The Covenant of Life Opened, Part 1 · Chapter 9 – Chapter 10
CHAP. IX. What life is promised in the Covenant of Works. 2. Whether all we, especially the Reprobate, by the fall, lost all right to the creatures. 3. How the Lord is our God.
Q. WHat is meaned by life promised in the Covenant of Works!VVhat a life was promised to Adam. A. 1. Not a life in Christ and the fruit of the merit of blood, as our life is in the New Covenant, Joh. 10.11. Joh. 3.16. For Adam was not Mediator of reconciliation here, he was a sort of publick Law-head in whom he was to stand or fall, if any please to call him so a Mediator foreign but it is a Law-life happily a communion in glory. 2. But the life he lived, and the creatures for his service seems not to belong to this life, for the creatures were given to Adam, he not working for them. Yet I should not oppose, if any say that earthly blessings were given to Adam, as a reward of an actuall obedience, as they are given to such as keep the Law, Deut. 28. But sure our gain in Christ of such a life, bought by so noble a Ransome as the Blood of God-man, is not little. Its rawnesse and greennesse of wit, to value it so low as we do. Children see not what a hireing and taking apple Heaven is.
Q. Whether or no did Adam and all the Reprobats in his loyns, by sin, Of our …ight to the creatures.losse right to the creatures?
A. There is a three-fold right.
1. Naturall.
2. Providentiall.
3. Spirituall.
A naturall right may be conceived two wayes. 1. Absolutely, A three-fold right, naturall, providentiall, spirituall.so creature, and man not created, can have no jus or claime to being or life, the Creators free gift is our best Charter to life and being. 2. This right may be conceived, conditionally, as if God create the Sun, a power to give light is congruous, and debita naturae Solis suteable to the nature of the Sun, nor can the creature plead for this, as debt: but if the Lord give being, to injoy this being can not be sin,There is no law to have being and living, and so no sin in having it. because there is no law and command to nothing to receive or not to receive being and life from the Creator: And where there is no Law, there is no transgression. And therefore to have being and life cannot be in it self a sin.
2. Providentiall right is but a continuating of life and being, untill the same power that gave it, shall remove it, by way of punishment;VVhat a providentiall right …. For God as Creator, of his Soveraignty, gives being and life, and the comfortable use of the creatures; but as a Judge ordinarily for sin he removes it, though he, I deny not, out of his Soveraignty, may, and possibly doth, annihilate the meat that the Angels in assumed bodies, and which the Man Christ, after the Resurrection, did eat.
3. The spirituall right is that new supernaturall Title, which the Elect beleevers have, in order to a supernaturall end, and all these being made theirs, to promove their salvation, 1 Cor. 3.21. All things are yours. Rev. 21.7.VVhat a spirituall right is, & how excellent. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, by Covenant-right, so: he adds, And I will be his God, and he shall be my Son, Psal. 37 10. A drink of cold water, by this Charter, is better then a Kings Crown, and hath refreshed some more then all the choise wine the earth yeelds. The love of the Giver is better then wine, Cant. 1.2. and here the Charter is, by many thousands, more precious then the Land. For nature common to all is over-gilded with free-Grace. And the naturall life and being, and the materiall heavens we shall injoy, are blessed in another manner to the glorified, then these they now injoy, 1 Cor. 15.40, 41, 42, 43, &c. 2 Pet. 3.13. Rev. 21.1. Isa. 65.17. and they shall be above the heavens that are, when the mysticall body shall be perfected, yea, and the dust into which the bodies of the Saints are resolved, keeps a spirituall Covenant relation to God in Christ: As Exod. 3.6. Mat. 22.32. Joh. 6.39. Rom. 8.21, 22, 23. for no joint or part of the body, but it must share of Covenant glory. We look little to any thing but to have and injoy the dead lump and body of Gold, dead lands without Christ. See Hos. 2.18.22. Ezek. 34.25.27. Ezek. 36.29. Lev. 26.6. Psal. 37.9, 11, 29. 1 Tim. 4.8. Heb. 13.5, 6. Math. 6.25, 26. Psal. 34.10. O fair inheritance. 4. As to the second (which is the main controversie) to injoy life and being, is the substance of the act, no sin. Men contraveen a Law to be so and so born, to wit, in sin, for its forbidden by a Law: But to be born and live, is no sin,To live & to injoy the creatures is not in it self sin. but by order of nature, before Originall sin. Nor is it forbidden more to man to be born and live, then its forbidden to beasts, nor to eat, sleep, wake, then to them: So neither is it commanded by a Law to die, but it is commanded and commended to die well, to fall asleep in Christ, 1 Thes. 4.14.16. to be faithfull to the death, Acts 7.60. Rev. 2.10. Rev. 14.13. (2.) The Elect who are born heirs of wrath, as others, Eph. 2.3. And all the Reprobate should kill themselves, or be killed, from the birth, if to live and eat were sin, in it self. But only the Lord of life and death, and his Minister, the Magistrate hath power to take away life and being, no man can be his own burrio. But if it were sin in it self to live, they ought to expire and restore an usurped life, which they possesse, malâ fide, to the owner the Lord, as a theef is oblidged to restore stollen goods (3.) The dominion of Reprobats over the creatures, is a part of the good Image of God, Gen. 1.26, 27. and they breath, live, ride, sail, and are no more then the Elect to lay these aside, then they are to lay aside the naturall knowledge of God, by which they are to glorifie God as God, Rom. 1.19, 20, 21. Rom. 2.14, 15. Act. 14.16, 17. Now the Reprobates have not utterly lost the Image of God, as to know there is a God, to honour their parents, to hurt no man.
