Chapter 11: The Three-Fold Covenant Considered

There be who hold that there be three Covenants. 1. A Covenant of Nature, whereby God as Creator required perfect obedience from Adam in Paradise, with promise of life, and threatening of death.

2. The Covenant of Grace, whereby he promises life and forgiveness in Christ's Blood to believers.

3. A subservient Covenant, made 1. With Israel, not [reconstructed: with] Adam, and all mankind. 2. For a time with Israel, not for ever, as the natural Covenant. 3. In Mount Sinai, not in Paradise. 4. To terrify and keep in bondage (the other from an inward principle required, obedience.) 5. To restrain Israel from outward sins, to prove the people, that the fear of God might be before their eyes, that they should not sin. So they expound (Exodus 20:20) the other Covenant was to restrain from all sin. Indeed and so was that on Mount Sinai, to do all that are written in the Book of the Law (Deuteronomy 27:26; Deuteronomy 28:1-4, etc.) to that same end, to love God with all the heart, and with all the soul (Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 5:1-3; Deuteronomy 6:1-3; Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 6:5), with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the might, which is expounded by Christ (Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27) in as full a height of perfection as ever was required of Adam. 6. It was written to Israel in tables of stone: the natural Covenant was written in the heart; so was there a circumcised heart promised to Israel (Deuteronomy 30:6), though sparingly. 7. It was (say they) given by the Mediator Moses, as that of nature was without a Mediator. Indeed, Moses was the typical mediator of the young Covenant of Grace.

The differences between the subservient Covenant, and that of Grace.

1. In the subservient, God only approves righteousness and condemns sin; in that of Grace he pardons and renews. Answer: (Acts 15:11) We believe through the Grace of the Lord Jesus, we shall be saved even as they under that Covenant. (Acts 10:43) To him gave all the Prophets witness, that through his Name, whoever believes in him, shall receive remission of sins. Abraham and David were justified, in that sin was not imputed to them, not by works (Romans 4:1-9, etc.; Genesis 15:6; Psalm 32:1-2, 5). I said I will confess my transgression, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. (Isaiah 43:25) I, even I am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. So David was a man according to the heart of God, so Asa, Josiah, Jehoshaphat, Samuel, Baruch, Gideon, Daniel, the Prophets, under that subservient Covenant (except they be under a fourth Covenant) were renewed, justified, saved by faith (Hebrews 11), as under a Covenant of Grace.

2. The former was, do and live, this was, believe and live. Answer: Doing and living was but a shutting them up under the Law, that they might flee to Christ in whom they believed; else the fathers must be saved and justified by works contrary to Romans 2, Romans 4, Hebrews 11.

3. In antiquity, the former came in as added 430 years after the promise of grace (Galatians 3:17).

Answer: True, but he speaks of the Covenant in Sinai, according to the strict Law part, which could not save, and so it is different. But that proves not two Covenants.

4. In the former is compulsion and the Spirit of bondage, in this heart inclining freedom and the Spirit of Adoption. Answer: Yet the differences are accidental, there was a legal awing of the hearts, as if they had been servants, yet heirs and sons they were (Galatians 4:1-2). The whole Book of Proverbs spoke to the godly as to adopted sons. They were believers (Hebrews 11; Romans 4; Acts 10:43) and so sons as touching a spiritual state (John 1:11-12). In regard of economy, it was somewhat more rigid and legal, they were restrained as servants; yet it was the Covenant of Grace, by which believing Jews were justified and saved (Acts 15:11; Acts 10:43).

5. In the former man is dead, in this man is humbled for sin? Answer: Legally dead, except they would flee to Christ, and legally condemned, but there was true humiliation for sins under that Covenant: as David, Josiah, Hezekiah, and all believers then, as now, were pardoned and justified.

6. In the former there are commands, not strength, but here there be promises and grace given? Answer: The full abundance of grace and of a new heart, was reserved until now. And the Law could not make perfect nor give pardon, in the blood of beasts; as touching that legal dispensation: but both grace, the Spirit, pardon, righteousness and life were received and believed; by looking on Christ to come.

7. In the former, Canaan was promised, in this, Heaven. Answer: Canaan is promised only but sacramentally, and that was a pedagogical promise for the infancy of that Church, but a type which was then in that Covenant, and is not now, make not two Covenants, one then, and another now? Except you say, there was then a Lamb in the Passover, which was a type of Christ to come, and there is now no such type, because the body is come, and Christ the true High Priest offered himself. Therefore there are two Christs, one then to come, another now who has come already. The Lord's dispensation with Israel is often called a Covenant, now it must either be a Covenant of Works, or of Grace, or a third Covenant.

But the truth is, the Law as pressed upon Israel was not a Covenant of Works.

