fit for the presse the publike view of the world and here I offer them up to God as a sacrifice of thanksgiving for his bounty extended to me by you his instruments by whose charity my necessities have beene supplied the burthen of worldly care removed from my shoulders and I have beene enabled and encouraged to performe these workes with cheerfulnesse If with you to whom I tender them as testimonies of my love and tokens of my thankfull heart they find acceptation and prove profitable to the Church and people of God I shall thinke my vowes performed my desires in some good measure obtained and the best recompence of my paines which I expect and seek in this world received And with strength courage alacrity and cheerfulnesse shall proceed in the opening and unfolding of the rest of Gods great works of wisdome power goodnesse and mercy which concerne the restauration of mankind corrupted by which the elect are gathered unto God in Christ lifted up out of their wofull wretched and miserable condition to the state of grace in this life and in the end exalted to the blessed state of glory As namely the works which belong to redemption which God hath wrought only by Iesus Christ And the workes which belong to the application of redemption which God worketh in his elect by the holy Ghost shed on them aboundantly through Iesus Christ in their new birth and spirituall regeneration as their effectuall vocation adoption justification sanctification and glorification Divers of which I have in my course of preaching opened and unfolded out of severall texts of holy Scripture as occasion hath heretofore been offered and if God be pleased to continue life health and liberty they may be continued into severall treatises in that order and method which I have in the first beginning and enterance into the body of sacred divinity propounded in the treatise of God Deut. 6. 4 For the accomplishing of these workes by the good will and pleasure of God I do in the words of the Apostle exhort and beseech you to continue in prayer and to watch in the same with thanksgiving praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance supplication for all Saints withall praying for us his Ministers that God would open unto us a doore of utterance that we may open our mouthes boldly to speake as we ought and to make knowne the mistery of the Gospel And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified George Walker The Contents of the severall Chapters Chap. 1. THe great profit and benefit which doth arise from the knowledge of the true difference betweene the Old and New Testament the Covenant of Workes and the Covenant of Grace the Law and the Gospell page 1. Chap. 2. What the Word Testament signifieth and what is the nature of a Testament That the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament are called Testaments onely in respect of Christ who by his death ratified them and not in respect of God the Father who could not die to make them offorce The agreement and differencè betweene the Old and New Testament is plainly shewed 11 Chap. 3. The doctrine of the former Chapter is applyed by way of use to confute five differences which the Schoolemen have made and three differences which the Iesuites have added to them betweene the Old and New Testament and the vanity of them is therby discovered and a two-fold use is moreover shewed 21 Chap. 4. What the Word Covenant signifieth what is the Nature of a Covenant in generall 38 Chap. 5 The severall kindes of Covenants betweene God and men The Covenant of Nature is described The Covenant of Grace is unfolded and the blessings therein promised are rehearsed That this Covenant is a Covenant of free grace is plainely proved The division of it into the Old and New Covenant 49 Chap. 6. The Covenant of Grace first made with Adam after his fall The liberty thereby given to man proveth that we gain more by Christ then we lost in Adam Of the renuing of it with Noah The form of renuing it with Abraham and revealing it more plainly by 7 things Of the renuing of it with Israel at mount Sinah and by Moses That it is called the Old Covenant in respect of the New Covenant in the Gospell That it is mixt of the Covenant of Workes and of the Covenant of Grace The reasons why God in making it did renue the Covenant of Workes and mingle it with the Covenant of Grace made with man in Christ after his fall 58 Chap. 7. Of the New Covenant of Grace as it is made most plainely in the Gospell and in the New Testament The reasons why it is called the New Covenant 72 Chap. 8. The Method and Order propounded which is to be followed in shewing how the New and Old Covenants of Grace doe agree and differ 86 Chap. 9. The threefold agreement between the Covenant of Nature which is called the first Covenant and the Covenant of Grace which is called the second Covenant 87 Chap. 10. The sixe notable things in which the Covenant of Nature doth differ from the Covenant of Grace 90 Chap. 11. The profitable and holy use which may be made of the doctrine concerning those differences betweene the Covenant of Nature and the Covenant of Grace 100 Chap. 12. The sixfold agreement betweene the Covenant of Grace as it was revealed to the Fathers of the Old Testament and the same renued and more fully explained in the Gospell 103 Chap. 13. The sevenfold difference betweene the Covenant of Grace as it was made with the Fathers and the Covenant as it was made in the Gospell 112 Chap. 14. A twofold use is made of the doctrine in the two former Chapters 122 Chap. 15. The agreement betweene the pure and plaine Covenant of Grace in the Gospell and the mixt Covenant which God made with Israel on mount Horeh by the ministery of Moses which consisted partly of the Covenant of Workes and partly of the Covenant of Grce 127 Chap. 16. The severall differences betweene the pure and mixt Covenant 132 Chap. 17. The Use of the Doctrine is shewed for the discovering of Gods singular providence in preparing meanes of grace fit for the severall Ages of the World 154 Chap. 18. The signification of the words Law and Gospell How they agree and differ being taken in their severall senses The Use of the Doctrine 159 Iuly 30. 1640. Imprimatur The Wykes Faults escaped PAg. 1. line 4. for the read their p. 7. l. 2. for repentance read regeneration pag. 12. l. 6. read 9. for 19. and line 22. for New read Old page 13. line 13. read a for the page 37 line 14 blot out ye pag. 39 last line blot out of it page 47. line 2. for
them Thus if we understand these words in the Evangelicall sense we cannot bee deceived but may know the truth and how to answer all gainesayers I could bring many Instances of this nature but these are sufficient to shew that before wee can sufficiently expound rightly understand the Gospell it is meet that we should know and be able to shew the nature and also the agreement and difference betweene the Law and the Gospell and betweene the Old and New Testament Wherefore before I come to the particular expounding of the Gospell of Saint Iohn which I have undertaken I will follow the steps of the learned of former times and will endevour to shew briefely the agreement and difference betweene the Old and New Testament betweene the Old Covenant of Workes and the New Covenant of Grace and between the Law the Gospell in the first place And in so doing I will labour to reform some things which they have done before me and to handle this point a little more distinctly For whereas the most part of them doe confusedly compare the Law and the Gospel together without distinction of the words and while they labour to make the Gospell more glorious by all meanes they doe put too great a difference betweene it and the Law which hath beene a cause of much errour to many and even of vilifying and contemning the Old Testament and the Law My desire and purpose is first to shew the severall acceptations and the true sense and meaning of the words and then to declare the true agreement and difference and to make those differences which are observed by others to agree together so far as truth will suffer and to cut off all vaine and needlesse differences This doing I hope I shall reserve to each their due reverence and respect God shall have his glory by both the Law and Gospell Your hearts shall be enabled with love of both and you better enabled to understand the true meaning of the Gospell and to feele the power thereof in your soules CHAP. II. FIrst for the word Testament it doth signifie the last Will of a man which he makes before his death and leaves behinde him either in word or writing testified by seales and witnesses By vertue of which Will hee doth dispose his lands and possessions which he hath purchased and all his goods which he hath gathered in his life time and doth bequeath them as hee himselfe will and to whom hee thinkes fit either freely or with condition to have and hold them after his death and not before This is the true and proper meaning of the Word and thus it is used by the Apostle Hebr. 19. 16. And because the Apostle there cals the Covenant Christs Testament and also elsewhere in his Epistles wheresoever hee doth speake of the Old and New Covenant that is of the Covenant of the Law and of the Gospell doth use the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} even the same which there he useth for the last Will and Testament of a Testator whereupon it comes to passe that the Bookes of the Law and the Prophets before Christ and the Covenant in them are called the New Testament and that very fitly in some respect I meane in respect of Christ the Mediator For the truth is that the Covenant of Grace more obscurely revealed to the Fathers in the writings of the Law and Prophets and more plainely in the Gospell and writings of the Apostles was never in force neither could be ratified but by the death of Christ It was before his comming sealed by his Blood in Types and Figures and at his Death in his Flesh it was fully sealed and ratified by his very Blood it selfe actually and indeed shed for our sinnes and in this respect it may be fitly called the Testament Because as a Testament is not inforce till the Testator be dead and where a Testament is there the death of the Testator must come between to ratifie it So it is with the Covenant of Grace and the promises therein made unto us Christ hath performed and purchased all things necessary for us doth freely give to us himself his righteousness and all his treasures as a man gives his Lands and Goods in his last Will but they cannot be of force to bring us to heaven till his death come betweene as a satisfaction for sin also It is as necessary that Iustice should be satisfied for sinne by his Death as righteousnesse of life performed and salvation purchased by him for us Secondly as a man doth seale his Testament when hee seeth or imagineth that his death is at hand So Christ at his last Supper by instituting the Sacrament of his Body and Blood and by the outward Signes and Seales therein contained did seale to his Church the Covenant of Grace Thus in respect of CHRIST the Mediatour God and Man the Covenant of Grace and the writings Old and New wherein it is contained are called Testaments But in respect of God the Father and in respect of God considered simply or as the Maker of the Covenant with man and the party betweene whom and man the Covenant is made the Covenant and the Writing Old and New wherein it is comprehended can in no case be called a Testament because a Testament is of no force without the Testators death But God the Father never dyed nor can die neither God simply considered nor God the Maker of the Covenant with Man and the other party in it wch is opposed to Man Only Christ dyed as hee was Mediatour God and Man and as he was made a partner with Man and stood on his side in the Covenant and as he is the Testator and free giver of his Word in the Old and New Testament and of his graces and gifts therein promised so they are called Testaments and in no other respect at all From the word Testament thus expounded wee may easily collect and gather what is the nature of a Testament and both the agreement and the true and maine difference betweene the Old and New Testament and the Writings contained in both First we see that they both agree in this that they are the Writings and Instruments of one and the same Christ and his last Will in which and by which hee doth give himselfe to his Church withall his righteousnesse and obedience and all the blessings which thereupon depend and they are both sealed by his Blood and ratified by his death This is manifest by the exposition of the word before laid downe wherein is shewed that both the Old and New Writings of the Covenant are called by the name of Testaments only in respect of Christ the Mediatour and as they are sealed by his Blood and ratified by his Death and he is the Testator in them as hee is Mediatour If either of them bee not sealed ratified and proceed from him as Mediator it is no Testament at all to call it a
