and must be restrained according to the circumstances of the place, Where the LXX. and Theodotio translate it διαθήκη, Symmachus and Aquila turne it συνθήκη. Psal. 25. 14. Nor is it a thing unusuall with classicall Authors of the Greeke tongue to use the word διαθήκη in the generall signification; For Camerarius citeth out of Aristophan. de Avibus, διαθεῖναι, διαθήκην, used for to make a Covenant. The Papists carpe at our Interpreters, because they render the word Covenant, rather then Testament: for they would have it to signifie a testamentary disposition. But they are deceived, for the signification of the word is more generall: and the Apostle Heb. 9. 16. argueth not from the simple signification of the word, but the circumstances of the Covenant. In a Covenant and Testament both, there is an ordination and disposition of things according to pleasure: and the Greeke phrase in the New Testament doth follow the received Interpretation of the Septuagint; although in this the Covenant of Grace is like to a Testament, that it is not established but by the death of the Mediatour as of a Testator.
The Covenant in Scripture doth sometimes signifie an absolute Promise of God, without any stipulation at all, such as was the Covenant which God made with Noah presently after the Floud, promising freely, that he would never destroy man and beasts with an universall deluge of water any more. Gen. 9. 11. Sept. στήσω την διαθήκην. And that Covenant of Peace, and everlasting Covenant which God made with Phinehas, that he and his seed after him should have the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood. Numb. 25. 12, 13. Of this kind is the Covenant wherein God promiseth that he will give his elect faith and perseverance, Jer. 33.20. to which promise no condition annexed can be conceived in mind, which is not comprehended in the Promise it selfe. Heb. 8. 10.
But oftentimes in holy Writ the name Covenant is so used, that in it is plainly signified a free Promise of God, but with stipulation of duty from the reasonable creature, which otherwise was due, no promise comming betwixt, and might have been exacted of God, and ought to have been performed of the creature,Psal. 50.16. Syr. Quid tibi & libris præceptorum mearum, quod assumpseris pactum meum.. if God had so pleased, Psal. 50. 16. and 25. 10. Psal. 44. 17. For a Covenant is quiddam complexum, implying two things, distinguished either re or ratione, the one covenanting, the other restipulating or accepting. As also two parts covenanted. First, thegiving
