foundation can no man lay then the is laid which is Jesus Christ The Covenant of Works was founded upon something in man his concreated ability and natural strength all the obedience of the first Adam if he had stood and the fruits thereof would have been resulting from the sufficiency of his own power and free-will and he failing all the fabrick fell But the Lord hath established another glorious Covenant and this is built upon what is firmer and of greater strength even Jesus Christ this stone that is laid in Zion is a tried stone Isa 26. 16. A sure foundation Now the structure of our Salvation will never fall because it hath such a sure ground-work able to bear up the weight and stress of all that is laid upon it No other can be laid He is the only foundation of all the promises of all the graces of all the obedience of all the peace of all the comfort of all the glory that is promised That with Abraham before his incarnation was confirmed of God in Christ Gal. 3. 17. He was the Mediator of Abrahams Covenant and therefore that had in it the same for substance with the new Indeed Jesus Christ is the foundation of all the blessings and special priviledges in the Covenant as with us If the Lord be a God to any it is in Christ if their iniquities be forgiven it is in the blood of Christ if the Divine Law be written in their hearts it is by the finger of the spirit of Christ thus he lieth at the bottom of all and so is the Covenant of the people 2. Jesus Christ maketh way for our injoyment of all federal blessings by standing in manifold relations to the Covenant As he standeth between God and us as a middle person to make reconciliation so he is the Mediator of the Covenant Heb. 9. 15. There was a wide breach that we could never have made up yea such a variance as there was no possibility of our approaching to God to enter upon a Treaty of Peace much less to procure our own reconciliation sin raised such an enmity as the Lord would have been a consuming fire to us if we had come near to him now the Lord Jesus interposed and took up this case undertook to compose and put an end to this difference There were iniquities in the way to hinder our fruition of promised mercies but he took an effectual course for the removal of these He is the Mediator of the new Testament to what end for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament Satisfaction was made by him to Divine Justice to the full he answered all the demands of the righteous Law and so wrought out reconciliation for us As he undertook for the parties at variance so he was the surety of the Covenant Heb. 7. 22. Jesus made a Surety of a better Testament The Lord would not take our bond for that great debt which we had contracted and were never able to pay It was now with us as with a poor man under an arrest for a vast sum unless there can be procured an able sufficient man to enter bond with him he must to prison without hope of being released any more so the Law of the righteous God arrested us for infinite breaches thereof it exacted a great and yet most just debt at our hand which we being already bankrupts were never able to answer it required a debt of infinite suffering the just due of our sin which if laid upon us would sink us for ever for the wages of sin is death The Lord demanded a debt of perfect obedience universal righteousness unto life which we were never able to yield and now unless one able and sufficient will undertake and be bound for us there is no possibility of escaping the prison of Hell the chains of infernal darkness the everlasting wrath of the Omnipotent God under this misery we must have layen without hope of recovery this was our state upon the fall of our first parents and in this strait and distress one not of our procuring but of his own grace offering it even Jesus Christ stepped in and became a surety for us to pay our ransom to answer our debt to the utmost farthing he put his name into our Obligation was made under the Law to redeem those that were under the Law Gal. 4 4. Yea he became God's surety to us to free us from all doubtings about the fulfilling of the Covenant to us he undertook and promised that he would lose nothing that was given him John 6. 39. But would raise in up at the last day i. e. to everlasting Salvation for others shall be raised up also unto Condemnation but these unto eternal glory As he ratified and confirmed all so he was the Testator of the Covenant Heb. 9. 16 17. Where there is a Testament then must also of necessity be the death of the Testator for a Testament is of force after men be dead Nothing less than death it self was threatned upon the first transgression Gen. 2. 17. that must be indured if ever Sinners be recovered unto a fruition of eternal life and now behold the matchless love of Jesus Christ saith he I will die in their stead to save them from eternal death and thus he hath turned it into a Testament a new Testament fealing it with his own blood As he acteth for our obtainment of the blessings promised so he is the Messenger of the Covenant Mal. 3. 1. The Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in behold he shall come We should have been without a knowledge of this grace altogether strangers to it and unacquainted with it if he had not revealed it to us and so we should not have made out after but come short of those spiritual blessings of the Covenant but now Jesus Christ himself travelleth with these blessed tidings he maketh a report of all the federal transactions between the Father and him in order to our Salvation he openeth all those soul-ravishing Mysteries and all those precious promises yea the way to our participation of those blessed priviledges and so he is the Messenger of the Covenant As he seeketh to satisfie us of the reality of God in all those federal transactions so he is the wâ—tness of the Covenant Isa 55. 4. Behold I have given him for a witness of the people When poor sould hear the tidings of Covenant love in the heart of God towards them they are ready to suspect it is too good news to be true are apt to be incredulous here are hardly perswaded to believe the truth thereof at least as to themselves now Jesus Christ condescendeth so far as to take upon him the Office of a Witness to assure of the truth of all yea now he is in heaven he doth not throw up that Office he continueth still in this work and sendeth down news from heaven thereof Revel 1. 5. 3. 14. He
