A Discourse of the Two Covenants

SECT. I. What Promises are: why and how the Covenant of Grace doth consist of Promises, and of what.

HAving spoken thus far of two general heads, (1) the Person that made the Covenant, and had the first great hand in it, and that was God, and therefore it's called God's Covenant, and not man's, I will establish my Covenant between me and thee, (2) the persons with whom this Covenant is made, and that in a threefold subordination; [1] with Christ as Mediator, as a public person, as the second Adam, [2] with Believers in him, [3] in them with all their seed: Let us now come to look into the nature of this Covenant more particularly, and examine the essentials thereof. There are three things that are ordinarily distinguished by Divines, a Law, a Testament, and a Covenant; A Law depends upon the absolute Sovereignty of the Law-giver, and requires subjection, whether the persons commanded consent to it or no; and so all the Laws of God do depend upon the absolute Sovereignty of God, as he is a Law-giver, able to save and to destroy: A Testament is grounded only upon the Will of the Testator, bequeathing of such Legacies freely without requiring the consent of the party to whom they are bequeathed; but a Covenant differs from them both, in this, that it requires the consent and agreement of both parties, and therein each party binds himself freely to the performance of several conditions each to other. Cocceius doth ground it upon that place Heb. 8.6. A Covenant established upon better promises, and he defines it thus; It is a Law that God establishes upon Promises: and therefore implies two things, something on God's part, which is the promise, and something on man's part, which is the duty, and unto both these consent of parties is required; God's consent unto the promise, and man's consent unto the service; and therefore by a Synecdoche the name Covenant is applied unto both parts of these, and both of them are called the Covenant. (1) The Covenant is sometimes put for the Promise of God, which is the Covenant on God's part: Behold I will make a Covenant before all thy people, I will do marvels: the meaning is no more but voluntaria promissione me obstringo, &c. I bind myself by a voluntary promise. This is my covenant with thee, says the Lord, My Spirit that is put upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, &c. Numb. 18.19. All the heave-offering of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given thee and thy sons by a statute forever, it it a covenant of salt forever, before the Lord. It is spoken only of the free promise of God made unto Aaron and his sons in reference unto the Prieshood. (2) The Covenant is sometimes put for the command of God, in which he doth require a duty from man. Moses was with the Lord in the Mount forty days and nights, and he writ upon the Tables the words of the Covenant, the ten Commandments; and it's common in Scripture-acceptation, to put the command of God and the duty of man under the name of the Covenant of God. So that there are in the essentials of the Covenant two things, (1) there is the promise on God's part, which is God's part of the Covenant, (2) there is the duty on man's part in reference unto the command of God, there is mercy and duty, and mutual consent of both.

We shall begin with the Convenant on God's part, that we may see what of his free grace he doth oblige and bind himself unto; though it's true, he is debtor to none, any further than his own free grace makes him so. Now God's part of the Covenant consists in promises and rewards, and man's part of the Covenant consists in services; and in these two are the essentials of the covenant, and these will be our three general heads to be spoken to.

First, God's part of the covenant doth consist in promises; such is the covenant that he made with Abraham, wherein he does promise to be a God unto him, and to his seed after him; and this will appear in four things. (1) Because in Scripture we find the covenant and the promises to be put for one and the same thing: Gal. 3.16. To Abraham and his seed were the promises made; and this I say, that the covenant confirmed before of God in Christ, the law that was four hundred and thirty years after could not disannul, or make the promise of none effect. And hence it is called the covenant of promise, Eph. 2.12. which though some of our Divines do put, and may be not unfitly, as a distinction of the covenant of Grace, into two branches, the covenant of promise, and the new covenant, taking this for the covenant made with the Fathers before the exhibiting of Christ in the flesh, who did only see the promises afar off, and saluted them, Heb. 11.13. and therefore they are called the children of the covenant and of the promise; yet the truth is, so long as there is any one part of it unaccomplished, so far it will be the covenant of promise, and consist in promises still, till God's people do come to Heaven, and receive the happiness and the inheritance of the covenant, which the Lord has now promised to the Saints. (2) A people taken into covenant with God are said to be intitled unto the promises, which before they were strangers unto, and could claim no interest in; when God took the people of Israel into covenant with himself, and they became unto him a peculiar people and treasure of all the people of the earth, then unto them did belong 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the worship of God and the promises, which all the other Nations of the Earth could lay no claim unto; and upon this ground all those that are confederates with God, and taken into covenant, they are called the coheirs of promise, because they have a title unto all those great things which God in covenant has engaged himself to bestow. (3) When the Lord doth perform any promise, he is then said to keep his covenant, and to remember his covenant, to perform his mercy promised unto our Forefathers; when he did fulfil his promises he remembered for them his covenant: so that as when they do transgress his command, that being part of his covenant, they are said to break covenant with God; so when the Lord does not perform his promise, he is said to break the covenant, and to make it void. (4) The end of the covenant is but to inherit the promises, all the Saints are said to be the Sons of Abraham, because they are taken into the same covenant with him, with whom God did eminently make the covenant; and for this cause the children of the same covenant are called the Sons of Abraham; and Heaven, being the same inheritance that Abraham had as the end of his covenant, and the same that all the Saints enter into, it's therefore called in respect of them, Abraham's bosom, they sit down with Abraham in the kingdom of God, that is, having the same reward of their covenant that Abraham had; and that's nothing but the promised inheritance, they do inherit the promises: so that all the glory that the people of God have in Heaven, it's nothing else but the accomplishment of promises, it's both a purchased and a promised possession: it is true, that one ingredient of the covenant is Law, but that belongs unto the covenant as it contains the rules of our services, and the covenant on our part, and not to the covenant on God's part; for to make a Covenant is simply an act of Grace, whereas to give a Law is simply an act of Sovereignty and absolute Dominion.

Here my purpose is not to handle the Doctrine of the promises in the extent or full latitude thereof, but only speak of it as it refers mainly unto the point in hand; First we will consider what a promise is, It is the declaration of the eternal purpose of God concerning good things to come, which he doth engage his faithfulness freely through Christ, to bestow upon his people.

1. I say it's a declaration of God's eternal purpose: the purposes of God are secret, and hid in his own breast only, these are Mysteries hid in God, that is, while it remains only in his own purpose, and is not discovered unto the creature; and this purpose of his, as it is the ground, so it's the rule of all the good that he intends to do unto his Saints; he doth call them according to his own purpose and grace, 2 Tim. 1.9. It's true, we read of a promise made before the world began, Titus 1.2. but it was in respect of the covenant that passed between the Father and the Son, and could not be formally made unto the Saints, but is secret in his own thoughts and purposes; and these thoughts of God to us-ward, as they are innumerable, so they were exceeding delightful to the Lord Jesus Christ, Psal. 40.5. How wonderful are thy works, and thy thoughts to us-ward, &c. but the breaking forth of this purpose of God is seen in his promises. There is a double consideration of the will of God, (1) voluntas propositi, his will of purpose, (2) praecepti, of precept: there is the will of God that he would have us do, and the manifestation thereof is his precept; and there is the will of God which he himself will do, and that is expressed in Prophecies that he will accomplish, and Promises that he will fulfil. And there is a great deal of difference between this his revealed will, and his secret will; for the whole will of his precepts is revealed, and therefore the Apostle says he has declared the whole counsel of God, Act. 20.27. and there is enough to make the man of God perfect, perfectly instructed to every good work; and much of the will of his purpose what he will accomplish is revealed also; though much of it be secret in the breast of God, yet all the Prophecies he will accomplish, and all the promises he will assuredly fulfil: as he has declared his whole will concerning man's duty, what he should do, so he has also declared his whole will concerning all the good he doth purpose to do for men; and this declaration of the will and the mind of God is called the promise of God.

2. Promises are of good things to come: threatenings and promises are both conversant about things to come, but threatenings are about evil things to come: Noah being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, &c. And promises are of good things to come: Josh. 23.14. You know in all your hearts, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you, &c. As when the Lord doth perform any word of his, it's said, he doth cause it to arise, he has confirmed his word, excitavit or surgere fecit, Calvin; he has caused his word to arise: so when it is not performed, it is truly said to fall. David says, Thou hast spoken of my house a great while to come. All the great promises that God made to David are of things to come, and therefore David says, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. As it was the happiness of the people of Israel, that they had in the Wilderness a Rock that followed them, not only for a present supply, but for a future provision; so are the promises also unto the Saints in mercy received, they have the glory of the Lord going before them, and his promises to follow them; they have the glory to be their rearward; they are compassed about with mercy on every side; they have goodness that goes before them in performance, and mercy that follows them in promises, as the rearward; that as a wicked man • gh there be evils tnreatned fall upon him here, yet they are but the first-fruits, 〈◊〉 • cium Divini judicii, the prejudgment of Divine Judgment, but the main of the evil thin • • e threatening is to come; so though godly men have much good that they receive a • • sent, yet the main of it in the promise is yet to come.

3. Unto the performance of these, though they be made freely, yet the Lord does engage his faithfulness by virtue of the Covenant. If we look upon the promises in fieri, in making, so we must look upon his free grace only; but if we look on them in facto esse, as made, so we must have an eye unto his faithfulness; his love and mercy is the only reason of making promises, but his faithfulness and truth is the ground of keeping and performing promises: as it's spoken of his promise made to David and his house, for thy words sake according to thy own heart hast thou done these great things, that is, of thy own free grace and unexpected Love; because thou wouldst have mercy: and yet it is Mercy to Abraham, but it is Truth to Jacob, &c. and therefore Austin calls the promise Chirographum Dei, God's Bond; it is the bond or hand-writing that God has given the creature to assure him of Heaven; so that as the Apostle calls the Law Chirographum contra nos, a bond against us, so are the promises the bond that is for us, because they do speak God to be with us.

