other Benefits which were Promised to Abraham and his Seed 2. They had an addition of several other Predictions concerning the Messias both by Moses and other Prophets that perhaps were somewhat more express such as in Deut. 18. 16. Isa. 53. Dan. 9. and others These Promises and Predictions put them in great expectations of Special Benefits by the Messias and wrought in them a longing after his day Upon which account our Saviour said to his Disciples Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear For I say unto you that many Prophets and Kings and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them Mat. 13. 16 17. Luke 10. 23 24. 3. They had large significations from God of his special favour to them above all people as in chusing them to be his peculiar people and in declaring himself to be their God in giving visible Signs of his Presence among them and excellent Laws Promises to them and sending his Prophets amongst them and working many wonders for them and casting out the Nations before them to make room for them and the like Deut. 7. 6 7 8. and 26. 18 19. Psal. 147. 19 20. Rom. 9. 4 5. 4. They had express Declarations from God of the goodness of his Nature and of his compassion towards Sinners and of his readiness to pardon such as should repent and return to their duty in loving him and keeping his Commandments As for instance Exod. 34. 6 7. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity trangression and sin And when he delivered them his Law with the greatest terrour and astonishment to them yet even then he assured them that he would shew mercy to thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments as in the second Commandment And in case of their miscarriage to the drawing down of Gods Judgements upon them he bespeaks them thus When thou art in tribulation and all these things are come upon thee even in the latter days if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shalt be obedient to his voice For the Lord thy God is a merciful God he will not forsake thee nor forget the Covenant of thy Fathers Deut. 4. 31. and 30. 1 2 3. Levit. 26. 39 c. From all which Grounds the faithful among them had such a hope and confidence of pardon of Sin and of a future happiness in another life upon their Repentance and sincere Obedience as did effectually induce them to have good thoughts of God to love him and to endeavour to please him by having respect unto all his Commandments This made him say Psal. 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared And under this hope and confidence the twelve Tribes did instantly serve God day and night and grounded this Hope of theirs upon the Promise made of God unto their Fathers as St. Panl tells us Acts 26. 6 7. And indeed it was the unanimous Faith of the most eminent among them from age to age that God had both made and would keep a Covenant to shew mercy to those that love him and keep his Commandments or that walk before him with all their heart For that they looked upon as the Condition of God's Promise of shewing Mercy This we may see in Moses David Solomon and in Daniel and Nehemiah Deut. 7. 9. Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments So David Psalm 103. 17 18. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments to do them And thus Solomon 1 Kings 8. 23. And he said Lord God of Israel there is no God like thee who keepest Covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart So Daniel in his 9th Chap. 4th ver O Lord the great and dreadful God keeping the Covenant and Mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his Commandments And Nehemiah likewise Ch. 1. 5. I beseech thee O Lord God of Heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his Commandments This we see was the serious and constant Profession of the Faith of the servants of God in those times And in this Faith and Practice doubtless it was that they lived and dyed and were saved CHAP. IV. That the Law contained a Covenant different from that with Abraham IN the next place I am to shew that the Law of Moses did contain a Covenant distinct and of a different nature from the Covenant which God made with Abraham and his Spiritual Seed Besides the general Promise which God made to Abraham respecting the Gentiles as well as the Iews In thee all Nations of the Earth shall be blessed he made a Special Covenant with him as a reward of his Signal faithfulness to give unto his Natural Seed the Land of Canaan Nehem. 9. 8. Thou foundest his heart faithful before thee and madest a Covenant with him to give the Land of the Caâ—aanites to his Seed In order to the fulfilling of which Promise after he had brought them out of Egypt he united them under himself as Head in one Political Body by a Political Covenant Exod. 19 c. which is the Covenant I am now to discourse of In which discourse I would 1. Shew in what respect the Law of Moses is said to contain a Covenant of a different nature from the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham 2. Prove that it did contain such a different Covenant 3. For farther Illustration consider it in its parts and their relation one to another 4. And in what respect this Covenant is called the first Covenant when as the Covenant of Grace was made before it 1. In what respect the Law of Moses is said to contain a Covenant of a different Nature from the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham The Law of Moses comes under a twofold consideration 1. As in conjunction with the Promise to Abraham to which it was annexed it made up one entire Law by which the Israelites were to be governed and directed in the way to eternal life And in this Conjunction the Promise was the Life and Soul as it were of the Body of the Mosaic Law properly taken And in this sense as the word Law signifies the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses which contain the Promise as well as the Law it is sometimes used in the New Testament Gal. 4. 21 22. 1 Cor. 14. 34. Luke 16. And in this sense doubtless we are to understand the Law upon which David bestowed so many glorious Encomiums as
