and therefore his desire is always to be led by the Spirit of God, and he always prays to God for his free Princely Spirit.

SECT. III. The APPLICATION.

§. 1. WE may hence learn what a miserable estate a man is in being under the first Covenant: everything is a burden to him, because it is a constraint upon his spirit; the thing he does he hates; he has a contrary principle within him, which he would indulge and gratify. Now there being in a man the same nature, and the command of God lying upon a man, this may and this does commonly put a force upon him to perform duties of the law, but that is never pleasant, but always burdensome, and the man desires to be set at liberty; for he can never look upon the law as the perfect law of liberty, until his nature answers the law, and it is written in his heart.

1. If we look upon the restraint that the law does lay upon a man that is unregenerate, his condition is most miserable; because (1) he does abstain from sin, but it is forced, and therefore burdensome, because still his lust is active, and carries the man after it with inward burning, and the man is tormented the more; it is adding drunkenness to thirst. The satisfaction of lust is compared unto drunkenness, and the lust is compared unto thirst, and as the drunkenness does increase the thirst, and the more a man drinks the more thirsty he shall be, and therefore none calls for drink more than those that have had too much already: so it is here, the more a man does to satisfy his lust, the more he does increase it: We know what a painful thing thirst is unless it be satisfied. He that believes shall never thirst, but shall have a well of water springing up in him, Joh. 7.38, 39. There is a double restraint, (1) upon men's acts: Abimelech 's lust was stirred up, but the Lord withheld the act, and so it was with the Pharisees, they had often as bloody desires long before, and sought to take Christ and put him to death, but they could not, there was a restraint put in for want of opportunity, or fear of the people, &c. (2) There is a restraint upon men's lusts: for though the heart of man be full of lust, yet there is a Providence of God in permitting them to come forth, some at one time, and some at another; so that the seeds of those sins that were in men before, do now show forth themselves, as we see in Judas and Herod, and Gehazi, and in many men, who carry it fair a while, till there be an opportunity to draw them forth; they have Neronis quinquennium, for five years Nero carried it fair, and yet afterwards he proved desperately wicked. Now this restraint upon men's acts, though unto the Elect of God it is a mercy, and anything that may hinder them in a way of sinning, Hos. 2.6, 7, I will hedge their way with thorns, and I will make a wall against them: God can keep men from sin whether they will or no; and if lesser afflictions will not do it, God will raise greater: But yet for all this the lusts of natural men will go after their former lovers, though they cannot overtake them. And this is a great misery unto such men; first, look upon the Saints also and they have desires after good, but they find opposition, so that they cannot do the thing that they would; but there is still a law in their members rebelling against the law of their mind, and this makes them to look upon themselves as miserable men, because they have desires unsatisfied, and they do still groan after a satisfaction; and this makes them weary of their lives, and they are willing to die that they may enjoy their desire to the uttermost: and yet even in a regenerate man these desires are but of half the man; and therefore in an unregenerate man when he is carried to sin with his whole man, such a ones desires are more vehement, Hos. 7.4, Their hearts are hot as an oven; they go out after it with greediness, and they look upon it as the greatest misery to be restrained from it, and their hearts rise against any opposition so much the more; as you know Amnon and Ahab they were sick, because they were restrained from that which they would have. The soul of a wicked man is like a wild Bull in a net furiously bent upon sin, they will perish rather than be hindered in a way of sinning. This the Devil looks on as his great misery, that though God lay not restraint upon his lust, yet he restrains his acts, so that he cannot hurt mankind as he would do; though he smite Job with sores, and embitter his life to him, yet he shall not be able to take away his life: and the lusts of the Devil are as violent and as impetuous as ever; he desires to winnow Peter; and there is bounds set him that he cannot do what he would, and his great torment is his restraint, and the chains of darkness with which he is held: and he could not enter into Judas that was his own, till by the Sop the Lord gave him leave; and he could not enter into the herd of Swine without license: this is looked upon as a great misery by that violent and proud spirit. Look what restraint either the power of God, or the providence of God, lays upon the lusts of the Devil, the same does the Law of God lay upon the lusts of unregenerate men; and this they look upon as their misery, that they cannot enjoy their full desires: there is an inward boiling of spirit, and their hearts are hot as an oven; they desire but they cannot attain, and so their desire is their torment, and they can have no rest.

2. Even in those pleasures of sin that a man does enjoy, this restraint of the law will embitter them to a man exceedingly, that a man does not enjoy them with that sweetness and delight, that otherwise he should do, because the sentence of the law, and the judgments of God follow him with threats, so that still they do add water to his wine, and mix it with greater discontent than he should otherwise have; for a man comes to it with a guilty galled and self-condemning conscience, and so he can take no pleasure, or but half the pleasure that else he should take; and therefore the endeavor of the man is to put out the eye of Conscience, and to make it grow senseless, and to cast off this yoke, and restraint of the law daily more and more; and the more a man casts it off, the more pleasure he does take in sinning. As a godly man that has tasted of the sweetness of Communion with God, he cannot take that pleasure in sin that other men do; because still at the remembrance of his former communion the sweetness of it does arise in his heart, and therefore he says it was better with me than it is now; so also an unregenerate man, that has tasted the bitterness of sin in the Law, and the terrors thereof, and has had the restraint of it laid upon his Conscience, he cannot taste the like pleasure that other men do in sinning; only the one is from a principle of conviction only, and the other of conversion. This is the misery of an unregenerate man under the restraints of the Law of God, either his lusts do rage within, and he cannot act them, and therefore he wishes that there were no law; or else if he do commit them, it is but with half the man, because the law binds him over unto wrath, and tells him that sin lies at the door.

3. If we look upon the constraint, the misery is as great also; as not to do the thing we would, so to be forced to do the thing we would not, is no small misery: and therefore, Mal. 1.13, They say, what a weariness is it; which some render a weakness, defatigatio, and some molestia, a trouble, and all is because there is a force without, contrary to a principle within. Haman was by the command of the King forced to lead Mordecai 's Horse, and to proclaim before him, This shall be done unto the man whom the King delights to honor: how may we conceive this went against his spirit, and it was as bitter to him even as death itself; and the reason was because he had in him an inward principle of enmity and contrariety against Mordecai; and so it is with every unregenerate man towards God, and therefore though the law does force them to an outward observance, yet they do hate that very outward obedience that they do perform, and the law that enjoins it. When the Saints of God have been commanded to do outward honor and observance to the dunghill gods of the Heathen, (for so they are called) they have chosen death rather, from an inward principle, because they hated obedience to false God's. Now as a godly man would count it a misery, and the greatest burden of his life to be forced to bow himself before an Idol, so there is a principle of enmity in a wicked man unto the true God; for they are all enemies to God, and so they do hate to do observance also, and any outward obedience unto the true God: and as a godly man hates his sins because he is tempted to them by the law of his flesh, so does a wicked man hate duties, because he is led captive to them by the law of the Lord; and therefore whatever they do in outward appearance, they do it not before the Lord, because they hate it when they do it.

§. 2. We may hence learn the ground of all that hypocrisy and flattery that is expressed by unregenerate men towards God and Christ, whom they hate with a perfect hatred; it is all of it from the constraint of the law: and as the coaction of the law has a further place in men, so is a man's hypocrisy the deeper, and becomes either gross hypocrisy, or formal hypocrisy, as Divines do commonly distinguish it; the one is hid from others, and the other from a man's self, and yet all this while the man does but act a part as a Stage-player, for so the name Hypocrite signifies. And therefore we see unregenerate men abstain from those lusts which they dearly love, and are brought to outward conformity in duties which they do truly hate, and have no inward principle to perform. We see the humiliation of Ahab, &c. and the observation and reformation of Herod, the dissembled obedience, and forced flattery of the wicked Jews; and in the offers of other ungodly men at Religion, and their hot beginning upon the ways of God. But all this proceeds only from the Coaction of the Law, and the power that it has even upon the hearts and consciences of the worst of men. Hos. 8.14, it is said, For Israel has forgotten his maker and buildeth Temples, &c. A man would think, that they that did build Temples had God much in their mind, and did honor him highly, building a Temple to his honor; but yet all this was done in Hypocrisy, and Will-worship. They that repaired and beautified the Sepulchers of the Saints departed, that were put to death, surely it did argue they did highly esteem them, and they did it in honor both of their persons and graces, as Joseph did to the person of Christ, and the Pharisees, Mat. 23.29. who did build the Sepulchers of the Prophets; yet Christ said, it was all in hypocrisy, for while they pretended to honor the Saints, they did seek to destroy him that was the King of Saints. Thus we see men's taking up an outward conformity unto the Law of God, and some inward suitableness, as being enlightened by the Holy Ghost, tasting of the heavenly gifts, &c. which is the highest kind of hypocrisy; such as is in a temporary believer, who has the greatest shows of love to Christ and to duty: and all this proceeds from this coactive power of the Law, that God has upon the conscience of unregenerate men; and this may come to a great deal of seeming delight, and a man may seem to take great satisfaction in it. The Lord says of Israel, They delight to know my ways, with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts go after their covetousness, Ezek. 33.31. And many seem to have a great deal of seeming zeal for God and duty: and Christ says, The time will come when they that kill you shall think they do God good service. And Luther says of himself, Tantus eram sanctus, ut paratissimus fuerim omnes si potuissem occidere, &c. I was so great a Saint (in mine own esteem) that I was ready to slay all if I could, &c. And this he did not for worldly ends, and for advantage sake, but out of a blind zeal for Religion. Therefore they that take away the restraining of the Magistrate in the things of Religion upon this ground, because it will but make men Hypocrites; may upon this ground take away the restraining power of the Law of God also. In some respects, as to prevent the outward dishonoring God before men, and corrupting of others, it were to be wished that all unregenerate men were come so far as to be Hypocrites; and it was not wished amiss of the Father, who said, I could wish that all were Hypocrites. It were better in respect of other men, and honoring God before the world, though it would be never the better in respect of a man's self; for feigned love, and secret flattery, is in God's account as bad as open enmity; nothing so dangerous in men; esteem as a false friend; Judas was more hateful to Christ than all his Persecutors, because he came to betray the Son of man with a kiss.

§. 3. The next Use is of Examination: [Use 4] Seeing that the Law has this power even upon unregenerate men, that it can restrain from sin, and constrain to duty, and that godly men do duty and abstain from sin, by virtue of the law written in their hearts; how shall a man know that he abstains from sin, and does duty by the law of his mind, from an inward principle in his heart, or else is only constrained from a law without, and not from a law within? (for the Love of Christ constrains the Saints to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts.) Whether we forbear to sin, and abstain from it, and perform duty, and be much in it from restraining Grace, or renewing Grace? Whether we do serve God in the newness of the spirit, or the oldness of the letter? It was before conversion but a dead letter to him, and did only command duty, but it did no way transform the soul in the inward man; but there is in a man being regenerate the newness of spirit, that is a man's inward man being renewed by the Holy Ghost, &c.

