The covenant of life opened, or, A treatise of the covenant of grace

When we believe a conditional promise (if I believe, ¹I am saved) faith relies not fiducially upon the (if I believe) or upon the condition, Its a weak pillar to a sinner to stay his unquiet heart upon, to wit, his own believing, but faith rests upon the connection (if thou believe thou shalt be saved) and it stays upon the connection, as made sure by the Lord, who of grace gives the condition of believing, and of grace the reward conditioned, so that faith binds all the weight upon God only, even in conditional Gospel-promises. 1. Man is to be considered as a creature. 2. As such a creature, to wit, endued with reason and the Image of God, in either considerations, especially in the former all that are created, are obliged to do and suffer the will of God▪ though they never sinned. Its not enough to say, that Sun, Moon, Trees, Herbs, Vines, Earth, Beasts, Birds, and Fishes, cannot suffer the ill of punishment, which is relative to the break of a Law, for the whole Creation is subject to vanity for our sins, Rom. 8.20, 21. The Servant is smitten and sickened, for the Masters sake, and God may take from them what he gave them, their lives without sense of pain and dolour, for all beings, yea defects and privations are debtors to the glory declarative of God, Prov. 16.4. Rom. 11.36. yea and no beings are under this debt. God can serve himself of nothing, yea, that there are not created, Locusts, Caterpillars, more numerous, then that all the fruits of the earth can be food to them,² Preach the Glory of the Lords goodness to man, and what are never to be, no less then all things, that have futurition, or shall come to pass either absolutely or conditionally, are under the positive decree of God, else we should not owe thanks to the Lord for many ⟨p. 18⟩evils that never fall out, that the Lord turns away violent death, violence of men, and wild beasts, and many possible mischiefs, contrary to