Part 1. CHAPTER IX.

What life is promised in the Covenant of Works. 2. Whether all we, especially the Reprobate, by the fall, lost all right to the creatures. 3. How the Lord is our God.

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What a life was promised to Adam.

Q. What is meant by life promised in the Covenant of Works!

A. 1. Not a life in Christ and the fruit of the merit of blood, as our life is in the New Covenant, John 10:11. John 3:16. For Adam was not Mediator of reconciliation here, he was a sort of public Law-head in whom he was to stand or fall, if any please to call him so a Mediator κατά but it is a Law-life happily a communion in glory.

2. But the life he lived, and the creatures for his service seems not to belong to this life, for the creatures were given to Adam, he not working for them. Yet I should not oppose, if any say that earthly blessings were given to Adam, as a reward of an actual obedience, as they are given to such as keep the Law, Deut. 28. But sure our gain in Christ of such a life, bought by so noble a Ransom as the Blood of God-man, is not little. Its rawness and greenness of wit, to value it so low as we do. Children see not what a hiring and taking apple Heaven is.

Of our right to the creatures.

Q. Whether or no did Adam and all the Reprobates in his loins, by sin, loss right to the creatures?

A three-fold right, natural, providential, spiritual.

A. There is a three-fold right.

1. Natural.

2. Providential.

3. Spiritual.

A natural right may be conceived two ways.

1. Absolutely, so creature, and man not created, can have no jus or claim to being or life, the Creators free gift is our best Charter to life and being.

There is no law to have being and living, and so no sin in having it.

2.) This right may be conceived, conditionally, as if God create the Sun, a power to give light is congruous, and debita naturae Solis [due to the nature of the Sun] suitable to the nature of the Sun, nor can the creature plead for this, as debt: but if the Lord give being, to enjoy this being cannot be sin, because there is no law and command to nothing to receive or not to receive being and life from the Creator: And where there is no Law, there is no transgression. And therefore to have being and life cannot be in itself a sin.

What a providential right is.

2. Providential right is but a continuating of life and being, until the same power that gave it, shall remove it, by way of punishment; For God as Creator, of his Sovereignty, gives being and life, and the comfortable use of the creatures; but as a Judge ordinarily for sin he removes it, though he, I deny not, out of his Sovereignty, may, and possibly doth, annihilate the meat that the Angels in assumed bodies, and which the Man Christ, after the Resurrection, did eat.

What a spiritual right is, & how excellent.

3. The spiritual right is that new supernatural Title, which the Elect believers have, in order to a supernatural end, and all these being made theirs, to promote their salvation, 1 Cor. 3:21. All things are yours. Rev. 21:7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, by Covenant-right, so: he adds, And I will be his God, and he shall be my Son, Psal. 37:10. A drink of cold water, by this Charter, is better than a Kings Crown, and hath refreshed some more then all the choice wine the earth yields. The love of the Giver is better than wine, Cant. 1:2. and here the Charter is, by many thousands, more precious than the Land. For nature common to all is over-gilded with free-Grace. And the natural life and being, and the material heavens we shall enjoy, are blessed in another manner to the glorified, then these they now enjoy, 1 Cor. 15:40, 41, 42, 43, &c. 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1; Isa. 65:17. and they shall be above the heavens that are, when the mystical body shall be perfected, yea, and the dust into which the bodies of the Saints are resolved, keeps a spiritual Covenant relation to God in Christ: As Exod. 3:6; Mat. 22:32; Joh. 6:39; Rom. 8:21, 22, 23. for no joint or part of the body, but it must share of Covenant glory. We look little to anything but to have and enjoy the dead lump and body of Gold, dead lands without Christ. See Hos. 2:18, 22; Ezek. 34:25; 27; Ezek. 36:29; Lev. 26:6; Psal. 37:9, 11, 29; 1 Tim. 4:8; Heb. 13:5, 6; Math. 6:25, 26; Psal. 34:10. O fair inheritance.

To live & to enjoy the creatures is not in itself sin.

4. As to the second (which is the main controversy) to enjoy life and being, is the substance of the act, no sin. Men contravene a Law to be so and so born, to wit, in sin, for its forbidden by a Law: But to be born and live, is no sin, but by order of nature, before Original sin. Nor is it forbidden more to man to be born and live, then its forbidden to beasts, nor to eat, sleep, wake, then to them: So neither is it commanded by a Law to die, but it is commanded and commended to die well, to fall asleep in Christ, 1 Thes. 4:14, 16. to be faithful to the death, Acts 7:60; Rev. 2:10; Rev. 14:13.

(2.) The Elect who are born heirs of wrath, as others, Eph. 2:3. And all the Reprobate should kill themselves, or be killed, from the birth, if to live and eat were sin, in itself. But only the Lord of life and death, and his Minister, the Magistrate hath power to take away life and being, no man can be his own burrio. But if it were sin in itself to live, they ought to expire and restore an usurped life, which they possess, malâ fide [bad faith], to the owner the Lord, as a thief is obliged to restore stolen goods.