Testament is to say that Christ is the Testatour and his Death comes betweene to make it of force And to say that he is not the Testatour or that it is not ratified by his Death is to say it is no Testament But all Christians grant that both the Old and New Writings of the Covenant are Testaments Therefore it is manifest even by their names that Christ is Testator in both that the Legacies given are his gifts even himselfe and all his treasures and inheritance that his Blood healeth and his Death ratifieth both and thus in substance they agree being of one Christ of the same things both confirmed by one Death they must needes bee one and confirme one another and run one way if they go divers waies they must needs destroy one another if they destroy not one another it is plain they go both one way and do confirme and illustrate each the other which wee see evidently The difference then betweene them is onely in circumstance and in quality not in substance First the Old Testament did bequeath unto the Fathers righteousnesse of life expiation of sinne adoption of sonnes and eternall salvation and happiness in and through Christ the Mediatour promised being not yet come in the flesh but onely seen a farre off and apprehended by faith as the Apostle sheweth Hebr. 11. But the New Testament gives and bequeathes all these unto us in and through Christ being already come in the flesh and having actually performed all things for us Secondly The Old Testament was more darke and obscure not opened but to few till the Testators death and did not beget ordinarily so much knowledge and faith as the New doth and therefore it was a weaker meanes of Grace and did convert but few unto Christ But the New is so plaine that it may beget knowledge in children and therefore by it the Spirit works more powerfully Thirdly The Old Testament was sealed and ratified typically by the Blood and Death of Christ and by types of them to come The New is ratified by his Death in very deed and in it selfe and to us it is sealed in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper by tokens and remembrances of his death already past and fulfilled Fourthly the Old Testament Christ the Eternall Word in his Godhead spake to the Fathers and published by Moses and the Prophets But the New Testament hee publishd by himselfe immediately as hee was Godincarnate and appeared in our Nature and by his Apostles and Evangelists taught by his owne mouth as appeares Hebr. 1 2. Fiftly the Old Testament in respect of the outward forme and manner of sealing and signifying was temporary and changeable and therefore the types are ceased and onely the substance remaines firme But the New is unchangeable and the seales thereof are commemorative and shall shew the Lords Death untill his comming againe CHAP. III. THese and such like differences the former Exposition of the word Testament may easily admit For both the Old and the New may be Testaments of Christ that is conveyances and bequeathings of all his graces and blessings and may both bee ratified by his Death and yet differ in these and such like respects But as for divers other differences wch many learned men have set down they are utterly overthrowne by the exposition of the word Testament and by the true agreement which from thence I have before gathered This therefore shall be the first use which I will make of these instructions even to overthrow some other differences which the Schoolmen have devised betweene the Old and New Testament One is that the Old Testament is temporary and mutable The New eternall and unchangeable This cannot stand for if the Old Testament be a Testament it must needs bee the Testament of Christ the Mediatour if it was ever in force it was ratified by the Death of him the Testator as is proved before But if it was made of force by the Death of Christ how can it be changeable surely in no case except Christs Death be made voide and of no force wherefore the truth is that though the Old Testament be in quality and circumstance changeable and be changed in respect of the outward forme and manner of sealing it unto men and whereas before it was darke and obscure it is now become bright and cleere by the comming of Christ and the rising up of the Sunne of Righteousnesse and by the fulfilling of the Promises and the Doctrine of the Gospell in the New Testament Yet it is not changed in substance it loseth not the essence being of a Testament but is still Christs Instrument by which he doth give and bequeath all his treasures and benefits unto us as well as by the New Yea it is all one with the New in substance it is the New folded up and the New is the Old opened and unfolded Those Legacies which Christ gave to the Fathers by the Old are not made void but are rather perfected by the New And that which the Old gave by promise the New giveth by actuall performance The Types which are in themselves abolished doe stand firme for ever in the things by them signified which are the substance of them and therefore the Ceremonies of the Old Testament are truely called Ordinances of Eternity Exod. 12. 14. and in divers other places Thus we see the vanity of this first difference Another difference which they make is That the New Testament was sealed with the Blood of Christ the Old with the Blood of Bullocks Goats and other sacrifices This also cannot stand with the former Doctrine for if the Old Testament be Christs Testament and hath been of force at any time it was of force by vertue of Christs Death comming betweene for otherwise no Testament is in force but by the death of the Testator And so it is sealed by Christs Blood Now it is manifest by the former Doctrine that it is the Testament of Christ and hath been in force to the Fathers as all true Christians confesse and therefore it was sealed not by the blood of Bullocks onely but also by Christs Blood and so this difference is not true But because the words of the Apostle seeme to justifie it Hebr. 9. let me shew how farre it may be admitted and wherein it is faulty First it is certaine that the Old Testament was outwardly sealed at the first and so long as it stood alone in force by the blood of Bullocks and other Sacrifices onely But inwardly by the Blood of Christ onely which was signified and represented in the blood of Sacrifices And at length when Christ came and by the plaine Doctrine of the Gospell had explained it then it was together with the New sealed outwardly by Christs Blood shed unto death on the crosse But the New was at the first outwardly sealed by the Blood of Christ and is now ever since daily to us outwardly sealed by the Sacraments and inwardly by
and among all Nations So now is the Old also and serves ever since Christ for the instruction of all Nations of the Gentiles Therefore this difference is false To these the Iesuites have added three differences more which are so grosse and abominable that they need no confutation One is that the New Testament went before the Old because the promises of Christ went before the giving of the Law 430 yeeres Heere they shew much ignorance for the Old Testament consists of the promises as well as of the Law and the promises are the chiefe things in it so that the promises and it go together and they are no more before it then it is before it selfe If they will perversly by the Old Testament understand onely the Law of Moses having no respect to the promise of Christ they are in a grosse errour For that can in no wise be called the Testament of Christ it hath nothing to do with the Mediator he doth not by it bequeath any thing to his Church Another difference is that the Old Testament did not quicken any nor give Spirituall blessings but onely Temporall but the New Testament doth give Life and Spirituall blessings even the Kingdome of Heaven The Old gave but the shadow the New gives the substance the Old the shell the New the Kernell This is also a mistaking of the Old Testament for the bare Letter of the Law without respect to Christ Otherwise their speech is most abominable For God by the promises in the Old Testament did quicken many and bring them to Christ and to all grace and blessednesse in him as we see in Abraham David and the holy Prophets So that if they doe by the Old Testament understand aright all the writings of Moses and the Prophets before Christ they are in a blasphemous errour If onely they meane by the Old Testament the Law without any promises of Christ then it is no Testament and so they erre grosly to call it so The last difference is that the New Testament makes men sonnes and brings them also to the state of sons but the Old doth make none sonnes except by vertue of the New neither doth it bring any to the state of sons but all under it lived as children under bondage as the Apostle speakes Galat. 4. This is also proved to be false by the former Doctrine for whosoever are in Christ are sonnes and whosoever have the spirit of Adoption are sonnes of God and in the state of sonnes Now the Old Testament did bring all the faithfull Fathers to Christ and to true fellowship and communion with him otherwise none of them could have been saved neither could it have been a Testament one in substance with the New Yea the Scripture testifieth plainely that the faithfull under the Old Testament were sons of God for Isa. 63. v. 16. they are brought in thus speaking to God Doubtlesse thou art our Father though Abraham bee ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not Thou O Lord art our Father and our Redeemer thy Name is from everlasting And Isa. 64. 8. and Ierem. 31. 9. I am a Father to Israel saith God and Ephraim is my first borne and yet all these had no other meanes to bring them thus neere to God but the Old Testament wherefore wee see there is 〈◊〉 such difference betweene the Old and New Testament as many would have us to beleeve onely they differ in some circumstances and in quality as in plainenesse of revelation and such like beforenamed and yet now the difference is not so great when the Old is laid open and expounded by the New and daily more and more explained to us And so much for the first Vse Secondly this truth well considered is of speciall use to make us esteeme and reverence the Old Testament as well as the New and so to respect and honour the New that in the meane time we doe not neglect or lightly esteeme the Old Testament Let blasphemous Heretiques say what they will let some of them call it a killing letter and the ministry of death and make the Prince of darkenesse the Author of it and others blaspheme it as a covenant onely of carnall and earthly promises Yet let all true Christians honour and embrace it as the Word of the most High holy and onely true God and the Testament of Christ sealed with his Blood and ratified by his Death in which the Fathers found salvation and eternall life as our Saviour sheweth Ioh. 5. 39. Thirdly this Doctrine serves to teach and direct us in the right way both of understanding and expounding the obscure prophesies of the Old Testament and confirming by the Old the most doubtfull things rehearsed in the New for the Prophets of old spake of Christ and of all things which are recorded in the Gospell concerning his Death and sufferings for our Redemption if any should doubt of the things written in the Gospell concerning the ignominious death and sufferings of Christ as being too base for the Son of God to suffer the Old Testament will confirme all and will shew ye that God himselfe from the beginning foretold Christs death when he said that the Serpent should bruise his heele and by the slaughter and bloody sacrifices of Beasts in Types foreshewed the same The Prophets also from Moses in all the Scriptures foretold whatsoever Christ did or suffered in the flesh for mans Redemption as our Saviour shewed to the two Disciples in the way to Emaus And as the New Testament is confirmed by the Old so the Old receives cleere light from the New that which in it was more obscurely foretold is by the fulfilling thereof in the New made most cleere and evident wherefore let us receive them both as one and the same Testament in substance and that of one and the same Christ If we make them both look one way in expounding them make Christ the matter subject of both we shall not erre nor be deceived but in both together we shal see Christ most fully revealed so far as is needfull for us to know him and the true way to salvation in him our Saviour Redeemer CHAP. IIII. Of the word Covenant and of the nature of a Covenant and the agreement and difference betweene the old and new Covenant THe second thing which comes to be considered is the Covenant betweene God and Man where we are to shew what the word Covenant signifieth what is the nature of a Covenant and the agreement and difference between the Old and New Covenant The word Covenant in our English tongue signifieth as we all know a mutuall promise bargaine and Obligation betweene two parties and so likewise doth the Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the Greek word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifie most commonly But the derivation of the Hebrew word and of the Greeke is of speciall use to shew the nature