4. All this is through Christ, both making and performing, 2 Cor. 1.20. so it is in him that the promises are Yea and Amen: as all the precepts of the Law, though given to us, yet they are principally required of Christ as our surety, and the transgressions of them are laid upon him; so all the promises of the Gospel, though they be made unto the Saints, yet they be primarily made unto Christ as our head, and representative; for as we have heard, he is the seed with whom the covenant is made, and he is given unto us as a covenant: so he is primarily the Heir of promise: and as in respect of possession, we enter into his inheritance called our masters joy, so in respect of the promise and reversion, we come under his covenant, and so partake of his inheritance, and have no further any promise made to us, than as we are one with Christ, and no promise is performed to us but by virtue of union with him; and therefore it's Christus in aggregato, Christ mystical, that is the proper subject of all the promises; and their accomplishment is to himself, as the head, and to the Saints, as the body.

§. 2. Why doth God's part of the Covenant in this life mainly consist in promises? It's true that these promises shall end in performances, and Heaven is the accomplishment of all the promises; it is a promised, as well as a purchased possession, when the Saints are all gathered home, all the promises shall be at an end; and therefore in that respect faith shall cease; for the object of it shall be taken away, and therefore the acts of it must needs come to an end: though it's true, that the habit of faith, as well as all other graces, being a part of the image of God, and the new creation of Christ, is of an eternal nature; but yet the Lord does mainly dwell with his people in a way of promise, and the covenant on his part doth run in promises.

1. The life that the Saints live in this world, must be a life of faith, and not by sight; there is another life (though we live by faith and not by sight here) that in glory is reserved for us, and another manner of living, and the main objects of faith are the promises, Rom. 4.19, 21. He staggered not through unbelief. He did not reason pro and con about it, because faithful is he that has promised, and he will also do it, he is able to perform. It's true, there is a faith that rests upon the whole Word of God as true and good, and so the soul receives it; but yet the object of faith by which the soul rests on God is mainly the promise: so that as obedience is the Law written in the heart, so also the object of faith is the promise written in the heart: the Lord lets in the promise, and the soul rests thereupon; and if the Lord had not dealt so in a way of promises, our life could never have been a life of faith.

2. They are the great grounds of our hope, and thereby the Lord will sweeten our obedience: he doth not give forth a bare command as an act of Sovereignty, but he adds thereunto a promise as an act of Grace; Heb. 6.18. The Lord willing to show the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that we might have strong consolation, who are fled for refuge to the hope set before them, which hope we have as an anchor to the soul. And the Anchor is cast under water, and takes hold of something that is not seen as yet; for if I see it, why do I yet hope for it? Now though it's true, a godly man should not yield obedience merely for reward, yet a man may have respect to the recompense of reward; and though it is true that this should not be the great thing that should launch them forth in duties of holiness, yet this is a good wind to fill the sails, the Lord letting him see, that there is an inseparable communion of God's glory and our good also, duty and mercy 〈◊〉 hand in hand; and that the Lord requires no duty, but it is for our good always, t • he may perform unto us the promise that is annexed thereunto. There is an amor merc • 〈◊〉 love of reward that is not mercenary; Christ had the joy set before him, that did sweet 〈◊〉 sufferings, he had a glory and a posterity promised him; and Moses had respect also to the recompense of the reward. And the Apostle saith, 2 Cor. 4.18. While we look at the things that are not seen, that is the scope and the main aim of the soul in all our obedience, active or passive, and by this the Lord doth delight to sweeten our way.

3. The promises are the great means of the souls purification, 2 Cor. 7.1. Let us purge ourselves having these promises, and perfect holiness. And by these great and precious promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature. The promises are the Treasury of all that grace that God doth intend to bestow upon his people, and from thence do the Saints fetch it; for they are the wells of salvation, and it is by this that the soul is fitted for the performance: there is a being made meet, and 'tis the promise that made them so, as a man's beholding of God in himself doth transform him perfectly into the image of God, 2 Cor. 3.18. so beholding God in the promise does transform a man by degrees into the image of that holiness that is in the promise. A man looking upon himself sees his heart as a barren wilderness, as empty of grace as the first Chaos was of form and beauty: Now he says, what is impossible with man is possible with God, and the soul sucks a promise, and is thereby changed into the image thereof.

4. That they may be the rule of the prayers of the Saints; for his will must be the rule of our prayers, as well as of all other acts of our obedience, the precepts of the one, and the promises of the other: we must ask according to his will, if we hope to speed; and therefore our prayers should be nothing else but pressing God with his promises; and thereby we put his bonds in suit before the Throne of his own grace; so doth Jacob, Lord this is that which thou hast said, Return into thy own country, and I will do thee good: and so doth Nehemiah, This is that thou hast promised unto thy servant Moses. A soul that can bring unto God his own promise, and can plead it before God, has a certain argument, that it shall be fulfilled. It's the great ground of the prayer of Christ, and of his Angels and Saints in Heaven, for the Angels do pray, and so do the Saints in Heaven, the souls under the Altar cry, How long Lord? Rev. 6. and they have no ground to offer a prayer to God, but merely the promise of God, and therefore all their prayers are prayers of faith to this day.

§. 3. The promises of God in Scripture are of two sorts, some are absolute, some conditional, and the grounds of these distinctions of promises are these. 1. There is a twofold love of God unto the creature, (1) antecedent Love, that is set upon the creature, for love sake and out of his own free choice and election; he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy; and upon this are grounded all absolute promises: (2) there is a consequent Love, as the Lord delights to crown the acts of his own Love in the creature, having wrought his own image he doth love it, and delight in it, more than in all the rest of the works of his hands, and this is the ground of all conditional promises.

2. Absolute Promises are not formally made unto us, though they be fulfilled in us, but unto Christ; for no promise can belong unto him that is not an heir of promise; and though a man be so in the Election of God, yet he is not actually so till he be united unto Christ; and therefore it is unto him that all the absolute promises do belong. If we look upon man in a state of Nature, so there are absolute promises of grace for a man's conversion; but look upon a man in a state of Grace, and so there are conditional promises that do belong unto him for his consolation and salvation.

3. In absolute promises the creature is merely passive, and there is no prerequired condition in the creature for the accomplishment of it; it's perfectly an act of God's grace to the creature to promise him to be his God, to pardon his sin, and take away his heart of stone; there is no concurrence of the endeavor of the creature in it; for all the works of God in this k • l are a new creation: but in conditional promises there is a condition prerequired in the creature, and there is an actual concurrence of the creature to their performance, without which God will never perform the condition; he that converts thee without thee, will not save thee without thee; we must be built as living stones in the Church of God.

4. There is a double state of Faith, a state of Recumbency or Affiance, and a state of Assurance; and the promises of the Gospel are suited unto both these states. A man that can see no grace in his own soul, he comes to the promise for grace, and resolves to cast himself upon it, he does • e to Christ that he may have life, and casts himself upon the promise, that his sins may be pardoned: and the truth is, in this doth properly the application of faith in a man's first conversion lie, in leaving a man's soul with the promise, that he may receive grace and pardon; not in believing that Christ is mine, but in relying upon him, and giving up myself to him. There is a kind of personal Application, and that is direct; and there is an axiomatical Application of faith, when the soul being in Christ, and having received grace, is able to see and to conclude its own interest. Unto faith of Recumbence the absolute promises do fitly suit. But there is a state of Assurance, when the soul looks into his own heart, and finds the image of Christ written there, and sees promises made to a broken and a believing heart, one poor in spirit, and he finds the condition in himself, and now all the conditional promises come in with comfort to him, who before could taste no sweetness in them, because he could not find in himself the condition.

5. There are two ways of assurance answerable to the twofold witness of it: there is a witness in Heaven, and there is a witness also in the heart. (1) There is an immediate testimony; Rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven, saith our Lord: again the Lord says to a man, Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou art greatly beloved. Such immediate testimonies there have been given to the Saints; and surely the bowels of the Lord are not straitened. Thus there is a testimony of the Spirit that is distinct from the witness of water and blood; the Spirit is the seal in both, but in the one he is the seal of his Office, and in the other the seal of his Officers; a particular seal and a privy signet: in the one he testifies the love of all the persons, and there is testified that his own love and the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, there is illuminatio quaedam e montibus aeternis, an illumination from the eternal mountains, as Gerson speaks. (2) There is an Assurance that comes from the witness of a man's own graces, the Spirit of God witnessing with our spirits. Now the first assurance is in an absolute promise, I am thy God, thou art greatly beloved, thy sins are forgiven thee: and the latter kind of assurance is in a conditional promise, the Lord discovering to a man the signs of grace in his own soul, and the glorious works of the Spirit of Christ upon his inward man, conforming him to the image of Christ.

6. The great difference between the first and second Covenant lay in this: the promises of the first Covenant were all of them conditional, being given unto grace received, and did suppose grace in the person to whom they were made; but there were no absolute promises to give grace: that Covenant did suppose grace, but it did not give grace. But under the Gospel, as there are promises of reward of grace received, so there are promises of giving grace, where there is no grace; and herein lies the great glory of the promises of the new Covenant, and the grace of them, it gives grace, and then it crowns grace; and therefore they are said to be better promises.

7. Absolute promises have their degrees of accomplishment as well as conditional; though a man has a right to them all at once, yet the Lord doth perform them by degrees to us; there is no promise that is fully and perfectly accomplished till we come to Heaven; our justification is not perfect till then; our iniquities are then perfectly blotted out, when the time of refreshment shall come; then a man shall be perfectly acquitted from all sin forever, and have an absolute sentence past upon him by God, and in his own soul forever. As the Lord did give his Son by degrees, and yet there is a further giving of him, when he that is gone before shall come again, and fetch you; also there are degrees of giving of the Spirit, and there is yet a further degree to come, when the weak shall be as David; so the Lord will be your God hereafter more eminently than he has been, in giving you not only grace, but glory. Now as the Lord doth take up and possess the soul to himself as his habitation, so he does more and more become a God to that soul, who is never perfected till he come to glory, till he enjoy him as he is.

