order read frame and line 14. after the word Greeke put in word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and line 16. after the word New put in and the Septuagints in the Old page 51 line 8. read tree of Knowledge page 56 line 4. read in his owne person page 77. line 19. put out all page 90. l. 19. put in the page 103. l. 7. read unprofitable servants for unprofitablenesse page 142. line 22. for Christs read Christs blood CHAP. I. A briefe Treatise concerning the agreement and difference betweene the Old and New Testament the first Covenant betweene God and Man in Innocency which is the old Covenant of Works and the New Covenant made with Mankinde in Christ which is called the Covenant of free Grace also betweene the Law and the Gospell IT is an Ancient custome which hath beene for many Ages in use among the learned before the entrance into the large Exposition of the Gospell of Christ in the New Testament to premise and lay downe by way of preparation the nature difference and agreement between the Old and New Testament the Covenant of Workes and the Covenant of Grace the Law and the Gospell the Prophets and the Evangelists And surely if wee doe rightly consider the end and use of this practise and the profit and benefit which may arise from the knowledge of the nature of these beforehand and of the true difference and agreement betweene them we cannot but judge those learned men worthy of imitation and that it will be profitable for us to walke in the same steps when like occasion is offered For the knowledge of the true difference of the Old and New Testament the Covenant of Workes and the Covenant of Grace the Law and the Gospel will not only give us great light for the right understanding of divers particular speeches used in the New Testament by the Evangelists and Apostles but also may keepe us from many dangerous errours and enable us to answer the Objections of the Adversaries which they make out of the words of the Apostles and Prophets wrongfully wrested and misconstrued according to their owne foolish imaginations As for example sometimes the Apostles exhort us to observe the things which by Tradition have beene delivered unto us and command to observe the good orders and Ordinances established in the Churches Now a man not knowing the difference betweene the Old and New Testament the Law and the Gospel when hee heares such speeches may imagine that in those words he is injoyned to observe the Traditions and Ordinances of Moses and so may with the seduced Galatians fall into a great errour So in some places of the Apostles we read That they who are borne of God sin not That they who sin are of the Devill That they who sinne wilfully after that they have received the knowledge of the truth can have no sacrifice for their sinne And that he who beleeveth not is condemned already These things when a man heares or reades who is igno rant of the difference betweene the Law and the Gospell hee may imagine with our new up start Heretiques That every sinne which a man willingly commits doth prove him to be a childe of the Devill destitute of all grace And that when men are once called and justified they cannot willingly sinne any more And many such errours he may runne into but if he understandeth that sinne in those places signifieth sinne against the Evangelicall Law the two Commandements of the Gospell which commands us to beleeve and repent and not every sinne against any Commandement of the Law hee cannot bee deceived For sinne against the Gospell is when a man being before called to beleeve and professe the Gospell and having received the Commandements thereof which injoyne repentance of all sinne and beleefe in this Iesus Christ whom the Gospell preacheth doth afterwards rebell against these two Precepts that is falls into infidelity and impenitency which is wilfull Apostacy Now these sinnes none can commit who is borne of God or hath any true saving grace in him and if wee thus understand sinne wee shall not be deceived So likewise the Evangelists and Apostles do tell us that if we doe such and such good workes we are righteous if wee call on the Name of the Lord wee shall be saved and our Saviour saith that he will pronounce them the blessed of his Father and will say to them Come inherit the Kingdome for yee fedde mee when I was hungry and visited mee in prison In that yee did these things to my little ones And againe Many sins are forgiven her for shee loved much If wee know not the difference betweene the Law and the Gospell we may by these speeches be moved to thinke that men are justified and saved by their workes and may merit heaven by good deeds as the Iewes and Papists doe beleeve But if wee know that by good deeds and righteous workes the Evangelists and Apostles doe commonly meane not simple workes of obedience to the Law but works done by a true saving and justifying faith he cannot be deceived For such workes have these two prerogatives above all others First in that