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uttermost for their breach of his moft just and holy law.

GOD at the fame time promised absolutely to his CHRIST that he would be with him, to uphold and Strengthen him, until he had finished the great work which he had called and appointed him to do: Wherefore he faith, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and will give thee for a covenant of the people: And again, He fhall not fail, nor be difcouraged, until he have fet judgment in the earth: And to the people he faith, Hear, and your foul fhall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the fure mercies of David; behold I bave given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. This is the Man of GoD's right hand; even the Son of man whom he bath made firong for his oron felf: Of whom he faith again, Behold the man whofe name is the BRANCH, he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: even be fhall build the temple of the Lord, and be fhall bear the glory, and shall fit and rule upon his throne, and be fhall be a priest upon his throne, and the counfel of peace fhall be between them both.--Hence he faith to his difciples, In me ye shall have

Zech. vi. 12, 13.

peace:

peace: And again the Apostle teftifies, He is our peace, who hath made peace by the blood of his cross.

Thus CHRIST is the covenant head of his people, because God promised to give them life, thro' his. obeying the law, and fuffering its curfe for them.

In this new covenant, God's chosen do nothing to merit the bleflings, or to obtain the promises of it; but CHRIST was appointed of GOD to do all for them, and he accordingly hath done it; for he hath made an end of fin, and brought in everlafting righteoufness.

GOD made a covenant with the first Adam, both for himself and his offspring, wherein man was to live by his own works, and perfonal obedience; but this covenant man broke, and incurred the penalty due to tranfgreffors: Therefore God, for the fake of his elect, made a new covenant with the fecond Adam, whom he had chofen for this very purpose who was to do, and fuffer for them all that the law required.-In this covenant God's elect do nothing to merit eternal life; and fuffer nothing in their own perfons to deferve remiffion of fins, and escapeeternal death: Neither is there any neceffity, or room for it; because CHRIST's blood expiates and delivers them from the latter, and his obedience gives them a right and title to the former; and GoD, as

he

he hath promised, imputes to them CHRIST's righteousness, and places his atonement to their account. Therefore the Chriftian worketh not to obtain eternal life, but believeth on GoD, who justifieth the ungodly thro' CHRIST, that died for him, and rofe again.

And, because the bleffings of this covenant are not obtained and enjoyed but thro' CHRIST's fufferings and death; therefore it is called a Teftament, wherein are bequeathed fpiritual bleffings and privileges unspeakably great and glorious, to all God's chofen, for whom CHRIST died.-Now a perfon, by his Will or Teftament, gives and bequeaths what he is poffeft of to whomfoever he will; and CHRIST, by his fulfilling all righteoufnefs, and making himself an offering for fin, when he had no neceffity either to keep the law for himself, or to fuffer its penalty; hath righteousness to give and pardon fins, with eternal life the reward of righteousness, to whomsoever he will; and accordingly he hath bequeathed thefe unspeakable gifts and bleffings to all thofe whom the Father hath given him: And for this caufe he is the Mediator of the New Teftament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the tranf greffions which were under the firft Teftament, they which are called, that is, GoD's elect (for whom he

did

did predeftinate, them he alfo called;) might receive the promife of an eternal inheritance +. And therefore he faith to the Father; for their fakes I fanctify myself, that they alfo may be fanctified thro' the truth; and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them.

The difference therefore betwixt the two covenants, or the Old and New Teftament, is exceeding great By the Old covenant, man muft work out a righteousness for himself, and live by his own perfonal obedience to the moral law; but by the New, he hath a righteoufnefs freely given him of GOD, and lives by the perfonal obedience of another. By the former, it behoved him to truft in his own righteousness; for, when that was loft, he loft his very life, and came fhort of the glory of GOD: By the latter, we are led to truft in CHRIST for righteousness, because he hath fulfilled the law, and is made of GOD unto us righteoufnefs: They therefore that truft in him fhall never perish, but have eternal life. Which leads me,

THIRDLY: To fhew that the promises of the Old Testament were precarious, and conditional: But, on the contrary, that the promises of the New Tef

+ Heb. ix. 15.

tament

tament are unconditional, and abfolute; and therefore ftedfaft, immutable, and eternal.

Enough hath been faid already to make it appear that the promifes of the Old Teftament were not abfolute, but conditional; wherein GoD on his part promifed life, only upon condition of perfect obedience to the law, on man's part: Hence the promise could not be fulfilled, nor claimed by man, unless he had continued ftedfast in God's covenant, and perfectly fulfilled the whole law. When therefore man failed in the performance of obedience, on his part; God's promife of life, which he made to man conditionally, could not be fulfilled on his part,

Thus the terms of the covenant of works are, be that doth those things, shall live in them*; but be that doth them not, fhall furely die: For it is written, Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to de them. And this covenant which God at first made with Adam, is the very fame that he made with Ifrael on mount Sinai: But, as it was a covenant which man had already broken, and was fallen under its curfe; it entered that fin might abound; attended with the most awful circum

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ftances

Gal. . 12.

+ Gal. iii. 10.

+ Rom. v. 20.

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