1. The Law as the Law or as a Covenant of Works is made with perfect men who need no mercy; But this Covenant is made with sinners, with an express preface of mercy: I am the Lord your God that brought you out of the land of Egypt, etc. It is made with stiff-necked Israel (Deuteronomy 29; Deuteronomy 30; chapter 31; chapter 32), and that is called a Covenant from the end and object, as motions are denominated from their end: for the end of the Lord's pressing the Law upon them was to bring them under a blessed necessity to seek salvation in their true City of Refuge Christ Jesus, who redeemed them out of the spiritual bondage of sin. 2. It was the Covenant made with Abraham, which was a Covenant of Grace: and though it be called (Deuteronomy 29:1) a Covenant beside that which was made in Horeb — because: 1. Renewed again after their breach; 2. Repeated a little before the death of Moses (Deuteronomy 31:28-30); (3.) Because there were some additions of special blessings, cursings, Ceremonial Commands, that were not in the formerly proposed Covenant (Exodus 20) — yet the same it was in substance, to love the Lord with all the heart (Deuteronomy 2:10, 12-14). The same with that of Abraham (Deuteronomy 8:18): that he may establish his Covenant, which he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. When he is to deliver them out of Egypt (Exodus 2:24): and God heard their groaning, and remembered his Covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. So the Lord expounds it in his appearing to Moses (Exodus 3:6; Jeremiah 31:32): Not according to the Covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Now that was the Covenant which God made with Abraham, of which Circumcision was a seal (Genesis 17), not of a temporary Canaan only, but of heart Circumcision (Colossians 2:11). For the Lord expressly tells them, when he took them by the hand as his married people, to bring them out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage (Exodus 20), he meant no other Covenant than he made with Abraham, of believing (Genesis 15), and of walking before him and being perfect (Genesis 17:1-2), which is somewhat more legal, as Moses and the Lord himself expounds it (Exodus 2:24; Exodus 3:6; Exodus 20:1-2). And he shows them (Leviticus 26), if in their enemies' land they repent and shall come out and meet the rod, and their uncircumcised hearts shall willingly accept of the punishment of their iniquity: (Leviticus 26:42) Then (says the Lord) I will remember my Covenant with Jacob, and also my Covenant with Isaac, and also my Covenant with Abraham will I remember. Besides, there are not here three Covenants, but one; there is no word of the subservient Covenant with Israel in Sinai, except that when he mentions the one, he excludes not the other. For to walk before the Lord required in Abraham's Covenant (Genesis 17:1) is to walk in all the ways of the Lord, to fear and love him (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). And Samuel (1 Samuel 12:22), Joshua (Joshua 24:22-25), and Mary (Luke 1:55), and Zechariah (Luke 1:70, 72, 73) refer to the Covenant made with Abraham. And (Deuteronomy 6) the Covenant at Horeb, the Lord made with Abraham to give Canaan to his seed (Deuteronomy 6:10; Deuteronomy 7:12): If you hearken to these judgments to do them, it shall come to pass that the Lord your God will keep to you the Covenant of mercy that he swore to your fathers, etc.

3. This Covenant has the promise of a circumcised heart (Deuteronomy 30:6), and of the word of faith that is near in the mouth, and of the righteousness of faith clearly differentiated from the righteousness of the Law by doing. For so Paul (Romans 10:5-7, etc.) expounds Moses (Deuteronomy 30:11-14).

4. The Covenant of Works taught nothing of the way of expiation of sin by blood typifying the Ransom of blood that Christ was to pay for our sins, as this Covenant all along had sacrifices and blood to confirm it (Exodus 24:8): And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold this is the Blood of the Covenant which the Lord has made with you, concerning all these words. Now the words were the ten Commandments. See (Hebrews 9:18-24). (5.) This Covenant is made with Israel only (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5; Deuteronomy 6:5-7, 12). The Covenant of Works is made with all mankind. (6.) No people under the Law can be justified and saved thereby, nor have their sins pardoned (Romans 3:9-11, 19-20; Romans 4:1-4; Romans 9; Romans 10; Psalm 130:3; Psalm 143:2; Galatians 3:1-3, 10-13). But in this Covenant, Abraham, David (Genesis 15; Psalm 32; Romans 4:1-9), and the Jews by faith have remission of sins and salvation, as also the Gentiles have (Acts 10:43; Acts 15:11). (7.) The Lord minds to lay aside the Law as inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace (Galatians 3:18): If the inheritance be by the Law, then it is not by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. For to live by this Covenant is a life of promises, all being here promised, both faith the condition, and perseverance therein, and a new heart, righteousness, pardon, and life. A man that has his estate in papers and in good words that are transient things may seem a poor man, but to live by promises here is the rich life of the heirs of hope; this is strong consolation under deadness, absence, faith working underground in the dark (Galatians 3:21): If there had been a Law which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the Law.

Though he commanded them to do the Law, it was not that they should live thereby, and though he commanded us the same, it is another command, as it were — it is not so much now that we obey from the authority of God as Law-giver under pain of damnation (though that be not laid aside, but urged in a Gospel intention upon heirs) as from the love of God, Grace-giver. As also there is an intrinsic amenity in Christ drawing, and obedience now becomes connatural, free, delightful. Let these consider, to whom the yoke of obedience is a torment and a man-mill.

