Chap. 12. and the Covenant of Grace. man. Faith then is the at of man ; man beleeves yet the inflru- ment of God , that juíifies only beleevers ; fo that what is here fpoken byway of exception againft faith as an inftrument, holds of efficients, and inftruments foie and abfolute in their wok, and caufality. But where there is a concurrence of agents , and one makes ufe of the ad of another to produce the effect ; that in fuch caufality is wrought, it will not hold, The promife or grant of the new Covenant in the Gofpel , is (inflead of faith) made the inftrument in the work of juflification. This is indeed Gods, and not mans. It is the Covenant of God, the Promife ofGod, the Gofpel of God ; but of it felf unable to raife man up to juflification. It is often tendred, and jufliicati- on not alwayes wrought; and fo difabled from the office of an in- flrument by l eckerman in his Comment upon his $rft Canon,con- cerning an inflrument. a esiffoon as the inflrument fc= - Gi not the principal agent , fè f oon it lofeth the n:g=ure of an infirument. He inflanceth in an horfe thatobeyes not the reines of his rider , but growes refractory , then he ceafeth to be an inftrument for travel. A fword is not an inftrument of flaug rter, where it flayes riot; nor an axe an inflrument to hew, where it cuts not : Neither is the Gofpel an inflrument of juflification where it junifies not where the Minifler is a Minifler of cándermnation, the favour of death to death there the Gofpel becomes an inflrument of con- demnation and of death. The efficacy that is in the Gofpel for juftification, it receives by their faith to whom it is tendred. lieb. 4.2. Veto uu was the Gofel preached as Well as unto them, but the wordpreached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it I Thef 2, 1.2, 13, Yon received not the word of Cod (whichyou beard of tz ) «the word of men, but (as it is in truth) the word -ofGod, vhicheffetittally worketbaalfo in you that beleece. So that the Gofpel in it Pelf confidered , is wanting in that honour affi.ined to an inftrument, to have influx to the producing of the effe ± of the principal caufe by a proper caufality ; If none dare fay, faii.', hat`. At '. influx, they may much leff'e fay, that the word hash fuck an influx. Pemble therefore affirming the word to bean inflrument of Gods Spirit, prefently addes, Now inflru menu are either c op4ative, or pa(J ve, and the word muff be one of the Ora, Co- operative he (ayes it is not, and giv *es his reafon; It is therefore (faith he) a pave inftrument , working only M 2 per a pri- raùna ergo in rumentum principali agen- ti non fubfer- vit, inßrumen- ti naturam raittit.
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