Page:A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace (John Ball).djvu/14

 2 Covenant, which they had made before me. Psal. 83. 5. They are confederate against thee, Psal. 89. 3. I have made a Covenant with my chosen. But else where to promise, appoint or ordain, 2 Chron. 7. 18. As I have promised (or ordained, or covenanted) with David thy Father. And so in the new Testament, the word used by the Septuagint doth signifie (Luk. 22. 29) And I appoint unto you a Kingdom. Erasm. Ego dispono vobis regnum. Beza, Ego paciscor. Syr. Ego polliceor. And amongst all Nations, Covenants were established by the oblation of Sacrifice: Example beyond all exceptions, we have in that Sacrifice, wherein God made a Covenant with the people of Israel, and bound them to the obedience of his Law: whence it is also called a Covenant of Salt, that is, perpetuall; either, because salt expels corruption, or rather, because salt was used in Sacrifices; as if it had been said, a Covenant being striken, and such ceremonies used, as are ordinary in making Covenants. Amongst the Greeks also, that it was most usuall, appeares not only by infinite examples, but by common phrases, as ὂρκιαὅρκια [sic] ταμεῖν, which is as much as to sweare the Sacrifice being slaine, or to establish a Covenant. And in Homer, Iliad. 3. φέρον ὂρκιαὅρκια [sic] πιστὰ, that is, bringing or bearing those things, which were necessary in performing an Oath, or making a Covenant. The word Covenant or testamentall bond or league, which hath in Hebrew the signification of brotherly or friendly parting, and of explaining the conditions of agreement; The Greek Interpreters doe frequently and almost perpetually render by διαθήκη, a testament or disposition, Psal. 25. 10, 14. Psal. 44. 17. & 50. 16. & 55. 20. seldome συνθήκη, Covenant, Isa. 28. 15. which is used elsewhere, Sap. 1. 16. 1 Mac. 10. 26. 2 Mac. 13. 25. & 24. 26. But in the old Testament, the word Berith is never read for a testamentary disposition, which of the Rabbins, as Drusius witnesseth, is called from the word that signifieth to command, and so to set his house in order, or to make his will, Isa. 38. 1. Which word is yet generall,