178 The Oldand New Covenant. Teilimonies e- , vì..ciiig, the f ir::tuality oï bid i'cíi._ "rn ent-P.oni- Aes. Chap. 2 feale of the Covenant. Thefe feverall interefis make them 'all to joyne in one, to conclude that the firft was a Covenant car - nail and railing the men in Covenant no higher then earthly expectations, but if truth may be heard, none of thefe interefts will hold ; certaine it is , that thole that were in the Old Cove- nant bad better thoughts of it. The Apoftle (fpeaking of the Pa- triarchs confef ed that they were í? rangers and pilgrims on earth) makes his oblervation upon it ; They that fay-thefe thingr plainly decla e that they leek s a Countrey. A ftranger or pilgrim is a man `not ac his home ; Now this Countrey muff either be Earthly or Heavenly , there is not a third which men could have in defire. That it was not an earthly that they fought ; he makes good, in that they had olort.unity of retorne, might have gone back to Ur of the Chaldees at pleafure, Then it followes, that they fought abet- ter Countrey, that if, an Heavenly, Heb. i i. i 6. Men of this opi- nion have not only the Apoftles authority againfl: them but putting himfelf on in aLogical difpute with them, if they fhould deny his authority , yet they cannot anfwer his reafons ; yea, thofe that were moll carnall and earthly- minded among them, were taught to judge better of the Promifes that they lived un- der; Chrift gives that teftimony of the Jewes ( with whom l-e: . had conteft) that in the Scriptures they thought to have ever- tailing life, John 5.39. They had no Scriptures but Old Cove nañt- :..criptures, and of them they had this opinion , which was no errour of theirs corrected by Chrift,but they were by him con-. firmed in it, in them ye think to have eternall life , and they te- flifie of me; fo that Chrift jid ifies their opinion, that in Scripture they thought to have everlafting life, and rectifies them in the 1 way of finding everlafting life in them. A great part of the dif- pute is about thofe words of God to Abraham, in which the foundation of that Covenant frands ; I n:ill be thy rod , and the Godofrhy feed, whether in them a people ofGod may finde pro - miles only of earth or of heaven likewife ? And this Chrift him - felf determines in his anfwer to the ,Sadduces about the Refurredi- on, where he applies that fpeech of God to Notes at the bulb : i am the God of Abraham ,: the God of lfaaç , and the God of Ja- cob ; for proofe that Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob live for ever, Matth. 22, 33r How injurious are they to the Covenant of God with his people that put fuch an unworthy limit upon it; o- . ther
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