Burnet on Article VII: Of the Old Testament

THIS Article is made up of the Sixth and the Nineteenth of King Edward’s Articles laid together: Only the Nineteenth of King Edward’s has these words after Moral: Wherefore they are not to be heard, which teach that the Holy Scriptures were given to none but to the weak; and brag continually of the Spirit, by which they do pretend that all whatsoever they Preach is suggested to them; though manifestly contrary to the Holy Scriptures. This whole Article relates to the Antinomians, as these last words were added by reason of the Extravagance of some Enthusiasts at that time; but that Madness having ceased in Queen Elizabeth’s time, it seems it was thought that there was no more occasion for those words.

There are Four heads that do belong to this Article: First, That the Old Testament is not contrary to the New. Secondly, That Christ was the Mediator in both Dispensations, so that Salvation was offered in both by him. Thirdly, That the Ceremonial and the Judiciary Precepts in the Law of Moses do not bind Christians. Fourthly, That the Moral Law does still bind all Christians.

To the first of these, The Manichees of old, who fancied that there was a Bad as well as a Good God, thought that these Two Great Principles were in a perpetual struggle; and they believed the Old Dispensation was under the Bad One, which was taken away by the New, that is the work of the Good God. But they who held such monstrous Tenets, must needs reject the whole New Testament, or very much corrupt it: since there is nothing plainer, than that the Prophets of the Old foretold the New with approbation; and the Writers of the New prove both their Commission and their Doctrine from Passages of the Old Testament. This therefore could not be affirmed without rejecting many of the Books that we own, and corrupting the rest. So this deserves no more to be considered.

Upon this occasion it will be no improper Digression, to consider what Revelation those under the Mosaical Law, or that lived before it, had of the Messias: This is an Important Matter: It is a great Confirmation of the Truth of the Christian Religion, as it will furnish us with proper Arguments against the Iews. It is certain they have long had, and still have an Expectation of a Messias: Now the Characters and Predictions concerning this Person must have been fulfilled long ago, or the Prophecies will be found to be false; and if they do meet and were accomplish’d in our Saviour’s Person, and if no other Person could ever pretend to this, then that which is undertaken to be proved, will be fully performed. The first Promise to Adam after his Sin, speaks of an Enmity between the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman:¹ It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel: The one might hurt the other in some lesser Instances, but the other was to have an entire Victory at last; which is plainly signified by the Figures of bruising the Heel, and bruising the Head, which was to be performed by one who was to bear this Character of being the Woman’s Seed. The next Promise was made to Abraham, In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed:² This was lodged in his Seed or Posterity, upon his being ready to offer up his Son Isaac: That Promise was renewed to Isaac, and after him to Iacob: When he was dying, it was lodged by him in the Tribe of Iudah, when he prophesied, That the Scepter should not depart from Iudah, nor the Lawgiver from between his feet, till Shiloh should come; and the gathering of the people, that is, of the Gentiles, was to be to him. It is certain the Ten Tribes were lost in their Captivity, whereas the Tribe of Iudah was brought back, and continued to be a political Body under their own Laws, until a Breach was made upon that by the Romans first reducing them to the Form of a Province, and soon after that destroying them utterly: So that either that Prediction was not accomplished, or the Shiloh, the Sent, to whom the Gentiles were to be gathered, came before they lost their Scepter and Laws.

Moses told the People of Israel, That God was to raise up among them a Prophet like unto him, ³ to whom they ought to hearken, otherwise God would require it of them. The Character of Moses was, That he was a Lawgiver, and the Author of an entire Body of Instituted Religion, so they were to look for such a one.⁴ Balaam prophesied darkly of one whom he saw as at a great distance from his own time; and he spoke of a Star that should come out of Iacob, and a Scepter out of Israel: Some Memorial of which was probably preserved among the Arabians. In the Book of Psalms there are many things said of David, which seem capable of a much Auguster Sense than can be pretended to be answered by any thing that befel himself. What is said in the 2d, the 16th, the 22d, the 45th, the 102d, and the 110thPsalms, afford us copious Instances of this. Passages in these Psalms must be stretched by Figures that go very high, to think they were all fulfilled in David or Solomon: But in their Literal and largest Sense they were accomplished in Christ, to whom God said, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. In him that was verified, Thou wilt not leave my Soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption. His hands and his feet were pierced, and lots were cast upon his vesture. Of him it may be strictly said, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. To him that belonged, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my Right-hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. And, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck.

