A30345:271
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.
If it be said, the Apostle doth every where oppose the Law and the Gospel, or the old and new Testament. The answer is from the same ground; that in the Scriptures of the new Testament, the Law as well Ceremonial as Moral is opposed to faith or the Gospel: and yet the Ceremonies of the Law did prefigure Christ, as all men acknowledge. Therefore the Apostle doth not perpetually and absolutely oppose the Law, and the Covenant of grace: for he teacheth expressly, that faith establisheth1 the Law. For he understood the force and sentence of the Law to consist in faith: but because the Jews addicted to the latter of the Law, did pretermit the force and life of it, Paul proves the Law so taken and separated from faith, to be the cause, not of life, but of death: as that which did not only want Christ, who is the soul of the Law, but is opposite to him. And therefore Paul doth this, because the Jews, (faith being let pass.) did seek righteousness in the dead works of the Law, and did oppose the Law to the Gospel and Christ, who was the end and scope of the Law. This will be more plain, if we shall examine the particular passages of Scripture, wherein this matter is handled. The Apostle saith, the Covenant from the Mount Sinai gendereth to bondage, figured by2 the bond-woman and her son, who were cast out of Abraham's Family. The Apostle his argument may be drawn thus; the same proportion which Hagar the hand-maid had to Sarah her Mistress in Abraham's house, the same proportion hath the old ⟨p. 116⟩Testament to the new, in the Church of God▪ the same proportion which Hag••s off spring had to Sarahs, the same proportion had the children of the Law, that is, the Jerusalem which then was, unto the Jerusalem which is above, that is, to the children of the Gospel or sons of promise. Now Hagar was sometimes a visible and principal member of Abraham's family, a kind of second wife to Abraham, and Ishmael her son was for a while Abraham's presumed heir: yet after Hagar did begin to despise and contest with her Mistress Sarah, and Ishmael to flout or persecute Isaac, Abraham's heir apparent and son of promise, both mother and son were cast out of Abraham's house, and deprived of all hope of inheritance in the Land of promise. Sarah bearing the type of the true visible Church then on earth, did pronounce that sentence