Now the rules of Trial are these:

1. Let a man by the Coaction of the Law be put upon duty never so much, and never so often, yet it will never assist him; nay, the more he doth duty, the less strength he shall have to do it, the weakness of his nature will increase by it; as the longer he does abstain from sin, the more the lust will spread, and the stronger it will grow: the more he does pray the less love he shall have to the duty; and though he may get a dexterity in the outward performance, yet the less he shall be able to perform it in a saving and spiritual manner: whereas renewing Grace gives a man strength, a man's heart is prepared to pray, and the spirit of Grace is a spirit of supplication; a man has an Unction from the Holy Ghost, that flows from his union with Christ, and from the Holy Ghost; and he has a strength in duties, the more he does them, the stronger he grows in all the ways of God. The righteous shall grow stronger and stronger, and he that has clean hands shall hold on his way, Job 17.9. and shine brighter and brighter, and grow stronger and stronger; the more he knows, the more he does follow on to know the Lord. And whereas another man has done duty many years, and is grown more weary of it, and more formal in it, but knows no more what does belong to the spiritual performance of it now, than he did when he began it; and he does possibly abstain from sin, but it is not from an inward principle and power of holiness, but from an external motive, which only keeps it under in the course of his life; and therefore although by abstaining the lust may seem weakened, and to decay by degrees, yet really it grows, and they prove more desperately wicked; as appears by men that the unclean spirit is gone out of, and returns with seven worse spirits; and they that have made great and goodly shows of Holiness, yet afterwards fall into the sin against the Holy Ghost.

2. A man that does duty from the Coaction of the Law is partial in it, and takes notice only of those duties to which he is constrained, and where the law of God lays a strong hand upon him; but as for other things he is not at all solicitous. Herod will do many things, but other things that either the Law does not so immediately and earnestly press upon him, or his lust will not dispense with, those he will leave undone. But renewing Grace makes a man to have respect unto all God's Commandments, and to hate every false way; it sets a man against every sin, but specially against a man's own iniquity, and those sins that are spiritual, that are from Satan, per modum imaginis, as part of his image, wherein they are most like the Devil.

3. All that a man does from the Coaction of the Law will never last; a man may abstain from sin a while, but if a man have the nature of a dog he will return to his vomit, and as a Sow will wallow in the mire still, wash her never so clean; yea, he will return with the greater greediness, by reason of the former abstinence, and so a man may perform duty a while; but as Job says, Will the hypocrite pray always? For he is but as a flag that cannot grow without mire; and if once the fleshly respects of setting upon duty be taken away, his duties will wither: For either praying will make a man leave sinning, or sinning will make him leave praying: or if not publicly, yet will at least kill all his secret duties, and make those that are public, degenerate wholly into a form.

4. Whatsoever a man does by Coaction of the Law, a man has no sweetness in it, it is with no delight and complacency; for things forced are not pleasant: let a man do the least service that he is forced to, and it is a burden; whereas let the greatest works in the world, and the most toilsome be done, if a man undertake them willingly, he can find pleasure in them; as we see men do in recreations, running and wrestling, &c. So to a Saint the yoke of Christ is a pleasing yoke, and his burden light; a soul can dance under it, and the thoughts of his leaving sin is very pleasant to him; and when he does duty he delights in it according to his inward man, and his soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, he is then in his element when he is keeping the Commandments of God. Set water over the fire and make it boil never so much, yet take it off, and it will return quickly into its former coldness, and will be the colder for its former heating: and so it is here, it is not agreeable to nature, and therefore can never be pleasing, either for an unregenerate man to perform duty, or for a regenerate man to commit sin.

5. Whatever a man doth by the Coaction of the Law, a man hath no communion with God thereby, nor is he drawn nearer unto God. A gracious heart is sensible of the want of God, and therefore his end in all that he does is to seek God, that he may find him; and because in Ordinances God will be found, and has there promised a special presence, therefore he seeks him there; and he labors to stir up his Graces in his approach to God, and God does in mercy draw near unto him, because what he does is from an inward principle of godliness: but a man that does duty from a natural conscience only, he does not draw near to God, but his spirit draws back all the while, and looks upon God as an enemy; and therefore he has no fellowship with the Lord. The Law indeed puts him upon duty, and as a task he doth it, but he has no more experience of the approaches of God in it, or his love, or the power of his Grace, the kisses of his mouth, the stayings of God with flagons, and comforting with apples, &c. but a soul that does duties from a principle of godliness, is sensible of his spiritual absence from God in duties, and of his special presence, and would not lose his communion with God in duties for a world; but other men are satisfied in the duties merely, and their sinning and hearing is much alike to them; and if they have done the duty, conscience is satisfied and they have all they desire, &c.

[Use 4] §. 4. Here we see what a happiness it is to the Saints, that they are freed from the Coaction of the Law, that they are not so under it as unregenerate men are: For (1) they do no good by constraint. The regenerate man is always ready to obey the will of God, he is a man that acts from an inward principle, and therein lives above the Law; he that is born of God never sins, but always obeys God; everything that the Law commands is pleasant to him, and the Commandments of God are not grievous; as Christ's Chariot in which he comes to us is paved with Love, so is our way to Christ paved with Love, and hence a man is never weary; but the longer a man continues in the ways of God, the more he is satisfied with them, because where is a suitableness, there is no weariness: the Sun is not weary with shining, nor the fire weary with burning, nor are the Angels in Heaven ever weary of beholding God forever, because their happiness is perfected by it; nor are the Saints in earth weary of doing the will of their Heavenly Father, neither doing-work nor suffering-work; to bear Christ's Cross is not grievous to them, to be reproached for his name's sake is counted all joy; they despise the pleasures of sin for a season, living in the sure hope of their enjoying rivers of pleasures that are at God's right hand for evermore.

CHAP. V. All those that are in Christ are translated from under the first Covenant.

Col. 1.13, Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son; or, the Son of his Love.

SECT. I. A Scriptural account of this Translation.

§. 1. NOW we come to speak of the last Branch considerable in this Covenant, and that is a man's translation out of it: Wherein there are four things to be considered: (1) That all that are in Christ are translated out of the first Covenant, and under it no more. (2) The nature and manner of this Translation. (3) The abolishing of the first Covenant, by a man's translation out of it, and the introduction of a second, by which the former is made old. (4) The subserviency and subordination of this first Covenant in many respects unto the Covenant of Grace, as Hagar, even then when under the notion of a Covenant, it is abolished to Believers. The first of these we shall deduce out of these words, when we have opened them unto you. In the latter part of this Chapter there are mainly two things we are to consider; (1) The honor of our Redeemer. (2) The manner of our Redemption. The honor of our Redeemer is set forth from verse. 15, and the manner of our Redemption, verse. 13, 14; and that in many particulars. Here we may observe, (1) The condition, wherein the people of God are before their Conversion: [1] They are under the power of darkness. [2] They are out of the Kingdom of God's dear Son. (2) Their condition after Conversion, They are freed, there is deliverence, &c. and there is translation unto the Kingdom of his Son.

1. By nature every man is under the power of darkness, even the Elect of God as well as others. The word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which does properly signify right and authority over anything. Man did by the first temptation sell himself to the Devil, and as it were made a virtual covenant and compact with Satan: and as it's said of Ahab, He sold himself to work iniquity; so it is with all by nature. And therefore God in judgment gave man over unto the power of Sin, and therein to the dominion of Satan; and then Satan's godship came in, and he became the god of this World, and the Prince of the power of the air. By darkness is meant in Scripture, ignorance, sin and misery; and of all this darkness, Satan is the Prince, and has the power, he is the ruler of the darkness of this world. This power of darkness is double; there is a condemning power, and there is a ruling power, that makes a man do the works of the Devil, and that brings forth fruit unto death.

Now how comes Satan to have a condemning power? the power of death it is by sin: and how came sin to have a condemning power? it is by the Law, 1 Cor. 15.56. that is, the Law as a Covenant. So that all the power Satan has it is by sin; and the power that sin has it is from the Law, as a Covenant being broken. So that every Elect child of God is by nature under the Law as a Covenant, for condemnation and irritation; and by this means is under the power of sin, and under the dominion of Satan. Now a man's deliverance from this is by conquest and by power: for it is in the Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to deliver a man by force and set him free. When man had no strength to deliver himself, but must have lain and perished under this power forever; yea, had not so much as an ability of will to desire deliverance; and when all the powers of darkness were put forth to keep a man under, and Sin and the Law and Satan did their utmost; the strong man armed kept the house; then Christ a stronger than he breaks in, destroys sin and death, and him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil; and by this means the Law has no power, Sin has no strength, Death has no sting, and Satan has no dominion.

But man being under the power of darkness, he is out of the Kingdom of Christ, which is a Kingdom of Righteousness, and free Justification, Rom. 14.17. He is free from this, for he is under the power of darkness or condemnation, because under the power of the Law, and under the dominion of him that has the power of death, that is, the Devil; and Christ's Kingdom is a Kingdom of light and holiness, but they are under the power of darkness; sin having by their Covenant dominion over them, and they being by Satan led captive at his will, and being acted by the spirit of the power of the air, &c.

But all that are converted are under the Kingdom of Christ, as it is a Kingdom of Righteousness for matter of Justification, and as it is a Kingdom of Grace for the matter of Sanctification and Life; and whoever comes under this Kingdom, it is by Translation; and they are thereby delivered from the power and the authority of the one, as they are translated into the other: and the word in the Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , does signify, to put a man out of one condition into another, and to change a man from his former state in which he was; as Luk. 16.4, My master puts me out of the stewardship, &c. And the Septuagint do use it commonly for transplanting a man out of his native soil, (as they do that plant Colonies from one Country to another) and such a Translation is here meant; that whereas before a man was under the Kingdom of Satan, and the condemnation and dominion of death, now his state is changed; that is, by the change of his Covenant, and he is translated (or transported) into the Kingdom of Righteousness and Holiness. This is the Translation that is here meant, a change of a man's state, through the change of his Covenant; upon which follows the change of his image, and the change of his nature also. A man is translated into it, (1) As a Kingdom of Righteousness, by the change of his Covenant. (2) As a Kingdom of Holiness, by the change of his Image.

Doct. All those that are in Christ have a change of their state, they are translated out of their former Covenant. Here are two things to be spoken to: (1) That the Scripture does speak of such a Translation or change of Covenant. (2) The necessity of such a change, and the reasons and grounds thereof.

§. 2. First, the Scripture does speak of such a Translation, or change of Covenant. Says the Apostle, Rom. 11.24, For if thou wert cut out of the Olive-tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good Olive-tree: how much more shall these which be the natural branches, &c. Abraham is called the root, because after a sort the Covenant began in him, and therefore he is said to be the father of the faithful, and all that grew by nature upon this root, they were the children of God; and the natural branches unto whom the sap and sweetness and fatness of the true Church, all the Promises and Privileges of the Covenant of Grace did belong; and those that were truly under this Covenant they were not broken off, but some of them that were under it by profession only, they were for their sins, in judgment, broken off; and the Gentiles that were wild Olives, strangers to Abraham 's Faith and Covenant, they were grafted in, that is, taken into the Covenant of Abraham, which is the root upon which they were engrafted, and are made partakers of all the Promises and the Privileges of the Covenant of Abraham, as if they were the natural branches. Therefore here are men that are wild Olives that are engrafted, here are branches broken off that are engrafted in again. So that in Conversion there is an Ingrafting, a Translation of a man from one stock to another, from one root unto another, and that is by changing of a man's Covenant; for it is by his Covenant only that Abraham is his root, &c. Some indeed are engrafted only by an outward profession, some by inward implantation into the inward and spiritual part, some into the outward privileges of the Covenant only, but some partake of the sweetness and fatness of the true Olive-tree, &c.