he did saying The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul c. Psal. 19. 2. We are to consider the Law of Moses as given at Sinai in a stricter sense as it was an Instrument or Rule of Government in the Commonwealth of Israel The Law in the former sense of it promised eternal life though but obscurely to those that did believe its Promises and sincerely obey its Precepts In the latter sense it promised only temporal Blessings to those that strictly observed it in all the parts of it and threatned those with temporal calamities that did not The same Laws materially of this Political Covenant related to both the Covenants As eternal Life was promised in the Covenant of Grace upon condition of sincere obedience to those Laws as an effect of Faith in the Promise So those Laws in Conjunction with the Promise were as I may so say Evangelical But as temporal benefits only were promised in that Covenant upon condition of strict obedience to those Laws and as those Laws were enjoyned under temporal penalties as they were Commonwealth-Laws so that Convenant containing those Laws was Political and in this Political respect it was another Covenant If the Law of God and the Law of Man command or forbid things materially the same yet if the one command or forbid them under pain of damnation and the other only under temporal penalties these Laws are not formally the same The Commonwealth of Israel had no Commonwealth Laws but what God himself gave them the which Laws they also covenanted with him to observe by which Covenant they were united under him as Head of that Political Body And therefore when they would needs choose them a King like other Nations God told Samuel saying They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them 1 Sam. 8. 7. Ye said unto me said Samuel nay but a King shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your King 1 Sam. 12. 12. I conclude then that as the Law of Moses did serve to this Political end so it was a distinct Covenant and different from the Covenant of grace 2. Let us see how this may be proved to be a Covenant so distinct and different as I have said from the Covenant of Grace declared to Abraham And to this purpose these things are considerable First They are called the two Covenants by St. Paul Gal. 4. 24. And if they are two then there is a real difference between them else they would be but one and the same Secondly They bear distinct denominations the one is called the first and the Old Covenant and the other the Second and the New Heb. Chap. 8. 9. Thirdly There were some sins pardonable by one of these Covenants which were not so by the other and that shews that they were quite of a different nature The Murder and Adultery which David was guilty of was not pardonable according to the terms of the Political Covenant if there had been any Superiour Power on Earth to have executed that Commonwealth-Law and yet according to the terms of the Covenant of Grace they were pardonable upon repentance and upon those terms were pardoned unto him The like might be said perhaps of Manasseh The unbelief of Moses and Aaron in not Sanctifying God in the eyes of the Children of Israel was according to the terms of the Covenant of Grace pardoned as to the eternal penalty but yet was not wholly pardoned according to the terms of the the Political Covenant as to temporal punishment For the Lord told them that for that cause they should not bring the Children of Israel into the Land of Canaan Numb 20. 12. And in reference to this case the Psalmist saith thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions Psal. 99. 8. Fourthly The Covenant of Grace never ceaseth but it is of perpetual duration throughout all Generations and therefore is called the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. But this Mosaical Political Covenant is vanished long since Heb. 8. 13. by which also it appears to be a Covenant effentially different from the other 3. For a farther Illustration of the nature of this Covenant we will consider it in its parts and in the relation which those parts bear one towards another And in general it did consist of two parts 1. Of Laws and 2. Of the Sanction of those Laws The Laws likewise were of two sorts 1. Laws of Duty 2. Laws of Indemnity 1. Laws of Duty And in them we may consider 1. What those Laws were 2. What manner of obedience to those Laws it was which would free men from the penalties of them and entitle them to the Promises of reward annexed to them First The Laws of Duty of which this Covenant did in great part consist were those which pass under the various denomination of Moral Ritual or Ceremonial and Judicial Some of which Laws viz. the Decalogue especially and almost wholly for the matter of them were natural that is such as were founded in the nature of Man forbidding things which of themselves were evil and commanding things which in their own nature were good and might be discerned to be so by Man in his pure Naturals and in great part since the degeneration of his nature whether they had been expresly forbidden or commanded or no. But these Laws became part of the Political Covenant only as they were expresly and externally declared to the Iews by a Promulgate Law For if this had not been so the Gentiles could not have been said to be without the Law as they were Rom. 2. 