they are fruits of a justifying faith which can never faile and doe proceed from the spirit of repentance which makes us one with Christ sonnes of God in him and abides in us as an immortall seed they are infallible tokens of our justification and do assure unto us the Crowne of glory which Christ hath purchased for us and the kingdome of heaven which is the inheritance of sons And therefore we may truely say that he which doth such workes is righteous and shall be saved and injoy all blessednesse not meaning that they make him righteous or merit Heaven but that they are the evidences of his right to heaven And the more they are and the greater and more excellent the more they testifie a mans union and communion with Christ by a lively faith and give more assurance of a greater reward Secondly being the workes of a man that is justified by faith and hath perfect communion of Christs righteousnesse they have all their spots and staines cleansed and covered with the robe of Christs righteousnesse and all their defects thereby supplyed to the full and so they are perfect righteous workes as well as the doer of them is a perfect righteous man not in themselves but by vertue of Christ his obedience which is communicated and imputed to the worker of them and in him to them also They are righteous and are so called not actually or effectually but passively that is not for making the doer of them righteous but by the doers receiving of Christs righteousnesse by that faith whereof they are fruits which righteousnesse doth supply all their defects and makes them righteous not by reason of a naturall change in themselves or alteration of their nature but by spirituall communion which they have of it together with the doers of
THE MANIFOLD WISEDOME OF GOD In the divers dispensation of Grace by Iesus Christ In the Old Testament In the New Testament In the Covenant of Faith In the Covenant of Workes Their Agreement and Difference By G. Walker B. D. Pastor of Saint Iohn the Evangelist in Watlingstreet LONDON Printed by R. H. for Iohn Bartlet and are to be sold at the Signe of the Gilt Cup neere S. Anstins Gate in Pauls Church-yard 1641. To all that love the Lord IESUS CHRIST especially the godly and religious professors of the true faith in and about the Citie of London grace and peace be multiplied BEloved in the Lord as your Christian love and charity hath abounded towards mee in my bonds So Christian affection bindes me to returne to you some tokens and testimonies of thankfulnesse When I was sicke and shut up so fast in close prison that no liberty to visit me nor any accesse unto me for my comforts could by any importunity prayers or petitions be obtained then next under God whose holy Word the sacred Scriptures in the Originall tongues were allowed me for my solace and sole companions day and night your faithfull and fervent prayers which you powred out to God in my behalfe were my chiefest outward help the vertue power of them piercing through the double doores lockes and bolts through which no keyes of gold or silver could make way or enterance did most sensibly reach unto me and I had a lively feeling and sweet fruition of the benefit and comfort of them Also after the loosening of my strait bands and imprisonment when for the preserving of my life and recovery of health I had obtained the favour to be only confined to the house of my brother where my friends might visit me divers of you did most charitably minister unto my necessities and did ease me of the clog of cares for necessaries of this life which otherwise would have pressed me downe as an unsupportable burden and consumed me being stript of my maintenance and meanes of liveli hood and the profits of my benefice which were sequestred and given to others This your Christian charity I do acknowledge with all thankfulnesse and do mention in my dayly prayers and thanksgiving to God firmely beleeving and perswading my selfe that he will aboundantly reward your worke of love and charity who hath promised that whosoever shall give to drinke unto one of his litle ones which belong to Christ a cup of cold water only verily he shall in no wise lose his reward Mat. 10. 42. Neither have I in this time of my restraint neglected to use all diligence and to doe my best endeavour you also helping together by prayer for me that your charity bestowed on me might bring forth some manifest fruits to your selves and others and that by meanes thereof thanks and praise may be given by many to God on our behalfe For being freed by your bounty from worldly cares I gave my self wholly to care for the things of God and to spend my whole study and paines in some things which might be profitable to the people of God especially in revising papers and making fit for the presse and for publike use divers of my labours and workes which they whose judgment I doe much reverence have perswaded me to be more profitable and many of my most judicious hearers have importuned me to publish for