4. This opinion looks the rather like a fancie, that it is a temptation in weak ones, under a sad desertion, Sathan riding upon their Melancholie (a complexion not sanctified, usefull to Sathan, and if sanctified,Their temptation, who think they should not eat, nor pray. a seat of mortification and humble walking) for they judge it sin to eat, and drink, and sleep, they having no right thereunto, but so they have no right to live, and are oblidged to kill themselves, and upon the same ground, it was sin to Adam to speak, to answer God, to breath, to hear the news of the blessed seed, which all are acts of life, and so acts of sin, and upon the same ground, that they cannot perform these without sin, they should not pray, for in praying, they cannot but take the Name of God in vain. For we are not to abstaine from a duty, because of the sinfulnesse, which adheres to the duty, by reason of our corruption, for in Christ the sinfulnesse is pardoned, and the duty accepted.
5. It necessarily must follow, if it be sin to eat, because the non-converted have no right spirituall in Christ, to bread, the converted may spoil by their grounds,If the non-converted, have no right to any thing, then we may spoil & deprive them of life and all they have. all the non-converted, of their goods, houses, gold, gardens, vineyards, lands, and upon the same ground, for the crime of non-regeneration, they must also deprive them of their lives, and kill them; For they have alike right, that is, no right (these men being Judges) to either life or goods. And so, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self, must be meant of the converted neighbour: but with fire and sword all other neighbours may be killed and spoiled, and so there should be no stealing, no oppressing, no crushing of the widow, the stranger, the fatherlesse, the weaker; not grind the faces of the poor, though their Redeemer be strong, contrair to the Scripture, Prov. 23.11. Jer. 50.33, 34. Psal. 94.5, 6, 7, 8. Psal. 14.4. Exo. 22.26, 27. Isa. 3.12, 13, 14, 15. Mic. 2.3. and so it were lawfull to take Crowns, Kingdomes, inheritances, lands, dignitie, and honour, from all the unregenerate Princes, powers, and rulers on earth, to cut off with the sword all the heathen Nations who as yet know not Christ, and it were lawfull for the regenerate sons and brethren to kill and spoil Father, Mother, Brethren, Sisters, Kings, Potentates, Countrey-men▪ strangers, Orphans, exiled, captives, prisoners, sick, weak, imprisoned, all infants that are by nature the heirs of wrath, upon this ground, the converted ones judge all non-converts to be void of all due right to life▪ or goods, and so in these men, the societies, Churches of Christ must cease.
Obj. These who injoy that of which they deserve to be deprived, have no due right to that of which they deserve to be deprived; but are usurpers, and so sin. But all the non-regenerated are such, or, they who use that to which they have no right, do sin in the act of using it.
Ans. 1. They who injoy that of which they deserve to be deprived, they sin, and have no due right to use it; Is not universally true. They who injoy that which they may and ought by their own private power, restore, such as ill conquished goods.How true it is, that these who injoy that, of which they deserve to be deprived, they have no right to that and sin in using i…. They sin in using that, true, Prov. 3.27. Exod. 22.26, 27. Luke 19.8. Its a sin to withhold the rayment though laid in pawnd, which should cover the poor mans skin in the night, and they have no right to injoy that.