14 11. 1 Cor. 9. 21. For they had the force and effect of the Law in their hearts and were in that respect a Law unto themselves Rom. 2. 14 15. But because the Decalogue as well as the other Laws was delivered to the Iews only and to none else from Mount Sinai therfore they only and Proselytes that joyned with them were said to be under the Law and all the rest without Law And therefore is the giving of the Law reckoned to the Iews among their peculiar Priviledges Rom. 9. 4. Psal. 147. 19 20. And in this sense only as the Decalogue was a part of the Political Law can the Ministration ingraven in Stones be said to be done away as it is 2 Cor. 3. 7 to ver 11. For so much of it as was a Copy of the Law of Nature or is by Christ incorporated into his Laws remains in force to all men The other Laws of which this Covenant did consist were Arbitrary the force of which did wholly depend upon Divine Institution And such were the Laws Ceremonial and a great part of those we call Judicial Secondly That obedience which would be sufficient to secure a Man from the penalty of the Political Law and to entitle him to the Promised Reward annexed thereto was no less than a strict Obedience to it in all
the parts of it For it is written Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them And all the people shall say Amen Deut. 27. 26. And this extended to Heart-obedience and Heart-sinning as well as to the outward act commanding love to God forbidding to covet as under the Heart-searching Political Soveraign who reserved to himself the final Judgement and Execution even in temporal respects in many cases 2. Laws of Indemnity of which also this Covenant did consist were partly those which ordained Sacrifice and Offerings for the Expiation of many sins made pardonable by those Laws so far as to exempt the Delinquent person from the temporal penalty threatned for breach of those other Laws which for distinction sake I call Laws of Duty for otherwise these also were Laws of Duty as well as of Priviledge There were other Laws of Indemnity likewise for the purification of persons legally unclean which being observed the persons unclean became delivered from the penalties they suffered while their uncleanness was upon them such as was their separation from the Congregation Consider we next the Sanction of these Laws and that did consist in Promises annexed to the observing of them and in a curse denounced against the transgressors of them And for our better understanding the Nature of the Promises of this Covenant we will consider them Negatively and Affirmatively 1. Negatively The Promises of this Political-covenant as such were not Promise of eternal life And when I say so I do not deny but that first the Iews in Moses time and before had Promises of eternal life implyed in the Covenant made with Abraham and his Seed And accordingly the faithful ones among them sought after the Heavenly Countrey and looked for a City which hath Foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10 14 16. Nor secondly will I deny but that there are some passages in the Law of Moses if you take the Law of Moses in a large sense which look somewhat like a renewall of the antient Covenant with Abraham to his Seed As when for instance God made a conditional Promise to the Israelites in Moses his time to be their God and that they should be his people as in Levit 26. 12. Deut. 29. 13. Which form of words is interpreted sometimes to imply a future happiness in another World Heb. 11. 16. Matth. 21. 31 32. And I do not deny but the Iews had by Moses as express a Promise of the Messias as Abraham had Deut. 18. 15. 19. But St. Paul doth not speak of the Law in this large sense when he opposeth the Law and the Promise the Law and Faith one to another But if we understand by the Law of Moâ—es the Law as Political the Law of the Common-wealth so the Promises of it were not Promises of Eternal Life For Promises of this nature did pertain to another Covenant to wit thâ—t made with Abraham and his Spiritual Seed as such First Therefore St. Paul doth down-rightly deny that the Promise of the Inheritance which in Heb. 9. 15. is called the Eternal Inheritance was by the Law which yet it would have been if by Law he had meant the Law in that large sense in which the Law and Promise to Abraham are conjoyned and not in that strict sense by which he means the Political Law distinctly And if the Inheritance had been promised upon the same terms as temporal Blessings were in the temporal Covenant the Inheritance might have been obtained by the Law as well as temporal Blessings were Rom. 4. 13. For the Promise that he should be Heir of the World was not through the Law but through the Righteousness of Faith Secondly St. Paul evinceth the badness of that Opinion to think that Eternal Life was Promised upon the Law-terms from the absurd consequence of it shewing that if it were that then it would make void the Promise of God to Abraham and the way of saving men by Faith in that Promise of none effect Gal. 3. 18. For if the inheritance be of the Law it is no more of Promise But God gave it to Abraham by Promise Rom. 4. 