possibly by another Covenant But for the clearing of that Sinai dispensation and preventing some ill effects even in practice of misunderstanding the nature thereof I shall add 4. It is probable that Spiritual and Eternal blessings were not dispenced out to Israel by the Old Sinai Covenant but only were typically represented therein I take the main purport and design of it to be under that servile administration of the Covenant of Grace to point out the higher and more Spiritual matters thereof and to shew that as upon literal Israels performing the obedience which was required of them as a condition thereof they did injoy temporal blessings therein promised to them so upon the performance of the main condition thereof by Jesus Christ even perfect obedience the true Spiritual Israel should enjoy the Spiritual blessings promised unto them So that Temporal blessings were afforded by the Sinai Covenant but Spiritual blessings were not dispenced out thereby This with submission to better Judgements seemeth to me to be so upon these among other grounds 1. No life was attainable by Israels performing of the Sinai Covenant and therefore other Spiritual blessings were not dispenced out to them thereby Gal. 3. ver 21. For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law The great blessings then of the Covenant of Grace viz. life could not be had by their obedience to the Sinai Law of which he there speaketh Ver. 17. And therefore neither could other blessings be had thereby which had their dependance upon and issued from that As Christians are not now so Israelites were not then to do for Life That Moses and Aaron must not enter into the Promised Canaan but go up to the Mount and die may be to signifie that the Sinai Covenant would not give an entrance into the heavenly Canaan Moses obtained that not through the works of the Law but in a way of Faith 2. Spiritual blessings were not dispenced out upon the condition of Israels obedience to the Sinai Covenant for they often violated that Covenant Jer. 31. ver 32. Which Covenant they brake And therefore their Spiritual mercies had been forseited and lost if they had been dispenced out then upon the condition of their keeping that Covenant seeing they come so much short of it whereas there was no falling from special Grace in that day any more than now When they had made a forfeiture of their temporal mercies therein Promised by breaking of it they were forced to make another plea Exod. 34. ver 13. Remember Abraham Isaac and Israel thy Servants to whom thou swarest by thine own self c. When the anger of the Lord waxed hot against Israel ver 11. for committing Idolatry by making the Calf Moses doth not plead that made at Sinai but fleeth from that to the Covenant with Abraham for their relief Indeed there was an external representation of Spirituals in the Sinai Covenant As they making attonement and offering Sacrifices for diverse sins it is said they should be forgiven them Levit. 4. ver 26 27 28 29 31. Levit. 5. ver 10 13 16 18. Num. 15. ver 28. But no real attonement was made thereby for the Law made nothing perfect Heb. 7. ver 19. Heb. 9. ver 9. No real forgiveness was afforded by these acts of obedience unless so far as that those sins should not hinder their attaining the temporal mercies promised in that Covenant or that the temporal Curses of it should not be inflicted these did but typically represent the Spiritual forgiveness which they by another Covenant even that with Abraham should attain unto Thus their entring into Covenant with the Lord is said to be that he might establish them that day for a people to himself and that he might be unto them a God Deut. 29. ver 12 13. They were thereby owned or confirmed in a federal relation unto God but so as upon their miscarriages he could say to them Loammi Hos 1. ver 9. Ye are not my people and I will not be your God and therefore it was externally only that they were his and he theirs by that Covenant 3. The ceremonials which seemed most to intimate the dispencing out of Spiritual blessings were only typical representations thereof these were but shaddows of heavenly things Heb. 8. ver 5. The forgiveness of sin in the Sinai Covenant was such as not to have temporal punishments inflicted and thus it was but a shaddow of the real and true forgiveness which in opposition thereunto is restrained unto Jesus Christ Heb. 9 and 10. Chapters Their acceptance was unto some end viz. so as to be priviledged with their temporal mercies and it was but a shaddow of Spiritual acceptation Their long Life in Canaan a shaddow of Eternal Life in Heaven Spiritual blessings seem not to be dispenced out but only to be signified by these 4. Those that look for Spiritual blessings only by the Sinai Covenant and their personal performance of it are excluded from being sharers in them Gal. 4. ver 30. Cast out the Bondwoman and her Son for the Son of the Bondwoman shall not be Heir with the Son of the Free-woman The Bondwoman is expresly said to be the mount Sinai Covenant or Testament this is Hagar ver 24. and that as a Covenant must be cast out and also those that are the seed of it begotten to a profession only in a legal way by legal duties or terrours those that stand upon an Old Covenant bottom and put themselves under that shall not inherit shall not be Heirs of the everlasting Inheritance it is another an opposite seed begotten by a Gospel Promise which shall injoy that and therefore that Sinai Covenant was not intended that Souls should have Spiritual and everlasting blessings dispenced out by yielding obedience unto that for then its seed should inherit as well as the other but that by the sight of the impossibility of their keeping it they might be provoked to become the Children of the Free-woman which are born by Promise by a distinct Covenant Neither doth he speak in these things of the Law only taken abusively in the sense urged and intended by the false Prophets but really in its self as it was established by God at mount Sinai For as an Argument to draw them off from the errours of the false Prophets he saith ver 21 22. Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law do ye not hear the Law for it is written that Abraham had two Sons one by the Bondwoman the other by a Free-woman c. And further that these were an antient Allegory foreshewing two Covenants or Testaments the one gendering to bondage whose seed must be cast out as giving no inheritance and therefore he concludeth that the Lord himself in giving that Covenant at mount Sinai never intended that it should be for communicating of the eternal inheritance unto the Sons of men he telleth them that
himself under engagements to make them good to men so it is a Covenant to or with them because they obtain personal interest therein so as to have a ground to claim many priviledges thereof thus often the Covenant was renewed with Abraham after his being in it As by the same Covenant or Promise the Lord obligeth himself to all acts of Communion and expressions of love and kindness suitable to or that can be expected in a conjugal relation so it is a Marriage Covenant with them the same instant they are enabled to consent by faith Heb. 8. 10. Joh. 1. 12. to receive and enjoy the blessings promised as a necessary fruit and effect of the Covenant It is promised therein that they shall be his people they shall resign up themselves to the Lord. He hath undertaken that one i. e. one by one shall say I am the Lords Isai 44. 3 5. A consent is promised by the Lords as well as any other matter So that our engaging our selves to God or Covenanting with him is not constitutive of the Covenant of grace but executive namely that which is produced in the execution of it and may often be repeated or renewed by distinct engagings God dealing with men as reasonable creatures that act out of judgement and their own choice urgeth duty as believing repenting c. by arguments from the advantage of coming up to it All that believe shall be saved and the danger of neglecting it such shall be damned as Mark 16 16. Rom. 10. 9. Rev. 3. 20. Such general propositions do not express the full tenure of the Covenant but only are means towards the execution of it for the invitations extend to all Nations Matth. 