A30345:97
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.
Fourthly, and from the same grounds we may conclude, that the souls of the faithful, who departed this life before the coming of Christ in the flesh, were immediately received into Heaven. For they were taken to glory, and saved as we: Now such as are taken to glory, are taken to Heaven. For the Scripture knoweth1 no place in which God doth ordinarily display his glory, but Heaven. And what should hinder their translation into the heavenly Jerusalem, when they are removed out of this earthly tabernacle? Not their sins, for they which could not hinder them from Sanctification, fitting them for Heaven, could not hinder them from Heaven: Not want of Faith, who now have that faith which Abraham, and many of them had: No want of efficacy in Christ, he was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, he was yesterday, to day, and for ever; his death was effectual to cause them to find pardon, and the Spirit of Sanctification. Not any privilege of Christ: for not simply to ascend into Heaven was Christs privilege, but to ascend soul and body, as heir ⟨p. 31⟩of all things, and the Author of Salvation to all that obey him. David is said not to have ascended into Heaven, but that is spoken2 in respect only that he was not raised in body, and gone into Heaven body and soul, as the heir of all things, and person who was to sit at Gods right hand. It is also said, The Fathers received 3not the Promise, scil. of Christs coming in the flesh to perform the work of our Redemption: but as they received the promise of forgiveness, and of the Spirit of Sanctification, so after their death they were taken into Heaven. They whose Pilgrimage and sojourning ceased with this life, they could not but be in their Country at home after this life. But Heaven is the Country of the Saints; for where their Father is there is their Country. Those who walked as strangers here on earth, because they looked4 for an heavenly Jerusalem, a City whose Maker was God, they leaving this earth were translated thither. The translating of Enoch, Moses, and Elijah seem to figure out no other thing. Christ was the fore-runner of Enoch, not in act, in respect of the assumption of his humanity into Heaven, but in virtue and merit. From the beginning of the world, a place was prepared for all, whom God had chosen in Jesus Christ,