The covenant of life opened, or, A treatise of the covenant of grace

Q. How is it that the promises are made to Christ, as to the seed, Gal. 3.16?

Ans. Our Divines, Beza, Piscator, Deodati, the English Divines in their Annotations, expound the Seed Christ, of Christ Mystical, as the Church the body, 1 Cor. 12.12. is called Christ. Judicious Pareus saith, that the Apostle expounds the Seed, not collectively of many,¹ and of all the posterity of Abraham, but individually of one Christ, from whom flows to the believers, not so much the corporal blessing, as the spiritual, that is, righteousness and eternal life: And so saith he, the Apostle saith, that this blessing or the inheritance is given to Abraham and believers, not by the Law, that is by no merit in Abraham, but by the promise, and by faith in Christ. Among Papists, Liranus; the promises are made to the seed, scilicet, Christo, in quo impletae sunt & non in alio, ideo dicitur semini in singulari numero, that is, to Christ in whom the promises are fulfilled, and in none other; therefore it is said to the seed in the singular number. So also, Cajetan: Semini autem ejus, tanquam & cui promissa sunt, & in quo adimplenda erant promissa. Corn. à lapide: If the word seed, semen, were taken collectively, the promise could not stand; for its sure all the Jews were not blessed in the seed: Yea many of them (saith Calvin) were a curse. Estius saith, the word seed, is a collective name, and noteth many; and hath not in the Hebrew the Plural Number. Augustine (saith he) will have all Christians following the faith of Abraham to be here noted, for they are that seed to which the promise is made, whereas Christ is properly he in whom the promise is to be fulfilled, and in whom all are one by faith,² and all are reduced to the Singular Number.

Ans. Our Divines, Beza, Piscator, Deodati, the English Divines in their Annotations, expound the Seed Christ, of Christ Mystical, as the Church the body,