28. 19. Mark 16. 15. since the death of Christ not before Psal 147. 19 20. Whereas the Covenant is only with the Israel of God Heb. 8. 8. I shall add no more at present to this but that my design in all is the right stating evangelical duty and the asserting the doctrine of free grace which as it is the most Christ-exalting so it is the most sin-mortifying soul-humbling and abasing and self-emptying doctrine it is not the Law of works but of faith that excludeth boasting Coloss 1. 18 19. Rom. 6. 1 14. Tit. 2. 11 12. Rom. 3. 27. Reader the following Treatise hath been divers years prepared and not one leaf added to it since October 1672. which I mention for a special reason My desire is that all which I have said for clearing up of the mind and will of God in this great matter may be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary and received as it holdeth weight there And that thy sharing in the blessings of the everlasting Covenant may be promoted hereby shall be the prayer of him who is Thy Servant in the work of the Gospel S. P. Mon. 4. day 20. 1673. Christian Reader THE ensuing Discourse containeth a sober endeavour for the declaration and true stating of the nature and difference of the two Covenants of Works and of Grace A subject this is which by reason of the weight and use of it in the whole business of Religious Obedience hath been attempted by many and wherein by reason of the difficulty of it in conjunction with their own Prejudices not a few have miscarried Neither do I know of any who have yet handled it with that fulness and perspicuity as to shut up the way unto the diligence of others in the investigation and declaration of the Truth or to render Labour in the same kind either useless or superfluous The stores of heavenly wisdom grace and truth which are treasured up in the Divine Revelations concerning Gods Covenants are far from being fully exhausted or drawn forth by the labours of any in this kind although very many have already brought to light excellent and useful instructions in the mind of God and the duty of them who do believe But the thing it self is so excellent the mystery of it so great the declaration of it in the Scripture so extensive and diffused throughout the whole body of it from the first to the last as also in its concernment unto the whole course of our faith and obedience that there is a sufficient ground whereon to justifie a renewed search into the mind of God therein as revealed in his word There is no doubt but the greatest product of Divine Grace Goodness and condescension next unto the sending of the only Son of God to take our Nature on him with the direct effect and consequence thereof is this of his entring into Covenant with the Children of men nor hath any thing a greater tendency unto the advancement of his own glory God might have dealt with mankind in a way of soveraignty or meer dominion as he doth with the remainder of the creatures here below but then it must be acknowledged that in such a way of rule and procedure there would not have been that evident demonstration of the divine excellencies his goodness righteousness and faithfulness as ensues upon the supposition of his condescension to take mankind into covenant with himself And thence it is that he never did nor ever would treat with any of that race any otherwise or on any other terms Wherefore when the first Covenant was broken by the entrance of sin God had no other relation unto mankind but that of a supreme Ruler and Judge to reward them according to the penalty threatned and established in the Covenant But as for any advantage in a way of Love Peace and Goodness there was none remaining until he had made and established a New Covenant to that end and purpose And this fully discovers how great a concern there is of the glory of God in the Covenant which he made with us and proposeth unto us seeing he never declared or intimated any other way of gracious or acceptable intercourse in him and the effects of iâ— do issue in eternity Moreover this dispensation of God in making a Covenant with our first Parents was the greatest evidence of the preheminence of that nature where with in time we were endowed and only demonstration of our being capable to be brought unto eternal enjoyment of him For God herein admitting us into an intercourse with him by a declared Rule of his own Goodness and faithfulness manifested that we were capable of eternal rewards which he proposed unto us in himself And these things make the investigation of the true nature of the Covenant with God first made with Adam and the terms whereby it was made both necessary and profitable For although that Covenant is ceased by the entrance of sin as unto any spiritual or eternal advantage unto us yet is it as revealed still instructive in the wisdom and goodness of God as also in the excellency of that state and condition in which we were created with the honour that God put upon our Nature whence directions unto due apprehensions of God and
Adam Abraham David c. were not so many distinct Covenants of grace they were but various gradual discoveries of the same Covenant according to the variety of occasions in the several ages every new one being for some new end and bringing with it a further degree of manifestation and all run to Jesus Christ and us 1. That gracious promise revealed to Adam primarily runneth unto Jesus Christ as to the blessed Seed and then to us in him wretched man having eaten of the forbidden fruit what could he expect every moment but the execution of that dreadful Sentence Gen. 2. 17. In the day thou eatest dying thou shalt die O what unexpressible astonishment must needs seize upon his guilty Soul on this account there being no contrivance by any Creature wisdom no way open either for the escaping the stroke of Divine wrath or for standing under it for how should a feeble Creature bear up or avoid being crushed under the weight of an omnipotent arm Now behold in the cool of the day when the shadows of the evening were comming upon undone fallen man then was the first dawning of a day of grace saith God Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy Seed and her Seed it shall bruise thy head c. The bowels of Divine compassion did so tenderly rowle towards him that he could not pass one day without some intimation of his love and revealing his gracious intendments towards him Indeed this was immediately spoken not to Adam as a promise but to the Serpent as a threatning yet was uttered that Adam might over-hear and Spell out Something of a promise in it But Jesus Christ is primarily this Seed of the woman which bruiseth the Serpents head For it is he that standeth Conquerour over all the enemies of Salvation sin Satan death and Hell he procureth their utter overthrow destroyeth the works of the Devil 1 John 3. 8. Vanquisheth and overcometh him Revel 12. 