countenance given unto the other Imagination in general concerning the merit of works in these words For 1 The Design of the Apostle is only to let them know that their Labour in the work of the Lord that their Obedience unto the Gospel should not be lost or be in vain And hereof he gives them assurance from the Nature of God with whom they had to do with respect unto that Covenant whereinto he takes them that do believe They had been sedulous in the discharge of the great Duty of ministring unto the Saints in particular upon the account of the Name of Jesus Christ that was upon them These Duties had been attended with trouble danger and charge And it was needful to confirm them in a perswasion that they should not-be lost This they might be two ways 1 If themselves should fall away and not persist in their course unto the end 2 If God should overlook or forget as it were all that they had done Against both these Apprehensions the Apostle secures them From the first in that the works mentioned having been truly gracious works proceeding from Faith and Love they evidence their Persons to be in that state of Grace wherein they should be effectually preserved unto the End by virtue of Gods Faithfulness in Covenant which he further pursues towards the end of the Chapter Nor secondly had they the least reason to doubt of their future Reward For who was it that called them to these Duties and on what account Is it not God and that according unto the Tenour of the Covenant of Grace and hath he not therein promised to accept their Persons and their Duties by Jesus Christ If now he should not do so would he not be unrighteous must he not deny himself and not remember his Promise Wherefore the Righteousness of God here intended in his Faithfulness in the Promises of the Covenant And he is not said to be Righteous in rewarding or not rewarding but in not forgetting He is not unrighteous to forget Now to forget any thing doth not reflect immediately on distributive Justice but upon Fidelity in making good of some ingagement But not to ingage into Disputations in this place let men acknowledge that the new Covenant is a Covenant of Grace that the Constitution of a Reward unto the Obedience required therein is of Grace that this Obedience is not accepted on its own account but of the Mediation of Christ that all mens good works will not make a Compensation for one sin that we are to place our Trust and Confidence in Christ alone for Life and Salvation because he is the End of the Law for Righteousness unto them that do believe and let them please themselves for a while in the fancy of the merit of their works at least of the high and necessary place which they hold in their Justification before God after all their wrangling Disputes it will be Christ and Grace alone that they will betake themselves unto or their case will be deplorable These things I have premised that we may have no cause to divert unto them in the ensuing Exposition of the words The Apostle in this Verse gives an account of the Grounds of his Perswasion concerning these Hebrews expressed in the Verse foregoing And these he declares unto them partly for Encouragement and partly that they might be satisfied in his Sincerity and that he did not give them fair words to entice or allure them by And the reasons he gives to this purpose may be reduced unto two Heads 1. The Observation which he had made concerning their Faith and Love with the Fruits of them 2. The Faithfulness of God in Covenant whereon the final preservation of all true Believers doth depend These are the Grounds of that perswasion concerning their state and condition which he expressed in the foregoing words Hence that perswasion of his was of a mixt nature and had something in it of a Divine Faith and somewhat only of a moral certainty As he drew his conclusion from or built his perswasion on Gods Faithfulness or Righteousness so there was in it an infallible Assurance of Faith that could not deceive him For what we believe concerning God as he hath revealed himself is infallible But as his Perswasion had respect unto the Faith Love and Obedience which he had observed in them so it was only a moral Assurance and such as in its own nature might fail For God only is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we who judge by the outward evidences of invisible things may be deceived The Proposition from Gods Faithfulness is of infallible Truth the Application of it unto these Hebrews of moral Evidence only Such a Perswasion we may have in this case which is prevalent against all Objections a certain Rule for the performance of all Duties on our parts towards others and such had the Apostle concerning these Hebrews That which in the first place he confirms his Perswasion with is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their work God is not unrighteous to forget your work It is not any singular work but a course in working which he intends And what that work is is declared in that parallel place of the same Apostle 1 Thes. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same expressions with those in this place which may be reckoned unto the multitude of other Instances of Coincidences of expressions in this and the other Epistles of the same Writer all peculiar unto himself arguing him to be the Author of this also Remembring your Work of Faith and Labour of Love The Work here intended is the Work of Faith The whole Work of Obedience to God whereof Faith is the principle and that which moves us thereunto Hence it is called the Obedience of Faith Rom. 1. 5. And this Obedience of Faith according to the Gospel is called there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their work 1 Because it was their chief employment their Calling lay in it They did not attend unto it occasionally or when they had nothing else to do as is the manner of some Religion was their business and Gospel Obedience their daily work This was their whole even to fear God and keep his Commandments as it is expressed under the Old Testament 2 Because there is work and labour in it or great pains to be taken about it For hereunto our Apostle in the next Verse requires their diligence ver 11. as Peter doth all diligence 2 Epist. 1. 11. And we may observe in our way That Faith if it be a living Faith will be a working Faith It is the work of Faith which the Apostle here commends This case is so stated by James that it needs no farther confirmation Chap. 2. 20. Wilt thou know or knowest thou not O vain man that Faith without works is dead He is a most vain man who thinks otherwise who hopes for any Benefit by that Faith which doth not work by Love Sathan hath no greater design