[Use 1] §. 4. 1. Look on the promises therefore as precious, and store thy soul with them; for they are all that you have to show for an interest in God in this life; that by which you hold your inheritance, all is in promises: the richest adornment and furniture that the soul can have in this life, is grace and promises; and therefore have thy inward man filled with them.

[Use 2] 2. Upon all occasions stay thy sinking soul upon a promise, for it's as firm as the faithfulness of God, and it's grounded thereupon. If there be any truth in the Covenant of Grace, it lies in the promises of it on God's part, and we should observe the performance of promises as we do of prophecies: as Austin says, Ingrate, Legis debitum cernis redditum, & non credis promissum, Ungrateful wretch, thou seest the debt of the Law paid, and yet believest not the promise.

[Use 3] 3. Look unto all the promises for their accomplishment. The heirs of a promise have a great happiness that they have such an inheritance; It's • er be as low as Hell with a promise, than with Adam in Paradise without it: For it's in the promises of the new Covenant in which the glory and the stability of the Covenant lies; but if they be so sweet and precious in the contemplation, and in the working of faith upon them while they are in hope only, what must they needs be in the fruition? The Wise man says, The desire accompished is sweet unto the soul, there is an inexpressible sweetness in it, when the desire comes it's a tree of life: it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 vitarum, of lives, there are all lives in it, and it sets a man as it were in Paradise again. And this is one thing that will make Heaven the sweeter, because it is a perfect accomplishing of all those promises with which the soul was feasted and entertained here with the hopes of in its pilgrimage: for Christ will be the sweeter when we come to Heaven, because having not seen him, yet we loved him here; and we shall find him to be the same Christ in all things that before we heard him to be in the Gospel. And so the society of the Saints, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the rest of the Saints in Heaven, so much the more precious will they be, by how much our hearts have been taken with any of them while they lived here: and for this cause the promises may well be called precious, 2 Pet. 1.4. the word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and signifies either precious or honorable, to him that believes he is precious, or an honor; (1) as they are the price of his blood, who was the Savior of the World; (2) as they are the evidences of our inheritance, and all we have to show for Heaven; (3) as they are instruments of purification and sanctification. But (4) they are specially precious in this, [1] that they are God's part of the Covenant; [2] this has been the happiness of the Saints, and the contrary is noted as an imperfection in their condition here, Heb. 11.13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises: it's spoken of the ancient Saints, of whom it's said some of them attained promises, and others of them received them not, but only saw them afar off, and saluted them, &c. and to attain promises is reckoned with stopping the mouths of lions, and quenching the violence of fire: and hereby there is more of God made known, Exod. 6.3. By the name of Jehovah I was not known to them. It's spoken in reference unto the accomplishment of the promises, and their attaining of them, there is something further that God discovered, and his name Jehovah further manifested to the Saints: [3] specially in our times upon whom the ends (or as some render it) the perfections of the world are come: for as the great harvest of the Church shall be in the latter days of the world, so there shall be the great harvest both of prophecies and promises: for the ancient Prophets did speak of good things to come, but it was manifested unto them that they did not administer for themselves, but for us, 1 Pet. 1.12. they should be gathered to their Fathers, and never live to see the good things that the Lord would do, but should die in the Wilderness, as many of the ancient Saints of Israel did, and never inherit the promised Land; for all the things that the Lord hath spoken shall have their accomplishment at the sound of the seventh Trumpet shall the Mystery of God be finished. They are glorious things that the Lord has spoken of the latter days of the world, and it's a great unworthiness and lowness of spirit in Saints, that they should be content and sit down satisfied whilst they go without any part of their inheritance, and that they should think much of anything they have attained, si dicas sufficit, &c. It's true, that we are less than the least of all his mercies, and we should think everyone of them great to express our thankfulness, but we should not think any of them great to nourish our slothfulness. He that has an interest in the great God, must strive to have his heart formed into a holy greatness of mind: there is a lowness of spirit that does no ways become men that have high hopes and high expectations, to be content to go without anything that God has promised: he has promised not only truth of grace, but growth, as the willows by the water-courses, strength of grace, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, comfort of grace, as the Apostle has it, to be filled with a spirit of consolation, and to walk in the assurance of his love, and yet with all this he is never satisfied. There is a further promise, and that is an inheritance with the Saints in light; and therefore he can never rest satisfied till he come there, he forgets that which is behind, and does reach forward to that which is before, Phil. 3.12.

Quest. But how should we do to attain promises?

1. Be sensible of your want of them: we should look over all the Paradise of the promises, and know that there is not a tree nor a fruit in it, but it's good for food, the fruit is for meat, and the leaves for medicine. See how far thou dost come short; look upon duty in the latitude and extent of it, for obedience must be universal; so you must do upon the promises, that your faith may be universal also. There should be always in our eyes a sight of something before, unto which we should reach out ourselves, Phil. 3.12. God doth never accomplish promises, but he doth use to make men see their need of them beforehand; they say, Lord, increase our faith, and Christ shows them the excellency of faith, and their necessity thereof, that by this means raising their apprehensions of it, and showing to them their necessity of it; they might be prepared to receive it, as the Lord was ready to bestow it: we go without many promises, because we see no necessity of them, and therefore our souls sit down quietly without them.

2. Get a strong faith; for it was by faith that they did attain the promises, Heb. 11.33. and it must be such a faith as must stay the heart, and fix the eye upon the promise, and thereby support it under all the seeming oppositions and improbabilities or impossibilities unto an eye of reason, or an arm of flesh: it must cause a man to close his eyes against them all, in the matter of justification: there is in faith an exclusive resolution against all other ways and means of righteousness whatsoever; so there is in this also against all things that from sense and reason may be offered or pretended to the soul, to weaken the power of the promise of God therein. In Abraham there was enough that he might have taken in to have discouraged him, but yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he did not admit a dispute, he did not take in a consultation of flesh and blood: when men have so consulted flesh and blood, their faith has failed them. God had promised his people a deliverance, but they say our bones are dry, and our hope is past, we have no more reason to expect the accomplishment of such a promise, than that we should see dry bones revive and arise out of their graves. And the people of God have had their hearts always to fail them, when they have looked off from the promise; as Peter when the wind arose, and he begins to sink, he cries out, Lord save me; and Martha saith, By this time he stinketh; and the Israelites say, The sons of Anak are there, &c. As whensoever the people of God begin to turn away their eyes from the holy commandment, then their hearts fail them in point of duty; so it is when they look off from the holy promise, then their heart fails them in matter of faith, and they cast away their confidence; for every promise carries with it an obligation laid upon the power of God to accomplish it: our faith gives us a title to the promise, and the promise binds the omnipotence of God for its accomplishment; and therefore it's said, They stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of the fire, and raised the dead to life. By acts of God's omnipotence all this was done, yet they are attributed unto their faith, as the fruit of it, by which the omnipotence of God is engaged in the work. Therefore it was a brave spirit in Luther, fit for him that shall attain the promises, that when they sought his life by all means that might be at home and abroad, and at last raised a war against him, that small Chaldean war, yet he wrote upon the walls of his Study that speech of David, I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord.

3. Be much in prayer, for the promise is a kind of a debt, and therefore it's said when God doth perform any promise, reddit debita nulli debens, &c. and it's prayer that puts this bond in suit before the Throne of Grace. After seventy years are accomplished in Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return unto this place; then shall you call upon me, and pray to me, and I will hear you: and this was the very course that Daniel took; for we can expect nothing from God in mercy that we do not obtain by prayer; he leads his people into their own land by supplications. In the consolations that we receive from God, he speaks to our hearts, and in the supplications that we put up unto God, we speak unto his heart: and the grounds are these, why God will have all promises to be nothing else but the returns of prayer.

1. That hereby we may testify that it's the will of God that we eye in the mercy, and not our own will; for it's whatsoever we ask according to his will he hears us. There is a natural and a carnal desire of mercies, when it's a man's own will that puts him upon it: and there is a spiritual and holy desire of mercies, and that is when a man has an eye unto God's will in the promise to bestow them, as well as to his own necessity that requires them. Hence there is a double importunity in prayer, as Luk 11.8. a holy kind of impudency that they will in no wise be put off, there's a being stirred up by the apprehension of necessity, and a desire of the flesh to attain the thing, and so men howl for corn, wine, and oil, but they are but the cries of beasts, and not of Saints, and so men ask amiss, and attain not, as it is in Jam. 1.5. But there is an importunity that is grounded upon the will of God and upon the promise, and the soul earnestly desires it, because he sees it's agreeable unto the will of God that has promised it, it's not the love of the thing that is so much the ground of his importunity, as seeing the will of God in the promise, and for this cause the Lord will make the accomplishment of all promises to be the only returns of prayers.

2. That hereby we may know, that his mercy is free in bestowing of it; and that though God has promised it in a way of mercy, yet there is no way for us to attain it but in a way of duty, to perform the promise is God's part, and to press God with his promise is our part. I will do it for you, says tne Lord, yet I will be inquired of by you, that I may do it for you; ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened: and there is no way that ever any creature could attain anything of God but this way. Upon this very ground Christ himself, if he will attain from God, he must ask; and so 'tis with the Angels, and so 'tis with the Saints in Heaven, they cry, How long Lord? How much more is it to be with dust and ashes.