9. Christ is chiefly intended by it Believers are Victorious only in and by Jesus Christ they overcome by the blood of the Lamb and so the promise is joyntly to him and them Many matters in this first discovery of the Covenant did lie dark and were hidden it not discovering distinctly what Seed of the woman it should be nor the way or means to this or that he should be God as well as man and how this should be brought about which were afterward revealed 2. The Covenant with Abraham was joyntly with Jesus Christ and us there was a gracious promise which saith might hang upon as early as the days of Adam this was a promise of a blessed Seed to be given for man but the Covenant with man concerning it seemeth to be dated not from Adam but from Abraham Gal. 3. because the Lord was pleased to deal with Abraham in a more familiar way than with others before him putting himself under Covenant ingagements to him Gen. 12. 3. In thee shall all the families of the Earth be blessed and Gen. 17. They must needs be at a great loss about the Seed of the woman of whose posterity it should come and it was the chief additional excellency of this federal expressure to assure Abraham that the Messia should come of his Seed according to the flesh Gen. 22. 18. In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed and thus that which was more general in the former to Adam is here more particular for it is restrained to this family and it was an advantage to know the family which he should come of There were other promises made to him as concerning the land of Canaan and that the Lord would be his God Gen. 17. 7. The latter was hinted before to another person Gen. 9. 26. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. It is observed by some that Shem was the first man in all the Scripture that had this honour It is not expresly said that he was the God of Adam or of Noah but the God of Shem. Now this becometh more general he will be the God of Abraham and his Seed And this Seed expresly is Christ Gal. 3. 16. Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made he saith not unto Seeds as of many but as of one and to thy Seed which is Christ So vers 19. Whether it be taken for Christ mystical or as a publick person yet Christ is firstly that Seed and it is as clear as the Sun that not only Christ but Believers also are the Seed in the same Abrahamatical Covenant Gal. 3. 7 26. especially vers 29. and if ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams Seed and heirs according to promise What can be more evident Believers are also of the Seed and so the Covenant with Abraham runneth joyntly to Jesus Christ and them 3. The Covenant made with David runneth joyntly to Jesus Christ and us Psal 89. 20 28 29. I have found my Servant David my Covenant shall stand with him Abraham was not a King but David was and the Covenant was made with him in that capacity as the great additional excellency thereof and it typically holdeth forth Jesus Christ in his exaltation to regal dignity Herein are some things appliable only to Jesus Christ as vers 27. and often he is called the Son of David and it is promised Ezek. 34. 24 25. I the Lord will be their God and my servant David a Prince among them This was long after David was dead and therefore must refer to Jesus Christ And also this Covenant with David extended to that Seed which would break statutes and sin against the Lord. Psal 89. 30 31 32. Which cannot refer to Jesus Christ but to us and thus that Covenant expressure did run joyntly to Jesus Christ and us 4. The New Covenant runneth joyntly to Jesus Christ and us for he died as Mediator not of the old but of the new Testament Heb. 9. 15. Which he could not have done if he had not been under it As an additional excellency of the new Jesus Christ is mentioned not as undertaking but as actually exhibited or come and his being the Mediator and the new Covenant it self whereof he is the Mediator are distinct things yet both within the Covenant of grace Indeed whatever promises there are for application of blessings to us in Christ are included in the new Covenant that extendeth to all matters of his ministration as already in that Office buâ— the promises are all firstly made to Jesuâ— Christ and to us in him Corol. 1. Hence the Covenant of grace is very extensive it taketh in all the promises made to Jesus Christ and to us yea all the antient promises of a blessed Seed to come did belong to that Covenant in lieâ— of which we have a Mediator actually exhibited and also the new Covenant It may be questioned by some whether all the promises still in force in the Book of God do belong to the
Covenant of Grace because so few are enumerated where it is mentioned as with us Gen. 12. 17. Heb. 8. 10 11 12. But seeing all are made and fulfilled in Christ hence they must all flow as living streams from that Fountain The Covenant of grace with Jesus Christ that is the great Charter that we hold all our priviledges by and all the promises do some way or other appertain to that Some Promises are Constitutive of the Covenant as those between the Father and the Son concerning a Seed others are executive or referring to the execution and application of it Isa 53 10 11. Heb. 8. 10 11 12. Some are principal and concerning the end eternal life Heb. 8. Heb. 9. 15. Gal. 3. 8 9 18. Others less principal concerning the means internal the Spirit and faith or external as ordinances Not only Spiritual but even promises of temporal blessings as of succour and relief in particular cases and conditions in outward straits and distresses yet these belong to the Covenant of grace Psal 105. 39 40 41. He spread a cloud for a covering here is protection a fire to give light by night that intimateth direction he brought quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven here is gracious provision he opened the rock and the waters gushed out this speaketh miraculous refreshment and consolation And whence was all this care over them vers 42. For he remembred his holy Covenant and Abraham his Servant All these then were to be deemed Covenant mercies Where had the Lord particularly promised any such extraordinary relieves unto Abraham or his Seed O he witnessed himself to be their God and promised the land of Canaan and that implyeth all mercy and means necessary for them in the pursuance of the Call to it So that all protections preservations provisions all for the sustaining upholding and succouring of the people of God yea even their lowest mercies have a tincture of Covenant-love to put quickness into them So returns of prayer in a day of outward affliction are in remembrance of his Covenant Psal 106. 44. 45. 2 King 13. 22 23. Yea observe in some places where the Covenant is mentioned there are promises added and so belong to it which in other repetitions of it are left out As Jer. 32. 38 39 40. One-ness of heart and way and his fear in their hearts are promised in the Covenant yet are omitted in the recital thereof Jer. 31. 31 to 35. And the Word Covenant is omitted and yet many promises thereof are mentioned Ezek. 36. 25 to the end as appeareth by the identity of some with those expresly in it else-where So that we are not to confine the Covenant of grace to those mentioned in the new Covenant all the promises to us are some way comprised in it Corol. 2. Hence there is infallible certainty in and grounded consolation issuing from the Covenant of grace seeing it is made joyntly with Jesus Christ and us All the promises are his right as well as ours and so can never fail Is Jesus Christ the Seed of the woman who hath assurance of being victorious over the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. So are Believers yea they are of the Seed of Abraham and David interested in the same promises Gal. 3. 