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Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2024 17:41:39 GMT -5
The Reasons Why God Reserves the Best Blessings for Believers Until They Come to Heaven.
Reason 1. Because it is his good will and pleasure to reserve the best things for his people until last. Luke 12:32,
"Fear not, little flock—for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." As it is God's good pleasure to give you a kingdom, so it is his pleasure not to give you the kingdom until last, 2 Tim. 4:7-8.
Our heavenly Father does now give a kingdom of grace, and will at last also give a kingdom of glory—to those who walk uprightly, Psalm 84:11. But,
Reason 2. That he may keep the hearts of his people in a longing and in a waiting frame, for the enjoyment of those
great and glorious things that he has reserved for them until last. Heb. 13:14, "Here on earth we have no continuing city— but we seek one to come." The greater and better the things are which are laid up for us—the more we should long and wait for the happy enjoyment of them. Abraham waited long for a son, and Hannah waited long for a child, and Joseph waited long for his advancement, and David waited long for the crown, the kingdom; and they had all a most happy outcome. The longer we wait, the better we shall speed; as that emperor's son said, the longer the cooks are preparing the meat—the better will be the feast; meaning, the longer he waited for the empire—the greater
it would be. The longer we wait for happiness, the more at last we shall have of happiness. The great things of eternity are worth nothing, if they are not worth a longing and a waiting for. But,
Reason 3. God has reserved the best and greatest things for his people until last—and that because else they were
above all men in the world the most miserable. 1 Cor 15:19, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." Usually none outside of hell—are so much afflicted, tempted, oppressed, scorned, despised, and neglected—as they are. Here on earth they have their hell—they have need of a heaven to come. Here on earth they are clothed with shame—they had need hereafter to be crowned with honor, or else they would be the unhappiest men in all the world. Here on earth the life of a believer is filled with many and multiplied miseries—with miseries of body, with miseries of mind. Multiplied miseries attend him, at bed and board, at home and abroad. Every condition is full—and every relation is full—of miseries and calamities! Therefore one says well, How can this life be loved, which is so full of loathsome bitterness? Yes, how can it be called a life, which brings forth so many deaths? Yet he is a fool, says one, who looks upon a godly man under trouble and sorrow, and thinks him to be unhappy; because
he sees only what he suffers, and does not see what is reserved for him in heaven. If the best things were not reserved for believers until last, they would have the saddest portion of all men, namely—a hell here on earth, and a hell hereafter! And so the ungodly would have but one hell, and saints two—which would be blasphemy to affirm.
But,
Reason 4. God reserves the best things for his people until last, for the greater terror and horror, conviction and
confusion of wicked and ungodly people, who now revile them, and judge them to be the unhappiest men in all the world. Oh! but when the Lord shall in the sight of all the world gloriously own them, and put royal robes upon their backs, and golden crowns upon their heads—then, Oh! what shame, what covering of the face, what terror, what trembling—will possess the hearts of wicked men! The great honor and glory which God will put upon his people at last, will be to wicked men what the handwriting upon the wall was to Belshazzar, "His face turned pale with fear.
Such terror gripped him that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way beneath him!" Dan. 5:1-8. Oh! it will make their countenance to change, their thoughts to be terrified, the joints of their loins to be loosed, and their knees dashed one against another! Now that word shall be eminently made good: "The godly will see these things and be glad, while the wicked are stricken silent!" Psalm 107:42. Oh! what trouble of mind, what horror of conscience, what distraction and vexation, what terror and torment, what weeping and wailing, what crying and roaring, what wringing of hands, what tearing of hair, what dashing of knees, what gnashing of teeth—will
there be among the wicked, when they shall see the saints in all their splendor, dignity, and glory! "When they shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God—and they themselves shut out forever!" Luke 13:28. Then shall the wicked lamentingly say, Lo! these are the men whom we counted fools, madmen, and miserable. Oh but now we see that we were deceived and deluded! Oh that we had never despised them!
Oh that we had never reproached them! Oh that we had never trampled upon them! Oh that we had been one with them! Oh that we had imitated them! Oh that we had walked as they, and done as they, that so we might now have been as happy as they! Oh but this cannot be! Oh this may not be! Oh this shall never be! Oh that we had never been born! Oh that now we might be unborn! Oh that we might be turned into a bird, a beast, a toad, a stone! Oh that we were anything but what we are! Oh that we were nothing! Oh that now our immortal souls were mortal! Oh that we might so die, that we may not eternally exist! But it is now too late. Oh we see that there is a reward for the righteous! and we see, that by all the contempt which we have cast upon these glorious shining saints, whose splendor and glory does now darken the very glory of the sun, Dan. 12:3; we have but treasured up wrath against the day of wrath, Romans 2:4-7; we have but added fuel to those burning coals, to those everlasting flames, in which we must now lie forever, Psalm 140:10. "And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life." Matthew 25:46. "And they cried to the mountains and the rocks—Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on
the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!" Revelation 6:16.
Reason 5. The Lord has reserved the best things for his people until they come to heaven, that so he may save his
honor and secure his glory. Would it make for the honor and glory of God, to put his children, his servants, upon doing hard things, and upon suffering great things—and at last to put them off with nothing? Surely it would not! And therefore the Lord, to save the honor of his great name, has reserved the best wine until last—the best and choicest favors for his people until they come to heaven, John 2:10. The sweetest honey lies at the bottom. I cannot see how God would save his glory, if he would put his children always upon sowing—and never allow them to reap, 2 Cor. 9:6-7; that they should still be sowing in tears—if at last they would not reap in joy, Psalm 126:4-6. Men who love but their names and honor in the world, will not be served for nothing, and will God? Will God, who is infinitely more tender of his name and honor, than any created being can be of theirs? Isaiah 42:8, 48:11.
I have read of Alphonsus, a king of Spain, who when a knight falling into poverty and being arrested for debt, there was a petition to the king to support him, Ay, said the King, since he had spent his estate for me, it is reason why he shall be provided for by me. Men of honor will provide for those who spend themselves in their service; and will not God? Will not God do as much, yes more, for those who spend themselves in his service? Surely he will! Heb. 11:16. "They were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a heavenly city for them!" As if he had said, Had not God prepared for them a city, had he not made some blessed provision for them—who left so much for him, who did so much for him, and who suffered
such great and bitter things for him—they might well have complained that they had but a bad bargain of it, and that God was a hard master; so God would have been ashamed. Had not God made such happy and blessed provision for those who had run through so many dangers and deaths for his sake, had he not provided and laid up for them, according to his promise, and suitable to his greatness and goodness, his dignity and glory, it would have put God to the blush, to speak after the manner of men.
I have read concerning Dionysius of Sicily, that being extremely delighted with a minstrel who sang well, he promised to give him a great reward; and that raised the imagination of the man, and made him play better. But when the music was done, and the man waited for his reward, the king dismissed him empty, telling him that he should carry away as much of the promised reward as himself did of the music, and that he had paid him sufficiently with the pleasure of the promise, for the pleasure of his song. But it will not stand with the honor of the King of kings to put off his servants so poorly, whose prayers, praises, and tears, have been most sweet and delightful music to him? No, he will act like himself at last—and that his children know. It encouraged a martyr at the stake—that he was going to a place where he should ever be a-receiving wages, and do no more work. But,
Reason 6. That he may make his children temptation proof, he has reserved for them the best things until they come to heaven. The great things which God has reserved for believers in heaven, was that which made those worthies, of whom this world was not worthy, temptation-proof. The pleasures, the treasures, the dignities and glories which are reserved for believers in heaven—make them bravely and nobly to resist all those temptations which they meet with from a tempting world or a tempting devil. Augustine blessed God—that his heart and the temptation did not meet together. By the precious things that are reserved for believers in heaven—God keeps their hearts and temptations asunder. When Basil was tempted with money and preferment, says he, Give me money that may last forever, and glory that may eternally flourish! Satan made a bow of Job's wife, of his rib, as Chrysostom speaks, and shot a temptation by her at Job, thinking to have shot him to the heart, "Curse God and die!" But Job's sincerity and integrity, and his hopes of immortality and glory, were a breastplate which made him temptation-proof. Ah Christians! do not you daily find, that the glorious things reserved for you in heaven—do mightily arm you against all the temptations which you meet with on earth? I know you do. But,
Reason 7. God has reserved the best things for his people, until they come to heaven, because they are not in this
mortal and frail condition able to bear, they are not able to take in the glory that is reserved for them. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!" 2 Cor. 4:17. Glory is such a great, such an exceeding, such an excessive, such an eternal weight— that no mortal is able to bear it. We must have better and larger hearts, and we must have stronger and broader backs—before we shall be capable of bearing that excellent, exceeding, and excelling weight of glory, which is reserved in heaven for us! Nay, glory is such a weight, that when the saints shall enter into it—if then the Lord should not put his everlasting arms under them and bear them up by his almighty power—it would be impossible they should be able to
bear it themselves! In this our frail mortal state, we are not able to bear the appearance, the presence, the glory of one angel—Ah! how much less then are we able to bear the weight of all that glory which is reserved for us, and
of which I have given you some glimpses in what I have already said. But,
Reason 8. The Lord has reserved the best things for his people until they come to heaven, because while they are
in this world they have not come to full age. Here on earth saints are in their infancy—but when they come to heaven, then they come to their full age, and then they shall have the inheritance by the Father of mercies, freely and fully settled upon them. Those in their childhood are under tutors and governors—but when they come to full age, then is the inheritance settled upon them. So here on earth, it is not for us in our infancy, to mount into the clouds, to pierce this fullness of light, to break into this bottomless depth of glory, or to dwell in that unapproachable brightness. This is reserved until we come to full age.
And thus I have given you the reasons why God has reserved the best and greatest things for his people until they come to heaven. We shall now come to the use and application of this point to our own souls, remembering that close application is the very life and soul of teaching. And as a man does not attain to health by the mere reading and knowing Hippocrates remedies—but by the practical application of them to remove the disease; so no man will attain to true happiness by hearing, reading, or commending what I have spoke or written—but by a close application and bringing home of all to his own soul. The opening of a point is the drawing of the bow; but the application of the point is the hitting of the mark, the bulls-eye; and therefore,
(1.) If God has reserved the best things for believers until last, then by the rule of contraries—the worst things are reserved for unbelievers until last. Here on earth wicked men have their heaven, hereafter they shall have their hell. The time of this life is the day of their joy and triumph; and when this short day is ended, then everlasting lamentations, mournings,and woes follow."The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water an cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony." Luke 16:22-25
Ah sinners! sinners! that day is hastening upon you, wherein you shall have punishment without pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without support, pain without pleasure, and torments without end! Psalm 11:6, "On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot." Psalm 140:10, "Let burning coals fall upon them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise."
Ah, sinners! sinners! what a dishonor would it be to God, to Christ, to angels, to saints, to heaven—if such wretches as you are should be admitted into that royal palace, that heavenly paradise above!
Ah! your portion is below, and you are already adjudged to those torments which are endless, easeless, and remediless, where the worm never dies, and the fire never goes out, Rev. 14:11. The day is coming upon you, sinners, when all your sweet shall be turned into bitter; all your glory into shame; all your plenty into scarcity; all your
joys into sorrows; all your recreations into vexations; and all your momentary comforts into everlasting torments!
Now you reign as kings, you look big, you speak proudly, you behave arrogantly, you walk contemptuously; but there is an after-reckoning a-coming which will appall you—and torture you forever! The time of this life is your summer; but there is a winter a-coming upon you, which shall never have end. God could not be just if your worst were not yet to come; neither could he be just if the saints' best were not yet to come. The time of this life is the saints' hell, and the sinners' heaven; but the next life will be the saints' heaven, and the sinners' hell. But,
(2.)If the best things are reserved for believers until they come to heaven—patiently wait for the enjoyment of those great things that are reserved for you in heaven. Men will wait, and wait long, for some outward good; and will not you for the best and greatest good? Are there not many things which speak out the greatness of that glory that is reserved for you? as the price that Christ has paid for it, and the great and glorious things by which it is
shadowed out to us? as Canaan, Jerusalem, paradise; and the dignity of the inhabitants, there being none admitted under the degree of a king; and the great and glorious pledge of the Spirit; and the great care, cost, and charge that God has been at to prepare and fit souls for the enjoyment of it. What do all these things speak out—but that
the glory which is reserved for believers is great glory; and is it not then worth a waiting for? Let not Satan's slaves wait more patiently for a few ounces of gold, than you do for the kingdom of heaven!
Again, as the things reserved for you in heaven are great, and therefore wait, so they are certain and sure; and therefore wait. Oh patiently wait for the enjoyment of them! Heb. 6:16-19. When the beggar at the door is sure of succeeding, he will wait patiently, he will wait unweariedly. The glorious things reserved in heaven for you,
they are made sure and certain to you by word, by covenant, by oath, by blood, by the pledge, by the first-fruits, and by Christ's taking possession of them in your place, in your stead, Eph. 2:6, John 14:1-4; therefore patiently wait for the enjoyment of them. O Christians! it is but a very short time which God has proposed to be between grace—and glory; between our title to the crown—and our wearing the crown; between our right to the heavenly inheritance
—and our possession of the heavenly inheritance. Ah, Christians! bear up bravely, bear up sweetly, bear up patiently—for it will be but a little, little, little while, before he who shall come will come, and will not tarry, Heb. 10:35-37. And when he does come, he will not come empty-handed; no, when he comes, he brings his reward with
him, Rev. 22:12; when he comes, he will reward you for every prayer that you have made, and for every sermon that you have heard, and for every tear that you have shed, and for every hour that you have patiently waited; and therefore wait patiently until the promised crown be set upon your head. But,
(3.) If the best things are reserved for believers until they come to heaven—oh then, let no believer envy nor be
troubled at the outward prosperity and felicity of the men of the world. What is darkness compared to light, chaff to wheat, dross to gold, gall to honey, pebbles to pearls, earth to heaven? No more is all the glory and felicity that wicked men have in this poor world—compared to those great and glorious things that saints have in reversion; and therefore, O believer, let not wicked men's prosperity be your calamity!
It is the justice of envy to kill and torment the envious. Envy—it tortures the affections, it vexes the mind, it inflames the blood, it corrupts the heart, it wastes the spirits; and so it becomes man's tormentor and man's executioner at once. Take heed, Christians, take heed of an envious eye, for that usually looks upon other men's
enjoyments through a multiplying glass, and so makes them appear greater and bigger than they are; and this increases torment, this often makes a hell.
It is reported of Panormitanus, that a question being asked before king Frederick, what was good for the eye-sight, and the physicians answering some one thing, some another, Sannizarius answered, that envy was very good; at which the company smiling, he gave this reason for it, because that envy makes all things appear bigger than they are.
Ah, Christians! envy is a serpent, a devil—which should be abhorred and shunned more than hell itself. O Christian! with what heart can you envy wicked men's prosperity and worldly felicity—if you do but look up to your own glory, and seriously consider of their sad reckoning and future calamity? Dives was one day rustling in his purple robes, riches, and worldly glory—and the next day he was rolling and roaring in the flames of hellish misery; and how soon this may be the portion of those you envy, who can tell? and therefore rather pity them than envy them. None need more prayer and pity than those who have neither skill nor will to pity themselves, to pray for themselves; and such are wicked men under their outward prosperity and worldly glory, Job 21:7-20. But,
(4.) If the best things are reserved for believers until they come to heaven—oh then let all believers be contented,
though they have but small portions in this world!He who is an heir to a great estate, though in his childhood he is kept poor— yet this comforts and contents him, that though things are now poor with him, it will be but a little while before the inheritance is settled upon him, and this makes him bear up sweetly and contentedly under all his needs and straits, Philip. 4:12-14, 1 Tim. 6:6-8. Ah, Christians! Christians! though for the present your needs may be many, and God may cut you short in many desirable enjoyments—yet it will not be long before the crown, the inheritance, be fully settled upon you, and then you shall never know more what need means; therefore be content with your present condition, with your present portion, though it be ever so little, ever so lowly. Heb. 13:5, "Keep
your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have." At this time the Hebrews had been plundered of all their goods, and goodly things, chapter 10:34, and so had nothing left—yet they must be content with present things. When they had changed their raiment for rags, their silver for brass, their plenty for scarcity, their houses for holes and caves, and dens—yet then they must be contented with present things.
When men cannot bring their means to their minds, then they must bring their minds to their means, and, when this is done, then a littlewill serve the turn. A man needs very little of this world's goods to carry him through his pilgrimage, until he comes to his home, until he comes to heaven. A little will satisfy the demands of nature, less
will satisfy grace, though nothing will satisfy a man's lusts! "I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need." Philippians 4:11-12
I have read of one Didymus, a godly preacher, who was blind; Alexander, a godly man, being with him, asked him whether he was not much troubled and afflicted for lack of his sight? Oh yes! said Didymus, the lack of my sight is a very great grief and affliction to me; whereupon Alexander chid him, saying, Has God given you the excellency of an angel, of an apostle, and are you troubled for the lack of that which rats, and mice, and brute beasts have?
And so Augustine, upon the 12th Psalm, brings in God rebuking a discontented Christian thus: Have I promised you these earthly things? what! were you made a Christian that you should flourish here in this world? So may I say to Christians who are discontented, disquieted, and disturbed about the lack of this or that worldly comfort: Why are you troubled about the lack of this or that worldly enjoyment? you who have a saving interest in God, an interest in the covenant, a right to Christ, a title to heaven! You who have so much in hand and more in hope; you who have so much in expectation and so much in reversion—why do you sit sighing for the lack of this outward comfort, and complaining for the lack of that outward contentment, considering what great and glorious things are reserved in heaven for you?
It was said of the great Duke of Guise, that though he was poor, as to his present possessions—yet he was the richest man in France in bills, bonds, and obligations; because he had engaged all the noblemen in France unto himself by advancing of them. A Christian, though a Lazarus at Dives's door; yet, in respect of his propriety in
God and his interest in the covenant, he is the richest and the happiest man in all the world; and why then should he not be content. Well! remember, Christian, that the shortest way to riches and all worldly contentments is by their contempt. It is great riches, it is the best riches—not to desire riches; and God usually gives him
most—who covets least.
God often gives the most—to those who seek the least. Solomon begs a wise heart, and God gives him that, and abundance of gold and silver and honor, and what not, into the bargain. The best way to have much, is to be contented with a little. I have read of Dionysius, how he took away from one of his nobles almost his whole estate, and seeing him nevertheless continue as cheerful and well contented as ever, he gave him that again, and as much more. This is a common thing with God, as Job and many thousands can witness; the best way to have a pound is to be
contented with a penny, the best way to have hundreds is to be contented with pounds, and the best way to have thousands is to be contented with hundreds. Ah! you unquiet and discontented Christian, can you read over that saying of Cato, a heathen, and not blush? I have neither house, nor plate, nor garments of value in my hands. What I have, I can use. What I do not have—I am content to be without; some blame me, because I lack things, and I blame
them, because they are discontent. How many thousand Christians in these knowing and professing days might this heathen put to the blush! O Christians! Christians! let the remembrance of the crown, the kingdom, the treasures, pleasures, and glories—which are reserved in heaven for you, make you bear up sweetly and contentedly under all your outward needs in this world. But,
(5.) If the best and greatest things are reserved for believers until they come to heaven—then make not a
judgment of the saints' condition by their present state. If you do, you will "condemn the generation of the just." What though they are now in rags—it will not be long before they are clothed in their royal robes! What though they are now abased—it will not be long before they shall in the sight of all the world be highly advanced!
What though they are now under many needs—it will not be long before they shall be filled with all fullness! What though they are now under many trials and afflictions—yet it will not be long before all tears shall be wiped away from their eyes, and their sighing turned into singing, "and everlasting joys shall be upon their heads!"
Therefore do not judge of their condition by their present state. If you will needs be judging, then look that you judge righteous judgment, John 7:24; then look more at the latter end of a Christian than the beginning. Remember the patience of Job, James 5:11, and consider what end the Lord made with him. Look not upon Lazarus lying at Dives's door—but lying in Abraham's bosom. Look not to the beginning of Joseph, who was so far from his dream,
that the sun and moon should reverence him, that for two years he was cast where he could neither see sun nor moon—but behold him at last made ruler over all Egypt, and reigning eighty years like a king, Gen. 37:9, 41:40-46. Look not upon David, as there was but a step between him and death, nor as he was envied by Saul, and hated by his courtiers—but behold him seated in his royal throne, where he reigned forty years gloriously, and died in his bed of honor, and his son Solomon, and his nobles about him. When Israel was dismissed out of Egypt, it was with gold and ear rings, Exod. 11; and when the Jews were dismissed out of Babylon, it was with great gifts, jewels, and all necessary utensils, Ezra 1. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; the end of that man is peace," Psalm 37:37. Whatever the needs, the straits, the troubles, the trials of the saints are in this world—yet their end shall be peace, their end shall be glorious; the best things are reserved for them until last! Therefore do not, oh do not judge of their condition by their present state—but rather judge of them by their future condition, by that glory which is reserved for them in heaven. But,
(6.) If the greatest and choicest things are reserved for believers until they come to heaven—then let believers
keep up in their own souls a lively, hopeful expectation of enjoying these great and glorious things which are laid up for them. The keeping up of those hopes will be the keeping up of your hearts. The keeping up of these hopes will be the bettering of your hearts. The keeping up of these hopes will make every bitter sweet, and every sweet more sweet. The keeping up of these hopes will make you bear much for God, and do much for God.
When Alexander went upon a hopeful expedition, he gave away his gold; and when he was asked what he kept for himself, he answered, The hope of greater and better things.
Ah! Christians, there is no work so high and noble, there is no work so hard and difficult, there is no work so low and contemptible—but the hopes of the great things reserved in heaven for you will put you upon it.
Galen speaks of a fish called uranoscopus, which has but one eye, and that is so placed that it is always looking upwards towards heaven; and so should a Christian's eye of hope be always fixed on God, on promises, on heaven, on the inheritance of the saints in light, and on all those precious and glorious things which are laid up for them in that royal palace where Christ is all in all.
A devout pilgrim traveling to Jerusalem, and by the way visiting many brave cities, with their rare monuments, and meeting with many friendly entertainments, would often say, I must not stay here
—this is not Jerusalem, this is not Jerusalem; so says a Christian in the midst of all his worldly delights, comforts, and entertainments— oh these are not the delights, the comforts, the contentments which my soul looks for, which my soul expects and hopes to enjoy. I look and hope for choicer delights, for sweeter comforts, for more
satisfying contentment's, and for more durable riches. "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." Hebrews 11:13, 16
Ah, saints! ah, souls! Shall the great heirs of this world live upon their hopes, and keep up their hopes—that their inheritances shall in time be settled respectively upon them? And will not you, will not you live upon your hopes, and keep up your hopes of enjoying all the treasures, pleasures, and glories which are reserved in heaven for
you? A Christian's motto always is, or always should be, I hope for better things; I hope for better things than any the world can give to me, or than any that Satan can take from me. A Christian is always rich in hope, though he has not always a penny in hand. But,
(7.) If there be such great and glorious things reserved for you in heaven—then do nothing unworthy of your dignity,
nor of that glory which is laid up for you. Your calling is high, your honor is great, your happiness is matchless; you have so much in promises, so much in expectation, and so much in reversion, as cannot be conceived, as cannot be expressed! Therefore, do not stoop to sin, nor bow down to Satan, nor comply with the world!
When Alexander was urged to race with some people of inferior rank, he refused, saying, It was not fit for Alexander to run in a race with any but princes and nobles.
Ah, Christians! are you not more nobly born? are you not better bred? have you not more royal hopes than to stoop to lust—or to do as the men of the world do?
Antigonus, being invited to dinner where a notable harlot was to be present, asked counsel of Menedemus, his tutor, what he should do, and how he should behave himself? His tutor bade him remember that he was a prince, that he was the son of a king, and this would preserve him.
Ah! Christians! nothing will preserve you from being base, like the remembrance of your present dignity, and of that
future glory which is laid up for you.
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Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2024 17:42:08 GMT -5
Ah, Christians! you are kings elected, you are heirs-apparent of a
crown, of a glorious crown, of a weighty crown, of an incorruptible
crown, of an everlasting crown of glory! Oh why then should you be
crowning yourselves with rosebuds? why then should you take up in
the low enjoyments and poor contentments of this world?
It was a noble speech of that heathen Themistocles, who, noticing
something which seemed to be a pearl, scorned to stoop for it—but
bade another stoop, saying, You stoop for this pearl, for you are not
Themistocles. Oh let the men of the world stoop and take up the
world, oh let those whose practice speaks them out to be of the
world, and to be worshipers of that golden calf—the world—let these
dance about it, bow down to it, and take up in it; but let the heirs of
heaven divinely scorn to bow down to earth, or to take up in it, or to
be much taken with it. It was a good saying of Seneca, I am too
great, and born to greater things—than that I should be as a slave
to my body.
Ah, Christians! you are too great, and born to greater things—than
that you should be slaves to your bodies, or slaves to your lusts, or
slaves to the world! Can you seriously consider of the great things
which are reserved in heaven for you, and not set your feet upon
those things that the men of the world set their hearts upon? Can
you look up to your future glory, and not blush to be taken with the
glory of this world?
Alexander the Great said to one of his captains who was named
Alexander, Remember the name of Alexander, and see that you do
nothing unworthy of the name of Alexander. So say I, Remember, O
Christian your name; remember your dignity and glory, and see that
you do nothing unworthy of the one or the other. But,
(8.) If the best and greatest things are reserved for the
saints until they come to heaven—then let them desire and
long to be possessed of those blessed things which are
reserved in heaven for them. Oh, how do the heirs of this world
long to have their estates in their own hands! how do they long to
have their inheritances settled upon them! some of them wishing
their relations dead, who stand between them and their inheritances.
And others, of a little better nature, wishing them in the bosom of
Abraham, that they might come to inherit, and that they might suck
the sweet, and take up their rest, in their worldly inheritances. And
shall not the saints desire and long to be in a full and happy
possession of that crown, of that inheritance, of those jewels which
are reserved in heaven for them? O Christians! how is it, why is it,
that your heavenly Jerusalem, your mansions above, your glorious
treasures, are not taken by storm, in respect of your earnest wishes
and burning desires after them?
