Blake - Houston-Packer Collection BT155 .B53 1653

478 An Appendix. Abraham,when in the Chapter before,t7. 7. he faith, 1 gill efts: blifh my Covenant between me and thee,and thy feed after thee. God is a Judge of all the earth, properly fo called, and he bath entred a Covenant with his people, properly fo _called likewife. It is true, that we únderftand that relation of God to his peo- ple more clearly by the Analogy that it beares to Judges that are fet up among men, for abfolution of the innocent, and con- demning ofthe guilty, And fo we are holpen in our under - )(landings of the Covenant of God entred with his people, by Analogy with the Covenants that are among men ; but in neither of both of thefe is the word taken out of its proper fenfe, and applied to any other that it will not properly bear. I finde indeed an eminent Divine affirming, That a Covenant is not fo properly Paid to be with God eind man, as between man and man, not denying the duty which man owes to God, nor the en- gagement by which he is obliged, but freely yeelding both; and flicking onely at the confent on mans part, which a- mong men (he (ayes) is requifite, and doth mutually concur to make the Covenant valid. But neither in the Covenant of nature, or Grace ù this confent anteceding the validity of the Covenant required in man. This I confefhe I am not able to reach. Nothing with me is more plain , then that confent is pre- required in both there Covenants : Adam I confeffe, (as it is objected) was bound to confent, yea, I will yeeld more, that it is as poflible to conceive Adam to deny confent, as the Sun to be without light; feeing he was carried in that way of full conformity to God, that the Sun may,, as well be dark, as Adam averfe from the will or tender of God ; yet if we could conceive a dark Sun, it could not be a light to rule the day ; fo if we could conceive Adam denying confent to God, in the tender of Covenant, Adam had not been in Covenant. For fallen man it is clear; what held the Pharifees our of the new Covenant, but their non - confent ? rejecting the counfell of God againfl themfelves, Luke 7. 30. as alto thofe Jewes , Ac`ls 13. who contradicting and blafpheming, judged there elves unworthy of eternal life. The Covenant was tendered to all thofe Gentile Nations, and Cities where tie Gofpel was preached and all were bound to yield affent, but where there was no affent of faith there the Covenant

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