The Prophets gave yet more express Predictions concerning the Messias. Isaiah did quiet the Fears of Ahaz, and of the House of David, by saying, The Lord himself shall give you a sign, Behold, ⁵ a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son. It was certainly no Sign for one that was a Virgin, to conceive afterwards and bear a Son; therefore the Sign or extroardinary thing here promised as a signal Pledge of God’s Care of the House of David, must lie in this, That one still remaining a Virgin, should conceive and bear a Son; not to insist upon the strict signification of the Word in the Original. The same Prophet did also foretell, That as this Messiah, or the Branch, ⁶ should spring from the Stem of Iesse, so also he was to be full of the Spirit of the Lord; and that the Gentiles should seek to him. ⁷ In another place he enumerates many of the Miracles that should be done by him: He was to give sight to the Blind, make the Deaf to hear, and the Lame to walk.⁸ He does further set forth his Character; not that of a Warrior or Conqueror; on the contrary, He was not to cry nor strive, ⁹ nor break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax; ¹⁰ he was to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles, and the Isles were to wait for his Law. There is a whole Chapter in the same Prophet,¹¹ setting forth the Mean Appearance that the Messias was to make, the Contempt he was to fall under, and the Sufferings he was to bear; and that for the Sins of others, which were to be laid on him; so that his Soul or Life was to be made an Offering for Sin, in reward of which he was to be highly exalted. In another place his Mission is set forth, not in the Strains of War, or of Conquest, but of Preaching to the Poor,¹² setting the Prisoners free as in a Year of Jubilee, and comforting the afflicted and such as mourned. In the two last Chapters of that Prophet mention is made more particularly of the Gentiles that were to be called by him, and the Isles that were afar off, out of whom God was to take some for Priests and Levites: Which shewed plainly, that a new Dispensation was to be opened by him, in which the Gentiles were to be Priests and Levites, which could not be done while the Mosaical Law stood, that had tied these Functions to the Tribe of Levi, and to the House of Aaron. Ieremy renewed the Promise to the House of David, of a King that should reign and prosper; ¹³ in whose days Iudah and Israel were to dwell safely, whose name was to be, The Lord our Righteousness. It is certain this Promise was never literally accomplished; and therefore recourse must be had to a Mystical Sense. The same Prophet gives a large Account of a new Covenant that God was to make with the house of Israel, ¹⁴ not according to the Covenant that he made with their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt. We have also Two Characters given of that Covenant: one is, That God would put his Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; that he would be their God, and that they should all be taught of him: The other is, That he would forgive their iniquities, and remember their sin no more. One of these is in opposition to their Law, that consisted chiefly in Rituals, and had no Promises of Inward Assistances; and the other is in opposition to the limited Pardon that was offered in that Dispensation, on the condition of the many Sacrifices that they were required to offer. There is a Prediction to the same purpose in Ezekiel. Ioel prophesied of an extraordinary Effusion of the Spirit of God on great Numbers of Persons, Old and Young,¹⁵ that was to happen before the great and terrible Day of the Lord, that is, before the Final Destruction of Ierusalem. Micah, after he had foretold several things of the Disp[?]nsation of the Messiah, ¹⁶ says that he was to come out of Bethlehem Ephratah. ¹⁷ Haggai encouraged those who were troubled at the meanness of the Temple which they had raised after their return out of the Captivity. It had neither the outward Glory in its Fabrick that Solomon’s Temple had, nor the more real Glory of the Ark, with the Tables of the Law; of Fire from Heaven on the Altar; of a Succession of Prophets; of the Urim and Thummin, and the Cloud between the Cherubims, which last, strictly speaking, was the Glory; all which had been in Solomon’s Temple, but were wanting in that. In opposition to this, the Prophet in the Name of God promised, That he would in a little while shake the heavens and the earth, and shake all Nations; words that import some surprizing and great Change; upon which the desire of all nations should come, and God would fill the house with his Glory; and the Glory of this latter house should exceed the Glory of the former, for in that place God would give Peace. Here is a plain Prophecy, That this Templs was to have a Glory, not only equal but superior to the Glory of Solomon’s Temple: These Words are too August to be believed to have been accomplished, when Herod rebuilt the Temple with much Magnificence; for that was nothing in comparison of the real Glory, of the Symbols of the Presence of God, that were wanting in it, This cannot answer the Words, That the desire of all Nations was to come, and that God would give Peace in that Place. So that either this Prophecy was never fulfilled, or somewhat must be assigned during the Second Temple, that will answer those solemn Expressions, which are plainly applicable to our Saviour, who was the Expectation of the Gentiles, by whom Peace was made, and in whom the Eternal Word dwelt in a manner infinitely more August than in the Cloud of Glory. Zechary prophesied, That their King, by which they understood the Messias,¹⁸ was to be meek and lowly, and that he was to make his Entrance in a very mean Appearance, riding on an Ass; but yet under that, he was to bring Salvation to them, and they were to rejoyce greatly in him. Malachi told them, That the Lord whom they sought, ¹⁹ even the Messenger of the Covenant in whom they delighted, should su[?]denly come into his Temple; and that the Day of his coming was to be dreadful; that he was to refine and purify, in particular, the Sons of Levi; and a terrible Destruction is denounced after that. One Character of his coming,²⁰ was, That Elijah the Prophet was to come before that great and dreadful Day, who should convert many, Old and Young. Now it is certain that no other Person came, during the Second Temple, to whom these Words can be applied; so that they were not accomplished, unless it was in the Person of our Saviour, to whom all these Characters do well agree.

But to conclude with that Prophecy which of all others is the most particular: When Daniel at the End of the Seventy Years Captivity was interceeding for that Nation,²¹ an Angel was sent to him to tell him, That they were to have a new Period of Seventy Weeks, that is, Seven times Seventy Years, 490 Years; and that after Sixty two Weeks, Messiah the Prince was to come, and to be cut off; and that then the People of a Prince should destroy the City and the Sanctuary; and the end of these was to be as with a Flood or Inundation, and Desolations were determined to the end of the War. They were to be destroyed by Abominable Armies, that is, by Idolatrous Armies: They were to be made desolate, till an utter End or Consummation should be made of them. The Pomp with which this Destruction is set forth, plainly shews, that the Final Ruin of the Iews by the Roman Armies is meant by it. From which it is justly inferred, not only that if that Vision was really sent from God by an Angel to Daniel, and in consequence to that was fulfilled, then the Messiah did come, and was cut off during the continuance of Ierusalem and the Temple; but that it hapned within a Period of Time designed in that Vision. Time was then computed more certainly than it had been for many Ages before. Two great Measures were fixed; one at Babylon by Nabonassor, and another in Greece in the Olympiads. Here a Prediction is given almost Five hundred Years before the Accomplishment, with many very nice Reckonings in it. I will not now enter upon the Chronology of this matter, on which some Great Men have bestowed their Labours very happily. Archbishop Usher has stated this matter so, that the Interval of Time is clearly Four hundred eighty six Years. The Covenant was to be confirmed with many for one Week, in the midst of which God was to cause the Sacrifice and Oblation for Sin to cease; which seems to be a Mystical way of describing the Death of Christ that was to put an end to the Virtue of the Iudaical Sacrifices; so Sixty nine Weeks and a half make just Four hundred eighty six Years and a half. But without going further into this Calculation, it is evident, That during the Second Temple, the Messias was to come, and to be cut off, and that soon after that a Prince was to send an Army to destroy both City and Sanctuary. The Iews do not so much as pretend that during that Temple the Messias thus set forth did come, or was cut off; so either the Prediction fail’d in the Event, or the Messiah did come within that Period.

