Vindiciæ foederis, or, A treatise of the covenant of God enterd with man-kinde in the several kindes and degrees of it, in which the agreement and respective differences of the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, of the old and new covenant are discust ... / [by] Thomas Blake ... ; whereunto is annexed a sermon preached at his funeral by Mr. Anthony Burgesse, and a funeral oration made at his death by Mr. Samuel Shaw.

CHAP. XIX. (Book 19)

Objections against the former doctrine answered. (Book 19)

BUt some say, Absurdities, and those not a few follow upon this Doctrine. [Object. 1] Then salvation in this new Covenant, is as impossible for a man, as in the old, had he still remained under a Covenant of Works. If we can no more rise up to the termes of the Covenant of grace than we can to the Covenant of works, where then is the difference?

To which I answer; [Answ.] that a man void of grace can no more be saved by the Covenant of Grace, than a man under an impossibi∣lity to work can be saved by the Covenant of Works, will easily be granted. By grace we are saved, Ephes. 2. 8. not of our selves. It is still equally impossible in both to be self-savours. Here is the difference. Grace raises us, unto that to which the Gos∣pel calls us, in a self-denying way through faith; but works us not to that self perfection in those degrees of inherent righte∣ousnesse, as to be saved by works.

Secondly, This doctrine layes man as low as a stock or a stone; a dead carcasse, nothing is done by him but what is done in him, and so must needs be injurious to man. [Object. 2] To this I answer. First, it layes him no low∣er than sin hath cast him, nor doth it make him worse than sin hath made him, [Answ.] and the Word of God doth discover him, and that is dead till grace quicken and raise him. His heart is of stone till grace, take it from him, and in enmity against God, till grace circumcise and work that change, to love the Lord with all the heart, &c. Secondly, This is not an absolute death, in which man is, through sin, and therefore the similitude holds not, that equals a stock, stone, or dead carcasse with him; It is only a death respective, as to spiritual obedience he is dead, There is in him a life natural, able for all actions and motions of the life of man as man, There is in him also a moral life, able to improve naturals to a civilized con∣versation. That to which feare or hope can work a man, thither he may raise himself by the freedome of will, this puts no new life into him, nor works any chang of nature in him. He is also able for those works which God sanctifies as his instrument, for the work of a spiritual life, He 〈◊〉〈◊〉 read and hear the Word, hath power to know much in it, and retain it. Thirdly, he is a subject suscep∣tible,

slands in a capacity of a life of grace, of spiritual actions and motions: having an understanding, will, affections, wanting not any faculties in their substance. The new man attaines not a new soul, but only renewed qualifications, which yet are of more glory, than the faculties themselves, carrying such a glorious re∣semblance of God. Better know nothing than not know God, to desire nothing, than not to desire good. The want of this, turned Angels into Devils, and so man stands in a vast difference from stocks, stones and those to whom he is thus injuriously compa∣red. This doctrine is not injurious to man, as it is tradu∣ced. [Object. 3]

Thirdly, some say, This will render preaching vaine, all mans-paines for Conversion of soules will then prove uselesse, and to no pur∣pose; we may let men alone till God work; and when he hath begun his work, they will set on working. This indeed speaks hard to a sort of men in our times; that deny any previous working in the soul for regeneration, or any preparatory work to conversion, So that all uncoverted, stand equally distant from the grace of it, in so much that it can be said of no one rather than another, which Christ said to the Scribe, Thou art not far from the Kingdome of God, Mar. 12. 34. I see not how these can make the preaching of the word of any use; Our Brethren that went into America, and offer the Gospel to savage Indians there, may as well finde Christ there, as bring him thither. The dark places of the earth may be equally happy, with those, where light is in most glory, if light contribute nothing to the work of change, and the happy frame of Christ in us. But those that have learnt, that infused ha∣bits are wrought in the soul in the same manner,* 1.1 as those that are acquired, may easily return a satisfying answer. That opinion▪ that the soul is by an immediate creation infused, how generally soever it is received, yet never was thought of force to render the way of marriage uselesse for procreation; God infuses not a soul by creation into any, but an organized body, an Embryo fitted to receive it. Neither can this opinion of the power of grace in the work of Conversion, render in vain the labours of those that are spiritual Parents. Conviction is in order before Conversion, and men must see themselves necessitated to do what they do, before ever they enter upon it. The soule knoweth what it doth, when it first beleeves, and sees a necessity to accept Christ before it re∣ceives

him, which is the work of the Word in the soules, of those that are brought to Christ Jesus. It is not in vaine for God to send his Ministers to shew the mysteries of the Kingdome of hea∣ven to those that are blinde, when this is the way of God to open their eyes and give them sight. It is not in vain that he sends them to those that are without strength, when this is his way to enable them with power. It is not in vain that Paul plants, and Apollos waters, when yet it is God that gives the in∣crease, when God will use Paul and Apollos for the increase that he gives. Ministers should perswade, and people improve en∣deavours as though they were Pelagians, and no help of grace affor∣ded, They should pray and beleeve, and rest on grace as though they were Antinomians, nothing of endeavour to be looked after; So the injury that the Pelagian doth to grace, and the Antinomian to our endeavours, will be on both hands a∣voided.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Habitus infusi infunduntur ad m••dum acquisi∣torum.