Page:A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace (John Ball).djvu/107

 Rh sinne by compulsion. Rom. 7. 23. 24. the Covenant of Grace with a free inclination of mind and soule. Rom. 6. 12. The Covenant of Grace leads to Christ directly: the old Covenant indirectly. The old Covenant is the carnall Symbole of the Church of the Jewes, the new Covenant a spirituall Symbole of the Church both of Jewes and Gentiles. Moses is the Mediatour of the old Covenant: Christ God and man Mediatour of the new. In the old Covenant is given the spirit of bondage; but the Spirit of Adoption in the new. Rom. 8. 15. The old Covenant was a meane to the end: the new the end it selfe. The old Covenant did terrifie the consciences: the new doth comfort: Man a sinner fallen a sleep is the object of the old Covenant: the conscience terrified with sinne the object of the new. The old Covenant shewed the manner of worshipping God, but gave not ability: the new Covenant doth both. The old Covenant was an hand-writing against us. Col. 2. 14. the new an easie yoke. Matth. 11. 28. The old Covenant was from Mount Sinai. Heb. 12. 18. the new from Sion heavenly, amiable and pleasant. Psal. 2. 6. The old Covenant excludes the Gentiles: the new admits them. The old promiseth life in Canaan: the new in Heaven. But not to examine these things particularly, by this explication it appeares, the Divines of this opinion, make the old Covenant differ from the new in substance, and kind, and not in degree of manifestation, as also did the former.

Most Divines hold the old and new Covenant to be one in substance and kind, to differ only in degrees: but in setting down the differences they speake so obscurely, that it is hard to find how they consent with themselves. For most commonly they distinguish them thus: The old Testament promiseth life to them that obey the Law, and condemnes all not perfectly conformable: the new doth freely pardon sinnes, and give Salvation to them that believe in Christ. The old was written by the finger of God in tables of stone: the new by the Spirit of God in the fleshie tables of the heart. The old was the ministery of death, a killing letter: the new the ministery of the quickning Spirit. The old did lay upon the necks of the Fathers an intollerable yoke of rites and commandements: the new doth impose the easie yoke of the Spirit, enduing us with the Spirit of Adoption and liberty of the Sonnes of God. The old doth involve the Doctrine of the Grace