Christ says, He that believes in him that sent me shall never come into judgment, but is parted from death to life. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , signifies a passage from one place to another. And Joh. 3.14, He is passed from death to life. There is a twofold state of death and life, and there is answerable a double passage, a relative mutation as to a man's Covenant, and a physical mutation as to his Image; Rom. 7.1, 2, 3, The law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth: the woman is bound to her husband as long as he liveth, but if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband, &c. It is a dying, or a being divorced from the former husband, that gives her liberty. All the Ancients do generally make the Law the husband, from which a man being dead unto the Law is divorced: and some Modern Divines (as Beza and others) make sin the husband, as being irritated by the law; but the thing is much the same: and a man being engrafted into Christ is freed from the law of the husband. It is also a being redeemed, and the main of our redemption lies in it, Gal. 4.5. as Christ was made under the law, so we were under it, now he was under it as a Covenant to fulfill the precept, and to satisfy the curse; and he did this that he might redeem us that were under the law in both these respects; so that looking upon the law as a Covenant, Christ is said to redeem us from being under it; changing a man's father and his mother, and growing on another root, and belonging to another stock, as it is said, Rom. 4.15, Abraham the father of us all, that were before strangers unto Abraham; therefore it is said to be his mercy unto Abraham, and his oath unto our forefathers, and Sarah the mother; whereas before we were the children of Hagar. All men by nature are under the law, children of the bondwoman: for the two Mothers are the two Covenants; and so long as a man remains under the first Covenant, he is the son of the bondwoman; but we that believe are as Isaac, children of the free-woman; being discharged of the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us, and contrary to us; which Christ took out of the way, nailing it to his Cross, &c. This • lotting out of Ordinances, Chrysostom and Oecumenius understand not only of the Ceremonial Law given by Moses, but also of the Moral Law, and the Law of the forbidden fruit given to Adam, &c. and so Zanchi and others, &c. Though some other late Divines will understand it of the Ceremonial Law only, which I conceive it cannot be, because it is spoken for the consolation of the Gentiles, that they were delivered from this hand-writing of Ordinances, under which they never were. So that this change of Covenant is in Scripture set forth by being cut off from the former root and engrafted into another; a change or passage from a man's former state, a being dead to a former husband, a redemption from a former bondage, an alliance to another father, and having a bond cancelled that was against a man by its exacting and condemning power.

SECT. II. The necessity of a Translation from the first Covenant.

1. THE necessity of this Translation is manifested several ways. 1. From the nature of the Covenant as it is broken, and man's misery under it; for the Covenant in self is unchangeable and eternal, as well as the Covenant of Grace; and it says forever, This do and thou shalt live; it still says, Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things written in the Law to do them; the soul that sins shall die. And to establish it Christ was made under the Law, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us; and what the Law saith, it saith unto them that are under the Law still. So that while men continue under it, their former husband lives unto them, and the hand-writing stands in force against them: here is the benefit by Christ, a man may be translated out of it, and so there may be a change of a man's Covenant, not by a change of the Covenant itself, but by a change of the man, and his deliverance out of it.

Now so long as a man continues under this Covenant, (1) It promises no life but upon condition of perfect and personal obedience; it calls upon thee, To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength; the strength that I gave thee at first: and the man that doth them shall live by them. There is commutatio personae, a commutation of the person, by the Covenant of Grace; but this Covenant saith not that the obedience of another shall be accounted his unto justification and life, and so Justification is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , impossible by the righteousness of the Law; for by the Law no man can be justified; and in this it is weak through the flesh; so that whilst a man continues untranslated, he can never be justified by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, which can profit him nothing, because in the sense of the Law it is not his own righteousness.

(2) It is a Covenant without a Mediator: Christ indeed is a Mediator, but it is of the new Covenant; the first Covenant was faedus amicitiae, a Covenant of friendship, made with man in innocence; where there was no disagreement; and Gal. 3.20. A Mediator is not a Mediator of one, &c. So that so long as a man is under the first Covenant, what benefits so ever there are to be had by the Mediation of Christ, he must go without them, either in reference to the presentation of his person, or to the acceptation of his services; for in the Covenant under which he stands a Mediator can have no place.

(3) In this Covenant there is no promise of pardon; but If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted, but if thou dost evil sin lies at the door; and there is a curse upon every transgression, every sin thou committest, every disobedience has a just recompense of reward; so that as long as a man does continue under this Covenant, he must bear his own sin, and there is no hope of pardon for him, because under this Covenant God has promised no pardon. The aim of God was the glory of his Justice, and therefore the Lord deals with men as in Courts of Justice: if there be a Capital crime committed, the Judge does not examine whether the man be penitent or no, and if he do repent, then there is a pardon for him; but whether the offense be committed or no, guilty or not guilty; and so Justice does all without respect unto a man's after-repentance. If thou hast sinned, the first Covenant says thou art a child of death; and when a man says, I have sinned, it is the Covenant of Grace only that says, the Lord has put away thy sin; but under this Covenant there is no pardon to be expected.

(4) This Covenant promises no Grace: for it was made with man in his primitive condition, when he had Grace answerable unto all the duties that the Lord required of him; he had a power to perform all duties, and to resist all temptations, and this is supposed in every duty that is required, and in every sin that is forbidden; so that all the promises of Grace and strength that are in the second Covenant, a man can never have benefit by, for they belong not unto the Covenant under which he stands unless he be translated.

(5) It is a Covenant that every sin breaks, and being once broken it can never be made up again. So the Apostle tells us, Rom. 5.16, By one offense guilt came upon all to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses to justification. Adam 's sin was but one offense, and yet it brake his Covenant, and brought guilt and death upon all his posterity, and that forever; and his Covenant could bring death, but never justification and life anymore, so that no man that has once sinned could ever live by that Covenant anymore: but it is not so in the Covenant of Grace, because it brings in an everlasting righteousness, that sin can never spend; and therefore though there be many offenses yet the Covenant is not broken, but that justification and life may be had therein; and the more sin abounds, the grace of the Covenant abounds much more; as sin takes occasion by the law, so grace takes occasion by sin under the Gospel.

(6) It is a Covenant that can never quiet and settle the Conscience, but let a man walk never so exactly, and take never so much care to do his duty in all things, and let him live the holiest life that ever any man did upon earth that was a sinner, and he will be always in a doubt and full of jealousy of God, whether he will accept him or no; as it was with the young man in the Gospel, he had lived a very exact life according to the rules of a Pharisaical righteousness; for he could say, All these things have I kept from my youth; and yet he was not quiet, he came and kneeled down to Christ and said, What must I do to inherit eternal life? what lack I yet? And so Luther said, he did endeavor in all things to walk according to his Conscience, and yet he says, I feared Hell terribly, &c. And this is the difference that the Apostle makes, Rom. 10.5, 8, he prefers the righteousness of faith before that of works, upon this ground, because that of works is full of scruples and doubtful enquiries, Who shall ascend up to Heaven? Doubting is the fruit of the Covenant of works; and therefore Bellarmine must come to his Tutissimum, for unto men since the fall the fruits of the first Covenant are only doubting and anxiety: but faith tells a man, Christ has descended into the deep to make satisfaction there, and he is ascended up on high into Heaven there to prepare a place; and there is nothing wanting for a man's salvation that Christ has not done, which frees a man's Conscience from those inward perplexities which the Covenant of works leaves a man entangled in. This is the first ground of the necessity of being translated out of this Covenant, for so long as a man is under it this is his misery, if he look for life it must be by his own righteousness as without a Mediator; and if he sin, there is no pardon for him, and if he be to do duty, there is no grace; if the Covenant be once broken it is broken forever, never made up again, for the least offense; and a man's Conscience can never be satisfied and quieted, till he does anchor upon Christ Jesus, who is the rock of ages.

§. 2. If God will deal with man in a Covenant-way, he must be translated out of this Covenant, if he ever hope to receive any benefit by the second Covenant; for no man can stand under both Covenants, no more than he can be born of two Mothers, Gal. 4. the two Covenants are there compared unto two Mothers, and the Covenants are two roots; and 'tis impossible if one grow upon the one root, but he must be cut off from the other. I do confess that an unregenerate man, that is for the state of his person under the Covenant of works, may have many outward benefits and privileges from the Covenant of Grace. As (1) They are preserved by it; for it is by the second Covenant that the world stands, and it is for their sakes that are heirs of blessing therein, Isa. 42.6, He is given as a Covenant to the Nations to establish the earth; and it is by the Covenant of Grace to the Kingdom of Christ that the curse of the first Covenant is not presently executed upon wicked men. (2) Wicked men have this benefit by the Covenant of Grace, they have the Creatures to serve them; he makes the Sun to shine upon the just and the unjust. The Creatures are made subject to vanity by reason of him that has subjected them in hope: it is a vanity of service and subjection unto the necessities of unregenerate men, which is a benefit that they have by the second Covenant. (3) They have an employment by Christ Prov. 8. it's said, By me Kings reign; and that men are set in honorable places, and do service in this Kingdom of Christ. Saul was made a King, and Cyrus, and Judas was an Apostle. (4) They have great gifts given them by the Spirit of God dispensed in this Kingdom, which is only by the Covenant of Grace: they are enlightened, made partakers of the Holy Ghost, taste of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come; they may prophesy in the name of Christ, and in his name cast out Devils, and do many great works. (5) They have great privileges given them, they are called the Sons of God, they have the Law and the Promises, they may live in the Church and claim an outward right unto Ordinances, and the offers of Grace as belonging unto them. Abraham 's son Ishmael was circumcised as well as Isaac, and he had an outward right unto it, and so all external Church-privileges Hypocrites may have a right unto, as Judas had among the other Disciples, being undetected. (6) They may have for all these services great Temporal rewards; laboring in the Lord's Vineyard they shall have their penny. Cyrus a Heathen Prince, yet doing works for God, he shall have a Kingdom for his reward; and Nebuchadnezzar shall have Egypt for his hire; great honors and rewards before men, riches in abundance, that they may wash their steps in butter: Ishmael had the dew of Heaven, and the fatness of the Earth. These and many other benefits unregenerate men may have by the Covenant of Grace, who yet for the estate of their persons are under a Covenant of Works: only unto all godly men they are all given as a blessing, and unto them that are unregenerate men they are all given as a curse, and will be a means but to ripen their sins, and add unto their account and condemnation; and therefore though a man may have many external benefits by the Covenant of Grace, who for the estate of his person is under the Covenant of Works, yet he cannot stand under both Covenants.