8. The Passover and circumcision, (Genesis 17:7) all along were seals of the Covenant, as baptism one with circumcision in substance (Colossians 2:11) is the seal of the same Covenant (Acts 2:39-41). Now the Law required no circumcision, no shedding of blood, no repentance, no new heart, but eternal condemnation followed the least breach thereof. Paul says indeed (Galatians 5:3), If you be circumcised (as the false apostles would have, that thereby you may be justified and saved) you are debtors to keep the whole Law perfectly, as the only way to life, and by no other covenant can you be justified and saved. Now Abraham was not circumcised that way; circumcision did bind Abraham to keep the Law, as a ceremony and seal of the Covenant of Grace commanded of God. But the Law as a Covenant of Works does command no ceremony, no sacrifice, no type of Christ the mediator at all.

It's true that the first covenant had Moses for its mediator, but as he was a type of Christ, so Christ yesterday and that day was the real mediator, but veiled. The New Covenant has better promises (Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 7:22); it's a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22), has a better real, not a typical surety, a better Priest who offered himself through the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14), a better sacrifice, because of the plainness (John 16:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18), because the real promises are made out to us, because of a larger measure of grace (2 Corinthians 3:1-4). And the first covenant is faulty (Hebrews 8:7) — not because there was no salvation by it, the contrary is shown in Hebrews 11 — but that is comparatively spoken: because the blood of beasts therein could not take away sins (Hebrews 10:1-4), because forgiveness of sins is promised darkly in the first covenant, but plainly in the other, because grace is promised sparingly in the former, but here abundantly, the Law being written in the heart (John 7:39; Isaiah 54:13).

And it is true (Galatians 4:22-24, etc.) they seem to be made contrary covenants: but Paul speaks in Galatians 3 of the Law as relative to that people, and so it pressed them to Christ, and keeps them as young heirs under nonage. 2. He speaks of the Law absolutely, as contradistinguished from the Gospel (Galatians 4:21): so it is a Covenant of Works begetting children to bondage — 2. who come short of righteousness and the inheritance, and shall not be saved; 3. who are cast out of the kingdom of grace; 4. who persecute the godly, the sons of promise. So is the Law as it was in Adam's days, and is now to all the reprobate; so the godly are not under the Law and the Covenant of Works. The covenant urged upon believers is to prove them, when they stand afar off and tremble (Exodus 20:20). Fear not, says Moses, God is come to prove you (not to damn you). And therefore Calvin solidly observes that Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 speaks with less respect of the Law than the Prophets do, for their cause, who out of a vain affectation of the Law-ceremonies gave too much to the Law and darkened the Gospel, and says the one was: 1. literal; 2. written in stone; 3. a sermon of death and wrath; 4. to be done away and less glorious — whereas the Gospel is: 1. spiritual; 2. written on the heart; 3. the ministry of life; 4. and glorious. And praises put upon the Law agree not to it of its own nature, but as it was used by the Lord to prove them (Exodus 29:20) and chase them to Christ.

The Arminians also (especially Episcopius) make three covenants. 1. One with Abraham, in which he requires sincere worship and putting away strange gods: besides 2. faith and universal obedience, and promised Canaan to his seed and spiritual blessings darkly. 2. One in Mount Sinai in these three laws — moral, ceremonial, and judicial — with a promise of temporal good things, but to no sinners a promise of eternal life. 3. A Covenant of Grace, with a promise of pardon and life to all that believe and repent, to all mankind. But he denies: 1. all infused habits, contrary to (Isaiah 44:1-3; Isaiah 59:20-21; Zechariah 12:10; John 4:14; John 7:37; John 16:7-8; 1 John 3:9); he says that 2. all commands are easy by grace; 3. that the promise of earthly things in their abundance is abolished, in that we are called to patient suffering; 4. that there is no threatening in this covenant, but that of hell fire. But the covenant made with Abraham is that of grace made with all the seed (Deuteronomy 30:6; Deuteronomy 7:5-7, 12; Leviticus 26:40-41) and made with all believers, who are Abraham's children (Galatians 3:13-14, 18-19; Romans 4:1-4; Luke 19:9), yes with the whole race of man without exception. (2.) The second covenant which promises only blessings is made rather with beasts, that well fed, than with men, contrary to (Psalm 73:25; Isaiah 57:1-3; Psalm 37:37), and it must build some chamber in hell where the fathers were before Christ — a dream unknown to Scripture. The third covenant makes the Covenant of Grace a Covenant of Works, and holds out life and pardon upon condition that free will repent and believe and stand on its own feet, for there is neither faith, nor a new heart, nor repentance promised — contrary to (Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 11:19-20; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Isaiah 59:19-21; Isaiah 44:1-5; Zechariah 12:10).