Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

áo Of god's government, 5. Thisobligation is not only Remediable orpardonable, but c»anditio- nally (as wellas by the Fundamental,Merit ofChrift) Remedyed and par- doned toall men immediately 5 and actuallypardonedto penitent Believers. 6. ThePromifory Covenanting part was not (properly) Abrogated by God : For hewas not theChanger. 7 ThePromifforypart is now really ceafed, and is No Prom f , nor No Covenant ofGod : And this was done by Man's ceafing to be a capable fubjed 5 whichbecaufe fome fewworthy Divines deny, I prove. 1. If it be yet a Promife, it isAbfolute (whichnone faith) orCondi- tional: And iffo, either the Condition is quidpreteritum, quidprefens, vel quid futurism : But noneof thefe 5 t. A raft and Prefent Condition are not proper Conditionsof the thing, but forms of fpeech : And ei- ther that Condition already is , or is not 5 If it be; the Promife is abfolute in fence : If it be not 5 the Promife is No Promife in fence, but equivalent toaNegation , as common reafon as well as the civil Law confeffeth. If it be quid Ignotum, the notice may be Con- ditional Rill, but not theproper Donation. But here it is quidnotmum, andGod is feigned to fay, If Adam andhis Pollerity have no fin, I will ju,ftifte and biefs them 5 which is equivalent to [Iwill not]. If the Con- dition be fuppofedFuture, e. g. [IfAdam and bis feed fin no more, they arepill] it is falle, becaufethey are already guilty. 2. The effenceof a Condition is to fufpend the effeii, till performed. But here the effect is not fufpended: Ergo thereis no conditional promife. Total lofs is no fufpenfion. 3. When the Condition-is once totally violated and become impofli- ble, all fence and civil Law faith, Res trant in judicatura , 6. Lex in 'sententiam 5 and the Promife ceafethCeffante capacitate Promif/arii : And fo it is here. 4. That which is a Promife is alto a Law, and is effentially theEx- preffion of-Gods will for the Government ofhis subjeits, and for a con- ditional Ruleof Right to the thing promifed : This is its very definition. But it is unworthy ofGod, to fay that he doth ever fence the fall , tell the world, [If you are not fain or Sinners , you (hall be juftified] or [on condition that you be fuch as never did fin, you (hall live]. This were to threaten orcondemn us ironically of with derifron , under the nameof a Promife, or Covenant, or Law. Yet the changeas I laid is madebyman, who hath made himfelf an- capableto be the objectof fucha Promife, or fubje& to fueh a Law. And I know that it is a Queftionof no (mall Difficulty , whether any proper promife of life was made toAdam himfelf, and fo whether this was properly a PromifingCovenant? But I can prefume to fay no more than I can prove; which is; i. That as Natural there Teemed to be in it an intimation of the'Will of God, to give Adamperpetual felicityif he obeyed, 1. In that God made his Soul Immortal : Notfuch as couldnot ceafe tobe 5 but fuch as in its Nature was fitted toperpetuity. And a perpetualSoulmull be perpetually happyor unhappy : And God would not fubvert theNature of Spirits, nor make Souls unhappy for nothing. 2. Becaufe Holinefs it felfwould be and infer Happinefsto aperpetuated Soul. To loveGodpettedly is to bepettedlyhappy. And God would not have takenaway man's holinefs from him. 3. Becaufe Godhaving voluntarily become man's Rector, that Juftice which confifteth indoing as a Rector ob fines regiminis, fecundummores fubbditorum, feemeth to be avirtual Promife, that it (hall gowell with the obedient. 4. Be- caufe God put into man's Soul a natural inclination to its own perpetual felicity,

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