§. 3. God will deal with him still as he did in his Creation in a way of Covenant and Stipulation, and not in a way of absolute Sovereignty and Dominion and he will keep both on foot, and exercise both together. In man's Creation God did some things by way of absolute Dominion, he gave him what being he pleased, and appointed him to what end, and gave him what Law he pleased, and placed Adam as the common root, the representative head, and put all his posterity under him, as those that were to come under his Covenant, and to stand or fall with him: and as the Covenant made with Adam and us in him, is • n act of Sovereignty, so the act of Imputation of his sin or righteousness is an act of Sovereignty also. But God did not deal with Adam in this way only, but also in a way of Covenant, giving him a command, and promising life and blessedness upon his obedience; and all the Dispensations of God in his Government unto men since, have been by virtue of, and according unto the Covenant. Whilst man stood all the blessings he did enjoy were by virtue of the Covenant God made with him; and since his fall, all the curses that he has undergone are the curses of the Covenant. So unto man in his fall God will deal with him still the same way; there are some acts of Sovereignty and absolute Dominion which he has reserved to himself, he gives man what Law he pleaseth, and according to his own pleasure changes and abrogates Laws as he will; and he has out of his own absolute Sovereignty appointed the second Adam to be the head of the regenerate, and he does as an act of Sovereignty make a Covenant with us in him, and accounts us one with him, and by a Sovereign Imputation counts his Righteousness ours, and our sins his, and calls things that are not as if they were. But yet though he will keep both ways of Government in his own hand, yet he has declared himself that in his ordinary way he will rule man by a Covenant, and according unto the rules of that Covenant he will dispense himself in mercy or in wrath, according to the Promises, or the threatenings thereof: and though man has fallen and broken the first Covenant, and therefore now God might have dealt with him in a way only of Sovereignty and Prerogative; yet the Lord will keep himself unto a Covenant-way, and will so deal with man again; and therefore man having broken the first he will establish the second Covenant. And the grounds why God will deal with man still in a Covenant-way are these:

(1) Because the first Covenant stands in force upon all men out of Christ unto eternity, as it appears; because by that Covenant sin is imputed, and the curse of that Covenant is inflicted unto eternity. (2) Because that under this Covenant all that remain must perish, for as many as are under the Law as a Covenant, are under the Curse; wherefore the Lord has instituted a second Covenant, which all that are in Christ shall remain under. And though • here be some difference in circumstances, and in the manner of administration, yet it is for substance the same from the fall unto the worlds end. There is indeed a Triplex Aera, a threefold account, or three several periods in Scripture of the Covenant of Grace. [1] As it was made with Adam after his fall, promising the seed of the woman, and life and salvation in him; and this is therefore called the Covenant of Promise, Ephes. 2.12. [2] As it was more fully revealed after Christ's coming in the flesh, Heb. 8.6, 7. so the Covenant as to the Fathers being in the Promise, is called the first Covenant, and as performed, and Christ exhibited, the second. Yet the first Covenant comes short of the second in two things: First, because imperfect and only in Types, and Typical representations. 2. Because the people kept it not, neither were made perfect by it, but God found fault with them for their disobedience, &c. [3] As it shall be more gloriously revealed at the calling of the Jews, when the Lord shall make this Covenant with them, that is, take them into this Covenant again, and call them my people who were called Loammi; and this is their grafting in again, Rom. 11. as the Gentiles were grafted in upon their rejection, and therefore Israel under this Covenant is fitly called by some Israel surrogatus, &c. And of this Covenant with Israel, who are the natural branches, to whom primarily all the Promises do belong, does the Lord speak, Ezek. 34.25, The dry bones shall live, and they shall dwell in their own land, wherein their fathers dwelt, they and their children's children forever; and my servant David shall be their Prince forever; and I will make a Covenant of peace with her, and it shall be an everlasting Covenant; and I will place them, and multiply them, and set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore, my tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people, &c. (3) All the mercies and deliverances that God has given his people have been by Covenant ever since the fall, he sent Christ into the world, a horn of salvation he raised up, (that is, glorious and victorious salvation) in the house of his servant David, to perform his mercy promised to our forefathers, and to remember his holy Covenant: he pardons their sins, and subdues their iniquities, and carries them into the depths of the sea; but it is to perform his truth to Jacob, and his mercy to Abraham, which he swore unto our forefathers from the days of old. And he writes the law in their hearts, and sanctifies them to himself: A new Covenant will I make with you, I will take away the heart of stone, and I will write my law in your hearts, &c. And so for all temporal mercies, God delivered Noah from the flood that destroyed the world of the ungodly, but it was by a Covenant; I will establish my Covenant with thee, and thou shalt come into the Ark, thou and thy sons, &c. God brought Israel out of Egypt, but it was by their Covenant; I have established my Covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage. And afterwards delivered them out of Babylon, the pit in which there was no water; But it is by the blood of the Covenant. He did nourish the people of Israel in the Wilderness, and fed them there; but it was because he was always mindful of his Covenant. There were many that did not fear him, that were wicked, but he fed the wicked for the sake of the righteous, their meat was given unto them that fear him. So that the Dispensations of God in all ages have been by virtue of, and answerable to a Covenant.

§. 4. A man for the state of his person cannot stand under both Covenants, because the one is contrary unto, and makes void the other; so the Apostle reasons, Gal. 2. ult. If righteousness be by the law, Christ is dead in vain. Though in some respects the Law may and doth stand as a rule, and as a hand-maid to the Gospel, as Hagar to Sarah, and so in subordination; yet as a Covenant, and in co-ordination it cannot stand so; for the one doth actually destroy the other, and make it void; for if the second Covenant take place, the first Covenant is made void; and if the first Covenant stand, there is no place for the second. And this will more fully appear if we consider the direct contrariety in the Terms of these Covenants.

1. The Righteousness of the first Covenant is in ourselves, the works of righteousness that we have done; and he that doth them shall live in them; but the righteousness of the second Covenant is the righteousness of another; Christ is the end of the law for righteousness: Rom. 10.4. all the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in him. It is in the Ark that the law is laid up; and the righteousness of the Law is in him alone, and in no other else to be found, made ours by Imputation only, thereby we are made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. 5.21. Now a man cannot be righteous by his own righteousness, and by the righteousness of another, 1 Joh. 5.11, 12. A man cannot have life in himself and in another, and therefore the one destroys the other.

2. In the Covenant of Works acceptation is first of the works, and afterwards of the person, for the works sake; and so does the displeasure of God begin first with the work, and then redundat in personam, it redounds upon the person; and therefore God speaks unto Cain, Gen. 4.4, If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted: there is not acceptation of the person if there be any imperfection in the work, Gal. 3.10, Cursed is everyone that continues not in the law, &c. because of a failing in the work there is a curse upon the person. But in the Covenant of Grace the person is first accepted, and the works for the persons sake. God had a respect unto Abel and to his Offering; and this indeed is even the sum of the Gospel, that the work is accepted for the persons sake: but if the acceptation of the person be grounded upon the works, it is contrary to the Gospel, that says, The acceptation is first of the person, then of the works.

3. The Covenant of Works is a Covenant without a Priest, there is none to present a man's person, but he must stand before God in his own person: for the first Covenant was made with man immediately, there is none to bear his sin, and there is none to offer his sacrifice; for it was a Covenant made with man in the state of integrity, wherein he needed none of these. Adam had no more need of a Priest in this estate than the Angels have; but now all unregenerate men that are under the Covenant as broken (while they do so continue) have no more benefit by a Priest than the Devils have, only to man there is a possibility and not unto them: but the second Covenant is a Covenant with a Priest, and there is a threefold office of a Priest. (1) He does present their persons, for he stands in their steads; he bears their names two ways, upon his heart, and upon his shoulders. (2) He offers a sacrifice for their sins, and does carry the blood into the most holy place, and doth sprinkle it before the Mercy-seat. (3) He presents their requests and desires unto the Father, together with his own, upon the same Altar of the Godhead, which is the Golden Altar; for he ever lives to make intercession for us.

4. In the Covenant of Works there is matter of glorying and boasting in a man's self; if a man abide in the Covenant, and the reward is of debt. Indeed Adam might have come into the presence of God, and have said, Lord, I have fulfilled thy Commandment, I have done thy whole will, &c. And as the Lord Jesus Christ did, I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do; now glorify me with thyself, now justify me, bestow upon me the grace and life that thou hast promised, &c. But under the second Covenant there is no place for either, there is no debt, for all is of grace; to give the will and the deed, and to pardon the failings and defects of anything we do; that we are accepted it is merely of Grace. And there is no boasting, for all is done by the strength of another, and through the acceptance of another; For Christ is made to us Wisdom and Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption, that he that glories may glory in the Lord, 1 Cor. 1.30. And so boasting is excluded: by what law? not by the law of works, but by the law of faith, Rom. 3.27. For the soul says, I was in the same condemnation with them that perish, and the Lord had mercy upon me, because mercy pleases him, not for mine own righteousness, but according to his own mercy he saveth us, Tit. 3.4, 5. Now it is impossible therefore for a man to be under both Covenants, because the terms and • he conditions of the one are contrary, and destroy the other.

§. 5. It may be asked, [Quest.] Whether a godly man while he lives here having a double principle, the one from the first Adam, and the other from the second Adam, he may not also have a double Covenant state, and a double Image, partly the Image of the first, and partly the Image of the second Adam, partly of the earthly, and partly of the heavenly? Why may not a man also say, that so far as he is flesh, he is under the Covenant of Works, but so far as he is regenerate he is under a Covenant of Grace? For so some of our Divines have spoken of late,

Consider a regenerate man in his natural being, and so he is ever under the Law, and as often as he sinneth is under the sentence of death, but as he is in Christ so he is free from the Law by Grace, &c.

A godly man has a double principle, and this doth argue a double image; [Answ.] and the corrupt principle that is within him is a remainder of the image of the old Adam, and the gracious principle is the image of the second Adam begun in him. But yet this cannot infer a double Covenant, because the Image respects his nature, but the Covenant does respect his Person. Now it is with a man as it is with Christ, there are two natures in him, and they have two properties, the one eternal, and the other in time; the one is infinite, and the other finite; the one mortal, and the other immortal: but if we look upon his Sonship, that is but one, because it respects his Person, filiatio est suppositi filiati, filliation is of a person; so though a man have two very different natures in him of flesh and spirit, the one from Christ, and the other from Satan; and in the one a man does resemble God, and in the other the Devil, yet they argue not two Covenants, quia faedus pertinet ad suppositum, the Covenant belongs to the person.

2. A double Image may stand together: and though indeed they seek to destroy each other, the flesh lusting against the spirit, because they are contrary, yet it shall not prevail: But the two Covenants do actually, necessarily, and immediately destroy each other, because the terms are contrary; and therefore unless a man may stand righteous before God in his own righteousness, and in the righteousness of Christ at once, unless he may be an heir of the Curse and of the Promise, unless he may be justified and condemned, unless his sins may be pardoned, and his righteousness imputed, unless he may appear before God in himself and in another, he cannot be said to be under both Covenants; for the terms of the Covenant are such that they do necessarily destroy each other.

3. The change of a man's Covenant is a legal act, an act of God upon a man's being once in Christ, God does account a man as one under the Law no more, as God did count Abraham righteous, and counted him the father of the faithful; so that it is an act of God without a man and upon him, and this is perfect and may be at once; and a man is truly translated out of the Covenant of Works, the first day of his conversion, and shall never be looked upon as one under that Covenant more: but there is a good work in a man, which is the change of a man's Image, and that is perfected by degrees, and therefore the remainders of the old image do remain, and as God does make the Covenant of Works from which a man is delivered, a servant to the Covenant of Grace, so he does the remainders of the old image in a man also.

SECT. III. The APPLICATION.

[Use 1] §. 1. THe Use is of Examination, whether a man's Covenant be changed or no, and whether he be translated out of the first Covenant. There is no change of a man's Covenant but by union with Christ: for the Covenants were made with a double head, the first, and the second Adam; and it is our union with them, that brings us under their Covenant. A man comes not under the Covenant of the Angels, he has not the righteousness of the good, nor the sins of the bad Angels imputed, because he is not one with them; he that is in the first Adam is still under his Covenant, and he that is in the second Adam, is translated from the first Adam: Now how should a man know whether he be one with Christ or no; for he that is in Christ is no more under the Law as a Covenant, nor under the curse.

Now hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit; if any man has not the spirit of Christ he is none of his. Now wheresoever the spirit of Christ is, it is a spirit of mortification, as Rom. 8.10. for Christ's Spirit had the same end that Christ had, 1 Joh. 1.8. (1) A man's darling lust is mortified, for a man converted hates every sin, but especially these; as a Deer that is shot is not quiet till the Arrow that has wounded him be taken out: and the Psalmist says, I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. There is no greater sign that a man is acted by the spirit of the Devil than indulging this way of sinning. (2) A man conflicts specially against spiritual sins; for those sins make a man most conformable to the Devil: as for gross sins, restraining grace and a natural conscience will go far to keep them under; all sins are from the Devil, either, per modum servitutis or imaginis, in a way of servitude or image. Pride and contempt of God, and drawing others to sin, and delighting in it, hating godliness in others, obstinacy and impenitency, &c. these sins argue whose children we are, That we are of our father the Devil, for his lusts we do, &c. Spiritual lusts are his image.