after Eternal Rest and Glory they have a sufficient recompence in their hands for all their sufferings 3 That God might have put them with others into such Pastures here only to have been fatted against the day of slaughter Let them but consider how much Spiritual and Eternal Mercies wherein they are interested do exceed things Temporal they will find they have no cause to complain 4 Whereas it is for the Glory of God and the Benefit of the Church that some should be peculiarly in an afflicted condition they ought even to rejoyce that God hath chosen them to use them as he pleaseth unto those Ends. But for the thing it self the Reasons of it are revealed and manifest For 1 God hereby gives Testimony unto all that the good things as they are esteemed of this world are no Tokens or Pledges of his Love and that he hath better things in store for them whom he careth for He doth hereby cast contempt on the desirable things of the world and testifieth that there are better things to be received even in this life than whatever is of the number of them For had not God better things to bestow on his Saints in this world than any the world can afford he would not with-hold these from them so far at least as that they should be straightened in their want Wherefore in this Dispensation of his Providence he doth testifie unto all that internal spiritual mercies such as his Saints enjoy are incomparably to be preferred above all things of that kind wherein he keeps them short 2 Sam. 23. 5. 2 He maketh way hereby for the vigorous fruitful exercise of all the Graces of his Spirit namely in the various conditions whereinto the Members of the Church are cast And let every one look to it and know that according unto his outward condition in the world whether it be of want or abundance there is peculiar exercise of Grace unto the Glory of God required of him It is expected from all that are high or low rich or poor free or in distress not only that they live in the exercise of all Grace in general but also that they diligently endeavour an abounding fruitfulness in those Graces whose exercise their especial condition calleth for And secondly we are here taught that The great Trial of our Love consists in our regard unto the Saints that are in distress That is the Foundation of the commendation of the Love of these Hebrews they ministred unto them Either Love or at least an appearance of Love will be easily preserved where we have little or no need of one another But when the exercise of it proves costly when it puts us unto charge or trouble or into danger as it doth more or less when it is exercised towards them that are in distress then is it brought unto its trial And in such a season we have experience that the Love of many is so far from bringing forth more fruit as that the very leaves of it fall off and they give over its profession Wherefore It is the Glory and Honour of a Church the principal Evidence of its spiritual Life when it is diligent and abounds in those Duties of Faith and Love which are attended with the greatest difficulties From hence doth the Apostle commend these Hebrews and firmly perswades himself that they were endued with those better things which accompany Salvation For hereby as we might shew 1 God is singularly glorified 2 The Gospel is peculiarly promoted 3 An especial lustre is put upon the Graces of the Spirit and 4 All the Ends of Sathan and the World in their Persecutions are utterly frustrated And these things have we spoken concerning the first ground of the Apostles perswasion of the good spiritual estate at present of these Hebrews and their future Eternal safety namely that work of Faith and labour of Love which he had observed in them The other ground of his Perswasion is taken from the Righteousness of God God is not unrighteous to forget your work I intimated before that the word used by the Apostle to express the frame of his mind in this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are perswaded ver 9. is applied sometimes to denote the infallible certainty of Faith and sometimes the moral certainty of Charity In this place it hath respect unto a double object or reason 1 What was in the professing Hebrews their Faith and Love Hereof he could have no assurance or certainty beyond a moral perswasion or the satisfaction of a charitable Judgement But on this supposition his perswasion had another object namely the Righteousness of God in the stability of his Promises whence he had infallible assurance or did conclude infallibly unto what he was perswaded of The Righteousness of God sometimes denotes the absolute Rectitude and perfect Goodness of his Nature and hereunto all other Acceptations of the Word as applied unto God are to be reduced Sometimes the Equity of the holy Dispensations of his Justice whereby he renders unto every one what is their due according unto the nature of things and his holy Appointments is so called And sometimes particularly his Vindictive Justice whereby he avengeth sin and punisheth sinners is so expressed Sometimes yea frequently the Fidelity of God in keeping and accomplishing his Promises is called his Righteousness For it belongeth unto the absolute Rectitude of his nature so to do So saith the Apostle If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 1 Joh. 1. 9. The forgiveness of sins is on all accounts an Act of mercy which is contradistinguished unto Righteousness in Judgement strictly so called Jam. 2. 