(3.) The dominion of Reprobates over the creatures, is a part of the good Image of God, Gen. 1:26, 27. and they breath, live, ride, sail, and are no more than the Elect to lay these aside, then they are to lay aside the natural knowledge of God, by which they are to glorify God as God, Rom. 1:19, 20, 21; Rom. 2:14, 15; Act. 14:16, 17. Now the Reprobates have not utterly lost the Image of God, as to know there is a God, to honour their parents, to hurt no man.

Their temptation, who think they should not eat, nor pray.

(4.) This opinion looks the rather like a fancy, that it is a temptation in weak ones, under a sad desertion, Satan riding upon their Melancholy (a complexion not sanctified, useful to Satan, and if sanctified, a seat of mortification and humble walking) for they judge it sin to eat, and drink, and sleep, they having no right thereunto, but so they have no right to live, and are obliged to kill themselves, and upon the same ground, it was sin to Adam to speak, to answer God, to breath, to hear the news of the blessed seed, which all are acts of life, and so acts of sin, and upon the same ground, that they cannot perform these without sin, they should not pray, for in praying, they cannot but take the Name of God in vain. For we are not to abstain from a duty, because of the sinfulness, which adheres to the duty, by reason of our corruption, for in Christ the sinfulness is pardoned, and the duty accepted.

If the non-converted, have no right to anything, then we may spoil & deprive them of life and all they have.

(5.) It necessarily must follow, if it be sin to eat, because the non-converted have no right spiritual in Christ, to bread, the converted may spoil by their grounds, all the non-converted, of their goods, houses, gold, gardens, vineyards, lands, and upon the same ground, for the crime of non-regeneration, they must also deprive them of their lives, and kill them; For they have alike right, that is, no right (these men being Judges) to either life or goods. And so, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self, must be meant of the converted neighbour: but with fire and sword all other neighbours may be killed and spoiled, and so there should be no stealing, no oppressing, no crushing of the widow, the stranger, the fatherless, the weaker; not grind the faces of the poor, though their Redeemer be strong, contrary to the Scripture, Prov. 23:11; Jer. 50:33, 34; Psal. 94:5, 6, 7, 8; Psal. 14:4; Exo. 22:26, 27; Isa. 3:12, 13, 14, 15; Mic. 2:3. and so it were lawful to take Crowns, Kingdoms, inheritances, lands, dignity, and honour, from all the unregenerate Princes, powers, and rulers on earth, to cut off with the sword all the heathen Nations who as yet know not Christ, and it were lawful for the regenerate sons and brethren to kill and spoil Father, Mother, Brethren, Sisters, Kings, Potentates, Country-men, strangers, Orphans, exiled, captives, prisoners, sick, weak, imprisoned, all infants that are by nature the heirs of wrath, upon this ground, the converted ones judge all non-converts to be void of all due right to life, or goods, and so in these men, the societies, Churches of Christ must cease.

How true it is, that these who enjoy that, of which they deserve to be deprived, they have no right to that and sin in using it.

Object These who enjoy that of which they deserve to be deprived, have no due right to that of which they deserve to be deprived; but are usurpers, and so sin. But all the non-regenerated are such, or, they who use that to which they have no right, do sin in the act of using it.

Ans. 1. They who enjoy that of which they deserve to be deprived, they sin, and have no due right to use it; Is not universally true. They who enjoy that which they may and ought by their own private power, restore, such as ill conquished [acquired] goods. They sin in using that, true, Prov. 3:27; Exod. 22:26, 27; Luke 19:8. Its a sin to withhold the raiment though laid in pawn, which should cover the poor man’s skin in the night, and they have no right to enjoy that.

Living in the devils and damned and Reprobate is no usurping of life.

But they who enjoy that, whatever it be, of which by sin, they deserve to be deprived, they have no due right to that, it is denied: For if it be life, being, eating, sleeping, and such things, as only can be taken away, by a judicial power, and by God the Lord of life and death, and cannot be taken away by themselves, (for it is lawful for no man to punish himself and take away his own life) nor by any other, except for capital crimes, they have due providential right to keep and enjoy all such things until the same power that gave them remove them, nor do they sin in using them. And it is most dangerous to say, that Devils and the damned in Hell who dishonour the Majesty of God by their living and being, and so by sin, deserve to be annihilated and deprived of their being, do sin, in that they live and are not annihilated, and that all the Elect before their conversion, sin in that they enjoy being and life. A judge sentenceth a man to die for killing his father within 24. hours, but by invincible providence he is rescued out of the hand of the Magistrate, and lives diverse years after, the sentenced man sins not before God nor against the law of the land, in that he lives, nor can he be called an usurper and unjust, malae fidei [bad faith], possessour of his life: For the sentence was not that he should take away his life with his own hand, but that it should be taken away by the judicial hand and executioner of the Magistrate.

The Reprobate & non-converted, in the Visible Church, want all spiritual right by faith in Christ to life and the creatures, and they sin in the manner of living, eating, &c.