And thus a Thread of the Prophecies of the Messias being carried down through the whole Old Testament, it seems to be fully made out, That he was to be of the Seed of Abraham, and of the Posterity of David: That the Tribe of Iudah was to be a distinct Policy, till he should come: That he should work many Miracles: That he was to be Meek and Lowly: That his Function was to consist in Preaching to the Afflicted, and in comforting them: That he was to call the Gentiles, and even the remote Islands, to the knowledge of God: That he was to be born of a Virgin, and at Bethlehem: That he was to be a New Lawgiver, as Moses had been: That he was to settle his Followers upon a New Covenant, different from that made by Moses: That he was to come during the Second Temple: That he was to make a mean, but a joyful Entrance to Ierusalem: That he was to be cut off: That the Iniquities of us all were to be laid on him, and that his Life was to be made an Offering for Sin; but that God was to give him a glorious Reward for these his Sufferings; and that his Doctrine was to be internal, accompanied with a free Offer of Pardon, and of Inward Assistances; and that after his Death the Iews were to fall under a terrible Curse, and an utter Extirpation. When this is all summed up together; when it appears, That there was never any other Person to whom those Characters did agree; but that they did all meet in our Saviour, we see what Light the Old Testament has given us in this matter. Here a Nation that hates us and our Religion, who are scattered up and down the World, who have been for many Ages without their Temple, and without their Sacrifices, without Priests, and without their Genealogies, who yet hold these Books amongthem in adue Veneration, which furnish us with so full aproof, that the Messiah whom they still look for, is the Lord Jesus whom we worship.

We do now proceed to other matters.

The Iews pretend, That it is a great Argument against the Authority of the New Testament, because it acknowledges the Old to be from God, and yet repeals the far greater part of the Laws Enacted in it; though those Laws are often said to be Laws for ever, and throughout all Generations. Now they seem to argue with some advantage, who say, That what God does declare to be a Law that shall be perpetual by any one Prophet, cannot be abrogated or reversed by another, since that other can have no more Authority than the former Prophet had: And if both are of God, it seems the one cannot make void that which was formerly declared by the other in the Name of God. But it is to be considered, That by the Phrases of a Statute for ever, or throughout all Generations, can only be meant, that such Laws were not transient Laws, such as were only to be observed whilst they marched through the Wilderness, or upon particular occasions; whereas such Laws which were constantly and generally to be observed, were to them perpetual. But that does not Import that the Lawgiver himself had parted with all the Authority that naturally belongs to him, over his own Laws. It only says, That the People had no power over such Laws to repeal or change them: They were to bind them always, but that puts no limitation on the Lawgiver himself, so that he might not alter his own Constitutions. Positive Precepts which have no real value in themselves are of their own nature alterable: And as in human Laws the words of Enacting a Law for all future times do only make that to be a perpetual Law for the Subjects, but do not at all limit the Legislative power, which is as much at liberty to abrogate or alter it, as if no such words had been in the Law. There are also many hints in the Old Testament, which shew that the Precepts of the Mosaical Law were to be altered: Many plain Intimations are given of a time and state, in which the knowledge of God was to be spread over all the Earth: And that God was every where to be worshipped. Now this was impossible to be done without a Change in their Law and Rituals: It being impossible that all the World should go up thrice a Year to worship at Ierusalem, or could be served by Priests of the Aaronical Family. Circumcision was a distinction of one particular Race which needed not to be continued after all were brought under one denomination, and within the same common Privileges.

These things hitherto mentioned belong naturally to this part of the Article; yet in the intention of those who framed it, these words relate to an extravagant sort of Enthusiasts that lived in those days; who abusing some ill-understood Phrases concerning Justification by Christ without the works of the Law, came to set up very wild Notions, which were bad in themselves, but much more pernicious in their Consequences. They therefore fancied that a Christian was tied by no Law, as a Rule or Yoke; all these being taken away by Christ: They said indeed, That a Christian by his renovation became a Law to himself, he obeyed not any written Rule or Law, but a new inward Nature: And thus as it is said that Sadocus mistook his Master Antigonus, who taught his Disciples to serve God, not for the hope of a Reward, but without any expectations, as if he by that Affectation of Sublimity had denied that there was any Reward, and from thence sprung the Sect of the Sadducees: so these men, perhaps at first mistaking the meaning of the New Testament, went wrong only in their Notions; and still meant to press the necessity of true Holiness, though in another set of Phrases, and upon other Motives; yet from thence many wild and ungovern’d Notions arose then, and were not long ago revived among us: All which flowed from their not understanding the Importance of the Word Law in the New Testament, in which it stands most commonly for the complex of the whole Iewish Religion, in opposition to the Christian; as the Word Law when it stands for a Book, is meant of the Five Books of Moses.