13. Wherefore that Righteousness which is exercised in the pardon of sin is no other but the Faithfulness of God in the Promises of the Covenant He hath promised that he who confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy Hence it is just with God to forgive their sins who do so And this is the Righteousness that is here principally intended For the Righteousness whereby God rewardeth the works that are wrought in men by his own Grace is the same with that whereby he forgiveth their sins equally respecting the Covenant and the Promises thereof For without the consideration hereof strict or exact Righteousness could he neither pardon sin nor reward our works which being imperfect do no way answer the Rule which it doth or can proceed by In this sense is God here said not to be unrighteous to forget their work that is to be Righteous so as not to forget it He will have that respect unto it which he hath graciously promised in the Covenant because he is Righteous that is Faithful in his Promises And that no other Righteousness can be here intended is evident from hence because no work of ours doth answer the Rule of any other Righteousness in God Again We must enquire what it is not to forget their work And this
may respect either the preserving of it for the present or the future rewarding of it 1 It is not an unfrequent Temptation unto Believers that God so far disregards them as not to take care of Graces or Duties in them to cherish and preserve them See the complaints of the Church to this purpose Isa. 40. 27 28. chap. 49. 14. God hath forgotten me This is here denied God is not unrighteous to forget us or our work so as not to cherish and preserve it So the Apostle expresseth the same Perswasion concerning the Philippians as he doth here of the Hebrews chap. 1. 6. Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will preserve it until the day of Jesus Christ He is not unrighteous to forget it God hath in the Covenant of Grace promised to preserve the Faith and Love of his People that they should not perish nor be lost Wherefore having begun a good work and you having made some good progress in compliance with his Grace he is not unrighteous so as to forget his Covenant Ingagement but will preserve you and your Graces in you unto the End which is the sum of that great Prayer of the Apostle for all Believers 1 Pet. 5. 10. 2. Respect may be had herein to the future and final Reward of the Faith Love and Works of Believers For this also belongs unto Gods Covenant And it is so of Grace as that the Righteousness of God wherein it is due unto us can be no other but that of his Faithfulness in his Promises For neither we nor our works are capable of an Eternal Reward by the way of merit i. e. that the Reward should be reckoned unto us not of Grace but of Debt Rom. 4. 4. And that which utterly overthrows such an Apprehension is that God himself is our Eternal Reward Gen. 15. 1. And I leave it unto others to consider how they can deserve that Reward Whether of these senses he will embrace the Reader is left to determine for himself The former seems to me more suited to the design of the Apostle and scope of the place For he is satisfying these Hebrews that he made another Judgement of them than of those Apostates whose condition he had before described And this he doth on two Grounds First That they were actually made Partakers of sincere saving Grace and therein things that accompany Salvation and then that God in his Faithfulness would preserve and secure that Grace in them against all Oppositions unto the End Following this sense of the words we may learn that Our Perseverance in Faith and Obedience though it require our Duty and Constancy therein yet it depends not on them absolutely but on the Righteousness of God in his Promises Or if we had rather embrace the other sense of the words then are we sufficiently instructed That Nothing shall be lost that is done for God or in Obedience unto him He is not unjust to forget our labour of Love And The certainty of our future Reward depending on the Righteousness of God is a great Encouragement unto present Obedience VERSE 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is not much difficulty as to the signification of these words and therefore both ancient and modern Translations generally are agreed in the Interpretation of them The Vul. Lat. renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by ostentare sollicitudinem But ostentare is most frequently used for ostendere gloriandi causa as Festus saith though properly it seem to be a frequentative to shew often and is improper in this place Nor doth sollicitudinem well answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Syriack renders by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sedulity Diligence Industry Studium ostendere say most and most properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad complementum to the compleating or perfection of Hope Vul. Lat. Ad expletionem Spei which our Rhemists render by the Accomplishing of Hope the fulfilling of Hope Bez. Ad certam spei persuasionem whereunto answers our Translation to the full assurance of Hope Others ad plenam spei certitudinem most properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is earnestly to desire whence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concupiscence libido an earnest and mostly an impetuous desire So the Philosopher defined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Cicero renders Ira libido puniendi both from the Original derivation of it a desire that invades the mind an earnest vehement desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We render and and we desire but yet or moreover The same with what is more largely expressed 2 Pet. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and besides all this besides what is past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to manifest that is evince it unto all by the same performance of Duties that no decay in Faith or Love might be observed in them or suspected of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendered study diligence endeavour But it is such a Diligence as hath an earnestness accompanying it that is as it were making haste in pressing towards the End and Accomplishment of any thing or business And it doth always denote great and earnest diligence with study and desire It is used to this purpose 2 Pet. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is saith Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firmitas certitudo stability It is plena fides plena persuasio certa fides A sure stable firm certain Faith or perswasion The Vulgar Latine constantly renders this word as also the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by some word denoting filling or compleating taking its signification from the first part in the Composition But whatever be the native signification of the single words whereof it is compounded or with respect unto what Allusion soever the signification was first fixed it is certain that in the best Authors as in the Scripture it expresseth a full satisfactory perswasion of mind or the highest assurance in any thing which from the nature of it we are capable of And we earnestly desire that every one of you do manifest the same diligence unto the full assurance of Hope unto the End Although the Apostle in these words and those ensuing as is usual with him taketh a prospect towards his further progress making way by them and in them unto his discourse concerning Melchisedec which he hath intermitted whence some would here begin the third part of the Chapter yet he plainly pursues his former Argument and gives an express account of his whole design therein For first he manifests directly what was his intention in proposing unto them that terrible Commination and prediction concerning Apostates ver 4 5 6 7 8. Although for certain ends he spoke those things unto them yet he lets them know that he spake them not of them He thought not that they were such at present as he had described nor that that would
behalf This Schlictingius observes and is aware what will ensue thereon against his pretensions which he endeavours to obviate Mirum saith he porrò alicui videri posset cur D. Auctor de Christi sacerdotio in superioribus in sequentibus agens derepente eum sponsorem foederis non verò sacerdotem vocet Cur non dixerit tantò praestantioris foederis factus est sacerdos Jesus hoc enim planè requirere videtur totus orationis contextus Credibile est in voce sponsoris sacerdotium quoque Christi intelligi Sponsoris enim non est solùm alieno nomine quippiam promittere fidem suam pro alio interponere sed etiam si ita res ferat alterius nomine id quod spopondit praestare In rebus quidem humanis si id non praestet is pro quo sponsor fide jussit hic verò propter contrariam causam nam prior hic locum habere non potest nempe quatenus ille pro quo spopondit Christus per ipsum Christum promissa sua nobis exhibet quâ in re praecipuè Christi sacerdotium continetur Answ. 1. It may indeed seem strange unto any one who imagineth Christ to be such a Surety as he doth why the Apostle should so call him and so introduce him in the Description of his Priestly Office as that which belongeth thereunto But grant what is the proper work and duty of a Surety and who the Lord Jesus was a Surety for and it is evident that nothing more proper or pertinent could be mentioned by him when he was in the Declaration of that office 2. He confesseth that by his exposition of this Suretiship of Christ as making a Surety for God he contradicteth the nature and only notion of a Surety among men For such a one he acknowledgeth doth nothing but in the defect and inability of them for whom he is ingaged and doth undertake He is to pay that which they owe and to do what is to be done by them which they cannot perform And if this be not the notion of a Surety in this place the Apostle makes use of a word no where else used in the whole Scripture to teach us that which it doth never signifie among men which is improbable and absurd For the sole Reason why he did make use of it was that from the Nature and Notion of it among men in other Cases we may understand the signification of it what he intends by it and what under that name he ascribes unto the Lord Jesus 3. He hath no way to solve the Apostles mention of Christs being a Surety in the Description of his Priestly Office but by overthrowing the nature of that Office also For to confirm this absurd notion that Christ as a Priest was a Surety for God he would have us believe that the Priesthood of Christ consists in his making effectual unto us the Promises of God or his effectual Communicating of the Good things promised unto us the falshood of which notion really destructive of the Priesthood of Christ I have elsewhere at large detected and confuted Wherefore seeing the Lord Christ is the Surety of the Covenant as a Priest and all the sacerdotal Actings of Christ have God for their immediate Object and are performed with him on our behalf he was a Surety for us also It remaineth that we enquire positively how the Lord Christ was the Surety of the New Covenant and what is the benefit we receive thereby And unto this purpose we must first consider that opinion of some that the whole end of the Mediation of Christ was only to procure the New Covenant although at first view it be irreconcileable unto the nature and notion of a Surety For a Surety is not the Procurer of that whereofhe is the Surety but only the undertaker for its Accomplishment But we must more distinctly consider this Assertion and in what sense Christ may be said to procure the New Covenant by his Death and Mediation And to this end we must observe that the New Covenant may be considered divers ways in various respects 1. In the Designation and Preparation of its Terms and Benefits in the Counsel of God And this although it have the nature of an Eternal Decree yet is it distinguished from the Decree of Election which first and properly respects the Subjects or