The primitive Christians did so hunger and thirst, look and long,
wish and desire after this heavenly kingdom, this glorious
inheritance, that the Roman State had a jealousy of them—as if they
had impacted their kingdom and their worldly glory. But where is
that spirit now to be found? Most men live now as if there were no
heaven, or else as if heaven were not worth a seeking, worth a
desiring; as if heaven were a poor, despised, contemptible thing.
But ah, Christians! you have learned better; and therefore be much in
desiring and longing to get into that glorious city, where streets,
walls, and gates are all gold, yes, where pearl is but as mire and dirt,
and where are all pleasures, all treasures, all delights, all comforts,
all contentments—and that forever. This word "forever" is a
bottomless depth, a conception without end; it is a word which
sweetens all the glory above, and that indeed makes heaven to be
heaven. I can hardly call him a Christian, who does not long after
spiritual realities, and after the great things that are reserved in
heaven for the saints. But,
(9.) If the best and greatest things are reserved for the
saints until they come to heaven—then, Oh let not the men
of the world envy the saints, while they are here in this
wilderness.
Ah! sinners, sinners, the people of God have but little in hand;
though they have much in hope; they have but little in the bag
whatever they may have in the bank; they have but little in the
cistern whatever they may have in the fountain; they have but little in
possession whatever they may have in reversion; and therefore do
not envy them, James 2:5. Who but monsters will envy the child in
his cradle—though he be an heir to a great estate, inasmuch as it is
out of his hand, and he is not in the possession of it? and yet such
monsters this world affords, who are filled with envy against Christ's
precious ones, though their estates are out of their hands.
Old Jacob speaking of his son Joseph, says, that "the archers have
sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him," Gen. 49:23; and
Jerome, expounding the words, notes, that here envy is brought in
with bow and arrows shooting at that which is immaculate, and
where there is no spot to be a mark for it! or else, as an archer sets up
some white thing to be the mark at which he shoots, so it is the
whiteness of some good thing or other, against which envy shoots.
Such is the wrath, the rage, the hatred, the envy of wicked men
against the saints, that they will still be envying of them upon one
score or another. Such was Saul's envy to David, that David chooses
rather to live under king Achish, an enemy, than to live under Saul's
envy; nay, such was Saul's envy against David, that when David
played on his harp, to cure him of the evil spirit which haunted him,
that he threw his spear at him to destroy him, choosing rather to be
tormented with an evil spirit, than that David should live. And such
was Cain's envy to Abel, that though he had but one brother, nay,
though there was but one brother in all the world—yet enraged envy
will wash her hands in that brother's blood!
Chrysologus notes of the rich glutton, who would have Lazarus to be
sent to him—that being still cruel and envious towards Lazarus, he
would have him to be sent to hell from the bosom of Abraham, to the
bottomless gulf from the highest throne of glory, to the gnashing and
grinding of torments from the holy rest of the blessed. The truth
is, envy sticks so close to the heart of wicked men, that courtesies to
others provoke it; love and respect to others swell it; and an
eminency in gifts and graces in others enrages it. No man of worth
has ever escaped envy. Envy is like certain flies called cantharides,
which eat on the fairest crops, and most beautiful flowers. Neither
my accusers, nor my crimes, says Socrates, can kill me—but envy
only, which has, and does, and will destroy the worthiest that ever
were. And therefore, Socrates wishes that envious men had more
eyes and more ears than others—that so they might be tormented
more than others, by beholding others' happiness.
Well! sinners, if, notwithstanding all that has been said, you will still
be envious against those gracious souls who have but little in hand,
though they have much in hope; if you will be envious against those
who stand between you and wrath, between you and hell; if you will
be envious against those to whom, as instruments, you are indebted
for all the mercies, comforts, and contentments, which you enjoy in
this world, then know, that your envy will torture you, your envy will
slay you, your envy will prepare the hottest, darkest, and lowest place
in hell for you! But,
(10.) If the best things are reserved for believers until they
come to heaven, then let not any outward losses trouble
you, nor deject you. What is your loss of a house made with
hands—compared to one eternal in the heavens? What is your loss of
rags—compared to the royal robes above? What is your loss of earth
—compared to the gain of heaven? What is your loss of husband,
wife, child, friends—compared to the enjoyment of God, Christ,
angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect? 2 Cor. 5:1; Rev. 6:11,
Rev. 7:9, 13, 14.
When Paulinus Nolanus' city was taken from him by the barbarians,
he prayed thus to God: Lord! let me not be troubled at the loss of my
gold, silver, honor, etc.; for you are all, and much more than all of
these, unto me.
When Demetrius asked Stilpo what loss he had sustained when his
wife, his children, and country were all burned, he answered, that he
had lost nothing, counting that only his own which none could take
from him, namely, his virtues. What an unlovely, what an
inappropriate, thing would it be to see a rich heir, upon the loss of a
ribbon out of his hat—to stand sighing and grieving, vexing and
lamenting! Or to see a prince, upon the burning up of his stables and
outhouses—to stand wringing his hands and beating his breasts, and
to cry out, Undone, undone! when his royal palace is safe, his crown
safe, his treasures safe!
As unlovely, yes, a more unlovely and inappropriate thing, it is to see
a saint upon the account of losing wife, child, friend, etc., to cry
out, Undone, undone! no sorrow to my sorrow! no loss to my
loss! when his GREAT ALL is safe—when his crown, his heaven, his
happiness, his blessedness, is safe. But,
(11.) If the best things are reserved for believers until they
come to heaven—then let believers live cheerfully and
walk comfortably up and down in this world. [Psalm 33:1;
Isaiah 41:16; Joel 2:23; Zech. 10:7; Philip. 3:1, 4:4.] Ah! how
cheerfully and merrily do many great heirs live! Though for the
present, things go hard with them—the hopes of a good inheritance
makes them sing care and sorrow away. It is not for the honor of
Christ, nor for the glory of the gospel—to see the heirs of heaven look
so sadly and walk so mournfully and dejectedly—as if there were no
heaven, or as if there was nothing laid up for them in heaven. It does
not befit the sons of glory, with Rachel, to be so much weeping, as to
refuse to be comforted, Neh. 8:10. Do you not remember, O
Christian, that the joy of the Lord is your strength—
your doing strength, your bearing strength,
your prevailing strength. What! have you forgotten that "the joy of
the Lord is your strength" to live—and your strength to die? If not,
why with Cain do you walk up and down with a dejected
countenance, with a cast-down countenance?
A beautiful face is at all times pleasing to the eye—but then especially
when there is joy manifested in the countenance. Joy in the face puts
a new beauty upon a person, and makes that which before was
beautiful to be exceedingly beautiful. Joy puts a new luster upon
beauty; so does joy put a luster and a beauty upon a Christian; and
upon all his words, his ways, his works. It was this which made the
faces of several martyrs to shine as if they had been the faces of
angels. One observes of Chispina, that she was cheerful when she
was apprehended, and joyful when she was led to the judge, and
merry when she was sent into prison; likewise when she was bound,
when she was brought forth, when she was lifted up in a cage, when
she was heard, when she was condemned. In all these things she
rejoiced!
When Caesar was sad, he used to say to himself, remember—you are
Caesar. Ah, Christians! when you are sad and dejected, think of your
dignity and glory; think of all those precious and glorious things that
are reserved in heaven for you.
It does not befit Christians, who have so much in reversion, to be like
Angelastus, who never laughed in all his life but once; nor like
Anaxagoras, who was never seen to laugh or smile from the day of his
birth to the day of his death. Christians, I desire to leave that serious
and solemn word upon your hearts: Deut. 28:47-48, "Because you
did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of
prosperity; therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire
poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He
will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you." Sad
souls! it will be your wisdom to make this scripture your daily
companion, and to ponder it seriously in your hearts, as Mary did the
saying of the angel.
God takes it so unkindly at his people's hands—that they are sad and
sighing, lamenting and mourning—when they should be a-rejoicing
and delighting themselves in the Lord for the abundance of his
mercies—that he threatens to pursue them with all sorts of miseries
and calamities to the very death. A sad, dejected spirit—opens many
foul mouths which God would have stopped; and saddens many
precious souls whom God would have gladdened; and discourages
many weak Christians and young beginners whom God would have
encouraged and animated! Therefore we need not wonder if God
should deal so sadly and severely with such sad souls, who make
little of saddening many at once, namely, God, Christ, the Spirit, and
many precious ones, "of whom this world is not worthy."
Surely there is infinitely more in the great and glorious things which
are reserved for believers in heaven, to gladden and rejoice them—
than there can be in all the troubles and trials, afflictions and
temptations, which they meet with in this world, to sadden, grieve,
and deject them. Ah, Christians! the great and glorious things which
are reserved in heaven for you, will afford you such an exuberancy of
joy—as no good can match—and as no evil can overmatch! Witness
the joy of the martyrs, both ancient and modern. Oh how my heart
leaps for joy, says one martyr, that I am so near the entering into
eternal bliss!
(12.) If the best and greatest things are reserved for
believers until they come to heaven—then let not believers
be unwilling to die; yes, let them rather court death, and
when it comes, sweetly welcome it! 1 Cor. 5:1-2, 7, Philip. 1:21.
There is no way to paradise—but by this flaming sword. There is no
way to those heavenly treasures—but through this dark entry. There
is no way to life, immortality, and glory—but by death. There is no
coming to a clear, full, and constant fruition of God—but by dying.
Augustine upon those words, Exod. 33:20-21, "You cannot not see
my face and live," makes this short but sweet reply, "Then, Lord, let
me die, that I may see your face!" "Shall I die ever?" says one. "Yes;
why then, Lord, if ever, why not now, why not now!" So Andrew,
saluting the cross on which he was crucified, cried out, Take me from
men, and restore me to my Master! Likewise, Lawrence Sanders,
when he was come to the stake at which he was to be burnt, kissed it,
saying, "Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting
life!" [Likewise Moses, Jacob, and old Simeon, Cowper, Nazianzen,
Faninus, Cyprian, young Lord Harrington, and others, etc.]
Ah, Christians! can you read over those instances, and not blush, and
not be troubled that these worthies should be so ready and so willing
to die, that they might come to a happy fruition of those glorious
things that were reserved in heaven for them—while you are
unwilling to die; while your desires are rather, with Peter, to build
tabernacles here, than to be in a full fruition of God, and in a happy
possession of your heavenly mansions! Mat. 17:4, John 14:2-3.
Ah, Christians, Christians! how justly may that father be angry with
his child who is unwilling to come home; and that husband be angry
with his wife who is unwilling to ride to him in a rainy day, or to
cross the seas to enjoy him? And is not this your case? is not this
your case? I know it is. Well, Christians! let me a little expostulate
the case with you, that if it be possible I may work your hearts into a
willingness to die, yes, to desire death, to long for death—so that you
may come to a full fruition of all that is reserved in heaven for you!
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Post by Admin on Feb 20, 2024 15:56:21 GMT -5
Paradise Opened, or the Secrets, Mysteries, and Rarities of
Divine Love, of Infinite Wisdom, and
of Wonderful Counsel—Laid Open to Public View
By Thomas Brooks, London, 1675.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY
To my honored friends, Sir John and Mary Moore. The Father of all
mercies, and the God of all blessings, bless you with grace and peace
here, and glory hereafter.
Christian friendship makes such a knot, that great Alexander cannot
cut. It was well observed by Sir Francis Bacon, "That old wood is best
to burn, and old books best to read, and old friends best to trust." It
was a witty saying of the Duke of Buckingham, "Faithful friends,"
says he, "are in this age for the most part gone all in pilgrimage, and
their return is uncertain." "They seem to take away the sun out of the
world," said the heathen orator, who take away friendship from the
life of men, and we do not more need fire and water than true
friendship." In this epistle I shall endeavor so to acquit myself as
becomes a real friend, a cordial friend, a faithful friend, and a soulfriend, as to your great and everlasting concernments, that it may go
well with you forever and ever.
The points that are handled in this following treatise, and in the first
part, are of as high, choice, necessary, noble, useful, and comfortable
a nature, as any that can be treated by mortal man. The four things
which God minds most and loves most are:
(1.) His honor.
(2.) His worship.
(3.) His people.
(4.) His truth.
Surely their souls must needs be of a very sad state, who can read the
great truths that are here opened and applied, and not
(1.) dearly love them,
(2.) highly prize them,
(3.) cordially bless God for them,
(4.) seriously ponder and meditate upon them,
(5.) and not frequently and diligently study them, and make a
gracious and daily improvement of them.
The covenant of grace, and the covenant of redemption, are a rich
armory, out of which you may furnish yourselves with all sorts of
spiritual weapons, wherewith you may encounter Satan's
temptations, wiles, devices, methods, depths, stratagems. Nothing of
Satan's can stand before the covenant of grace and the covenant of
redemption, when well understood and well applied, Eph. 6:11; 2
Cor. 2:11; Rev. 2:24.
In the covenant of grace and the covenant of redemption that is
passed between God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, [2 Sam.
23:5; Isaiah 54:9-10; Jer. 32:38-41; Zech. 9:11; Heb. 13:20.] you will
find many rich and rare cordials, which have a strong tendency to
preserve all gracious souls from desponding and fainting:
(1.) in times of affliction;
(2.) in times of temptation;
(3.) in times of desertion;
(4.) in times of suffering for Christ's sake and the gospel's sake;
(5.) in times of opposition;
(6.) and at the time of death and dissolution.
There are no comforts nor cordials which can reach the souls of
Christians in their deep distresses, but such as flow from these two
covenants. The more it concerns all such Christians to study these
two covenants, and to be well acquainted with them, that so they
may the more readily have recourse to such cordials as their present
estate and condition calls for.
In these two covenants you will find much matter which has a strong
tendency:
(1.) to inflame your love to God and Christ, and all in the covenant of
grace;
(2.) to strengthen your faith;
(3.) to raise your hopes;
(4.) to cheer your souls;
(5.) to quiet and satisfy your consciences;
(6.) to engage you to a close and holy walking with God;
(7.) to provoke you to triumph in free grace, and in the Lord Jesus
Christ;
(8.) to sit loose from this world.
[Psalm 116:1-9, 16, and Psalm 3; 2 Sam. 23:5; Psalm 103:17-18, and
111:5, 9, 17; 2 Cor. 2:14; Gal. 6:14.] The riches and treasures that are
wrapped up in both these covenants are so great, so sure, so durable,
and so suitable to all believers—as may well deaden their hearts to all
the riches and glories of this lower world, Rev. 12:1.
In these two covenants every sincere Christian will find:
(1.) a special salve for every spiritual sore;
(2.) a special remedy against every spiritual malady;
(3.) a special plaster against every spiritual wound;
(4.) a spiritual storehouse to supply all their spiritual needs;
(5.) a spiritual shelter under every spiritual storm.
(6.) food to nourish you;
(7.) a staff to support you;
(8.) a guide to lead you;
(9.) a fire to warm you;
(10.) springs of life to cheer and refresh you.
In this covenant of grace and the covenant of redemption, you may
clearly see the wisdom, counsel, love, and transactions between the
Father and the Son sparkling and shining; there being nothing under
heaven which contributes more to the peace, comfort, assurance,
settlement, and satisfaction of sincere Christians, than such a sight.
[It was the saying of an eminent saint, on his deathbed, that he had
much peace and quietness, not so much from a greater measure of
grace than other Christians had, or from any immediate witness of
the Spirit; but because he had a more clear understanding of the
covenant of grace than many others, having studied it and preached
it so many years as he had done.
The main reason why so many gracious souls are so full of fears,
doubts, darkness, and disputes about their internal and eternal
estates, is because they have no more clear and full understanding of
these two covenants; and if such Christians would but more seriously
buckle down to the study of those two covenants, as they are opened
and applied in the following treatise, their fears and doubts, etc.,
would quickly vanish. They would have their triumphant songs; their
mourning would soon be turned into rejoicing; and their complaints
into hallelujahs. Neither do I know anything in all this world that
would contribute more to seriousness, spiritualness, heavenliness,
humbleness, holiness, and fruitfulness, than a right understanding of
these two covenants, and a divine improvement of them. There are
many choice Christians who have always either tears in their eyes,
complaints in their mouths, or sighs in their breasts; and oh that
these, above all others, would make these two covenants their daily
companions! Let these few hints suffice concerning the following
treatise.
Now, Sir John, I shall crave permission to put you a little in mind of
your deceased and glorified father. "He is a true friend," says the
Smyrnean poet of old, "who continues the memory of his deceased
friend." When a friend of Austin's died, he professed he was put into
a great strait, whether he himself should be willing to live or willing
to die: he was unwilling to live, because one half of himself was dead;
yet he was not willing to die, because his friend did partly live in him,
though he was dead. Let you and I make the application as we see
cause. Your glorified father's name and memory remains to this day
as fresh and fragrant as the Rose of Sharon among all those who fear
the Lord, and had the happiness of inward acquaintance with him.
"The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall
rot," Proverbs 10:7. In the original it is, "The memory of the just shall
be for a blessing;" the very remembering of them shall bring a
blessing to such as do remember them. The moralists say of fame, or
of a man's good name—"Whatever commodity you lose, be sure yet
to preserve that jewel of a good name." [Heb. 11:13, 39.] This jewel,
among others, your honored father carried with him to the grave—
yes, to heaven.
There is nothing which raises a man's name and fame in the world
like holiness. The seven deacons which the church chose, were "holy
men," Acts 6:5; and they were men of "good report," ver. 3. They
were men well witnessed unto, well testified of, as the Greek word
imports. [The Persians seldom write their king's name but in
characters of gold. Throughout the Old and New Testaments God has
written the names of just men in golden letters, as I may speak.]
Cornelius was a "holy man," Acts 10:1-4; and he was a man of "good
report" among all the nation of the Jews, ver. 22. Ananias was a "holy
man," Acts 9:10, 20; and he was a man of a "good report," Acts 22:12.
Caius and Demetrius were both "holy men," and of a "good report;"
witness that Third Epistle of John. The patriarchs and prophets were
"holy men," and they were men of a "good report," Heb. 11:1-2, "For
by it the elders obtained a good report;" their holiness did eternalize
their names. The apostles were "holy men," 1 Thes. 2:10; and they
were men of "good report," 2 Cor. 6:8.
Now certainly it is none of the least of mercies to be well reputed and
reported of. Next to a good God and a good conscience—a good
report, a good name—is the noblest blessing. It is no great matter, if
a man is great and rich in the world, to obtain a great report; but
without holiness you can never obtain a good report. Holiness,
uprightness, righteousness, will embalm your names; it will make
them immortal. Psalm 112:6, "The righteous shall be in everlasting
remembrance." Wicked men many times outlive their names, but the
names of the righteous outlive them. Holy Abel has been dead above
five thousand years, and yet his name is as fresh and fragrant as it
was the first day he was made a martyr, 1 John 3:12. When a sincere
Christian dies, he leaves his name as a sweet and as a lasting scent
behind him; his fame shall live when he is dead. This is verified in
your precious father, who is now "asleep in Jesus," 1 Thes. 4:14.
Now you both very well know that there was no Christian friend who
had so great a room in his heart, in his affections, as I had; and you
can easily guess at the reasons of it. Neither can you forget how
frequently, both in his health, sickness, and before his death, he
would be pressing of me to be a soul-friend to you, and to improve all
the interest I had in heaven for your internal and eternal good, that
he might meet you both in that heavenly world, Mat. 25:33, and that
you might both be found with him at the right hand of Christ in the
great day of the Lord. I know that your glorified father, while he was
on earth, did lay up many a prayer for you in heaven. My desire and
prayer is, that those prayers of his may return in mighty power upon
both of your hearts; and having a fair opportunity now before me, I
shall endeavor to improve it for the everlasting advantage of both
your souls. Therefore let my following counsel be not only accepted,
but carefully, faithfully, and diligently followed by you, that so you
may be happy here and blessed hereafter.
1. The first word of counsel is this: Let it be the principal care of both
of you, to look after the welfare of your precious and immortal souls.
If your souls are safe, all is safe; if they are well, all is well. But if they
are lost, all is lost, and you lost and undone in both worlds. [Mat.
16:26. "The soul is a greater miracle in man than all the miracles
wrought among men," says Augustine.] Christ, who only paid the
price of souls, has told us that one soul is more worth than all the
world. Chrysostom well observes, "that whereas God has given us
many other things double—namely, two eyes to see with, two ears to
hear with, two hands to work with, and two feet to walk with, to the
intent that the failing of the one might be supplied with the other—he
has given us but one soul. If that is lost, have you, another soul to
give in recompense for it?"
Ah, friends! Christ left his Father's bosom and all the glory of heaven,
for the good of souls. He assumed the nature of men for the
happiness of the soul of man. He trod the wine-press of his Father's
wrath for souls. He prayed for souls. He paid for souls. He bled out
his heart-blood for souls. [Isa 63:3; John 17; Luke 23:34; Mat.
26:28.] The soul is the breath of God, the beauty of man, the wonder
of angels, and the envy of devils! It is of an angelical nature; it is a
heavenly spark, a celestial plant, and of a divine offspring, 1 Pet. 5:8.
Again, weigh well "the incomparable price" which Christ paid for the
redemption of the soul, 1 Pet. 1:18-19. What are the riches of the East
or West Indies, the spoil of the richest nations, mountains of
diamonds and gold, compared to the price that Christ laid down for
souls! John 1:4, 12, and Heb. 22:23. The soul is a spiritual substance,
capable of the knowledge of God, of union with God, of communion
with God, and of an eternal fruition of God. There is nothing which
can suit the soul below God, nor anything which can satisfy the soul
without God, nor anything which can save the soul but God. The soul
is so choice, so high, and so noble a piece—that it divinely scorns all
the world in point of acceptance, justification, satisfaction,
enjoyment, and salvation.
Christ made himself an offering for sin—that souls might not be
undone by sin. The Lord died—that slaves might live. The Son died—
that servants might live. The natural Son died—that adopted sons
might live. The only-begotten Son died—that bastards might live.
Yes, the judge died—that malefactors might live! Heb. 9:11-14, and
10:10,14; Gal. 4:4-6; Heb. 2:8. Ah, friends! as there was never sorrow
like Christ's sorrow, so there was never love like Christ's love, and of
all his love, there is none compared to his love for souls, Isaiah 53:3,
and Gal. 2:20. To say much in a little space, the spiritual enemies
which daily war against the soul, the glorious angels which hourly
guard the soul, and the precious ordinances which God has
appointed as means both to convert and nourish the soul, show forth
that love. Eph. 6:11-12; 1 Pet. 2:11; Romans 10:17; 1 Cor. 11:23-27.
The soul is capable of "a crown of life," Rev. 2:10; of "a crown of
glory," 1 Pet. 5:4; of "a crown of righteousness," 2 Tim. 4:8; of "an
incorruptible crown," 1 Cor. 9:25.
Earthly crowns have so many cares, fears, vexations, and dangers
which daily attend them, that oftentimes they make the heads and
hearts of monarchs ache, which made Cyrus say, "You look upon my
crown and my purple robes, but did you but know how they were
lined with thorns, you would not stoop to take them up!" [Proverbs
27:4, "Does the crown endure to all generations?"] But the crowns
which immortal souls are capable of, are crowns without crosses;
they are not attended with care of keeping or fear of losing; there are
no evil persons nor evil spirits who haunt those crowns. Darius, that
great monarch, fleeing from his enemies, he threw away the crown of
gold from his head that he might run the faster; but a sincere
Christian is in no danger of losing his crown, 2 Tim. 4:8. His crown is
laid up in a safe hand, in an omnipotent hand, 1 Pet. 1:5. Now what
do all these things speak out, but the preciousness and excellency of
the soul?
Once more, the excellency of the body, intimates a more than
ordinary excellency of this jewel. The body is of all materials the
most excellent. How does David admire the rare texture and
workmanship of his body! "I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You
watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven
together in the dark of the womb." Psalm 139:14-15. When workmen
have some choice piece in hand, they perfect it in private, and then
bring it forth to the light for men to gaze at. So here, the greatest
miracle in the world is man, in whose very body—how much more in
his soul!—are miracles enough to fill a volume.
Austin complains that men much wonder at the high mountains of
the earth, the huge waves of the sea, the deep waterfalls of rivers, the
vastness of the ocean, and at the motions of the stars, etc., but they
wonder not at all at their wonderful selves. Galen, a profane
physician and a great atheist, writing of the excellent parts of man's
body, he could not choose but sing an hymn to that God, whoever he
was, who was the author of so excellent and admirable a piece of
work; he could not but cry out, "Now I adore the God of nature."
Now if the cabinet (the body) is so marvelously wrought, how much
more is the jewel (the soul) which is contained in it! Oh, how richly
and gloriously is the soul embroidered! How divinely inlaid and
enameled is the soul!
Princes impress their images or effigies upon the choicest metals,
namely, gold and silver. God has engraved his own image with his
own hand upon angels and men, Gen. 1:26. The soul is the glory of
the creation, a beam of God, a spark of celestial brightness, a vessel
of honor, a bird of paradise, a habitation for God. The soul is
spiritual in its essence; God breathed it in; God has invested it with
many noble endowments; he has made it a mirror of beauty, and
printed upon it a surpassing excellency. The soul is spiritual in its
object; it contemplates God and heaven. God is the orb and center
where the soul does fix. [Gen. 2:7; Heb. 12:9; Eccles. 12:7; Zech. 12:1;
P. 116:7; John 14:8; Psalm 17:16.] God is the terminus of the soul—
the soul moves to him as to his rest, "Return to your rest, O my soul."
This dove can find no rest but in this heavenly ark. ["Lord," says
Austin, "you have made us for yourself, and our heart is unquiet until
it comes unto yourself!"]
Nothing can fill the soul but God, nothing can quiet the soul but God,
nothing can satisfy the soul but God, nothing can secure the soul but
God, nothing can save the soul but God. The soul being spiritual, God
only can be the adequate object of it. The soul is spiritual in its
operations. It being immaterial, does not depend upon the body in
its working. The rich and rare endowments, and the noble operations
of the soul, speak out the excellency of the soul. "The soul," says
Aristotle, "has a nature distinct from the body; it moves and operates
of itself, though the body be dead, and has no dependence upon, or
co-existence with, the body." The soul has an intrinsic principle of
life and motion, though it be separate from the body. And does not
the immortality of the soul speak out the excellency of the soul?