The maintaining the whole frame of that Dispensation, in opposition to that Liberty which the Apostles granted to the Gentiles, as to the Ritual parts of it, was the Controversy then in debate between the Apostles and the Judaizing Christians. The stating that matter aright is a Key that will open all those difficulties, which with it will appear easy, and without it insuperable. In opposition to these, who thought then that the Old Testament, having brought the World on to the knowledge of the Messias, was now of no more use, this Article was framed.

The Second Part of the Article relates to a more Intricate Matter; and that is, whether in the Old Testament there were any promises made, other than Transitory or Temporal ones, and whether they might look for Eternal Salvation in that Dispensation, and upon what account? Whether Christ was the Mediator in that Dispensation, or if they were saved by Virtue of their Obedience to the Laws that were then given them. Those who deny that Christ was truly God, think that in order to the raising him to those great Characters in which he is proposed in the New Testament, it is necessary to assert that he gave the first assurances of Eternal Happiness, and of a free and full pardon of all Sins, in his Gospel: And that in the Old Testament neither the one nor the other were certainly and distinctly understood.

It is true, That if we take the words of the Covenant that Moses made between God and the People of Israel strictly and as they stand, they Import only Temporal Blessings: That was a Covenant with a Body of Men and with their Posterity as they were a People engaged to the Obedience of that Law. Now a National Covenant could only be establish’d in Temporal promises of Publick and Visible Blessings, and of a long continuance of them upon their Obedience, and in Threatnings of as signal Judgments upon the Violation of them: But under those general promises of what was to happen to them Collectively, as they made up one Nation, every single person among them might, and the good men among them did, gather the hopes of a future State. It is clear that Moses did all along suppose the Being of God, the Creation of the World, and the promise of the Messias, as things fully known and carried down by Tradition to his days: So it seems he did also suppose the knowledge of a future State, which was then generally believed by the Gentiles as well as the Iews; though they had only dark and confused Notions about it. But when God was establishing a Covenant with the Iewish Nation, a main part of which was his giving them the Land of Canaan for an Inheritance, it was not necessary that Eternal Rewards or Punishments should be then proposed to them: But from the Tenor of the promises made to their Forefathers, and from the General Principles of Natural Religion, not yet quite extinguished among them, they might gather this, That under those Carnal promises, Blessings of a higher nature were to be understood. And so we see that David had the hope of arriving at the presence of God, and at his right hand, where he believed there was a fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore: And he puts himself in this opposition to the wicked,²² That whereas their portion was in this life, and they left their substance to their Children; he says, That as for him, he should behold God’s Face in righteousness, and should be satisfied when he awaked with his likeness; which seems plainly to relate to a state after this Life, and to the Resurrection. He carries this opposition further in another Psalm, where after he had said, That men in honour did not continue, but were like the beasts that perished: ²³ That none of them could purchase immortality for his brother, that he should still live for ever and not see Corruption: They all died and left their wealth to others, and like sheep they were laid in the grave, where death should feed on them. In opposition to which he says, That the upright should have dominion over them in the morning: Which is clearly a Poetical Expression for another day that comes after the night of Death: As for himself in particular, he says, That God shall redeem my Soul (that is, his Life, or his Body, for in those senses the word Soul is used in the Old Testament) from the power of the grave: That is, from continuing in that state of death: for he shall receive me. This does very clearly set forth David’s belief, both of future Happiness, and of the Resurrection of his Body. To which might be added some other passages in the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, ²⁴ Isaiah, and Daniel: In all which it appears, That the holy men in that Dispensation, did understand, That under those promises in the Books of Moses that seemed literally to belong to the Land of Canaan, and other Temporal Blessings, there was a Spiritual meaning hid, which it seems was conveyed down by that Succession of Prophets, that was among them, as the mystical sense of them.

It is to this that our Saviour seems to appeal, when the Sadducees came to puzzle him with that question of the seven Brethren, who had all married one Wife: He first tells them, They erred, not knowing the Scriptures; which plainly Imports, That the Doctrine which they denied, was contained in the Scriptures;²⁵ and then he goes to prove it, not from those more express passages that are in the Prophets and Holy Writers, which as some think the Sadducees rejected; but from the Law, which being the Source of their Religion, it might seem a just prejudice against any Doctrine, especially if it was of great Consequence, that it was not contained in the Law. Therefore he cites these words that are so often repeated, and that were so much considered by the Iews, as containing in them the Foundation of God’s love to them; that God said upon many occasions, particularly at his first appearance to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Iacob. Which words imported, not only that God had been their God,²⁶ but still was their God: Now when God is said to be a God to any, by that is meant, that he is their Benefactor, or exceeding rich reward, as was promised to Abraham. ²⁷ And that therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob lived unto God, that is, were not dead: But were then in a happy state of life, in which God did reward them, and so was their God. Whether this Argument rests here, our Saviour designing only to prove against the main error of the Sadducees, that we have Souls distinct from our Bodies, that shall outlive their separation from them; or if it goes further to prove the rising of the Body it self, I shall not determine. On the one hand our Saviour seems to apply himself particularly to prove the Resurrection of the Body; so we must see how to find here an Argument for that, to Answer the Scope of the whole Discourse: Yet on the other hand it may be said, that he having proved the main Point of the Soul’s subsisting after death, which is the Foundation of all Religion; the other Point, which was chiefly denied, because that was thought false, would be more easily both acknowledged and believed.

