"with the effect. They have turned the Gospel Sa"craments into charms and spells 2." The same trifling impertinence might as justly be urged against Naaman's being healed of his leprosy by washing in Jordana; or against Hezekiah's being cured by a lump of figsb; or against the blind man's receiving sight by the means of clay and spittle, and washing in the pool of Siloam . We place no more virtue in the naked symbols, than in the meanest instruments whatever, which God may at any time please to make use of, and sanctify to high and holy purposes. Those instruments in themselves do nothing: it is God that does all, in and through the appointed use of them. He that blasphemes or derides the certain workings of God, or of the Spirit of God, upon the souls or bodies of men, under the names of charms, spells, enchantments, or the like, (as the Jews derided our Lord's miracles,) seems to forget the reverence due to Divine Majesty, and the respect which we owe to high and holy things. But to put the kindest and most favourable construction we can upon the objection as here worded, it is charging St. Austin, and all the primitive churches, and their followers, with what they are notoriously known, not only never to have taught, but constantly to have. disclaimed. They never do attribute to the bare elements the works of grace, but constantly ascribe them to the powerful hand of God, working in or with the elements. If that be working by charms or spells, let any man tell us, what supernatural or preternatural works of God are not as justly liable to the same imputation. If the purport of the objection be to reject all such Divine operations as we here suppose upon moral agents, as not consistent with human liberty; that is a more general question, previous to what we are now upon, and therefore in a great measure foreign to the point in hand. • Trinitarian Scheme of Religion, p. 24, 25. printed in the year 1692. 2 Kings v. 14. 2 Kings xx. 7. Isaiah xxxviii. 21. e John ix. 7. It is sufficient to say, that the general doctrine of grace is so fully established in the New Testament, that no Christian can consistently reject it. As to the manner of it, it is not for us to presume to explain it but we are certain it is wrought in a moral way, in a way consistent with moral agency and human liberty. We know the fact: we need no more. If any man will undertake to demonstrate a priori, that there can be no medium between irresistible impressions and none at all, or that God cannot sanctify, or purify, or enlighten the soul of man, in any degree, without making him a machine, he may perhaps deserve to be heard; but in the mean while Scripture, express Scripture, will deserve our attention, and will command the faith of every true disciple of Christ. Some perhaps may think it an objection to what has been here pleaded, that grace is also promised sometimes to prayer, sometimes to faith, and sometimes to hearing, and therefore is not peculiar to the Sacraments: for it has been suggested, that "the spiritual eating of Christ is " COMMON to all places, as well as to the Lord's tabled." This I have touched upon before, and shall only add here, that we do not confine God's grace to the Sacraments; neither do we assert any peculiar grace, as appropriate to them only: but what we assert is, some peculiar degree of the same graces, or some peculiar certainty, or constancy, as to the effect, in the due use of those means f. And if the Divine graces, more or less, go along with all the Divine ordinances, well may they be supposed to go along with those, which are the most solemn and most exalted of any, and have also more of a federal nature in them; as has been hinted above 8, and will be proved at large in the chapter here following. d Hales's Tracts, p. 57. • See above, p. 212, &c. f Verbum et Sacramenta in eo conveniunt, quod ambo gratiam regenerationis offerant et exhibeant: sed quod nonnunquam Sacramentis peculiariter adscribi videtur, id inde est, quod fides, in Sacramentis, hanc gratiam videat clarius, apprehendat fortius, teneat certius. Voss. de Sacram, p. 251. See above, p. 213. CHAP. XI. Of the federal or covenanting Nature of the Holy IT is the prevailing doctrine of Divines, that the Service of the holy Communion carries in it something of a federal nature, is a kind of covenanting or stipulating act; not making a new covenant, but covenanting anew, confirming or renewing the stipulation before entered into at our Baptism. For the clearing of this important point, it will be proper, 1. To premise something of covenants in general between God and man. 2. To specify the ancient forms or methods of contracting under the Old Testament. 