[Luke 23:43; 1 Thes. 4:17-18; Phil. 1:23; Acts 7:59.]
Luke 12:4, "Fear not those who kill the body, and after that have no
more that they can do." Therefore the soul, not being capable of
being killed, is not in a possibility of dying. The essence of the soul is
spiritual. It has a beginning, but no end; it runs parallel with
eternity. The soul does not wax old; it lives forever, which we cannot
affirm of any sublunary created glory. To conclude this first word of
counsel, what Job says of wisdom, I may fitly apply to the soul, "Man
knows not the price thereof; it cannot be valued with the gold of
Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire, the gold and crystal
cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine
gold," Job 28:13, 16-17. O my friends, it is the greatest wisdom,
policy, equity, and justice, to provide for your precious souls, to
secure your precious souls; for they are jewels of more worth than
ten thousand worlds. All the honors, riches, greatness, and glory of
this world are but chips, toys, and pebbles, compared to these
glorious pearls. But,
2. The second word of counsel is this, as you would be safe here, and
saved in the great day of the Lord, as you would be happy here, and
blessed hereafter, be taken up with nothing below a gracious
acquaintance with Christ, a choice acceptance of Christ, a holy
reliance upon Christ, a full resignation of yourselves to Christ, and a
real and glorious union with Christ. Acts 2:20; Job 22:21; 1 Tim. 1:15;
Job 13:15; 2 Cor. 2:11. If you do, you are lost and undone in both
worlds!
[1.] First, Some rely on a name to live, when they are dead, Rev. 3:1,
dead in trespasses and sins, Eph. 2:1, dead God-wards, and dead
Christ-wards, and dead heaven-wards, and dead holiness-wards. The
the worst men, often get the best names. The Alcoran of the Turks
has its name from brightness; but it is full of darkness, and fraught
with falsehoods. It will be but a poor comfort to any, for the world to
commend them as gracious, if God condemns them as graceless; for
the world to commend them as pious, if God condemns them as
impious; for the world to commend them as sincere, if God
condemns them as hypocrites. But,
[2.] Secondly, Some rely on a 'form of godliness' when they are
strangers to the 'power of godliness'. 2 Tim. 3:5; when they deny, yes,
when they oppose and persecute, the godly. Such monsters this age
has abounded with; but their seeming goodness is but a religious
cheat, Acts 13:45, 50.
[3.] Thirdly, There are some who rely on their religious duties and
services; in their praying, fasting, prophesying, hearing, receiving.
They make a God, a Christ, a Savior of their own duties and services!
This was the undoing and damning sin of the Scribes and Pharisees,
and is the undoing and damning sin of many thousands in our days,
Mat. 7:22; Luke 18:12, 13:26, and 16:15; Ezek. 33:31-32.
[4.] Fourthly, There are many who rely on their common gifts and
abilities; in a gift of knowledge, and in a gift of teaching, and in a gift
of utterance, and in a gift of memory, and in a gift of prayer; and this
proves ruinous and destructive to them, Mat. 7:22; Romans 2:17-24;
1 Cor. 12.; Heb. 6:4-5.
[5.] Fifthly, There are many who rely on their riches, prosperity, and
worldly grandeur and glory. Proverbs 18:11, "The rich man's wealth is
his strong city." "Don't weary yourself trying to get rich. Why waste
your time? For riches can disappear as though they had the wings of
a bird!" Proverbs 23:4-5. It is hard to have wealth, and not trust to it,
Mat. 19:24. Wealth was never true to those who have trusted it.
There is an utter uncertainty in riches, 1 Tim. 6:17; an impotency to
help in an evil day, Zeph. 1:18; an impossibility to stretch to eternity,
unless it be to destroy the owner forever, [Rich men's wealth proves
an hindrance to their happiness, Eccles. 5:13; James 5:1-2.] Proverbs
10:15; Psalm 73:19; Mat. 20:26. There is nothing more clear in
Scripture and history, than that riches, prosperity, and worldly glory
—have been commonly their portion who never have had a God for
their portion, Luke 16:25. It was an excellent saying of Lewis,
emperor of Germany: "Such goods are worth getting and owning—
which will not sink or wash away if a shipwreck happens." [Riches
are called thick clay, Hab. 2:6, which will sooner break the back, than
lighten the heart.] "Only the wise man is the rich man," says the
philosopher. Augustine says, "that earthly riches are full of poverty,
they cannot enrich the soul; for oftentimes under silken apparel
there is a threadbare soul."
He who is rich in conscience, sleeps more soundly than he who is
richly clothed in purple.
"No man is rich, who cannot carry into eternity, that which he has.
That which we must leave behind us, is not ours—but belongs to
someone else." [Ambrose]
"The shortest way to true riches is by their contempt. It is great
riches not to desire riches. He has most—who covets least." [Seneca.]
When one was commending the riches and wealth of merchants; the
poor man replied, "I do not love that wealth which hangs upon ropes;
for if they break, the ship miscarries, and then where is the
merchant's riches?"
"If I had an enemy, whom it was lawful to wish evil unto, I would
chiefly wish him great store of riches, for then he should never enjoy
peace and quiet." [Latimer.]
The historian Tacitus observes, that the riches of Cyprus invited the
Romans to hazard many dangerous fights for the conquering of it.
"Earthly riches," says Augustine, "are an evil master, a treacherous
servant, fathers of flattery, sons of grief, a cause of fear to those that
have them, and a cause of sorrow to those who lack them."
I have read a famous story of Zelimus, emperor of Constantinople,
who after he had captured Egypt, he found a great deal of treasure
there; and the soldiers coming to him, and asked him what they
should do with the rich citizens of Egypt. "Oh," says the emperor,
"hang them all—for they are too rich to be made slaves!" This was all
the thanks they had for the riches they were robbed of. What more
contemptible than a rich fool, a golden beast? Not but that some are
great and gracious, rich and righteous, as Abraham, Lot, Job, David,
Hezekiah, etc.
By these short hints you may see the folly and vanity of those men
who trust in their riches. But,
[6.] Sixthly, Many rely on their own righteousness, which at best is
but as filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6. This was the damning sin of the Jews,
and of the scribes and Pharisees; and is the undoing sin of many of
the professors of this age, Romans 10:2-3; Mat. 5:20.
[7.] Seventhly, Many rely on their external church privileges, crying
out, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!" Jer. 7:4, 8-11,
when they have no union nor communion with the Lord of the
temple. These forget that there will come a day, when the "children
of the kingdom shall be cast out," Mat. 8:12. It would be very good
for such people to make these five scriptures their daily companions,
Mat. 22:10, 12-14; Luke 13:25-28; Romans 2:28-29; Gal. 6:15; Jer.
9:25- 26. They should never dare to rely on their outward church
privileges, which can neither secure them from hell, nor secure them
of heaven. But,
[8.] Eighthly, Many who rely on common convictions.
Judas had mighty convictions of his sin, but they ended in
desperation, Mat. 27:4-5.
Balaam was mightily enlightened and convinced, in as much that he
desired to die the death of the righteous; but under all his
convictions he died Christless and graceless, Num. 23 and 24.
Nebuchadnezzar had great convictions, Dan. 4:31-32, yet we do not
read that ever he was converted before he was driven from the
society of men, to be a companion with the beasts of the field, Dan.
4:31-32. He had strong convictions, (1.) by Daniel's interpreting of
his dream, Dan. 2:47. (2.) He told Daniel, that "his God was the God
of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets;" and yet
presently he fell into gross idolatry, Dan. 3, and strictly commanded
to worship the golden image that he had set up; and as if he had lost
all his former convictions. He was so swelled up with pride and
impudence, as to say to the three Hebrew children, when they
divinely scorned to worship the image he had set up, "What God is
there that can deliver you out of my hand?" ver. 15.
Saul had great convictions, "I have sinned! Return, my son David, I
will no more do you harm," etc. "And Saul lifted up his voice and
wept; and he said unto David, You are more righteous than I, for you
have rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded you evil," 1 Sam.
26:21, 25, and 24:16-19. But these convictions issued in no saving
change, for after these he lived and died in the height of his sins.
Pharaoh had great convictions: "And Pharaoh sent, and called for
Moses and Aaron, and said unto them—I have sinned this time: the
Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked." And again,
"Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said—I
have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you," Exod. 9:27,
and 10:16. But these convictions issued in no reformation, in no
sound conversion, and therefore drowning and damning followed.
Cain was under convictions, but went and built a city, and lost his
convictions in a crowd of worldly business, Gen. 4.
Herod and Felix were under convictions, but they went off, and never
issued in any saving work upon their souls, Mark 6:20; Acts 24:25.
Oh, how many men and women have fallen under such deep
convictions, that they have day and night cried out of their sins, and
of their lost and undone estates, and that they would certainly go to
hell and be damned forever, so that many good people have hoped
that these were the pangs of the new birth; and yet either merry
company, or carnal pleasures and delights, or much worldly
business, or else length of time—have wrought off all their
convictions, and they have grown more profane and wicked than ever
they were before. As water heated, if taken off the fire, will soon
return to its natural coldness, yes, becomes colder after heating than
before, (says Aristotle,) this has been the case of many under
convictions. I shall forbear giving of particular instances. But,
[9.] Ninthly, Many rely on an outward change and reformation; they
have left some old courses and sinful practices which formerly they
walked in, etc., and therefore they conclude and hope that their
condition is good, and that all is well, and shall be forever well with
them. They were accustomed to swear, whore, be drunk, profane
Sabbaths, reproach saints, etc.; but now they have left all these
practices, and therefore they assume that the main work is done, and
they shall be saved forever
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Post by Admin on Feb 20, 2024 15:58:29 GMT -5
I confess that sin is that abominable thing which God hates, Jer.
44:4, and therefore it is a very great mercy to turn from it. To leave
one sin is a greater mercy than to win the whole world, Mat. 16:26;
and it is certain that he who does not outwardly reform, shall never
go to heaven, Job 22:23, 26. He who does not leave his sins, he can
never be happy here nor blessed hereafter. And yet it is possible for a
man, with Herod, to reform many things, and yet be a lost and
undone man forever, as he was, Mark 6:20. Judas was a very
reformed man, but he was never inwardly changed nor throughout
sanctified, Mat. 26:20-22; 1 Thes. 5:23. The scribes and Pharisees
were outwardly reformed, but they were not inwardly renewed. A
man may be another man than what once he was, and yet not be a
new man, a new creature.
When a sinner is sermon-sick, oh, then he will leave his sins; but
when that sickness is off, he returns with the dog to his vomit, and
with the sow to her wallowing in the mire, 2 Cor. 5:17; 2 Pet. 2:20,
22. Sometimes conscience is like the handwriting upon the wall, Dan.
5:5-8: it makes the sinner's countenance to change, and his thoughts
to be troubled, and the joints of his loins to be loosed, and his knees
to knock one against another. And now the sinner is all for
reforming, and turning over a new leaf; but when these agonies of
conscience are over, the sinner returns to his old courses again, and
oftentimes is twofold more a child of hell than before, Mat. 23:15.
There was a man in this city who was given up to the highest
wickednesses; on his sick-bed conscience made an arrest of him, and
he was filled with such amazing horror and terror, that he cried out
day and night that he was damned, he was damned, he was damned;
and when he had some small intervals, oh, what large promises did
he make! what a new man, a reformed man, he would be! but when
in time his terrors and sickness wrought off, he was sevenfold worse
than before. Sometimes the awakened sinner parts with some sins to
make room for others, and sometimes the sinner seems to give a bill
of divorce to this sin and that; but it is only because his bodily
strength fails him, or because he lacks an opportunity, or because
there is a more strict eye and watch upon him, or because the sword
of the magistrate is more sharpened against him, or because he lacks
fuel, James 4:3; he has not the money to afford it; or because some
company, or some relations, or some friends lie between him and his
sins, so that he must either tread over them, or else keep from his
sins; or because he has deeply smarted for this sin—perhaps his
name has been blotted, his credit and reputation stained, his trade
decayed, his health impaired, his body wasted, etc., Proverbs 6:32-
35. By these short hints it is evident that men may attain to some
outward reformation, whose states and hearts were never changed,
and who were never taken into marriage union with Christ. But,
[10.] Tenthly and lastly, Many rely on their particular church party.
As of old some cried up Paul as the only deep preacher, and others
cried up Apollos as the only eloquent preacher, and many cried up
Cephas as the most zealous preacher, 1 Cor. 1:10-13. "We are for the
Church of England," say some. "We are for the Baptist way," say
others. "We are for the Presbyterian government," cry some. "We are
for the Congregational way," cry others. I have so much charity, as to
judge that some of all these different parties and persuasions are
really holy and will be eternally happy, are gracious and will be
glorious, are sanctified and will be saved, are now governed by Christ
and will be hereafter glorified with Christ.
Judas was one of Christ's party, if I may so speak, and yet he had no
part nor portion in Christ, Mat. 26:20-26. Demas was one of Paul's
party, and yet he played the apostate, and turned an idolatrous priest
at Thessalonica, as Dorotheus says, 2 Tim. 4:10. And Phygellus and
Hermogenes were of Paul's party, but were only famous for their
relapse and apostasy, 2 Tim. 1:15. Hymeneus and Alexander were of
Paul's party, but they made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience,
1 Tim. 1:19-20. The five foolish virgins were in society with the wise,
and were accounted as members of their association, and yet the
door of heaven was shut against them, Mat. 25:1-2, 12. Many light,
slight, and vain people went with the children of Israel out of the
land of Egypt, even a mixed multitude that embarked in the same
journey with them, and yet never arrived at the land of promise,
Exod. 12:38; Num. 11:4.
O my friends, it is not a man's being of this party or that, this church
or that, this way or that, this society or that—which will bring him to
heaven, without a spiritual union and communion with Christ, 1 Pet.
1:4; Heb. 1:2. He who would enjoy the heavenly inheritance must be
espoused to Christ, the heir of all things: "For he who has the Son has
life, and he who has not the Son has not life," 1 John 5:12. This
marriage-union between Christ and the soul is set forth to the life,
throughout the book of Solomon's Song, Cant. 2:16. Though the
marriage-union between Christ and the soul is imperceptible to the
eye of reason, yet it is real, 1 Cor. 6:17. Things in nature often work
insensibly, yet really. We do not see the hand move on the dial, yet it
moves. The sun exhales and draws up the vapors of the earth
insensibly, yet really, Eccles. 11:6. Now this marriage-union between
Christ and the soul includes and takes in these following particulars
—
First, This marriage-union between Christ and the soul, includes the
soul's giving a present bill of divorce to all other lovers—sin, the
world, and Satan. [Consult these scriptures: Hosea 14:8; Isaiah 2:20,
and 30:22; Psalm 45:10; Exod.12:33; Isaiah 59:20.] Are you seriously
and sincerely willing forever to renounce these, and be divorced from
these? There is no mixing between Christ and them. Sin and your
souls must part—or Christ and your souls can never meet! Sin and
your souls must be two—or Christ and your souls can never be one!
You must in good earnest fall out with sins—or else you can never in
good earnest fall in with a Savior! The heart must be separated from
all other lovers—before Christ will take the soul into his bed of loves.
Christ takes none into marriage-union with himself, but such as are
cordially willing that all old former leagues with sin and the world
shall be forever broken and dissolved. Your cordial willingness to
part with sin—is your parting with sin in divine account.
You may as soon bring east and west together, light and darkness
together, heaven and hell together—as bring Christ to espouse
himself to such a soul, as has no mind, no will, no heart to be
divorced from his former lovers. It is a foolish thing for any to think
of keeping both Christ and their lusts too. It is a vain thing for any to
think of saving the life of his sins, and the life of his soul too. If sin
escapes, your soul cannot escape! If you are not the death of your
sins, they will be the death and ruin of your soul! Marriage is a knot
or tie, wherein people are mutually limited and bound each to other,
in a way of marital separation from all others; and this in Scripture is
called a covenant, Proverbs 2:7. So when anyone marries Christ, he
does therein discharge himself in affection and subjection from all
that is contrary unto Christ, and solemnly covenants and binds
himself to Christ alone; he will have no Savior and no Lord but
Christ, and to him will he cleave forever! Psalm 63:8; Acts 11:23. But,
Secondly, This marriage-union with Christ includes a hearty
willingness, to take, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ for your Savior
and sovereign. [John 1:12; Acts 5:31; Col. 2:6: weigh well these
scriptures: Psalm 112:3, and 25:5; Hosea 2:7.] Are you willing to
consent to the match? It is not enough that Christ is willing to enter
into a marriage-union with us—but we must be willing also to enter
into a marriage-union with him. [Many can choose Christ as a refuge
to hide them from danger, and as a friend to help them in their need
—who yet refuse him as a husband.] God will never force a Christ,
nor force salvation upon us, whether we will or not. Many approve of
Christ, and cry up Christ, who yet are not willing to give their
consent, that he, and he alone shall be their Prince and Savior.
Though the knowledge of the other person is necessary and fit; yet it
is not sufficient to marriage, without consent; for marriage ought to
be a voluntary transaction of persons. In marriage we do in a sort
give away ourselves, and elect and make choice for ourselves, and
therefore consent is a necessary concurrence to marriage.
Now this consent is nothing else but a free and plain act of the will,
accepting of Jesus Christ before all others to be its head and Lord,
and in the soul's choice of him to be its Savior and sovereign. Then a
man is married to Christ—when he does freely and absolutely and
presently receive the Lord Jesus. Not, "I would have Christ if it did
not prejudice my worldly estate, ease, friends, relations, etc." Nor is
it, "Hereafter, I will accept of him when I come to die, and am in
distress." But it is, "Now when salvation is offered, now while Christ
offers himself, I now yield up my heart and life unto him." But,
Thirdly, This marriage-union with Christ includes a universal and
perpetual consent for all time, and in all states and conditions. There
is, you know, a great difference between a wife and a strumpet; a wife
takes her husband upon all terms, to have and to hold, for better and
for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health;
whereas a strumpet is only for hire and lust. When the purse is
emptied, or the body wasted and strength consumed, the harlot's
love is at an end. Just so here. That acceptance and consent which
ties the marriage-knot between Christ and the soul, must be an
unlimited and universal acceptance and consent, when we take the
Lord Jesus Christ wholly and entirely, without any secret
reservations or exceptions. That soul that will have Christ—must
have all Christ or no Christ, "for Christ is not divided," 1 Cor. 1:13.
That soul must entertain him to all purposes and intents, he must
follow the Lamb wherever he goes, Rev. 14:4, though it should be
through fire and water, over mountains and hills. He must take him
with his cup of affliction—as well as his cup of consolation, Psalm
66:12; with his shameful cross—as well as his glorious crown; with
his great sufferings—as well as his great salvation, Heb. 2:3; with his
grace—as well as his mercy; with his Spirit to lead and govern them—
as well as his blood to redeem and justify them; to suffer for him—as
well as to reign with him; to die for him—as well as to live to him, 2
Tim. 2:12; Acts 21:13; Romans 14:7-8.
Christianity, like the wind acacias, does ever draw clouds and
afflictions after it. "All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution," 2 Tim. 3:12. A man may have many faint wishes and
cold desires after godliness, and yet escape persecution; yes, he may
make some tries and attempts, as if he would be godly, and yet
escape persecution. But when a man is thoroughly resolved to be
godly, and sets himself in good earnest upon pursuing after holiness,
and living a life of godliness—then he must expect to meet with
afflictions and persecutions. Whoever escapes, the godly man shall
not escape persecution in one kind or another, in one degree or
another. [Within the first three hundred years after Christ, all who
made a profession of the apostle's doctrine, were cruelly persecuted.]
He who is peremptorily resolved to live up to holy rules, and to live
out holy principles—must prepare for sufferings. All the roses of
holiness are surrounded with pricking briars. The history of the Ten
Persecutions, and that little Book of Martyrs, the 11th of the
Hebrews, and Mr. Fox's Acts and Monuments, with many other
treatises that are extant, do abundantly evidence that from age to
age, and from one generation to another—they those who been born
after the flesh have persecuted those who have been born after the
spirit; and that the seed of the serpent have been still a-multiplying
of troubles upon the seed of the woman, Gal. 4:29. But a believer's
future glory and pleasure will abundantly recompense him for his
present pain and ignominy.
But such as will have Christ for their Savior and sovereign, but still
with some proviso or other—namely, that they may keep such a
beloved lust, or enjoy such carnal pleasures and delights, or raise
such an estate for them and their children, or comply with the times,
and such and such great men's desires, or that they may follow the
Lamb only in sunshine weather, etc., these are still Satan's bondslaves, and such as Christ can take no pleasure nor delight to espouse
himself unto. But,
3. The third word of advice and counsel is this, namely, "Put off the
old man, and put on the new man." Col. 9-10. Consult these
scriptures. [Eph. 4:22-24; Gal. 6:35; 1 Pet. 2:2.] You must be new
creatures, or else it had been better that you had been any creatures
than what you are: 2 Cor. 5:17, "If any man be in Christ he is a new
creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become
new." The new creature includes a new light, a new sight, a new
understanding. The new creature sees sin to be the greatest evil, and
Christ and holiness to be the chief good, Psalm 38:4, and Cant. 5:10.
When a man is a new creature, he has a new judgment and opinion,
he looks upon God as his only happiness, and Christ as his all in all,
Col. 3:11, and upon the ways of God as ways of pleasantness,
Proverbs 3:17. The new man has new cares, new requests, new
desires. Oh that my soul may be saved! Acts 2:37, and 16:30; Oh that
my interest in Christ may be cleared! Oh that my heart may be
adorned with grace! Oh that my whole man may be secured from
wrath to come! 1 Thes. 1:10.
The new man is a man of new principles. If you make a serious
inspection into his soul, you shall find a principle of faith, of
repentance, of holiness, of love, of contentment, of patience, etc.
[Phil. 1:29; Acts 11:18; 1 Thes. 4:9; Phil. 4:11; 1 Cor. 4:12.] There is
not any one spiritual and heavenly principle respecting salvation, but
may be found in the new creature. The new man experiences a new
combat and conflict in his soul. "The flesh lusts against the spirit,
and the spirit lusts against the flesh." "I see another law in my
members warring against the law of my mind," Gal. 5:17, and
Romans 7:23. The new man experiences a combat in every faculty.
Here is the new judgment against the old judgment, and the new will
against the old will, and the new affections against the old affections.
And the reason is this; because there is flesh and spirit, sin and grace
co-existent and cohabiting in every faculty of the soul; renewing
grace is in every faculty, and remaining corruption is also in every
faculty, like Jacob and Esau struggling in the same womb, or like
heat and cold in the same water, and in every part of it.
The new man also combats with all sorts of known sins, whether they
are great or small, inward or outward, whether they are the sins of
the heart or the sins of the life. This conflict in the new man is a daily
conflict, a constant conflict. The new creature can never, the new
creature will never, be at peace with sin; sin and the new creature
will fight it out to the death. The new creature will never be brought
into a league of friendship with sin.
The new man is a man of a new life and conversation. A new life
always attends a new heart. You see it in Paul, Mary Magdalene,
Zaccheus, the jailor, and all the others that are upon Scripture
record. [See 1 John3:14; 2 Cor. 6:14; Psalm 120:5, 139:21, and 42:4.]
The new man has new society, new company: Psalm 119:63, "I am a
companion of all those who fear you, and of those who keep your
precepts," Psalm 16:3, "My goodness extends not to you, but to the
saints who are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my
delight." Holy society is the only society for people with holy hearts,
and in that society can no man delight, until God renews his heart by
grace.
Many men be as the planet Mercury, good when in company of those
that are good; and bad when in company of those that are bad. These
are those who put honesty to an open shame. [Cicero had rather have
no companion than a bad one.] Clothes and company do oftentimes
tell tales in a mute but significant language. "Tell me with whom you
go, and I will tell you what you are," says the Spanish proverb.
Algerius, an Italian martyr, had rather be in prison with Cato than
with Caesar in the senate-house.
But to conclude this word of counsel, the new man walks by a new
rule. As soon as ever God has made a man a new creature, he
presently sets up a new rule of life to walk by, and that is no other but
that which God himself sets up for his people to walk by, and that is
his written word: Isaiah 8:20, "To the law and to the testimony;"
Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto
my path;" ver. 133, "Order my steps in your word;" Gal. 6:16, "And as
many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy,
and upon the Israel of God." This rule he sets up for all matters of
faith, and for all matters of fact. The word is like the stone
Garamantides, which has drops of gold within itself, enriching of
every soul who makes it his rule to walk by. Alexander kept Homer's
Iliads in a cabinet, embroidered with gold and pearls; and shall not
we keep the word in the cabinet of our hearts, that it may be always
ready at hand as a rule for us to walk by? Well, friends, whatever you
do forget, be sure that forever you remember this—namely, that none
can or shall be glorious creatures, but such as by grace are made new
creatures. But,
4. The fourth word of advice and counsel is this—Labor to be more
inwardly sincere, than outwardly glorious. "The king's daughter is all
glorious within," Psalm 45:13. Oh labor rather to be good, than to be
thought to be good; to live than to have a name to live, Rev. 3:1, 15-
17. Whatever you let go, be sure you hold fast your integrity. A man
were better to let friends go, relations go, estate go, liberty go, and all
go—than let his integrity go. "I will maintain my integrity until I die."
Job 27:5. Job is highly and fully resolved to keep his integrity,
against all assaults of enemies or suspicions of friends. Job's integrity
was the best jewel he had in all the world, and this jewel he was
resolved to keep to his dying day. It was neither good men, nor bad
men, nor devils—which could baffle Job out of his integrity; and
though they all pulled, and pulled hard, at his integrity, yet he would
not let it go, he would hold fast this pearl of great price, whatever it
cost him. The sincere Christian, like John Baptist, will hold his
integrity though he lose his head for it, Mark 6. The very heathens
loved an honest and sincere spirit, as he who wished that there was a
window in his bosom—that all the world might see what was in his
heart. Integrity will be a sword to defend you, a staff to support you,
a star to guide you, and a cordial to cheer you; and therefore, above
all gettings—get sincerity, and above all keepings—keep sincerity, as
your crown, your comfort, your life. But,
5. The fifth word of comfort and counsel is this—Be true to the light
of your consciences, and maintain and keep up a constant tenderness
in your consciences. A tender conscience is a mercy worth more than
a world. Conscience is God's spy in our bosoms: keep this clear and
tender, and then all is well, Acts 24:16; 2 Cor. 1:12. Never act against
the dictates of conscience; never rebel against the light of conscience.