2. Where the Spirit of Christ dwells, the spirit of the second Covenant, he is a spirit of Sanctification, there is a renewing of the inward man; that which is born of the spirit is spirit; the spirit of God is not only water, but fire, which turns all into itself; it is a spirit of Wisdom, and a spirit of faith, love, meekness, and of a sound mind, conforming the outward man, making him follow the Lord fully; he is willingly ignorant of no truth, he does not hide his eyes, nor stop his ears from hearing of it, nor does he imprison any truth in unrighteousness; he will walk up to his light in everything, though duties be difficult, to honor God, and own his people before the world, as we may live to see it a crime to countenance a profession of godliness; yet this man that has received another spirit as Caleb had, can let the world see that all his delight is in the Saints; and though he should be reckoned singular, and go alone with Athanasius and Luther, yet he still keeps on his way notwithstanding all opposition, and lays out all that is in him, and dear to him for Christ; and if he perish in a way of duty he perishes, he will venture life and all for God, as Nehemiah and Hester did.

[Use 2] §. 2. Hence we may see the sinfulness of an unregenerate state in this, That all of you that are so are strangers to the Covenant of promise; and this is set forth by the Apostle as that state of sin in which the Gentiles lay before their conversion. Chrysostom says, that they were not only separated from this Covenant, and without it, but wholly strangers to it: and though as to the terms of the Covenant, we be not so great strangers now, because the Gospel of Grace is made known to us, yet all they that do not accept of the terms of the Covenant, but do stand out in their unbelief, and do not embrace the Lord Christ offered in the Gospel, they are as truly in God's account still strangers unto the Covenant of Promise, as the Gentiles were before the Gospel was preached unto them: and let no man say, What are we all Heathens? will you put us into the same condition with them? Let me tell you, the Covenant of Grace has been offered unto you, and the terms of it plainly set before you: And they are, (1) God will be yours, if you will be his; he will be wholly yours, so as you must be wholly his, Cant. 6.2, I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine. Christ will neither marry a Widow nor a Harlot, Lev. 21.14. he will have the first Love, and the whole Love, Hos. 3.3, Thou shalt be unto me alone, and unto none other. (2) Thou shalt give all that is thine unto him, and he will give all that is his unto thee, thou shalt have an interest in what is his, but so as Christ will have an interest likewise in all that is thine; He • hat does not forsake all that he has, cannot be my disciple; thou must follow the lamb whithersoever he goes; thou must forget thy own kindred and thy fathers house; forsake, yea, hate thy • wn life if it come in competition with thy duty and love to Christ: for a man to be willing 〈◊〉 reserve anything at his own dispose, that he may enjoy a-part from Christ, it is a token 〈◊〉 a false heart, and the Lord abhors it. To do as Ananias and Sapphira did, keep back part 〈◊〉 the price, reserve something that they would not give up, and yet pretend to give up all, • is abominable to God; and that man that does not consent unto the Covenant upon these •• rms, does not give the hand unto the Lord, and subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, 〈◊〉 2 Chron. 30.8. he that is not willing to come and take of this water of life, his name shall • e blotted out of the book of life, &c. If he do not accept of, nor consent to the Covenant, •• at man though he live in the Church, he is in God's account as a Heathen, and a stranger 〈◊〉 the Covenant of Promise, as truly as they that live at the furthest ends of the earth, to • hom the offer of a second Covenant never came; and in some respects are worse than they; •• erefore we read that David calls the Ziphims, though they were the Inhabitants of Judah, •• rangers, and Saul's Courtiers, that were wicked men and persecutors of him, he called Heathens; and Saul himself he calls Cush, and that (as one well observes) not without some • llusion unto his fathers name, Cush an Ethiopian, Psal. 7.1. and it's said, Rev. 11.2, The • utward Court shall be trodden down of the Gentiles; which is meant of those that receive the • ark of the Beast, and bear his image: for Popery is nothing else but Paganism under a • orm of Christianity, and therefore such are Gentiles in God's account, and the Lord mea •• res all with one line; He will punish all them that are circumcised with the uncircumcised, • gypt and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon and Moab, and all that are in the •• ermost corners that dwell in the wilderness; for all these Nations are uncircumcised, and all 〈◊〉 house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart, &c.

The misery of not being translated into the second Covenant has been shown many ways; •• w we will speak a little to the sin of it, and that in these Particulars.

(1) Hereby thou endeavourest to make void the Covenant of Grace, and all those glory • us thoughts that God had towards sinners from everlasting as the highest way to glorify himself. He did therefore purpose it in himself, and from himself, that he will gloriefie himself this way by a second Covenant; and God delighted in it, and spent infinite thoughts about it; it's the pleasure of the Lord, and all this thou dost make void to thyself by continuing under thy former Covenant, and if thou accept not the Grace offered in the second. Now the Apostle speaks of it as a fearful evil to make void the Law, but how great is their • vil that do their utmost to make the Gospel void.

(2) Thou hereby at once frustrates the whole end of Christ's coming into the world, for • he came into the world as a second Adam with a Covenant, and an Image; and no man can partake of his Image unless he have an interest in his Covenant: for all the Promises of renewing the Image of God in man are not the promises of the first, but of the second Covenant; and it's he that is in Christ that is a new Creature, 2 Cor. 5.14. For he is given as a Covenant to the Nations. The Lord shall come speedily into his Temple, even the messenger of the Conant in whom ye delight. So that the great end of Christ's coming into the world is that he might bring in a second Covenant, by which God and man may be reconciled, sins pardoned, and the sinner saved: and whosoever is not translated into this Covenant, Christ is come and dead in vain as to him.

(3) Thou dost hereby reject and despise the greatest grace that ever was shown to the sons of men; for God to enter into a Covenant with man in his Creation was an act of mere Grace. God might have required obedience, and have promised no recompense; for all was by right of creation due from man to God; but God did not owe anything to man again, and yet this was but faedus amicitiae, a Covenant of Friendship: but when man had sinned and become faedifragus, a Covenant-breaker, now for God to try man again by a second Covenant, that it should be a Covenant with man as a sinner, is a far greater act of favor to be engaged to him, and that upon higher terms and better promises: it's the admiration of all the Angels in Heaven that God should so far honor a sinful creature as to take him into Covenant with himself.

(4) This is much heightened by this that the Angels that fell were as capable of mercy as we, and Christ and his Righteousness as proportionable a good for the Salvation of the Angels as he is for man, though they did sin ex destinata malitia, maliciously and without temptation: and so perire necesse est poenitere potentes: yet had the Lord set his thoughts of mercy upon them, and sent his Son with a Covenant to them. The same Omnipotency that overcomes the heart of a man could have also overcome the heart of a Devil; but he did catch at Mankind when he let the Angels go, and never made them the offer of a second Covenant; and this man's sin is beyond that of the Devils, in that he refuseth to come under this Covenant of Grace.

(5) Hereby thou takest the name of God in vain, and receivest no benefit by all his Ordinances and Promises, and motions of the Spirit that thou enjoyest.

[1] All his Ordinances: for to what end is the Ministry of the Gospel set up and appointed by God, but only in the first place to bring men into Covenant with God? God is in Christ reconciling the world; and how is that done? why, by making a covenant of peace, as this second covenant is called, Ezek. 37.26. And by persuading men and treating with them to bring them under the bonds of this covenant; for as the Apostle says, He has made us the ministers of reconciliation: and all the offers that we make unto you of Christ, it is but to persuade you to accept of him, as God has given him as a covenant to the Nations; and until you do accept of Christ in his covenant, and consent to that, you can have no other benefit by him, that will be effectual to the saving of your soul. And as for all other benefits of the Ministry without this, they will never answer the great end for which the Lord appointed it. It were but a low end in a Minister to propound no higher thing to himself than this, that he might inform the judgments of men, and draw them to some outward conformity, or civilize men, and to do some duties to satisfy their consciences; but our end should be, that which God did send us for, and to count that we have labored in vain, if we miss thereof, and that is to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God: to translate men out of the kingdom of darkness into the glorious kingdom of his dear Son: the greatest mercies of your lives be offers of Christ and his benefits, which are all grounded upon the covenant of Grace.

[2] All the Promises do belong unto the second covenant, and he has given us exceeding great and precious promises, whereby we are made partakers of the Divine nature. There are promises of pardon, and of grace, and holiness and happiness, promises of the life that now is, and that which is to come. There are conditional Promises, and there are absolute Promises: I will be thy God, I will give thee my Son, and my Spirit, I will take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. But the bottom of all these is the Covenant, and thereunto all the Promises of the Gospel are referred; and therefore he that has no interest in the Covenant, he in applying a promise takes the name of God in vain: for if you be Christ's you are Abraham's seed, and heirs also of the promise: If you are Christ's, and are in him, your Covenant is changed, you then come under Abraham's Covenant; for it is in respect of this Covenant only, that he is said, to be the father of us all; and if your Covenant be changed, you are heirs of the Promise: We as Isaac are children of the promise, &c. And till a man's Covenant be changed, there is not a promise in the Book of God that belongs unto him; and whensoever he does apply them unto himself, he doth wrest the Scripture, and he takes the name of God in vain, &c.

[3] As for the Sacraments, whosoever has not his Covenant changed, they can do him no good, for they are all of them added unto the Covenant of Grace as signs and seals thereof. In the ordinance of Baptism there must be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an answer, 1 Pet. 3.21. which I take to be an allusion to the ancient manner of John the Baptist, Luk. 3.10. the people asked him, and what shall we do? thereby implying a willingness to engage themselves unto those practices of repentance, and those duties of reformation unto which John did baptize them; whence arose that ancient form in the Church in baptizing persons by propounding unto them Questions, concerning Faith, Repentance, renouncing the World, the Flesh and the Devil, and their solemn engagement and stipulation thereunto: which if it were in truth and from a good conscience the person was truly baptized in the sight of God, or else he was only baptized with water, and no more. So what was circumcision but a sign and a seal of the Covenant, which if it did reach unto the heart it was circumcision; else their circumcision became uncircumcision, for the men were not in Covenant with God, therefore Jer. 9.25, I will punish all them that are circumcised, &c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or, Omnes circumcises in praeputio, so it is in the Original, and so Montanus and others do render it, all that are circumcised in uncircumcision. Now it is by the Learned observed, that the Nations there named did thus circumcise, but being a people out of covenant with God it was no circumcision unto them; and though they were circumcised, yet they were in uncircumcision still: and so the Jews, they were circumcised, and in an outward Covenant, but yet their hearts did not consent; and therefore though they were circumcised in flesh, yet they were not circumcised in heart. So for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, it is the New Testament in the Blood of Christ, and this blood is the blood of the Covenant; and therefore if thou be a man out of the Covenant thou hast no right to it, it can do thee no good, but hurt all thy days. As Cyprian de Lapsis hath a story of one, that when the people of God were receiving the Sacrament, came secretly in amongst them to receive it also, Ausus est latenter accipere, he durst take it secretly; and having taken the bread in his hand, Cinerem se ferre apertis manibus invenit, opening his hand he found it turned into ashes: and so Gratia salutaris in cinerem, imo in venenum, fugiente sanctitate mutatur; the salutarie grace is turned into ashes, yea poison, &c. And therefore if such a man receive the Sacrament, he takes the name of God in vain; for in God's account he did never receive it, because it is a seal of the Covenant of Grace, and he remains still under the covenant of works.