19 21. If any thing be a Condition of the Covenant of grace it must be so of the promises to Jesus Christ as well as of those to us that taking in all and being joyntly with both and principally with him and with us but in him as his Seed and so faith cannot be it for the promises were not made to Jesus Christ upon Condition of our believing but upon what he himself should do and suffer rather therein he hath a promise assurance that we shall believe Isa 5â— 10. he shall see his Seed It would highly derogate from the honour of the Lord Jesus to say that the efficacy and effect of all his undertaking had dependance upon any act of ours as that of believing It is by the efficiency of the Word of the new Testament that faith is given Rom. 10. 14 15 16 17. Act. 13. 47 48. Yea the gift of faith is promised in that of writing his Law in their hearts Heb. 8. â—0 and therefore by its Obligation for it is a contradiction to speak of a promise without Obligation for performance unto the persons to whom it is made and what matter is it whether it be upon an Obligation to the Sinners themselves or to another to Jesus Christ their Feofee in trust for them it is by the new Covenant which is made to them and that of grace is joyntly with Christ and them Believers are not only the objects for 〈◊〉 concerning whom he promiseth to Jesus Christ that he will do them good as bruit oâ— inanimate Creatures are improperly said to be in Covenant with him but the Subjectâ— to whom he promiseth special blessings iâ— Christ so as the promises are directed to and may be claimed by them Jesus Christ had an interest therein they are his right as we as theirs and this is no damage but 〈◊〉 advantage as giving assurance that they wiâ—â— be made good to a Tittle Jer. 33. 20 21 If you can break my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night then may all so my Covenant be broken with David my servant Long before the prophesying oâ— Jeremiah David had been in the dust and yet the Covenant with him holdeth still and it being made with Jesus Christ who is our David hence the order of nature the entercourse and revolutions of night and daâ— might as readily fail as any promises madâ— to him be disanulled or go unaccomplished yea he will sue them out for us when by reason of inward cloudings and darkness even about an interest in them we cannot lay any claim unto them our selves He should be a loser if they should not be fulfilled he should lose his right as well as we ours Christ and we having a joynt interest therein Had Christ assurance of being Victorious over the Serpent we also have assurance of standing Conquerours over him in Christ by the same promise and that under the same notion of the Seed of the woman So that this is a bottom of everlasting consolation that Jesus Christ and we are within one and the same Covenant CHAP. III. Of Christ as the sum of the Covenant THe Covenant of grace running primarily to Jesus Christ and to us in him so as he not only maketh it with but even is the Covenant of the people Isa 42. 6. It will be necessary to inquire What interest Jesus Christ hath or how and in what place and Office he standeth in reference to the Covenant 1. Jesus Christ is the very foundation which Evangelical Covenant is built upon as he is our life Coloss 3. 3. 1 John 5. 20. the cause of it So he is the Covenant i. e. the very basis of it as 1 Cor. 3. 11. For other
of the Covenant with Abraham and his seed and proveth it on this wise Gal. 3. vers 15 16 17. This I say that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disanul Where he argueth thus That which was made at Mount Sinai coming after could not disanul that with Abraham which was of a more antient date or long before it He speaketh not of the moral Law barely as a Rule of Life for so even before Abraham it was immortalities were ever sinful and exposed those that were guilty of them unto dreadful Judgements as Sadom and Gomorrah to fire and brimstone and the old World to a deluge of Water therefore he must speak of the Law considered as a Covenant given at Mount Sinai and thus it was not till four hundred and thirty years after that with Abraham so these must be two distinct Covenants of vastly different dates else the Apostles argument which is built upon their difference in respect of time is not cogent it is of no force if they be of the same date one as early as the other for the false Apostles among the Galatians might have said the Law as a Covenant was as early as Abraham for substance though not for form and administration this had been enough to elude his plea which was grounded upon the time of it especially seeing the Law was urged amongst the Galatians not meerly as to any circumstances in that new ministration but as to the substance of it the question then being Whether Justification and the eternal inheritance were by the works of the Law or by Grace and in a way of Faith The Apostle argueth that this federal transactiion at Sinai not having a being till Moses so long after that with Abraham hence it could not establish another way of life opposite to that viz. by works of the Law Also Deut. 5. vers 2 3. The Lord our God made a Covenant with us in Horeb the Lord made not this Covenant with our Fathers but with us The Sinai Covenant is clearly intended here by that at Hâ—reb compare Deut. 4. vers 10 11 12 13. with Exod. 19. vers 1 8. 9. and this is expresly denied to be made with their Fathers the Sinai Covenant then was not made with the Patriarchs not made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob or with any that lived before the time of Moses they that were alive at that day are intimated to be the first with whom it was made it was not with our Fathers but with us even with us who are all of us here alive this day those then which before the times of Moses were dead had not this Covenant made with them and therefore it is distinct from that which was made with the Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob c. He doth not say the Lord made not this administration of it with our Fathers or he made it not in this form but the Lord stroke not this Covenant he denyeth the Covenant it self to be cut with them It is an adding to the word to put in as some do tantum as if the meaning were this not only with our Fathers but also with us This is to say it was made with the Fathers when the Holy Spirit expressly denieth it Such additions admitted else-where in Scripture would be found to be desperately dangerouâ— and here can by no means be allowed seeing the Apostle giveth it an after date Gal. 3. 17. 