3. Saving grace is an effect of the covenant, and bestowed in the accomplishment and by virtue of the promises thereof. This hath been declared elsewhere at large, where we treated of regeneration and sanctification. All that are taken into this covenant are sanc- tified and made holy. There is no grace designed unto any in the eternal purpose of God, none purchased or procured by the media- tion of Christ, but it is comprised in and exhibited by the promises of the covenant. Wherefore, they only who are taken into that
432 OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS. [BOOK IX.
covenant are made partakers of saving grace, and they are all so. Things are not absolutely so with respect unto spiritual gifts, although they also in some sense belong unto the covenant : for the promises of the covenant are of two sorts, — (1.) Such as belong unto the in- ternal form and essence of it; (2.) Such as belong unto its outward administration, — that is, the ways and means whereby its internal grace is made effectual. Saving grace proceedeth from the former, gifts relate unto the latter; for all the promises of the plentiful effusion of the Spirit under the new testament, which are fre- quently applied unto him as he works and effects evangelical gifts, extraordinary and ordinary, in men, do belong unto the new cove- nant,— not as unto its internal essence and form, but as unto its out- ward administration. And if you overthrow this distinction, that the covenant is considered either with respect unto its internal grace or its external administration, every thing in religion will be cast into confusion. Take away internal grace, as some do, and the whole is rendered a mere outside appearance; take away the out- ward administration, and all spiritual gifts and order thereon de- pending must cease. But as it is possible that some may belong unto the covenant with respect unto internal grace who are no way taken into the external administration of it, as elect infants who die before they are baptized; so it is frequent that some may belong to the covenant with respect to its outward administration, by virtue of spiritual gifts, who are not made partakers of its inward effectual grace.
4. Saving grace hath an immediate respect unto the priestly office of Jesus Christ, with the discharge thereof in his oblation and in- tercession. There is, I acknowledge, no gracious communication unto men that respects any one office of Christ exclusively unto the others : for his whole mediation hath an influence into all that we receive from God in a way of favour or grace; and it is his person, as vested with all his offices, that is the immediate fountain of all grace unto us: but yet something may, yea, sundry things do, pecu- liarly respect some one of his offices, and are the immediate effects of the virtue and efficacy thereof. So is our reconciliation and peace with God the peculiar effect of his oblation, which as a priest he offered unto God. And so in like manner is our sanctification also, wherein we are washed and cleansed from our sins in his blood, Eph. v. 25, 26; Tit. ii. 14. And although grace be wrought in us by the administration of the kingly power of Christ, yet it is in the pursuit of what he hath done for us as a priest, and for the making of it effectual unto us; for by his kingly power he makes effectual the fruits of his oblation and intercession. But gifts proceed solely from the regal office and power of Christ. They have a remote respect
CHAP. II,] SPIRITUAL GIFTS DISTINGUISHED FROM SAVING GRACE. 433
unto and foundation in the death of Christ, in that they are all given and distributed unto and for the good of that church which he purchased with his own blood; but immediately they are ef- fects only of his kingly power. Hence authority to give and dis- pose them is commonly placed as a consequent of his exaltation at the right hand of God, or with respect thereunto, Matt, xxviii. 18; Acts ii. 33. This the apostle declares at large, Eph. iv. 7, 8, 11, 12. Christ being exalted at the right hand of God, all power in heaven and earth being given unto him, and he being given to be head over all things unto the church, and having for that end received the promise of the Spirit from the Father, he gives out these gifts as it seemeth good unto him. And the continuation of their communi- cation is not the least evidence of the continuance of the exercise of his kingdom ; for besides the faithful testimony of the word to that purpose, there is a threefold evidence thereof, giving us experi- ence of it: — (1.) His communication of saving grace in the regenera- tion, conversion, and sanctification of the elect ; for these things he worketh immediately by his kingly power. And whilst there are any in the world savingly called and sanctified, he leaves not him- self without witness as to his kingly power over all flesh, whereon he "gives eternal life unto as many as the Father hath given him," John xvii. 2. But this evidence is wholly invisible unto the world, neither is it capable of receiving it when tendered, because it cannot receive the Spirit, nor seeth him, nor knoweth him, John xiv. 17; nor are the things thereof exposed to the judgment of sense or rea- son, 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. (2.) Another evidence hereof is given in the judgments that he executes in the world, and the outward protec- tion which he affords unto his church. On both these there are evident impressions of the continued actual exercise of his divine power and authority; for m the judgments that he executes on per- sons and nations that either reject the gospel or persecute it, espe- cially in some signal and uncontrollable instance, as also in the guidance, deliverance, and protection of his church, he manifests that though he was dead, yet he is alive, and hath the keys of hell and of death. But yet because he is, on the one hand, pleased to exercise great patience towards many of his open, stubborn adversaries, yea, the greatest of them, suffering them to walk and prosper in their own ways; and, [on the other], to leave his church unto various trials and distresses, his power is much hid from the wTorld at present in these dispensations. (3.) The third evidence of the continuance of the ad- ministration of his mediatory kingdom consists in his dispensation ' of these spiritual gifts, which are properly the poivers of the new world; for such is the nature of them and their use, such the sove- reignty that appears in their distribution, such their distinction and vol. iv 28