As for the Resurrection of the Body, all that can be brought from hence as an Argument to prove it, is, That since God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob, and by consequence their Benefactor and Rewarder, and yet they were Pilgrims on this Earth, and suffered many Tossings and Troubles, that therefore they must be rewarded in another State; or because God promised that to them he would give the Land of Canaan, as well as to their Seed after them, and since they never had any Portion of it in their own possession, that therefore they shall rise again, and with the other Saints reign on Earth, and have that Promise fulfilled in themselves.

From all this the Assertion of the Article is as to one main Point made good, That the Old Fathers look’d for more than Transitory Promises: It is also clear, That they looked for a further Pardon of Sin, than that which their Law held forth to them in the Expiation made by Sacrifices. Sins of Ignorance, or Sins of a lower sort, were those only for which Sin or Trespass-offerings were appointed. The Sins of a higher Order were punished by Death, by the Hand of Heaven, or by cutting off; so that such as sinned in that kind were to dye without Mercy:²⁸ Yet when David had fallen into the most heinous of those Sins, he prays to God for a Pardon, according to God’s Loving-kindness,²⁹ and the Multitude of his tender Mercies: For he knew that they were beyond the Expiation by Sacrifice. The Prophets do often call the Iews to repent of their Idolatry and other crying Sins, such as Oppression, Injustice, and Murder; with the Promise of the Pardon of them; even though they were of the deepest Dye, as Crimson and Scarlet. Since then,³⁰ for lesser Sins an Expiation was appointed by Sacrifice, besides their confessing and repenting of it; and since it seems by St. Paul’s way of arguing, that they held it for a Maxim, That without shedding of blood there was no remission of sins; this might naturally lead them to think that there was some other consideration that was interposed in order to the pardoning of those more heinous Sins: For a greater degree of Guilt seems by a natural Proportion to demand a higher degree of Sacrifice and Expiation. But after all, whatsoever Isaiah, Daniel, or any other Prophet might have understood or meant by those Sacrificatory Phrases that they use in speaking of the Messiah,³¹ yet it cannot be said from the Old Testament, That in that Dispensation it was clearly revealed that the Messias was to die, and to become a Sacrifice for Sin: The Messias was indeed promised under general terms, but there was not then a full and explicite Revelation of his being to dye for the Redemption of Mankind: Yet since the most heinous Sins were then pardoned, though not by virtue of the Sacrifices of that Covenant, nor by the other means prescribed in it, we have good reason to affirm, that according to this Article, Life was offered to Mankind in the Old Dispensation by Christ, who was with relation to the obtaining the Favour of God, and Everlasting Life, the Mediator of that as well as of the New Dispensation. In the New Testament he is set in opposition to the Old Adam, that as in the one all died, so in the other all were made alive: Nor is it any way incongruous to say, That the Merit of his Death should by an Anticipation have saved those who died before he was born: For that being in the view of God as certain, before, as after it was done, it might be in the Divine Intention the Sacrifice for the Old, as well as it is expresly declared to be the Sacrifice for the New Dispensation. And this being so, God might have pardoned Sins in consideration of it, even to those who had no distinct Apprehensions concerning it. For as God applies the Death of Christ by the secret Methods of Grace, to many Persons whose Circumstances do render them incapable of the express Acts of laying hold on it, the want of those (for instance, in Infants and Ideots) being supplied by the goodness of God: So though the Revelation that was made of the Messias to the Fathers under the Old Dispensation, was only in general and Prophetical Terms, of which they could not have a clear and distinct knowledge; yet his Death might be applied to them, and their Sins pardoned through him, upon their performing such Acts as were proportioned to that Dispensation, and to the Revelation that was then made: And so they were reconciled to God even after Sins, for which no Sacrifices were appointed by their Dispensation, upon their Repentance and Obedience to the Foederal Acts and Conditions then required, which supplied the want of more express Acts with relation to the Death of Christ, not then distinctly revealed to them. But though the Old Fathers had a Conveyance of the Hope of Eternal Life made to them, with a Resurrection of their Bodies, and a Confidence in the Mercy of God, for pardoning the most heinous Sins; yet it cannot be denied, but that it was as a light that shined in a dark place, till the day-star did arise, ³² and that Christ brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel; giving us fuller and clearer discoveries of it, both with relation to our Souls and Bodies; and that by him also God has declared his righteousness for the remission of sins, ³³ through the forbearance of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Iesus, and through Faith in his blood.

The Third Branch of this Article will not need much Explanation, as it will bear no dispute, except with Iews, who do not acknowledge the New Testament. The Ceremonial Parts of the Mosaical Law, which comprehends all both the Negative and the Positive Precepts, were enjoined the Iews either with relation to the Worship of God and Service at the Temple, or to their Persons and course of Life.

