imprinted there more perfectly Yet the word turned Laws signifies in the Hebrew Doctrines And these are the Doctrines of the Gospel concerning Christ's Person Nature Offices and the Work of Redemption the Doctrines of Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and eternal Life and these either presuppose or include the Moral Law For they must be such Truths as are necessary and effectual to Man's Salvation without the Knowledge and practice whereof sinful Man cannot attain eternal Life Further they are Doctrines concerning Christ as already exhibited glorified reigning and officiating in Heaven 2. The Book or Tables wherein they must be written are the mind and heart of Man By Mind some conceive is meant the Understanding and by Heart the Will and rational Appetite But by both words are meant the immortal Soul endued with a Power to understand and will or nill that which is understood The word in the Hebrew turned by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind and intellective Faculty signifieth the inward parts because as the heart and reins are the inmost parts of the Body so the mind thoughts and rational Appetite are intima Anime the inmost parts if we may so speak of the Soul They are as it were the Center of that immortal Substance where all the active vigour and powers of the Soul are united There is the Spring and Original of all rational and moral Operations of all thoughts affections and inward Motions There is the directive Counsel and imperial commanding Power There is the prime Mover of all humane Actions as such This is the Subject fit to receive not only natural but supernatural Truths and Doctrines and all Laws There divine Characters may be imprinted and made legible to the Soul it self This is the most noble and excellent Book that any can write in This is an Allusion to the Tables of Stone wherein the Law was written for the Law was not written in the heart but in stone upon Phylacteries Frontlets Posts and Walls of their Houses And now the Scriptures and divine Revelations are written in Books so as that they are legible by the Eye they may be spoken and so uttered by Man as to be perceived by the Ear and from these be conveyed to the common sense and fancy and by degree be transmitted to the Soul which by them receives some imperfect representations not informations This immortal Soul is the Book or Table wherein these Laws and divine Doctrines must be written 3. The Scribe or Pen-man is God for it 's said I will give or put I will write He that said so was the Lord And it must be He because the Work is so curious and excellent that it 's far above the Sphere of created activity He alone can immediately work upon the immortal Soul to inform it move it alter it and mould it anew so as neither Man or Angel can do They may by the outward senses and the fancy come near the Soul but immediately prepare it and make lively Impressions and write clear Characters of divine Truth upon it they cannot They may move it and affect or disaffect it yet to take away the stony heart and make an heart of Flesh is far above their Power Therefore God doth alwayes ascribe this great Work unto himself 4. The Act and Work of this Pen-man is to write and write these Laws and write them in the heart How he doth it we know not That he doth it is clear enough His preparations illuminations impulsions inspirations are strange and wonderful of great and mighty force For in this Work he doth not onely represent divine Objects in a clearer light and propose high Motives to incline and turn the heart but also gives a divine perceptive and appetitive Power whereby the Soul more easily and clearly apprehends and more effectually affects heavenly things The Effect of this Writing is a divine Knowledge of God's Laws and a ready and willing heart to obey them and conform unto them a Power to know and do the Word of God This is that Work of the Spirit which is called Vocation Renovation Regeneration Conversion actively taken without which Man cannot repent believe obey and turn to God It 's said to be a quickning of Man dead in sin a putting God's fear in Man's heart a putting God's Spirit within Man to cause him to obey his Laws a calling out of Darkness into Light a writing upon the fleshy Tables of Man's heart By this writing Man is said to have a new Heart and Spirit not that God creates in Man a new Soul or new Faculties but because he gives new Power new Light new Life new Qualifications so that Man is made partaker of a divine Nature and moulded anew with so much alteration that he is another Man though not for Substance yet for Qualities and Operations All this tends to an imperfect explication of this Promise wherein this new Covenant differs from and is more excellent than the former For that had no Promise of God's writing his Laws and Doctrines in Man's heart or of giving any sanctifying or renewing Power to enable them to observe and keep his Judgments Yet lest we mistake this excellent and most comfortable part of Scripture many things are to be observed 1. Concerning the Laws 2. Concerning the heart 3. Concerning God's writing in the heart 1. The Laws the Laws of God are written in the heart not the inventions fancies of men nor natural nor mathematical nor moral Philosophy much less the Errors and Blasphemies of Seducers and false Prophets It 's true that humane Learning and Languages are excellent means to find out the sense of the Scriptures and are great Blessings ordained of God for that end and being used with Prayer and sanctified may do much Yet we must know that these Doctrines are not only those of the Moral Law but these high Mysteries concerning Christ the Redemption Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and the eternal Punishments and Rewards in the World to come as they are revealed in the Gospel For the matter and subject of them is God's Kingdom and the Government of God-Redeemer ordering Man to his final and eternal estate as I have manifested in another Treatise 2. The heart of Man is by Nature a very untoward and indisposed Subject and not capable of these heavenly Doctrines It 's blind and perverse and there is an Antipathy between it and these Laws It hath some little parcels of the Law of Nature written in it but not any thing of these heavenly and evangelical Truths it neither knows them nor can relish them And when they are represented unto it yet it hath no intellective Power to understand them nor any Will or Desire to seek them or inclination to obey the Laws of God which direct unto everlasting life It 's not only ignorant but filthily blotted and blurred with Errours both in matters of Religion and humane Conversation And this is the condition not only of Heathens