3. To descend to the later forms of doing the same thing under the New Testament, by the Sacraments thereunto belonging, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 1. The Divine goodness and condescension is such, in all his dealings with mankind, that he considers always what is best for them, and may most help their infirmities. With these gracious views (while he is absolute Lord over them, and might issue out his sovereign commands to all, without admitting any mortal to contract for rewards, or to strike any league with him) he is pleased to enter into covenants with men, giving and taking assurances, and, as it were, binding both himself and them, in order to draw them the more strongly to him, and to engage them to look after their own everlasting happiness. Not that God thereby divests himself of his right over them, or that men have a right to refuse the covenant proposed to them, or would not be justly punishable for such refusalh: for indeed they are under a previous indispensable obligation to comply; and the refusing it would deserve very severe punishment. But the entering into covenant produces a closer relation and a h See Puffendorf, Jus feciale Divinum, sect. xx. p. 92, &c. Lat. edit. p. 87. Engl. edit. Abp. Potter on Ch. Gov. p. 12, &c. Matt. x. 14, 15. xxii. 7. Luke xiv. 21-24. stronger tie, and is much more engaging and attractive many ways, than naked precepts could bek; as will be evident of itself to any man that reflects, and I need not enlarge upon it. In covenants between God and man, there is not, as in common covenants, an equal and mutual meeting of each other, or a joint concurrence: but God is the first mover to invite and propound; and man comes in after, sooner or later, to accept and conclude. "We love God, because "he first loved us: herein is love, not that we loved God, "but that he loved us1." And our Lord says to his Disciples, "Ye have not first chosen me, but I have first "chosen you," &cm. Another thing observable is, that there are not here, as in covenants between man and man, mutual advantages, or benefits reciprocal; but all the advantage or benefit, properly so called, accrues to one party only, because the other is too perfect to receive any. Nevertheless, there is something analogous to benefits, or what may be considered as such, accruing to the Divine Majesty; namely, external honour and glory, and such delight as he is conceived constantly to enjoy in the exercise of his goodness, wisdom, power, and other his attributes or perfections. Neither does this circumstantial difference, arising from the infinite disparity of the parties contracting, at all affect the essence of the covenant supposed to be made between them. For a covenant is, in its general nature, (as Baron Puffendorf defines it ",) an union, consent, and agreement of two wills about the same thing and if God proposes such and such terms, and man accepts them, there is then a formal covenant struck between them. God conditionally offers advan k Vid. Hornbeeck de Fœdere Ecclesiastico, Exercit. Theolog. tom. iii. p. 640. 1 1 John iv. 19, 10. m John xv. 16. n Puffendorf, ibid. sect. xx. • Conf. Deylingius, Observ. Sacr. tom. i. p. 328, 329. Zornius, Opuse. Sacr. tom. ii. p. 240. tages on his side; and man covenants to pay a suitable homage, adoration, and service, as required. That God has transacted, and does yet daily transact, covenants with mankind in succession, shall be shown presently. Only I may here hint by the way, that many considerable Divines have supposed also a previous covenant between God the Father and God the Son, in the affair of man's salvation. There are several things hinted in holy Scripture, which look like an agreement, or covenant, that upon our Lord's undertaking to be Mediator, and performing what belongs to it, a reconciliation should ensue between God the Father and mankind. The texts, which chiefly seem to countenance that notion, are collected into one view by the excellent Puffendorf, to whom, for brevity sake, I choose to refer the reader P. 2. I proceed to observe, that God has, time after time, transacted covenants with men, and under various formalities. There was a covenant of life made with man in Paradise, in his state of innocency 9; which commonly goes under the name of the first covenant, or old covenant, and which continued for a very short space. To that immediately succeeded the second covenant, or new covenant, called also the covenant of grace, and made with lapsed man, in and through Christ Jesus. It commenced from old time, in the world's infancy, as St. Paul testifies; though not clearly revealed nor fully executed till the days of the Gospel, but considered as executed from the beginning, so far forth as to be available for the remission of sin, in all ages, to men fitly qualified according to the terms of it. Besides these two eminent and P Puffendorf, Jus fecial. sect. xxxvii. p. 144. Lat. p. 129. Eng. edit. Conf. Dodwell, Diss. Cyprian. p. 448. Zornius, Opusc. Sacr. tom. ii. p. 240, 241, 242. In Zornius may be seen references to a multitude of writers, who have considered that article. See this proved and explained by Bishop Bull, Appendix ad Animad. xvii. and Discourse concerning the first Covenant. Opp. Posth. vol. iii. p. 1065, &c. Compare Puffendorf, Jus fecial. sect. xxiv. Tit. i. 2. ngò xgóvwv aiwvíwv, before ancient times. Vid. Bull. Opp. Posth. vol. ii. p. 591. Conf. Rom. xvi. 25. Coloss. i. 26. 1 Pet. i. 20. |