It would be better that all the world should upbraid you and reproach
you—than that your consciences should upbraid you and reproach
you, Job 27:5-6. Beware of stifling conscience, and of suppressing the
warnings of conscience—lest a warning conscience prove a gnawing
conscience, a tormenting conscience. The blind man in the Gospel,
Mark 8, newly recovering his sight, imagined trees to be men; and
the Burgundians expecting a battle, supposed long thistles to be
lances. Thus men under guilt are apt to conceit every thistle a tree,
and every tree a man, and every man a devil. Take heed of tonguetied consciences; for when God shall untie these strings, and
unmuzzle your consciences, conscience will then be heard, and ten
concerts of music shall not drown her clamorous cries.
Hearken to the voice of conscience, obey the voice of conscience, and
when conscience shall whisper you in the ear, and tell you there is
this and that amiss in the house, in the habit, in the heart, in the life,
in the closet; don't say to conscience, "Conscience be quiet, be still,
make no noise now, I will hear you in a more convenient season,"
Acts 24:24-25. The heathen orator could say, "A man may not depart
a hair's-breadth all his life long from the dictates of a good
conscience." Will not this heathen one day rise in judgment against
those who daily crucify the light of their own consciences? But,
6. The sixth word of advice and counsel is this—Make it the great
business of your lives to make sure of those things which will go with
you beyond the grave. Riches and honors and titles, and all worldly
grandeur—won't go with us beyond the grave. Saladin, a Turkish
emperor, lying at the point of death, after many glorious victories,
commanded that a white sheet should be borne before him to his
grave, upon the point of a spear, with this proclamation: "These are
the rich spoils which Saladin carries away with him, of all his
triumphs and victories, of all his riches and realms that he had; now
nothing at all is left for him to carry with him but this sheet." It is
with us in this world as it was in the Jewish fields and vineyards—
they might pluck and eat what they would while they were there—but
they might not pocket nor put up anything to carry with them, Deut.
23:24-25. Death, as a porter, stands at the gate, and strips men of all
their worldly wealth and glory!
Athenseus speaks of one who, at the hour of death, devoured many
pieces of gold, and sewed the rest in his coat, commanding that they
should be buried with him. Hermocrates, being loath that any man
should enjoy his goods after him—in his will, made himself the heir
of his own goods. These muck-worms would fain live still on this side
Jordan; having made their gold their God, they cannot think of
parting with it. They would, if possible, carry the world out of the
world. But what says the apostle? "We brought nothing with us into
this world, and it is certain"—see how he assures it, as if some rich
wretches made question of it—"we can carry nothing out," nothing
but a winding-sheet, 1 Tim. 6:7. Oh, how should this alarm us to
make sure our calling and election, [2 Pet. 1:10; 2 Cor. 5:17; 2 Sam.
23:5; 1 Thes. 5:23; 2 Cor. 1:12.] to make sure our interest in Christ, to
make sure our covenant-relation, to make sure a work of grace in
power upon our souls, to make sure the testimony of a good
conscience, Gal. 4:5-7, to make sure our sonship, our saintship, our
heirship, etc., Romans 8:15-16; for these are the only things that will
go with us into another world.
In the Marian persecution there was a woman who, being convened
before Bonner, then Bishop of London, upon the trial of religion, he
threatened her that he would take away her husband from her. Says
she, "Christ is my husband." I will take away your child. "Christ,"
says she, is better to me than ten sons." I will strip you, says he, of all
your outward comfort. "Yes, but Christ is mine," says she, "and you
cannot strip me of him." Assurance that Christ was hers, and that he
would go with her beyond the grave, bore her heart up above the
threats of being robbed of all, Heb. 10:34. When a great and rich man
had showed a sober, serious, knowing Christian his riches, his stately
habitation, his pleasant gardens, his delightful walks, his rich
grounds, and his various sorts of pleasure; the serious Christian,
turning himself to this great man, said: "Sir, you had need to make
sure Christ and heaven, you had need make sure something that will
go with you beyond the grave, for else when you die you will be a very
great loser!"
O my friends, I must tell you, it highly concerns you to make sure
something that will go with you beyond the grave, or else you will be
very great losers when you come to die, God having given you an
abundance of the good things and of the great things of this world,
beyond what he has given to many thousands of others. But,
7. The seventh word of advice and counsel is this—Look upon all the
things of this world, and value all the things of this world now—as
you will certainly look upon them and value them when you come to
lie upon a sick-bed, a dying-bed. 1 Cor. 7:29-31. When a man is sick
in good earnest, and when death knocks at the door in good earnest
—oh, with what a disdainful eye, with what a weaned eye, with what
a scornful eye does a man then look upon the honors, riches,
dignities, and glories of this world! If men could but thus look upon
them now, it would keep them from being fond of them, from
trusting in them, from doting upon them, from being proud of them,
and from venturing a damning—either in getting or in keeping of
them. But,
8. The eighth word of advice and counsel is this—In all places and
companies carry your soul-preservatives still about you—namely, a
holy care, a holy fear, a holy jealousy, a holy watchfulness over your
own thoughts, hearts, words, and ways, Proverbs 4:23, and 28:14;
Gen. 6:9, and 39:9, 10; Psalm 17:4, 18:23, and 39:1, etc. You know
that in infectious times men and women carry their several
preservatives about them, that they may be kept from the infection of
the times. Never were there more infectious times than now. Oh the
snares, the baits, the infections which attend us at all times, in all
places, in all companies, in all employments, and in all enjoyments;
so that if we do not carry our soul-preservatives about us, we shall be
in imminent danger of being infected with the pride, sinful customs,
and vanities of the times wherein we live. But,
9. The ninth word of advice and counsel is this—Live not at
uncertainties as to your spiritual and eternal estates. There are none
so miserable as those that are strangers to the state of their own
souls. It is good for a man to know the state of his flock, the state of
his family, the state of the nation, the state of his body; but above all
to know the state and condition of his own soul. How many
thousands are there, who can give a better account of their lands,
their lordships, their riches, their crops, their shops, their trades,
their merchandise, yes, of their hobbies and their hounds—than they
can of the estate of their own souls! O my friends, your souls are of
more worth than ten thousand worlds, Mat. 16:26, and therefore it
must be the greatest prudence, and the choicest policy in the world—
to secure their everlasting welfare, and to know how things stands
between God and your souls, what you are worth for eternity, and
how it is likely to go with you in that other world.
While a Christian lives at uncertainties as to his spiritual and
everlasting estate, as whether he has grace or no grace; or whether
his grace be true or counterfeit; whether he has a saving interest in
Christ or not; or whether a work in power upon his soul or not; or
whether God loves him or loathes him; whether God will bring him
to heaven or throw him to hell—how can any Christian who lives at
so great an uncertainty delight in God, rejoice evermore, triumph in
Christ Jesus, be ready to suffer, and be desirous to die? Job 27:10;
Phil. 4:4; 2 Cor. 2:14; Phil. 1:23. All men love to be at a certainty in
all their outward concernments; and yet how many thousands are
there that are at an astonishing uncertainty as to the present and
future state of their precious and immortal souls! But,
10. The tenth word of advice and counsel is this—Set the highest
Scripture examples and patterns before you, of grace and holiness—
for your imitation. 1 Cor. 4:16. In the point of faith and obedience set
an Abraham before you, Gen. 12 and 22. In the point of meekness set
a Moses before you, Num. 12:3. In the point of courage set a Joshua
before you, Josh. 1. In the point of uprightness set a David before
you, Psalm 18:23. In the point of zeal set a Phinehas before you. In
the point of patience set a Job before you. Make Christ your main
pattern, "Be followers of me, as I am of Christ," James 5:11-12, and 1
Cor. 11:1. And next to him set the patterns of the choicest saints
before you for your imitation. [Precepts may instruct, but examples
persuade.]
The nearer you come to those blessed copies that they have set before
you, the more will be your joy and comfort, and the more God will be
honored, Christ exalted, the Spirit pleased, piety adorned, the
mouths of sinners stopped, and the hearts of saints rejoiced. He who
shoots at the sun, though he shoot far short, yet will shoot higher
than he who aims at a shrub. It is safest, it is best, to eye the highest
and worthiest examples. Examples are,
(1.) More awakening than precepts;
(2.) More convincing than precepts;
(3.) More encouraging than precepts, Heb. 11:8; and that because in
them we see that the exercise of godliness, though difficult, yet is
possible. When we see men subject to like passions with ourselves to
be very mortified, self-denying, humble, holy, etc.; what should
hinder, but that it may be so with us also? Such as begin to work with
the needle, look much on their pattern: it is so in learning to write,
and indeed in learning to live also. Observe the gracious
conversations and carriages of the choicest saints; keep a fixed eye
upon the wise, prudent, humble, holy, and heavenly deportment;
write after the fairest copy you can find; labor to imitate those
Christians who are most eminent in grace. But,
11. The eleventh word of advice and counsel is this—Be much in the
most spiritual exercises of religion. There are external exercises of
religion—such as hearing, praying, singing, receiving, holy
conference, etc., Isaiah 1:11-14, and 1 Tim. 4:8, and Mat. 6. Now
custom, conviction, education, and a hundred other external
considerations, may lead people to these external exercises. But there
are the more spiritual exercises of religion—such as loving of God,
delighting in God, prizing of Christ, compliance with the motions,
counsels, and dictates of the Spirit, living in an exercise of grace,
triumphing in Christ Jesus, setting our affections upon things above,
meditation, self-examination, self-judging, etc. Now the more you
live in the exercise of these, more spiritual duties of religion—the
more you glorify God, the more you evidence the power of grace, and
the in-dwellings of the Spirit—and the more you difference and
distinguish yourselves from hypocrites and all unsound professors,
and the better foundation you lay for a bright, strong, and growing
assurance. But,
12. The twelfth and last word of advice and counsel I shall give you is
—To make a wise, a seasonable, a sincere, a daily, and a thorough
improvement of all the talents that God has entrusted you with.
There is a talent of time, of power, of riches, of honor, of greatness—
which some are more entrusted with than others are. The
improvement of these is your great wisdom, and should be your daily
works, 1 Cor 4:1-2. You know you are but stewards, and that you
must shortly give an account of your stewardship, Luke 16:1-4. And
oh that you may make such a faithful and full improvement of all the
great talents which God has entrusted you with—that you may give
up your account at last with joy, and not with grief!
Some princes have wished upon their beds, that they had never
reigned, because they have not improved their power for God and his
people, but against God and his people. And some rich men have
wished that they had never been rich, because they have not
improved their riches for the glory of God, nor for the support and
relief of his suffering saints. A beggar upon the way asked something
of an honorable lady: she gave him sixpence, saying, "This is more
than ever God gave me." "Oh!" says the beggar, "Madam, you have
abundance, and God has given you all that you have; say not so, good
madam." "Well," says she, "I speak the truth, for God has not given
but lent unto me what I have, that I may bestow it upon such as you
are." And it is very true, indeed, that poor Christians are Christ's
alms-men, and the rich are but his stewards, into whose hands God
has put his moneys—to distribute to them as their necessities
require.
It is credibly reported of Mr. Thomas Sutton, the sole founder of that
eminent hospital commonly known by his name, that he used often
to go into a private garden, where he poured forth his prayers unto
God, and, among other passages, was frequently overheard to use
this expression: "Lord, you have given me a liberal and large estate,
give me also a heart to make good use of it;" which was granted to
him accordingly. Riches are a great blessing, but wisdom, and a heart
to use them aright, is a far greater blessing. Every rich man is not so
much a treasurer as a steward, whose praise is more how to give well,
than to have received much. I know I have transgressed the bounds
of an epistle, but love to your souls, and theirs into whose hands this
treatise may fall, must be my apology.
Sir, if you and your lady were both my own children, and my only
children, I could not give you better nor more faithful counsel than
what I have given you in this epistle. I have given all out of a sincere,
serious, and cordial desire and design, that both of you may be happy
here, and found at Christ's right hand in the great day of account,
Mat. 25:33-34.
Now the God of all grace fill both your hearts with all the fruits of
righteousness and holiness, and greatly bless you both with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and make you meet-helps to
each other heaven-ward, and at last crown you both with ineffable
glory in the life to come! 1 Pet. 5:1; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 1:3.
Your assured friend, and soul's servant,
Thomas Brooks, 1675
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Post by Admin on Feb 20, 2024 16:02:04 GMT -5
The Covenant of Grace Proved and
Opened
Beloved in our Lord,
In the first part of my book, The Golden Key, I have showed you
seven different pleas, which all sincere Christians may form up, as to
those ten scriptures, which refer either to the great day of account, or
to their particular days of account. In this second part, I shall go on
where I left, and show you several other choice pleas, that all
believers may make in the present case.
VIII. The eighth plea that a believer may form up as to these ten
scriptures, [Eccles. 11:9, and 12:14; Mat. 12:14, and 18:23; Luke 16:2;
Romans 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 9:27, and 13:17; 1 Pet. 4:5.] that
refer to the great day of account, or to a man's particular account,
may be drawn up from the consideration of the covenant of grace, or
the new covenant which all believers are under. It is of high
concernment to understand the nature of the covenant of grace, or
the new covenant, which is the law you must judge of your estates by,
for if you mistake in that—you will err in the conclusion. That person
is very unfit to make a judge, who is ignorant of the law, by which
himself and others must be tried. For the clearing of my way, let me
premise these six things—
1. First, Premise this with me—that God has commonly dealt with
man in the way of a covenant; that being a way which is most
suitable to man, and most honorable for man, and the most amicable
and friendly way of dealing with man. No sooner was man made, but
God entered into covenant with him, "In the day you eat thereof, you
shall die the death," Gen. 2:17; and after this, he made a covenant
with the world, by Noah, Gen. 9:11-15, and 6:18; and after this, he
made a covenant with Abraham, Gen. 17:1-2; and after this, he made
a covenant with the Jews at Mount Sinai, Exod. 19. Thus you see that
God has commonly dealt with man in the way of a covenant. But,
2. Secondly, Premise this with me—All men are under some covenant
or other; they are either under a covenant of works—or they are
under a covenant of grace. All people who live and die without a
saving interest in Christ—they live and die under a covenant of
works. Such as live and die with a saving interest in Christ—they live
and die under a covenant of grace. There is but a twofold standing
taken notice of in the blessed Scriptures; the one is under the law,
the other is under grace. Now he who is not under grace, is under the
law, Rom 6:14. It is true, in the Scripture you do not read, of the
covenant of works and the covenant of grace; but that of the apostle
comes near it: Romans 3:27, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded.
By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith." [The apostle
expressly tells us that there are two covenants, and no more, in Gal.
4:24.]
Here you have the law of works, opposed to the law of faith; which
essentially means the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.
The apostle sets forth this twofold condition of men, by a very
pertinent resemblance, namely, by that of marriage, Romans 7:1-3.
All Adam's seed are married to one of these two husbands; either to
the law, or to Christ. He who is not spiritually married to Christ, and
so brought under his covenant—is still under the law as a covenant of
works; even as a wife is under the law of her husband while he is yet
alive. Certainly there were never any but two covenants made with
man, the one legal, the other evangelical; the one of works, the other
of grace; the first in innocency, the other after the fall. Ponder upon
Romans 4:13. But,
3. Thirdly, Let me premise this—that the covenant of grace was so
legally dispensed to the Jews, that it seems to be nothing else but the
repetition of the covenant of works; in respect of which legal
dispensations of it, the same covenant, under the law, is called a
covenant of works. Under the gospel, in regard of the clearer
manifestation of it, it is called a covenant of grace: but these were not
two distinct covenants, but one and the same covenant diversely
dispensed. The covenant of grace is the same for substance now to us
since Christ was exhibited, as it was to the Jews before he was
exhibited; but the manner of administration of it is different, because
it is:
(1.) Now clearer. Things were then declared, in types and shadows.
Heaven was then typed out by the land of Canaan. But now we have
things more plainly manifested, 2 Cor. 3:12; Heb. 7:22. In this
respect it is called "a better covenant," Heb. 8:6; not in substance,
but in the manner of revealing it; and the promises are said to be
"better promises" upon the same account, Acts 10:35.
(2.) The covenant of grace, is now more largely extended. Then it
extended only to the Jews; but now it extends to all who know the
Lord, and who choose him, fear him, love him, and serve him in all
nations, Col. 3:11; Neh. 7:2; Job 1:1, 8; Acts 13:22, seq.; Romans
4:18-20.
(3.) There is more abundance of the Spirit, of grace, of light, of
knowledge, of holiness, poured out generally upon the people of God
now—than there was in those times. Though then some few eminent
saints had much of the Spirit, and much of grace and holiness, both
in their hearts and lives; but now the generality of the saints have
more of the Spirit, and more grace and holiness, than the generality
of the saints had in those times. But,
4. Fourthly, Premise this with me—that a right notion of the
covenant, according to the originals of the Old and New Testament—
will conduce much to a right understanding of God's covenant. [The
word covenant in our English tongue, signifies, as we all know, a
mutual promise, agreement, and obligation, between two people. A
covenant is a solemn compact or agreement between two chosen
parties; whereby, with mutual, free, and full consent, they bind and
oblige themselves one to another. A covenant is "A friendly state
between allies." Martin Luther. The derivation of the Hebrew word,
and of the Greek, may give us great light, and is of special use to
show the nature of the covenant which they principally signify, and
what special things are therein required.
(1.) The Hebrew word, Berith, a covenant, is by learned men derived
from several roots:
[1.] First, Some derive it from Barar—to purify, make clear, and to
purge out dross, chaff, and all uncleanness; and to select, and choose
out, and separate the pure from the impure, the gold and silver from
the dross, and the pure wheat from the chaff. The reasons of this
derivation are these:
(1.) Because by covenants, open and clear amity is confirmed, and
faithfulness is plainly and clearly declared and ratified, without
deceit or fraud, between covenanters; and things are made plain and
clear between them in every point and article.
(2.) Because God, in the covenant of works, did choose out man
especially, with whom he made the covenant; and because in the
covenant of grace, he chooses out of the multitude his elect, even his
church and faithful people, whom he did separate by predestination
and election from all eternity, to be a holy people to himself in Christ,
Eph. 1:4.
(3.) Some derive it from Barah, and truly, the Lord, when he makes a
covenant with any, he does separate them from others, he looks on
them, and takes them, and owns them for his "peculiar people," 1
Pet. 2:9, for his "peculiar treasure," Exod. 19:5, and agrees with them
as the chosen and choicest of all others. The first staff in Zech. 11:10,
is called "Beauty," and this was the covenant; and certainly it must be
a high honor for a people to be in covenant with God; for by this
means God becomes ours, and we are made near unto him, Jer.
31:38, 40-41. He is ours, and we are his, in a very peculiar way of
relation; and by this means God opens his love and all his treasures
of grace unto us. In his covenant he tells us of his special care, love,
kindness, and great intentions of good to us; and by this means his
faithfulness comes to be obliged to make good all his covenant
relations and engagements to us, Deut. 7:9. Now in all this God puts
a great favor and honor upon his people. Hence, when the Lord told
Abraham that he would make a covenant with him, Abraham fell
upon his face; he was amazed at so great a love and honor, Gen. 17:2-
3.
[2.] Secondly, Some derive the word from Barah—to eat, because
usually they had a feast at the making of covenants. In the Eastern
countries they commonly established their covenants by eating and
drinking together. Herodotus tells us that the Persians were
accustomed to contract leagues and friendship in a full feast, whereat
their wives, children, and friends, were present. The like custom,
Tacitus reports of the Germans. Among the Greeks and other
nations, the covenanters ate bread and salt together. The Emperor of
Russia, at this day, when he would show extraordinary grace and
favor unto any, sends him bread and salt from his table. When he
invited Baron Sigismund, he did it in this form: "Sigismund, you
shall eat our bread and salt with us." Hence that symbol of
Pythagoras, "break no bread," is interpreted by Erasmus and others
to mean, "break no friendship."
Moreover, the Egyptians, Thracians, and Lybians in special, are said
to have used to make leagues, and contract friendships—by
presenting a cup of wine one to another; which custom we find still
in use among our western nations. It has been the universal custom
of mankind, and still remains in use, to contract covenants, and
make leagues and friendship—by eating and drinking together.
When Isaac made a covenant with Abimelech, the king of Gerar, the
text says, "He made him, and those that were with him, a feast; and
they did eat and drink, and rose up early in the morning, and swore
one to another," Gen. 26:30-31. When Jacob made a covenant with
Laban, after they had sworn together, he made him a feast, "and
called his brethren to eat bread," says the text, Gen. 31:54. When
David made a covenant with Abner, upon his promise of bringing all
Israel unto him, David made "Abner and the men who were with him
a feast," says the text, 2 Sam. 3:20. Hence, in the Hebrew tongue a
covenant is called Berith, of Barak to eat, as if they should say an
eating; which derivation is so natural, that it deserves, say some, to
be preferred before the other signification of the same verb, which is
to choose.
Now they that derive Berith from Barah, which signifies to eat and
refresh one's self with a meal, they give this reason for that
derivation, namely, because the old covenant of God, made with man
in the creation, was a covenant wherein the condition or law was
about eating; that man should eat of all the trees and fruits, except of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Gen. 2:16-17; and in the
solemn making and sealing of the covenant of grace in Christ, the
blessed seed, the public ceremony was slaying and sacrificing of
animals, and eating some part of them, after the fat and the choice
parts were offered up and burned on the altar. For God, by virtue of
that covenant, gave man leave to eat the flesh of animals, Deut.
12:27, which he might not do in the state of innocency, Gen. 1:29,
being limited to fruits of trees, and herbs bearing seed, for his meat.
So, also, in solemn covenants between men, the parties were
accustomed to eat together, Gen. 31:46.
[3.] Thirdly, Others derive the word Berith from Bara, or Barah, to
smite, strike, cut, or divide, as both these words signify. The word
also signifies to elect or choose; and the reasons they give for this
derivation, are these two:
First, Because covenants are not made, but by choice persons, chosen
out one by another, and about choice matters, and upon choice
conditions; chosen out, and agreed upon by both parties.
Secondly, Because, in making of covenants, commonly sacrifices
were stricken and slain, for confirmation and solemnity. Of old, God
sealed his covenants by sacrifices of animals slain, divided, and cut
asunder, and the choice fat, and other parts, offered upon the altar.
And in making of great and solemn covenants, men, in old time, were
accustomed to kill and cut asunder sacrificed animals; and to pass
between the parts divided, for a solemn testimony, or for the
confirmation of the covenants that they had made, Gen. 15:9-10, 17.
[Jer. 34:18-20, and Lev. 26:25. Weigh well these two scriptures.
Covenant breakers may well look upon them as flaming swords, as
terrible thunderbolts.]
And as learned men have long since observed, that the very heathen,
in their covenanting, used sacrifices, and divided them, passing
between the parts; and this they did, as some conjecture, in imitation
of God's people.
This third opinion, is the common opinion, about the original of this
name; and therefore preferred before all others. So this word Berith,
covenant, seems to sound as much as Kerith, a smiting or striking,
because of sacrifices slain in covenanting. Hence the word covenant
is often joined with Karath, which signifies striking of covenant. An
example of this beyond all exception, says my author, is in that
sacrifice, wherein God by Moses, made a covenant with all the people
of Israel, and bound them to obey his law: the description of it is in
Exodus 24:4-8, "Then Moses carefully wrote down all the Lord's
instructions. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of
the mountain. He also set up twelve pillars around the altar, one for
each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent some of the young
men to sacrifice young bulls as burnt offerings and peace offerings to
the Lord. Moses took half the blood from these animals and drew it
off into basins. The other half he splashed against the altar. Then he
took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They all
responded again, "We will do everything the Lord has commanded.
We will obey." Then Moses sprinkled the blood from the basins over
the people and said, "This blood confirms the covenant the Lord has
made with you in giving you these laws."
[Ancient covenants were made with blood, to betoken constancy in
the covenant, even to the shedding of blood, and loss of life.] I shall
not trouble my reader with that mystical and too curious a sense,
that some of the ancients put upon these words. The historical sense
is here more fit: for in this ceremony of dividing the blood in two
parts, and so besprinkling the altar with the one half, which
represented God; and the people with the other, between whom the
covenant was confirmed, the old use in striking of covenants is
observed. For the ancient custom was, that they which made a league
or covenant, divided some animals, and put the parts asunder,
walking in the midst; signifying that as the animal was divided, so
they should be, who broke the covenant. So when Saul went against
the Ammonites, coming out of the field, he hewed two oxen, and sent
them into all the coasts of Israel, 1 Sam. 11:7; expressing the like
signification, that so should his oxen be served, which came not forth
after Saul and Samuel. After the same manner, when God made a
covenant with Abraham, Gen. 15:12-19, and he had divided certain
animals, as God had commanded him, and laid one part against
another, a smoking firebrand went between, representing God,
signifying, that so he who violated the covenant should be divided.
So in this place, not much unlike; the blood is parted in twain,
showing that so should his blood be shed, who kept not the covenant.
[4.] Fourthly, Some derive the word Berith from Bara, to create; and
the reason they give for this derivation is this—because the first state
of creation was confirmed by the covenant which God made with
man, and all creatures were to be upheld by means of observing of
the law and condition of the covenant. And that covenant being
broken by man, the world, made subject to ruin, is upheld, yes, and
as it were created anew, by the covenant of grace in Christ.
[5.] Fifthly, Some derive the word Berith from Berath, which signifies
firmness, sureness, because covenants are firm and sure, and all
things agreed on are confirmed and made sure by them. God's
covenant is a sure covenant: Deut. 7:9, "The Lord your God, he is the
faithful God," or the God of truth, "who keeps covenant with those
who love him." Psalm 89:34, "My covenant will I not break"—
Hebrew, "I will not profane" "nor alter the thing which have gone out
of my lips." [Jer. 31:31, 33, 35-37; Psalm 19:7; Rev. 3:14; Isaiah
54:10.] All God's precepts, all God's predictions, all God's
threatenings, and all God's promises—are the expression of a most
just, faithful, and righteous will. There are three things that God
cannot do:
(1.) He cannot die.
(2.) He cannot lie: Titus 1:2, "In hope of eternal life, which God, who
cannot lie, promised before the world began."