Persons for whom Grace and Glory are prepared For this respects the Preparation only of that Grace and Glory as to the way and manner of their Communication It is true this Purpose or Counsel of Gods Will is not called the Covenant of Grace which is the expresse declared exemplification of it The Covenant of Grace I say is only the Declaration of this Counsel of Gods VVill accompanied with the Means and Powers of its Accomplishment and the Prescription of the ways whereby we are to be interested in it and made partakers of the Benefits of it But in the enquiry after the procuring Cause of the New Covenant it is the first thing that ought to come under consideration For nothing can be the procuring Cause of the Covenant which is not so of this Spring and Fountain of it of this Idea of it in the mind of God But this is no where in the Scripture affirmed to be the effect of the Death or Mediation of Christ and so to ascribe it is to overthrow the whole freedom of Eternal Grace and Love Neither can any thing that is absolutely Eternal as is this Decree and Counsel of God be the effect of or be procured by any thing that is External and Temporal And besides it is expresly assigned unto absolute Love and Grace see Ephes. 1. 4 5 6. with all those places where the Love of God is assigned as the sole cause of the Designation of Christ unto his Office and the sending of him 2. It may be considered with respect unto the Federal Transactions between the Father and Son concerning the Accomplishment of this counsel of his Will What these were wherein they did consist I have declared at large in my Exercitations Neither do I call this the Covenant of Grace absolutely nor is it so called in the Scripture But it is that wherein it had its establishment as unto all the ways means and ends of its Accomplishment and all things so disposed as that it might be effectual unto the Glory of the Wisdom Grace Righteousness and Power of God Wherefore the Covenant of Grace could not be procured by any means or cause but that which was the cause of this Covenant of the Mediator or of God the Father with the Son as undertaking the work of Mediation And as this is no where ascribed unto the Death of Christ in the Scripture so to assert it is contrary unto all spiritual Reason and understandings Who can conceive that Christ by his Death should procure the Agreement between God and him that he should dye 3. With respect unto the Declaration of it
speaking of this former Covenant he says it was become old and so ready to disappear Wherefore it is not the Covenant of Works made with Adam that is intended when this other is said to be a better Covenant Secondly There were other faederal Transactions between God and the Church before the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai Two of them there were into which all the rest were resolved 1. The first Promise given unto our first Parents immediately after the Fall This had in it the nature of a Covenant grounded on a Promise of Grace and requiring Obedience in all that received the Promise 2. The Promise given and sworn unto Abraham which is expresly called the Covenant of God and had the whole nature of a Covenant in it with a solemn outward Seal appointed for its confirmation and establishment Hereof we have treated at large on the Sixth Chapter Neither of these nor any Transaction between God and man that may be reduced unto them as Explanations Renovations or Confirmations of them are the first Covenant here intended For they are not only consistent with the New Covenant so as that there was no necessity to remove them out of the way for its Introduction but did indeed contain in them the essence and nature of it and so were confirmed therein Hence the Lord Christ himself is said to be a Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of God to confirm the Promises made to the Fathers Rom. 15. 8. As he was the Mediator of the New Covenant he was so far from taking off from or abolishing those Promises that it belonged unto his Office to confirm them Wherefore 3. The other Covenant or Testament here supposed whereunto that whereof the Lord Christ was the Mediator is preferred is none other but that which God made with the People of Israel on Mount Sinai So it is expresly affirmed ver 9. The Covenant which I made with your Fathers in the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt This was that Covenant which had all the Institutions of Worship annexed unto it Chap. 9. 1 2 3. whereof we must treat afterwards more at large With respect hereunto it is that the Lord Christ is said to be the Mediator of a better Covenant that is of another distinct from it and more excellent It remains unto the Exposition of the words that we enquire what was this Covenant whereof our Lord Christ was the Mediator and what is here affirmed of it This can be no other in general but that which we call the Covenant of Grace And it is so called in opposition unto that of Works which was made with us in Adam For these two Grace and Works do divide the ways of our Relation unto God being diametrically opposite and every way inconsistent Rom. 11. 6. Of this Covenant the Lord Christ was the Mediator from the foundation of the world namely from the giving of the first Promise Rev. 13. 8. For it was given on his Interposition and all the benefits of it depended on his future actual Mediation But here ariseth the first difficulty of the Context and that in two things For 1 If this Covenant of Grace was made from the Beginning and that the Lord Christ was the Mediator of it from the first then where is the priviledge of the Gospel state in opposition unto the Law by vertue of this Covenant seeing that under the Law also the Lord Christ was the Mediator of that Covenant which was from the Beginning 2 If it be the Covenant of Grace which is intended and that be opposed unto the Covenant of Works made with Adam then the other Covenant must be that Covenant of Works so made with Adam which we have before disproved The Answer hereunto is in the word here used by the Apostle concerning this New Coxenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose meaning we must inquire into I say therefore that the Apostle doth not here consider the New Covenant absolutely and as it was virtually administred from the foundation of the world in the way of a Promise For as such it was consistent with that Covenant made with the people in Sinai And the Apostle proves expresly that the renovation of it made unto Abraham was no way abrogated by the giving of the Law Gal. 3. 