2. The better Covenant and that at Sinai are contradistinguished and so must be two distinct Covenants else the opposition were groundless Jer. 31. vers 31 32 I will make a New Covenant Not according to the Covenant I made with their Fathers i. e. not according to the Sinai Covenant for that was it which was made when they were brought out of the Land of Egypt He doth not say I will set up a new administration of my Covenant though that had been true but a New Covenant there is a plain opposition between Covenant and Covenant and therefore the New and that at Sinai must be two distinct and not one and the same in different forms and the rather because this New Covenant is not opposed to the Covenant with Abraham and to that with David but only to that with Moses and Israel at Mâ—â—ent Sinai Let any instance be given of any thing that is found contradistinguished in such a manner as these are when only some modification and different respects of the same subject is intended to be signified thereby 3. The bitterness of the Covenant were not a sufficient evidence that the ministration of Jesus Christ is of greater excellency than the other if they were not two distinct Covenants The Apostle proveth that Jesus Christ hath obtained a more excellent Ministry by this Medium Heb. 8. vers 6. By how much also he is a Mediatour of a better Covenant He doth not say Only a better administration but a better Covenant and much of the force of his Argument were lost if the Ministry of those Levitical Priests and also Christs were conversant about the same Covenant but if they be two then it is very foreible they ministred about one Covenant and Christ about another and a better and therefore his is the more excellent Ministry Besides it is taken from his being a Mediatour of that better Covenant which implieth that he was not then a Mediatour of that worse Sinai Covenant though of old typified therein which their Ministry related to Indeed it had been a slender proof of the excellency of his Ministry if the better Covenant were the same for substance with the worse seeing then that at Sinai must be still continuing and so Jesus Christ not only in his Type but in his own person must be Mediatour thereof Ministring therein which that Text doth not give the least countenance to but there and also else-where Christ is called the Mediator of the New Covenant in opposition to the Old Heb. 12. vers 18 19 20 24. Heb. 9. 15. Even in the satisfying the Old by his death And therefore they must be two distinct Covenants 4. The many Notes of distinction that are given of them argue that they are two Covenants they are not only called the Old and the New this possibly might be said of the same Subject as we say the Old and the New Moon and yet one and the same Moon but the first and the second Heb. 8. vers 7. If that first Covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second As Dr. C. saith That it should be affirmed of one and the same Covenant that this is the first Covenant and that is the second and yet those two should be but both one that is strange 5. They are successive the Second cometh in the place of the First and so they must two distinct Covenants Heb. 10. vers 9. He taketh away the First
mercy what improvement to be made of it Ver. 10. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God and do his Commandments and his Statutes which I command thee this day Likewise Levit. 19. many Verses Levit. 20. ver 7 8. 5. No violation or breaking of the Covenant on Israels part deprived them of those temporal mercies promised unless it were against the substantials of the Sinai Covenant and therefore it was an administration of Grace to Israel for else every even the least sin would have cut them short of all the benefit thereof Now where the Lord speaketh of breaking the Covenant it is in some principal matters thereof as Levit. 26. vers 1 2 c. You shall make you no Idols nor graven Images c. despising his Statutes and breakng his Covenant are in connexion ver 15. also Jesh 23. ver 16. When you have transgressed the Covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you and have gone and served other Gods and bowed your selves to them Every sin was some breaking of that Covenant but upon the account of the Covenant with Abraham they were only such transgressions as serving other Gods and Worshipping them that provoked the Lord to anger against them so as to destroy them see Jer. 11. ver 10. Deut. 8. ver 19 20. If we view the instances or examples of the Lords plucking away those temporal mercies from them the Lord did not take advantage to do it upon every sin of infirmity but upon grosser failures against the substance of the Covenant Deut. 4. ver 3. The Lord destroyed them that followed Baal-Peor there is judgement upon transgressors and in opposition to them ver 4. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day ver 5 6. Those that were in the firmest adherence unto God yet were not sinless but the Lord doth intimate that he would not take advantage upon leffer sins of infirmity to deal in such a way of severity with them but upon greater miscarriages they that walked in a believing careful conscientious obedience were spared by the Lord as here he telleth us so their going into the Babylonish Captivity and other scatterings out of the Land of Canaan and deprivation of their temporal mercies were upon their crossing some main ends of that Covenant and not otherwise which argueth that there was Grace attending it unto Israel 6. After a violation of the Smai Covenant by Israel yet it admitted of Repentance and promised a return of mercy and therefore was an administration of Grace to them Had it been a Covenant of Works to them then no benefit could have been expected by it after a violation whatever Repentance had succeeded But it was otherwise here Deut. 30. ver 1 2. when under scatterings among the Nations then if ver 2. thou shalt return to the Lord thy God and obey his voice with all thy heart c. Ver. 3. Then the Lord thy God will turn thy Captivity and have compassion upon thee Ver. 5. And will bring thee into the Land which thy Fathers possessed and thou shalt possoss it and he will do thee good and multiply thee above thy Fathers When by their sin they had forfeited their temporal mercies yet on the condition of their Repentance they might repossess and reinjoy them and therefore to Israel it was an administration of the Covenant of Grace Object But did not the Lord dispence out Spiritual and Etennal mercies of the Covenant of Grace by the Sinai Covenant as well as temporals if so why is it mentioned as if it were only an administration of it to Israel for temporals Answ 1. Many persons under the Sinai Covenant did obtain Spiritual and Eternal mercies I freely grant But whether these were dispenced out by that is questioned Moses and other Israelites were enriched with Faith Heb. 11. and were saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ even as we Act. 15. ver 11. But they might injoy those blessings by virtue of the Covenant with Abraham and not by that at mount Sinai 2. Under those temporal things in the Sinai Covenant many Spiritual priviledges were typically represented The dealings of the Lord with Israel in that dispensation are said to be as with an heir whilst in infancy Gal. 4. ver 1 3. Now Children in their minority are led into apprehensions of and affections to things by the Pictures of them and are not so capable of right conceptions thereof other waies and therefore a great design of the Lord in this Sinai Covenant was to Picture and point out many spiritual blessings unto Israel under these shaddows Heb. 8. ver 5. for the drawing out that Faith which they had by the Covenant with Abraham to be exercised about them so as their Faith might be raised or helped by that at Sinai though the blessings themselves were not dispenced out thereby but by that with Abraham 3. The Sinai Covenant must be considered either as holding forth the condition of the Covenant of Grace and so it