3. That the Lord may honor his own Ordinance, and testify how much he doth delight in the worship of a creature, and that thereby he might make it a double mercy. For ungodly men to receive blessings as a fruit of Providence unto them, it comes always single, that is, in the thing only; but unto a godly man, that has it as a fruit of the promise, it's always a double mercy, mercy in the thing, and mercy to the man, not only an accomplishment of God's promises, but the return of the man's prayers, the exercise of God's faithfulness unto us, and of our graces towards God; and there are no mercies so sweet as those that come in with the exercise of grace in the attaining of them: Deum orationibus ambiamus, coelum tundimus, & misericordiam extorquemus, as Tertullian says of the power of the Saints prayers, because of his delight in the exercise of their graces. And there is no duty wherein the graces of the Saints do act with more life and power than they do in prayer: there is magna conjunctio, a great concurrence of grace in them, as we see it in Abraham in his prayer, what strong acts of grace he puts forth, Gen. 18. The nearer the soul draws to God the fountain of its life, the more lively it works, and moves the swifter, the nearer the center; and there is no duty in which the soul draws nearer to God, than it doth in prayer, and hath more immediate communion with him, than when he is upon his knees before the Throne of grace.

4. And lastly, the way to attain promises is a patient waiting for them till the Lord's time come; for it's true of promises as it is of prophecies, though the vision be for an appointed time, Hab. 2.3. yet wait for it, for it will come and will not tarry. It's a speech like unto that in Luk. 18.7, 8. though he bear long with them, yet he will avenge them speedily: it may tarry long in respect of the time prefixed by us, and may seem long to us, but it shall not be long when the time comes that is appointed by God. The Lord commonly does in the answering of prayers, as he does in the fulfilling of Prophecies, it's a great while before the Prophecy seems to speak, or to give any hope of its accomplishment, as it was in the deliverance out of Egypt and Babylon; but yet when once it begins but to dawn its day, immediately, in a manner, it strangely and suddenly breaks forth, that the Saints of God can scarce believe their own eyes, they are like unto them that dream. And so it is in the return of their prayers also, as in the calling of the Jews, they are as dry bones, and they are scattered here and there all the world over; but the bones shall come together, and it shall be so suddenly done, that the Lord saith, A Nation shall be born at once, and before Zion travelled she brought forth; and so it is in the answer of Prayers, as it was with Elijah, he prayed seven times, and his servant looked and there was nothing, and yet he continued praying, at last there appeared a Cloud like unto a man's hand, and by and by the Heavens were covered over with Clouds, and then the rain fell: when it begins once to appear that the Clouds do break away a little, the Lord doth strangely hasten the work, and there is a glorious concurrence and falling in of all causes to its accomplishment; there is a time of the Promise's accomplishment, and a great part of the Mercy is in the season of it: the Lord doth not delay because he is unwilling to bestow it, or because the Mercy comes hardly off, for he knows, that to our hasty Nature, bis dat qui cito; but the Lord doth defer it, that he may improve the Mercy by the season of it, for God's time is best, and not ours; my time is not yet come, though your time be always ready, all Christ's Miracles were so much the more glorious, by the seasons of their putting forth, and so are God's Mercies also the more magnified in coming to us in the fittest time; he does wait to be gracious, that is, that he may bestow the Mercy when we are fittest to receive it, and our hearts are best prepared for it: As in judgment to a wicked man the Lord does watch over him for evil, and he shall be ensnared in an evil time, as a Bird in an evil snare, judgment shall come upon him when he least expects it, and is least prepared for it; he shall be cut off as the foam upon the waters, sicut aquae superiores ferventis ollae, Jerome; for the word spuma doth signify a bubble that does arise from heat, &c. when they are swelled up and hold up their heads on high, and be lifted up above the rest of the waters, then they shall suddenly be cut off: As (I say) there is a time for judgment, that Justice doth watch over men for evil; so there is also a time for Mercy, that Grace does watch over men for good; there is a time for the Promise to bring forth, as well as the threatening, and therefore it's said, That by Faith and Patience the Saints have inherited the Promises, and there is as well a Patience in waiting, as in Suffering; let Patience have its perfect work in you in this respect also, that you may be entire and perfect wanting nothing. But the Soul will be ready to say, I could be willing to wait God's time, if I could be sure to attain the Promise at the last; but what grounds are there to support and underprop my heart that I shall receive the Promise, and not miss of it in the end? Now the grounds to assure the Soul thereof are these:

1. The faithfulness of God: the Promises are therefore confirmed by an Oath, Heb. 6.17. that by two immutable things, wherein it's impossible for God to lie, we might have strong Consolation, Quid est Dei juratio, nisi promissi confirmatio, & infidelium quaedam increpatio? An Oath amongst Men puts an end to Controversy, much more should the Oath of God put an end to all Controversy and Disputes in the Soul; and it's a strange expression that of the Apostle, Hebr. 6.13. because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself; to show how willing the Lord is to give an assurance unto the Heirs of Promise, that if there had been a greater, or anything that could have given them more assurance, they should have been sure of it; but because there was none greater, therefore he did swear by Himself; Nos miseros qui nec juranti Deo credimus.

2. The Covenant made with Christ was confirmed by an Oath, and upon that the assurance of it is mainly put, for upon him the Promises do mainly depend; all the Promises are in him Yea, and Amen, and upon that it's put, Tit. 1.2. the promise of Eternal Life, which God that cannot lie has promised before the world began: To whom was this Promise made before the world began? a purpose might be in his own breast, but a promise must be to another; and God cannot lie unto Christ, he will not surely deceive him; the Son has been faithful to him in all the parts of the Covenant, and therefore surely the Lord will be faithful unto Christ. The Covenanr is confirmed by a double Oath, one to us, and the other to Christ; the Lord has sworn and he will not repent: He was not made a Priest without an Oath, therefore the New Covenant is called the Word of the Oath, Heb. 7.28. and the Promises are primarily made to Christ, and are his inheritance, and secondarily ours, only by virtue of our Union with him.

3. The Intercession of Christ; Christ in Heaven stands besides the Golden Altar, he is gone to Heaven to make intercession, and what is the subject of the intercession of Christ in Glory? it's only the promises of the Covenant that yet remain unfulfilled, and it's these that he doth plead before the Throne of Grace, and the Lord Christ has a promise to be heard, Psal. 2.8. Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for an inheritance: and he prays with assurance of audience, John 11.42. I know that thou hearest me always. When Christ was upon Earth, before our 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was paid, the Lord did trust Christ upon his bare word, yet then he did accomplish many promises unto him at his request; for Christ's intercession begun from the Beginning, ever since the Fall, when his Priest-hood did first begin, for he was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; how much more shall we be saved by his life? how much more will the Lord accomplish it on his part? now all that is due on Christ's part is fulfilled, now he is gone to Heaven, and sits down at the right hand of God, and does only expect the accomplishment of those things which are the price of his own blood: we know that blood has a crying nature; and if it did cry so loud when it was but in the promise, much more will it do now it is blood shed, and set as a seal to the promise.

4. The experiences of all the Saints and thy own experiments: the Saints all of them have known the Lord by his name Jehovah, they all of them have by faith and patience inherited the promises; but in a special manner a man's own experience, from which he may argue, God that delivered me from out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Bear, will also deliver me from this Goliath, &c. and God has delivered me, and he will deliver me from every evil work. A man should treasure up every experiment as an assurance of the same faithfulness in the same extremity, and thereby set to his seal that God is true. A great part of the Communion of Saints should be in this, in imparting their experiments one to another, and thereby honor the faithfulness of God: and as it is our duty here on earth, and our comfort, so it shall be a great part of a man's happiness in Heaven, when a man shall tell stories of God's mercies and faithfulness unto all Eternity.

But says the Soul, I may stay long for this promise to be accomplished; for God has set no time in his Word when it shall be, and therefore the Saints have waited till their eyes have failed, till the promise have come to the birth: the Apostle says it's not long, 'tis but a little while. Oh therefore set faith on work, and that looks as God looks, to whom a thousand years are as but one day; that which seems long to sense, is but short unto faith: consider much the waiting and all the longsuffering of God for thee, before thou didst take hold of his grace in Christ Jesus, and shall not we wait upon a great God that could have been, and was happy without us, and needed none of our services, we that are but as a worm, and unprofitable to him in whatever we can do?

But there are three things that a Soul may know by, that the accomplishment of the promise is at hand.

1. When the extremity increases, for the time of the promise is near, when the tasks are doubled, for his name will always be known to be a God seen in the Mount: when all is desperate, and you know not what to do, then look for God to come in to your help.

2. When God does raise up in the soul an earnest expectation of the mercy, and a man begins to set himself to seek the Lord with more earnestness for it, then it's a sign it is near at hand. When Christ was to come in the flesh, there were those that waited for the consolation of Israel, and had special expectations raised up in them for his coming. And so it was with Daniel, when he understood by books the time of Jerusalem's Captivity drew to an end, then he sets himself to prayer: for those expectations and enlargements of the heart are from God, and shall be answered.

3. When in the middle of all a man's seeking, his heart is brought into a quiet and an humble frame, and he is contented to submit to the will of God, when a man's heart is brought to a holy indifference, to be contented with God alone; as David was never nearer the Kingdom, than when his heart was as a weaned child, Vis me constituere ovium pastorem, aut regem populorum, ecce paratum est cor meum. When the soul is in such a frame, he may expect the promise shall not be long delayed to him.

SECT. II. The personal Promises of the Covenant, and of the three Persons in the Trinity.

[Doctrine.] §. 1. THE great promises of the Covenant on God's part are personal promises: I will be thy God. There is objectum fidei duplex, a twofold object of faith, Persons and Things; and answerable to these the promises are personal and real, &c. We have seen that the Covenant on God's part does consist in promises; and that these promises are either absolute or conditional, either performed by God without any required condition in us, not only citra meritum, sed & conditionem, not only without merit, but also condition: or else performed by God upon a certain condition wrought in us, as a preparation or a qualification of the subject to receive the promises. And we find in the next place that these absolute promises are of two sorts, answerable unto a twofold object of faith, that the Scripture doth hold forth: they are either personal or real, either promises of persons or of things. [1] Promises of things that are absolute and real; and of these are chiefly four. (1) Ezech. 36.26. I will take away the heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh. (2) Jer. 31.33. I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. And these two are promises of conversion and of the power of God in Christ put forth upon the Elect of God. (3) Esa. 43.25. I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins. And unto this belong many other promises of remission. (4) There are also promises of perseverance, Jer. 32.40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. [2] There are also personal Promises, and these are the great and leading promises of the second Covenant. Here I will show you, (1) that there are such promises, and (2) show you the nature of them, (3) the grounds of it, why the second Covenant must have such promises as these, (4) wherein the excellency of these promises doth consist.