both set before us Christs death and obedience and our communion with him and also confirme our faith and confidence in him As their Sacraments were parts of their profession and were testimonies of their love to God and were accounted Gods worship so are ours As their Sacraments did distinguish them from Pagans Infidels and all strange Sects so doe ours As their Sacraments had God their Authour so ours Ours and theirs are both Seales of the righteousnesse of Faith both are effectuall to beleevers onely both have the same effects increase of faith hope confidence love charity among men and the like Thus farre theâ—e two Covenants agree in the Seales Lastly they agree in the generall successe effect and sufficiency for both of them have had good successe and taken effect and bin sufficient to beget grace in the Elect to bring all true beleevers to eternall salvation and blessednesse As the Covenant plainely revealed in the Gospell brings all true Christians to beleeve in Christ and to finde comfort and salvation in his Mediation Intercession Righteousnesse Resurrection and victory over death So by the Covenant made of Old with the Fathers Adam Abel Enoch and Noah were brought to beleeve in Christ and were saved Enoch by faith in Christ was translated Noah by faith made the Arke to the saving of himselfe and his houshold Abraham saw by faith the day of Christ and by beleeving in him was justified Iob rejoyced that Christ God would plead for man with God and the Son of man for his friend and neighbour Iob 16. 21. and professed his faith and confidence in the Resurrection of Christ his Redeemer Iob 19. 25. CHAP. XIII The difference betweene the Covenant made with the Fathers and the Covenant with us THey differ divers wayes The first which is indeed the greatest difference of all is in respect of the darknesse and obscurity of the one and the plainnesse and perspicuity of the other The Covenant with the Fathers was every way and in every point more darke and obscure involved in types and shadowes of Christ The Covenant in the Gospell is plaine and perspicuous it removes the vaile and shewes Christ the substance with open face In the Old Covenant the severity of Gods justice and his just wrath and enmity against sinne did not so plainely appeare because the effect of them was not made manifest upon his own dear Sonne our Mediatour untill he came to suffer actually such ignominy reproach agonies and a most ignominious and cursed death for our sinnes which he tooke upon him to beare and which were imputed to him and punished in him our surety Gods not sparing him but afflicting him with all his stormes and delivering him up to hellish paines and agonies and to a cursed death doe wonderfully shew his infinite wrath against sinne which was but slenderly and darkely revealed to the Fathers in Types and Figures in the slaughter of Beasts and burning of sinne-offerings So likewise though in the Old Testament we reade of God and some mention of his Sonne Psalm 2. 12. Prov. 30. 4. and of the Spirit of God and doe finde many phrases which signifie more persons then one or two in one Iehovah yet the Mystery of the Trinity was not so fully revealed as now it is in the Gospell wherein wee have plaine affirmation of three distinct persons the Father the Son and the holy Ghost in the unity of Gods essence and all the three are said to be one though by distinct properties and divers works they are described unto us severally and distinguished one from another And hereby we see that the new Covenant of the Gospel is more plaine and the old more darke in respect of the parties God and man betweene whom the Covenants are made Secondly in the old Christ the Mediatour was darkly shadowed out to the Fathers they had onely this knowledge of Christ that they should be saved by a Mediator that this Mediatour should be the seed of the woman that he should be the Archangell or Prince of Angels and Emanuel God with us yea and should be called the mighty God and should make atonement for sinne and bring in eternall righteousnesse But how God and man should in him become one person how God in him should be incarnate and humbled and stand in our place and beare our sins how he should fulfill the law in every particular point how he should satisfie Iustice and suffer the wrath of God these things were not distinctly nor fully revealed unto them only the extraordinary Prophets had some foresight of them and did more plainely at sometimes describe some of them But now in the Gospel wee see the person of our Saviour and his two Natures most plainly set forth before us the manner of his Birth and Incarnation the personal union of his Natures the manner of his obedience death and satisfaction and the particular uses of them as also the vertue of his resurrection and ascension And therefore the new Covenant is more plaine in respect of the Mediatour Thirdly all the promises of eternall life and Salvation and the condition on mans behalfe how and after what manner it should be performed also the things signified and confirmed by the seales were farre more darke and obscure in the old Covenant But in the new Covenant of the Gospel all these things are so plaine that even children may learne and understand them And thus in all respects and in all parts the Old was more obscure and the New is more plaine And this is the first and the maine difference Out of this there doe arise two other even a second and third difference betweene these Covenants The one which is the second in order is a difference in the parties received into the Covenants The old Covenant because of dimnesse and obscurity did shine forth but a little and gave light onely to them who were neare at hand and hereupon it came to passe that it reached to a very few sometimes but to one or two families and when it was in greatest force but to one Nation and people of the world But the new Covenant in brightnesse of knowledge and plainenesse of revelation doth shine like the Sunne and gives light farre and neere to all Nations even to them that sate in darkenesse and in the shadow of death And hereupon it comes to passe that people of all Nations are received into this Covenant and the parties which now enter league with God are not some few men or some one Nation but all Nations and people of the world God is one party and all Nations of the earth are the other party A third difference consists in the power efficacy successe and effect which is divers in these two Covenants For howbeit they agree in these generally because both of them have had successe taken effect and beene of power to bring many to salvation as is before noted Yet by
Christs Blood therein signified But to say that the Old Testament was not at all nor at any time sealed with Christs Blood but onely by the blood of Bullocks and Sacrifices and that the New Testament onely was sealed with Christs Blood is to make a false difference For verily the Old Testament being nothing else but the New folded up and the New the Old opened to all the sealing of the New by Christs Blood was the sealing of the Old also yea as our Sacraments and the outward Signes of Bread and Wine are true outward Signes consecrated to signifie Christs Death past so were the Sacrifices of the Law and the Old Testament true Signes consecrated to signifie Christs Death to come and as ours Seale the New Testament so did they Seale the Old As with our right outward Sealing there goeth the inward Sealing of Christs Blood so also with those outward Seales rightly understood and used And therefore as it is absurd to say that the New Testament is sealed onely by Bread and Wine and Water when we administer and receive the Sacraments because wee use no other outward Signes so it is absurd to say of their Sacrifices that in them there is no Sealing but by blood of Beasts sacrificed and thus wee see the vanity of this difference also The third difference which the Schoolemen make and which onely the Papists doe hold is that the Old Testament did onely promise eternall blessings and the eternall inheritance and did foreshew them in Types as in the blood of Sacrifices Christs Blood in the promised Land the inheritance of Heaven and such like but it did not give them till CHRIST the Testator was dead But the New Testament doth promise and also give and exhibit the things promised This difference is very false and impious and is easily confuted by the former Doctrine and by the whole Scriptures For that which onely promiseth and giveth not is not a Testament it is never in force neither ratified at all for being in force by the Testators Death it must needes give as well as promise If the Testators Death never come betweene then it is no Testament But the Old is a Testament and was in force and did give and doth give Grace as well as promise it This the whole Scriptures shew for the Legacies promised and given in Christs Will are Himselfe with all his benefits which doe accompany him First his Conception and Birth most holy without spot to sanctifie our conception in sinne and our uncleane birth Secondly His perfect righteousnesse of life to make beleevers righteous Thirdly His Death and Sufferings to ransome them from eternall death and Hell by satisfying for their sinnes Fourthly His Spirit with all saving Graces as Faith and such like by which they come to have Communion with him of his Son-ship inheritance righteousnesse and right to all blessings Temporall and Spirituall Now though Christ was onely promised in the Old Testament that he should come and obey and suffer for mans redemption but was not actually exhibited nor did obey and suffer till the dayes of the New Testament yet his Manhood Birth Obedience and Death were then as effectuall to save the faithfull as now they are And in that respect hee is called the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world Also by the Words of promise in the Old Testament Christ communicated gave his Spirit to Adam Noah Abraham David and all the faithfull in the Old Testament wch Spirit wrought in them Faith and perfect Communion with Christ of his person so farre as to make them sonnes and heires of God of his Death for remission of their sinnes of his righteousnesse for their justification and of all saving Graces needfull to Salvation This appeares by Enoches translation into glory that hee might not see death and by Eliahs taking up into Heaven by vertue of Christs Resurrection and Ascention who is the first fruites from the beginning Also by that which is said of Abraham that hee by beleeving came to bee counted righteous And by that which David saith to himselfe That God is his portion Psal. 16. and with him hee had all things to make him blessed Therefore this difference is a blasphemous and wicked fiction excluding the Church of the Old Testament from Heaven and all fruition of Christs benefits and from all saving graces as Regeneration Remission of sinnes Iustification and Redemption which are the blessings promised and given in the Old Testament The fourth difference is that the New Testament is the end of the Old and the Old is but a meanes to obtaine the New This is confuted first by the Doctrine before for they which are both in substance one and the same Testament cannot the one be the end of the other But so are these two as I have before shewed and it is most manifest by the agreement betweene them that as the Old confirmes the New and serves to move men to receive it So the New being imbraced serves to give light to the Old that men may see into the true meaning of it and rightly understand it and so here is no difference in this respect they are both alike Secondly the Scripture is plaine even in the places which they cite to prove this difference to wit Rom. 10. 