Rich. Baxters apology against the modest exceptions of Mr. T. Blake and the digression…

3. It is also a very high mistake, to think that our Covenanting or Consent, (which is our actual believing) is none of our condition, when it is the great and principal part of our condition; yea all the condition of our begun Justification (not taking the word Faith too narrowly). You will perhaps say, These are our conditions as subjects, but not as Covenanters. Reply. They are our conditions as subjects called to Covenant, as we are the persons to whom the Covenant is offered: They are constituted by God as Donor, Benefactor, and Author of the Covenant or Promise, and not merely as Rector. It belongeth to the Donor to determine of the conditions of his own gift, on which they shall become due or not. Yet doth God make no transactions with men but as with subjects; and therefore even when he deals with us as Benefactor and Donor in free gifts, it is still as Dominus & Rector Benefaciens: he lays not by his Dominion or Sovereignty, nor these Relations to us.

3. It is also a very high mistake, to think that our Covenanting or Consent, (which is our actual believing) is none of our condition, when it is the great and principal part of our condition; yea all the condition of our begun Justification (not taking the word Faith too narrowly). You will perhaps say, These are our conditions as subjects, but not as Covenanters. Reply. They are our conditions as subjects called to Covenant, as we are the persons to whom the Covenant is offered: They are constituted by God as Donor, Benefactor, and Author of the Covenant or Promise, and not meerly as Rector. It belongeth to the Donor to determine of the conditions of his own gift, on which they shall become due or not. Yet doth God make no transactions with men but as with subjects; and therefore even when he deals with us as Benefactor and Donor in free gifts, it is still as Dominus & Rector Benefaciens: he lays not by his Dominion or Soveraigntie, nor these Relations to us.

4. For your instance of servants and soldiers, they leave out the great part of the condition of the Covenant of Grace: which is, that we consent to be servants and soldiers. The Relation must first be entered; God must be taken for our God, and Christ for our Redeemer, Lord, and Saviour; the Holy Ghost for our Guide and Sanctifier: This is Faith and Covenanting. This goes before working and fighting. But this Covenanting is the great condition of Gods Covenant. As when the forementioned Prince is offered in marriage (with his Dignities and Riches) to a condemned beggar; as it is a gift, and covenant propounded on his part, and actually to be entered, it is consent, or marriage-covenanting on her part that is the condition; yea, and all the condition of her first right to him and his riches and honours. So in your instance: It is the servants consent or covenant to have such a man for his master; and the soldiers consent and covenanting to have such a man for his General; that is the condition on which one hath all his first right to the Privileges of the family, and the other to the Privileges of the Army. Is not this consent necessary in our present case? If you would have spoke to the point, you should have said thus,