1. That there are some personal Promises in which all the three persons in the Godhead are made over unto the soul. The first great promise was, Gen. 3.15. personal, it was of the seed of the woman, that the Lord would give Jesus Christ his Son to be born of a woman, and to take man's nature, and pitch his Tent with us, that he should take not the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham, &c. and so Esa. 9.6. To us a Son is given. And when the Lord came to renew the Covenant with Abraham, it is, That he will be a God unto him, and to his seed after him: and that is common in Scripture for God to say, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And there is a further discovery of the promise in Esa. 44.3. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring. And so Joel 2.28. I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. So that these three are the great personal Promises of the Gospel, and in these doth the main grace of the new Covenant lie.

2. As for the nature of personal Promises, they do import a gracious propriety in the persons, which God doth by Covenant make over unto the creature. The end of promises is to give a propriety; and we know that a propriety amongst the creatures is nothing else but jus ad rem, when a man doth claim such a thing as his own, and has a power to use it, and dispose of it in a lawful way for his own benefit and advantage, as it seemeth good to him: so that propriety as it were puts the thing into the man's hand to do with it what he pleaseth, to make improvement and advantage of it, that it may be for his own accommodation, he may do what he list with his own, &c. As if a man hath a propriety in Lands or Houses, he may either sell, or let, or give, or leave, or live upon them as he pleaseth. Now as there is a real propriety that respects things, so there is a personal propriety that respects persons, which is grounded either in natural or voluntary relations; as a Father has a propriety in his Son, and the Son in the Father, and the Husband in the Wife, and the Wife in the Husband, the Prince in the People, and the People in their Prince: and the intent of personal propriety is the same in its kind with that which is real, that every person that has such a propriety in another, should enjoy all benefits and advantages, as they could in a way of equity expect or desire to do: as the husband that hath a propriety in the wife, if there were no sinful defects in the persons that are so appropriated, should receive from her all manner of help and assistance, as if he himself were the wife; and his wife receive from her husband all that kindness and support, as if she were the husband, and as if all were in her own power to use. And so it is in personal promises, the intent of them is to make over the persons, that when the Lord says, I will be thy God, the meaning is, whatsoever is in me as a God, shall be truly thine, my infinite power, my infinite wisdom, and grace and mercy, all shall be thine, that the soul may lawfully lay claim to it, and confidently expect it of him, and that as truly, as if the creature itself had infinite power, and wisdom, and mercy, and all in his own hands. So it is in giving the person of the Son, that we should have a propriety and an interest in him as our Brother, our Husband, our Head; and whatever is in him, whether of grace or merit, shall be as truly ours, as it is his, and as truly laid out for us, as if we had it all inherent in ourselves: And so it is in giving the Spirit, it is a propriety in the person: so that the Spirit for conviction, for conversion, for sanctification, for renovation, for direction, and for consolation, doth as truly improve these for us, as if they were our own, and as if they were inherent in us, or we could use and exercise them according to our own pleasure: and they are these personal promises of the Covenant that do entitle the soul to such an interest in the persons.

3. The grounds of them, why must the second Covenant have personal promises? The grounds of it are these.

1. Man in his Fall had wholly lost God, and therefore he is said Eph. 2. to be without God in the world, one that had no relation to him, one that had no interest in him. It's true, that Adam before his Fall had a natural propriety in God, both as his Creator, and as his Father, Adam was the Son of God; and so it's true of the Angels, they are called his Sons, because they did bear his Image, which no other Creature did; but after his Fall all Right unto God was forfeited, and man could not look upon him in any relation, either as a Creature or as a Son, for now he is not the Creature that God made him, your spot is not the spot of his children, for you bear not his Image or Similitude. Now in the second Covenant, the Soul has his relation unto God, and propriety in God that was his happiness in his Creation; and if ever he be made happy again, his propriety unto God must be restored. Therefore that is the purpose and intendment in the Second Covenant, to restore that which is lost by the breach of the first Covenant; and our great loss by the Fall was the loss of God, and a propriety in him; though we also lost the Creatures, and forfeited our lives and souls, lost ourselves, yet our great loss was the loss of God; and if the Lord should have restored unto Man the inheritance of the Creatures again, yet all this would never have repaired his loss, unless he had found out a way for to make over himself again.

2. Without this the Creature could never be happy; for wherein doth happiness consist, but in these two things? There must be Proportion and Propriety; a good that must fill up all the desires of the Soul, and a man must have an interest in it: Now if the Lord should give a man all the Creatures, they are not a proportionable good, because they are finite; and they are without Propriety in them, they are not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a proper good; it will be therefore another man's, and may remain unto another. And though it is true, that God is a proportionable good, as he is also unto all, even the Devils, and damned Spirits, so as to make them happy, for he is an infinite good; yet they cannot be made happy by him, because they have no propriety in him: these two must concur to the happiness of the Creature. Now if when Man had fallen, God should have restored him unto his Inheritance in the Creatures again, yet they could never have made him happy, because they wanted these two ingredients; his happiness therefore consists mainly, radically, and fundamentally in his personal interest and propriety; and there was no way left to make him happy, the former way being made void, but by a free and a gracious promise. God by Covenant and Gift made himself freely over to him, that is, all the persons in the Trinity unto the Creature for his happiness; and therefore we may see, that was the great intendment in the Gospel of Grace; for that which is ultimum in executione, last in execution, is primum in intention, first in intention: The highest happiness of Man in Glory is the enjoyment of God, when God is all in all to him; and the full fruition of Christ, and the Spirit; for therein is the last and great accomplishment of all these personal promises, as we shall see afterwards: now in this consisting the happiness of man, this was the great and first intendment of the Gospel, to make over God to him in all the persons for his highest advancement and perfection.

3. These Promises are the grounds of our Union with all the persons in the Trinity. That there is such a Union between Christ and the Soul is plain, and that it is not only unto Christ as Man, but unto Christ as God-man; and there is a Union that we have after a sort therefore with the Godhead of Christ, and there is a Union with the Spirit, which also is clear, 1 Corinth. 6.17. He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit; and by this means there is a Union also with the Father, John 17.21. I would that they might be one as we are one; not only one in themselves, but one with us, after a resemblance of that unspeakable Union that is between the Father and the Son; and therefore God is said to dwell in us, 2 Corinth. 6.16. we are said to dwell in him, 1 Joh. 4.16. the Church is said to be in God, and the Faithful, to be in Christ Jesus, and to work in God, John 3.21. most of their works are wrought in God; and this Union is begun in this Life, and so far as it is wanting, so far is the Creature imperfect; it's the perfection of this Union in Heaven that is the full happiness and perfection of the Creature; and it's by virtue of these promises, that this Union between God and the Creature is begun; and Heaven, that is the perfection of this Union, is nothing else but the accomplishment of these promises: the Promise in the fullness of it makes Heaven.

4. It is in this Union that the foundation is laid of all Communion: Communion is properly of persons, though it be in things; Men can with things have no fellowship, this must be properly between persons; Our fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son Jesus Christ: and there is a fellowship of the Spirit also: now all fellowship is grounded in Union; and the very Communion of Saints that they have with all the persons, doth prove, that they have a Union with them also. Now it's an interest you see in the person that's the ground of fellowship; as the Covenant of Grace is a Covenant of Friendship, and it's likened to a Marriage Covenant. Now all matrimonial Communion is grounded upon the interest that they have in the person each of other; so that the Husband is not his own, and the Wife is not her own; they have by their own consent freely made over the interest and propriety of themselves unto each other, that now they are not at their own dispose, wthout the mutual consent each of other: and so it's in this also; it's our Union with the person, that is the ground of our Communion; and all our personal interest in any of the persons is grounded upon these personal promises, by which the persons are made over to the Saints; and it is in these personal promises, that the Glory of the second Covenant does consist; it's said to be established upon better promises. The first Covenant did promise Life and Happiness, which could not be without God, and the enjoyment of God; for the Life promised must be answerable to the death threatened, which is an eternal separation from God, and from all Communion with him, in Hell; therefore the Life promised must be a fruition of God, in all ways of Communion, in Heaven: But yet there is something more in these particular promises of the Gospel Covenant.

1. It's true, that Adam had a personal interest in God, but yet not such an interest as the Saints now have; for the Lord was a God to Adam to reward him persevering in ways of obedience here, and to be himself his reward in Heaven; but it was but while he continued in ways of obedience, God was not made over to him, therefore he did not say, I will make over to thee my Mercy to pardon thee, if thou sinnest, and my Grace to heal thee: but there is something of God made over in the personal promises of the Gospel that never saw light before, and that is Mercy and Grace, which is the Glory of the Gospel, an Attribute that was never known but under the second Covenant. And as all God's Attributes were not made known to Adam by his personal interest, so neither were all the persons unto those perfect, high and complete ends, that now they are unto the Heirs of Promise. The Lord did give Adam an interest in his Son, but not his Son to take the Nature of Adam, to be made lower than the Angels for the suffering of death: He gave him also an interest in his Spirit, but not to heal his corruption, and to perfect his Graces, or help his infirmities, or be an Advocate to plead his Cause before God, and his own Soul also; for the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , also signifies an Advocate, as well as a Comforter: Christ is an Advocate without us, and the Spirit within us, enabling us to plead for ourselves before his Throne. Now in these respects, though Adam had personal promises, yet these of the Gospel are now more glorious, and of a higher nature, and of a larger extent, and therefore they are better promises.