4. and Gal. 3. 24. and teacheth plainly that Christ is the end of both and both serve joyntly for this one and commō end to bring men to Christ and to perfect communion with him and therefore the New is no otherwise the end of the Old than the Old is the end of the New and so this difference is false and erronious The fift difference is that the Old Testament was given onely to the naturall Israelites the New to all the world which is here by the former Doctrine proved false For if the Old Testament is the Will of Christ as Mediatour who gave himselfe for all the Nations of the world and is one in substance with the New and giveth the same Legacies as is before shewed surely they were both given to all Nations even the Old as well as the New else what shall we say of Iob and the godly and the faithfull of his Countrey and Age mentioned in his Booke who had the promises sealed with bloody sacrifices and yet were not of the Nation of Israel Onely here is the difference the naturall Israelites had the keeping of the Old Testament and the Oracles of God committed to them for a time to wit from Moses untill Christ And yet even then it was lawfull for them to teach the Word and make knowne the promises to strangers of all Nations and to convert them and to receive them into the Church And many were converted and joyned themselves to to the God of Israel As Rahab of Iericho a Canaan itesse Ruth of Moab Ebedmelech of Ethiopia and divers others But the New Testament is committed to no speciall people but published to all the world
of the old Testament and the same renewed and more fully explained in the Gospell AFter the agreement and difference betweene the Covenant of nature and the Covenant of grace plainly laid open I proceed to shew how the second Covenant to wit the Covenant of grace doth agree and differ in respect of the divers publishings and promulgations of it in the old and new testament The Revelation of it in the old Testament I have reduced to two heads The one is that by which it was revealed to the Fathers before the Law and renewed in divers ages as first to Adam secondly to Noah thirdly to Abraham Isaac and Iacob The other is the revealing and renewing of it with Israel in the wildernesse in the giving the law by the Ministery of Moses after which it continued in one stay untill the coming of Christ With these two my purpose is now to compare the Covenant as it is now fully revealed in the Gospel And first with the Covenant as it was revealed to the Fathers before the Law That old and this new doe agree divers wayes First the parties in generall are the same in both Covenants In the Covenant with the Fathers the one partie was God offended by mans sinne and provoked unto wrath and displeasure by his rebellion and so made a consuming and devouring fire unto him And the other party was man by meanes of his fall and corruption now made a rebell and enemy unto God and as stubble and drosse before his presence And in the Covenant as it is revealed in the Gospel the parties are still the same even God offended and man the sinner and offender Secondly they agree in this that a Mediatour is required in both betweene the parties God and man so farre separated and standing at so great a distance for to make up the breach and the league between them being at so great odds And both have one Mediatour Iesus Christ the promised seed who alone in heaven and earth is able to stand before the devouring fire and to make atonement betweene God and man For that seed of the woman which in the first making of the covenant was promised to Adam to break the serpents head Gen. 3. that seed which was promised to Abraham and Isaac in whom all the Nations of the earth should be blessed Gen. 12. and 22. that Shiloh which Iacob spake of in his blessing of Iudah Gen. 49. He was the Mediatour in the Covenant betweene God and the Fathers before the law And he is no other but Iesus Christ who came in the fulnesse of time who by having his heel bruised in his sufferings hath broken the serpents head that is destroyed the workes of the devill who by his Apostles Gal. 3. 9. hath called all nations to the participation of Abrahams blessing and to justification by faith in him and who was made and born of a woman a pure virgin by the power of the holy Ghost Luk. 1. 35. and is now and ever hath beene yesterday and to day and the same for ever a perfect redeemer and eternall Mediatour of the Covenant now under the Gospel as appears Ioh. 8. 56. and 14. 6. Ephes. 4. 16. Heb. 13. 8. Thirdly in both these Covenants the substance of the promises is one and the same As we have the promise of spirituall Life by the Communion of the holy Ghost both of the life of grace in this world and of the eternall life of glory in the world to come so had all the Fathers from the beginning As we have the promise of a true right and title to all earthly blessings also in Christ so also had they As God is given to us in Christ to be our portion So he by Covenant gave himselfe to them to be their God As we have Christ God and man given unto us to be our Saviour and his righteousnesse and obedience with all the merits of his death to be apprehended by faith for our justification so had they from the first time of the promise All this the Apostle sheweth most plainly Heb. 11. where he sheweth that the forefathers did by faith receive not onely earthly blessings as the Land of Canaan deliverance from enemies and oppressors safety from the flood but also they embraced the promises of a better life and of a better country even an heavenly and God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a city ver. 16. They received Iesus Christ by saith and did so firmely beleeve in him that they esteemed reproach for his sake greater riches then all earthly treasures vers. 26. they by faith became heires of his righteousnesse vers. 7. and Act. 15. 11. we saith the Apostle beleeve to be saved by the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ even as they Fourthly the Covenant made with the Fathers agrees with the Covenant now under the Gospell in one and the same condition on mans behalfe to wit the perfect righteousnesse of the Law and perfect obedience to the whole revealed will of God performed not by every beleever himselfe but by his Mediatour Iesus Christ God and man in mans nature This righteousnesse was made theirs and is made ours by one and the same meanes even by communion of the Spirit and by true faith laying hold upon it applying it and offering it up to God Both the righteousnesse and the meanes by which it is made ours are free gifts and graces of God both to the Fathers and us Neither they were nor we are sufficient of our selves or fit to performe any thing for salvation or to receive salvation when it is offred freely all our will all our sufficiency and all our fitnesse is of God and ever hath beene And therefore howsoever Christ his righteousnesse and satisfaction made unto God in the nature of man may in respect of Christ our head be called a condition of salvation which God required on mans behalfe yet in respect of us and the Fathers also it is rather a part of the blessing and one of the free promises in the Covenant and at our hands God requires no condition at all but such as he himselfe doth freely of his grace performe and worke in us and for us And therefore as the Covenant which God hath now made with us so also that Covenant with the Fathers before the Law was foedus gratuitum a free Covenant of Grace Fiftly the Covenants both Old and New agree in the Seales divers wayes First as in that Old so in this New outward Seales and Signes are required for to seale and confirme them Secondly as their seales did signifie the shedding of Christs Blood and his cursed death for mans sinne also mortification and sanctification so doe the seales of Baptisme and the Lords Supper which are annexed to our Covenant As their Seales did both teach the manner of mans redemption and also did serve to confirme their faith in it so doe ours
and difference This may quickly be dispatched in few words for their agreement and difference may easily bee discerned by those things which have beene already delivered the onely thing which is now necessarily to be touched is the meaning of the words and the divers significations of them These being made plaine it will appeare that all the agreements and differences between them have been before fully laid open and expounded First for the Law it is in the Originall Hebrew Scriptures called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Torah a word derived of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Horah which signifieth to teach to instruct to admonish and also to shoot forth Arrowes and Darts and so if wee consider it according to the true notation of the name by Law in Scripture may be understood any Doctrine Word or Writing which doth teach instruct and admonish men how they ought to live and how to walke before God or among men and any Precept which as a Dart or Arrow is fastened in our hearts by our Teachers But in the New Testament the Law is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and is derived of the verb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies to distribute because the Law injoyneth to distribute and give to God and men their due and the revelation of the Word and Law is Gods distribution or dividing of his promises and his will amongst men So then the word Law considered according to the naturall sense of it in the Originall Scriptures of the Old and New Testament may signifie any Doctrine Instruction Law Ordinance Custome and Statute humane or Divine which doth teach direct command or binde men to any duty which they owe to God or any of his creatures And indeed thus far the signification of it doth extend For in Scripture it signifies sometimes the speciall Lawes of Heathen Nations as of the Medes Persians and the statutes and customes of men according to which they live among themselves and their doctrines and instructions but I omit the humane significations of it as not necessary for our present purpose and I come to the divine which are divers in Scripture 1 First this word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Torah signifies in a most large sense any godly or profitable Counsell Doctrine Instruction or Precept which Parents give to their children or one man to another either by word or writing which is not contrary but according to the will of God and the rule of godlinesse and serves to direct a man how to live or how to walke either in his generall or particular calling Thus the word is often used in the Booke of the Proverbes as Chap. 3. 1 and 4. 2. and 7. 2. In which places the wise man exhorts his sonne to keepe his Law that is all his Precepts Counsels and Doctrines and not to forget or forsake them 2 Sometimes it signifies in a large sense the whole Doctrine of the Word of God which he hath at any time revealed or doth reveale in the whole Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament and so it includes the Law of Moses the writings of the Prophets and all the Evangelicall promises made unto us in Christ from the beginning thus it is used Psal. 1. 2. in these words But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and Psal. 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule that is Gods Word for the Law alone without the Gospell cannot convert soules and Psal. 1 19. in divers places where the Law is said to quicken and to be the godly mans delight and to comfort him in trouble 3 Sometimes this word signifies onely the Scriptures of the Old Testament as Iohn 15. 