(3.) He cannot deny himself.
Now the derivation of Berith, from the several roots specified, and
not from one only, does give much light to the point under
consideration; and does reconcile in one, all the several opinions of
the learned, and justifies their several derivations, without rejecting
or offering any wrong or disgrace to any.
(2.) Secondly, The Greek name Diatheke, a covenant or a testament.
By this Greek word the Septuagint, does commonly express the
Hebrew word Berith; and it is observable that this is the only word
by which the Hebrew word Berith is rendered in the New Testament.
This Greek word, diatheke, is translated covenant in the New
Testament about twenty times; and the same word is translated
testament in the New Testament about twelve times. [Heb. 8:6-10,
and 1:4; Luke 1:72; Romans 9:4, etc.; Mat. 26:28; Luke 22:20, etc.]
Wherever you find the word covenant in the New Testament, there
you shall find Diatheke; and wherever you find the word testament in
the New Testament, there you shall find Diatheke; so that it is of
importance for us to understand this word aright.
Now this Greek word is derived from Diatithemi, which has several
of the significations of the Hebrew words of which Berith is derived;
for it signifies to set things in order and frame, to appoint orders, and
make laws, to pacify and make satisfaction, and to dispose things by
one's last will and testament. Now to compose and set things in order
is to uphold the creation; to walk by orders and laws made and
appointed is to walk by rule, and to live, to deal plainly and faithfully
without deceit. To pacify and make satisfaction includes sacrifices
and sin-offerings. To dispose by will and testament implies choice of
persons and gifts; for men do commonly by will give their best and
most choice things to their most dear and most choice friends. Thus
the Greek which the apostles use in the New Testament to signify a
covenant, to express the Hebrew word Berith, which is used in the
law and the prophets, does confirm our derivation of it from all the
words before named.
And this derivation of the Hebrew and Greek names of a covenant
being thus laid down, and confirmed by the reasons formerly cited, is
of great USE. The various acceptance and use of these two names in
the Old and New Testament is very considerable for the opening of
the covenant:
First, To show unto us the full signification of the word covenant,
and what the nature of a covenant is in general.
Second, To justify the several acceptations of the word, and to show
the nature of every word in particular, and so to make way for the
knowledge of the agreement, and difference between the old and new
covenant. Here, as in a crystal glass, you may see that this word
Berith, and this word Diatheke, signify all covenants in general,
whether they are religious or civil; for there is nothing in any true
covenant which is not comprised in the signification of these words,
being expounded according to the former derivations. Here also we
may see what is the nature of a covenant in general, and what things
are thereunto required; as, first, every true covenant presupposes a
division or separation; secondly, it comprehends in it a mutual
promising and binding between two distinct parties.
Thirdly, there must be faithful dealing, without fraud, or dissembling
on both sides.
Fourthly, this must be between choice persons.
Fifthly, it must be about choice matters and upon choice conditions,
agreed upon by both.
Sixthly and lastly, it must tend to the well-ordering and composing of
things between them.
Now all these are manifest by the several significations of the words
from which Berith and Diatheke are derived. And thus much for the
word covenant according to the originals of the Old and New
Testament.
5. Fifthly, Premise this with me, that there was a covenant of
WORKS, or a reciprocal covenant, between God and Adam, together
with all his posterity. Before Adam fell from his primitive holiness,
beauty, glory, and excellency—God made a covenant with Adam as a
public person, in which he represented all mankind. The covenant of
works was made with all men in Adam, who was made and stood as a
public person, head and root, in a common and comprehensive
capacity. I say, it was made with him as such, and we all in him; he
and all stood and fell together.
(1.) Witness the imputation of Adam's sin to all mankind. Romans
5:12, "In whom," or forasmuch as, "all have sinned;" they sinned not
all in themselves, therefore they sinned in Adam; see ver. 14, "In him
all died."
(2.) Witness the curse of the covenant that all mankind are directly
under. Consult these scriptures. [1 Cor, 15:47; Deut. 29:21; Romans
8:20,21; Gal. 3:10, 13.] Those on whom the curse of the covenant
comes, those are under the bond and precept of the covenant. But all
mankind are under the curse of the covenant, and therefore all
mankind are under the bond and precept of the covenant. Adam did
understand the terms of the covenant, and did consent to the terms
of the covenant; for God dealt with him in a rational way, and
expected from him a reasonable service. The end of this covenant
was the upholding of the creation, and of all the creatures in their
pure natural estate, for the comfort of man continually, and for the
special manifestation of God's free grace; and that he might put the
greater obligation upon Adam to obey his Creator and to sweeten his
authority to man; and that he might draw out Adam to an exercise of
his faith, love, and hope in his Creator; and that he might leave Adam
the more inexcusable in case he should sin; and that so a clear way
might be made for God's justification and man's conviction. Upon
these grounds God dealt with Adam, not only in a way of sovereignty,
but in a way of covenant.
QUESTION. But how may it be evidenced that God entered into a
covenant of works with the first Adam before his fall, there being no
mention of such a covenant in the Scripture that we read of?
ANSWER. Though the name is not in the Scripture, yet the principal
and thing itself are in the Scripture, as will evidently appear by
comparing scripture with scripture. [Socinians call for the word
"Satisfaction," others call for the word "Sacrament," others call for
the word "Trinity," and others call for the word "Sabbath," for Lord's
day, etc.; and thence conclude against any Satisfaction, Sacraments,
Trinity, Sabbath, for lack of express words, when the things
themselves are plainly and lively set down, in other words, in the
blessed Scriptures. So it is in this case of God's covenant with Adam.
The vanity and folly of such ways of reasoning is sufficiently
demonstrated by all writers upon those subjects, who are sound in
the faith, etc.]
Though it be not positively and plainly said in the blessed Scripture
that God made a covenant of works with Adam before his fall, yet,
upon sundry scripture grounds and considerations, it may be
sufficiently evidenced that God did make such a covenant with Adam
before his fall. Therefore it is a fancy cavil, and a foolish vanity, for
any to make such a noise about the word covenant—for lack of the
word covenant, boldly to conclude that there was no such covenant
made with Adam, when the thing is lively set down in other words,
though the word covenant be not expressed. This I shall make
evident by an induction of particulars, thus—
[1.] First, God, to declare his sovereignty and man's subjection, gave
Adam, though innocent, a law. God's express prescription of a
positive law unto Adam in his innocent state, is clearly and fully laid
down in Gen. 2:16-17, "And the Lord God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the
day that you eat thereof you shall surely die!" Hebrew, "dying you
shall die." Mark how God bounds man's obedience with a double
fence:
First, He fenced him with a free indulgence to eat of every tree in the
garden but one, which gave him less cause to be desiring after the
one forbidden fruit. But "stolen waters are sweet."
Secondly, By an explanatory prohibition, upon pain of death. By the
first, the Lord woos him by love; by the second, he frightens him by
the terror of his justice, and bids him touch and taste—if he dared.
The two PARTIES were God and Adam; God the Creator, and man,
the creature, made "after God's image and likeness." At this time,
Adam was not contrary to God, nor at enmity with him; but he was in
some measure like unto God, though far different and inferior to God
in nature and substance.
Here are also TERMS agreed on, and matters covenanted
reciprocally, by these parties.
Adam, on his part, was to be obedient to God, in forbearing to eat of
the tree of knowledge only. God's charge to our first parents was only
negative—not to eat of the tree of knowledge; the other, to eat of the
trees, was left unto their choice. Eve confesses that God spoke unto
them both, and said, "You shall not eat of it," Gen. 3:2; and God
speaks unto both of them together in these words, "Behold, I have
given unto you every herb, and every tree," etc., Gen. 1:19. At which
time also it is very likely that he gave them the other prohibition of
not eating of that one tree; for if God had made that exception
before, he would not have given a general permission after; or if this
general grant had gone before, the exception coming should seem to
abrogate the former grant. The Septuagint seems to be of this mind,
that this precept was given both to Adam and Eve, reading thus in
the plural number, "In what day you both shall eat thereof you both
shall die." And though, in the original, the precept be given in the
name of Adam only, that is only:
(1.) Because Adam was the more principal, and he had the charge of
the woman; and
(2.) Because that the greatest danger was in his transgression, which
was the cause of the ruin of his posterity;
(3.) Because, as Mercerus well observes, Adam was the common
name both of the man and woman, Gen. 5:2, and so is taken, ver. 15.
And God, on his part, for the present, permits Adam to eat of all
other trees of the garden; and for the future, in his explicit
threatening of death in case of disobedience; implicitly promises life
in case of obedience herein.
[2.] Secondly, The promises of this covenant on God's part were very
glorious—
First, That heaven, and earth, and all creatures should continue in
their natural course and order wherein God had created and placed
them, serving always for man's use, and that man should have the
benefit and lordship of them all.
Secondly, As for natural life, in respect of the body, Adam should
have had perfection without defect, beauty without deformity, labor
without weariness.
Thirdly, As for spiritual life, Adam would never have known what it
was to be under terrors and horrors of conscience, nor what a
wounded spirit means, Proverbs 18:14. He would never have found
"the arrows of the Almighty sticking fast in him, nor the poison
thereof drinking up his spirits, nor the terrors of God to set
themselves in array against him," Job 6:4. Nor would he ever have
tasted of death. Death is a fall that came in by a fall. Had Adam never
sinned, Adam would have never died; had Adam stood fast in
innocency, he would have been translated to glory without
dissolution. Death came in by sin, and sin goes out by death. As the
worm kills the worm that bred it, so death kills sin that bred it.
Now where there are parties covenanting, promising, and agreeing
upon terms, and terms mutually agreed upon by those parties, as
here, there is the substance of an express covenant, though it be not
formally and in express words called a covenant. This was the first
covenant which God made with man, and this is called by the name
Berith, Jer. 33:20, where God says, "If you can break my covenant of
the day and night, and that there shall not be day and night in their
season," ver. 21, "then may also my covenant with David be broken."
In these words he speaks plainly of the promise in the creation, that
day and night should keep their course, and the sun, moon, and
stars, and all creatures, should serve for man's use, Gen. 1:14-16.
Now though man did break the covenant on his part, yet God, being
immutable, could not break covenant on his part, neither did he
allow his promise to fail; but, by virtue of Christ promised to man in
the new covenant, he will keep touch with man so long as mankind
has a being on the earth.
In this first covenant, God promised unto man life and happiness,
lordship over all the creatures, liberty to use them, and all other
blessings which his heart could desire, to keep him in that happy
estate wherein he was created. And man was bound to God to walk in
perfect righteousness, to observe and keep God's commandments,
and to obey his will in all things which were within the reach of his
nature, and so far as was revealed to him. In the first covenant, God
revealed himself to man as one God, Creator, and Governor of all
things, infinite in power, wisdom, goodness, nature, and substance.
God was man's good Lord, and man was God's good servant; God
dearly loved man, and man greatly loved God with all his heart.
There was not the least shadow or occasion of hatred or enmity
between them; there was nothing but mutual love, mutual delight,
mutual contentment, and mutual satisfaction between God and man.
Man, in his primitive glory, needed no mediator to come between
God and him. Man was perfect, pure, upright, and good, created after
God's own image; and the nearer he came to God, the greater was his
joy and comfort. God's presence now was man's great delight, and it
was man's heaven on earth to walk with God. But,
[3.] Thirdly, Consider the intention and use of the two eminent trees
in the garden, which are mentioned in a more peculiar manner—
namely, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. The intended use
of these two trees in paradise was sacramental. Hence they are called
symbolical trees, and sacramental trees, by learned writers, both
ancient and modern. By these the Lord did signify and seal to our
first parents that they should always enjoy that happy state of life in
which they were made, upon condition of obedience to his
commandments; that is, in eating of the tree of life, and not eating of
the tree of knowledge. [The tree of life was the sign and seal which
God gave to man for confirmation of this first covenant; and it was to
man a sacrament and pledge of eternal life on earth and of all
blessings needful to keep man in life.]
The tree of life is so called, not because of any native property and
peculiar virtue it had in itself to convey life, but symbolically,
morally, and sacramentally. It was a sign and obligation to them of
life, natural and spiritual, to be continued to them as long as they
continued in obedience to God. The seal of the first covenant was the
tree of life, which if Adam had received by taking and eating of it,
while he stood in the state of innocency before his fall, he had
certainly been established in that estate forever; and the covenant
being sealed and confirmed between God and him on both parts, he
could not have been seduced and supplanted by Satan, as some
learned men do think, and as God's own words seem to imply, Gen.
3:22, "And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree
of life, and eat, and live forever."
"The tree of knowledge of good and evil" was spoken from the sad
event and experience they had of it, as Samson had of God's
departing from him when he lost his Nazaritish hair by Delilah. "The
tree of life" was a sacrament of life; the "tree of knowledge" a
sacrament of death. "The tree of life" was for confirmation of man's
obedience, and "the tree of knowledge" was for caution against
disobedience. Now if those two trees were two sacraments, the one
assuring of life in case of obedience, the other assuring of death in
case of disobedience, then hence we may collect that God not only
entered into a covenant of works with the first Adam, but also gave
him this covenant under sacramental signs and seals. But,
[4.] Fourthly, Seriously consider that a covenant of works lay clear,
in that commandment, Gen. 2:16-17, which may thus be made
evident:
(1.) Because that was the condition of man's standing and life, as it
was expressly declared;
(2.) Because, in the breach of that commandment given him, he lost
all, and we in him. God made the covenant of works primarily with
Adam, and with us in him, as our head, inclusively; so that when he
did fall—we did fall; when he lost all—we lost all. There are five
things we lost in our fall:
1. Our holy image—and so became vile;
2. Our divine sonship—and so became children of Satan;
3. Our friendship with God—and so became His enemies;
4. Our communion with God—and so became strangers;
5. Our happiness—and so became miserable.
Sin and death came into the world by Adam's fall. In Adam's sinning
—we all sinned; and in Adam's dying—we all died; as you may see, by
comparing these scriptures together. [1 Cor. 15:22; Romans 5:12 to
the end, etc.] In Adam's first sin, we all became sinners by
imputation: Adam being a universal person, and all mankind one in
him, by God's covenant of works with him. All were that one man,
(Augustine,) namely, by federal association. God covenanted with
Adam, and in him with all his posterity; and therefore Adam's breach
of covenant fell not only upon him, but upon all his posterity. But,
[5.] Fifthly and lastly, We read of a second covenant, Heb. 10:9;
Romans 9:4; Gal. 4:24; Eph. 2:12, and we read of a "new covenant:"
Jer. 31:31, "Behold the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah."
So Heb. 8:8, "I will make a new covenant," etc.; ver. 13, "In that he
says a new covenant, he has made the first old," etc.; chapter 12:24,
"And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant," etc. Now if there is
a "second covenant," then we may safely conclude there was a "first;"
and if there be a "new covenant," then we may boldly conclude that
there was an "old covenant." A covenant of grace always supposes a
covenant of works, Heb. 8:7-9. I know there is a repetition of the
covenant of works with Adam, in the law of Moses; as in that of the
apostle to the Galatians, "The law is not of faith, but the man that
does these things shall live in them," Gal. 3:10-12. The law requires
works. In the first covenant, three things are observable:
(1.) The precept, "continues not in all things." The precept requires
perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience;
(2.) The promise, "live;" "the man that does them shall live;" live
happily, blessedly, cheerfully, everlastingly;
(3.) The curse in case of transgression, "Cursed is everyone who
continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law,
to do them." One sin, and that but in thought, broke the angels'
covenant, and has brought them into everlasting chains, Jude 6. So
the same apostle to the Romans further tells us, that "Moses
describes the righteousness which is of the law, that the man who
does those things, shall live by them," Romans 10:5. Thus it was with
Adam, principally and properly, therefore he was under a covenant
of works, when God gave him that command, Gen. 2:16-17.
This first covenant is called a covenant of works, because this
covenant required working on our part as the condition of it, for
justification and happiness, "The man who does these things, shall
live." Under this covenant God left man to stand upon his own
foundation, and to live upon his own stock, and by his own industry.
God made him perfect and upright, and gave him power and ability
to stand, and laid no necessity at all upon him to fall. In this first
covenant of works, man had no need of a mediator, God did then
stipulate with Adam immediately; for seeing he had not made God
his enemy by sin, he needed no mediator to make friendly
intercession for him, Job 9:33.
Adam was invested and endowed with righteousness and holiness in
his first glorious estate; with righteousness, that he might behave
fairly, justly, evenly, and righteously towards man; and with holiness,
that he might behave wisely, lovingly, reverentially, and holily
towards God, and that he might take up in God as his chief good, as
in his great all. [Eph. 4:22-24. In this scripture, the apostle speaks
plainly of the renovation of that knowledge, holiness, and
righteousness that Adam once had, but lost it by his fall, Psalm 8:4-
6; Gen. 2:20.] I shall not now stand upon the discovery of Adam's
beauty, authority, dominion, dignity, honor, and glory, with which he
was adorned, invested, and crowned in innocency. Let this satisfy,
that Adam's first estate was a state of perfect knowledge, wisdom,
and understanding; it was a perfect state of holiness, righteousness,
and happiness. There was nothing within him but what was desirable
and delectable; there was nothing without him but what was amiable
and commendable; nor was there anything around him but what was
serviceable and comfortable. Adam, in his innocent estate, was the
wonder of all understanding, the mirror of wisdom and knowledge,
the image of God, the delight of heaven, the glory of the creation, the
world's great master, and the Lord's great darling. Upon all these
accounts, he had no need of a mediator. And let thus much suffice to
have spoken concerning the first covenant of works, that was
between God and Adam in innocency. But,
6. Sixthly, Premise this with me—namely, that there is a NEW
covenant, a second covenant, or a covenant of GRACE between God
and his people, Heb. 8:6-13. Express scriptures prove this: Deut. 7:9,
"Know therefore, that the Lord your God, he is God; the faithful God,
who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him, and keep
his commandments, to a thousand generations." 2 Sam. 23:5,
"Although my house be not so with God, yet he has made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my
salvation, and all my desire." Neh. 1:5, "I beseech you, O Lord God of
heaven, the great and awesome God; who keeps covenant and mercy
for those who love him, and keep his commandments." Isaiah 54:10,
"For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my
kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my
peace be removed, says the Lord, that has mercy on you." Jer. 32:40,
"And 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." Ezek. 20:37, "And I will
cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of
the covenant." Deut. 29:12, "That you should enter into covenant
with the Lord your God; and into his oath, which the Lord your God
makes with you today." Consult these scriptures also, [Deut. 4:23;
Isaiah 55:1-3; Jer. 24:7, 30:22, 31:31, 33, and 32:38; Heb. 8:8-10.]
Now that there is a covenant between God and his people, may be
further evinced by unanswerable arguments—let me point at some
among many.
[1.] First, Christ is said to be "the mediator of this covenant." Heb.
9:15, "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that
those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--
now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins
committed under the first covenant." Certainly that covenant, of
which Christ is the mediator, must needs be a covenant made with
us. The office of mediator, you know, is to stand between two at
variance. The two at variance were God and man. Man had offended
and incensed God against him. God's wrath was an insupportable
burden, and a consuming fire; no creature was able to stand under it,
or before it. Therefore Christ, to rescue and redeem man, becomes a
mediator. Christ, undertaking to be a mediator, both procured a
covenant to pass between God and man, and also engaged himself
for the performance thereof on both parts. And to assure man of
partaking of the benefit of God's covenant, Christ turns the covenant
into a testament, that the conditions of the covenant, on God's part,
might be as so many legacies, which, being confirmed by the death of
the testator, none might disannul: Heb. 8:6, "He is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises." The
promises of the new covenant are said to be better, in these six
respects:
(1.) All the promises of the law were conditional; "Do this, and you
shall live." The promises of the new covenant are absolute, of grace,
as well as to grace.
(2.) In this better covenant God promises higher things. Here God
promises Himself, his Son, his Spirit, a higher righteousness and a
higher sonship.
(3.) Because of their stability; those of the old covenant were
"swallowed up in the curse." These are "the sure mercies of David."
(4.) They are all founded upon faith, they all depend upon faith.
[Romans 4:15-16; Gal. 3:16-17; 2 Cor. 1:20; Cant. 5:16; Col. 1:19, and
2:3; Isaiah 44:3; Joel 2:28; Acts 2:16-17; Gal. 3:2.]
(5.) They are all promised upon our saving interest in Christ. This
makes the promises sweet—they lead us to Christ, the fountain of
them, whose mouth is most sweet, and in whose person all the
sweets of all created beings do center.
(6.) Because God has promised to pour out a greater measure of his
Spirit under the new covenant, than he did under the old covenant:
Heb. 12:24, "And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant." Thus
you see that Christ is called "the mediator of the covenant" three
different times. Now he could not be the mediator of that covenant
that is between God and himself, of which more shortly, but of that
covenant that is between God and his people. But,
[2.] Secondly, The people of God have pleaded the covenant that is
between God and them. "Remember your covenant." Now how could
they plead the covenant between God and them if there were no such
covenant? See the scriptures in the margin. [Jer. 14:21; Luke 1:72;
Psalm 25:6.] But,
[3.] Thirdly, God is often said to remember his covenant. [Ponder
upon these scriptures, Psalm 105:8, 106:45, and 111:5.] Gen. 9:15, "I
will remember my covenant, which is between you and me;" Exod.
6:5, "I have remembered my covenant;" Lev. 26:42, "I remember my
covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my
covenant with Abraham will I remember;" Ezek. 16:60, "I will
remember my covenant with you, and I will establish unto you an
everlasting covenant." Now how can God be said to remember his
covenant with his people, if there were no covenant between God and
them? But,
[4.] Fourthly, The temporal and spiritual deliverances that you have
by the covenant, do clearly evidence that there is a covenant between
God and you. Zech. 9:11, "As for you also, by the blood of your
covenant, I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit, wherein
there was no water." [Gen. 9:11; Isaiah 54:9; Psalm 111:9; Isaiah
59:21.] These words include both temporal and spiritual
deliverances. So that now, if there is not a covenant between God and
you, what deliverances can you expect, seeing they all flow in upon
the creature by virtue of the covenant, and according to the
covenant? By the blood of the covenant believers are delivered from
the infernal pit, where there is not so much water as might cool Dives
his tongue, Luke 16:24-25; and by the blood of the covenant they are
delivered from those deaths and dangers which surround them, 2
Cor. 1:8-10. When sincere Christians fall into desperate distresses
and most deadly dangers, yet they are prisoners of hope, and may
look for deliverance by the blood of the covenant. This does
sufficiently evince a covenant between God and his people. But,
[5.] Fifthly, God has threatened severely to avenge and punish the
breaking of his covenant. Lev. 26:25, "And I will bring the sword
upon you to avenge the breaking of the covenant." Consult these
scriptures. [Deut. 29:20-21, 24-25, and 31:20-21; Josh. 7:11-12, 15,
and 18:15-16 Judges 2:20; 2 Kings 18:9-12.] Breach of covenant
between God and man, breaks the peace, and breeds a quarrel
between them; in which he will take vengeance of man's revolt,
except there be repentance on man's side, and pardoning grace on
his. For breach of covenant, Jerusalem is long since laid waste, and
the seven golden candlesticks broken in pieces; and many others,
this day, lie a-bleeding in the nations which have made no more of
breaking covenant with the great God, than if therein they had to do
with poor mortals, with dust and ashes like themselves. Now how
can there be such a sin as breach of covenant, for which God will be
avenged, if there were no covenant between God and his people? But,
[6.] Sixthly, The seals of the covenant are given to God's people. Now
to those to whom the seals of the covenant are given, with them is the
covenant made; for the seals of the covenant, and the covenant, go to
the same persons. The seals of the covenant are given to believers.
"Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the
righteousness of faith," Romans 4:11, consequently, the covenant is
made with believers. Circumcision is a sign, in regard of the thing
signified, and a seal, in regard of the covenant made between God
and man. Seal is a borrowed word, taken from kings and princes,
who add their broad seal, or privy-seal, to ratify and confirm the
leagues, edicts, grants, covenants, charters, which are made with
their subjects or confederates. God had made a covenant with
Abraham, and by circumcision signs and seals up that covenant. [In
reason, the covenant and the seals must go together. Would it not be
a foolish thing in any man, to make a covenant with one, and to give
the seals to another? In equity and justice, the covenant and the seals
must go to the same persons.] But,
[7.] Seventhly, The people of God are said sometimes to keep
covenant with God. Psalm 25:10, "All the paths of the Lord are mercy
and truth, unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies."
Mercies flowing in upon us, through the covenant, are of all mercies
the most soul-satisfying, soul-refreshing, soul-cheering mercies; yes,
they are the very cream of mercy. Oh, how well is it with that saint
that can look upon every mercy—as a present sent him from God, by
virtue of the covenant! Oh, this sweetens every drop, and sip, and
crust, and crumb of mercy, which a Christian enjoys—that all flows in
upon him through the covenant! The promise last cited is a very
sweet, choice, precious promise, a promise more worth than all the
riches of the Indies. Mark, "all the paths of the Lord" to his people,
they are not only "mercy," but they are "mercy and truth;" that is,
they are sure mercies which stream in upon them, through the
covenant. Solomon's dinner of green herbs, Proverbs 15:17; Daniel's
vegetables, Dan. 1:12; barley loaves and a few fish, John 6:9;
swimming in upon a Christian, through the new covenant, are far
better, greater and sweeter mercies, than all those great things are,
which flow in upon the great men of the world, through that general
providence, which feeds the birds of the air, and the animals of the
field.
Psalm 44:17, "We have not forgotten you or been false to your
covenant," that is, we have kept covenant with you, by endeavoring
to the uttermost of our power to keep off from the breach of your
covenant, and to live up to the duties of your covenant, suitable to
that of the prophet Micah, "We will walk in the name of the Lord our
God forever and ever," Micah 4:5. People in covenant with God will
not only take a turn or two in his ways, as temporaries and
hypocrites do, who are hot at hand, but soon tire and give in. No, but
they will hold on in a course of holiness, and not fail to follow the
Lamb, wherever he goes: Rev. 14:4, and 17:14; Psalm 103:17, "The
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting:" ver. 18, "To
such as keep his covenant," etc. All sincere Christians keep covenant
with God:
(1.) In respect of their sincere and cordial desires to keep covenant
with God.