[4] All the motions of the Spirit of God: as the giving of the Spirit doth belong to the second Covenant: This is the Covenant says the Lord, that I will make with them, my spirit that is upon them, &c. And it is the Gospel that is the ministration of the Spirit, for it is Christ the Prince of the Covenant that doth send the Spirit: and what is the end of the Spirits coming? it is only to advance the Covenant of Grace: He shall take of mine, says Christ, and show it unto you: that he may bring you into Union with Christ, and so into Covenant with God by him: and therefore it is the Spirit of the second Covenant, and the healing motions, and strivings, and impressions of the Spirit of God with man, are all to this end, to bring them within the bounds of the Covenant: and though they may receive many gifts, and common graces, and common works; yet the Spirit is grieved, resisted, and quenched, if this great work be not wrought, that the spirit may become a spirit of adoption; and all those glorious works of the Spirit as a witness, as a seal, and as an earnest, they do all come under the second Covenant, and belong to the spirit as the spirit of the Gospel.

[5] If thou be not translated into the Covenant of Grace, thou art left in a remediless condition: for thy first Covenant being broken does bring thee under a curse, and there is but one remedy against the sting of the Serpent, and that's the brazen Serpent: there's no avoiding the curse of the Covenant but by being translated out of it; and this translation thou wilt not accept of, therefore thou art in a helpless condition: for thy disease is mortal of itself, and thou wilt not accept of a remedy, and so thou art left to the punishment of the first Covenants curse, Joh. 3.33, He that believes not, the wrath of God abides upon him; not comes upon him only, but abides upon him. There is ira transiens, and ira permanens, transient wrath, and permanent wrath. All sin brings a man under wrath, but there is no sin leaves a man under wrath but unbelief, because a man will not accept of peace, and reconciliation that is made to him. And let me tell thee, O soul, whoever thou art in such a condition, thy misery will be so much the greater, that thou hast had a second Covenant offered, and yet despisest it, and in this Sodom and Gomorrah will come in against thee, and will condemn thee; for if they had had the offers that thou hast had, they would have accepted of them, yet thou hast rejected them: nay, the Devils themselves will be brought in against thee for thy condemnation; and in this as thy sin is greater, so will thy judgment be, for they never had an offer of any terms of peace made to them; they found themselves shut up under wrath without hope, but thou hast had offers and hopes all thy days; and this will be matter for that never-dying worm to feed upon at the last and great day, when the soul shall reflect seriously upon its by-past life: I neglected hopes and possibility, and it's now unrecoverable, though there was a time that the offers of mercy were made to me, and treaties of Grace made with me, by the common works of the Spirit of God, which I rejected; mercy was upon her knees to me, and I had as great possibility and probability to have found mercy as any other: there are some that lived under the same Ordinances and offers of Grace with me, and many of them had never the opportunities that I have had, and yet I see them sit down with Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of God, and I am left out. And this will be the great misery of many, I may say of most of the children of the Kingdom, they that live in the Church at the last and great day.

§. 3. We may hence see the happiness of all those that are in Christ, even in this, that their Covenant is changed, and it was unto David the ground of all his comfort, that God had made with him this Everlasting Covenant: and well it might be, for it was the foundation of all his happiness, and his salvation. But you will say, Wherein lies the glory of this condition of a souls being translated from their former root?

1. Being translated into this Covenant, God is reconciled to thee; for the Covenant of Grace is a Covenant of Peace and Reconciliation, so that the enmity between thee and God is taken up, and he looks upon thee as an enemy no more.

2. Being taken into Covenant with God again, there do many sweet relations grow out of the Covenant: for the Lord saith, I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and the Lord is not ashamed to be called their God: he is our father and husband, and our friend, we have as truly by Covenant an interest in all that is in God for our best good, as the Lord himself hath for his own glory; his power is made over to us as truly as if we had infinite power, and his mercy as if we had infinite mercy, and grace, and wisdom, &c.

3. Being once in Covenant, he becomes the son of God: a man's Covenant is a Covenant of Sonship, I will be their God and they shall be my sons and daughters, &c. 1 Joh. 3.1. Behold what manner of love the father hath shown unto us, that we should be called the sons of God: and if sons then heirs, in all the inheritance of Christ. Being sons of the free-woman, it is thereby that we become heirs of the Promise; the inheritance is not by the Law, but by the Gospel: if they that are of the Law be heirs, then Christ were dead in vain.

4. Hereby a man has a ground for his faith upon all occasions, and a bottom for his prayers: it is the Covenant that is unto faith the Magna Charta, where all the privileges and liberties of a Believer are found; and this Covenant is sure, God is a faithful God, a God that will not lie, that cannot deny himself, Jer. 31.18, Turn thou me and I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God. Lord, do not abhor us for thou art the Lord our God, Jer. 14.21. And the Psalmist hath respect unto this Covenant, For all the earth are full of the habitation of cruelty • . Isa. 64.9, Remember not our iniquities forever, behold we beseech thee we are all thy people. And take them in the worst terms, and when a man has even suffered shipwreck, yet the Covenant is tabula post naufragium, a plank after shipwreck, by which the soul is kept from sinking: see it in our Lord Christ himself in that hour of the power of darkness, My God, my God, &c. how did Christ call the Lord his God: for as Christ is God, so he has the same essence with the Father, and he thought it no robbery to be equal with Him; but as Mediator he is God the Fathers Servant, and so the Lord is his God by Covenant. Psal. 89.36, Christ says, Thou art my Father and my God. And Joh. 20.17. And he is no other way Christ's God and Father but by Covenant: for Christ took a new Covenant-right unto God as Mediator. And as we come under the Covenant, so doth the Lord in him become our God also, and we have a right unto him; and by looking unto God in Covenant, the spirit of a Christian is upheld in the greatest sense of wrath, when the Lord did bruise and grind him to powder, making his soul an offering for sin. A man out of this Covenant has no ground for his faith, nor bottom for any of his prayers.

5. It is a Covenant that can never be broken, an Everlasting Covenant, a Covenant of salt, a Covenant that has a surety. Christ says, If he fail in anything put it upon my account. And Isa. 56.7, I know I shall not be ashamed. One sin did break the first Covenant, and it being broken could never be made up: by one offense condemnation came upon all, but by the free gift righteousness comes upon all for many offenses to justification, because the righteousness of the Covenant is a perfect and an everlasting righteousness; and upon this is a godly man's comfort mainly grounded. David by his sin foresaw that he had undone his Family, the Lord threatened him by the Prophet, That the sword should never depart from his house; yet he comforts himself in this, that his Covenant remained sure. A godly man's comfort mainly comes in by his state, much more than by his actions, and he comforts himself in the one, when he abhors himself for the other: and though God will judge for both, yet he will judge of men's actions according to their states. Therefore whatever you do, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, which can never be without a Translation into the Covenant of Grace.

CHAP. VI. A Mans Translation out of the first Covenant, is by Union.

Gal. 3.29, And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

SECT. I. How our Translation is by Union, with the nature of this Union.

§. 1. HAving thus far opened the necessity of a Translation, the change of a man's Covenant as well as of his Image; we come now unto the Second Head propounded, and that is, Wherein this Translation doth consist? For which I have chosen this Text, Gal. 3.29, And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In the opening hereof, there are Three things that I must lay down as grounds; 1. That God will deal with all men, not only in a way of Dominion, but in a way of Stipulation. So that men in Covenant with God, are of two sorts, either regenerate, or unregenerate; Sons or Servants; Children of the bondwoman or of the free: and they that are unregenerate, • emain under the Covenant of Works; they that are regenerate, are under a Covenant of Grace. There is a twofold universal Covenant made with all mankind, which Divines do call faedus universal, one made with Adam before his fall, and with all man-kind. For the Curse of his Covenant transgressed coming upon all, does plainly prove, that the blessing of • he Covenant should have belonged unto all, if it had been observed; and the blessing and • urse of the Covenant does come primarily upon none, but those with whom the Covenant • as made. There is another universal Covenant made after the fall, made not only with • an, but with all flesh, even with every living creature that is upon the earth, o • Foul and • attel, and every Beast of the earth; and it contains in it two Branches. (1.) That all • sh shall be no more cut off by the waters, or a flood. (2.) That while the earth remains, S • ed-time and Harvest, Summer and Winter, Day and Night shall not cease; and this is an universal and an absolute Covenant▪ called the Covenant of the day and of the night; and used to express the stability of the Covenant of Grace, and the perpetuity thereof. Says the Lord, If you can break my Covenant of the day, &c. then may also my Covenant be broken with David my servant: So that all man-kind is in Covenant with God, and stands bound to him in a Covenant-way.

2. The two main Covenants, though the federates in them may be said to be all man-kind; yet they were not made with all men immediately, but in a public person, a representative head. There being two sorts of creatures that God will deal with in a Covenant-way, some that were created all at once, and did not proceed from one another, neither had dependence one upon another; and with them God made a personal and a particular Covenant, and that he did with every individual Angel; and therefore everyone stood for himself, and fell for himself: Thence some fell and others stood, they that consented to the Transgression, and abode not in the Truth, they left their first habitation. But there was a second sort of reasonable creatures, that were to come into the World successively, and to flow from one, as from a common root, all must come out of his loins; therefore all Nations are said to be made of one blood, for God loves variety, that he may show forth his manifold Wisdom: and therefore he made a Covenant with this head, this common root, in whom they all were, and in whom they must all stand or fall: And he will make him also to be, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the type of him that was to come, that he may suit all things one to another: For as his Wisdom is wonderfully seen in the order of his creatures, and the suiting of one thi • g to another, so it is wonderfully seen in his works of Grace also, in a special manner towards man; and therefore by his absolute Sovereignty, he calls things that are not as if they were; and things are so because he counteth them so, not because man counts them so. He has appointed a twofold common head of all man-kind: The first Covenant was made with the first Adam, and therefore by one man, and by one offense of that one man, Judgment came up on all unto condemnation, and so all mankind are under the Law, and under the Curse, Children of the bondwoman, even unregenerate men that live in the Church, that is, of the Covenant of Works, as broken, which only binds men over unto wrath, and wholly genders unto bondage: And the second Covenant, made with the second Adam, the Covenant that was made with Abraham, was confirmed by God in Christ, Gal. 3.17, which refers to Vers. 16, To Abraham and his seed was the Covenant made; he says, not seeds, as many, but one which is Christ. About which there is some controversy: some do understand it of Christ, in individuo, personally; some of Christ, in aggregato, or a Christ mystically; but in which sense soever, it is primarily in Christ, as the head and surety of the Covenant: So that neither of the Covenants are made with man immediately, as in himself, but in another.