Hell to our best friends to the end they may hate the one and escape the other Thus God doth in the Scriptures thus Christ often doth in his heavenly Sermons and useth this as a means to prevent their Damnation and promote their Salvation So that his former discourse was consistent both with Christian Charity and his good perswasion of them I am perswaded better things of you and such as accompany Salvation These words imply 1. That there were good things in them 2. He was perswaded of this The good things which in comparison of the former barrenness or fruitfulness in bringing forth briars and thorns and cursing and burning were better were 1. Their Qualification 2. Their Condition And they were better not because the other was good for they were not but very evil but because they were very good as the other were very bad This is a special kind of Phrase and Expression yet in some Languages ordinary yet it 's improper though elegant Some would call it a Mâ—iosis which is when more is meant than is expressed and so it 's reducible to a Synâ—chdochs Their qualification was from some heavenly vertues which did manifest themselvs in their practice their Condition was that of Salvation They were in the state of Salvation for their vertues were such as that by divine Ordination and Promise there was an inseparable Connexion between Salvation and them For Salvation and divine Graces go together in one Company the Graces go before Salvation follows after yet so that the Graces take hold of Salvation as the word in the Original signifies For such Christians as these Hebrews were have a present Right by Faith evidenced by the Works of Charity unto eternal life and Hope takes hold of it But what these vertues were we shall know from the next Verse 2. That these better things were in them the Apostle was perswaded that is he did not deny them no nor doubt of them but was confident of their good Qualification and Disposition § 10. Yet if a man be confident of another man's sincere Christianity he must have some ground sufficient for his confidence otherwise it 's vain and irrational Therefore he gives us the ground Ver. 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love c. The ground of his confidence concerning 1. Their qualification was his Knowledge of their Divine and Christian virtues 2. Concerning their condition was his Knowledg of God's Righteousness In the first we may observe 1. Their virtues 2. The manifestation of them so as that he might know them The virtues were Faith and Love Faith in Christ Love of the Saints Their Love is expresly mentioned your labour of Love their Faith is implied in that it was toward his Name There were other virtues for these could not be alone as their Patience in suffering of Afflictions for Christ's sake and that with joy and their hope of Glory Chap. 10. 34. The manifestation of these was in their work and labour in continuing to minister unto the Saints whereof he had certain Knowledge Here we are informed that Love will be working and labouring and ever bringing forth fruit and that is not real and sincere Love which is not such Therefore another Apostle exhorts us not to love onely in tongue but in truth and in deed 1 John 3. 18. And what it is to love in truth and indeed is signified in the 16th and 17th Verses going before it 's to give the lives of our bodies for them and relieve them with our goods it's a dying and giving Love And happy they which find this heavenly fire burning in their Souls But in most men though professed Christians we either find no Love or if any it 's but cold it will neither take pains nor be at Charge much less hazard life for the Brethren as Christ gave his life for us This love was fixed upon the suffering Saints who were persecuted for Christ's sake they were the speciall Object of it and this did argue their Love to God and their Faith in Christ without which this love could not have been truly Christian Therefore the Apostle joyns Faith in Christ and Love to all the Saints together Col. 1. 4. By all which we may understand that there is a Connexion of divine vertues For where one is in sincerity there all the rest are they cannot be seperated This work and labour in particular was their Ministration to the Saints Where we must enquire 1. What this Ministration is 2. To whom they did minister 3. How long they did minister 1. This Ministration was a work of Faith and Love whereby they used all just and effectual means in their power to preserve maintain comfort deliver the Saints persecuted and suffering 2. These Saints were Christians which suffered banishment imprisonment loss of Goods and other earthly Comforts for the Profession of their Faith in Christ. And by this Suffering were they known to be Saints Therefore this Love was not meerly natural nor meerly Moral but truly Christian Love and so denominated from the parties that loved who are such as that we are bound to love them above others and this Love is that whereby we may know that we are passed from Death to Life 3. The continuance of this Love was that they had ministred formerly in time past and now for the time present they continued this Work of Love for Christian Love is an immortal fire it will still burn and never dy This Ministration was a great evidence of their good Qualification and a good and firm ground of the Apostle's perswasion The ground of his perswasion concerning their good condition was the Knowledge of God's Righteousness For God is not unrighteous to forget your Work and Labour of Love This Proposition is Negative and includes the Affirmative which is That God is fighteous and will remember their Christian Faith Love and good Works And it 's delivered Negatively to signify the infallible certain truth of the Affirmative for in this Case the Negative is more peremptory and emphatical The ground it self is thus expressed his Knowledge of it is implyed But let 's consider 1. What it is for God here to forget or remember 2. What it is for him to be righteous or not unrighteous 1. God can forget nothing at any time but alwayes remembers all things and the reason of this is the perfection of his Knowledge which is infinite as he himself is Therefore to forget in this place is not to take notice of their vertues and actions so as to recompense them To remember is so to regard them as to render a Reward To reward is an Act of God as a Supream Judge The Righteousness of God is his distributive Justice and faithfulness in performing his Promise in judging according to his Law And this rewarding of his loyal and obedient Subjects is a proper Act of his judicial Justice for God is the universal Judge and is