2. The greatest Gift that ever God did bestow upon a Creature is a Person, and therefore the giving of Christ is called by way of excellency, The gift of God: If thou knewest the gift of God: And unto us a Son is given. It was a great gift that the Lord should give to Adam the Lordship of the whole world, the inheritance of all the Creatures: but there is no excellency in Creatures in comparison of the glorious persons in the Trinity. Answerable to the excellency of the thing given, we do rightly value the gift; and answerable unto the gift of his Son, we may also conclude of the Father and the Spirit; for the gift of the Son is upon that ground so great, because he that has once attained an interest in the Son, the whole God-head is become his.

3. All the interest that a Soul has in the blessings of God, and benefits by him, have their foundation in our interest and propriety in the persons themselves; they are made over to us by these personal promises; and a man can have no more benefit by God, than he has interest in him: as the Psalmist having spoken of all the benefits and blessings that they have by God, he comes at last to show the title and the conveyance of them all, and that is, Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah. The ground of all our benefits by Christ, is our Union with him, and the intendment of Union is Communication; and till a man become one with him, he can savingly have no benefit by him; as 'tis said, All things are yours, and you are Christ's: it's your interest in his person, that gives you a title to his inheritance: as the Wife can have no claim to the estate and the honors of her Husband, but by her Union with him, and interest in his person; and answerable unto men's interest in persons, such is their title unto benefits by them; and they that have no interest in God, can have no title to any of the blessings of God; and therefore the fundamental promises and mercies are those that are personal; He that hath the Son hath life: there is no life from the Son, but by Union with him, you must eat his flesh and drink his blood, which are terms of Union, if ever you hope for everlasting life by him.

4. From our interest in the Persons, the personal promises give us boldness, and access to him; we have, says the Apostle, boldness and access to come to God by Christ. Now a Child comes to the Father with boldness, because he has an interest in his person as a Father; and a Wife has access unto her Husband with boldness, because she has an interest in him; whereas all ungodly men are strangers to God, and therefore cannot engage their hearts to draw near to him, for they have no interest in him, and therefore must stand without and can have no access.

5. The great promises to Christ as Mediator lie in this, that he has an interest in persons, and by personal promises they are made over to him, Psal. 89.26. He shall call me my Father, my God; and this Christ glories in, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; and it is this Christ takes hold of in his desertion, my God, my God; that high speech of Faith taking hold of these personal promises. It's a glorious inheritance that God has given to Christ, for he hath made him heir of all things: but yet his inheritance in all the Creatures is nothing in comparison of the inheritance he has in the Lord, as he is his God, and in the Spirit, which is therefore called the Spirit of Christ, because he received not the spirit by measure. As the great delights of the God-head from everlasting were in the persons one of another, I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was his delight daily: so the great delight of Christ is in his interest in the person of the Father. He has also a great delight in the Saints, because they are his Seed, and his Spouse, and therefore he doth rejoice over them as a Bridegroom over his Bride: but yet the main delight of Christ as Mediator, doth lie in his interest in the person of the Father, and of the Spirit; and as God made over his person first unto Christ by the Covenant of Redemption, so by that Covenant in him he made it over unto us, for he is Christ's Father and our Father, he is Christ's God and he is our God; I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.

6. The main comfort of a Christian comes in from personal relations of the Covenant, and they are all of them grounded in personal promises. He is our Father and our Husband, and our Friend, and all of these are personal relations, and speak an interest in the person; and the great support of Faith in the worst times lies in this, as we see in the Church, Isai. 63. doubtless thou art our Father: When the Lord was displeased with them, and had hid his face, and poured upon them spiritual judgments, hardened their hearts from his fear, and variety of temporal judgments; for the Adversary had trodden down their Sanctuary: yet now when they have nothing else to lay hold of, it is upon a personal relation that they pitch, doubtless thou art our Father; and it's according to our relation to his person, that the Lord exhorts us to come to him: All our Prayers when we pray, is Our Father, and the spirit teacheth us to come unto him as our Father; so in all our addresses unto God, he teacheth us to cry Abba Father; and so the Saints in Scripture, O Lord thou art my God, early will I seek thee.

7. Hence comes that glorious communication of properties that is between God and the Saints; That as Divines do observe, by reason of the hypostatical Union, there is a communication of properties, that what is done by the human nature is attributed unto the persons, and the blood of the human nature is called the blood of God, Acts 20.28. and God is said to be received up to glory, 1 Tim. 3. and Christ is called the Son of God, which is proper only to the Divine Nature, and the Human Nature being taken into the same person, it comes under the same filliation; for the rule of the School-men is, filiatio est suppositi, filliation is of a person; the Son-ship belongs and relates unto the person, and not unto the nature: so from our Union with Christ's person arise those strange communications which some observe, the Lord calling himself by the name of a Creature, Psal. 24.6. This is the generation of them that seek him; that seek thy face O Jacob: and that glorious, and which some say is an incommunicable name of God Jehovah, yet it is said to be attributed to the Creature, through his interest in the person of God, it's the name of Christ, Jer. 23.6. And in his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord our righteousness: and this name is also given to the Church, Jer. 38.16. And in those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this is the name wherewith she shall be called The Lord our Righteousness, &c. and all this flows from interest in the person through personal promises.

8. Our interest in the persons is always the same, and varies not, though the dispensations are very various; and there is no Saint of God but doth find changes of the right hand of the most High, though the Lord in himself changes not: Sometime he lifts up the light of his countenance, and sometimes he hides his face; but yet in the middle of all this here is the comfort of the Saints, the Lord is still their God, and they have an interest in him. And so did Christ himself find a change of dispensations, there was substractio visions, a subtraction of vision, but yet not unionis, of union: and when the Lord hid his face from him, then Christ flies to a personal promise, and in that he looks upon God, when he could look upon him no other way, my God, my God, &c. and so doth the Church, doubtless thou art our Father. And there is a special Art and Mystery that the people of God have learned, when they are in the deepest desertions to recover themselves out of it, Cant. 5. there the Church falls in love with the person of Christ, and looks upon her own interest in him, and then she breaks out, this is my beloved, and this is my friend, and this recovers her again, so that she glories in Christ's interest in her, and hers in him, I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine; the comfort of the Saints in their worst estate is, that God has an interest in their persons, I am thine, O save me, may every Saint of God say; and so they also have an interest in the person of God, this God is our God forever, and ever: if there be never so great Changes or Dispensations, yet our relation unto the person is still the same, and therefore so should our claim be.

9. The highest objects of Faith are Persons; for there is a three-fold object of Faith: (1.) Primarium, primary, and that is all Divine Truth: (2.) Mediatum, mediate, that is Christ as Mediator: (3.) Ultimatum, ultimate, for through Christ we believe in God, therefore the ultimate and the highest object of Faith is a Person: Objectum fidei est jus incomplexum, the object of faith is an incomplex right. Now that which is the highest object of Faith, that is the most perfect, in which only Faith can rest, and therefore must be the greatest ground of Hope, and Love, as that wherein our happiness doth ultimately consist.

10. The highest act of God's Love to us, is, in accepting our persons. Electing Love was set upon the person, and in Christ he doth accept our persons, and has respect unto them; therefore if he respect our persons so highly, being made over to him in Covenant, how much more should we set a high price upon his excellent person, being made over to us in Covenant? It is his Love unto our persons, that doth incline his heart to accept our services, and reward them, and to bestow all good things upon us: and so should our Love unto the person of God be, that which should sweeten all his benefits towards us: he has not this Treasure only, but he has the root also upon which it grows; He shall inherit all things, I will be his God; and it is much more than all the Creatures can be to him, for he shall receive a hundred fold more in this life; it is not to be understood formaliter, formally, sed eminenter, but eminently, that is, they shall have all made up in God that the Creatures could supply, if they were a hundred times multiplied; God shall be all in all to them, so that they can complain of no want, for the Lord is their God.

[Use.] §. 2. First we may hence gather the devillishness of that Opinion, that denies all persons in the Trinity, they do thereby make void the main of the New Covenant on God's part, which doth consist in personal promises; for if there be no persons, then the promises of making of them over by way of interest unto the Saints is void, and of none effect: And truly of all the Abominations of this last Age which Satan has cast forth, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Athanasius calls it, Orat. 1. cont. Arian. there is not any so desperate an Opinion, that strikes more at the root of all Religion, than this doth: all Heresy is the smoke that arises out of the bottomless pit, and it is commonly vented by some Star that falls from Heaven, some Man Eminent in the Church, and he making an Apostasy and Defection from the Truth, the Key of the bottomless pit is given him in judgment: a Key is potestatis symbolum, a symbol of power, as we know, and unto one man it's given as a special Mercy, and unto another it's given as a special Judgment; to the one it's given to bind Satan, and to the other to let out his smoke; and woe to the man to whom such a power is given, as Revel. 20.1. Satan is ready enough to vent it upon all occasions, but he cannot do it himself, but it must be by Instruments; as the Devil casts men into prison by Instruments; now when he meets with fit Instruments for his work, and God in judgment gives them over unto an efficacy of deceit, that they do vent the Doctrines of Hell, the depths of Satan, then they do receive in judgment the Key of the bottomless pit to open it, that the smoke of it may be let forth, and the world receive its vent, which before was shut up in Hell, in the hearts of the Devils only, but now it is let forth to over-spread the Earth, and thereby the Sun and the Air is darkened; (so all the Truths of God are expressed) it's darkened as to all spiritual light, for that Satan doth aim at. Some do apply this to the Doctrines of Mahomet, and some unto several abominations of that Idolatry that brake forth in the West about that time, as Brightman understands it of both. And out of the smoke came Locusts upon the Earth: by Locusts in Scripture two things are commonly intended; (1.) That they are a devouring Creature, and are therefore threatened as a judgment, that they should seize upon all, and destroy and devour all: (2.) They do go by great troops, and strangely over-spread the Earth wheresoever they come; and this some do understand of the followers of Mahomet, and some of the Discipline of Antichrist, as Pareus; but still Brightman takes in both: and this I do assure you, never doth the smoke arise out of the bottomless pit, but it breeds Locusts, there doth arise out of it abundance of wicked and worthless men, that go by troops and would surely devour all; and it's Satan's plot against the Church of God, and therefore the most dangerous, and that in which he doth put the most confidence, he doth love to raise persecution, and to roar like a Lion when he can, but if that do not accomplish his end, then he betakes himself unto this, he casts a flood out of his mouth; but still his end is the same, that the woman that was not devoured by the great red Dragon might be carried away with the flood. Austin hath given warning to the Churches of a three-fold Persecution that they should surely undergo; Prima Ecclesiae persecutio fuit violenta per mundi principes; secunda fraudulenta per haereticos; tertia erit violenta & fraudulenta simul, &c. The first Persecution of the Church was violent by the Princes of the world; the second fraudulent by Heretics; the third violent and fraudulent also.