3. It is a man's Union with either of these public persons, or representative heads, that doth bring a man under either Covenant. If a man be one with the first Adam, then he is under his Covenant; and if he be one with the second Adam, then he is under his Covenant. The ground of a man's Covenant, is his Union with him that is the head of his Covenant. This appears in both: Men come not under the Angels Covenant, because they are not one with them; the Lord Jesus Christ proceeding from Adam, not in a natural way, but voluntarily taking to himself the seed of Abraham, and being made flesh, therefore he does voluntarily and freely, not necessarily, come under Adam 's Covenant, he was made of a woman, made under the Law; and because he was not of necessity one with Adam, therefore he was not of necessity, but freely under his Covenant; but all mankind coming from Adam by a necessity of nature, because they are naturally and necessarily one with him, they are therefore necessarily under his Covenant. And therefore Divines do ask, how a man becomes a sinner, he cannot have sin in his soul, because it is created by God immediately pure and holy, and, creando infunditur, in the very act of creating it is infused; and sin being only the act of a reasonable creature, there cannot be sin in this body, before the soul is infused: Now if there be no sin in the Soul, then it cannot defile the body; and if there be no sin in the body, how can that infect the soul? Our Divines do answer, That the soul is created by God, pure, and has no spot in it, and the body cannot have sin in it actually, but, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , potentially; and the body cannot work upon the soul being a Spirit, to corrupt it, neither has the soul sin in it, nor the body. Zanchi saith, That the soul cannot be said to have sin, before united to the body, &c. And therefore he adds, Propter conjunctionem cum corpore anima inficitur, non tam action corporis in animam, quam Dei ordination, qui dixerat Adamo, die quo commederis morte morieris. The soul is infected by reason of its conjunction with the body, yet not so much by the action of the body on the soul, as by God's ordination, who said to Adam, in the day that thou sinnest, &c. So that when a man becomes a man, he becomes one with the first Adam, and by his Union comes under his Covenant, and then the transgression of Adam, and the curse of his Covenant, takes place upon him: And therefore the Apostle says, Rom. 5, In him all sinned, and by one judgment came upon all to condemnation. By one offense this Covenant was so broken, that it could never be made up again, but all men must perish under it; therefore they all stood under it, as they were in him, and as they were from him successively in their generations, and did receive their nature from him, so they were to be one with him; and being one with him, they come under his Covenant and his Curse. Chrysostom saith, That he falling, all men did partake of his fall. So for the second Adam, it is only union with him that brings us under his Covenant. 1 John 5.11, God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son; he that has the son has life: So that all the benefits of the Covenant are grounded upon our Union with him, who is the Prince of the Covenant, if you be Abraham's seed: How shall that be? By being Christ's; and then a man comes under Abraham's Covenant, and thereby is a Son of Abraham, and that is only by being in Christ. They that are born after the spirit, are Children of the freewoman, that is, they that believe and it is in him that all the promises are made unto us, in him all the promises of God are, Yea, and Amen; they have their truth and their certainty and stability in him, and we are made the righteousness of God in him, and we bear fruits in him; for every promise does carry back the Soul unto his Union with Christ, in the right whereof we do claim the promises which are made unto Christ in our behalf; and unto us only, so far as we are members of Christ, as we are in him: And from hence, the point that I shall gather, wherein this translation lies, is this:

Doct. In a man's Union with the second Adam, his translation out of the first Covenant does consist; it is by a man's Union that his Covenant is changed.

§. 2. In the opening of it, there are three things to be cleared, (1) To explain the nature of this Union. (2) How it comes to pass that this Union should be a man's Translation. (3) To show how a man being united unto Christ the prince of the Covenant differs from what he was before his being translated, and in what particulars this difference lies.

§. 1. For the nature of this Union, it is an Union with him as he is set forth by God public person, as a representative head, as a second Adam: Now as we were one with the first Adam, and therefore said to be in him, and to sin in him; so we must be one with the second Adam, and so are said to be in him also. Now in the first Adam we are naturally, as we partake of his Spirit, every man by nature receiving the spirit of Adam, as well as the Image of Adam, and voluntarily every man by nature consenting to his Covenant, and desiring still to be under it, Gal. 4. And as Jesus Christ is become one with us, so must we also become one with him: Now he is become one with us, naturally taking our flesh, and voluntarily, as entering into our Covenant; so we must become one with Christ, naturally, by receiving his spirit; and voluntarily, by consenting unto his Covenant: And these two are the branches of our Union, without which it cannot be complete; and therefore our Union in Scripture, is set forth by similitudes that express both parts, naturally between the head and the body, we are the members of Christ, and he the head; between the branch and the root, he the root, and we the branches; between the meat, and the body that is nourished by it, when turned into juice and blood, &c. And also voluntarily, between the Husband and the Wife, they two making up one flesh, Ephes. 5.3, by mutual consent.

1. There is a natural Union between Christ and the Soul: As Christ taking our flesh, becomes one with us, so also we partaking of his Spirit, become one with him. As there are some that God has given unto Christ from eternity in his purpose and decree, so he has appointed a time when they shall be actually united, who though in the Purpose of God, and Transaction between the Father and his Son are given unto Christ, yet do for the present live without Christ in the World; but though Christ in the Purpose of God was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, yet in the fullness of time only he took our flesh; so though we were in the counsel of God given unto Christ before the world was, yet there is a fullness of time appointed by the Father, when he shall bestow upon us his spirit, so that the first part of our Union is, that we receive the Spirit of Christ; (for this Union begins on Christ's part) as he did unite himself unto us by taking our flesh, so he does unite us unto himself by imparting of his spirit, Phil. 3.12, That I may apprehend, as I am apprehended. Chrys. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. He took hold of our nature flying from him. So Oecumen. We were no more able to lay hold upon Christ, than to lay hold on the Sun in the Firmament. This • ending of his spirit makes us become one body with him, as the head and the feet make up • ne body, because they are acted by the same soul: Because you are Sons, he has sent forth • e spirit of his son into your hearts. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his • e spiritual body, so Pareus; or mystical; or in respect of the Copula, as Beza; as he that 〈◊〉 joined to a Harlot is one flesh with her, his bond is carnal, so he that is joined to the • ord is one spirit; and so a man becomes the Temple of the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit of Christ dwells in a man, and takes up his habitation there forever, never to forsake that man • fterward. There is the inhabitation and the operation of the spirit, the Holy Ghost dwells • here and works there forever; and so Christ and he having one spirit, they are become one body.

Hence we see (1) this Union is real, and not imaginary; though Christ be in Heaven, and we upon th • Earth, yet the bond is real, the same spirit in both, as many members of one body acted by the same Soul; and so though many members be scattered all the World over, yet they make up one body; for it is a spiritual body, and a mysterious Union, for • he same spirit unites the members to the head, and one to another; for they all partake of • he same spirit.

(2.) It is a natural, and not merely a voluntary Union; and therefore there are many simi • itudes: some express it by a voluntary, and some by a natural Union; as the members, • hough they be naturally one, and acted by the same spirit, yet they are of different forms; • o it is here, Christ and the Soul are not only one by consent, but they are naturally one, &c.

(3.) The Union is not with the Gifts and Graces, and Benefits of Christ, though indeed the Communion we have is with these, but the Union is with his person: for Isa. 9.6, To us a son is given: John 1.14, The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And Psal. 45.10, 11, Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear, forget also thine own people and thy fathers house, so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him: And of Christ as man, Ephes. 5.30, For we are members of his body, and of his flesh, and of his bones. And 1 Cor. 6.15, Know you not that your bodies are members of Christ? There is also a voluntary Union between Christ and the Soul, and so Cyprian does express it, Nec miscet personas, nec unit substantias; sed affectus consociat, & confaederat voluntates, and that is, Ephes. 3.17, That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith.

Christ then having thus propounded himself unto a man in the Gospel, and a man beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord, seeing the excellency of his Person, and the all-sufficiency of his Goodness, with a secret hint, that all this may become ours, if we accept it, the spirit being in the heart of a man, as the spirit of Faith, does by an Almighty power overcome the Soul to consent and accept of Christ, according to the terms and offers of the Gospel; so that Christ dwells in a man by his spirit, and this spirit being a spirit of faith, does work a free consent, that Christ should be to him as his Head and Husband forever, and this consent of the Soul unto Christ does complete this Union.

So that if the Question be, Is a man in Christ before he does believe? The answer is, His Union with Christ is before he doth believe; and the Soul is as merely passive in union as in conversion: Christ must unite himself unto us, before we can unite ourselves unto him; but the consummation of this Union, is when we consent unto Christ to take him for our own, (as the Wife does her Husband in marriage, &c. ) This receiving Act we have set forth, John 1.12, and Isa. 1.19. 2 Cor. 11.2.

(1.) It is the Person of Christ that is the primary object of Faith, and not his Benefits. The first promise to our first Parents was of his Person, and not of his Benefits, Gal. 3.16, To Abraham and his seed were the promises made, &c. All the Gifts of Christ are given as a dowry to the Soul that is married to Christ. He that hath the son hath life, and he that hath not the son hath not life.

(2.) There can be no Grace that can be the bond of Union with Christ, but Faith. God offers his Son, and that Grace that accepts of the offer, that makes the Union, is Faith: And no grace doth accept of the offer, but that which caries with it the consent of the whole Soul, ex nolentibus volentes facit, it makes men that are unwilling, willing. If a Woman love a Man never so dearly, yet if she care not to make him her Husband, they become not one flesh: Love is indeed, affectus unionis, an affection of union, and there is a moral union, or a union of friendship, but a mystical union there is not, yea, cannot be by Love.

(3.) All other graces are acted by Faith, they are the handmaids thereof. Faith works by love, and therefore this is the grace that has to do with Christ immediately; Faith is the eyes of the Soul, that looks upon Christ in his Glory, and 'tis the mouth of the Soul that feeds upon Christ; there the nourishment is prepared for the body, and there is a distributive Power in Faith, that gives every grace its portion. For this grace of Faith is the steward of the new man; and according to a man's faith, so it is with every grace; and herein lies the excellency of Faith above all graces, not as it is a quality, but as an instrument, as appointed by Christ to be that grace of Union between Christ and us. And hence it is, that being the instrument of Union, it is that by which the grace of the Covenant is conveyed to us; as the action or motion of the mouth in speaking and eating, is not one better than another of itself: but as the one is the means of conveying nourishment unto the whole body, so the motion of the hand in working, is as excellent as that of receiving; but it is not so in respect of the instrumental nature of it, but only as it receives what is for the good and support of the man: So here, other graces in themselves are as excellent as Faith, but as God hath honored Faith to have the immediate intercourse with Christ, so as it is an instrument, it is more excellent than all other graces; as that which goes immediately to Christ, draws virtue from him, and supplies all other graces in the new man.

SECT. II. Why God hath appointed Union to be the way of our Translation.

Q. 2. WHY hath God appointed our Translation or change of Covenant to be in a way of Union? The grounds are these.

[Reas. 1] §. 1. Because God will have Christ to be the second Adam, a public person, as the first Adam was; for God intending that the generations of men should exist successively, and yet proceed all from one root, and not be created all at once, as the Angels were, he made a Covenant with this first man, that was to be the common root, out of which all the rest should grow, for all his posterity that were to proceed from him. (1) How else could the corruption and depravation of the nature that he should convey to them become their sin? It's true, the Socinians and some of the Arminians deny the first sins being by Adam upon all his posterity naturally, and unavoidably propagated, saying, that it is not to be esteemed their sin at all, but only to Adam a punishment of sin, and unto them the condition of their present nature; and so they say, peccatum Adami sine reatu in prolem transiit propter conditionem naturae ejusdem quam ex Adamo peccatores trahunt, that the sin of Adam doth without any guilt pass unto his posterity, by reason of the condition of the same nature, which sinners derive from Adam. But that it is the condition of nature, the punishment of sin, and also a sin in itself, all our Divines do affirm and approve: For (1) where there is a Transgression of the Law, there is sin; but even in the corruption of nature there is an opposition to God and his Law in all things, therefore there is sin; for the Law requires a holy nature, as well as a holy Life, that we should Love the Lord our God with all our heart, not only with all the strength we have, but with all the strength that God did give man in his creation. (2) That which conforms a man to the Devil in contrariety to God, that is sin: he that committeth sin, is of the Devil. Now this can become our sin no otherwise than as Adam was a public person, and stood by a Covenant for himself and his posterity, and was by that Covenant to convey the same nature, and having transgressed his will, being wicked, it is a guilty, cursed, and forsaken nature, that is conveyed unto all mankind from him, they all sinning in him; else corruption of nature might be their punishment, but their sin it could never be.