25. where our Saviour citing a speech out of the 35 Psalme 19 verse saith it is written in the Law that is the Old Testament And the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. 21. repeating the words of Isaiah Chap. 28. 11. saith it is written in the Law 4 Sometimes it signifies the whole Doctrine of the five Bookes of Moses as Iosh. 1. 7 8. Let not the Booke of the Law depart out of thy mouth and Luke 24. 44. where our Saviour distinguisheth the Law that is the writings of Moses from the Psalmes and the Prophets Also Mat 12. 5. Ioh. 7. 23. and Ioh. 8. 17. things written in the Booke of Genesis as well as things written in the other 4. books are said to be writtē in the law 5 Sometimes the word Law signifies in a more strict sense The Doctrine of the Law as it is different frō the doctrine of Grace and is opposed to the plaine Doctrine of the Gospel that is the whole summe of Precepts Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall set downe in the Writings of Moses thus the word is used by the Apostle in the Epistles to the Romanes and Galatians where hee opposeth the Law and Doctrine of Workes to the Gospell and Doctrine of Faith 6 Sometimes by law in a most strict sense is meant either the morall Law conteined in the ten Commandements as Exod. 24. 12. or any of the Ceremoniall Lawes as the Law of the burnt-offering Levit. 6. 9. the Law of Sacrifice vers. 14. the Law of the sinne-offering vers. 24. or the Iudiciall Law and any precept therof as Exod. 18. 16. Deut. 17. 11. 7 Sometimes the word Law signifies the Doctrine of the Gospell which as a new Law commands us to repent of all our sins and to beleeve in Iesus Christ Thus the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is used Isa. 2. 3. where the Prophet saith That in the last dayes the Law shall go forth out of Zion and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem meaning the publishing of the Gospell from thence into all Nations of the world and the Gospell as it injoyneth us to beleeve is called the Law of Faith Rom. 3. 27. 8 Sometimes the word Law signifies the power authority and dominion either of the flesh and the Old man of sin dwelling in our members or of the Spirit and the New man ruling in the mind where the Apostle saith I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind that is I see the power of sinfull corruption and of the Old man striving against the Spirit or part renued and Rom. 8. 2. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the law of sin and death These are the divers significations of the word Law which is called Torah in the Old and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the New Testament The word Gospel is in the Hebrew text in the old Testament called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Bessorah and in the new Testament {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they both signifie good news glad tidings and a joyfull message the one is derived of the Hebrew verb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
them this is one strong and invincible reason Secondly wee have good reasons of every derivation as I have already shewed Thirdly the deriving of the word from all and not from one onely doth reconcile in one all the severall opinions of the Learned and justifies their several derivations without rejecting or offering any wrong or disgrace to any Fourthly the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by which the Septuagint in their Greeke translation doe expresse the Hebrew word Berith and which the Evangelists and Apostles in the New Testament doe use to signifie a Covenant is derived of the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which hath divers of the significations of the Hebrew words of which Berith is derived for it signifies to set things in order and frame to appoint orders and make Lawes to pacifie and make satisfaction and to dispose things by ones last Will and Testament Now to compose and set things in order is to uphold the Creation to walke by Orders Lawes made appointed is to walk by rule to live to deal plainely and faithfully without deceit To pacifie and make satisfaction includes sacrifices and sinne-offerings To dispose by Will and Testament implies choice of persons and gifts for men doe by Will give their best and most choise goods to their most deare and most choise friends Thus the Greeke which the Apostles use in the New Testament to signifie a Covenant to expresse the Hebrew word Berith wch is used in the Law and the Prophets doth confirme our derivation of it from all the words before named And this derivation of the Hebrew and Greeke names of a Covenant being thus laid downe and confirmed by these reasons is of great use First to shew unto us the full signification of the word Covenant and what the nature of a Covenant is in generall Secondly to justifie the divers acceptations of the Word and to shew the nature of every word in particular and so to make way for the knowledge of the agreement and difference betweene the Old and New Covenant First there we see that this Word signifies all Covenants in generall both Gods Covenant with men and also the covenants which men make among themselves For there is nothing in any true Covenant which is not comprised in the signification of this Word being expounded according to the former derivations Heere also we see what is the nature of a Covenant in generall and what things are thereunto required First every true Covenant presupposeth a division or separation Secondly it comprehends in it a mutuall promising and binding betweene two distinct parties Thirdly there must be faithfull dealing without fraud or dissembling on both sides Fourthly this must be betweeene choice persons Fiftly it must be about choyce matters and upon choice conditions agreed upon by both Sixtly it must tend to the well-ordering and composing of things betweene them All these are manifest by the significations of the words from which Berith is derived But I hold it not so needfull to stand upon the nature of a Covenant in generall I therefore come with speed to the divers acceptations of the Word and to the description of every speciall and particular Covenant which is needfull to be knowne of us CHAP. V. FIrst the Hebrew word Berith as also the names of Covenant in the Greeke and English tongue signifies a Covenant betweene God and Men Secondly it signifies the Covenants of men among themselves as Gen. 21. 27. It signifies the Covenant betweene Abraham and Abimelech and Gen. 31. 44. the Covenant betweene Iacob and Laban But here I have little to doe with Covenants betweene men The Covenant which I am to insist upon is betweene God and Men First the Covenant of naturall life and blessings which God made with Man in the creation Secondly the Covenant of Grace which God made with Man in Christ after Mans fall In the Covenant of Nature the parties were God the Creator and Man the Creature made after Gods Image and likenesse and so not contrary to God nor at enmity with him but like unto God though farre different and inferiour to God in Nature and substance The promises on Gods part were these That Heaven and Earth and all creatures should continue in their naturall course and order wherein God had created and placed them serving alwayes for mans use and that man should have the benefit and lordship of them all and should live happily and never see death The condition on Mans part was obedience to Gods Law and subjection to God his Creator in all things and this he was to expresse by obeying Gods voyce in every thing which he had already or should at any time command more especially in abstaining from the Tree of good and evill The Signe and Seale which God gave to Man for the confirmation of this Covenant was the Tree of Life which was to man a Sacrament and pledge of eternall Life on earth and of all blessings needfull to keepe man in life The receiving of this Seale was mans eating of the Tree of Life The end of this Covenant was the upholding of the Creation and of all the creatures in their pure naturall estate for the comfort of man continually This was the first Covenant which God made with man and this is called by the name Berith Iere. 33. 20. where God saith If you can breake my Covenant of the day and night and that there shall not be day and night in their season then may also my Covenant with David be broken In these words he speakes plainly of the promise in the creation That day and night should keepe their course and the Sunne Moone and Starres and all creatures should serve for mans use This though man did breake on his part yet God being immutable could not breake it neither did hee suffer his promise to faile but by vertue of Christ promised to man in the New Covenant doth in some good measure continue it so long as Mankinde hath a being on earth The Covenant of Grace is that which God made with man after his fall wherein of his owne free Grace and Mercy hee doth promise unto Mankinde a blessed Seed of the Woman which by bruising the Serpents head that is destroying the power and workes of the Devill should redeeme Mankinde and restore all that beleeve in that blessed Seed Christ to a more happy and blessed estate then that which was lost In this Covenant the parties were God Almighty offended by Mans sinne and provoked to just wrath and man by his wilfull transgression now become a Rebell and enemy against God and deserving eternall death so that here is great contrariety separation opposition and cause of enmity betweene the two parties and betweene them there was no possibility of peace and reconciliation without a fit and all sufficient Mediator necessarily comming betweene The things which God promiseth in this Covenant and for
his part performeth are admirable farre surpassing mans reason The first is the All-sufficient Mediatour Christ his owne eternall Sonne whom God promised immediately after mans fall and who did then begin actually to mediate for man and did undertake to become Man and by a full satisfaction made in Mans nature to Gods infinite Iustice and just Law and a perfect and full ransom paid for mans Redemption to purchase pardon of all mans sins to justifie and make him righteous and to reconcile him to God The second is the Spirit to be given to man and shed on him through Christ the Mediatour Gal. 3. 14. and Tit. 3. 6. The third is spirituall Life derived frō Christ wrought in man by his quicking spirit together with all graces and blessings thereto belonging The fourth is union and communion with Christ of all his benefits as of his Son-ship to make all regenerate men sonnes of God and heires of eternall life glory and all blessings of his satisfaction and sufferings for remission of all their sins of his righteousnesse for justification The fift is a true right to the naturall life which Adam lost to the Creatures made for mans use and to all earthly blessings which are given him to possesse and injoy in this life The sixth is sanctification and holinesse whereby man is fitted to see and enjoy God Matth. 5. 8. and Hebr. 12. 