[Objection.] Object. Now they that deny the persons in the Trinity, this Argument is very rife and common amongst them, If there be Persons in the God-head, they are either something or nothing, either they are substances or they are accidents; if something, then there was something from eternity that was not God; and if nothing, that cannot be the ground of a distinction, for Non entis nullae sunt affections, that which is not has no affections: and if finite, then there is something in God that is finite, and if infinite, then there are three infinites, which cannot be in one God: the very Argument of Arius that he did use, and was refuted by Athanasius, and from him Socinus had it, and there have been some in our Age that have asserted the same, who are Stars fallen from Heaven, to whom the Key of the bottomless pit is given in judgment to themselves, I am sure, and we may fear, to the Nation who have not received the Truth in the love of it, and therefore God gives up to the efficacy of deceit, to believe a lie, to whom I say, this Key has been given to give vent to this smoke again in the world: And this I pitch upon, because it is the great Argument that they glory in.

[Answer.] Answer. For Answer to it, I would first lay down these positions: (1.) It's plain in Scripture, that there is but one God, and that an Idol is nothing in the world, there is none other God but one, as it is, 1 Corinth. 8.4. The Lord thy God, is one Lord. (2.) The Scripture speaks of Father, Son and Spirit, and they are said expressly to be Three, and therefore are distinguished from one another, 1 Joh. 5.7. For there are Three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these Three are one. (3.) The God-head in Scripture is attributed to them all, and the essential properties of an infinite being: He is called God the Father, 1 Cor. 8.6. and the Word is God, the same Word that was incarnate, and was made flesh, and this Word is God, and the Spirit dwells in the hearts of the Faithful all the world over, and that both in Heaven and Earth, and therefore must be everywhere present changing the hearts of men, which nothing but an Almighty and a Creating Power can do, and doth know their hearts, for he doth supply them with graces and influences daily, and helps their infirmities, and teaches them to pray, &c. all which can be done by none but he that is God; and they are therefore said to be one, because the God-head of the Divine Essence is but one. (4.) There is something attributed unto one in the Scripture, that cannot be said of another: the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father; the Father doth beget, and is not begotten, the Son is begotten of the Father, and cannot be said to beget; the Son is said to take flesh, the Word was made flesh, and so did not the Father; the Son was said to be sent, and so is not the Father, therefore they are distinguished, yet it's plain that they are but one God: this is plainly the Doctrine that is delivered unto the Saints.

Now let us apply this unto the Argument in hand, and we will, (1.) Retort it, they are Three, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; these are either something or nothing, they are substances or accidents, they are finite or infinite; and the same inconveniences will return upon themselves, for they must assert them to be Three, and yet one, for a Trinity in Unity the Scripture doth clearly hold forth. (2.) It's not strange, even amongst the Creatures, that the same person should be a Man and a Father, yet as a Father distinguished from himself as a Man, and a Son distinguished from himself as a Man, therefore it's not strange in this, that the Father should be distinguished from himself as God, and the Son also: The Scripture does clearly speak to us of certain actiones ad intra, which are in God, which do not refer to the Creatures, but to Father, Son and Spirit, amongst themselves; as the Father does beget, and the Son is begotten, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from both; and from these actions do arise the relative properties, of Father, Son and Spirit, in one and the same essence; and therefore if any man say, a person is something or nothing, I say it is something, it is, Essentia Divina cum proprietate sua hypostatica, the Divine Essence with its relative property: As what is the Father? He is God begetting the Son; and what is the Son? He is God, and begotten of the Father, &c. and so the Father is infinite, and the Son infinite, because they have all Three an Unity of Essence, which is infinite, and therefore there is no reason why there should be so much exception against the title of Person, as some of the looser sort would seem to take it, being a word that doth most fully, that I know, express the nature of the thing, that we can have, and most answers the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , used by the Apostle, Heb. 1.3. Who being the brightness of his Glory, and the express Image of his Person, and upholding all things by the Word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; but call them either Persons or Subsistences, so the thing be the same, I shall not contend for the words.

(3) But suppose that the manner of it we were not able to express, yet it is, and should be enough unto us, that the thing is clearly set down in Scripture, and that we walk by grounds of faith, and not by reason; it is enough to us that there is but one God, and yet that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three, and are yet said to be one: if we could not describe how three are one, nor how one is three, yet the deep things of God, we must not bring unto the rule of our blind, crooked, and presumptuous reason; a quomodo or how in the things of God, is hateful unto God, and not agreeing to the nature of faith, and is very unbeseeming Christians: Take heed lest any man spoil you through philosophy, the word notes to make a prize of you, and carry you away, as Pirates do another man's goods; and so there is many a man made a prize of at this day. Philosophy is nothing in itself but rectified and raised reason, and res Dei ratio est, Tertullian: and whilst reason is subordinate unto Religion, and a hand-maid, it's of excellent use; but when it will step out of its place, and will needs be a Judge in the things of God, then it's vain: that man that will bring down the Scripture unto the rules of his own reason, will quickly be made a prey of by any seducers. Cum de rebus sibi subjectis pronunciat, philosophia audienda est; sed cùm de rebus ad fidem spectantibus, explodenda, When philosophy judgeth of things that belong to her, let her be heard; but when she judgeth of things belonging to faith, let her be exploded. Dav. And this has heen the true ground of all these Heresies, of Arminianism and Socinianism, which have, especially in these latter ages, pestered the world, because they will arraign the highest Truths of God at the Bar of their own blind and presumptuous Reason and Understanding: And this is that which in answer to it Justin Martyr often pressed, De recta fidei confession, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , pag. 375. It becometh the Churches adherents to measure divine things not by human reason, but according to the intention of the Spirits doctrine. So having in the same Book affirmed the Union of the two Natures of Christ, he adds pag. 382. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , If you ask me the manner of this Union, I am not ashamed to say and confess my ignorance therein; but rather I glory in this, that I do upon the authority of God believe that which my reason cannot comprehend, nor my tongue express.

[Use 2] 2. Exercise faith upon all the persons grounded upon these promises, and walk in the love of them all, and expect the sealing of them all, and so much these promises will carry you unto. Exercise faith upon all the persons grounded upon these promises, they are the great and ultimate objects of faith: now faith is imperfect that takes not in all the objects of faith; and it's a greater imperfection for a grace to fail in its object, than to fail in any of the acts of it. The Apostle, 1 Thess. 1. speaks of some defects in faith; and truly these are the great defects: there be abundance of objects of faith that faith doth not act upon, because we know but in part, &c. nay the greatest suspicion that a man has of his faith lies in this, if any object of it be willingly neglected: as in a man's obedience, it's a great ground for a man to question the sincerity and the truth of it, if the meanest duty thereof be willingly neglected; so it's ground enough to question the sincerity and truth of our faith: much more if a man do observe the lesser duties of obedience, and be precise in them; but the great and weighty things of the Law are neglected by him: so it's here, if a man take in lesser and inferior promises; but as for the promises of the persons which are the great things of the Gospel, they are neglected, and faith acts not upon them. Here a man's faith should take in these particulars.

(1) That all the persons have a special hand in the salvation of a sinner, and that by these promises every believer hath an interest in them all, in reference unto these works. It's true, they having one and the same nature and essence, what the one of them doth, the other doth also; whatever thing the Father doth, the same thing doth the Son likewise: But yet though these be not opera propria, proper works, yet they are appropriata, appropriate. There are peculiar works attributed unto each person, as 1 Pet. 1.2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Now suitable to these appropriated works, so should a man's faith eye each of the persons, and his interest in them. When the soul is conversant about Election, faith then must look upon God the Father; and when about Redemption, then faith must look upon God the Son; and when upon Sanctification, then faith must eye the Holy Ghost: because these are the works that the Persons have undertaken under the second Covenant, to accomplish in man's salvation, and they are by promise made over to these ends.

(2) One main intendment of God in the Gospel, is not only to advance the Attributes of the Divine nature, to glorify his Justice, and his Mercy, and Grace by making higher discoveries of them, than ever could have been shown forth under the old Covenant; but it is also to glorify the three Persons in the Trinity in the hearts of Believers: and this appears plainly by Eph. 1.3, 7, 13. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus; in whom we have redemption through his blood, and have attained unto an inheritance; in whom after you believed, you were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise. So that to honor the Persons, and to exalt them in the hearts of Believers, is one great and main intendment of the Gospel; and therefore if your faith close not with them, you cross one great and main end of the Gospel of grace: and that must be done not only in receiving of blessings and benefits from the Trinity in common; but that a man take special notice of the distinct works of them all, what is done by the Father, and what is done by the Son, that in that blessing the person from whence it comes may be highly exalted in the soul: therefore we do read of distinct acts of faith exercised upon the Son, and the Father: You believe in God, believe also in me: that all men may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.

