Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A54589
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The difference between the old and new covenant stated and explained with an exposition of the covenant of grace in the principal concernments of it / by Samuel Petto ...
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Petto, Samuel, 1624?-1711.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing P1896; ESTC R31110
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148,845
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372
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with mens receiving it through Faith Gods act of pardon disobliging Believers the instant of their sinning is to be answered with a renewed act of Faith applying this to themselves setting their Seal to what God hath done yea renewed acts of Repentance also are to follow Under the Old Covenant it was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sins Heb. 10. 4. but the New Testament is better for therein through the blessed Mediatour believers obtain real remission Heb. 9. 15. 2. To ask impunity or immunity and freedom from the execution of the Curse and from other tokens of Divine displeasure if they know they shall have it yet they are to ask it as I before evidenced Though Believers know that God is a Father and that the Eternal Curse will never seize upon them yet they are to pray for a freedom from it and the rather be incouraged and provoked to it because the Lord hath promised it Although by the New Covenant Justification is continued yet by gross acts of sin the Lord may be provoked so as many sweet effects of their being justified may be suspended David who was in a state of Grace when he had notoriously sinned before renewed acts of Faith and Repentance before confessing his sin his bones waxed old through his roaring all the day long Psal 32. 3 4. Day and Night the band of God was heavy upon him By this it is evident that although at the instant of sinning Believers are declared really disobliged from the Eternal Curse of the Law yet they may not be sensibly freed from that nor from temporal evils till afterward They are exempted from vindictive Justice in order to the making satisfaction for sin but not from paternal corrective dispensations to the humbling for and deterring from sin Psal 51. 2 7. Wash me throughly from my sin c. Purge me with Hyssop c. He was deeply sensible of his pollution defilement and uncleanness by reason of iniquity maketh confession and seeketh the removal of it Ver. 4. That he might justifie God whom he had greatly dishonoured and give glory to him by acknowledging his righteousness in all his judgements he cryeth out Ver. 9. Hide thy face from my sins they were not only ever before him but seemed to be so before the Lord also as if he were alwaies looking on them though he had not lost his Salvation yet he wanted much of the joy of it ver 11 12. Nathan told him God had pardoned him his sin 2 Sam. 12. 13 14. only some tokens of Divine displeasure must be expected and I think he Penned this Penitentlal Psalm after for the title sheweth that this confession was directed to the chief Musician it was for the use of the Temple he had confessed privately before to Nathan now he doth it more publickly after he had told him of pardon and also of judgements ver 4. So that after Souls are really disobliged and have pardon it self yet they may want the sense of it till there be a fresh application of the blood of Jesus Christ by the Spirit to them so as they may cry out for it as he ver 9. Blot out all my iniquities There may be inward cloudings and darkness sin and guilt may lie heavy upon the Conscience there may be throbbing there and a dreadful sense of it which may be enough to deterr from sin He will visit transgressions with a Rod though his loving kindness he will not utterly take from them Psal 89. 32 33. And who is willing to see the frowning face of God a tender Father and to have such smart rebukes not only by outward corporal afflictions but by the withdrawing the light of his countenance which is better than Life The Old Covenant did not purge the Conscience but the New is a better Testament for having mentioned the remission of sins afforded thereby Heb. 10. 16 17. he addeth let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience so Heb. 9. 15. In the way of a fresh exercise of Faith they may have freedom not only from other fatherly corrections but from those accusations of an evil Conscience which are the usual fruits of hainous sins till renewed acts of Faith and Repentance 5. The New Covenant raiseth a choice Spirit of filial Love and so is better than the Old which leaveth under a Spirit of servile fear the New being made up all of Promises must needs have a tendency to raise into the sweetest Spirit Rom. 8. 15. For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father There is an excellency in the Evangelical Spirit then above the other I understand that Text of different states of the Church or People of God seeing in the former and following Chapters he evidently speaketh of Believers freedom from the Law by the Lord Jesus and the particle again doth intimate that once they were under that fearing Spirit viz. under the Old Mosaick dispensation but now in the times of the New Testament were freed from it Some by the Spirit of bondage understand operations of the Spirit in fear and terrour in order to conversion I cannot find that he is treating of that and it is more suitable to understand it of the state under the Old Testament and the rather because it is brought in as a proof of their Sonship as the particle for doth intimate it was therefore no desirable frame to be sought after but a misery to be under it and a mercy to be freed from it The Old Covenant carried with it more of the Spirit of a Servant as the word signifieth and although serving the Lord chiefly or only for reward savoureth of a legal Spirit and is one difference between the Spirit of a Servant and the Spirit of a Son yet here another difference is aimed at for it is said ye have not received it again to fear The Sinai Covenant put them on to duty by dreadful threatnings presented Curses before them and that not actually undergone for them by Jesus Christ as Arguments or inforcements thereunto which terrifieth and filleth with such fear as is found in Servants by the severe threatning of their Masters Israel was filled with fear and astonishment at the first promulgation of the Law And whewhether this was the proper effect of the Sinai Law to work into servile fear and bondage so as to make that duty then which now is not so and whether it were the approved effect of it in that day or not yet it intimateth that through the frailty of sinful man this would certainly be the issue of it and was even unavoidable hearing the Law from the mouth of an all-powerful God as a consuming fire and there was not enough in those conditional promises to free from this servile fear and so it left them under
