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THE foundation of all the gracious dealings of God with men, hath alwayes been laid and began in or with Covenants; in which God takes a people, as a man a woman, and es∣pouseth them to himself, Exod. 19.8. & 24.3. & 7. where in stead of the blood of the sacrifice, we have Christ to make it in.
1. There is the first covenant; the Medi∣ator or Minister thereof was Moses; which was legal, and made with all the people, That they should keep the commandments, the Statutes, and Judgements set down in the books of Moses, Deut. 5.1, 2, 3, 5. & vers. 27. The blessings of this covenant were temporal, for this life: when it was broken, tempo∣ral blessings were withdrawn. The Kings of Israel, as Josiah (2 Kin. 23.2, 3.) renewed it, Deut. 29.10, 11, 12, 13. 2 Kings 11.17. And another then this legal covenant, was not made with the Nati∣on or people of the Jews, by Moses, Jer. 7.22, 23, 24. Josh. 8. ult. 2 Cor. 3.14.15.
2. There was a new covenant; in which, not Moses, but Christ is the Mediator; which is a better covenant, having not the law written in tables of stone, but in the heart, Heb. 8.10. which had better promises, vers. 6. and Christ said to be a Priest of good things to come: which was only made with believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom the law is kept only and indeed; in shadow of which, God, after covenanting with him in the Mosaical