14. For if they which are of the Law be Heirs Faith is made void and the Promise made of none effect It was altogether unreasonable to think that the Inheritance should be promised upon such distant and inconsistent terms as are Faith in the Promise and by Works of the Law Thirdly The Law saith the Apostle is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Gal. 3. 12. meaning that what the Law promised it did not promise it upon condition of believing but upon condition of doing And Eternal Life is not since the fall promised upon condition of doing without Faith but upon condition of believing For the Iust shall live by Faith Vers. 11. and therefore Eternal Life is not promised by the Law Fourthly Wherefore else are the Promises of that better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. said to be better Promises But because they are Promises of better things than were promised in the first Covenant which yet they could not be if Eternal Life had been promised in that Covenant because that is the best of all Promises To say they are better only in respect of Administration and clearness of Revelation would not satisfie such as should well consider That if the betterness of the Covenant and Promises lay only in that the difference would not be so great as to denominate them two Covenants and two so vastly distant as the Scripture represents them to be The difference then would be but only gradual as that is which is found in the same Covenant of Grace in the several Editions of it to Adam to Abraham to David and now to all Nations since Christ's coming and not Essential as that between the two Covenants seem to be as it is represented in Gal. 4. 24. Besides St. Paul represents the Administration of the two Covenants to differ as much as Righteousness and Condemnation Life and Death differ which sure is more than a gradual difference The one is the Ministration of Death and Condemnation the other the Ministration of Righteousness and Life 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8 9. The Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did Heb. 7. 19. By which it appears again that the hope of the Gospel in which the things hoped for upon the Promises of the Gospel are not the least is better than what the Law promised the observers of it This is the Promise which he hath promised us even Eternal Life 1 John 2. 25. 2. And Affirmatively It was then a long and Prosperous life in the Land of Canaan that was promised in the first Covenant Deut. 28. 11. The Lord shall make thee plenteous in Goods in the fruit of thy Body and in the fruit of thy Cattel and in the fruit of thy Ground in the Land which the Lord sware
in the Wilderness by Pestilence and otherwise 1 Cor. 10. In brief The temporal evils threatned in this Covenant were either Personal Domestick or National The Personal and Domestick evils were no less than whatsoever tended to the infelicity of Man's life as Diseases in Body Perplexity of Mind unfruitfulness in Body in Cattel in Ground Scarcity Poverty Oppression loss of Relations fewness of days and an untimely cutting off from the Promised Land The National were wild Beasts Pestilence Sword Famine Captivity and such like These were inflicted when the breach of the Covenant became National in the generality of the people But especially when those who had the management of publick Affairs Civil and Ecclesiastick did not restrain the people by a due Execution of Laws but rather led them into sin by their Example and sometimes by their Commands corrupting Religion and perverting Justice Levit. 26. Deut. 28. And the evils threatned being National as the Covenant it self was they must needs be but temporal because there is no Judging Condemning and Executing Nations as Nations but in this World 4. Come we now to shew reason why this Covenant is called the first Covenant since there were others made before it as that with Adam in Paradise and that Covenant of Salvation with Adam after his fall and with Noah and Abraham And 1. Negatively It is not so called as if it were the same for substance with that which was first made with Adam in Paradise as many have thought or because it was proposed upon the same term For First That Covenant was established upon the terms or condition of perfect innocency no provision being made in it for pardon in case of failure upon any condition whatsoever But it was otherwise in this Mosaick Covenant as I have shewed in that it contained several Laws of Indemnity for the relief of Delinquent persons upon certain possible and practicable conditions Secondly If this and the Paradisical-Covenant had been of the same Nature then it and the Promise made to Abraham and his Spiritual Seed would have been inconsistent the one promising Eternal life upon believing the other only upon condition of sinless obedience If this had been the case the Law would have been against the Promise which God forbid it should Gal. 3. 21. and the one would have excluded the other according to St. Pauls ' reasoning Rom. 11. 