A30345:548
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.
Some have answered, that all men are the sheep of Christ, as the dispersed, torn, and devoured of evil pastors and beasts of the field, and the seduced and destroyed are acknowledged to be sheep, Jer. 23. 1, 2. Ezek. 34. 5, 6. But the Prophets speak only of the people of the Jews, which at that time was distinct from the Gentiles, as the flock and inheritance of the Lord: so that hence nothing can be gathered, but that they, who live in Christs Church and fold, are his people and sheep of his pasture.
Some have answered, that all men are the sheep of Christ, as the dispersed, torne, and devoured of evill pastors and beasts of the field, and the seduced and destroyed are acknowledged to be sheep, Jer. 23. 1, 2. Ezek. 34. 5, 6. But the Prophets speake only of the people of the Jewes, which at that time was distinct from the Gentiles, as the flock and inheritance of the Lord: so that hence nothing can be gathered, but that they, who live in Christs Church and fold, are his people and sheep of his pasture.
Again, the Scripture speaks of the sheep of Christ, two ways, according to vocation or according to election. According to vocation they are sheep, who externally pertain to the number of Gods people and the Church: according to election,1 many sheep are without, many wolves within, and many sheep within, many wolves without. Although there be a distinction betwixt the merit of Christ by his obedience even to death, and his intercession, yet one of them cannot be separated from the other: for he maketh intercession for them to his Father for whom he hath merited reconciliation by his death, and we cannot think he should lay down his life for them, for whom he would not pray. If we look unto the signification of the words, Mediator and Intercessor note the same thing: and if Christ have put himself betwixt the wrath of God and man to obtain reconciliation by making satisfaction to offended justice, can it be thought, he will not request, that for the virtue of his sacrifice they for whom he hath satisfied, might be accepted of the Father. If we look to these two functions of Mediation, suffering death and making intercession, they are conjoined in Scripture. It is Christ that