A30345:249
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel…A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel…
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errors of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightness, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errours of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightnesse, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.
London: printed by G. Miller for Edward Brewster, 1645
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Again, It cannot be denied, that so far as it concerned the spiritual Israelite (whom God especially eyed and for their sakes infolded the carnal in the compact) it was a Covenant. Thus far for confirmation of that distinction. But these distinctions seem not to remove the doubt. Not the first, because it cannot be conceived how the old Covenant should as a condition of the Covenant, exact perfect obedience deserving life as necessary to Salvation, and yet promise pardon to the repentant believer: for these two are contrary the one to the other. Not the second, because the Covenant that God made with the Jews is but one, and how should we conceive the Law in one, and the same Covenant to be propounded as a rigid draught of prime nature, and with moderation also, as the Covenant of works, and the Covenant of Grace likewise, when the Covenant is but one, and the conditions the same. Besides, where the Apostles do oppose the ⟨p. 102⟩Law and Gospel, or the old and new Testament, not only the Moral Law, as it was given upon Mount Sinai, but the whole Jewish Pedagogy, or Law of Moses is understood, as it is manifest in sundry passages. Other things to be observed in that explication I will not insist upon at this present, because they will come to be touched hereafter, as we pass along.1
Again, It cannot be denied, that so farre as it concerned the spirituall I•raelite (whom God especially eyed and for their sakes infolded the carnall in the compact) it was a Covenant. Thus farre for confirmation of that distinction. But these distinctions seeme not to remove the doubt. Not the first, because it cannot be conceived how the old Covenant should as a condition of the Covenant, exact perfect obedience deserving life as necessary to Salvation, and yet promise pardon to the repentant believer: for these two are contrary the one to the other. Not the second, because the Covenant that God made with the Jewes is but one, and how should we conceive the Law in one, and the same Covenant to be propounded as a rigid draught of prime nature, and with moderation also, as the Covenant of works, and the Covenant of Grace likewise, when the Covenant is but one, and the conditions the same. Besides, where the Apostles doe oppose the ⟨p. 102⟩Law and Gospel, or the old and new Testament, not only the Morall Law, as it was given upon Mount Sinai, but the whole Jewih Pedagogie, or Law of Moses is understood, as it is manifest in sundry passages. Other things to be observed in that explication I will not insit upon at this present, because they will come to be touched hereafter, as we passe along.