6. If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work But 2. Affirmatively It is called the first Covenant because it is the first of the two under question and dispute between the Apostles and unbelieving Iews The Question and Controversie between them was which of the two Covenants that by Moses or that by Christ was finally adhered to as the way of Salvation In the handling of which Controversie that by Moses is called the first and the Gospel-Covenant established by Christ as was Prophesied by Ieremiah is called the second Even as the one is called the Old Covenant not because it was the Oldest of all Covenants but because opposed to that which was Prophesied of under the name of a New Covenant It is observable that where we meet with the first mention of the first Covenant under that Denomination it is not stiled the first Covenant absolutely but that first Covenant as pointing at that under dispute Hebr. 8. 7. For if that first Covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second CHAP. V. The grand mistakes of the Jews about the Law and Promise and how St. Paul counter-argues these mistakes I Am now in the next place to shew the fatal mistakes of the unbelieving Iews about God's Promise to Abraham and about the Law of Moses and how St. Paul doth counter-argue these mistakes A distinct understanding of which Errors and of St. Paul's arguings against them sometimes severally and sometimes conjunctively and in the gross will be as a Key to open many passages in his Epistles which otherwise will be hard to be understood 1. They held Circumcision in the flesh to be the condition in special upon which all the blessings of God's Covenant with Abraham were promised but did not understand thaâ— Spiritual Circumcision viz. the mortification of sinful affections and lusts was principally intended when God made Circumcision the Condition of his Covenant For they were it seems grosly ignorant of the necessity of Regeneration and so of the Spiritual design of Circumcision which was the reason why Nicodemus though a Ruler among the Iews answered Christ so aukardly when he Preached to him the necessity of being born again Joh. 3. An ignorance that some allowance possibly might have been made for had not the Circumcision of the Heart and the making themselves a new Heart been expresly called for as it was Deut. 10. 16. Ier. 4. 4. Ezek. 18. 31. Now this ignorance of theirs in the Doctrine of the Circumcision of the Heart and the sense they put upon God's making Circumcision to be the Condition of his Covenant of being their God was doubtless the reason why they placed so very much as they did in Literal Circumcision For although Circumcision first given to Abraham by way of Covenant was afterwards incorporated with the body of Moses's Law yet it should seem these Iews considered it not so much as it was a part of that Law but chiefly as a Condition of God's Covenant with them in Abraham as they were his Seed And therefore St. Paul where he reckons up his Jewish Priviledges whil'st he was a Pharisee puts Circumision in the Head of them all and as accouâ—ted by him while a Pharisee a Priviledge distinct from his being blameless touching the Righteousness which was in the Law Phil. 3. 5 6. Whence also the Judaizers said it was needful to Circumcise them and to command them to keep the Law of Moses Acts 15. 5 24. as if Circumcising did import something different from or at least something more than keeping of the Law did though otherwise it was a part of the Law Upon this account doubtless it was that we find them more zealous for Circumcision than for any other Point of the Law besides Against this Erroneous Opinion of theirs touching Literal Circumcisions being the Condition of the Spiritual Beneâ—its of the Covenant St. Paul argueth several ways First By maintaining that the Covenant did chiefly respect Circumcision in the Spirit Rom. 2. 28 29. He is not a Iew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh that is it was not that Circumcision which would savingly avail them as they thought it would but he is a Iew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of Men but of God Again By shewing that Abraham could not have been justified before
Judaizers who stand for the necessity of Mosaic Observations have no right to nor shall receive benefit by Christ who is the only Christian Altar to which we bring all our Sacrifices 6. They held the Law of Moses to be unalterable and of perpetual obligation In opposition to which the Author to the Hebrews improves to great purpose that Prophesie Ier. 31. 31 32. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Iudah Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt c. For in that he saith a new Covenant he hath saith he made the first old Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready saith he to vanish away And St. Paul shews how that the Legal Ministration how glorious soever it was was yet done away when that which was far more glorious did appear 2 Cor. 3. 7 11. And again that we are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ and delivered from the Law Rom. 7. 4 6. 7. The last of their Errors I shall insist on was this They held the first Covenant as alone or separated to be the Covenant of Salvation only taking in with it the Covenant of Literal Circumcision which also was made a part of their Law That first Covenant which I have already described as a temporal Covenant and the Promises and the threatnings of it but temporal they took to be established for perpetuity and the Promises of it to contain Promises of Eternal Redemption or Remission as well as temporal and Eternal Life and Felicity as well as Temporal And such a Literal observation of the Laws of it to be the Condition of those Promises as would render them inculpable in the eye of the Magistracy such a Righteousness sufficient to justifie them before God as St. Paul saith he had while he was a Pharisee Phil. 3. 