That which is not Moral of its own nature, or that had no relation to Civil Society, was commanded them, to separate them not only from the Idolatrous and Magical Practices of other Nations, but to distinguish them so entirely as to all their Customs, even in the Rules of Eating and of Cleanness, that they might have no familiar Commerce with other Nations, but live within and among themselves; since that was very likely to corrupt them, of which they had very large experience. Some of those Rituals were perhaps given them as Punishments for their frequent Revolts, and were as a Yoke upon them, who were so prone to Idolatry. They were as Rudiments and Remembrances to them: They were as it were subdued by a great variety of Precepts, which were matter both of much Charge and great Trouble to them: By these they were also amused; for it seems they did naturally love a Pompous Exterior in Religion: They were also by all that Train of Performances which were laid on them, kept in mind both of the great Blessings of God to them, and of the Obligations that lay on them towards God; and many of those, particularly their Sacrifices and Washings, were Typical. All this was proper and necessary to restrain and govern them, while they were the only People of the World that renounced Idolatry, and worshipped the true God: And therefore so soon as that of which they had anEmblem in the Structure of theirTemple (of a Court of the Gentiles separated with a middle Wall of Partition, from the place in which the Israelites worshipped) was to be removed, and that the House of God was to become a House of Prayer to all Nations, then all those distinctions were to be laid aside, and all that Service was to determine and come to an end. The Apostles did declare that the Gentiles were not to be brought under that heavy Yoke, which their Fathers were not able to bear; yet the Apostles themselves, as born Iews, and while they lived among the Iews, did continue in the Observance of their Rites, as long as God seemed to be waiting for the Remnant of that Nation that was to be saved, before his Wrath came upon the rest to the uttermost. They went to the Temple, they purified themselves; and in a word, to the Iews they became Iews; and in this compliance, the first Converts of the Iewish Nation continued till the destruction of Ierusalem; after which, it became impossible to observe the greatest part of their most important Rituals, even all those that were tied to the Temple. But that Nation losing its Genealogies, and all the other Characters that they formerly had of a Nation under the Favour and Protection of God, could no more know after a few Ages, whether they were the Seed of Abraham or not, or whether there were any left among them of the Tribe of Levi, or of the Family of Aaron. So that now all those Ceremonies are at an end; many of them are become impossible, and the rest useless; as the whole was abrogated by the Authority of the Apostles, who being sent of God, and proving their Mission by Miracles, as well as Moses had done his; they might well have loosed and dissolved those Precepts upon Earth, upon which according to our Saviour’s words, they are to be esteemed as loosed in Heaven.

The Judiciary Parts of the Law were those that related to them as they were a Society of Men, to whom God by a special Command gave Authority to drive out and destroy a wicked Race of People, and to possess their Land; which God appointed to be divided equally among them, and that every Portion should be as a Perpetuity to a Family; so that though it might be mortaged out for a number of Years, yet it was afterwards to revert to the Family. Upon this bottom they were at first set; and they were still to be preserved upon it; so that many Laws were given them as they were a Civil Society, which cannot belong to any other Society: And therefore their whole Judiciary Law, except where any parts of it are founded on Moral Equity, was a complicated thing, and can belong to no other Nation, that is not in its first and essential Constitution made and framed as they were. For instance; The Prohibition of taking Use for Money, being a Mean to preserve that Equality which was among them, and to keep any of them from becoming excessively rich, or others from becoming miserably poor, this is by no means to be applied to other Constitutions, where men are left to their Industry, and neither have their Inheritance by a Grant from Heaven, nor are put by any special Appointment of God all upon a level. So that it is certain, and can bear no debate, That the Mosaical Dispensation, as to all the parts of it that are not of their own nature Moral, is determined and abrogated by the Gospel. The Descisions which the Apostles made in this matter are so clear, and for the Proof of them, the whole Tenor of the Epistles to the Galatians and the Hebrews is so full, that no doubt can rest concerning this, with any man who reads them.

The last Branch of the Article that remains to be considered, is concerning the Moral Law, by which the Ten Commandments are meant, together with all such Precepts as do belong to them, or are Corollaries arising out of them. By Moral Law is to be understood, in opposition to Positive, a Law which has an antecedent Foundation in the nature of things, that arises from Eternal Reason, is suitable to the Frame and Powers of our Souls, and is necessary for maintaining Human Society. All such Laws are commanded, because they are in themselves good, and suitable to the sta[?]e in which God has put us here. The two Sources out of which all the Notions of Morality flow, are first the considerations of our selves as we are single Individuals, and that with relation both to Soul and Body; and next, the consideration of Human Society, what is necessary for the Peace and Order, the Safety and Happiness of Mankind. There are two Orders of Moral Precepts; some relate to things that of their own nature are inflexibly good or evil, such as Truth and Falshood; whereas other things by a variety of Circumstances may so change their nature, that they may be either morally good or evil: A merciful or generous Temper is always a good Moral Quality, and yet it may run to excesses: There may be many things that are not unalterably Moral in themselves, which yet may be fit Subjects of perpetual Laws about them. For instance; in the Degrees of Kindred with relation to Marriage, there are no degrees but direct Ascendents or Descendents, that is, Parents and Children, that by an Eternal Reason can never marry; for where there is a Natural Subordination, there can never be such an Equality as that state of Life requires: But Collateral Degrees, even the nearest, Brothers and Sisters, are not by any Natural Law barred Marriage, and therefore in a case of necessity they might marry: Yet since their intermarrying must be attended with vast Inconveniences, and would tend to the Defilement of Families, and hinder the Conjunction of Mankind by the Intermixture of different. Families; it becomes therefore a fit Subject for a perpetual Law, to strike a horror at the thought of such Commixtures, and so to keep the World pure, which considering the Freedoms in which those of the same Family do live, could not be preserved without such a Law. It is also the Interest of Mankind, and necessary for the careful Education of the rising Generation, that Marriages should be for Life; for if it were free for married Persons to separate at pleasure, the Issue of Marriages so broken would be certainly much neglected: And since a Power to break a Marriage would naturally inflame such little quarrelings as may happen among all Persons that live together, which will on the contrary be certainly repressed, when they know that the Marriage cannot be dissolved, and when by such a Dissolution of Marriages, the one half of the Human Species, I mean Womankind, is exposed to great Miseries, and subject to much Tyranny, it is a fit Subject for a perpetual Law; so that it is Moral in a Secondary Order. It were easy to give Instances of this in many more Particulars, and to shew, That a Precept may be said to be Moral, when there is a Natural Suitableness in it to advance that which is Moral in the first Order, and that it cannot be well preserved without such a Support. It will appear what occasion there is for this distinction, when we consider the Ten Commandments; which are so many Heads of Morality, that are instanced in the highest act of a kind; and to which are to be reduced all such acts as by the just Proportions of Morality belong to that Order and Series of Actions.

