1. Why is it called a New Covenant? I answer; It is called New, either in respect of the late and new Blessings, which God vouchsafed Israel, in bringing back their Captivity with Joy, and planting them in their own Land again; or it is called New, in respect of the Excellency of this Covenant: Thus the Hebrews were wont to call any thing Excellent,1 New. O sing unto the Lord a New Song, Psal. 96.1. that is, an Excellent Song: Or it is called New, in contradiction to the Covenant of Promise before Christ came. In this latter Sense, the very same words here, are repeated in the Epistle to the Hebrews: 2Behold the Days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel, and the House of Judah.— In that He saith a New Covenant, He hath made the First Old; now, that which decayeth, and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away. The New-Covenant is usually understood in the latter Sense; it is New, because diverse from that which God made with the Fathers before Christ; it hath a new Worship, new Adoration, a new Form of the Church, new Witnesses, new Tables, new Sacraments and Ordinances; and these never to be abrogated or disannulled, never to wax Old, as the Apostle speaks: Yet in respect of those new Blessings, which God bestowed upon Israel immediately after the Captivity, this very Manifestation may be called New: 3And in reference to this; Behold the Days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the Children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the Seed of the House of Israel out of the North-Country, and from all Countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own Land.
1. Why is it called a New Covenant? I answer; It is called New, either in respect of the late and new Blessings, which God vouchsafed Israel, in bringing back their Captivity with Joy, and planting them in their own Land again; or it is called New, in respect of the Excellency of this Covenant: Thus the Hebrews were wont to call any thing Excellent,1 New. O sing unto the Lord a New Song, Psal. 96.1. that is, an Excellent Song: Or it is called New, in contradiction to the Covenant of Promise before Christ came. In this latter Sense, the very same words here, are repeated in the Epistle to the Hebrews: 2Behold the Dayss come, saith the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel, and the House of Judah.— In that He saith a New Covenant, He hath made the First Old; now, that which decayeth, and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away. The New-Covenant is usually understood in the latter Sense; it is New, because diverse from that which God made with the Fathers before Christ; it hath a new Worship, new Adoration, a new Form of the Church, new Witnesses, new Tables, new Sacraments and Ordinances; and these never to be abrogated or disannulled, never to wax Old, as the Apostle speaks: Yet in respect of those new Blessings, which God bestowed upon Israel immediately after the Captivity, this very Manifestation may be called New: 3And in reference to this; Behold the Dayes come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the Children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the Seed of the House of Israel out of the North-Countrey, and from all Countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own Land.
- 1Psal. 96.1.
- 2Heb. 8.8.13.
- 3Jer. 23.7, 8.