(3) As the order of their working doth follow the order of their subsisting (as the School-men observe) the works of the Father being first, and then the works of the Son; so it's in the work of grace, and all the benefits of it attributed to God the Father are first in order of Nature, and then those that are attributed to the Son; and therefore Adoption being the act of the Father, is by some asserted to be first in order of all spiritual blessings that we receive by grace, before Redemption, which is an act of the Son, and of Sanctification, which is an act of the Holy Ghost: and this very consideration will give a man great light into the order of all spiritual blessings that we receive by virtue of the new Covenant; for the order of the blessings are answerable to the order of the workings of those persons from whence they flow.

2. Believers should exercise love towards all three Persons: God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwells in God, and God in him. There is a walking in love, and a dwelling therein, as a man dwells in his own house; there is not only a love of the Son, as says Christ, So I have loved you, continue you in my love; but there is a love of the Father also, that the soul is to look upon as distinct, If any man love me and keep my words, my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him. I say not that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you, beca ••• you have loved me.

(1) It is a great comfort and honor unto the Saints, that they are come unto the innumerable company of Angels, and unto the Souls of just men made perfect, Heb. 12.23. And the promise is made good to them, Zac. 3.7. They have places [or galleries] to walk in amongst them that stand by, and that they can walk in the love of Angels, and of the general Assembly of the Church of the first-born, whose names are written in Heaven; but much more to walk in the love of all the Persons; that they are come unto Jesus, they are come to the Mediator of the new Covenant, to the blood of sprinkling, and unto God the Judge of all, and so can walk in the apprehension of the love of them all: and it's a great comfort that they can go to them all in prayer grounded upon the particular love of them all, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit: Grace and peace be with you from him that is, and was, and is to come, and from the seven Spirits that are before the Throne, and from Jesus the faithful and true witness. And the soul tastes the love of the Father in giving his Son, and the love of the Son, in that he loved me, and gave himself for me, Gal. 2.20.

(2) That we might testify our love to each Person distinctly, and suitable unto the love with which they have loved us, [1] let us fear to offend them all: not only fear to offend God the Father, because our God is a consuming fire, and it's a great and terrible name, the Lord our God; but also fear to offend God the Son our Savior: Take heed of him, obey his voice, provoke him not, for my name is in him; it is the rod of my son which it contemneth as every tree, &c. And Eph. 2.4, 30. fear to grieve or quench the Spirit, or resist his motions. [2] Perform duties by arguments and motives drawn from the love of them all, If any man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will make our abode with him: he that has my commandments, and keeps them, he shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. [3] Give glory unto them all, being affected with their love particularly, that the soul may say, Glory be unto the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, according to the intent of the Gospel, that as we were baptized in the Name of them all, so we may give glory to them all in a Gospel-sense. And the truth is, as this should be the great and principal object of our faith, so it should be of our love also: the highest love we can love God with, is to love him for himself: we may love God for his benefits and his blessings, but yet that is not true love, unless the highest love be set upon the persons, Plus diligere famulum quam sponsum meretricis amor est, Aust. To love the servant more than the Bridegroom is adulterous love.

3. As in the work of Faith the Soul is to be exercised upon all the Persons, so also in the point of Assurance, which is an addition unto Faith, we should wait for the Witness, and the sealing of them all, because all of them set their seals unto the Evidences of the Saints: The scope of the Epistle of John is, that the Saints may know that they have Eternal Life and there are Witnesses some in Heaven, and some in Earth, but yet the Testimonies that these give all of them are in the heart of a Believer: for so it is said, He that believes hath the witness within himself, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three persons in Heaven give a distinct witness unto the assurance of the Saints in their own hearts; there are three seals that are set unto it: though it's true, that a man knowing the Love of any one of them, he may by consequence, and by way of deduction conclude the Love of them all; yet a man should expect to have it not only discursive, but intuitive, & radio directo, by a direct beam, that a man may in Prayer from a principle of sealing, cry to God, Abba Father, and may say, I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine: and so the Soul may walk in the Love of them all distinctly though not severally; and the Soul is never able to triumph and make his boast of God, till he has assurance of his interest in all the persons; and in all these respects we see that the great grounds of a Christians comfort lie in his interest in the persons, and therefore it's no wonder if the great promises of the Covenant to a Christian be personal promises.

SECT. I. The Covenant of Grace makes God ours, and the Benefits hereof.

§. 1. LEt us come more particularly unto the words of the Promise, in which the main of the Covenant lies on God's part, for we have heard it's unfolded in promises, or to use the Apostles word, established in Promises, and these promises Musculus calls Caput foederis, the Head of the Covenant: the chief and the bottom promise, on which the Covenant stands, is this, I will be thy God: and Pareus calls it anima foederis, the soul of the Covenant; for it's the principal promise of the Second Covenant: as in our part of the Covenant, there is one great Commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; so there is in God's part of the Covenant one great promise, and that is, that he will be our God, and we shall be his people, and therefore a great weight is to be laid upon it.

1. For the opening of it we are to consider there are Two things to be distinctly considered in God: (1.) Essentia, his Essence: (2.) Subsistentia, his Subsistence. (1.) The Essence of God is but one pure and simple act of Being, but yet cannot be comprehended as such by a finite understanding, because it's infinite; therefore it is set forth unto us by several Attributes, which though in God they be all one, yet they are diversify'd according to the different objects upon which they are set, and about which they are conversant, and the different acts that they do put forth unto the Creatures: and so when the Lord doth promise to be our God, he doth make over unto the Creature by promise an interest in all the Attributes of the Essence and Divine Nature. (2.) In this Divine Nature there are three distinct subsistences, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is the word used by the Apostle; and why we should be offended, as some of late, at the word Person, by which it is expressed, I know not, but from the novelty and curiosity of this last Age: There is in the God-head, Father, Son, and Spirit, and these Three are One. Now when the Lord doth promise to be a God to his People, he doth make over his whole self, God in Essence, according to all the Attributes of his Nature, and God in Subsistence, according unto all the persons or subsistences in the God-head; and it is very necessary, that as in point of obedience we take in the whole latitude and extent of the Law, for the Commandment is exceeding broad, so in point of Faith also, that we take in the whole latitude and extent of the promises; that as in the one our hearts and desires in obeying may answer God's in commanding, so in the other our hearts and desires in believing may answer God's in promising.

2. To be a God implies a sufficiency. (1) It is a term of Sufficiency, and so it is here, Gen. 17.1. I am God all-sufficient: he that is self-sufficient in himself, is all-sufficient to his people. What is there that can be necessary unto your happiness, but it shall be had in me? and therefore Psal. 144. ult. Blessed is the people whose God is Jehovah; because in God there is an all-sufficiency, that not only you shall have all happiness from him, but you shall have all things in him: so that as he is sufficient for himself, of and from himself, without going forth unto any other; so shall you have all things in him immediately, that you need look unto nothing else to make you happy; for all the perfections of a God shall be yours. (2) To be a God is a term of Sovereignty, for he is the most high King of Kings, and Lord of Lord's, the most High rules in the Kingdoms of mortal men, and he is God over all, blessed for evermore. Therefore to be a man's God is to undertake the rule and government over him, and to rule and govern all things for his good, that they may be all unto him a blessing; that as Christ is made the head of all things for the Churches sake, so will the Lord rule over all things for his people's sake, rule all as a God, as truly for their good, as for his own glory.

3. It points also to the manner of the fulfilling of this promise, it shall be as becomes a God, and in the way of a God: and so much also A Lapide hints upon the place, Ero tuus tuorúm{que} Deus, ut à vobis solus colar, I will be the God of thee and thine, that I may be worshipped by thee. Now there are two ways by which a people employ their interest in God, (1) by way of Communion, they come unto God, and they draw near to him, which are terms of Communion, (2) by way of Fruition, their happiness is in him, and he will be their portion and reward in the land of the living. When the Lord casts off a people from being a Church to himself, he will own them in ways of worship no more, he doth express it so, calls them Loammi, they are not my people, I will not be their God: he does not say, You shall not have the creatures to be yours, as the fruits of my bounty, you shall not have respite of torment, as the fruits of my patience; but yet when you have all things here below, you shall not have me in them all, in ways of communion here, or of fruition hereafter.

[Doctrine 2] The main intendment of God in the new Covenant is this, That he may become the God of his people. Every man that is brought into the new Covenant doth change his God, Jer. 2.10. it's said, Pass over to the Isles of Chittim, and send unto Kedar, and see if there be such a thing, has any nation changed their God? It's looked upon as a strange thing in the world, and yet this is the condition of all those that come under the second Covenant; and therefore as the great Commandment to a people is, Thou shalt have Jehovah for thy God, and thou shalt have none else; so the great promise on God's part is, that I will be thy God, that though the earth be mine, and the fullness thereof, all souls are mine, yet I will be thy God, and thy portion, as if there were no other men in the world besides thee. There is a double change wrought in the Saints, (1) a change of a man's state, (2) a change of a man's life. The first is the great and the universal change that God works in men at their first conversion, and that the School-men do well say is mutatio circa finem ultimum, a change of a man's utmost end. Now finis ultimus & summum bonum inter se convertuntur, the last end and chiefest good are convertible: therefore he that doth change his utmost end, does also change his chiefest good, and he that doth so, doth change his God.

1. Here we are to consider, that all mankind that are out of covenant with God, have no interest in God, they have all of them another God. Eph. 2.12. they are all of them Atheists, or men without God. Before Abraham was taken into covenant with God, he did serve other God's beyond the river with Terah his father, Josh. 24.2. but when he was taken into covenant, the main intendment of the Covenant was this, he shall change his God. Now I will make a covenant with thee, to be a God to thee and thy seed, and thou shalt worship the Nations god no more. It's true that there are no men but they have some impressions of a Deity upon them; every man worships some God, a Numen he doth acknowledge, and there is a God that everyone doth choose unto himself, as it is said in Judges,