14. The last which is the end of all is the eternall life of glory in the fruition of God in Heaven In this Covenant there is not any condition or Law to bee performed on mans part by man himselfe as in the first old Covenant of Nature and therefore it is called the free Covenant of Grace and not of Workes The perfect obedience righteousnesse and satisfaction of Christ which he performed to the whole Law for man in Mans nature though it stands in the place of every mans perfect obedience to Gods Law in his owne person and his subjection to the whole revealed will of God which was the condition of the Old Covenant of Works and when man is partaker of it by communion with Christ he is more perfectly justified and made worthy of life eternall than man in the state of nature could have beene by his owne perfect obedience and personall righteousnesse performed in his owne person Yet it cannot so properly bee called A condition of the New Covenant of Grace which God hath made with Mankinde because God imposeth it not as a condition to bee performed by every man in his person but is one of the blessings promised in the New Covenant So likewise the Gifts Graces and Workes and Fruits of the Spirit which are required to be in man to make him an actuall partaker of Christ and of life and salvation in him whether they be outward as the word preached and heard the Sacraments given and received and the like or inward as Faith by which Christ is received and applied Repentance Love Hope and other saving Graces they are all free gifts of God he gives them to us and by his Spirit workes in us both to will and to doe and without his Grace continually assisting us according to his promise wee cannot performe any thing which is mentioned in the Gospell as a conditionall meanes of life and Salvation in Christ And therefore this Covenant is foedus gratuitum a most free Covenant of Grace wherein no condition is propounded to man to be performed by any power of his owne for the obtaining of life but God of his owne free Grace promiseth all blessings and for his owne sake gives them and also all power to receive and enjoy them And the end and use of this Covenant is not any gaine which God seeketh to himselfe nor any good which he can receive from man or any creature but onely the making of man perfectly blessed in the fruition of himselfe and all his goodnesse and so gathering to himselfe all things in Christ This Covenant is that which is called the Covenant of Peace and is most highly extolled and commended in all the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament And howsoever the substance of this Covenant hath beene alwayes one and the same from the beginning even from the seventh day of the world wherein God first promised Christ the blessed Seed and so shall be for ever yet because the circumstances are divers and the manner of revealing the promise and of sealing it is far different in the Old and New Testament hereupon it comes to passe that the Spirit of God doth distinguish it into the Old and New Covenant and as it was revealed and sealed to the Fathers under the Law cals it the Old Covenant and as it is now revealed and sealed under the Gospell cals it the new Covenant Ier. 31. 31. 2 Cor. 3. 6. And both these are called by the name {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the Hebrew and by the name of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the Greeke Text CHAP. VI IN the Old Testament the Lord first made this Covenant with Adam but in very darke obscure and generall termes and in Types and figures even sacrifices wch were seales of it unto him and his posterity The words of the Covenant were these That the seed of the woman should breake the Serpents head the Serpent should bruise his heel that is Christ made man of the Seed of a Woman and being by the Old Serpent the Divell and by the generation of Vipers persecuted and put to an ignominious death should dissolve the Workes of the Divell and destroy sinne by satisfying for it to the full The sacrifices which God added to this promise further to illustrate and confirme it were clean and fat-fed Beasts wch the Lord commanded them to consecrate slay and to offer up to him by burning and consuming part thereof and the rest they themselves who were his Priests and Sacrificers did eate That the Lord taught Adam to sacrifice appeares by the practise of Cain and Abel and by their offrings which they brought to God being undoubtedly taught by their father Gen. 4. Yea it may be gathered from the Coates of Skinnes which God made and therewith cloathed our first Parents Gen. 3. 21. Those skinnes could be no other but of Beasts slain and offered in sacrifice For before Adams fal beasts were not subject to mortality nor slaine the slaughter and killing of Beasts and mans eating of their flesh came in by sinne and after mans fall In innocency mans meat was fruit of Trees and Herbes bearing seed Gen. 1. The first right which God gave to man to eat flesh was after the promise and after that Beasts were consecrated to be sacrificed as Types of Christ and of his Death Now these sacrifices of Beasts did shew the nature of the Covenant and the manner of mans reconciliation chusing of cleane and harmelesse Beasts shewed that Christ should be pure and holy
every man in his owne person for the obtaining of life In this therefore there was no Mediatour betweene God and the people The Reasons why the Lord thus began with Israel and first renewed the Old Covenant were divers The first was their pride presumption and hardnesse of heart they presumed that they could doe all that the Lord would command them and therefore he gave them his Law to shew them their duty that they assaying to fulfill it and finding their owne insufficiency might bee humbled and brought downe from vaine confidence in their owne Workes Heere the Lord did deale with them as wise fathers deale with their foolish vain boasting sons who do promise largely that they will do any thing which their fathers will command them and that by their merits they will bind their fathers to love them and to give them the inheritance In such a case a wise father will put such a boasting sonne to the triall and will put him to a taske which he knoweth that he is unable to goe through not because hee beleeves or hopes that his sonne can performe it being through his own intemperance disabled but for this end to make him see his owne folly and insufficiency And so the Lord did deale with Israel Secondly the Lord gave the Law which is the rule of righteousnesse and withall shewed the punishment due to the transgressors of it that it might be as the rod of a Schoolemaster to drive them to Christ to learne the saving knowledge and way of life in him as the Apostle speakes Gal. 3. and to make them out of feare renounce themselves and seeke mercy in him Thirdly to teach them and us that howsoever it is impossible for us to be saved by the Law by reason of our sinfull flesh and our corruption which hath utterly disabled us that we cannot obey it yet the Law is still in force and requires perfect righteousnesse and without the righteousnesse of the Law fulfilled by Christ for us we cannot be justified nor saved according to that saying of the Apostle Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10. 4. For these and such like reasons God gave the Law But when the people of Israel heard the Law which was the Covenant of Workes to be performed in their owne persons and that immediately from God himselfe it is said that they were sore afraid and being not able to abide the sight of Gods glory nor the sound of his voice they cryed out Why should we die and hereupon they began to desire a Mediator even Moses saying Goe thou hear the Lord speak thou to us Exod. 20. 19. and Deut. 5. 25 26 27. This was some good beginning the Law began to take effect and to drive them towards a Mediator And therefore the Lord said They have well spoken all that they have said to wit in desiring a Mediatour added withall O that there were in them such an heart that they would feare mee and keepe my Commandements alwayes that it might be well with them and their children Which words shew the Will and Minde of God wishing after a sort their increase and continuance in this good minde and feare of him and seeking to keepe his Commandements in and by a Mediator Whereupon hee proceedes to deale with them by a Mediator and to renue the Covenant with them by appointing divers figures of Christ as Sacrifices Rites Ceremonies the Tabernacle the Arke of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat in all which as in Types he did reveale Christ though obscurely unto them and shewed that sinne was to be expiated and purged away by his Death Afterward also when they came into the land of Moab he did renue the Covenant of Grace in more plain termes than he did on Mount Horeb insomuch that by reason of the greater plainnesse it is called another Covenant Deut. 29. 2. There he told them that Christ should bee their Rocke Deut. 32. 4. and that the Word his Gospell was among them Now because of the first part of this Covenant to wit the ten Commandements which God spake first and after gave them written in two Tables which are called by the name of Covenant Deu. 4. 13. and 9. 9. and indeed are the summe of the Old Covenant which God made with men in the Creation This Covenant which God made with Israel is called the Old Covenant and the Covenant of the Law and is opposed to the Covenant of the Gospell that is to the Covenant as it is now revealed in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles and plainely preached and published over all the world Thus much for the Old Covenant CHAP. VII THe New Covenant which was foretold by the Prophets Isa. 42. 6. Ier 31. 31. Zach. 9. 11. it is the Covenant which God hath now made by the preaching of the Gospell in this New Testament It is the Covenant of all happinesse all blessings and all salvation in Christ plainely preached and revealed sealed also and confirmed not by Blood of Christ in Types and Figures but by the very Blood it selfe bodily shed on the Crosse for our sinnes and by the two plaine Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper this is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the New Covenant Ierem. 31. 31. and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Luke 22. 20. and 2 Cor. 3. 6. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a better Covenant Hebr. 7. 22. For in it the Lord reveales his promises so plainley and cleerely that all men may see and know the way to life And howbeit in this Covenant there is nothing expressed wch was not implyed and included in the general obscure promises made unto Adam and unto Abraham David and the rest of the Fathers in old time And although Iesus Christ the perfect Saviour and Eternall Redeemer God and Man with all his righteousnesse obedience and full satisfaction and all his benefits blessings gifts and graces which serve to bring men to perfect blessednesse and salvation and which are fully expressed in the Covenant of the Gospell were darkely and obscurely offered unto the Fathers and were apprehended by their faith in that Covenant which God made with them Yet certainely this Covenant as it is now renewed by the comming of Christ and by the preaching of the Apostles and Evangelists may justly be called a New Covenant and is truely so called both by the Prophets and Apostles for divers good reasons and considerations First because there is as great difference betweene this Covenant thus revealed and the Covenant as it was revealed before Christs incarnation as there is betweene an old darke house builded up strong but yet without any whiting or painting having very few doores or windowes in it and those either very narrow or else shut up with boords or stopped with Bricks and Morter that few can enter in save such
