It is true, the administration of the covenant of grace which they lived under was dark, legal, and low, in comparison of that which we now are admitted unto since the coming of Christ in the flesh; but the covenant wherein they walked with God and that wherein we find acceptance is the same, and the justification of Abraham their father the pattern of ours, Rom. iv. 4, 5.
Let us now see what answer Mr B. applies to his query. The first text he mentions is Heb. viii. 6, " But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." That which the Holy Ghost here affirms is, that the new covenant, where- of Christ is the mediator, is better than the old, and that it hath better promises; which, I suppose, none ever doubted. The cove- nant is better, seeing that could by no means save us, while by this Christ doth to the uttermost. The promises are better, for it hath innumerable promises of conversion, pardon, and perseverance, which that had not at all; and the promise of eternal life, which that had, is given upon infinitely better and surer terms. But all this is nothing at all to Mr B.'s purpose.
No more is the second place which he mentioneth, Heb. vii. 19, " The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did."
Not that by "the law" in that place the covenant of works is in- tended, but the legal administration of the covenant of grace. " This," saith the apostle, " made nothing perfect." Men were kept under
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types and shadows; and though they were children of God by adop- tion, yet in comparison they were kept as servants, being under age, until the fulness of time came, when the bringing in of Jesus Christ, that "better hope," made the administration of grace perfect and complete, Gal. iv. 1-6. Mr B. all along obscures himself under the ambiguous term of "the law," confounding its covenant and subse- quent use. As for the covenant use of the law, or as it was the tenor of the covenant of works, the saints of the old testament were no more concerned in it than are we. The subsequent use of it may be con- sidered two ways, — 1. As it is purely moral, exacting perfect obedi- ence, and so the use of it is common to them and us; 2. As attended with ceremonial and judicial institutions in the administration of it, and so it was peculiar to them. And this one observation will lead the reader through much of the sophistry of this chapter, whose next question is, —
Q. Were those better promises of Ood touching eternal life and immortality hidden in the dark and not brought to light tinder the law?
A. " Jesus Christ hath brought life and immortality to ligh't through the gos- pel," 2 Tim. i. 10.
The whole ambiguity of this question lies in these expressions, " Hidden in the dark and not brought to light." If he intend coin- paratively, in respect of the clear revelation made of the mind and will of God by Jesus Christ, we grant it. If he mean it absolutely, that there were no promises of life and immortality given under the law, it is absolutely false; for, —
1. There are inmimerahle y)Xorms,es, of life and immortality in the Old Testament given to the church under the law. See Heb. xi. 1 4 ; Deui xii. 1, xxx, 6; Ps. xvi. 10, 11; Deut. xxxii. 29; Ps. cxxx. 8; Isa. XXV. 8, 9, xlv. 17, xxvi. 19; Jer. xxiii. 6; Ps. ii. 12, xxxii. 1, 2, xxxiii. 12.
2. They believed in eternal life, and therefore they had the promise of it; for faith relieth always on the word of promise. Thus did Job, chap. xix. 25-27; and David, Ps. xvii. 15; so did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Heb. xi. 10, 13, 14; yea, and some of them, as a pattern and example, without dying obtained it, as Enoch and Elijah.
3. The covenant oi Abraham was that which they lived in and under. But this covenant of Abraham had promises of eternal life, even that God would be his God, dead and alive, Gen. xvii. 1. 7. And that the promises thereof were promises of eternal life, Paul manifests, Rom. iv. 3, Gal. iii. 14. But this hath been so abundantly manifested by others that I shall not longer insist upon it We are come to the last query of this chapter, which is: —
Q. Though the promises of the gospel be better than those of the law, yet are they not, as well as those of the law, proposed under conditions of faith and persever-
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ance therein, of holiness and obedience, of repentance, and suffering for Christ ? how speak the Scriptures?
A. John iii. 14-16, 18, 36; Hab. ii. 4; Heb. xi. 6; 2 Tim. ii. 11 ; Rom. viii. 13; Acts iii. 19; Rev. ii. 5, 16; John v. 14.
Neither will this query long detain us. In the new testament, there being means designed for the attainment of an end, — faitli, obedience, and perseverance, for the attainment of salvation and en- joyment of God through Christ, — the promises of it are of two sorts. Some respect the end, or our whole acceptation with God ; some the means, or way whereby we come to be accepted in Christ. The first sort are those insisted on by Mr B., and they are so far condi- tional as that they declare the firm connection and concatenation of the end and means proposed, so that without them it is not to be attained ; but the other, of working faith, and new obedience, and perseverance, are all absolute to the children of the covenant, as I have so fully and largely elsewhere declared that I shall not here repeat any thing there written, nor do I know any necessity of add- ing any thing thereunto.^ I thought to have proceeded with the Racovian Catechism also, as in the former part of the discourse; but having made this process, I had notice of an answer to the whole by Arnoldus, the professor of divinity at Franeker; and therefore, that I may not actum agere, nor seem to enter another's labour I shall not directly and xara ToSa carry on a confutation thereof hereafter, but only divert thereunto as I shall have occasion, yet not omitting any thing of weight therein, as in this chapter I have not, as to the matter under consideration.