the commō benefit of many The first in the communicating whereof I have yeelded to their desire is this small treatise which is as a praeface to the rest and indeed it was first delivered in some few sermons as a praeface to the exposition of the Gospel of Saint Iohn in the yeare 1616. It justly challengeth the first place because the first receiving of men into the Church of God to be visible members of Christ is by their baptisme which is the Sacrament of initiation and their entring into covenant with God in Christ which Covenant is here in this treatise plainly described and the agreement and difference shewed betweene it and the old Covenant of workes as also between the old and new Testament and betweene the Law and the Gospel The next in order is the instruction of Christians in the Doctrine of Christ which in another treatise is described and set forth by the matter forme fruit affect end use and ground of it First delivered in divers sermons upon Heb. 6. v. 11 12 13 14. and now made and formed into a Treatise fit to be published for the benefit of Gods Church at the importunity and request of divers well affected hearers The third is a treatise of God who is the proper subject of the divine art of Theology or sacred Divinity in which the eternall and only true God is described and set forth at large out of the words of Moses Deu. 6. 4. in the unity of his essence and all his attributes and essentiall properties and in the sacred Trinity of persons all fully and clearly proved by plaine Testimonies and demonstrations out of the sacred canonicall Scriptures The fourth is the doctrine of Gods internall operations and eternall works to wet his eternall counsells purposes and decrees concerning the last and utmost end of all reasonable creatures Men and Angels and concerning the way and means by which they are brought to their last end some to eternall life and blessednesse and some to eternall damnation wo and misery The fifth is the doctrine of Gods externall works and outward operations which are first generally laid open and proved out of severall texts of holy Scriptures and afterwards divided into severall heads The first is the great worke of creation fully and plainly described out of the first and second Chap. of the booke of Genesis To which is joyned a treatise of Gods actuall providence by which he doth order and dispose all things created and the actions and motions of them to his owne glory and the eternall salvation and blessednesse of his elect The sixth is the fall and corruption of mankind with all the evills which thereby entred into the world fully and plainly described out of Gen. cap. 3. The seventh is the institution of the Sabbath on the seventh day of the world on which day Christ was promised and by the promise of Christ which was the greatest blessing given and revealed to the fathers in the old testament that day came to be the most blessed day of the weeke and was sanctified by God to be the weekly Sabbath untill by the full exhibition of Christ a perfect redeemer in his resurrection on the first day of the weeke that first day became a more blessed day and by Christ the Lord of the Sabbath was sanctified and had the honour of the weekly Sabbath transferred unto it and is to be observed of Christians for their holy day of rest untill they come to the eternall rest in heaven These severall Treatises I have in this time of my restraint made
them Thus if we understand these words in the Evangelicall sense we cannot bee deceived but may know the truth and how to answer all gainesayers I could bring many Instances of this nature but these are sufficient to shew that before wee can sufficiently expound rightly understand the Gospell it is meet that we should know and be able to shew the nature and also the agreement and difference betweene the Law and the Gospell and betweene the Old and New Testament Wherefore before I come to the particular expounding of the Gospell of Saint Iohn which I have undertaken I will follow the steps of the learned of former times and will endevour to shew briefely the agreement and difference betweene the Old and New Testament betweene the Old Covenant of Workes and the New Covenant of Grace and between the Law the Gospell in the first place And in so doing I will labour to reform some things which they have done before me and to handle this point a little more distinctly For whereas the most part of them doe confusedly compare the Law and the Gospel together without distinction of the words and while they labour to make the Gospell more glorious by all meanes they doe put too great a difference betweene it and the Law which hath beene a cause of much errour to many and even of vilifying and contemning the Old Testament and the Law My desire and purpose is first to shew the severall acceptations and the true sense and meaning of the words and then to declare the true agreement and difference and to make those differences which are observed by others