new Covenant though the substance be the same Experience teacheth this For when a man that hath a I ease of twenty yeares in an house gives it up and takes another of the same terme in more full and plaine words or when upon some defect which he findes in his deed of sale either in the forme of conveyance or in the sealing and the witnesses hee gives up his former deed and takes another of the same land sealed with other seales and testified by other witnesses this wee call a new deed though the land be the same and the purchase all one in substance and true meaning Now thus it is betweene the Covenant of Grace now under the Gospell and the same Covenant before the comming of Christ Though this is the same in substance and the salvation promised is the same even that wch is onely in Christ yet the manner of sealing is much altered and inverted and the outward seales also The Covenant had before many seales as Circumcision the Passeover and all the Sacrifices Ceremonies Types and Figures of the Law now it hath onely two Baptisme and the Lords Supper The old Seales were darke and obscure and had Christs image but dimly imprinted into them The new have a more lively resemblance of Christ In Baptisme there is the print of the whole Trinity The Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost And the signes in the Lords Supper are so like unto the Body and Blood of Christ that they are called by the same name Before the Gospell the Covenant was first sealed typically by Christs Blood and at last by the Blood it selfe Now the Covenant is first sealed by the Blood of Christ it selfe and afterwards to the end of the world it is sealed to us by evident signes and remembrances of Christs death given by himselfe as pledges to us The old seales were mutable the new are unchangeable The old sealing was much in outward shew and very little inwardly by the spirit The new is little in outward shew but more by the inward worke of the spirit The word of the covenant is now more abundantly written in mens hearts according to the word of the Lord Ier. 31. 33. This is the new Covenant I will put my law in their inward parts and will write it in their hearts Which words are to be understood thus not that the fathers had not the word written in their hearts but that it was not so deeply written nor in the hearts of so many as now it is Wherefore the seales and the manner of sealing being so much renewed and inverted we may truely call this a new Covenant Thus you see the description of the new Covenant now under the Gospel and the true reasons why it is called the new Covenant even when it is compared with the Covenant made with the Fathers which was the same in substance with it But if we compare it with the Covenant of Nature which is the Covenant of Works and of the Law made with Man in the Creation then it must of necessity be called new because that went before it and was in the time of mans innocency this came in after the fall that promised naturall life this promiseth spirituall also that tended to hold up the Old Adam this to build up the New So likewise if this new Covenant of the Gospell be compared with the Covenant which God made with Israel in the Wildernesse it may truely and must necessarily be called new For that was a mixt Covenant mixt of the Covenant of Nature and of Grace and contained in the Law which is the Covenant of Workes and the faith of the promise which is of the Gospell and of Grace as is before shewed And therefore in respect of the first part of that Covenant which promised life to the doers of the Law this is truely a new Covenant differing in substance from it and indeed the Apostles doe call this Covenant of the Gospell a new Covenant especially and chiefly in comparison of these two Covenants even that of pure nature and that mixt Covenant of the Law CHAP. VIII NOw having largely described the Covenant of the Gospell I proceed for our better satisfaction to shew more fully plainely and distinctly the true agreement and difference which is betweene the first Covenant of Nature and the second Covenant which is the Covenant of Grace and betweene the old and new publishing of the Covenant of Grace And first for orders sake I will shew how the Covenant of Nature and Grace doe agree and differ Secondly because the Covenant of Grace hath beene solemnly published three divers wayes First more darkly and obscurely to the Fathers from Adam untill the giving of the Law Secondly after a mixt manner to the Israelites by the Ministery of Moses Thirdly now at last most plainely and purely since the coming of Christ in the flesh by the Gospell preached and published to all Nations I will shew how this last publishing of the Covenant which is so glorious that it is called the New Covenant by a speciall prerogative doth agree with and differ from the two former publications made the one with the Fathers Adam Noah Abraham and the rest the other with the Israelites in the Wildernesse The cleer knowledge of which things may yeeld much fruit profit and comfort to the hearts and soules of true Christians CHAP. IX The agreement of the Covenant of Nature which is called the first with the Covenant of Grace which is called the second Covenant FIrst these two Covenants doe agree betweene themselves and that in three respects First the parties are in substance the same in both Covenants In the the first Covenant of Workes God was the one party and Adam the other And in the second the parties are still the same in Nature and substance to wit God and Adam with all mankinde his posterity Secondly they doe agree in divers of the promises and conditions In the first God promised unto man life and happinesse Lordship over all the creatures liberty to use them and all other blessings which his heart could desire to keepe him in that happy estate wherein he was created And man was bound to God to walke in perfect righteousnesse to observe and keepe Gods commandements and to obey his will in all things which were within the reach of his nature and so farre as was revealed to him In the second also the promise on Gods part is life and happinesse with all blessings thereto requisite Lordship over the creatures liberty to use them and a true right and title to them all and in lieu of these he requires of man perfect righteousnesse and obedience to his will and law in every point and title as our Saviour Christ saith Mat. 5. 18. Thirdly as the one had seales annexed unto it for confirmation so also hath the other The seale of the first Covenant was the Tree of Life which if Adam had received by taking
and eating of it while hee stood in the state of innocency before his fall he had certainely beene established in that estate for ever and the Covenant being sealed and confirmed betweene God and him on both parts he could not have beene seduced and supplanted by Satan as some learned men doe thinke and as Gods own words seem to imply Gen. 3. 22. The seals of the second Covenant are the Sacraments as Circumcision and such like in the Old Testament and the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper in these dayes of the Gospel wch whosoever hathonce truly received and is inwardly circumcised as well as outwardly washed with the Laver of Regeneration and baptised into Christ and hath true communion with him of his Body and Blood that man can never fall for the seed of God abideth in him 1 Iohn 3. 9. CHAP. X. The difference betweene the Covenant of Nature and of Grace BVt as they agree in these things so they differ divers wayes First though the parties are in substance the same yet in other respects they differ First in the Covenant of Nature the parties God man were friends God was the Creator man was his Creature made after Gods image God was mans good Lord and man was Gods good servant God loved man and man loved God with all his heart there was not any least occasion of hatred or enmitie betweene them but all causes of love But at the making of the Covenant of Grace God and Man were fallen out and become enemies God was provoked to just wrath and his unchangeable justice required that man should die and be consumed by the fire of Gods just wrath And man was become a rebell and an enemy and traitor to God and had conspired with the Devill against his Lord and King God was to man a consuming fire and man was as straw and stubble before him by meanes of his sinfull corruption Secondly in the Covenant of Nature God revealed himselfe to man as one God Creator and Governour of all things infinite in Power Wisedome Nature and substance But in the Covenant of Grace God revealed himselfe one infinite God and three persons distinguished not onely a Lord and Creator but also a mercifull Redeemer not onely in unity of essence but also in trinity of persons Thirdly in the Covenant of Nature God was one party and man alone was another But in the Covenant of Grace God is on both sides God simply considered in his essence is the party opposite to Man And God the second person having taken upon him to be incarnate and to worke mans redemption was on mans side and takes part with man that he may reconcile him to God by bearing mans sinnes and satisfying Gods justice for them Thus they differ in respect of the parties Secondly they differ in respect of mediation for in the Covenant of nature man needed no mediatour to come betweene God and him he was pure upright and good created after Gods image the nearer he came to God the greater was his joy and comfort Gods presence was a delight unto him But in the Covenant of grace because man by sinne rebellion corruption and enmity was separated and alieuated in his mind nature and disposition from God therefore mā could not come unto God to enter into Covenant with him but by a perfect pure and holy Mediator infinit in power and favour with God that he might prevaile with him and pacifie his wrath and yet of mans nature and substance that in and by the nature which had sinned satisfaction might be made for sinne Without such a Mediatour there could bee no Covenant made betweene God and man If man being ever since the fall filthy and corrupt should in his owne person come near to God who is to him a devouring and consuming fire he as stubble and straw should presently be consumed and perish at the presence of God And therefore in making this Covenant a perfect Mediatour is necessarily required both to come betweene God and man and to make perfect satisfaction to Gods just Law in the behalfe of miserable and sinfull man and to worke his reconciliation and attonement Thirdly they differ exceedingly in the promises and conditions First the promises of God in the Covenant of nature were onely naturall life and earthly happinesse with all blessings necessary thereunto But in the Covenant of grace God doth promise over and above naturall life and felicity on earth spirituall life and blessings by the communion of his holy and eternall spirit not only the spirituall life of grace in this world but also of everlasting glory in the world to come in the presence of his glorious Majestie Secondly in the first Covenant God did not promise to give life but to continue life being before already given But in the second Covenant be promiseth to raiseman from the dust of death and eternall damnation in hell into which he was fallen head-long by transgression unto the light of life and that blessednesse in heaven of which his nature was never capable before no not in the state of innocency Thirdly in the first Covenant the promised portion and possession was of the earth and of all visible creatures which were fit to serve for mans use But in the second Covenant God promiseth heaven and himselfe who made the heaven to bee the God the shield and reward of the faithfull and their portion and inheritance Genesis 15. 1. Psalm 16. Fourthly in the first Covenant God promised and gave to man power over all living creatures to have them as a Lord at his command and to use them for his delight and to rule not to kill and eat them But in the second Covenant God gave them to him for sacrifice yea and also to serve for his food and nourishment The fourth difference ariseth from the conditions which God requires at the hands of man and on mans behalfe for all these great and wonderfull blessings In the first Covenant God required of man perfect righteousnesse and obedience to his whole law and will so farre as it was in mans power by nature and revealed unto him and this he would have man to performe by himselfe in his owne person But in the second Covenant he requires on mans behalfe a more excellent obedience and righteousnesse performed to the whole Law more plainely and fully revealed and greatly enlarged and that not by man himselfe or any meere creature but by mans Mediatour Iesus Christ God and man in one person who is the end of the law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10. 4. Now there is wonderfull difference betweene these two The righteousnesse required in the first Covenant was only the righteousnesse of a pure naturall man and able to save him onely who performed it but the righteousnesse of the second Covenant is the righteousnesse of a perfect pure and holy man filled with the holy Ghost which Adam had