6. As touching the Righteousness which is in the Law blameless which then he accounted to be his gain Now that they did peremptorily adhere to this first Covenant and the terms of it for Justification and Eternal Life it doth plainly appear by the mighty opposition which the Apostles made against them in it For they did still oppose another Covenant as the Covenant of Justification and Eternal Life unto this Mosaical Covenant and Faith as the Condition of that in opposition to Works as the condition of this as will appear if we come to Instances 1. St. Paul argues it with them that the Promise of God to Abraham and his Seed was not through the Law but through the righteousness of Faith Rom. 4. 13. Not through the Law that is not upon the terms upon which the benefits of the first Covenant were promised to the Nation of the Iews but upon quite other terms exprest by the Righteousness of Faith 2. He argues it farther with them That God's way of accounting men righteous by Faith and their way of seeking Righteousness npon the terms of the first Covenant were utterly inconsistent the one destructive of the other and that but one of these ways could possibly stand For if they which are of the Law be Heirs Faith is made void and the Promise made of none effect Rom. 4. 14. And again If the Inheritance be of the Law it is no more of Promise But God gave it to Abraham by Promise Gal. 3. 18. And if by Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace c. Rom. 11. 6. 3. And that the Law did not exclude the Promise to Abraham he farther argues in that the Covenant with Abraham was confirmed and unalterably setled and established in the Messias 430 years before the Law by Moses was given and that therefore for them to go about to introduce the Law in the room of the Promise to Abraham so confirmed would be as unreasonable and unjust as for one man to alter or make void anothers Covenant after he hath confirmed it Gal. 3. 15 17. Brethren I speak after the manner of men though it be but a Mans Covenant yet if it be confirmed no Man disanulleth or addeth thereto And this I say that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was 430 years after cannot disanul that it should make the Promise of none effect 4. St. Paul argues it impossible in the nature of the thing that they should be justified by the Law because one main end of God's promulging the Law of Nature which yet was a great part of the first Covenant was to convince men of their guilt and of their obnoxiousness to wrath and to stop their Mouthes and to leave them without any plea of defence as from it Rom. 3. 19 20. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law That every mouth may be stopt and all the world may become guilty before God Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be jnstified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sin And if the Law doth convict men it cannot justifie them For the same Law cannot both condemn and justifie the same person in reference to the same charge If all are cast and condemned by the Original Law as they are for he hath concluded all under sin that he might have mercy upon all Gal. 3. then so many as come to be justified after this must needs be justified by another Law superceding that and that is none other than the Law of Grace The Law of Nature curseth every one that hath broken it though but once and therefore it cannot justifie them too Out of the same mouth in this case doth not proceed blessing and cursing 5. He argues this Opinion of theirs to be contrary to the Doctrine of the Prophets many hundred years after as well as contrary to the Promise to Abraham long before the Law That no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident for the Iust shall live by Faith and the Law is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Gal. 3. 11 12. from Hab. 2. 4. The Law is not of Faith that is it doth not promise pardon or any other blessing upon believing but upon condition of doing the things therein required the man that doth them shall live in them Levit. 18. 5. 6. The insufficiency of the first Covenant to make men eternally happy and the necessity validity of the second to that end is further argued in Heb. 8. from another famous Prophecy in Ier. 31. 31 c. of God's making a new Covenant with Israel and Iudah in the latter days not according to that he made with their Fathers when he brought them out of Egypt 1. It 's argued that that first Covenant
unto thy Fathers to give thee Deut. 11. 21. That your days may be multiplied and the days of your Children as the days of Heaven upon Earth A great variety of outward blessings is promised as the reward of keeping that Covenant And therefore Wisdom under that Dispensation is described as having length of days in her right hand and in her left haâ—d Riches and Honour whose ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace Prov. 3. 17. And as this Covenant was National so there were Promises of National Blessings such as was the setting them on high above all the Nations of the Earth making them the Head and not the Tail The giving them victory over â—nemies multiplying the Nation and bestowing on it Health Peace and Plenty Deut. 28. Lev. 26. When it 's said once by Moses thrice by Ezekiel and twice by St. Paul that the Man that doth them shall live in them Lev. 18. 5. Ezek. 20. 11 13 21. Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. thereby Epitomizing the first Covenant I conceive that by living is meant a long and prosperous life in this World As on the contrary the condition of one greatly afflicted is in Scripture-Dialect a kind of Death and such an one said to be free among the Dead Psal. 88. 5. And that which inclines me so to think is not only the Reasons already given to prove that no other life was promised in the first Covenant but also the congruity of this sense with other passages in the Writings of Moses As Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before you this day Life and Good Death and Evil. If you would know what is meant by Life here the next verse will inform you That thou mayest live and multiply and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the Land whither thou goest to possess it The contrary whereunto is the death he had set before them saying I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish and that ye shall not prolong your dayes upon the Land c. Deut. 32. 46 47. Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifie among you this day for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your dayes in the Land wherein ye go The latter words are exegetical of the former Through this thing ye shall prolong your dayes is the interpretation of those it is your Life And it may be considered also whether this Particle in which if a man do he shall even live in them may not determine the nature and kind of that reward which was promised in the first Covenant as it was a present reward a reward which was received even while the work was doing according to that Psal. 19. 11. In keeping them there is great reward And this is agreeable to what fell out in the event The Lord was with them to prosper them while they were with him but when they forsook him presently troubles overtook them The pouring out of God's fury on them to consume them in the Wilderness being put in Ezek. 20. 13 21. as the direct contrary to those words which if a man do he shall even live in them seems greatly to favour this Nation But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the Wilderness They walked not in my Statutes and they dâ—spised my Iudgments which if a man do he shall even live in them Then I said I would pour out my fury upon them to consume them in the Wilderness And indeed one main difference between the two Covenants which I would have here observed lies in this to wit the presentness of the reward promised in the first and the futurity of that promised in the second St. Paul in his Allegorical description of the two Covenants Gal. 4. 24 c. represents those that adhered to the first Covenant by the children of Bond-servant to whom Abraham gave gifts in present and sent them away as in Gen. 25. 5. and those that adhered to the second by the Son of the Free-woman Isaac who was Abrahams Heir to whom he gave the whole Inheritance at last And the Adoption of Sons as the Priviledge of the New Covenant is opposed to the condition of Servants under the Old Gal. 4. 7. And what are they adopted to but to an Inheritance for the future for by Adoption they are made Heirs If a Son then an Heir of God through Christ an Heir of what of an Inheritance for the future an Inheritance Incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away reserved in Heaven 1 Pet. 1. 4. And therefore they are said to wait for the Adoption to wit the redemption of their Bodies at the resurrection Rom. 8. 23. Sons and Heirs serve their Father with a free and ingenuous Spirit though they have but little for the present in confidence of what he will do for thâ—m hereafter in another world when they shall come to age But those under the Old Covenant were like Servants who serve with a servile Spirit because they do it with expectation of present pay The one walk by Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the other were influenced in their obedience by the expectation of present reward because that was it which the first Covenant promised to the observers of it These Promises now insisted on were promises of reward to the observers of this first Covenant But besides these there was another sort of Promises exhibited in the first Covenant and they were Promises of pardon in many cases when the Laws of that Covenant were broken There were as I have shewed Laws of Indemnity which made many of the breaches of the Laws of duty pardonable upon certain conditions And such were all sins of Ignorance and Inadvertency and some of those also which were committed wittingly But presumptuous sins and such as carried in them a kind of contempt of the Law these were exempted from pardon Heb. 10. 28. He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses But for the other there were promises of pardon upon certain conditions which conditions were not always the same In some cases the offering of a Sin-offering or Trespass-offering was the Condition In other Cases that with confession of Sin was the Condition And in some other Cases Sacrificing Restitution and Satisfaction were the Condition And afflicting of the Soul as well a the Sacrifice for Atonement on the day of general Expiation was always a Condition of forgiveness These things in the particularities of them you have in the 4 5 6 16 and 23d Chapters of Levit. And then the Condition of the Promises of Purgation of Legal Uncleannesses and the penal effects of them was the observing the Rules prescribed for purifying the Unclean Now the forgiveness promised by these Laws of Indemnity did not free the Conscience from all Obligation to Eternal punishment but only freed the