But they who injoy that, what ever it be, of which by sin, they deserve to be deprived, they have no due right to that, it is denyed: For if it be life, being, eating, sleeping, and such things, as only can be taken away, by a judiciall power, and by God the Lord of life and death, and cannot be taken away by themselves, (for it is lawfull for no man to punish himself and take away his own life) nor by any other, except for capitall crimes, they have due providentiall right to keep and injoy all such things untill the same power that gave them remove them, nor do they sin in using them.Living in the devils and damned and Reprobate is no usurping of life. And it is most dangerous to say, that Devils and the damned in Hell who dishonour the Majesty of God by their living and being, and so by sin, deserve to be annihilated and deprived of their being, do sin, in that they live and are not annihilated, and that all the Elect before their conversion, sin in that they injo… being and life. A judge sentenceth a man to die for killing his father within 24. houres, but by invincible providence he is rescued out of the hand of the Magistrate,Simile. and lives diverse years after, the sentenced man sins not before God nor against the law of the land, in that he lives, nor can he be called an usurper and unjust, malae fidei, possessour of his life: For the sentence was not that he should take away his life with his own hand, but that it should be taken away by the judiciall hand and executioner of the Magistrate. Nor is this Providentiall right, a right of meer permission but of positive donation and free-gift, for then we might by the same reason, say that Reprobate men have a right of meer permission to keep and injoy the knowledge of these, that God is: Superiours, Parents are to be honoured: the whole is more then the part;The Reprobate & non-converted, in the Visible Church, want all spirituall right by faith in Christ to life and the creatures, and they sin in the maner of living, eating, &c. Yea they have the same naturall and providentiall right by nature that other sinners have to the one as to the other. 2. These who injoy that, of which they deserve to be deprived, they sin in the act of using, as touching the substance of the act of living, being, eating, drinking: That is most false. These who injoy that, of which they deserve to be deprived, they, in modo, in the way, maner, and end of living, eating, &c. do sin: It is true: and such have not spirituall and supernaturall right in Christ (which they ought to have, if they be in the Visible Church and hearers of the Gospel) to life, being and the creatures, and they sin in not believing, Rom. 14. not eating for the Glory of God, 1 Cor. 10.31. Naturall men care not if they have and injoy things so they have them: They have being, so have earth, stones, &c. they live, so doe trees and hearbs, they have health, so have beasts and birds, they swallow up many years, so do Ravens, and Harts and other beasts, a long lump,How woful to have a lump of life & time & no right to life. many thousand yairds and miles of life are sought, diu sunt, non diu vivunt. But who lives for God, who sleeps, who wakes, who eats for God and his Glory? and they who make themselves their last end, Idolatrously put self in the roome of God, who only is the last end of all, Rom. 11.36. Rev. 4.11. Prov. 16.4. and as good make self the first Author of Heaven and Earth and Creator as the last end. Ye who eat and drink, who pays your reckoning? Christ? Or are you usurpers? Have you any Charter? Or do ye robbe the Lord?
Q. What way is God ours?
A. By Covenant, Ezek. 34.24. Genes. 17.7. Jere. 32.38. Zech. 13.9. But he is not ours as if we had some gifted right and dominion over him, as we have over the creatures. 2. Nor is he ours as we are his, the clay hath no soveraignty over the Potter. Nor 3. is God simply as God ours, but God as it were coming down in Christ to us Covenant-wayes as God incarnate,How God is our… ▪ to make out his goodnesse, grace, mercy to and for us. 4. Its true God incarnate, Christ, is principally Gods, 1 Cor. 3.21. not ours. He is all for God, he is Immanuel, our Immanuel in order to save us, and so is more ours then the God of Angels.
2. God is the fluier of the Saints desire, more to them then all heaven in the length and breadth thereof,God to the Saints and to the Man CHRIST a heaven. and all the inhabitants thereof, Psal. 73.25. Isa. 63.16. more then all the Angels and Saints, 1 Thes. 4.16. (2.) There is no hell to Christ but afar off God, Psal. 22.1. Math. 27.45. no heaven but the glory he had with the father, John 17.5. (3.) There is nothing more like a spiritual disposition then when the Spouse, Cant. 3. hath soul-love to Christ: I sought him whom my soul loved. (2.) She hath an ardent desire after him, I sought him but I found him not. 3. There could not be such diligent search after she found him, if there had not been strong faith.There may be a train of graces, & yet unquietnesse for the want of Christ. 4. And her conference with the watchmen, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? saith, She enjoyed Ordinances and means, yet there may be (which is to be observed) a furniture of grace and a want of Christ, I went a little further, I found him whom my soul loveth, Cant. 5. There is 1. a waking heart. 2. A discerning of the Beloved, and a telling over again of his words, Open to me, my sister, &c. 3. A stirring of Christs hand upon the key-hole of the heart. 4. A moving of the bowels for him. 5. A seeking of him and a praying, but no finding nor answer. 6. A love-sicknesse for him, and yet a missing of himself, I sought him but I found him not. So compare Cant. 1.1, 4. with Cant. 2, 3, 4. with v. 6, 8. and other places, it will be clear a God-head can only quiet the spirit, and that its a question whether we know the field where the Pearle is, and the Rubies, Saphirs, precious stones that are hid here, which do in worth exceed the capapacity of Angels and Saints.