(2.) All Adams posterity comes under the Curse, even they that never sinned themselves • ctually, and knowingly, as Adam did, after the similitude of Adams transgression, even Children of a span-long: Now the Curse is a Curse of the Covenant, Death is a part of Ju • tice, and that must suppose sin upon the person upon whom it is inflicted, and no man can • ome under the curse of the Covenant, who is not himself under the Covenant. Now • ad Adam stood, Life should have been conveyed unto them, and holiness; but he falling, • in and death takes hold of them; and the Scripture doth speak not only of death entering • pon all, but sin upon all, and guilt, Rom. 5.12, 17, By one man sin entered into the world, • nd death by sin; poena mediante reatu.

Thus if God will deal with a man in a Covenant-way, it was necessary if they grow out • f one common root, that a Covenant be made with the first man, for all his posterity, and 〈◊〉 by Union they become guilty of this sin, and come under the curse of the Covenant: Now the Lord will have the grace and righteousness of the second Covenant conveyed the • ame way, by a second Adam a public person, that should stand in the stead of all his po • terity, and become an everlasting Father; and he will have Adam in all this, to become • he type of him that was to come. Rom. 5.14, That as by one man sin entered into the world, • nd death by sin; so by one man righteousness and life might enter, by one Christ Jesus.

[Reas. 2] §. 2. Herein our happiness lies under the second Covenant, that it is not made with us im • ediately, but made with him who is the common head the second Adam; and with us in •• e second place, as we are one with him, and no otherwise. (1) Herein consists the chief •• nour and glory of this Covenant beyond the first, because it is made with a more glory •• head; and therefore, though the first Covenant had much glory in it, yet the second •• h far exceed in glory; for the first man was but of the earth earthly, and the second 〈◊〉 was the Lord from Heaven heavenly.

(2.) And hence it is that the Covenant is sure, and everlasting, and an unchangeable Covenant, because made with an unchangeable head, and grounded upon an everlasting righteousness: and therefore, Rom. 4, it is of Faith that it might be sure, because that makes us one with him with whom the Covenant is established, and in whom all the promi • es of it are, yea, and Amen. So that it being made with him, and he being the surety of it, • nd we one with him, it can never fail.

(3.) Hence it is also an Ordered Covenant, and therein David takes a great deal of come • ort, that the mercies of it were the sure mercies of David: How? Because his Covenant was ordered in all things, and sure. That as the first Adam in the Covenant of works entered • nto a Covenant in an order not only for himself, but for all his posterity also; but so, as he himself was primus faederatus, and all mankind in him: So is Jesus Christ also, and the Covenant made first with him, and then with all his posterity in him; so that it is in the mercies of the Covenant, as it is said of the resurrection of the dead, all shall rise, but every man in his own order; first Christ, then they that are Christ's at his coming, &c. So it is here, all the people of God are in Covenant with him, and they are all his Covenant people; for all that are in Christ, are Abraham's seed; but yet every man in his own order; first Christ, and then they that are in Christ, by reason of their Union; and no small part of our happiness and comfort comes in this way, from the order of the Covenant, as will appear afterward, if ever we come to handle this property of the Covenant of Grace.

[Reas. 3] §. 3. Supposing man to be a sinner, God cannot enter into Covenant with him immediately anymore, unless we do suppose that the Lord should forfeit the truth of his threatening, and so deny himself; for he said, Gen. 2.17, The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die. Now while this stands in force against a man, God cannot deal with him in any way, but to destroy him; therefore if he will bring in a second Covenant, that must be a Covenant of mercy and reconciliation, and in that there must be satisfaction to God, as well as sanctification of man; the sin must be sent to Hell, as well as the sinner to Heaven: Now this satisfaction, man of himself can never give; it cost more to redeem his Soul, than if he had offered thousands of Rams, and ten thousands of Rivers of Oil, or his first-born for his transgression, and the fruit of his Body for the sin of his Soul, as Mich. 6.6, 7. But we cannot be redeemed by corruptible things; and therefore if God will have satisfaction answerable unto the wrong the creature has done him, it cannot be had from any creature; wherefore he finds out one that is able to bear it, one that is mighty, the man of his righthand, that he should be made sin and become a curse: And how doth the satisfaction that Christ gives to the Lord become ours? It can be no other way but by Union, and this union must be (1) Natural, he must take upon him our nature; for our debt was a debt of body and soul, to be offered as a sacrifice unto the wrath of God: And therefore it is said, Heb. 2.1, He that sanctifies, and they that are sanctified are both of one. He must take our nature, and in that nature suffer, as being one with us; for without shedding of blood there is no remission. (2) Voluntary and by consent, he becoming our surety, and so under our Covenant, putting his name into our bond, Gal. 4.4, and voluntary on our part, accepting of him as our surety, and consenting to his Covenant, and the terms of the agreement; and the consent of the Judge to whom the debt was due, and against whom the offense was committed. Sin must be condemned by the ordination of the Judge, and the Surety must accept and submit to what was required of him in order to a satisfaction; and the consent and approbation of the delinquent also; and by this is the Union made up, and all that Christ hath done becomes ours. And thus as man is a sinner, God cannot enter into Covenant with him immediately; but it must be a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator, which can be no otherwise, but as we are one with him, and consent to the terms of the same Covenant: and these are the grounds, why the way of Translation must be a way of Union.

SECT. III. What the difference in a man's state before and after his Translation is?

Q. 3. WHat is the difference in a man's state, before and after his translation? How is a a man's condition changed from what it was before?

1. His state is changed in God's account, and the Lord looks upon him no more as the Son of Adam, and as growing upon the old root; though God has in his eternal Purpose chosen his elect in Christ, and given them to him before the world began, yet they are not actually in him, (according to the rules of the word) till they be converted, and engrafted into him; and therefore they, as well as others, are dead in trespasses and sins, and are without God and without Christ in the World: But being once converted, Abraham is their Father, and Sarah is their Mother, and they are Children of the bondwoman no more.

2. Being in Christ, and their Covenant changed, they are under the Law and the rigor of it no more: For that requires perfect holiness to justification, and life in a man's own person. The righteousness that is of the Law saith, This do, and thou shalt live: And therefore it's said, By the offense of one man, death reigned, and not only so, but it's also, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , by one offense: But now faith is imputed unto a man for righteousness, not of him that works, but of him that believes in him that justifies the ungodly.

3. Before he was under the Curse of the Law, and the condemnation of it: For the Law says, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in the book. But now, Rom. 8.1, There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ, there is a Supersedeas for the Curse, Gal. 3.13, He has delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

4. Before he had right to no promise, to no blessing by promise; but now he is become an heir of Promise, Gal. 4.28, We, as Isaac, are children of the promise, &c. There is a double right unto blessings, there is a right of providence, and of promise, a jus politicum, & a jus evangelicum, a public and evangelick right. An unregenerate man may have a right of Providence to Blessings, but it is only a man in Christ that has a right of Promise; and though he possesseth nothing, yet he has a jus haereditarum, an hereditary right, hereditary to all things: All things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's, 1 Cor. 3.22.

5. A man's covenant being changed, God is reconciled; for the Covenant is a Covenant of reconciliation; so that the Lord does look on him as an enemy no more. A man stands in no relation unto God before his Covenant is changed, but as he is God's creature; but when there is a translation out of the first Covenant into the second, a man is said to be in God, and to dwell in God, and God in him. God is now Christ's Father, and our Father, his God and our God; whereas before they were enemies to God, and God to them.

6. A man's Covenant being changed, his sufferings and services are accepted as being Christ's, for Joh. 15.5. it is fruit in him, and born by virtue of Union with him, that only is accepted of God. Gal. 2.20, says Paul, Nevertheless not I, but Christ liveth in me. Our sins indeed are our own, but all our duties are his, because they are done by virtue of Union with him, and all that is done by us is tendered unto God as his, Rev. 8.3. And as his passive obedience after a sort is said not to be full, till all the obedience of the Saints is filled up, Col. 1.24. so it may be said of his active obedience also; and all our sufferings are Christ's, Gal. 6.7. Heb. 13.13.

7. All things work together for good unto him whose Covenant is changed, Rom. 8.28. Whereas to a man under the first Covenant, God does watch over him for evil, and everything proves but an execution of the curse of his Covenant; his blessings become curses, according to the threatening, I will curse your blessings; his Table is made a snare, and the Ordinances of God are cursed to him, and he is cursed in everything that he puts his hand • nto: but to a man in Christ not only all the blessings, but even what is in itself a curse is • lessed to him, death is yours as well as life.

8. Sin has no condemning power in a man in Christ: though it's true, sin remains in him, • hich is in its own nature damnable, that is, it does deserve damnation; yet it can never infer •• mnation, it can never bring it upon a man, because he that is in Christ is passed from death 〈◊〉 life.

9. A man is brought into a state of communion with God, (for all communion is groun • ed on union.) There can be no communion with God, till a man receives the Spirit of God; for regenerate and unregenerate men are of another Generation, and there is no more a principle of fellowship with God in a man before conversion, than there is in a beast to have •• llowship with a man: natural parts and natural conscience cannot do it, if we believe we •• ve fellowship with the father, and not else.

10. A man then becomes one with all the Saints, and of the same body with them, Ephes. • .10. There is a gathering together under one head, and being a member of the Church of • he first-born, whose names are written in Heaven; for from the head all the members are • tly formed and bound up in the bundle of the living.

SECT. IV. The APPLICATION.

[Use 1] 1. IF the way of Translation be by Union, then labor for Union with Christ, and be not satisfied with anything else. Truly the state of Grace does not lie in the change of a man's opinion, or the change of his actions simply, but in the change of a man's Covenant, and his Image, and the foundation of both are laid in a man's union; this was the Apostles great aim to be found in him. For as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, neither can you except you abide in me, for without me (or separated from me) • ou can do nothing. And without this all a man's Religion is worth nothing before God. Here I will show what is the ordinary and usual way of Union, and what a man must or • an do towards his own Union? I will not now enter upon the grand controversy about • ur preparatory works unto Faith and Union, which is insisted upon from that Scripture, Making ready a people prepared for the Lord. This Union is wrought by the Spirit of the • ord Jesus, by cutting off the soul from his old root; for there is at least in order of nature a cutting off before a grafting in, Rom. 11.24, We as living stones are built upon him a spiritual house, a holy temple. Therefore Isa. 28.16, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, &c. A foundation, that is, a sure • nd a firm foundation; for the repetition does signify excellency, and certainty, Isa. 26.3, He shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.

A Discourse of the Two Covenants

SECT. II. Whence it is that the Law exasperates and increases Sin.

CHAP. IV. The Rigor and Coactive power of the Law.

SECT. I. Wherein the Coactive power of the Law consists.

SECT. II. Whence the Law hath this Coactive power.

SECT. III. The APPLICATION.

CHAP. V. All those that are in Christ are translated from under the first Covenant.

SECT. I. A Scriptural account of this Translation.

SECT. II. The necessity of a Translation from the first Covenant.

SECT. III. The APPLICATION.

CHAP. VI. A Mans Translation out of the first Covenant, is by Union.

SECT. I. How our Translation is by Union, with the nature of this Union.

SECT. II. Why God hath appointed Union to be the way of our Translation.

SECT. III. What the difference in a man's state before and after his Translation is?

SECT. IV. The APPLICATION.