reason of the obscurity of the old it hath taken lesse effect and beene of lesse power And the new by meanes of plainenesse and light hath brought with it more excellent gifts and more abundance of grace to many and hath beene of greater force power and efficacy and the Spirit hath wrought more powerfully by it For as the Apostle saith faith which is as it were the roote of other graces commeth by hearing and hearing by the Word where the Word is more plainely preached and heard with understanding there must needs be greater knowledge and faith and there the Spirit must needes worke more powerfully and effectually and shew all graces more abundantly in the hearers Hereupon it comes to passe that the Old Covenant did worke but weakely in all except those that were exâ—â—aordinarily called and enlightened because of the obscurity of it and unfitnesse to beget knowledge and faith But by vertue of the Nâ—w the Lord writes his Law in our hearts and makes us all know him more fully Ier. 31. 33. and doth poure out his Spirit with aboundance of Grace upon all flesh Ioel 2. 28 A fourth difference is in the circumstance of the promises and gifts The old Covenant did promise life and salvation in Christ who then was to come And Christ who is the foundation of all the promises though he had then taken upon him to worke mans redemption and his future death and obedience were actually in force from the beginning able to save all beleevers yet he was not actually come in the flesh neither had actually performed these things for man But the new Cove nant doth promise salvation and all blessings in Christ being already come in the flesh And Christ hath actually performed all things which were needfull for our redemption and we are by the new Covenant made partakers of his sacrifice already offered and his righteousnesse already performed for us A fifth difference ariseth from the order and mixture of the promises The old Covenant did first and chiefely promise earthly and temporall blessings as deliverance from bodily enemies and dangers and plenty of worldly goods as houses lands wealth riches encrease of children length of dayes and such like and in and under these it did signifie and promise all spirituall blessings and salvation But the new Covenant promiseth Christ and his blessings spirituall in the first place and after them earthly blessings First it brings us to the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof and then it ministers other things unto us Againe the old Covenant abounded in earthly promises of worldly blessings but had few promises of spirituall and heavenly blessednesse intermingled But the new insists almost altogether on heavenly rewards and promises of spirituall blessings and hath but few promises of temporall and worldly good things And thus both the order of the promises and the unequall mixture of earthly and heavenly blessings doe make another difference betweene the old and new Covenant Sixtly they differ in the outward matter of the seales the outward rites and in the order of Sealing The seals of the old Covenant were many and those laborious costly heavy and burdensome circumcision was painfull sacrifices were costly and the many oblations offerings and purifications were a burden too heavy for the fathers to beare But the seales of the new are few and but two the least number that can be and those very easie without toyle or cost or paine of body or minde The matter of the old seales were oxen sheepe goats birds incense odours calves lambes cutting of the flesh shedding of the blood burning and killing of divers creatures The matter of the new seales is onely water sprinkled and Bread and Wine broken powred out distributed eaten and drunken and this is all that the seales differ much in outward matter also in the order of sealing for the old was first typically sealed with shadowes and after with the substance Christs Body and Blood The new was scaled first with Christs blood and death and is now sealed by the outward signes dayly in the Sacraments Lastly they differ in perpetuity For though the substance of both is one and the same eternall and unchangable yet the forme and manner of making and sealing is changable in the old but is in the new perpetuall The old Covenant hath new words added to it even the new Testament and the outward seales are abolished and new put in their place But to the words of the new Covenant no more or plainer words shal be added neither shall the outward seales thereof be altered but shall remaine till the comming of the Lord And therefore the old is but in substance onely but the new is in all respects perpetuall and unchangeable Thus much both of the agreement and the difference betweene the old and new Covenant of grace CHAP. XIIII FIrst the agreement which is between these two Covenants of grace doth serve to assure us that all the faithfull forefathers from the beginning did partake of the same graces with us and had fellowship and communion of the same spirit with one and the same Iesus Christ and were justified by his righteousnesse and saved eternally by faith in him even as we are at this day If sinne in them could have hindred the worke of Gods grace so it might doe in us for we are sinners as well as they and God hath as just a quarrell against us If our Mediator be of power to save eternally then must they also needs be saved as well as we for they had the same Christ He was yesterday is to day and shall be the same for ever If Gods promises be true if they cannot faile surely they had the same in substance which we have If salvation doth rest upon the condition of righteousnesse they had the same which we have even the righteousnesse of God in Christ and by the same faith they did partake of it If seales can helpe any thing at all they had them also as well as we And if we may judge of the power of the Covenant by the successe and effect in some persons we shall find that Enoch and Eliah were by the grace of the Old Covenant saved even from bodily death and taken up into heaven and happinesse And therefore let this consideration of the unity and agreement which is betweene the new and old Covenant of grace admonish us not to be puffed up with pride a false conceipt as if we onely under the Gospel were respected of God saved by faith in Iesus Christ Let this teach us to thinke reverently of the Fathers in the Old time and love and reverence the name and remembrance of them as Saints glorified in heaven spirituall members of the same Christ and partakers of the same grace with us But above all let this enflame our hearts with a deadly hatred and detestation of all those heretickes and their doctrine as the
many and those very plaine in every place And this was a speciall cause which made the people of Israel to misconstrue the meaning of that Covenant and to thinke that all salvation was to be obtained by Workes and thus the Covenant was obscure and the end thereof was hid from their sight they could not understand the true use of the Types and Ceremonies But the Covenant of the Gospell is made in such plain words and doth after such a lively manner set forth Christ and his perfect Ransome satisfaction and righteousnesse unto us and the true way to justification and salvation by faith in him that the most simple may understand it and with that plaine Doctrine and multitude of Promises the Spirit of God workes powerfully and is given by Christ in such measure to all sorts of people that the darkenesse of their hearts is abolished also and so there is no vaile neither over their hearts nor over the Covenant it selfe but as Christ is plainely offered in the Word so their hearts are enlightned and enabled to looke on his glory and they are transformed into the same image and hereupon there comes to be great difference in this respect betweene the Covenant of the Gospell and the Covenant of the Law which God gave by Moses From these two last Differences there doe arise others which are there laid downe by the Apostle also to wit That the Old Covenant of the Law is the ministery of death but the Covenant of the Gospell is the ministery of the Spirit and of Life 2 Cor. 3. 7. The Old is the occasion of sinne and so the ministery of condemnation the New of righteousnesse to justification The Old brings bondage the New liberty The Old is lesse glorious and yet dazled the eyes of the Israelites that they could not looke on it stedfastly The New is full of glory and yet we can behold in it with open face the glory of God verse 18. These particular Differences are all named and noted by the Apostle and they doe arise from the two last going before For Reason tells us that because the Old Covenant was given by the Ministery of Moses a fraile man and was darke and obscure subject to be misconstrued and was not plainely preached by lively voyce but onely written in dead Letters in Tables of Stone therefore it was no fit instrument for the Spirit to worke by the Spirit did not worke by it such plenty of Knowledge Faith and other Graces It did onely shew them what they should do but enabled them not to do any thing rather made them more sinfull in provoking their corrupt naturewch more lusts after evils forbidden it made their sins more wilfull which before were done in ignorance and thus it became the Ministery of Sin Death and Condemnation unto them It also brought them into bondage by shewing them their slavish condition giving them no grace to flee from that miserable estate It dazled their eyes because it shewed them the glorious Majestie Iustice of God but gave them not the Grace of the Spirit to strengthen their sight to looke with boldnesse and comfort upon Gods majesticall justice But because the Covenant of the Gospell is made in plain words and given by a Mediatour who hath also the disposing of the Spirit dispensing of Spirituall Grace therefore it is a fit instrument for the Spirit to worke by the Spirit goeth forth in great power by and with the publication of it which regenerates men renues their hearts knits thē into one Body with Christ gives them the Communion of all his Righteousnesse and Obedience to justification of Life frees them from all feare and bondage makes them run freely and willingly in the way to life and in the pathes of Gods Commandements enables them to stand boldly before the glorious Tribunall of Gods Iustice and gives them an heavenly eye-salve to their sight that they may stedfastly behold GODS glory in the face of Iesus Christ And thus in those respects those two Covenants doe much differ betweene themselves The last difference is named by the Apostle in the 11 verse and it is this That the Covenant of the Law given by Moses and the glory thereof vanishes and is done away but the Covenant of the Gospell and the glory thereof abideth for ever Which Difference is thus to be understood not that the substance of the Law or the righteousnesse thereof ceaseth at any time neither that the Evangelical promises which were intermingled in that Covenant are abolished together with the Types and Ceremonies These things are in no case to be granted for the Law of God is an eternall rule of Truth and Iustice by the righteousnesse obedience and fulfilling thereof all the Elect shall be justified and saved for ever This our Saviour testifieth saying Think not that I am come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it for verily till heaven and earth passe not one jot or title of the Law shall passe Mat. 5. 17. Also his blessed Apostle Rom. 3. 31. Doe we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea we estabish the Law Rom. 10. 4 Christ is the end or fulfilling of the Law for righteousness to every beleever And if we rightly consider the Ceremonies and the promises given to Israel wee shall perceive that Christ was the Body substance of them all and therefore so long as hee abideth the substance of them abideth firme sure and doth not vanish Wherefore the Law Covenant wch God gave by Moses doth vanish and is abolished onely in three respects First in respect of the extreme rigour thereof for as it was given to Israel it required obedience of every man in his owne person to justification and life but now it onely requires that a man have that righteousnesse which is a perfect conformity to it though performed by his surety and mediatour and that shall sufficiently save him Before it did require perfect righteousnesse upon paine of damnation performed by every man himselfe and threatned a curse to every breach of it Now it bindes a man himselfe to performe no more then he is able if hee doth his best and brings a willing minde God accepts the will for the deed because now we are not to obey the Law for justification Christ hath done that for us Now we are to obey it in thankfulnesse and in imitation of Christ that we may be conformable to his Image and by holinesse made fit to see God and to injoy the inheritance which Christ hath purchased for us Secondly the Law and Covenant givē by Moses is abolished in respect of the outward administration Their obedience to the morall Law was first preached and afterwards the sacrifice of Christ was promised in types and figures But now Christ is first preached and then after justification in him the Law is set as a rule to walk by in the wayes of sanctification and also