(2.) In respect of their habitual purposes and resolutions to keep
covenant with God.
(3.) In respect of their habitual and constant endeavors to keep
covenant with God, Neh. 1:11; Psalm 119:133, and 39:1-2.
This is an evangelical and incomplete keeping covenant with God,
which in Christ God owns and accepts, and is as well pleased with it
as he was with Adam's keeping of covenant with him before his fall.
From what has been said, we may thus argue: Those who keep
covenant with God, those are in covenant with God, those have made
a covenant with God; but all sincere Christians they do keep
covenant with God. But,
[8.] Eighthly and lastly, The Lord has, by many choice, precious and
sweet promises, engaged himself to make good that blessed covenant
which he has made with his people, yes, with his choice and chosen
ones. 2 Pet. 1:4. Take a few instances, "If you hearken to these
judgments," [Under the name judgments, the commandments and
statutes of God are contained.] says God to Israel, "and keep and do
them, the Lord your God shall keep unto you the covenant and the
mercy which he swore unto your fathers," Deut. 7:12. This blessed
covenant is grounded upon God's free grace; and therefore in
recompensing their obedience God has a respect to his own mercy—
and not to their merits. So Judges 2:1, "I brought you up out of Egypt
and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I
said—I will never break my covenant with you." God is a God of
mercy, and his covenant with his people is a covenant of mercy; and
therefore he will be sure to keep touch with them.
Psalm 89:34, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that
is gone out of my mouth;" as if he should have said, Though they
break my statutes, yet will I not break my covenant; for this seems to
have reference to the 31st verse, "If they break my statutes," etc.
Though they had profaned God's statutes, yet God would not profane
his covenant, as the Hebrew runs, "My covenant will I not break;"
that is, I will stand steadfastly to the performance of it, and to every
part and branch of it, I will never be changeful, I will never be off and
on with my people, I will never change my purpose, nor take back my
words, nor unsay what I have said.
Jer. 33:20, "This is what the Lord says—If you can break my
covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day
and night no longer come at their appointed time, then my covenant
with David my servant, can be broken and David will no longer have
a descendant to reign on his throne," etc. It is impossible for any
created power to break off the covenant with the day and the night so
that they do not come on their usual schedule; so it is impossible for
God to break the covenant that he has made with David.
Isaiah 54:10, "For the mountains may depart and the hills disappear,
but even then I will remain loyal to you. My covenant of blessing will
never be broken—says the Lord, who has mercy on you." "Even if
earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea," Psalm
46:2, yet the covenant of God with his people shall stand unmovable.
The covenant of God, the mercy of God, and the loving-kindness of
God to his people, shall last forever, and remain constant and
immutable, though all things in the world should be turned upside
down.
Psalm 111:4, "The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion;" ver. 5,
"He will ever be mindful of his covenant." God looks not at his
people's sins, but at his own promise; he will pass by their
infirmities, and supply all their necessities. God will never break his
covenant, he will never alter his covenant, he will still keep it, he will
forever be mindful of it. The covenant of God with his people shall be
as inviolable as the course and revolution of day and night, and more
immovable than the very hills and mountains
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Post by Admin on Feb 20, 2024 16:06:23 GMT -5
From what has been said, we may thus argue: If God has, by many
choice, precious, and sweet promises, engaged himself to make good
that blessed covenant which he has made with his people, then
certainly there is a covenant between God and his people; but God
has, by many choice, precious, and sweet promises, engaged himself
to make good his covenant to his people. I might have laid down
several other unanswerable arguments to have evinced this blessed
truth, that there is a covenant between God and his people; but let
these eight suffice for the present.
7. Seventhly and lastly, Premise this with me—namely, that it is a
matter of high importance and of great concernment, for all mortals
to have a clear and a right understanding of that covenant under
which they are, 2 Sam. 23:3-4. God deals with all men according to
the covenant under which they stand. We shall never come to
understand our spiritual estate and condition, until we come to know
what covenant we are under, Psalm 105:8, 111:5; 1 Cor. 11:28; Gal.
4:23-25. If we are under a covenant of works, our state is miserable;
if we are under a covenant of grace, our state is happy. If we die
under a covenant of works, we shall be certainly damned; if we die
under a covenant of grace, we shall be certainly saved.
Until we come to understand what covenant we are under, we shall
never be able to put a right construction, a right interpretation, upon
any of God's actions, dealings, or dispensations towards us. When we
come to understand that we are under the covenant of grace, then we
shall be able to put a sweet, a loving, and a favorable construction
upon the most sharp, distressing, severe, and dreadful dispensations
of God, knowing that all flows from love, and shall work for our
external, internal, and eternal good, and for the advancement of
God's honor and glory in the world. [Rev. 3:19; Job 1:21; Jer. 24:4-5;
Romans 8:28; Heb. 12:10-11; 2 Cor. 4:15-18.] When we come to
understand that we are under a covenant of works, then we shall
know that there are wrath, and curses, and woes wrapped up in the
most favorable dispensations, and in the greatest outward mercies
and blessings which Christ confers upon us. [Proverbs 1:32; Mal. 2:2;
Deut. 28:15-20; Lev. 26:14-24; 2 Cor. 2:14; Heb. 12:1.]
If a man is under a covenant of grace—and does not know it, how can
he rejoice in the Lord? How can he sing out the high praises of God?
How can he delight himself in the Almighty? How can he triumph in
Christ Jesus? How can he cheerfully run the race which is before
him? How can he bear up bravely and resolutely in his sufferings for
the cause of Christ? How can he besiege the throne of grace with
boldness? How can he be temptation-proof? How can he be dead to
this world? How can he long to be with Christ in that other world?
And if a man be under a covenant of works—and does not know it,
how can he lament and bewail his sad condition? How can he be
earnest with God to bring him under the bond of the new covenant?
How can he desire after Christ? How can he choose the things that
please God? How can he cease from doing evil, and learn to do well?
How can he lay hold on eternal life? How can he be saved from wrath
to come? etc.
If we are under a covenant of grace—and do not know it, how can we
manage our duties and services with that life, love, seriousness,
holiness, spiritualness, and uprightness, as becomes us? [Psalm 16:4;
Amos 8:5; Mal. 1:13; Hosea 6:4, and 4:10; Psalm 36:3.] etc. If we are
under a covenant of grace, and do not know it, how rare shall we be
in pious duties! How weary shall we be of pious duties, and how
ready shall we be to cast off pious duties!
By these few things I have been hinting at, you may easily discern
how greatly it concerns all people to know what covenant they are
under; whether they are under the first or second covenant; whether
they are under a covenant of works or a covenant of grace. Now
having premised these seven things, my way is clear to that I would
be at, which is this—namely,
1. That there are but two covenants. In one of them, all men and
women in the world must of necessity be found—either in the
covenant of grace or in the covenant of works. The covenant of works
is a witness of God's holiness and perfection; the covenant of grace is
a witness of God's goodness and mercy. The covenant of works is a
standing evidence of man's guiltiness; the covenant of grace is the
standing evidence of God's righteousness. The covenant of works is
the lasting monument of man's impotency and changeableness; the
covenant of grace is the everlasting monument of God's omnipotency
and immutability.
No man can be under both these covenants at once. If he is under a
covenant of works, he is not under a covenant of grace; and if he be
under a covenant of grace, he cannot be under a covenant of works.
Such as are under a covenant of works, they have the breach of that
covenant to account for, they being the serpentine brood of a
transgressing stock. But such as are under a covenant of grace shall
never be tried by the law of works, because Christ, their surety, has
fulfilled it for them, Acts 13:38-39; Romans 8:2-4; Gal. 4:4-6. But let
me open myself more fully thus—
That all unbelievers, all Christless, graceless people, are under a
covenant of works, which they are never able safely to live under.
Should they live and die under a covenant of works, they were surely
lost and destroyed forever; for the covenant of works condemns and
curses the sinner: Gal. 3:10, "Cursed is everyone who continues not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."
Neither has the sinner any way to escape that curse of the law, nor
the wrath of God revealed against all unrighteousness and
ungodliness, but in the covenant of grace, Romans 1:18. This
covenant of works the apostle calls "the law of works," Romans 3:27.
This is the covenant which God made with man in the state of
innocency before the fall, Gen. 2:16-17. In this covenant God
promised to Adam, for himself and his posterity, life and happiness,
upon the condition of perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience;
and it is summed up by the apostle, "Do this and live," Gal. 3:12. God
having created man upright, after his own image, Eccles. 7:29; Gen.
1:26-27, and so having furnished him with all abilities sufficient for
obedience, thereupon he made a covenant with him for life upon the
condition of obedience; I say, he made such a covenant with Adam,
as a public person, as the head of the covenant; and as he promised
life to him and his posterity in case of obedience, so he threatened
death and a curse unto him and his posterity in case of disobedience:
"In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die;" or, "dying you shall
die," Gen. 2:17. [Gal. 3:10. Not only the covenant of grace, but the
covenant of works also, is an eternal covenant; and therefore the
curse of the covenant remains upon men unto eternity. There is an
eternal obligation upon the creature, he being bound to God by an
eternal law; and the transgression of that law carries with it an
eternal guilt, which eternal guilt brings sinners under an eternal
curse.]
God, in this covenant of works, dealt with Adam and his posterity in
a way of supremacy and righteousness, and therefore there is
mention made only of the threatenings: "In the day you eat thereof,
you shall die!" And it is further observable, that in this covenant
which God made with Adam and his posterity, he did promise unto
them eternal life and happiness in heaven, and not eternal life in this
world only, as some would have it; for hell was threatened in these
words, "In the day you eat thereof you shall die;" and therefore
heaven and happiness, salvation and glory, was promised on the
contrary. We must necessarily conclude that the promise was as
ample, large, and full as the threatening was; yet this must be
remembered, that when God did at first enter into covenant with us,
and did promise us heaven and salvation, it was upon condition of
our personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience, and therefore called
a covenant of works. "Do this and live" was not only a command, but
a covenant, with a promise of eternal happiness upon perfect and
perpetual obedience. All who are under a covenant of works, are
under the curse of the covenant, and they are all bound over unto
eternal wrath. But the Lord Christ has put an end to this covenant,
and abolished it unto all that are in him, being himself made under
it; and satisfying the precept and the curse of it, and so he did cancel
it, "as a handwriting against us, nailing it unto his cross," Col. 2:14.
So that all those who are in Christ ,are freed from the law as a
covenant. But unto all other men it remains a covenant still, and they
remain under the curse of it forever, and the wrath of God abides
upon them, John 3:36. Though the covenant of works, as it is a
covenant for life, ceases unto believers, yet it stands in force against
all unbelievers.
Now, oh how sad is it for a man to be under a covenant of works! For,
First, The covenant of works, in the nature of it, requires perfect,
personal, and perpetual obedience, under pain of the curse and
death, according to the apostle, "As many as are of the works of the
law, are under the curse," Gal. 3:10—presupposing man's fall, and,
consequently, his inability to keep it—"For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book
of the law, to do them," Deut. 27:26. The covenant of works,
therefore, affords no mercy to the transgressors of it, but inflicts
death and curse for the least delinquency: "For whoever shall keep
the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all," James
2:10. The whole law is but one whole; he who breaks one
commandment habitually, breaks all. A dispensatory conscience
keeps not any commandment. When the disposition of the heart is
qualified to break every command, then a man breaks every
command in the account of God. Everyone sin contains virtually all
sin in it. He who dares despise the lawgiver in any one command, he
dares despise the lawgiver in every command. He who allows himself
in any one known sin, in any course, way, or trade of sin, he lays
himself under that curse which is threatened against the
transgressors of the law.
Those who are under this covenant of works must of necessity perish.
The case stands thus: Adam did break this covenant, and so brought
the curse of it both upon himself and all his seed to the end of the
world; in his sin all men sinned, Romans 5:12. Now if we consider all
men as involved in the first transgression of the covenant, they must
all needs perish without a Savior. This is the miserable condition that
all mortals are in, who are under a covenant of works. But,
Secondly, Such as are under a covenant of works, their best and
choicest duties are rejected and abhorred—for the least miscarriages
or blemishes which attend them or cleave to them. Observe the
dreadful language of that covenant of works, "Cursed is he who
continues not in all things that are written in the law of God to do
them," Gal. 3:10. Hence it is that the best duties of all unregenerate
persons are loathed and abhorred by God; as you may clearly see by
comparing these scriptures together. [Isaiah 1:11-15; Jer. 6:20; Isaiah
66:3; Amos 5:21; Micah 6:6; Mal. 1:10.] The most glorious duties and
the most splendid performances of those who are under a covenant
of works, are loathsome to God, for the least mistake that does
accompany them. The covenant of works deals with men according
to the most exact terms of strict justice. It does not make nor allow
any favorable or gracious interpretation, as the covenant of grace
does; the very least failure exposes the soul to wrath, to great wrath,
to everlasting wrath. This covenant is not a covenant of mercy, but of
pure justice. But,
Thirdly, This covenant admits of no mediator. There was no
arbitrator between God and man, none to stand between them,
neither was there any need of a mediator; for God and man were at
no distance, at no variance. [Hence this covenant is called by some, a
covenant of friendship.] Man was then righteous, perfectly righteous.
Now the proper work of a mediator is to make peace and
reconciliation between God and us. At the first, in the state of
innocency, there was peace and friendship between God and man,
there was no enmity in God's heart towards man, nor any enmity in
man's heart towards God; but upon the fall a breach and separation
was made between God and man; so that man flies from God, and
hides from God, and trembles at the voice of God, Gen. 3:8-10. Fallen
man is now turned rebel, and has become a desperate enemy to God;
yes, his heart is full of enmity against God. "The carnal mind is
enmity against God," Romans 8:7; not an "enemy," but "enmity," in
the abstract; noting an excess of enmity. [The word signifies the act
of a carnal mind, comprehending thoughts, desire, discourse, etc.]
Nothing can be said more; for an "enemy" may be reconciled, but
"enmity" can never; a wicked man may become virtuous, but vice
cannot.
There are natural antipathies between some creatures, as between
the lion and the rooster, the elephant and the boar, the camel and the
horse, the eagle and the dragon, etc. But what are all these
antipathies to that antipathy and enmity that is in the hearts of all
carnal men against God?
Now while men stand under a covenant of works, there is none to
interpose by way of mediation, but fallen man lies open to the wrath
of God, and to all the curses which are written in this book. When
breaches are made between God and man, under the covenant of
grace, there is a mediator to interpose and to make up all such
breaches; but under the covenant of works there is no mediator to
interpose between God and fallen man. These three things I have
hinted a little at, on purpose to work my reader, if under a covenant
of works, to be restless until he be got from under that covenant, into
the covenant of grace, where alone lies man's safety, felicity,
happiness, and comfort. Now this consideration leads me by the
hand to tell you,
2. Secondly, That there is a covenant of GRACE, that all believers, all
sincere Christians, all real saints are under; for under these two
covenants all mankind fall. The apostle calls this covenant of grace,
"the law of faith," Romans 3:17.
Now, first, this covenant of grace is sometimes styled an
"EVERLASTING covenant." Isaiah 55:3, "And I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." You
need not question my security, in respect of the great things that I
have propounded and promised in my word, for the encouragement
of your faith and hope; for I will give you my bond for all I have
spoken, which shall be as surely made good to you as the mercies
that I have performed to my servant David, 2 Sam. 23:5. The word
everlasting has two acceptations; it does denote,
(1.) Sometimes a long duration; in which respect the old covenant,
clothed with figures and ceremonies, is called everlasting, because it
was to endure, and did endure, a long time, Psalm 105:9-10;
(2.) Sometimes it denotes a perpetual duration, a duration which
shall last forever, Heb. 13:20, etc. In this respect the covenant of
grace is everlasting; it shall never cease, never be broken, nor never
be altered.
Now the covenant of grace is an everlasting covenant in a twofold
respect.
First, In respect of God, who will never break covenant with his
people; but is their God, and will be their God, forever and ever,
Titus 1:2; Psalm 90:2, and 48:14, "For this God is our God, forever
and ever; he will be our God even unto death." Yes, and after death
too! For this is not to be taken exclusively. Oh no! for "he will never,
never leave them, nor forsake them," Heb. 13:5. There are five
negatives in the Greek, to assure God's people that he will never
forsake them. According to the Greek it may be rendered thus, "I will
not, not leave you, neither will I not, not forsake you." [Five times in
Scripture is this precious promise renewed: Josh. 1:5; Deut. 31:8; 1
Kings 8:57; Gen. 28:15, that we may be still a-pressing of it until we
have pressed all the sweetness out of it, Isaiah 66:11.] Leave us! God
may, to our thinking, leave us; but forsake us he will not.
Psalm 89:34, "My covenant will I not break; nor alter the thing that
is gone out of my mouth." Though God's people should profane his
statutes, ver. 31, yet God will not profane his covenant; though his
people often break with him, yet he will never break with them;
though they may be inconstant, yet God will be constant to his
covenant.
Isaiah 54:10, "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be
removed; but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall
the covenant of my peace be removed, says the Lord, who has mercy
on you." Though huge mountains should depart, which is not
probable, yet his covenant shall stand immovable; and his mercy and
kindness to his people shall be immutable. This new covenant of
grace is like the new heavens and new earth, which will never wax
old or vanish away, Isaiah 66:22. But,
Secondly, The covenant of grace is called an everlasting covenant, in
respect to the people of God, who are brought into covenant, and
shall continue in covenant forever and ever, Mal. 3:6; Hosea 2:19;
Gen. 17:7. You have both these expressed in that excellent scripture,
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
into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Seriously dwell
upon the place; it shows that the covenant is everlasting on God's
part, and also on our part. [God will never cease to pursue and follow
his covenant-people with favors and blessings incessantly.] On God's
part, "I will never turn away from them to do them good;" and on our
part, "they shall never depart from me." How so? "I will put my fear
into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." That they may
continue constant with me, and not constrain me, by their apostasy,
to break again with them: I will so deeply rivet a reverent dread of
myself in their souls, as shall cause them to cling, and cleave, and
keep close to me forever.
In the covenant of grace, God undertakes for both parts; for his own,
"that he will be their God"—that is, that all he is, and all he has, shall
be employed for their external, internal, and eternal good; and for
ours, that we "shall be his people"—that is, that we shall believe, love,
fear, repent, obey, serve him, and walk with him, as he requires, Jer.
32:38; Ezek. 36:26-27; and thus the covenant of grace becomes an
"everlasting covenant;" yes, such a covenant as has the sure or
unfailable mercies of David wrapped up in it.
The covenant of grace is a new compact or agreement, which God has
made with sinful man, out of his mere mercy and grace, wherein he
undertakes, both for himself and for fallen man, and wherein he
engages himself to make fallen man everlastingly happy. "And they
shall be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one
heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of
them, and of their children after them: And 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." Jeremiah 32:38-40. In the covenant of grace
there are two things considerable:
First, the covenant that God makes for himself to us, which consists
mainly of these branches:
(1.) That he will be our God; that is, as if he said, "You shall have as
true an interest in all my attributes for your good, as they are mine
for my own glory, Jer. 31:38; Psalm 144:15; 2 Cor. 6:16-18. My grace,
says God, shall be yours to pardon you, and my power shall be yours
to protect you, and my wisdom shall be yours to direct you, and my
goodness shall be yours to relieve you, and my mercy shall be yours
to supply you, and my glory shall be yours to crown you. This is a
comprehensive promise, for God to be our God: it includes all.
(2.) That he "will give us his Spirit." Hence the Spirit is called "the
Holy Spirit of promise." The giving of the Holy Spirit is the great
promise which Christ, from the Father, has made unto us. It is the
Spirit who reveals the promises, who applies the promises, and who
helps the soul to live upon the promises, and to draw marrow and
fatness out of the promises. The great promise of the Old Testament
was the promise of Christ, Gen. 3:16, and the great promise of the
New Testament is the promise of the Spirit, as you may see by these
scriptures. [Isaiah 44:3; Jer. 31:33; Joel 2:28; John 14:16, 20; Acts
2:23; Luke 24:49; John 15:26, and 16:7.] That in this last age of the
world there may be a more clear and full discovery of Christ, of the
great things of the gospel, of Antichrist, and of the glorious conquests
that are in the last days to be made upon him, the giving of the Spirit
is promised as the most excellent gift.
(3.) That he "will take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of
flesh," that is, a soft and tender heart, "I will also sprinkle clean
water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your
impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a
new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you
a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to
follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances." Ezekiel
36:25-27.
(4.) That he "will not turn away his face from us, from doing of us
good;" and that "he will put his fear into our hearts," Jer. 32:40.
(5.) That he "will cleanse us from all our filthiness, and from all our
idols," Ezek. 36:25.
(6.) That he "will rejoice over us, to do us good," Jer. 33:9-10, and
32:41.
The second thing considerable in the covenant of grace, is the
covenant which God does make for us to himself, which consists
mainly in these things:
(1.) That we "shall be his people."
(2.) That we "shall fear him forever."
(3.) That we "shall walk in his statutes, keep his judgments, and do
them."
(4.) That we "shall never depart from him."
(5.) That we "shall persevere, and hold out to the end."
(6.) That we "shall grow, and flourish in grace."
(7.) A true right to the creatures.
(8.) That all providences, changes, and conditions shall work for our
good.
(9.) Union and communion with Christ.
(10.) That we shall have a kingdom, a crown, and glory at last. And
what would we have more? [Jer. 32:38, 40; Ezek. 36:27; Job 17:9;
Proverbs 4:18; Psalm 1:3; Hosea 14:6-7; Zech. 12:18; Mal. 4:2; Jer.
24:5; Romans 8:28; Luke 12:32; Rev. 2:10; Psalm 84:11; John
10:28.]
By these short hints it is most evident that the covenant of grace is an
entire covenant, an everlasting covenant, made by God both for
himself and for us. O sirs! this is the glory of the covenant of grace,
that whatever God requires of us, that he stands engaged to give unto
us. Whatever in the covenant of grace God requires on man's part,
that he undertakes to perform for man.
That this covenant of grace is an "everlasting covenant" may be made
further clear,
[1.] First, From God's designation, who has often styled it an
EVERLASTING covenant. In the Old Testament he frequently calls
it, in Heb., a covenant of eternity. In the New Testament he calls it, in
Greek, the eternal covenant, or the everlasting covenant. And those
whom God has taken into covenant with himself, they have
frequently acknowledged it to be an everlasting covenant, as is
evident up and down the Scripture.
The covenant of works was not everlasting, it was soon overthrown
by Adam's sin; but the covenant of grace is everlasting. The joy that
is wrapped up in the covenant, is an everlasting joy, Isaiah 35:10;
and the righteousness that is wrapped up in the covenant, is an
everlasting righteousness, Dan. 9:24; and the life that is wrapped up
in the covenant, is an everlasting life, John 3:16; and all the
happiness, and glory, and salvation which are wrapped up in the
covenant is everlasting, John 12:2; Mat. 19:29; 1 Pet. 5:4; Isaiah
45:17. The covenant-relation which is between God and his people is
everlasting; and the mediator of the covenant is everlasting—namely,
"Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today, and the same forever," Heb.
13:8. Though the covenant, in respect of our own personal entering
into it, is made with us now in time, and has a beginning; yet for
continuance it is everlasting and without end; it shall remain forever
and ever. But,
[2.] Secondly, This covenant of grace, under which the saints stand,
is sometimes styled a covenant of LIFE: Mal. 2:5, "My covenant was
with him of life and peace." Life is restored, and life is promised, and
life is settled by the covenant. There is no safe life, no comfortable
life, no easy life, no happy life, no honorable life, no glorious life—for
any sinner who is not under the bond of this covenant. [Philosophers
say that a fly is more excellent than the skies, because the fly has life,
which the skies have not.] All mankind would have been eternally
lost, and God had lost all the glory of his mercy forever, had he not,
of his own free grace and mercy, made a covenant of life with poor
sinners.
A man, in the covenant of grace, has three degrees of life:
the first in this life, when Christ lives in him;
the second, when his "body returns to the earth, and his soul to God
that gave it;"
the third, at the end of the world, when body and soul reunited shall
enjoy heaven.
[3.] Thirdly, This covenant of grace, under which the saints or
faithful people of Christ stand, is sometimes styled a HOLY covenant.
Daniel, describing the wickedness of Antiochus Epiphanies, says,
"His heart shall be against the holy covenant," Dan. 11:28, 30. So the
psalmist, "For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his
servant," Psalm 105:42-43; [Heb., The word of his holiness, that is,
his sacred and gracious covenant that he had made with Abraham
and his posterity.] Promise is here put for covenant by a synecdoche.
Luke 1:72, "To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to
remember his holy covenant."
The parties interested in this covenant are holy. Here you have a holy
God and a holy people in covenant together. Holiness is one of the
principal things that is promised in the covenant. The covenant
commands holiness, and encourages to holiness, and works souls up
to a higher degree of holiness, and fences and arms gracious souls
against all external and internal unholiness. The author of this
covenant is holy; the mediator of this covenant is holy; the great
blessings contained in this covenant are holy blessings; and the
people taken into this covenant are sometimes styled holy brethren,
holy men, holy women. "A holy temple, a holy priesthood, a holy
nation, a holy people," as you may see by comparing these scriptures
together. [Psalm 50: 5; Heb. 3:1; 1 Thes. 5:27; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 Peter
3:5; 1 Cor. 3:17; 1 Peter 2:9, etc.] Whenever God brings a poor soul
under the bond of the covenant, he makes him holy, and he makes
him love holiness, and prize holiness, and delight in holiness, and
press and follow hard after holiness. A holy God will not take an
unholy person by the hand, as Job speaks, chapter 8; neither will he
allow of such to take his covenant into their mouths, as the psalmist
speaks, Psalm 20:6.
[4.] Fourthly, This covenant of grace, under which the saints stand, is
sometimes styled a covenant of PEACE: Num. 25:12, "Behold, I give
unto him my covenant of peace." Peace is the comprehension of all
blessings and prosperity. All sorts of peace, namely, peace with God,
and peace with conscience, and peace with the creatures—flows from
the covenant of grace, Mal. 2:5. There is—
(1.) An external peace, and that is with men;
(2.) There is a supernatural peace, and that is with God;
(3.) There is an internal peace, and that is with conscience;
(4.) There is an eternal peace, and that is in heaven.
