A30345:79
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
A TREATISE OF THE Covenant of GRACE. › Chapter 4: Of the Covenant of Promise.
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.
CHAP. IIII. Of the Covenant of Promise.
The Covenant of Grace is either promised or promulgated1 and established. Promised to the Fathers, first to Adam, and afterwards to the Patriarchs, and lastly to the people of Israel, and that before their coming into the Land of Canaan, and after2 their return from the Babylonish captivity. Promulgated, after the fullness of time came. And hence the Covenant of Grace is distributed into the Covenant of Promise, or the New Covenant, so called by way of excellency. For the Foundation and Mediator of the Covenant of Grace is our Lord Jesus Christ, but either to be incarnate, crucified, and raised from the dead, or as already3 incarnate, crucified, and truly raised from the dead, and ascended into Heaven. For there was never sin forgiven but in him alone, who is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Therefore although before the Incarnation, Christ was only God, he was our ⟨p. 28⟩Mediator, yet not simply as God, but as the divine person, who should take our flesh, and in it should finish all the Mystery of our Redemption, and therefore he is called the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world, and the Fathers by his grace were saved, even as we. In the acts of Mediation three things may be considered. Reconciliation, by which we are accepted of God. Patronage, by which we have access unto the Father. Doctrine, whereby God hath made himself known unto men by a Mediator. This third act might be done before he assumed our flesh, and indeed was done: but the two first did require his coming in the flesh, although the fruit of them was communicated to the Fathers under the Old Testament, by force of the divine Promise, and certainty of the thing to come with God.