promised nothing but upon a perfect obedience and this not to be performed by Israel but by Jesus Christ and thus as it could not give life by any obedience of Israel Gal. 3. ver 21. Rom. 8. ver 2 3. so neither did Jesus Christ dispence it out thereby for he was the Mediatour of the New and better Covenant and his ministration did lie there Or we must consider it as it was an administration of the Covenant of Grace though but a servile one and the obedience thereof to be performed by Israel and thus it was added Gal. 3. ver 19. it was Additional or an Appendix to that with Abraham containing many Precepts Rules and Ordinances of Divine appointment as Sacrifices and other ceremonial services relating to the Tabernacle Priests and External Worship of God not before given forth and so the persons who were found in a due performance of these with an eye upon and relation to the antient Promise had many Spiritual blessings dispenced out to them but they might be only externally represented by the Siuai Covenant and dispenced out by their looking from thence to that with Abraham which it was annexed to and to be taken in conjunction with I cannot think that the Lord would require their exercising themselves about so many acts of Worship without intending that they should injoy his Spiritual presence and have acceptance in a due observance thereof Yea the temporal mercies themselves promised and afforded to them under the Sinai dispensation were fruits of the Covenant of Grace no outward mercies can be injoyed by sinful men in a federal way but there must needs be Grace therein And thus the matter cometh to the same reckoning in many respects whether those spiritual priviledges were derived to them through the one Covenant or the other I am far from thinking that the Israelites injoyed only temporal mercies doubtless they had Spiritual also though
and washed us from our sins in his own blood it is upon his satisfying the Sinai Covenant by his sufferings unto death as it was the condition of life it s not continuing as an administration of the Covenant of grace will be cleared in the following particulars 4. The Lord is not rigorously exacting duty from Believers now upon the legal terms of the Sinai Covenant cursed is he that continueth not in all therefore the Sinai Covenant is not continuing for such Coaction would inevitably follow a being under the obligation of it in regard that is the very nature and tenor of it Gal. 3. vers 10. Deut. 27. vers 26. and all the Promises run upon those terms If these curses be not in force against them then it is ceased as a Covenant if they be in force then they are under the same rigorous exaction of duty still as Israel was of old for then the inforcement to it is the same For we must know that the Sinai Covenant was not made with Pagans Infidels or professedly unbelievers the great God would not ingage himself by Covenant unto such but it was made with the Children of Israel with those who were the people of God already by the Covenant with Abraham before they came at Mount Sinai hence the preface runneth thus Exod. 20. vers 2. I am the Lord thy God c. not he became their God then but was their God before therefore if it be continuing to any as a Covenant it must be to the people of God for it was made with none else and they must if any be under the terror of it Whereas it is evident that Christians are to yield obedience upon more evangelical accounts the Gospel urgeth upon them duties of holiness the avoiding apostasie and profaness by sweetness and love not by legal terror but by their freedom from it Heb. 12. vers 14 to the end As if he had said ye are not come to a legal Mount Sinai dispensation inforcing duty by terror thundrings and lightnings but to Mount Sion to a dispensation of Gospel Grace vers 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh c. now the terror is upon abusing grace So Rom. 7. vers 6. Their being delivered from the Law in its compelling and condemning power is made the means to raise up unto new and spiritual obedience Not so much from the wrath as the mercy of God Rom. 12. vers 1. from the constraints of love 2 Cor. 5. vers 14. from an eying the promises of God 2 Cor. 7 vers 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all pollution of flesh and spirit And here I may hint one considerable difference between the Covenant of Works and that Covenant at Mount Sinai the former extended to all mankind and was made with all in Adam their common head but the later was made only with some with Israel and Judah the people of God 5. If the Sinai Covenant were still continuing then the people of God within it might still be laying claim to the blessings of it by vertue of the same promises in the very form as they are found therein for if the form be altered then the claim is by another Covenant whereby such an alteration is made Whereas temporal mercies are promised in a new dialect more absoluely Jer. 32. vers 36. to the end and 31. vers 27 28 31 32. they are not afforded unto Christians now upon the same conditional terms that they were to Israel under the Sinai Covenant By way of Analogy those antient promises may intimate to Christians now that walking circumspectly is the way to be supplied with earthly blessings that are good for them but there is no such special Contract or distinct Covenant as that made at Mount Sinai whereby they may claim so large a portion of temporal injoyments as Israel could by that rather we find that those which were most obedient in the first times of the Gospel were put upon an expectation of little in temporals in comparison and were to look for a plenty of troubles losses perseoutions c. Mat. 6. vers 31 32 33. Mat. 10. vers 22. Act. 20. vers 23. 2 Tim. 3. vers 12. Act. 14. vers 22. Luke 9. vers 23. See Mr. Bisco in his book entituled the glorious Mystery of Gods Mercy who endeavoureth to prove that temporal blessings were made over and dispensed to the Jews under the Law in a peculiar manner and as never to any People or Nation but they 6. Various expressions holding forth our freedom from the Law do conclude that it is not continuing as a Covenant as Rom. 6. vers 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under grace Those then that are under the Law in the sense here intended cannot be under grace and are under the dominion of sin and therefore the direction of the Law for duties of holiness is not denied here but they are not under the Law as a Sinai Covenant exacting full and perfect obedience upon pain of an eternal curse not under it as a condition of life unperformed for that were inconsistent with grace and would infer that sin is still exercising Lordship over them Rom. 7. vers 4. Ye are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ that ye might be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead c. He speaketh vers 1 2 3. of the Law as an imperious Husband which is by Covenant and thus they are dead to the Law not under the power of it by the body of Christ that is by his bearing the curse of the Law on his body and therefore they are dead to it as a Covenant for so he had it on his body Gal. 4. vers 21 24 30. The bond woman Hagar is expresly said to be the Covenant or Testament from Mount Sinai and she and her Son all that are of a legal birth must be cast out vers 30. that Covenant therefore from Mount Sinai was but temporary is cast out in Gospel times is not continuing In some respect that at Mount Sinai may be called as it is by learned Cameron a subservient Covenant viz. in respect of Israel as it discovered sin and provoked to seek after a Mediator Exod. 20. vers 19. in promising temporal mercies upon obedience representing spirituals and eternals but subserviency doth not fitly express its soederal nature as it promised life upon doing or perfect obedience threatning death and a dreadful curse upon falling short of it I do not call it the Covenant of Grace nor the Covenant of Works but to express the formality and essential nature of it I call it the Covenant of Grace as to its legal condition or a Covenant concerning the legal condition of the Covenant of Grace which is held forth under an administration of it for temporals unto Israel O let Christians yield utmost obedience to the royal