Now all these kinds of peace flow in upon us through the covenant of
grace. The Hebrew word for peace comes from a root which denotes
perfection. The end of the upright man is perfection of happiness,
Psalm 37:37. [This covenant is styled a covenant of peace, because it
breeds, settles, quiets, and establishes our hearts in perfect peace, it
stills all fears and doubts and thoughts of heart.] Peace is a very
comprehensive word. It carries in its womb, all outward blessings. It
was the common greeting of the Jews, "Peace be unto you:" and thus
David, by his proxy, salutes Nabal, "Peace be to you, and your
house." The ancients were accustomed to paint peace in the form of a
woman, with a horn of plenty in her hand. The covenant of grace is
that hand, by which God gives out all sorts of peace unto us: Isaiah
54:10, "Neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says the
Lord, who has mercy on you." The covenant is here called the
covenant of peace, because the Lord therein offers us all those things
that may make us completely happy; for under this word peace the
Hebrews comprehend all happiness and felicity.
Ezek. 34:25, "And I will make with them a covenant of peace;" the
Hebrew is, "I will cut with them a covenant of peace." This
expression of cutting a covenant is taken from the custom of the
Jews in their making of covenants. The manner of this ceremony or
solemnity, Jeremiah declares, saying, "I will give the men who have
transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the
covenant which they had struck before me, when they cut the calf in
twain, and passed between the parts thereof," Jer. 34:18. Their
manner was to kill sacrifices, to cut these sacrifices in twain, to lay
the two parts thus divided in the midst, piece against piece, exactly
one over against another, to answer each other: then the covenanting
parties passed between the parts of the sacrifices so slit in twain. The
meaning of which ceremonies and solemnities is conceived to be this
—namely, as part answered to part, so there was a harmonious
correspondency and answerableness of their minds and hearts, who
struck the covenant: and as part was severed from part, so the
covenanters implied, if not expressed, an imprecation or curse;
wishing the like dissection and destruction to the parties
covenanting, as most deserved, if they should break the covenant, or
deal falsely therein. [This ceremony or solemnity of covenanting, the
Romans and other nations used. Some judge the heathens borrowed
this custom from the Jews. I have spoken of this before.]
To this custom God alludes, when he says, "I will cut with them a
covenant of peace," Isaiah 42:6; and this he did by making Christ a
sacrifice, by shedding his blood, and dividing his soul and body, who
is said to be given for a covenant of the people, that is, to be the
mediator of the covenant between God and his people. So Ezek.
37:26, "Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall
be an everlasting covenant with them," etc. The word for peace is
Shalom, by which the Hebrews understand not only outward
quietness, but all kind of outward happiness. Others, by the covenant
of peace here, do understand the gospel, wherein we see Christ has
pacified all things by the blood of his cross. And Lavater says, "it is
called a covenant of peace, Not only outward, but inward peace,
between God and us, is merited by our Lord Jesus Christ," Col. 1:20.
But,
[5.] Fifthly, This covenant of grace, under which the saints stand, is
sometimes styled a NEW covenant: Jer. 31:31, "Behold, the days
come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel, and with the house of Judah." Heb. 12:24, "And to Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant," etc., Heb. 8:8, 13, and 9:15. Now
the covenant of grace is styled a new covenant in several respects.
(1.) In opposition to the former covenant, which was old, and being
old, vanished away, Heb. 8:13. It is called a new covenant, in
opposition to the covenant that was made with Adam in the state of
innocency, and in opposition to the covenant that was made with the
Jews in the time of the Old Testament.
(2.) To show the excellency of the covenant of grace. New things are
rare and excellent things. In the blessed Scriptures excellent things
are frequently called "new;" as a "new testament," a "new
Jerusalem," "new heavens," and "new earth;" a "new name," that is,
an excellent name; a "new commandment," that is, an excellent
commandment; "a new way," that is, an excellent way; "a new heart,"
is an excellent heart; "a new spirit," is an excellent spirit; and "a new
song," is an excellent song. [Mat. 26:28; Rev. 21:2; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev.
2:17; John 13:34; Ezek. 36:26, 27; Psalm 40:3.]
(3.) In regard of the succession of it in the place of the former.
(4.) In regard of the dilation and enlargement of it, it being in the
days of old confined to the Jewish nation and state, and some few
proselytes who adjoined themselves thereunto; whereas now it is
propounded and extended, without respect of persons or places, unto
all indiscriminently, of all people and nations who shall embrace the
faith of Christ.
(5.) Sometimes that is styled new, which is different from what it was
before: 2 Cor. 5:17, "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature,"
that is, he is not such a man as he was before; a man must be either a
new man—or no man in Christ. [A new creature has a new light, a
new judgment, a new will, new affections, new thoughts, new
company, new choice, new Lord, new law, new way, new work, etc. A
new creature is a changed creature throughout, 1 Thes. 5:23.]
The substance of the soul is not changed, but the qualities and
operations of it are altered; in regeneration our natures are changed,
not destroyed. This word "new," in Scripture, signifies as much as
"another;" not that it is essentially new, but new only in regard of
qualities. A new creature is a changed creature: 2 Cor. 3:18, "But we
all, with open face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image, from glory to glory," that is, from grace
to grace. In this respect also, is the covenant styled new, not only
because it is diverse from the covenant of works, but also because it
is diverse from itself in respect of the administration of it, after that
Christ was manifested in the flesh, and died and rose again.
From the different administration, it is called old and new. This new
covenant has not those seals of circumcision and the Passover; nor
those manifold sacrifices, ceremonies, types, and shadows, etc., to
the observation whereof the Jews were strictly obliged; but now all
these things are taken away upon the coming of Christ, and a service
of God, much more spiritual, substituted in the place of them; upon
which accounts the covenant of grace is called a "new covenant."
(6.) It is styled new, because it is fresh, and green, and flourishing. It
is like unto Aaron's rod, which continued new, fresh, and flourishing,
Num. 17:8. [Austin, and others, think that the commandment of love
is called a new commandment, because it is always fresh, and green,
and flourishing; and why may not the covenant of grace be called a
new covenant upon the same account?] All the choice blessings, all
the great blessings, all the internal and all the eternal blessings of the
new covenant, are as new, fresh, and flourishing, as they were when
God brought your souls first under the bond of the new covenant.
But,
(7.) Such things are sometimes styled new, which are strange, rare,
wonderful, marvelous, and unusual—the like not heard of before. So
Jer. 31:22, "The Lord has created a new thing in the earth, a woman
shall compass a man;" as the nut encloses the kernel, not receiving
anything from without, but conceiving and breeding of herself, by the
power of the Almighty, from within. That a virgin should conceive
and bring forth a man-child, this was indeed a new thing, a strange
thing, a wonderful thing—a thing that was never thought of, never
heard of, never read of, from the creation of the world to that very
day.
Just so, Isaiah 43:19, "Behold, I will do a new thing, I will make a
way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert." [The word "new"
does intimate some more excellent mercies than God had formerly
conferred upon his people.] This was a new work, that is, a wonderful
and unusual work; for God to make a plain or free way in the
wilderness, where the ways are accustomed to be uneven, with hills
and dales, and obstructed with thickets, and overgrown with
brambles and briars—is a strange and marvelous work indeed.
In this respect also, the covenant of grace is styled new, that is, it is a
wonderful covenant. O sirs! what a wonder is this, that the great God,
who was so transcendently dishonored, despised, provoked,
incensed, and injured by poor base sinners, should yet so freely, so
readily, so graciously, condescend to vile forlorn sinners, as to treat
with them, as to own them, as to love them, and as to enter into a
covenant of grace and mercy with them! This may well be the wonder
of angels, and the astonishment of men.
(8.) and lastly, It is called a new covenant, because it is never to be
antiquated, as the apostle explains himself, Heb. 8:13. But,
[6.] Sixthly, This covenant of grace, under which the saints stand, is
sometimes styled a covenant of SALT: Lev. 2:13, "Neither shall you
allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from the
meat-offering," etc. [Salt they were bound as by a covenant, to use in
all sacrifices, or it means a sure and pure covenant. Some, by the salt
of the covenant—do mystically understand the grace of the New
Testament.] The salt of the covenant signifies that covenant that God
has made with us in Christ, who seasons us, and makes all our
services savory. The meaning of the words, say some, is this—"The
salt shall put you in mind of my covenant, whereby you stand
engaged to endeavor always for an untainted and uncorrupted life
and conversation."
"By this salting," say others, "was signified the covenant of grace in
Christ, which we by faith apprehend unto incorruption, wherefore
our unregenerate estate is likened to a child new born and not
salted," Ezek. 16:4. Others say it signifies the eternal and perpetual
holiness of the covenant between God and man; and some there are,
who say that this salt of the covenant signifies the grace of God,
whereby they are guided and sanctified that belong unto the
covenant of grace. So Num. 18:19, "It is an everlasting covenant of
salt before the Lord for both you and your offspring." A covenant of
salt is used for an inviolable, incorruptible, and perpetual covenant.
This covenant which the Lord made with the priests is called a
covenant of salt, because, as salt keeps from corruption, so that
covenant was perpetual, authentic, and inviolable ["Of old, amity and
friendship was symbolized by salt, for its consolidating and
conserving property," says Pierius.]—as anciently the most solemn
ceremony that was used in covenants was to take and eat of the same
salt, and it was esteemed more sacred and firm than to eat at the
same table and drink of the same cup.
This covenant, in regard of its perpetuity, is here called a "covenant
of salt," that is, a sure and stable, a firm and incorruptible covenant.
So 2 Chron. 13:5, "Don't you know that the Lord, the God of Israel,
has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever
by a covenant of salt?" That is—perpetual and inviolable, solemn and
sure. By this metaphor of salt, a perpetuity is set forth, for salt makes
things last. The covenant therefore here intended is by this metaphor
declared to be a perpetual covenant, that was not to be abrogated or
nullified. In this respect these two phrases, "a covenant of salt," and
"forever," are joined together.
Some take this metaphor of salt to be used in relation to their
manner of making their covenant with a sacrifice, on which salt was
always sprinkled, and thereby is implied that it was a most solemn
covenant not to be violated. [Num. 18:19, but now opened, Lev. 2:13.]
But,
[7.] Seventhly, The covenant of grace, under which the saints stand,
is sometimes styled a SURE covenant, a FIRM covenant—a covenant
that God will punctually and accurately perform. In this regard, the
covenant of grace is in the Old Testament Shemurah—that is, kept,
observed, performed. The word imports care, diligence, and
solicitude lest anything be let go, let slip, etc. God is ever mindful of
his covenant, and will have that singular care and that constant and
due regard to it, that not the least branch of it shall ever fail, as you
may clearly see by consulting these special scriptures. [2 Sam. 23:5;
Deut. 7:9; 2 Chron. 6:14; Psalm 19:7, and 89:28; Titus 1:2; Psalm
132:11; Isaiah 54:10.]
Hence it is called the mercy and the truth: Mic. 7:20, "You will be
true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath
to our fathers in days long ago." The covenant is called mercy,
because mercy alone, drew this covenant; it was free mercy, it was
mere mercy, it was only mercy which moved God to enter into
covenant with us. And it is called truth, because the great God who
has made this covenant will assuredly make good all that mercy and
all that grace, and all that favor which is wrapped up in it. God
having made himself a voluntary debtor to his people, he will come
off fairly with them, and not be worse than his word. Hence Christ is
said to have a rainbow upon his head, to show that he is faithful and
constant in his covenant, Rev. 10:1. God has hitherto kept promise
with nights and days, that one shall follow the other, Isaiah 54:9-10;
therefore much more will he keep promise with his people, Jer.
33:20, 25. [The stability of God's covenant is compared to the
unvariable course of the day and the night, and to the firmness and
unmovableness of the mighty mountains, Isaiah 54:9-10.]
Hence also the covenant is called the oath: Luke 1:73, "The oath
which he swore unto our father Abraham." You never read of God's
oath in a covenant of works. In that first covenant you read not of a
mediator nor of an oath; but in the covenant of grace you read both
of a mediator and of an oath, the more effectually to confirm us as
touching the immutability of his will and purpose, for the
accomplishment of all the good and the great things which are
promised in the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace is
incomparably more firm, sure, immutable, and irrevocable than all
other covenants in the world. Therefore it is said, Heb. 6:17-18,
"Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose
very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an
oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is
impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope
offered to us may be greatly encouraged." That is, a valiant, strong,
prevailing consolation, such as swallows up all worldly griefs, as
Moses his serpent did, the sorcerers' serpents; or as the fire does, the
fuel. God's word, his promise, his covenant, is sufficient to assure us
of all the good that he has engaged to bestow upon us; yet God,
considering of our infirmity, has bound his word with an oath. [Who
shall doubt when God does swear? He cannot possibly deny himself
or to recant?]
His word cannot be made more true, but yet it may be made more
credible. Now two things make a thing more credible:
(1.) The quality of the person speaking;
(2.) The manner of the speech.
If God does not simply speak, but solemnly swear—we have the
highest cause imaginable to rest assured and abundantly satisfied in
the word and oath of God. An oath among men is the strongest,
surest, most sacred, and inviolable bond; "Men swear by someone
greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts
an end to all argument," Heb. 6:16. The end of an oath among men is
to help the truth in necessity, and to clear men's innocency, Exod.
22:11. O sirs! God does not only make his covenant, but swears his
covenant; "I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have
uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness--and I will not lie,"
Psalm 89:34-35. This is as great and deep an oath as God could take;
for his holiness is himself, who is most holy, and the foundation of all
holiness. God is—essentially holy, unmixedly holy, universally holy,
transcendently holy, originally holy, independently holy, constantly
holy, and exemplarily holy. Now for so holy a God to swear once for
all by his holiness that he will keep covenant, that he will keep touch
with his people, how abundantly should it settle and satisfy them!
Ah! my friends, has God said it, and will he not do it? Yes, has he
sworn it, and will he not bring it to pass? Dare we trust an honest
man upon his bare word, much more upon his oath; and shall we not
much more trust a holy, wise, and faithful God upon his word, upon
his covenant, when confirmed by an oath? The covenant of grace is
sure in itself; it is a firm covenant, an unalterable covenant, an
everlasting covenant, a ratified covenant; so that heaven and earth
may sooner pass away, than the least branch or word of his covenant
should pass away unfulfilled, Mat. 5:18
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Post by Admin on Feb 20, 2024 16:15:21 GMT -5
The Covenant of Grace Proved and
Opened (Part 2)
(1.) Let us but cast our eyes upon the several springs from whence
the covenant of grace flows, and then we cannot but strongly
conclude that the covenant of grace is a sure covenant. Now if you
cast your eye aright, you shall see that the covenant of grace flows
from these three springs.
First, From the free grace and favor of God. There was nothing in
fallen man to invite God to enter into covenant with him; yes, there
was everything in fallen man that might justly provoke God to
abandon man, to abhor man, to revenge himself upon man. It was
mere grace that made the covenant, and it is mere grace that makes
good the covenant. Now, that which springs from mere grace must
needs be unexceptionably sure. The love of God is unchangeable;
"whom he loves he loves to the end," John 13:3; whom God loves
once he loves forever. He is not as man, soon on—and soon off again,
Mal. 3:6; James 1:17; soon in—and as soon out, as Joab's dagger was.
Oh no! his love is like himself—lasting, yes, everlasting: "I have loved
you with an everlasting love," Jer. 31:3. Though we break off with
him, yet he abides faithful, 2 Tim. 2:13. Now what can be more sure,
than that which springs from free love, from everlasting love?
Romans 4:16. Hence the covenant must be sure. The former
covenant was not sure, because it was of works; but this covenant is
sure, because it is of grace, and rests not on any sufficiency in us, but
only on grace.
Secondly, The covenant of grace springs from the immutable counsel
of God. Heb. 6:17, "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the
heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an
oath." Times are mutable, and all men are mutable, and the love and
favor of the creature is mutable. But the counsel of God, from which
the covenant of grace flows—is immutable, and therefore it must
needs be sure, Isaiah 40:6; Psalm 146:3, 4; Jer. 33:14. The
manifestation of the immutability of God's counsel is here brought
in, as one end of God's oath. God swears, that it might evidently
appear that what he had purposed, counseled, determined, and
promised to Abraham and his seed—would assuredly be
accomplished; there would be, there could be, no alteration thereof.
His counsel was more firm than the laws of the Medea and Persians,
which alters not, Dan. 6:13.
Certainly God's counsel is inviolable: "My counsel shall stand."
Isaiah 46:10; Psalm 33:11, "The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations." Proverbs 19:21,
"Nevertheless the counsel of the Lord—that shall stand." The
immutability of God's counsel springs from the unchangeableness of
his essence, the perfection of his wisdom, the infiniteness of his
goodness, the absoluteness of his sovereignty, the omnipotency of his
power. God in his essence being unchangeable, his counsel also must
needs be so. Can darkness flow out of light, or fullness out of
emptiness, or heaven out of hell? No! no more can changeable
counsels flow from an immutable nature. Now the covenant of grace
flows from the immutable counsel of God, which is most firm and
inviolable, and therefore it must needs be a sure covenant. But,
Thirdly, The covenant of grace springs from the purpose of God,
resolving and intending everlasting good unto us. Now this purpose
of God is sure; so the apostle, 2 Tim. 2:19, "The foundation of God
stands sure." [Our graces are imperfect, our comforts ebb and flow;
but God's foundation stands sure.] That foundation of God is his
election, which is compared to a foundation; because it is that upon
which all our good and happiness is built, and because as a
foundation it abides firm and sure. The gracious purpose of God is
the fountain-head of all our spiritual blessings. It is the foundational
cause of our effectual calling, justification, glorification; it is the
highest link in the golden chain of salvation. What is the reason that
God has entered into a covenant with fallen man? it is from his
eternal purpose. What is the reason that one man is everlastingly
saved—and not another? It is from the eternal purpose of God, Ezek.
20:37.
In all the great concerns of the covenant of grace, the purpose of God
gives the casting voice. The purpose of God is the sovereign cause of
all that good that is in man, and of all that external, internal, and
eternal good that comes to man. Not works past, for men are chosen
from everlasting; not present works, for Jacob was loved and chosen
before he was born; nor foreseen works, for men were all corrupt in
Adam. All a believer's present happiness, and all his future
happiness, springs from the eternal purpose of God; as you may see,
by comparing these scriptures together. [Romans 8:28, and 9:11;
Eph. 1:11, and 3:11.] "For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on
whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have
compassion.' It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort,
but on God's mercy." Romans 9:15-16. "God, who has saved us and
called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but
because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in
Christ Jesus before the beginning of time." 2 Timothy 1:8-9.
This purpose of God speaks our stability and certainty of salvation by
Christ, God's eternal purpose never changes, never alters; "Surely, as
I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed," says
God, "so shall it stand." God's purposes are immutable, so is his
covenant. God's purposes are sure, very sure, so is his covenant. The
covenant of grace that flows from the eternal purpose of God, is as
sure as God is sure; for God can neither deceive nor be deceived.
That covenant that is built upon this rock of God's eternal purpose,
must needs be sure; and therefore all that are in covenant with God
need never fear falling away. There is no man, no power, no devil, no
violent temptation—which shall ever be able to overturn those that
God has brought under the bond of the covenant, 1 Pet. 1:5. "Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is
written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered
as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present
nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39. "My sheep
listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them
eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out
of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than
all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand." John 10:27-29.
But,
(2.) Secondly, Consider that the covenant of grace is confirmed and
made sure by the blood of Jesus Christ, which is called "the blood of
the everlasting covenant," Heb. 13:20. Christ, by his irrevocable
death, has made sure the covenant to us, Heb. 9:16-17. The covenant
of grace is to be considered under the notion of a testament; and
Christ, as the testator of this will and testament. [The main point
which the apostle intended, by setting down the inviolableness of
men's last wills after their death, is to prove that Christ's death was
very requisite for ratifying of the New Testament: consult these
scriptures; Mat. 16:21; Luke 24:26; Heb. 9:16, 17.]
Now look, as a man's will and testament is irrevocably confirmed by
the testator's death—"For where a testament is, there must also, of
necessity, be the death of the testator; for a testament is of force,
after men are dead; otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the
testator lives." Heb. 9:16, 17. These two verses are added as a proof of
the necessity of Christ's manner of confirming the new testament as
he did, namely, by his death. The argument is taken from the
common use and equity of confirming testaments, which is by the
death of the testator. A testament is only and wholly at his pleasure
of the person who makes it. He may alter it, or disannul it while he
live, as he sees good; but when he is dead, he not remaining to alter
it, no one else can alter it. In the seventeenth verse, the apostle
declares the inviolableness of a man's last will, being ratified as
before by the testator's death. This he shows two ways:
(1.) Affirmatively; in these words, "A testament is of force after men
are dead."
(2.) Negatively, in these words, "Otherwise it is of no strength."
Now from the affirmative and the negative, it plainly appears that a
testament is made inviolable by the testator's death; so Jesus Christ
has unalterably confirmed this will and testament—namely, the new
covenant, by his blood and death, "For this reason Christ is the
mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive
the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom
to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant."
Heb. 9:15. Christ died to purchase an eternal inheritance; and on this
ground eternal life is called an eternal inheritance; for we come to it
as heirs, through the goodwill, grace, and favor of this purchaser
thereof, manifested by the last will and testament.
Hence you read, "This is my blood of the new testament, which is
shed for many, for the remission of sins," Mat. 26:28. Again, "This
cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you," Luke
22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25. The covenant is called both a covenant and a
testament, because his covenant and testament is founded,
established, ratified, and immutably sealed up—in and by his blood.
Christ is the faithful and true witness, yes, truth itself; his word shall
not pass away, Rev. 3:14; John 14:6; Mark 13:31. If the word of Christ
is sure, if his promise be sure, if his covenant be sure—then surely his
last will and testament, which is ratified and confirmed by his death,
must needs be very sure. Christ's blood is too precious a thing to be
spilt in vain; but in vain is it spilt if his testament, his covenant,
ratified thereby, be altered. If the covenant of grace is not a sure
covenant, 1 Cor. 15:14, then Christ died in vain, and our preaching is
in vain, and your hearing, and receiving, and believing is all in vain.
Christ's death is a declaration and evidence of the eternal counsel of
his Father, which is most stable and immutable in itself. But how
much more it is so, when it is ratified by the death of his dearest Son,
"In whom all the promises are yes and amen," 2 Cor. 1:20; that is, in
Christ they are made, performed, and ratified.
By all this we may safely conclude that the covenant of grace is a
most sure covenant. There can be no addition to it, detraction from
it, or alteration of it—unless the death of Jesus Christ, whereby it is
confirmed—is frustrated and overthrown. Certainly the covenant is
as sure as Christ's death is sure. The sureness and certainty of the
covenant is the ground and bottom of bottoms for our faith, hope,
joy, patience, peace, etc. Take this corner, this foundation-stone
away—and all will tumble. Were the covenant uncertain, a Christian
could never have a good day all his days; his whole life would be
filled up with tears, doubts, disputes, distractions, etc.; and he would
be still a-crying out, "Oh, I can never be sure that God will be mine,
or that Christ will be mine, or that mercy will be mine, or that pardon
of sin will be mine, or that heaven will be mine! Oh, I can never be
sure that I shall escape the great damnation, the worm which never
dies, the fire that never goes out, or an eternal separation from the
presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power!" 2 Thes. 1:9.
The great glory of the covenant is the certainty of the covenant; and
this is the top of God's glory, and of a Christian's comfort, that all the
mercies that are in the covenant of grace are "the sure mercies of
David," and that all the grace that is in the covenant is sure grace,
and that all the glory that is in the covenant is sure glory, and that all
the external, internal, and eternal blessings of the covenant are sure
blessings.
I might further argue the sureness of the covenant of grace, from all
the attributes of God, which are deeply engaged to make it good, as
his wisdom, love, power, justice, holiness, faithfulness,
righteousness, etc. And I might further argue the certainty of the
covenant of grace, from the seals which God has annexed to it. You
know what was sealed by the king's ring could not be altered, Esther
8:8. God has set his seals to this covenant: his broad seal in the
sacraments, and his privy seal in the witness of his Spirit; and
therefore the covenant of grace is sure, and can never be reversed.
But upon several accounts I may not now insist on these things. And
therefore,
[8.] Eighthly and lastly, The covenant of grace is styled a WELLORDERED covenant. 2 Samuel 23:5, "He has made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. Will he not
bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire?" Oh,
the admirable counsel, wisdom, love, care, and tenderness of the
blessed God, which sparkles and shines in the well-ordering of the
covenant of grace! [Romans 11:33-36; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:8, and 3:10;
Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 40:28; Rev. 7:12.] Oh, how lovely and beautiful,
with what symmetry and proportion, are all things in this covenant
ordered and prepared! Oh, what head can conceive, or what tongue
can express—that infinite wisdom which God has manifested in
ordering the covenant of grace, so as it may most and best suit to all
the wants, and straits, and necessities, and miseries, and desires, and
longings of poor sinners' souls! Here are fit and full supplies for all
our spiritual needs—so excellently and orderly has God composed
and constituted the covenant of grace. In the covenant of grace every
poor sinner may find a suitable help, a suitable remedy, a suitable
support, a suitable supply, Jer. 33:8; Ezek. 36:25; Psalm 94:19.
The covenant of grace, is so well ordered by the unsearchable
wisdom of God, that you may find in it remedies to cure all your
spiritual diseases, and cordials to comfort you under all your soulfaintings, and a spiritual armory to arm you against all sorts of sins,
and all sorts of snares, and all sorts of temptations, and all sorts of
oppositions, and all sorts of enemies, whether inward or outward,
open or secret, subtle or silly, Eph. 6:10-18. Do you, O distressed
sinner—need a loving God, a compassionate God, a reconciled God, a
sin-pardoning God, a tender-hearted God? Here you may find him in
the covenant of grace, Exod. 34:5-7. Do you, O sinner—need a Christ,
to counsel you by his wisdom, and to clothe you with his
righteousness, and to enrich you with his grace, and to enlighten you
with his eye salve, and to justify you from your sins, and to reconcile
you to God, and to secure you from wrath to come, and after all, to
bring you to heaven? Rev. 3:17-18; Acts 13:39; 1 Thes. 1:10; John
10:28-31. Here you may find him in a covenant of grace. Do you, O
sinner! want the Holy Spirit to awaken you, and to convince you of
sin, of righteousness, and of judgment? or to enlighten you, and
teach you, and lead you, and guide you in the way everlasting? or to
cleanse you, or comfort you, or to seal you up to the day of
redemption? Ezek. 36:25-27; Luke 11:13; Eph. 1:13. Here you may
find him in the covenant of grace.