of Man but of God who is Truth it self 3. That the thing testified was firm certain and most stable The Apostle alledgeth the Prophet who was divinely inspired and one of the sacred and Canonical Writers and acknowledged by the Jews to be such so that they could not any wayes except against his Testimony as being not only divine but as alledged by him very plain and pertinent and effectual to prove the Point intended And it was the more effectual and undeniable because this Prophet was one of the Levitical Priests and delivered this Prophecy whilst that first Covenant was in power and force Yet another thing is further to be observed That the Apostle follows the Translation of the Septuagâ—nt except in one word and though it seem to differ from the Hebrew yet it doth not For the sense both of the Hebrew Original and Greek Version is the same That wherein they seem to differ most is that passage in the latter end of the ninth Verse and I regarded them not It is strange that our English Translators should here follow the Greek and in Jeremy 31. 32. the Hebrew as they conceived for thus they turn it there although I was an Husband â—nto them But to reconcile both the places we may note 1. That the Septuagint's Alexandrian Version is rather Paraphrastical than wording 2. That they knew the force and signification of the Hebrew words better than we do 3. That though our Lexicons give no such signification to the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to neglect or not regard yet it may signify so and they knew it and did so translate it to make the sense more perâ—picuous as they do in many other places 4. We find that Baal din signifies an Adversary in judgment and that Baal aph is One that is angry displeased and much offended 5. The words Though I had been a Husband to them may signify by a Meâ—onymy of the Cause for the Effect to neglect reject and cast off Because their breach of Covenant was aggravated very much in that God had been an Husband to them yet they forsook him and that was the Cause why he neglected them and thus some understand the place But to enter upon the words which we find Jer. 31. 31 32 33 34. Behold the dayes come c. The Adverb Behold is often used as in other Authors so in the Scriptures and for the most part is a Note of attention especially when the matter is rare strange or excellent And though every part of God's Word requires our attention yet some deserve an higher degree of consideration For being of special and great concernment and sometimes extraordinary that cannot be so effectual except we in a special and extraordinary manner attend unto them The word is Metaphorical and signifies an Act of our Eye and visive faculty but here by similitude an Act of the Understanding exercising both the apprehensive and judicial Power thereof And this new Covenant was a special Object of both The matter of the Text alledged is a Covenant described from 1. The parties confederating 2. The time 3. The quality 4. The promises 1. The parties confederating were God on one side and the House of Israel and Judah on the other God was the first and principal party who contrived the Covenant and resolved upon it and by the Prophet fore-told it and all these were Acts of his free Grace and abundant Love to sinful Man intending to save him The parties with whom he would make it was the House of Israel and Judah yet because there was Israel according to the Flesh and according to the Spirit and a Jew who was such outwardly and a Jew who was such inwardly therefore it doth not exclude the Gentile and it takes in not only the Proselyte but others too Yet the Houses of Israel and Judah have the preheminence and the Jew must first be called and the Covenant must first be tendred â—nto him And this Prophecy may be understood of them in a more special manner with reference to their Conversion in the latter times 2. The time when God would make it was then to come and when the Apostle wrote to these Hebrâ—ws it was past For God knew his own mind and purpose and signifies the same by the Prophet long before the Execution of the Decree for known to God from the beginning are all his Works yet though he know them he doth not instantly effect them But he knows the best times and fittest seasons and when they once come his almighty executive Power doth issue out and effect them Yet he may signify before hand what he will do in the times to come as here he did And there may be special Reasons moving him so to do as 1. To signify the Perfection of his Knowledge 2. To comfort his People in their great Afflictions by letting them know what good he intends them in future times Yet there might be some special reasons of this particular Prediction as 1. To teach them and their Posterity the weakness and imperfection of the former Covenant lest they should depend upon it for Justification and eternal Life 2. By this Prophecy to convince in future times the unbelieving Jews and confirm these believing Hebrews and also to prove the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood which is the use the Apostle makes of it in this place 3. The quality it was new and different from the former In that it was new it implies c. 1. That there was an Old Covenant 2. That the old was the former this the latter in Order of time 3. Because new things are better than old and sometimes far better in which respect Novum est eximium therefore heâ— here may signify a more excellent Covenant and so this was far more excellent than the former 4. New Covenant is another Covenant and different from the former and it differs not only accidentally but essentially Which difference is expressed Ver. 9. Not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Aegypt because they continued not in my Covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord. § 9. VVHere many things are observable as 1. That the former Covenant was made with their Fathers 2. It was made when he brought them out of Aegypt 3. They continued not in that Covenant 4. He therefore rejected them 5. This new Covenant is not according to that 6. All this saith the Lord. 1. The first Proposition signifies the parties with whom God made this Covenant they were their Fathers and Ancestors in opposition to their Posterity and Children with whom he would make this Covenant These Fathers in particular were those who sojourned in Aegypt 430 years after the Promise was made to Abraham which informs us that it was different both from the Promise made before and the Gospel and this new Covenant revealed so long after 2.