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 this is one strong and invincible reason Secondly wee have good reasons of every derivation as I have already shewed Thirdly the deriving of the word from all and not from one onely doth reconcile in one all the severall opinions of the Learned and justifies their several derivations without rejecting or offering any wrong or disgrace to any Fourthly the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by which the Septuagint in their Greeke translation doe expresse the Hebrew word Berith and which the Evangelists and Apostles in the New Testament doe use to signifie a Covenant is derived of the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which hath divers of the significations of the Hebrew words of which Berith is derived for it signifies to set things in order and frame to appoint orders and make Lawes to pacifie and make satisfaction and to dispose things by ones last Will and Testament Now to compose and set things in order is to uphold the Creation to walke by Orders Lawes made appointed is to walk by rule to live to deal plainely and faithfully without deceit To pacifie and make satisfaction includes sacrifices and sinne-offerings To dispose by Will and Testament implies choice of persons and gifts for men doe by Will give their best and most choise goods to their most deare and most choise friends Thus the Greeke which the Apostles use in the New Testament to signifie a Covenant to expresse the Hebrew word Berith wch is used in the Law and the Prophets doth confirme our derivation of it from all the words before named And this derivation of the Hebrew and Greeke names of a Covenant being thus laid downe and confirmed by these reasons is of great use First to shew unto us the full signification of the word Covenant and what the nature of a Covenant is in generall Secondly to justifie the divers acceptations of the Word and to shew the nature of every word in particular and so to make way for the knowledge of the agreement and difference betweene the Old and New Covenant First there we see that this Word signifies all Covenants in generall both Gods Covenant with men and also the covenants which men make among themselves For there is nothing in any true Covenant which is not comprised in the signification of this Word being expounded according to the former derivations Heere also we see what is the nature of a Covenant in generall and what things are thereunto required First every true Covenant presupposeth a division or separation Secondly it comprehends in it a mutuall promising and binding betweene two distinct parties Thirdly there must be faithfull dealing without fraud or dissembling on both sides Fourthly this must be betweeene choice persons Fiftly it must be about choyce matters and upon choice conditions agreed upon by both Sixtly it must tend to the well-ordering and composing of things betweene them All these are manifest by the significations of the words from which Berith is derived But I hold it not so needfull to stand upon the nature of a Covenant in generall I therefore come with speed to the divers acceptations of the Word and to the description of every speciall and particular Covenant which is needfull to be knowne of us CHAP. V. FIrst the Hebrew word Berith as also the names of Covenant in the Greeke and English tongue signifies a Covenant betweene God and Men Secondly it signifies the Covenants of men among themselves as Gen. 21. 27. It signifies the Covenant betweene Abraham and Abimelech and Gen. 31. 44. the Covenant betweene Iacob and Laban But here I have little to doe with Covenants betweene men The Covenant which I am to insist upon is betweene God and Men First the Covenant of naturall life and blessings which God made with Man in the creation Secondly the Covenant of Grace which God made with Man in Christ after Mans fall In the Covenant of Nature the parties were God the Creator and Man the Creature made after Gods Image and likenesse and so not contrary to God nor at enmity with him but like unto God though farre different and inferiour to God in Nature and substance The promises on Gods part were these That Heaven and Earth and all creatures should continue in their naturall course and order wherein God had created and placed them serving alwayes for mans use and that man should have the benefit and lordship of them all and should live happily and never see death The condition on Mans part was obedience to Gods Law and subjection to God his Creator in all things and this he was to expresse by obeying Gods voyce in every thing which he had already or should at any time command more especially in abstaining from the Tree of good and evill The Signe and Seale which God gave to Man for the confirmation of this Covenant was the Tree of Life which was to man a Sacrament and pledge of eternall Life on earth and of all blessings needfull to keepe man in life The receiving of this Seale was mans eating of the Tree of Life The end of this Covenant was the upholding of the Creation and of all the creatures in their pure naturall estate for the comfort of man continually This was the first Covenant which God made with man and this is called by the name Berith Iere. 33. 20. where God saith If you can breake my Covenant of the day and night and that there shall not be day and night in their season then may also my Covenant with David be broken In these words he speakes plainly of the promise in the creation That day and night should keepe their course and the Sunne Moone and Starres and all creatures should serve for mans use This though man did breake on his part yet God being immutable could not breake it neither did hee suffer his promise to faile but by vertue of Christ promised to man in the New Covenant doth in some good measure continue it so long as Mankinde hath a being on earth The Covenant of Grace is that which God made with man after his fall wherein of his owne free Grace and Mercy hee doth promise unto Mankinde a blessed Seed of the Woman which by bruising the Serpents head that is destroying the power and workes of the Devill should redeeme Mankinde and restore all that beleeve in that blessed Seed Christ to a more happy and blessed estate then that which was lost In this Covenant the parties were God Almighty offended by Mans sinne and provoked to just wrath and man by his wilfull transgression now become a Rebell and enemy against God and deserving eternall death so that here is great contrariety separation opposition and cause of enmity betweene the two parties and betweene them there was no possibility of peace and reconciliation without a fit and all sufficient Mediator necessarily comming betweene The things which God promiseth in this Covenant and for
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