Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	abraham_n	apostle_n	seed_n	1,298	5	7.9470	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

as are already within it and when they are there they have but small light and some none at all there is I say as great a difference betweene the Covenant as it was revealed to the Fathers and the same Covenant being now renewed with us as there is betweene such an old darke house and the same house when it is repaired from the very foundation and is all whited over within and without all painted and beautified and trimmed from the roofe to the foundation and is made full of faire and wide doores on every side for all sorts of people to enter into it and hath many large windowes made in every roome whereof none is stopped up but all are glazed with pure Crystall Glasse through which the light of the day and the bright beames of the Sunne doe shine most comfortably This difference will appeare most evidently to us if wee compare the Old and New Testament together and observe the diversity of Revelation The Covenant which God made with the Fathers before Christ was a sure house builded on Christ and founded on Gods eternall Truth It was a safe shelter against all raine and soule weather of affliction and all stormes of temptations and did shrowd the Fathers from the scorching heate of an evill conscience and the fiery flames of Hell and the Devills fury but it had few doores and those narrow ones such as few could enter through to wit onely the naturall Israelites who were all included in it by the promise made to Abraham and those who were circumcised Proselytes The windowes of it were few also and those were the darke promises of Christ wch yeelded but little light shadowed over with Types and Figures as with a vaile of obscurity It had no glorious ornaments to allure men a farre off It was not whited nor painted nor set forth with variety of pleasant pictures which might delight people but it rather appeared all bloody with the blood of Bulls Goates Rammes and Lambs like a slaughter house and all blacke and smoaky with the continuall offering of burnt offerings and sacrifices and the smoaky fumes of Incense Yea so many were the ceremonies to be observed and so heavie and intolerable was the burden of them that it appeared unto all that passed by to be rather a Shop to worke and labour in a Mill to grinde in and an house of correction then any place of rest or pleasant and comfortable habitation But this Covenant as it is now renewed with us under the Gospell is much altered and made like an house repaired and renewed throughout from the top to the foundation The Rocke Christ upon which it is built is now set forth in all his glorious colours all all the Mosse of ceremonies which did over-grow and cover him is taken away hee now shines like Ivory Crystall and Adamant most finely polished The Truth of God in his promises which is the ground of our Faith is now made manifest and clear by the comming of CHRIST and by the fulfilling of his Word which he spake from the beginning and now we dare boldly relie and rest on Gods Word in sure hope and confidence that his Truth will never fail The Ministeriall foundations to wit the writings of Moses and the Prophets are now by the light of the Gospell changed as it were from rough and unhewen stones and made like smooth polished Marble The foure Gospels are as it were foure doores made in the foure sides of this square house looking towards the foure winds of Heaven ready to receive all men from all the foure corners of the earth The many Sermons of Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament are as so many Windowes through which as through Crystall Glasse much heavenly Light is conveyed and derived unto us even from heaven from the throne of God the sweet promises and many and divers gifts of the Spirit as Knowledge Faith Tongues gifts of Healing Prophecying Miracles and the like are as pleasant and delightsome Pictures and Ornaments able to draw allure and delight the hearts of all men And the many outward blessings of peace and plenty wch follow the preaching and profession of the Gospell where it is received are as it were a glorious painting whiting which doth make this house glorious a far off and fils and enflames all that passe by with admiration and love of it Now there is none so obstinate nor so strict in speech but hee will grant that an house so altered and renewed throughout as I have before shewed may truely be called though not another yet a new house because it is repaired renued and beautified in all parts though the foundation and substance of the walls and the Timber be the same And therefore none can deny but that the Covenant of Grace now under the Gospell though it be the same in substance and matter with that made to the Fathers and hath the same foundation yet being thus altered renewed and beautified may justly be called though not another yet a new Covenant at least and a better Covenant Secondly the Covenant of Grace which before GOD made with Abraham and his seed and which was inforce onely among the Israelites before the comming of Christ is now by the preaching of the Apostles made with all Nations and all the people of the world are received into it or at least have it offered unto them and there is free accesse made unto all through the new doores which are now made in every side of the Covenant as is before noted This is manifest by the very mission of the Apostles and the Commission which our Saviour Christ gave unto them Matth. 28. in these words Goe teach all Nations Now experience teacheth us that when an house is not onely repaired but also inlarged every way and the foundation of it is stretched out an hundred times more then before it may truely even in respect of it selfe be called a new house And when new inhabitants come to dwell in an house wherein they never dwelt before though the house hath beene long built and is old in it selfe yet to them it is a new habitation and men in such cases call their houses new houses Therefore by the same reason it followes necessarily that the Covenant of Grace which was made with the Fathers being now by the comming of Christ the light of the Gospell and more plentifull gifts of the Spirit much enlarged and made capable of all Nations and Christ the foundation of it being stretched out to all the world it may even in it selfe be called a new and better Covenant Also in respect of the new people which are received into it it may be called a new Covenant though in it selfe it were no whit altered or enlarged at all Thirdly where the seales of a Covenant are made new and the old are taken away and where the manner of sealing is altered and quite inverted there we may call it a

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