A Discourse of the Covenants That God Made with Men before the Law

A General Introduction to the following Discourse. §. 1. The particular design of this Chapter proposed. A Covenant to be considered either on the part of God, as proposed by him, or as Man enters thereinto. God is first in proposing a Covenant to Men. Covenant-Interest compleated by Restipulation. No Covenant of mutual benefits betwixt God and Men. §. 2. The general notion of a Covenant as proposed by God. This further explained, with some necessary Consequences of it, in seven particulars. §. 3. God hath p. 2always dealt with men about their future state in a way of Covenant. Some Consectaries of it. §. 4. His Covenant always transacted with some Head, or representative for others. §. 5. Some general Inferences, and Directions for the right understanding of Covenant-Transactions. §. 6.

THE great Interest of Man's present Peace, and eternal Happiness, is most nearly concerned in Religion; and all true Religion, since the fall of Man, must be taught by divine Revelation, which God [Heb. 1. 1, 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Deus non semel olim omnia, sed particulatim, deinde etia • de • ersis modis sus notitiam ac cultum declaravit. per Prophetas, quò propius dies imminebat, eo clariorem lucem edentes. Bez.] by diverse parts, and after a diverse manner hath given out to his Church, causing this Light gradually to encrease, until the whole Mystery of his Grace was perfectly revealed in and by Jesus Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg. And that God unto whom all his Works were known from the beginning, hath in all ages disposed and ordered the Revelation of his Will to Men, his Transactions with them, & all the works of his holy Providence towards them, with a [Deus in omnibus Actionibus prisci seculi, semper ob oculos habebat tempora Messia, Grot.] Respect p. 3unto the fulness of time, and the gathering of all things unto an Head in Christ Jesus therein: So that in all our search after the mind of God in the holy Scriptures, we are to manage our Enquiries with a respect to Christ. And therefore the best Interpreter of the Old Testament, is the holy Spirit speaking to us in the New; because there we have the clearest Light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God shining upon us, in the face of Jesus Christ, by unveiling those counsels of Love and Grace that were hidden from former Ages and Generations. Nevertheless the greater Light of the New Testament doth no way abate the usefulness of the Old; but rather obligeth us the more to an humble and diligent Study thereof; and that (as on many other accounts, so, for this reason also) because the Mystery of the Gospel cannot be throughly apprehended by us, without some good understanding of the Oeconomy of the Law, yea, and also of the State of things before the Law; the mutual respect and dependence of the Old and New Testament being such, as neither can be understood apart, or without the other, nor an intire Sys◊eme of Truth, as it is in Jesus, collected, but from both.

p. 3It must be acknowledged therefore to be of great use and concern to us, to be well acquainted with those Transactions of God with Men, and his Dispensations towards them, that are recorded in the sacred History of the first Ages of the World, and the Church of God therein. And p. 4in this Enquiry, I shall at present ingage my self, so f◊r as those times reach that preceded the giving of the Law by Moses, and no farther. And in the performance of this (to avoid tediousness in repeating what hath been by others handled at large, and fully cleared) I shall for the most part confine my self to brief Observations upon the Records of these things, as left to us in the holy Scriptures; and more largely insist on such Passages only, as I conceive not to have been so fully spoken to by others, or at least not handled in that Method and Order, as to me seems most suited to the nature of the things treated of, and so most apt to convey a clear notion of them to our Minds.

§. 2. And forasmuch as those Transactions of God with Men, which in this Enquiry we shall meet with, are of a Foederal Nature, it will be requisite that in the first place, something be spoken of Covenant-Relation to God in general.

The original Words whereby a Covenant, making, striking, or entring into Covenant are signified, with their various use, and application to particular Cases [Vid. Cooceii de foedere. ca. 1. & R •• et. in Gen. Exerc. 53.] and Occasions, have been fully explained by many; and therefore passing that, as to our present purpose, it will be enough to mind you,

That a Covenant is to be considered, either simply as proposed by God, or as Man enters thereinto by Restipulation. For,

p. 51. Whatsoever is transacted in a foederal way betwixt God and Men, God hath the first hand in it. As Christ said to his Disciples in another case, that they had not chosen him, but he had chosen them; so may we say, Man hath not at any time entred into Covenant with God, but God hath entred into Covenant with Man; seeing it only belongs to his Soveraign Majesty, and is the fruit of his infinite Goodness to propose, as of his Wisdom to choose and order the Terms of a Covenant-relation between himself and his Creatures; And therefore the Covenant that he hath made with Men, is frequently in Scripture said to be the Lord's Covenant, as in Psal. 25. 14. Isa. 56. 4, 6. and other places. Howbeit, p. 52. Covenant-relation to God, and Interest in him, doth not immediately result from the proposal of a Covenant, and Terms of Covenant-relation to Man; but it is by Restipulation that he actually enters into Covenant with God, and becomes an interessed Party in the Covenant; it is a mutual Consent of the parties in Covenant, that states, and compleats a Covenant-Relation; and this is called an avouching of the Lord to be their God; by consent to the Terms of a Covenant proposed to them Deut. 26. 16, 17, 18. a subscribing with the hand unto the Lord, Isa. 44. 5. and taking hold of his Covenant, Chap. 56. 4, 6. The formal notion of a Covenant entred or made, includes Mutual Ingagement. But yet,