Therefore should his glory be the last end and stirrer of us in all our actings,A spiritual soul acts in God, and grace the only efficient in all, and so much of God (if he be ours by Covenant) as our wayes, intentions may smell of him. But there is much of the creature, of self, of gain, of empty glory, in our spirituall actings. God weighs not down the creature nor heaven and union with Christ: as Exod. 32.32. Rom. 9.3. (2.) Its a spirituall soul that misseth God, rather then the train of all the graces of faith,And misses God rather then any created saving grace. love, hope, d…si…e of and joying in him. And know he is away though heaven were in the heart, and can discern when the Ordinances are empty. 3. It engages all we are, hands, knees, body, Exo. 20.5. Psal. 44.20. 1 Cor. 6.19. self to be for God, and to live wholly in him, not in our selves. 4. We are not to believe in believing, nor to be sick of love with the love of Christ, nor to make a god of faith or love. Its a spirituall condition to have grace and to misse Christ.
CHAP. X.
Cotvin. cont. Molin. c. 8. §. 7. Primo foedere per inobedientiam primi hominis rupto, cessabat etiam obligatio ad eam obedientiam lege praescriptam. Ibid. c. 9. §. 5. Remonstr. in Scrip Synod. Dored. 4. …a. 145.Q. WHat are the false grounds of the Lords making the Covenant of Grace?
A. There are two bastard grounds devised by Arminians. 1. Because the Covenant of Works cannot oblidge both to active and passive obedience, but to one of them only (say they) and the Covenant of Works was so rigid, that God could not follow it out, and cast infants in hell for a sin which is theirs, only by imputation, and was pardoned to the first man that committed it. Therefore he was necessitated to make a Covenant of Grace with all mankind, none excepted. But the Covenant of Works is broken, and can now be a way of Justification and salvation to none, but yet it oblidges all. And sin cannot make us lawlesse, for the spirituall Law is of an eternall obligation. 2. They that never heard of Christ, perish by the Law, and not by the Covenant of Grace of which they never heard,The Law & the …rst Covenant is holy, and oblidgeth all to acti… obedience alwayes. and the Gospel is written in the heart of none. 3. The first Covenant was holy and spirituall, and God should unjustly threaten death upon infants, if they be not guilty of eternall condemnation, as Arminius, disp. pub. 7. th. 16.3. and the Scripture saith, infants are guilty of this sin, Eph. 2.3. Rom. 5. Psal. 51.5. Job 14.4. As also Christ must not have died for the sins of Infants, if there be no sin in them, they need not the ransome of Christs Blood. The other bastard ground is,There is sin in Infants. the naturall antecedent desire and love of God to have all saved, moved him (say they) to make this Covenant of Grace with all. But this makes away free-grace, and changes God as the blind Talmud, The naturall antecedent love of GOD, which is fancied to be the ground of the Covenant of Grace, is as what the Jews in t…e Talmud, & the Alcaron say of God. Doctrin. fidei Judai…. …. 5. trac. 8. ib ord. 1. disp. 7. Alcar. c. 43.which saith God hath a secret place in which he afflicts himself, because he burnt the Temple, and delivered the Jews to captivitie. As also, the Lord remembring the captivity of the Jews, and their desolation, he powres out two tears every day in the Sea or Ocean, and for grief, smites his breasts with both his hands. And the Alcoran saith, that God and the Angels wish well to Mahomet, but cannot free him from death. So made the Heathen their Jupiter to deplore the destinies which he could not amend. And what is this, but to say, God hath passionate desires to have all, Elect, and Reprobat, Men, and Angels, to obey and be eternally saved, but he cannot help the matter; and therefore must upon the same account, be sorrowfull and mourn that he cannot get all saved, which destroyes the power of grace and restrains the outgoings of free-love.