it and comparatively with the New Covenant which hath more Evangelical inforcements unto duty by Grace and the free Promise The Sinai Law hath a tendency to work into the fear of a Servant towards his Master and so as the Apostle saith gendreth to bondage rather than to the fear or love of a Son which is the issue of Gospel Revelations Christians now are to act upon more Evangelical accounts from more Love yea and more Faith having received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father it is by this believing Spirit that Souls have liberty of access to God with that freedom that Children use to have in going to a tender Father The fearing Spirit kept them at a distance from the Lord like a Servant that durst not come near an austere Master but by this they may with a holy boldness and firm assurance repair to him and cry Abba Father This will appear more clearly if we compare it with that parallel place Gal. 4. 1 2 c. The Heir so long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant c. Even so we when we were Children were in bondage under the Elements of the World c. Here the state under the Old Sinai Covenant plainly is expressed by bondage not absolutely that of bondslaves they were not in pure slavery nor so in the condition of Servants but as under Tutors and Governours and in a state of subjection that they differed little in outward appearance to themselves or others from Servants they seemed to have more of that Spirit being acted by fear than of the Spirit of Sons but since the dispensation of the New Covenant they are freed from the servile state redeemed by Jesus Christ from the rigour of the Law and have much of the Spirit of Adoption ver 5 6. there is such an alteration for the better as if their Sonship now began ver 7. that is comparatively with the other therefore Christians now are to act in a different way from what they did of Old more in a free Spirit of Adoption thus bondage and freedom are opposed ver 24 25 26 31. not as taken for simple slavery but for a state of less freedom though in the same Family and House as Hagar and Sarah were the one expresly intending the state under the mount Sinai Covenant the other under the Free Promise so Gal. 3. 24. The Law was our Schoolmaster until Christ so it is in the Original we have not there those words to bring us This Text doth not speak of a work of the Law still continuing in order to conversion before closing with Jesus Christ for the bringing Souls unto him but telleth us of the rigorous discipline of the Law of Old to Israel the people of God like a Schoolmaster with a Rod compelling to duty until Christ i. e. until his Incarnation until his satisfaction it speaketh of such a use thereof which is now at an end in Gospel times as appeareth by the Antithesis ver 25. but after faith is come we are no longer under a Schoolmaster c. that is after Christ the object of Faith is come in the flesh and hath satisfied the Law hath purchased Redemption for us now we are no longer under the menaces and severities of the Law as a Schoolmaster as Christ is said to be our hope so he is our faith that is the object of it the thing believed That which is held forth here by the coming of faith is expressed by the coming of the seed vers 19. which is Jesus Christ and our present freedom from the Law as a severe Schoolmaster speaketh the betterness of our state and so of the New Covenant 6. The New Covenant is established upon spiritual Promises and so is better than the old Sinai Covenant which did run upon temporal promises to Israel now I speak of it as an administration to them all the promises of the New are of a spiritual nature that promiseth to give the Law into the heart that God will be their God their sins shall be pardoned Heb. 8. these spirituals are firstly promised and temporal things are comprised in these godliness hath the promise of this life but spirituals are mentioned here that we might be taken up mostly with spiritual injoyments grace peace communion with God c. I have wondred why the New should be made up of such promises as if only real Christians could be interested therein but I consider he speaketh of it not to exclude all from visible interest which elsewhere is witnessed to Act. 8. 12. even when the â—â—al was wanted but in opposition to the old to discover how these promises are better than those of the Old Covenant which run upon temporal things to Israel is long Life the Land of Canaan c. Deut. 5. 11. Levit. 26. these were most obvious there and better things represented by these whereas the New putteth on to duty rather by spiritual promises and blessings than by temporal and so is a better Covenant 7. The New Covenant it self ushereth in spiritual blessings and in a more immediate way than under the Sinai Covenant and so is established on better promises the more immediate mercies of God the better the more new pure and fresh from the fountain of Divine Love Immediate visions of God in Heaven will render them surpassingly excellent and in this world those that are not without all means but comparatively immediate are the best mercies as the more immediate judgements are the worst of these The Old Covenant did not it self dispense out spiritual and eternal blessings but provoked to have recourse unto the Abrahamatical Covenant for these they must setch a greater compass in travelling to those injoyments than under the New they must look from the Old for remission of sin which was typified there and so for such other mercies unto the free promise In the New Covenant mercies are absolutely promised Heb. 8. and therefore the application of them is more immediate than under the Old they may forth with by an eye of faith look to Jesus Christ for a fruition-of them there is not such a vail of typical institutions to intervene that is a better way to the obtainment of those blessings Joh. 1. 17. Yea the dispensation is also better the Apostle saith Heb. 1. 1 2. That God in the last days hath spoken to us by his Son This is the excellency of Gospel discoveries above visions dreams and such like afforded in old restament times that now Jusus Christ himself speaketh to us with his own mouth we have more immediate manifestations and on that account there is infinite danger in non-attendance to what is spoken Heb. 12. 25. As the Gospel is more extensive it reacheth not to Jews only but to Gentiles also as equal sharers in the blessings by faith the partition-wall being broken down Eph. 1. 12 14. Rom. 3. 22. So there is a more open door of access to