named, because the confirmation of them must be sought in the Chapters following.
And if the Covenant of Promise, and the New Covenant doe thus agree in substance, then it must necessarily follow, Eph. 2.18,19,20.
and 4.4,5.That there is but one Church of the Elect, the same Communion of Saints, one Faith, one Salvation, and one way of obtaining the same, viz. by Faith in Christ.
Rom. 11.17.Secondly, that the Word of God was no lesse incorruptible seed to the Fathers and the Israelites then to us: 1 Cor. 10.2,3.That the Fathers did eat the true flesh of Christ by faith, as well as we in the times of the Gospell: 2 Cor. 4.13.That they and we are partakers of the same Spirit: and that the Sacraments of the Jewes did signifie and seale to them, the same promises of eternall life, which our Sacraments doe to us. The Sacraments of the Old Testament were not types of our Sacraments, as sometimes they are called by Divines: but they typified the same things that ours doe. For as the Covenants under which they and we lived, were one for substance: so are the Sacraments one in their common nature and signification.
Thirdly, that the faithfull before Christ were saved by the Heb. 11.9
Psal 105.15
Isai. 51.6free mercy of God in Christ, did know God and Christ, had the spirituall promise of life eternall, and were equall to us Christians in all substantiall graces of the Covenant.
Fourthly, and from the same grounds we may conclude, that the soules of the faithfull, who departed this life before the comming of Christ in the flesh, were immediately received into Heaven. For they were taken to glory, and saved as weAct. 15.11.: Now such as are taken to glory, are taken to Heaven. For the Scripture knoweth no place in which God doth ordinarily display his glory, but Heaven. And what should hinder their translation into the heavenly Jerusalem, when they are removed out of this earthly tabernacle? Not their sinnes, for they which could not hinder them from Sanctification, fitting them for Heaven, could not hinder them from Heaven: Not want of Faith, who now have that faith which Abraham, and many of them had: No want of efficacie in Christ, he was the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world, he was yesterday, to day, and for ever; his death was effectuall to cause them to find pardon, and the Spirit of Sanctification. Not any priviledge of Christ: for not simply to ascend into Heaven was Christs priviledge, but to ascend soule and body, as heireof