17. There was no interruption of its administration made by the introduction of the Law But he treats of such an establishment of the New Covenant as wherewith the old Covenant made at Sinai was absolutely inconsistent and which was therefore to be removed out of the way Wherefore he considers it here as it was actually compleated so as to bring along with it all the Ordinances of Worship which are proper unto it the dispensation of the Spirit in them and all the spiritual Priviledges wherewith they are accompanied It is now so brought in as to become the entire Rule of the Churches Faith Obedience and Worship in all things This is the meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 established say we But it is reduced into a fixed state of a Law or Ordinance All the Obedience required in it all the Worship appointed by it all the Priviledges exhibited in it and the Grace administred with them are all given for a Statute Law and Ordinance unto the Church That which before lay hid in Promises in many things obscure the principal Mysteries of it being a Secret hid in God himself was now brought to light and that Covenant which had invisibly in the way of a Promise put forth its efficacy under Types and Shadows was now solemnly sealed ratified and confirmed in the Death and Resurrection of Christ. It had before the confirmation of a Promise which is an Oath it had not the confirmation of a Covenant which is blood That which before had no visible outward Worship proper and peculiar unto it is now made the only Rule and Instrument of Worship unto the whole Church nothing being to be admitted therein but what belongs unto it and is appointed by it This the Apostle intends by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the legal establishment of the New Covenant with all the Ordinances of its Worship Hereon the other Covenant was disannulled and removed and not only the Covenant itself but all that System of Sacred Worship whereby it was administred This was not done by the making of the Covenant at first Yeal all this was superinduced into the Covenant as given out in a Promise and was consistent therewith When the New Covenant was given out only in the way of a Promise it did not introduce a Worship and Priviledges expressive of it Wherefore it was consistent with a form of Worship Rites and Ceremonies and those composed into a yoke of Bondage which belonged not unto it And as these being added after its giving did not overthrow its nature as a Promise so they were inconsistent with it when it was compleated
of Duty and Obedience we are told in the Scripture and find it by experience that of our selves we can do nothing Wherefore unless the Precept of the Covenant be founded in a Promise of giving grace and spiritual strength unto us whereby we may be enabled to perform those duties the Covenant can be of no benefit or advantage unto us And the want of this one consideration that every Covenant is founded in Promises and that the Promises give life unto the Precepts of it hath perverted the minds of many to suppose an ability in our selves of yielding Obedience unto those Precepts without Grace antecedently received to enable us thereunto which overthrows the nature of the New Covenant 2 As was observed we are all actually guilty of sin before this Covenant was made with us Wherefore unless there be a Promise given of the pardon of sin it is to no purpose to propose any new Covenant terms unto us For the wages of sin is death and we having sinned must die whatever we do afterwards unless our sins be pardoned This therefore must be proposed unto us as the foundation of the Covenant or it will be of none effect And herein lies the great difference between the Promises of the Covenant of Works and those of the Covenant of Grace The first were only concerning things future eternal Life and Blessedness upon the accomplishment of perfect Obedience Promises of present Mercy and Pardon it stood in need of none it was not capable of Nor had it any Promises of giving more Grace or supplies of it but man was wholly left unto what he had at first received Hence the Covenant was broken But in the Covenant of Grace all things are founded in Promises of present Mercy and continual supplies of Grace as well as of future Blessedness Hence it becomes to be ordered in all things and sure And this is the first thing that was to be declared namely that every Divine Covenant is established on Promises 2. These Promises are said to be better Promises The other Covenant had its Promises peculiar unto it with respect whereunto this is said to be established on better Promises It was indeed principally represented under a System of Precepts and those almost innumerable But it had its Promises also into the nature whereof we shall immediately enquire With respect therefore unto them is the New Covenant whereof the Lord Christ was the Mediator said to be established on better Promises That it should be founded in Promises was necessary from its general nature as a Covenant and more necessary from its especial nature as a Covenant of Grace That these Promises are said to be better Promises respects those of the Old Covenant But this is so said as to include all other degrees of comparison They are not only better than they but they are positively good in themselves and absolutely the best that God ever gave or will give unto the Church And what they are we must consider in our Progress And sundry things may be observed from these words 1. There is infinite Grace in every Divine Covenant inasmuch as it is established on Promises Infinite condescension it is in God that he will enter into Covenant with dust and ashes with poor Worms of the earth And herein lies the Spring of all Grace from whence all the streams of it do flow And the first expression of it is in laying the foundation of it in some undeserved Promises And this was that which became the Goodness and Greatness of his Nature the means whereby we are wrought to adhere unto him in Faith Hope Trust and Obedience until we come unto the enjoyment of him For that is the use of Promises to keep us in adherence unto God as the first Original and Spring of all Goodness and the ultimate satisfactory reward of our Souls 2 Cor. 7. 