The Foundation of Morality is Religion. The Sense of God, That he is, and that he is both a Rewarder and a Punisher, is the Foundation of Religion. Now this must be supposed as Antecedent to his Laws, for we regard and obey them from the persuasion that is formed in us concerning the Being and the Justice of God; The two first Commandments are against the two different sorts of Idolatry; which are, the worshipping of False Gods, or the worshipping the True God in a Corporeal Figure: The one is the giving the Honour of the True God to an Idol, and the other is the depre[?]ing the True God to the resemblance of an Idol. These were the two great Branches of Idolatry, by which the true Ideas of God were corrupted. Religion was by them corrupted in its Source. No body can question but that it is Immoral to worship a False God; it is a transferring the Honour which belongs immediately and singly to the Great God, to a Creature, or to some Imaginary Thing which never had a real Existence. This is the robbing God of what is due to him, and the exalting another thing to a degree and rank that cannot belong to it. Nor is it less immoral to propose the Great and True God to be worshipped under Appearances that are derogatory to his Nature, that tend to give us low Thoughts of him, and that make us think him like, if not below our selves. This way of worshipping him is both unsutable to his nature, and unbecoming ours; while we pay our Adorations to that which is the work of an Artificer. This is confirmed by those many express Prohibitions in Scripture, to which Reasons are added, which shew that the thing is Immoral in its own nature: It being often repeated, that no Similitude of God was ever seen: And to whom will ye liken me: All things in Heaven and Earth are often called the work of his hands: Which are plain Indications of a Moral Precept, when Arguments are framed from the Nature of Things to enforce Obedience to it. The Reason given in the very Command it self, is taken from the Nature of God, who is jealous; that is, so tender of his Glory, that he will not suffer a diminution of it to go unpunished; and if this Precept is clearly founded upon Natural Justice, and the proportion that ought to be kept between all Human Acts and their Objects, then it must be perpetual: And that the rather, because we do plainly see that the Gospel is a refining upon the Law of Moses, and does exalt it to a higher pitch of Sublimity and Purity: And by consequence the Ideas of God, which are the first Seeds and Principles of Religion, are to be kept yet more pure and undefiled in it, than they were in a lower Dispensation.

The Third Precept is against false Swearing: For the Word Vain is often used in the Scripture in that sense:³⁴ And since in all the other Commandments, the Sin which is named is not one of the lowest, but of the chief Sins that relate to that Head; there is no reason therefore to think, That Vain or Idle Swearing, which is a Sin of a lower Order should be here meant, and not rather false Swearing, which is the highest Sin of the kind. The Morality of this Command is very apparent; for since God is the God of Truth, and every Oath is an Appeal to him, therefore it must be a gross Wickedness to Appeal to God, or to call him to vouch for our lies.

The Fourth Commandment cannot be called Moral in the first and highest sense; for from The Nature of Things no reason can be assigned, Why the Seventh day, rather than the Sixth, or the Eighth, or any other day, should be separated from the common business of Life, and applied to the Service of God. But it is Moral that a man should pay homage to his Maker, and acknowledge him in all his works and ways: And since our Senses and sensible Objects are apt to wear better things out of our Thoughts, it is necessary that some solemn Times should be set apart for full and copious Meditations on these Subjects: This should be universal, lest if the Time were not the same every where; the Business of some men might interfere with the Devotions of others. It ought to have such an eminent Character on it, like a cessation from Business: Which may both awaken a curiosity to enquire into the reason of that stop, and also may give opportunity for Meditations and Discourses on those Subjects. It is also clear, That such days of rest must not return so oft, that the necessary Affairs of Life should be stopt by them, nor so seldom that the Impressions of Religion should wear out, if they were too seldom awakened: But what is the proper proportion of Time, that can best agree both with mens Bodies and Minds, is only known to the great Author of Nature. Howsoever, from what has been said, it appears that this is a very fit matter to be fixed by some sacred and perpetual Law, and that from the first Creation; because there being then no other method for conveying down Knowledge, besides Oral Tradition, it seems as highly congruous to that State of Mankind, as it is agreeable to the words in Genesis, to believe That God should then have appointed one day in seven for commemorating the Creation, and for acknowledging the great Creator of all things. But though it seems very clear, that here a perpetual Law was given the World for the separating the Seventh day; yet it was a meer Circumstance, and does not at all belong to the standing use of the Law, in what end of the Week this day was to be reckoned, Whether the first or the last: So that even a less Authority than the Apostles, and a less occasion than the Resurrection of Christ, might have served to have transferred the day. There being in this no Breach made on the good and moral design of this Law, which is all in it that we ought to reckon sacred and unalterable: The degree of the Rest might be also more severely urged under the Mosaical Law, than either before it or after it. Our Saviour having given plain Intimations of an Abatement of that rigour, by this general Rule, That the Sabbath was made for man, ³⁵ and not man for the Sabbath. We who are called to a state of freedom, are not under such a strictness as the Iews were. Still the Law stands for separating a Seventh day from the common Business of Life, and applying it to a Religious rest, for acknowledging at first the Creator, and now by a higher Relation, the Redeemer of the World.