O sinner! Do you need grace, all grace, great grace, abundance of
grace, multiplied grace? Here you may find it in the covenant of
grace! O sinner! Do you need peace, or ease, or rest, or quiet in your
conscience? Here you may find it in the covenant of grace! O sinner!
Do you need joy, or comfort, or content, or satisfaction? Here you
may have it in a covenant of grace. O sinner, sinner! whatever your
soul needs are—they may all be supplied out of the covenant of grace!
God, in his infinite wisdom and love, has laid into the covenant of
grace, as into a common storehouse, all those good things, and all
those great things, and all those suitable things—that either sinners
or saints can either desire or need! Now the adequate suitableness of
the covenant of grace to all a sinner's wants, straits, necessities,
miseries, and desires—does sufficiently demonstrate the covenant of
grace to be a well-ordered covenant.
Look, in a well-ordered commonwealth—there are wholesome laws
to govern the people; and wholesome remedies to relieve the people;
and strong defences to secure the people. Just so, that must needs be
a well-ordered covenant, where there is nothing lacking to govern
poor souls, or to secure poor souls, or to save poor souls. And such a
covenant, is the covenant of grace. I might easily lay down other
arguments to evince the covenant of grace to be a well-ordered
covenant.
As for the right placing of all persons and things in the covenant of
grace, and from the outward dispensation of it—God revealed it but
gradually. First, he revealed it more darkly, remotely, and
imperfectly—as we see things a great way off. But afterwards the
Lord did more clearly, fully, immediately, frequently, and completely
reveal it—as we discern things close at hand. God did not at once
open all the riches and rarities of the covenant to his people, but in
the opening of those treasures that were there laid up, God had a
respect to the childhood and full-age of his people. And from God's
dispensing and giving out all the good and all the great things of the
covenant in their fittest time, in a right and proper season, when his
people most need them, and when they can live no longer without
them. But I must hasten to a closing up of this particular.
Thus you see in these eight particulars, how gloriously the covenant
of grace, under which the saints stand, is set out in the blessed
Scriptures.
Concerning the covenant of grace, or the new covenant, that all
sincere Christians are under, and by which at last they shall be
judged, let me further say—All mankind would have been eternally
lost, and God had lost all the glory of his mercy forever, had he not,
of his own free grace and mercy, made a new covenant with sinful
man.
The fountain from whence this new covenant flows, is the grace of
God: Gen. 17:22, "I will make my covenant." This covenant is called a
covenant of grace, because it flows from the mere grace and mercy of
God. There was nothing outside of God, nor anything in God, but his
mere mercy and grace, which moved him to enter into covenant with
poor sinners, who were miserable, who were loathsome, and polluted
in their blood, and who had broken the covenant of their God, and
were actually in arms against him! [Isaiah 41:1-2; Eph. 1:5-7, and 2:5,
7-8; 2 Sam. 7:21; Romans 9:18, 23; Jer. 32:38-41; Ezek. 36:25-27,
and 16:1-10. Surely if a woman commit adultery, it is a mere act of
favor if her husband accept of her again, Jer. 3:7. The application is
easy.] This must needs be of mere favor and love, for God to enter
into covenant with man, when he lay wallowing in his blood, and no
eye pitied him, no, not even his own. As there was nothing in fallen
man to draw God's favor or affection towards him; just so—there was
everything in fallen man which might justly provoke God's wrath and
indignation against him; and therefore it must be a very high act of
favor and grace, for the great, the glorious, the holy, the wise, and the
all-sufficient God, to enter into covenant with such a forlorn creature
as fallen man was. Nothing but free grace was the foundation of the
covenant of grace with poor sinners. Now let us seriously mind how
this covenant of grace, or this new covenant, runs both in the Old
and in the New Testament:
"The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will
not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took
them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my
covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. "This
is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,"
declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on
their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No
longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying,
'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of
them to the greatest," declares the Lord. "For I will forgive their
wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Jeremiah 31:31-
34
Now let us see how Paul explains this new covenant. "But the
ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of
which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on
better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first
covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God
found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares
the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made
with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out
of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I
turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will
make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will
put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be
their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his
neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they
will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will
forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." By
calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and
what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear." Hebrews 8:6-13.
This is the substance of the new covenant; and thus the Lord did
fore-promise it by Jeremiah, and afterwards expounded it by Paul.
Some small difference there is in their words, but the sense is one
and the same. Now this covenant is styled the new covenant, because
it is to continue new, and never to wax old or wear away, so long as
this world shall continue. Neither do the Holy Scriptures anywhere
reveal another covenant, which shall follow this covenant. [Where
then is the fire of purgatory, and that popish distinction of the fault
and the punishment? As for the fiction of purgatory, it deserves
rather to be hissed at, than by arguments refuted. And to punish sin
in purgatory, as popish doctors teach, what is this, but to call sin to
mind and memory, to view and sight, to reckoning and account?
which is contrary to the doctrine of the new covenant.]
If any covenant should follow this, it must be either a covenant of
works, or a covenant of grace. It cannot be a covenant of works, for
that would bring us all under a curse, and make our condition utterly
desperate. Nor can it be a covenant of grace, because more grace
cannot be shown in any other covenant than in this. Here is all grace
and all mercy, here is Jesus Christ with all his righteousness,
mediatorship, merits, purchase. This covenant is so full, so ample, so
large, so perfect, so complete, and is every way so accommodated to
the condition of lost sinners—that nothing can be altered, nor added,
nor mended. Therefore it must needs be the last covenant, that ever
God will make with man. "This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I
will write them on their minds. Their sins and lawless acts I will
remember no more." Hebrews 10:16-17.
Romans 11:26, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, who shall
turn away ungodliness from Jacob." The person delivering is Christ,
described here by his office and by his original; his office, the
deliverer; the original word which Paul uses, signifies delivering by a
strong hand, to rescue by force, as David delivered the lamb out of
the lion's paw; ver. 27, "For this is my covenant unto them, when I
shall take away their sin." This covenant concerning the pardon of
believers' sins, and their deliverance by Christ, God will certainly
make good to his people.
Now from the covenant of grace, or the new covenant that God has
made with sincere Christians, a believer may form up this eighth plea
to these ten scriptures, [Eccles. 11:9, and 12:14; Mat. 12:14, and
18:23; Luke 16:2; Romans 14:10 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 9:27, and 13:17; 1
Pet. 4:5.] which refer to the great day of account, or to a man's
particular account, namely, O blessed God, you have, in the covenant
of grace, by which I must be tried, freely and fully engaged yourself
that you will pardon my iniquities, and remember my sins no more;
so runs the new covenant: Jer. 31:34, "I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more." Heb. 8:12, "I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more." Heb. 10:17, "Their sins and iniquities will I
remember no more." Isaiah 43:25, "I, even I, am he who blots out
your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your
sins." Ezek. 18:22, "All his transgressions that he has committed,
they shall not be mentioned unto him." Jer. 50:20, "In those days,
says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there
shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for
I will pardon them whom I reserve."
Now, O holy God, I cannot but observe that in the new covenant you
have made such necessary, choice, absolute, and blessed provision
for your poor people, that no sin can disannul the covenant, or make
a final separation between you and your covenant-people. [The new
covenant can never be broken. 2 Chron. 13:5; Psalm 89:34; Isaiah
50:7; 2 Sam. 23:5; Heb. 7:25; 1 John 2:1-2; Isaiah 54:10.] Breaches
made in the first covenant were irreparable, but breaches made in
the new covenant are not so, because this new covenant is
established in Christ. Christ lies at the bottom of the covenant. The
new covenant is an everlasting covenant; and all the breaches that we
make upon that covenant are repaired and made up by the blood and
intercession of dear Jesus. Every jar does not break the marriage
covenant between husband and wife; no more does every sin break
the new covenant that is between God and our souls. Every breach of
peace with God, is not a breach of covenant with God. That free, that
rich, that infinite, that sovereign, and that glorious grace of God,
which shines in the covenant of grace, tells us that our eternal estates
shall never be judged by a covenant of works; and that the lack of an
absolute perfection shall never damn a believing soul; and that the
obedience that God requires at our hands is not a legal obedience,
but an evangelical obedience.
So long as a Christian does not renounce his covenant with God, so
long as he does not willfully, wickedly, and habitually break the bond
of the covenant; the main, the substance, of the covenant is not yet
broken, though some articles of the covenant may be violated. Just as
among men, there be some trespasses against some particular
clauses in covenants, which, though they be violated, yet the whole
covenant is not forfeited; it is so here between God and his people.
And, O blessed God, I cannot but observe that in the new covenant
you have engaged yourself to pardon all my sins: "I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more," Heb. 8:12; Jer. 31:34. [He is a forgiving God,
Neh. 9:31. None like him for that, Micah 7:18. He forgives naturally,
Exod. 2:2; abundantly, Isaiah 55:7, 3; constantly, Psalm 130:4; Mal.
3:6.]
Here are two things worthy of our notice:
(1.) The reconciliation of God with his people, "I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness;" he will be merciful or propitious, appeased
and pacified towards them; which has respect to the ransom and
satisfaction of Christ.
(2.) That God will pardon the sins of his people fully, completely,
perfectly. Here are three words, "unrighteousness," "sins," and
"iniquities," to show that he will forgive all sorts, kinds, and degrees
of sins. The three original words here expressed are all in the plural
number:
1. Unrighteousnesses. This word is by some appropriated to the
wrongs and injuries that are done against men.
2. Sins. This is a general word, and according to the notation of the
Greek, may imply a not following of that which is set before us; for
he sins, who follows not the rule that is set before him by God.
3. The third word, iniquities, according to the notation of the Greek,
signifies in general, transgressions of the law. This word is by some
appropriated to sins against God. The Greek word that is frequently
translated "iniquity," is a general word, which signifies a
transgression of the law, and so it is translated, 1 John 3:4. The word
iniquity is of as large an extent as the word unrighteousness, and
implies an unequal dealing, which is contrary to the rule or law of
God.
All this heap of words is to plainly teach us, that it is neither the
many kinds of sins, nor degrees of sin, nor aggravations of sin, nor
even the multitude of sins—which shall ever harm those souls who
are in covenant with God. God has mercy enough, and pardons
enough, for all his covenant-people's sins, whether original or actual,
whether against the law or against the gospel, whether against the
light of nature or the rule of grace, whether against mercies or
judgments, whether against great means of grace or small means of
grace. The covenant remedy against all sorts and degrees of sin—
infinitely transcends and surpasses all our infirmities and
enormities, our weaknesses and wickednesses, our follies and
unworthinesses, etc. What is our unrighteousness—compared to
Christ's righteousness; our debts—compared to Christ's pardons; our
unholiness—compared to Christ's holiness; our emptiness—
compared to Christ's fullness; our weakness—compared to Christ's
strength; our poverty—compared to Christ's riches; our wounds—
compared to that healing which is under the wings of the Sun of
Righteousness! 1 Cor. 1:30; Psalm 1:3, 9-10; Mal. 4:2.
Parallel to Hebrews 8:12, is that noble description that Moses gives
of God in that Book of Exodus: chapter 34, 6-7, "The Lord, the Lord
merciful and gracious; forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin."
Some, by these three words, do understand such sins as are
committed against our neighbor, against God, or against ourselves. A
merciful God, a gracious God will pardon all kinds of sinners, and all
kinds and degrees of sin, by whatever names or titles they may be
styled or distinguished.
Some by iniquity do understand sins of infirmity; and by
transgression they understand sins of malice; and by sin they
understand sins of ignorance. God is said to keep mercy, and to
forgive all sorts of sins, as if his mercy were kept on purpose for
pardoning all sorts of sinners and all sorts of sins. The Hebrew word
that is here translated iniquity, signifies that which is unright,
unequal, crooked or perverse; it notes the vitiosity or crookedness of
nature; it notes crooked offences, such as flow from malice, hatred,
and are committed on purpose.
Secondly, the Hebrew word which is here translated transgression,
signifies to deal unfaithfully; it notes such sins as are treacherously
committed against God, such sins as flow from pride and contempt
of God.
Thirdly, the Hebrew word Chataah, generally signifies sin, but is
more especially here taken for sins of ignorance and infirmity. Oh,
what astounding mercy, what rich grace is here: that God will not
only pardon our light, our small offences, but our great and mighty
sins! etc.
And I cannot, O dear Father, but further observe that in the new
covenant you have frequently and deeply engaged yourself, that you
will remember the sins of your people no more! O my God, you have
told me six different times in your word, that you will remember my
sins no more. In the new covenant you have engaged yourself not
only to forgive but also to forget, and that you will cross off your
debt-book, and never question or call me to an account for my sins;
that you will pass an eternal act of oblivion upon them, and utterly
bury them in the grave of oblivion, as if they had never been.
The sins that are forgiven by God are forgotten by God; the sins that
God remits he removes from his remembrance, Heb. 10:13-19, and 1-
15. Christ has so fully satisfied the justice of God for the sins of all his
seed, by the price of his own blood and death, that there needs no
more expiatory sacrifices to be offered for their sins forever. Christ
has, by the sacrifice of himself, blotted out the remembrance of his
people's sins with God forever. The new covenant runs thus, "And
their sinful error I will not remember any more," Jer. 31:34; but the
Greek runs thus, "And their sinful errors and their
unrighteousnesses, I will not remember again, or any more," Heb.
8:12. Here are two negatives, which do more vehemently deny,
according to the propriety of the Greek language; that is, I will never
remember them again, I will in no case remember them any more, I
will so forgive as to forget: not that in propriety of phrase, God either
remembers or forgets, for all things are present to him; he knows all
things, he beholds, he sees, he observes all things, by one eternal and
simple act of his knowledge, which is no way capable of change, as
now knowing, and at another time forgetting. But it is an allusion to
the manner of men, who, when they forgive injuries fully and
heartily, do also forget them, blot them out of mind; or rather, as
some think, it is an allusion to the manner of the old covenant's
administration in the sacrifices, where there was a remembrance
again of sins every year, there was a fresh indictment and
arraignment of the people for sin continually, Heb. 10:1-3, etc.
But under this new covenant our Lord Jesus Christ has, "by one
offering, perfected forever those who are sanctified," (see from ver. 5
to ver. 20;) Christ has, forever, taken away the sins of the elect; there
needs no more expiatory sacrifice for them; they that are sprinkled
with the blood of this sacrifice shall never have their sins
remembered any more against them. God's not remembering or
forgetting a thing is not simply to be taken of his essential
knowledge, but respectively of his judicial knowledge, to bring the
same into judgment. Not to remember a thing that was once known,
and was in mind and memory, is to forget it; but this properly is not
incident to God, it is an infirmity. To him all things past and future
are as present. What he once knows he always knows. His memory is
his very essence, neither can anything that has once been in, it slip
out of it. For God to remit sin is not to remember it; and not to
remember it is to remit it. These are two reciprocal propositions,
therefore they are thus joined together. "I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more. I, even I, am he who blots out
your transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember your
sins," Jer. 31:34; Isaiah 43:25.
To remember implies a fourfold act;
(1.) To lay up in the mind what is conceived thereby;
(2.) To hold it fast;
(3.) To call it to mind again;
(4.) Oft to think of it. Now in that God says, "I will remember their
iniquities no more;" he implies that he will neither lay them up in his
mind, nor there hold them, nor call them again to mind, nor think on
them, but that they shall be to him as if they had never been
committed.
God's discharge of their sins shall be a full discharge. Such sinners
shall never be called to account for them. Both the guilt and the
punishment of them shall be fully and everlastingly removed. Let the
sins of a believer be what they will for nature, and be ever so many
for number, they shall all be blotted out, they shall more never be
mentioned; [Mat. 12:31; Isaiah 55:7; Jer. 31:12; Ezek. 18:22; Psalm
32:2; Romans 4:8. Now if God will not remember nor mention his
people's sins, then we may safely and soundly infer that either there
is no purgatory, or else that God severely punishes those sins in
purgatory which he remembers not.]
(1.) God will never remember, he will never mention their sins, so as
to impute them or charge them upon his people.
(2.) God will never remember, he will never mention their sins any
more, so as to upbraid his people with their follies or miscarriages.
He will never hit them in the teeth with their sins, he will never hold
their weaknesses against them. When persons are justified, their sins
shall be as if they had not been; God will bid them welcome into his
presence, and embrace them in his arms, and will never object to
them their former unkindness, unfruitfulness, unthankfulness,
vileness, stubbornness, wickedness, as you may plainly see in the
return of the prodigal, and his father's deportment towards him.
Luke 15:20-23, "When he was a great way off." The prodigal was but
conceiving a purpose to return, and God met him. The very
intention, and secret motions, and close purposes of our hearts, are
known to God. The old father sees a great way off. Dim eyes can see a
great way, when the son is the object.
"His father saw him, and had compassion." His affections roll within
him. The father not only sees, but commiserates and compassionates
the returning prodigal, as he did Ephraim of old, "My affections are
troubled for him, I will surely have mercy on him;" or, as the Hebrew
runs, "I will, having mercy, have mercy, have mercy on him, or I will
abundantly have mercy on him," Jer. 31:20. "Look," says God, "here
is a poor prodigal returning to me, the poor child has come back, he
has smarted enough, he has suffered enough. I will bid him welcome,
I will forgive him all his high offences, and will never hit him in the
teeth with his former vanities."
"And ran." The feet of mercy are swift to meet a returning sinner. It
had been sufficient for him to have stood, being old, and a father; but
the father runs to the son.
"And fell on his neck." He does not take him by the hand; but he falls
upon him, and incorporates himself into him. How open are the
arms of mercy to embrace the returning sinner, and lay him in the
bosom of love!
"And kissed him." Free, rich, and sovereign mercy has not only feet
to meet us, and arms to clasp us, but also lips to kiss us. One would
have thought that he should rather have kicked him or killed him,
than have kissed him. But God is Pater miserationum, he is all
affections. All this while the father speaks not one word. His joy was
too great to be uttered. He ran, he fell on his neck, and kissed him,
and so sealed up to him mercy and peace, love and reconciliation,
with the kisses of his lips.
And the son said unto him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven,
and in your sight." Sincerely confess, and the amends is made;
acknowledge but the debt, and he will cross the book.
"I am no more worthy to be called your son." "Lord," said that
blessed martyr, "I am hell, but you are heaven; I am soil and a sink of
sin, but you are a gracious God," etc.
"But the father said to his servants—Bring forth the best robe, and
put it on him, and put a ring on his hands, and shoes on his feet. And
bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry."
Here you have,
(1.) The best robe;
(2.) The precious ring; [Among the Romans the ring was an ensign of
virtue, honor, and especially nobility, whereby they were
distinguished from the common people.]
(3.) The lovely shoes; and
(4.) The fatted calf.
The returning prodigal has garments, and ornaments, and
necessaries, and luxuries. Some understand by the robe, as the
royalty which Adam lost; and by the ring, they understand the seal of
God's Holy Spirit; and by the shoes, the preparation of the gospel of
peace; and by the fatted calf, they understand Christ, who was slain
from the beginning. "Christ is that fatted calf," says Mr. Tyndale the
martyr, "and his righteousness is the goodly raiment to cover the
naked deformities of their sins."
The great things intended in this parable is to set forth the riches of
grace, and God's infinite goodness, and the returning sinner's
happiness. When once the sinner returns in good earnest to God,
God will supply all his needs, and bestow upon him more than ever
he lost, and set him in a safer and happier estate than that from
which he fell in Adam; and will never hit him in the teeth with his
former enormities, nor ever hold his old wickednesses against him.
You see plainly in this parable that the father of the prodigal does not
so much as mention or object the former pleasures, lusts, or vanities
wherein his prodigal son had formerly lived. All old scores are
forgiven, and the returning prodigal embraced and welcomed, as if
he had never offended.
"And now, O Lord, I must humbly take leave to tell you further that
you have confirmed the new covenant by your word, and by your
oath, and by the seals that you have annexed to it, and by the death
of your Son, and therefore you can not but make good every tittle,
word, branch, and article of it. Now this new covenant is my plea, O
holy God, and by this plea I shall stand." Hereupon God declares,
"this plea, I accept as holy, just, and good. I have nothing to say
against you—enter you into the joy of your Lord."
IX. The ninth plea that a believer may form up as to these ten
scriptures, [Eccles. 11:9, and 12:14; Mat. 12:14, and 18:23; Luke 16:2;
Romans 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 9:27, and 13:17; 1 Pet. 4:5.] which
refer to the great day of account, or to a man's particular account,
may be drawn up from the consideration of that evangelical
obedience which God requires, and that the believer yields to God.
There is a legal account, and there is an evangelical account. Now
the saints, in the great day, shall not be put to give up a legal
account; the account they shall have to give up, is an evangelical
account. In the covenant of works, God required perfect obedience in
our own persons; but in the covenant of grace God will be content if
there be but uprightness in us, if there be but sincere desires to obey,
if there be faithful endeavors to obey, if there be a hearty willingness
to obey. "Well," says God, "though I stood upon perfect obedience in
the covenant of works, 2 Cor. 8:12; yet now I will be satisfied with the
will for the deed; if there be but uprightness of heart, though that be
attended with many weaknesses and infirmities, yet I will be satisfied
and contented with that."
God, under the covenant of grace, will for Christ's sake accept of less
than he requires in the covenant of works. He requires us to live
without sin, but he will accept of our sincere endeavors to do it.
Though a believer, in his own person, cannot perform all that God
commands, yet Jesus Christ, as his surety and in his stead, has
fulfilled the law for him. So that Christ's perfect righteousness is a
complete cover for a believer's imperfect righteousness. Hence the
believer flies from the covenant of works—to the covenant of grace;
from his own unrighteousness—to the righteousness of Christ. [Luke
1:5-6; Mat. 28:20; Acts 24:16; 1 Pet. 1:14-15; Heb. 13:18.]If we consider the law in a high and rigid notion—no believer can
fulfill it; but if we consider the law in a soft and mild notion—every
believer does fulfill it: Acts 13:22, "I have found David the son of
Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will;"
that is, "All my wills," to note the universality and sincerity of his
obedience. David had many slips and falls, he often transgressed the
royal law; but being sincere in the main bent and frame of his heart,
and in the course of his life, God looked upon his sincere obedience
as perfect obedience.
A sincere Christian's obedience is an entire obedience to all the
commands of God, though not in respect of practice, which is
impossible, but in disposition and affection. [Psalm 119:6. "When my
eye is to all your commandments."] A sincere obedience is a
universal obedience. It is universal in respect of the subject, the
whole man; it is universal in respect of the object, the whole law; and
it is universal in respect of durance, the whole life; he who obeys
sincerely obeys universally. There is no man who serves God truly,
who does not endeavor to serve God fully; sincerity turns upon the
hinges of universality; he who obeys sincerely endeavors to obey
thoroughly, Num. 14:24. A sincere Christian does not only love the
law, and like the law, and approve of the law, and delight in the law,
and consent to the law, that it is holy, just, and good, but he obeys it
in part, Romans 7:12, 16, 22; which, though it be but in part, yet he
being sincere therein, pressing towards the mark, and desiring and
endeavoring to arrive at what is perfect, Phil. 3:13-14, God accepts of
such a soul, and is as well pleased with such a soul, as if he had
perfectly fulfilled the law.
Where the heart is sincerely resolved to obey, there it does obey. A
heart to obey, is our obeying; a heart to do, is our doing; a heart to
believe, is our believing; a heart to repent, is our repenting; a heart to
wait, is our waiting; a heart to suffer, is our suffering; a heart to pray,
is our praying; a heart to hear, is our hearing; a heart to give, feed,
clothe, visit, is our giving, feeding, clothing, visiting; a heart to walk
holily, is our walking holily; a heart to work righteousness, is our
working righteousness; a heart to show mercy, is our showing mercy;
a heart to sympathize with others, is our sympathizing with others.
He who sincerely desires and resolves to keep the commandments of
God—he does keep the commandments of God; and he who truly
desires and resolves to walk in the statutes of God—he does walk in
the statutes of God.
In God's account and God's acceptance, every believer, every sincere
Christian, is as wise, holy, humble, heavenly, spiritual, watchful,
faithful, fruitful, useful, thankful, joyful, etc., as he desires to be, as
he resolves to be, and as he endeavors to be; and this is the glory of
the new covenant, and the happiness that we gain by dear Jesus.
And, my friends, it is remarkable that our feeble, partial and very
imperfect obedience is frequently set forth in the blessed Scriptures,
as our fulfilling of the law, Luke 10:25-27. Take a few places for a
taste: Romans 2:27, "uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God's law."
Romans 13:8, "He who loves another, has fulfilled the law;" ver. 10,
"Love is the fulfilling of the law." Not to love is to do ill and to break
the law, but love is the fulfilling of it; we cannot do ill by that which is
the perfection and the fulfilling of the law. Love is the sum of the law,
love is the perfection of the law; and were love perfect in us, it would
make us perfect keepers of the law. Love works the saints to keep the
law in desires and endeavors, with care and study to observe it in
perfection of parts, though not in perfection of degrees: Gal. 5:14,
"All the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, You shall love your
neighbor as yourself;" Gal. 6:2, "Bear one another's burdens, and so
fulfill the law of Christ." Now in this sense that is under
consideration, the saints in themselves, even in this life, do keep the
royal law.
Now, from what has been said, a believer may form up this plea—"O
blessed God, in Christ my head I have perfectly and completely kept
your royal law; and in my own person I have evangelically kept your
royal law, in respect of my sincere desires, purposes, resolutions, and
endeavors to keep it. And this evangelical keeping in Christ, and in
the new covenant, you are pleased to accept of, and are well satisfied
with it. I know that breaches made in the first covenant were
irreparable, but breaches made in the covenant of grace are not so;
because this covenant is established in Christ; who is still a-making
up all breaches. Now this is my plea, O holy God, and by this plea I
shall stand." "Well," says God, "I cannot in honor or justice but
accept of this plea, and therefore enter into the joy of your Lord!
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