Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	witness_n	word_n	writing_n	48	3	9.1217	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67095	The manifold vvisedome of God In the divers dispensation of grace by Iesus Christ, In the Old New Testament. In the covenant of faith. workes. Their agreement and difference. By G. Walker, B.D. pastor of Saint Iohn the Evangelist in Watlingstreet.	Walker, George, 1581?-1651.	1641 (1641)	Wing W361; ESTC R217663	63,825	196

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