1. 2. The Promises of the Covenant of Grace are better than those of any other Covenant as for many other Reasons so especially because the grace of them prevents any condition or qualification on our part I do not say the Covenant of Grace is absolute without conditions if by conditions we intend the duties of Obedience which God requireth of us in and by vertue of that Covenant But this I say the principal Promises thereof are not in the first place remunerative of our Obedience in the Covenant but efficaciously assumptive of us into Covenant and establishing or confirming in the Covenant The Covenant of Works had its Promises but they were all remunerative respecting an antecedent Obedience in us so were all those which were peculiar unto the Covenant of Sinai They were indeed also of Grace in that the Reward did infinitely exceed the merit of our Obedience But yet they all supposed it and the Subject of them was formally Reward only In the Covenant of Grace it is not so For sundry of the Promises thereof are the means of our being taken into Covenant of our entring into Covenant with God The first Covenant absolutely was established on Promises in that when men were actually taken into it they were encouraged unto Obedience by the Promises of a future Reward But these Promises namely of the pardon of sin and writing of the Law in our hearts which the Apostle expresly insisteth upon as the peculiar Promises of this Covenant do take place and are effectual antecedently unto our Covenant Obedience For although Faith be required in order of nature antecedently unto our actual receiving of the pardon of sin yet is that Faith itself wrought in us by the Grace of the Promise and so its precedency unto pardon respects only the Order that God hath appointed in the communication of the benefits of the Covenant and intends not that the pardon of sin is the reward of our Faith This entrance hath the Apostle made into his Discourse of the two Covenants which he continues unto the end of the Chapter But the whole is not without its difficulties Many things in particular will occur unto us in our progress which may be considered in their proper places In the mean time there are some things in general which may be here discoursed by whose determination much light will be communicated unto what doth ensue First therefore the Apostle doth evidently in this place dispute concerning two Covenants or two Testaments comparing the one with the other and declaring the disannulling of the one by the introduction and establishment of the other What are these two Covenants in general we have declared namely that made with the Church of Israel at Mount Sinai and that made with us in the Gospel not as absolutely the Covenant of Grace but as actually established in the death of Christ with all the worship that belongs unto it Here then ariseth a difference of no small importance namely whether these are indeed two distinct Covenants as to the essence and substance of them or only different ways of the
dispensation and administration of the same Covenant And the reason of the difficulty lieth herein We must grant one of these three things 1 That either the Covenant of Grace was in force under the Old Testament or 2 That the Church was saved without it or any benefit by Jesus Christ who is the Mediator of it alone or 3 That they all perished everlastingly And neither of the two latter can be admitted Some indeed in these latter days have revived the old Pelagian imagination that before the Law men were saved by the conduct of natural light and reason and under the Law by the directive Doctrines Precepts and Sacrifices thereof without any respect unto the Lord Christ or his Mediation in another Covenant But I shall not here contend with them as having elsewhere sufficiently refuted these imaginations Wherefore I shall take it here for granted that no man was ever saved but by vertue of the New Covenant and the Mediation of Christ therein Suppose then that this New Covenant of Grace was extant and effectual under the Old Testament so as the Church was saved by vertue thereof and the Mediation of Christ therein how could it be that there should at the same time be another Covenant between God and them of a different nature from this accompanied with other Promises and other Effects On this consideration it is said that the two Covenants mentioned the New and the Old were not indeed two distinct Covenants as unto their essence and substance but only different administrations of the same Covenant called two Covenants from some different outward Solemnities and Duties of worship attending of them To clear this it must be observed 1. That by the Old Covenant the original Covenant of Works made with Adam and all Mankind in him is not intended For this is undoubtedly a Covenant different in the essence and substance of it from the New 2. By the New Covenant not the New Covenant absolutely and originally as given in the first Promise is intended but in its compleat Gospel-administration when it was actually established by the death of Christ as administred in and by the Ordinances of the New Testament This with the Covenant of Sinai were as most say but different administrations of the same Covenant But on the other hand there is such express mention made not only in this but in sundry other places of the