These Four Commandments make the first Table, and were generally reckoned as four distinct Commandments, till the Roman Church having a mind to make the Second disappear, threw it in as an Appendix to the First, and then left it quite out in her Catechisms: Though it is plain that these Commandments relate to two very different Matters, the one being in no sort included in the other. Certainly they are much more different than the coveting the Neighbour’s Wife is from the coveting any of his other concerns: Which are plainly two different Acts of the same Species: And the House being set before the Wife in Exodus (though it comes after it in Deuteronomy, ³⁶ which being a repetition, is to be governed by Exodus, and not Exodus by it) stands for the whole Substance, which is afterwards branched out in the particulars; and so it is clear that there is no colour for dividing this in two: But the first two Commandments relating to things of such a different sort, as is the worshipping of more Gods than one, and the worshipping the true God in an Image, ought still to be reckoned as different: And though the reason given from the Jealousy and Justice of God, may relate equally to both, yet that does not make them otherwise one, than as both might be reduced to one common Head of Idolatry, so that both were to be equally punished.

In the Second Table this Order is to be observed. There are Four Branches of a man’s Property to which every thing that he can call his own may be reduced: His Person, his Wife and Children, his Goods, and his Reputation: So there is a Negative precept given to secure him in every one of these, against Killing, committing Adultery, Stealing, and bearing false Witness: To which as the chief acts of their kind, are to be reduced all those acts that may belong to those Heads: Such as Injuries to a man in his person, though not carried on nor designed to kill him; every Temptation to uncleanness, and all those excesses that lead to it; every act of Injustice, and every Lye or Defamation: To these Four are added two Fences; the one Exterior, the other Interior. The Exterior is the settling the Obedience and Order that ought to be observed in Families, according to the Law of Nature: And by a parity of Reason, if Families are under a Constitution, where the Government is made as a common Parent, the establishing the Obedience to the Civil Powers, or to such Orders of Men who may be made as Parents, with Relation to Matters of Religion: This is the Foundation of Peace and Justice, of the security and happiness of Mankind: And therefore it was very proper to begin the Second Table, and those Laws that relate to human Society, with this: without which the World would be like a Forest, and Mankind like so many Savages running wildly through it.

The last Commandment, is an inward Fence to the Law: It checks Desires, and restrains the Thoughts: If free Scope should be given to these, as they would very often carry men to unlawful Actions, for a man is very apt to do that which he desires, so they must give great disturbance to those that are haunted or overcome by them. And therefore as a mean both to secure the quiet of mens minds, and to preserve the World from the ill effects which such desires might naturally have, this special Law is given; Thou shalt not covet. It will not be easy to prove it Moral in the strictest sense, yet in a Secondary Order it may be well called Moral: The Matter of it being such both with relation to our selves and others, that it is a very proper Subject for a perpetual Law to be made about it. And yet as St. Paul says,³⁷ he had not known it to be a Sin, if it had not been for the Law that forbids it; for after all that can be said, it will not be easy to prove it to be of its own nature Moral. Thus by the help of that distinction, of what is Moral in a primary, and in a secondary Order, the Morality of the Ten Commandments is demonstrated.

That this Law obliges Christians as well as Iews, is evident from the whole Scope of the New Testament. Instead of derogating from the Obligation of any part of that Law, our Saviour after he had affirmed, That he came not to dissolve the Law, but to fulfil it, and that Heaven and Earth might pass away, ³⁸ but that one tittle of the Law should not pass away; he went through a great many of those Laws, and shewed how far he extended the Commentary he put upon them, and the Obligations that he laid upon his Disciples, beyond what was done by the Iewish Rabbies: All the rest of his Gospel, and the Writings of his Apostles agree with this, in which there is not a Tittle that looks like a slackning of it, but a great deal to the contrary: A strictness that reaches to idle Words, to passionate Thoughts, and to all impure Desires, being enjoined as indispensably necessary; for without holiness no man can see the Lord.

And thus every thing relating to this Article is considered, and I hope both explained and proved.

Footnotes

1. Gen. 3.15. ↩

2. Gen. 12.3. Gen. 22.18. Gen. 26.24. Gen. 28.14. Gen. 49.10. ↩

3. Deut. 18.15. ↩

4. Numb. 24.[?]. ↩

5. Isa. 8.1[?]. ↩

6. Isa. 11.1, 2. ↩

7. ver. 10. ↩

8. Isa. 35.[?], 6. ↩

9. Isa. 42.1. ↩

10. ver. 8. ↩

11. Isa. 53. ↩

12. Isa. 61. ↩

13. Jer. 23.5. ↩

14. Jer. 31.31. ↩

15. Ezek. 36.25. Joel 2.28. ↩

16. Mi[?]h 5.2. ↩

17. [?]ag. 2.6, [?], 8, 9. ↩

18. Zech. 9.9. ↩

19. Mal. 3.1. ↩

20. M[?]l. 4.1. ↩

21. Dan. 9.24, 25, 26, 27. ↩

22. Ps. 16.11. Ps. 17.14, 15. ↩

23. Ps. 49.14, 15. ↩

24. Ps. 84.11.87.6.90.17.96.17. Eccl. 11.9.12.14. Isa. 25.8.26.19. Dan. 12.2. ↩

25. Matt. 22.[?]. ↩

26. Ver. 31.32. ↩

27. Exod. 3.6. ↩

28. Heb. 10.28. ↩

29. Psal. 51.1, 2, 16, 1[?]. ↩

30. Isa. 1.18. ↩

31. Isa. 53. Dan. 9. ↩

32. 2 Pet. 1.19. ↩

33. Rom. 3.24, 25. ↩

34. Ex. 23.1. Lev. 19.12. Mat. 5.33. ↩

35. Mark 2.27. ↩

36. Exod. 20.17. Deut. 5.21. ↩

37. Rom. 7.7. ↩

38. Matth. 5.17, 18. ↩