to agree together so far as truth will suffer and to cut off all vaine and needlesse differences This doing I hope I shall reserve to each their due reverence and respect God shall have his glory by both the Law and Gospell Your hearts shall be enabled with love of both and you better enabled to understand the true meaning of the Gospell and to feele the power thereof in your soules CHAP. II. FIrst for the word Testament it doth signifie the last Will of a man which he makes before his death and leaves behinde him either in word or writing testified by seales and witnesses By vertue of which Will hee doth dispose his lands and possessions which he hath purchased and all his goods which he hath gathered in his life time and doth bequeath them as hee himselfe will and to whom hee thinkes fit either freely or with condition to have and hold them after his death and not before This is the true and proper meaning of the Word and thus it is used by the Apostle Hebr. 19. 16. And because the Apostle there cals the Covenant Christs Testament and also elsewhere in his Epistles wheresoever hee doth speake of the Old and New Covenant that is of the Covenant of the Law and of the Gospell doth use the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} even the same which there he useth for the last Will and Testament of a Testator whereupon it comes to passe that the Bookes of the Law and the Prophets before Christ and the Covenant in them are called the New Testament and that very fitly in some respect I meane in respect of Christ the Mediator For the truth is that the Covenant of Grace more obscurely revealed to the Fathers in the writings of the Law and Prophets and more plainely in the Gospell and writings of the Apostles was never in force neither could be ratified but by the death of Christ It was before his comming sealed by his Blood in Types and Figures and at his Death in his Flesh it was fully sealed and ratified by his very Blood it selfe actually and indeed shed for our sinnes and in this respect it may be fitly called the Testament Because as a Testament is not inforce till the Testator be dead and where a Testament is there the death of the Testator must come between to ratifie it So it is with the Covenant of Grace and the promises therein made unto us Christ hath performed and purchased all things necessary for us doth freely give to us himself his righteousness and all his treasures as a man gives his Lands and Goods in his last Will but they cannot be of force to bring us to heaven till his death come betweene as a satisfaction for sin also It is as necessary that Iustice should be satisfied for sinne by his Death as righteousnesse of life performed and salvation purchased by him for us Secondly as a man doth seale his Testament when hee seeth or imagineth that his death is at hand So Christ at his last Supper by instituting the Sacrament of his Body and Blood and by the outward Signes and Seales therein contained did seale to his Church the Covenant of Grace Thus in respect of CHRIST the Mediatour God and Man the Covenant of Grace and the writings Old and New wherein it is contained are called Testaments But in respect of God the Father and in respect of God considered simply or as the Maker of the Covenant with man and the party betweene whom and man the Covenant is made the Covenant and the Writing Old and New wherein it is comprehended can in no case be called a Testament because a Testament is of no force without the Testators death But God the Father never dyed nor can die neither God simply considered nor God the Maker of the Covenant with Man and the other party in it wch is opposed to Man Only Christ dyed as hee was Mediatour God and Man and as he was made a partner with Man and stood on his side in the Covenant and as he is the Testator and free giver of his Word in the Old and New Testament and of his graces and gifts therein promised so they are called Testaments and in no other respect at all From the word Testament thus expounded wee may easily collect and gather what is the nature of a Testament and both the agreement and the true and maine difference betweene the Old and New Testament and the Writings contained in both First we see that they both agree in this that they are the Writings and Instruments of one and the same Christ and his last Will in which and by which hee doth give himselfe to his Church withall his righteousnesse and obedience and all the blessings which thereupon depend and they are both sealed by his Blood and ratified by his death This is manifest by the exposition of the word before laid downe wherein is shewed that both the Old and New Writings of the Covenant are called by the name of Testaments only in respect of Christ the Mediatour and as they are sealed by his Blood and ratified by his Death and he is the Testator in them as hee is Mediatour If either of them bee not sealed ratified and proceed from him as Mediator it is no Testament at all to call it a