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
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
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