Nor is this Providential right, a right of mere permission but of positive donation and free-gift, for then we might by the same reason, say that Reprobate men have a right of mere permission to keep and enjoy the knowledge of these, that God is: Superiours, Parents are to be honoured: the whole is more than the part; Yea they have the same natural and providential right by nature that other sinners have to the one as to the other.

How woeful to have a lump of life & time & no right to life.

2. These who enjoy that, of which they deserve to be deprived, they sin in the act of using, as touching the substance of the act of living, being, eating, drinking: That is most false. These who enjoy that, of which they deserve to be deprived, they, in modo, in the way, manner, and end of living, eating, &c. do sin: It is true: and such have not spiritual and supernatural right in Christ (which they ought to have, if they be in the Visible Church and hearers of the Gospel) to life, being and the creatures, and they sin in not believing, Rom. 14. not eating for the Glory of God, 1 Cor. 10:31. Natural men care not if they have and enjoy things so they have them: They have being, so have earth, stones, &c. they live, so do trees and herbs, they have health, so have beasts and birds, they swallow up many years, so do Ravens, and Harts and other beasts, a long lump, many thousand yards and miles of life are sought, diu sunt, non diu vivunt [they are long, but they do not live long]. But who lives for God, who sleeps, who wakes, who eats for God and his Glory? and they who make themselves their last end, Idolatrously put self in the room of God, who only is the last end of all, Rom. 11:36; Rev. 4:11; Prov. 16:4. and as good make self the first Author of Heaven and Earth and Creator as the last end. Ye who eat and drink, who pays your reckoning? Christ? Or are you usurpers? Have you any Charter? Or do ye rob the Lord?

How God is ours.

Quest. What way is God ours?

A. By Covenant, Ezek. 34:24; Genes. 17:7; Jere. 32:38; Zech. 13:9. But he is not ours as if we had some gifted right and dominion over him, as we have over the creatures.

2.) Nor is he ours as we are his, the clay hath no sovereignty over the Potter.

Nor 3.) is God simply as God ours, but God as it were coming down in Christ to us Covenant-ways as God incarnate, to make out his goodness, grace, mercy to and for us.

4.) Its true God incarnate, Christ, is principally God’s, 1 Cor. 3:21. not ours. He is all for God, he is Immanuel, our Immanuel in order to save us, and so is more ours then the God of Angels.

God to the Saints and to the Man CHRIST a heaven.

2. God is the fluier [fluir, or, floor; i.e., the bottom] of the Saints desire, more to them then all heaven in the length and breadth thereof, and all the inhabitants thereof, Psal. 73:25; Isa. 63:16. more than all the Angels and Saints, 1 Thes. 4:16.

(2.) There is no hell to Christ but afar off God, Psal. 22:1; Math. 27:45. no heaven but the glory he had with the father, John 17:5.

(3.) There is nothing more like a spiritual disposition then when the Spouse, Cant. 3. hath soul-love to Christ: I sought him whom my soul loved.

2.) She hath an ardent desire after him, I sought him but I found him not.

3.) There could not be such diligent search after she found him, if there had not been strong faith.

There may be a train of graces, & yet unquietness for the want of Christ.

4.) And her conference with the watchmen, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? saith, She enjoyed Ordinances and means, yet there may be (which is to be observed) a furniture of grace and a want of Christ, I went a little further, I found him whom my soul loveth, Cant. 5. There is 1. a waking heart. 2. A discerning of the Beloved, and a telling over again of his words, Open to me, my sister, &c. 3. A stirring of Christ’s hand upon the key-hole of the heart. 4. A moving of the bowels for him. 5. A seeking of him and a praying, but no finding nor answer. 6. A love-sickness for him, and yet a missing of himself, I sought him but I found him not. So compare Cant. 1:1, 4. with Cant. 2:3, 4. with v. 6, 8. and other places, it will be clear a God-head can only quiet the spirit, and that its a question whether we know the field where the Pearl is, and the Rubies, Sapphires, precious stones that are hid here, which do in worth exceed the capacity of Angels and Saints.

A spiritual soul acts in God.

Therefore should his glory be the last end and stirrer of us in all our actings, and grace the only efficient in all, and so much of God (if he be ours by Covenant) as our ways, intentions may smell of him. But there is much of the creature, of self, of gain, of empty glory, in our spiritual actings. God weighs not down the creature nor heaven and union with Christ: as Exod. 32:32; Rom. 9:3.

And misses God rather than any created saving grace.

(2.) Its a spiritual soul that misseth God, rather than the train of all the graces of faith, love, hope, desire of and joying in him. And know he is away though heaven were in the heart, and can discern when the Ordinances are empty.

3. It engages all we are, hands, knees, body, Exo. 20:5; Psal. 44:20; 1 Cor. 6:19. self to be for God, and to live wholly in him, not in ourselves.

4. We are not to believe in believing, nor to be sick of love with the love of Christ, nor to make a god of faith or love. Its a spiritual condition to have grace and to miss Christ.