Law of liberty but let all be done in the strength of Christ and in the way of the New Covenant make use of a promise of grace in setting about all duty And beware of seeking to keep up the Old Covenant which really is not continuing we seek to keep it up When we live in the spirit of the Old Covenant acting by its inforcements terror wrath curse rather than by the allurements of grace in the free promise Also when there is a grounding acceptation with God upon our own duties and performances the Old Covenant did run upon do and live intending a doing for eternal life which was peculiar to Jesus Christ but our nature is prone to run our own doing into the place of his as if we could gain acceptation unto life by our own services or do something that way We are apt to build expectations of mercy upon our own doing in stead of building them upon Jesus Christ Evangelical obedience may be a secondary evidence but when we dwell more upon any thing done by us yea or upon any inherent grace any thing within our selves than upon the free grace of God in Christ we then make something of our own a ground of acceptance and not an evidence only when something within raiseth our hope of acceptance more than the grace of God in the New Covenant The promise and Oath of God which are both without us are the two immutable things of Divine appointment for the raising strong consolation Heb. 6. vers 18. All grace within should be improved for carrying out our souls to God and Jesus Christ therein Also when there is not an improvement of our freedom from the Law towards making out the more after Jesus and the free grace of God in him then we seek to keep up the Old Covenant still Rom. 6. vers 14. Being under the Law and under grace are opposites there the less grace exerciseth Lordship over the soul the more sin domineereth and getteth the upper hand of it and the more it is under the Law The greater freedom from the Law as a Covenant the more grace is used towards freedom from the dominion of sin Also when there is a looking for what is promised only in a conditional way then there is a keeping up the Old Covenant which did run upon Conditional Promises when souls have acted in duty and now are ready to count the Lord ingaged to give out or afford mercy upon their performing thereof when they look for nothing but as a fruit of some condition performed by themselves Isa 58. vers 3. and their hopes of mercy rise or fall by that rule of their own performance rather than by the free grace and faithfulness of God then there is a holding up the Old Covenant CHAP. IX Of the good that was in the Sinai Covenant I Shall now shew what excellency there was in the Mount Sinai or worse Covenant The more good there was in this the greater excellency will appear in the new which is a better Covenant There was excellency in the matter of it such Precepts were contained in it as had a stamp of righteousness upon them Deut. 4. vers 8. such as did advance Israel above other Nations Neh. 9. vers 13. Psal 147. vers 19 20. It was excellent in the manner of its manifestation there was a dreadfully glorious appearance of the Majesty of God in giving of it forth Exod. 19. vers 16 17 18. he revealed himself in an unwonted way in thundring lightning thick darkness c. it was a stupendous dispensation to humble that rebellious people the mountain was smoaking the thick cloud covering it the trumpet sounding all indications of his Divine Majesty that they might discern him from dumb idols vers 22. ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven as if the Lord himself had spoken in an immediate way It was not altogether immediate the ministry of Angels was used in it Act. 7. vers 38. but it was by the authority of God himself with more than ordinary demonstrations and tokens of his Almighty power such as struck them into a marvellous consternation and admiration that they were alive Exod. 20. vers 19. Deut. 5. vers 26. Who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have and yet lived O what grace is it that the Lord is not dealing with us in such a dismaying terrifying dispensation but in a milder and more familiar way in the dispensation of the Gospel It was excellent in the special uses and ends it served to the two principal I have opened already which must here be remembred viz. for eternals upon the obedience of Christ for temporals upon the obedience of Israel I shall now hint some other uses and ends of the Sinai Covenant 1. To be a provocation unto Israel to look unto a Mediator the Lord Jesus to fulfil and accomplish it for them both the terrible publication and the experienced impossibility of keeping it themselves were excitations this way Exod. 20. 19. They said unto Moses speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us left we die Here they asked a typical Mediator and therein a real one Jesus Christ for so the Lord expoundeth their Petition and promiseth to grant it Deut. 18. 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet c. that thou desiredst at Horeb c. and that Prophet is said to be Jesus Christ Acts 3. 20 22. They were provoked by the terrour of the Sinai Law to ask a Mediatour that he would pass into the burning Mount to receive it for them and give it forth as a Law of Love and this request they are highly commended for Deut. 5. 27 28. so that the use of that fiery dispensation was not that Life should be attained thereby but to impell to look out unto another Covenant for that 2. To constrain to Duty and restrain from Sin Exod. 19. 9. Lo I come to thee in a thick Cloud but to what end That the people may hear when I speak with thee and believe thee for ever It was then to startle them out of their unbelief and win credit to his Word And under their affrightment Moses for incouragement saith Exod. 20. 20. Fear not for God is come to prove you that his fear may be before your faces that ye sin not It was then one end of the Sinai Covenant to deter them from sin 3. To be a Directory to Israel for the Worship of God The Church had been Domestical or in Families but the Posterity of Abraham swelling into a great number the Lord would have them become Congregational they must coalesce and become federally united together the whole to constitute one Ecclesiastical body by this Mosaic dispensation which had Ordinances of Worship sutable to that new state of the Church now introduced The Lord gave