Scripture also of two distinct Covenants or Testaments and such different Natures Properties and Effects ascribed unto them as seem to constitute two distinct Covenants This therefore we must inquire into and shall first declare what is agreed unto by those who are sober in this matter though they differ in their judgments about this question Whether two distinct Covenants or only a twofold administration of the same Covenant be intended And indeed there is so much agreed on as that what remains seems rather to be a difference about the expression of the same Truth than any real contradiction about the things themselves For 1. It is agreed that the way of Reconciliation with God of justification and salvation was always one and the same and that from the giving of the first Promise none was ever justified or saved but by the New Covenant and Jesus Christ the Mediator thereof The foolish imagination before-mentioned that men were saved before the giving of the Law by following the guidance of the light of nature and after giving of the Law by obedience unto the directions thereof is rejected by all that are sober as destructive of the Old Testament and the New 2. That the Writings of the Old Testament namely the Law Psalms and Prophets do contain and declare the Doctrine of Justification and Salvation by Christ this the Church of old believed and walked with God in the Faith thereof This is undeniably proved in that the Doctrine mentioned is frequently confirmed in the New Testament by Testimonies taken out of the Old 3. That by the Covenant of Sinai as properly so called separated from its figurative relation unto the Covenant of Grace none was ever eternally saved 4. That the use of all the Institutions whereby the Old Covenant was administred was to represent and direct unto Jesus Christ and his Mediation These things being granted the only way of life and salvation by Jesus Christ under the Old Testament and the New is secured which is the substance of the Truth wherein we are now concerned On these grounds we may proceed with our enquiry The judgment of most Reformed Divines is that the Church under the Old Testament had the same Promise of Christ the same Interest in him by Faith Remission of Sins Reconciliation with God Justification and Salvation by the same way and means that Believers have them all under the New And whereas the essence and the substance of the Covenant consists in these things they are not to be said to be under another Covenant but only a different administration of it But this was so different from that which is established in the Gospel after the coming of Christ that it hath the appearance and name of another Covenant And the differences between these two Administrations may be reduced unto the ensuing Heads 1. It consisted in the way and manner of the declaration of the mystery of the Love and Will of God in Christ of the work of Reconciliation and Redemption with our justification by Faith For herein the Gospel wherein Life and Immortality are brought unto light doth in plainness clearness and evidence much excel the administration and declaration of the same Truths under the Law And the greatness of the priviledge of the Church herein is not easily expressed For hereby with open face we behold the glory of God in a glass and are changed into the same image 2 Cor. 3. 18. The man whose eyes the Lord Christ opened Mark 8. 23 24. represents these two states When he first touched him his eyes were opened and he saw but he saw nothing clearly whence when he looked he said I see men as trees walking ver 24. But upon his second touch he saw every man clearly ver 25. They had their sight under the Old Testament and the Object was proposed unto them but at a great distance with such an interposition of Mists Clouds and Shadows as that they saw men like trees walking nothing clearly and perfectly But now under the Gospel the Object which is Christ being brought near unto us and all Clouds and Shadows being departed we do or may see all things clearly When a Traveller in his way on Downs or Hills is encompassed with a thick Mist and Fog though he be in his way yet he is uncertain and nothing is presented unto him in its proper shape and distance things near seem to be afar off and things afar off to be near and every thing hath though not a false yet an uncertain appearance Let the Sun break forth and scatter the Mists and
to have been a distinct Covenant and not a meer administration of the Covenant of Grace 1. This Covenant called the Old Covenant was never intended to be of itself the absolute Rule and Law of Life and Salvation unto the Church but was made with a particular design and with respect unto particular ends This the Apostle proves undeniably in this Epistle especially in the Chapter foregoing and those two that follow Hence it follows that it could abrogate or disannul nothing which God at any time before had given as a general Rule unto the Church For that which is particular cannot abrogate any thing that was general and before it as that which is general doth abrogate all antecedent particulars as the New Covenant doth abrogate the Old And this we must consider in both the instances belonging hereunto For 1. God had before given the Covenant of Works or perfect Obedience unto all Mankind in the Law of Creation But this Covenant at Sinai did not abrogate or disannual that Covenant nor any way fulfill it And the reason is because it was never intended to come in the place or room thereof as a Covenant containing an entire Rule of all the Faith and Obedience of the whole Church God did not intend in it to abrogate the Covenant of Works and to substitute this in the place thereof Yea in sundry things it reinforced established and confirmed that Covenant For 1. It revived decIared and expressed all the Commands of that Covenant in the Decalogue For that is nothing but a Divine Summary of the Law written in the heart of man at his Creation And herein the dreadful manner of its delivery or promulgation with its Writings in Tables of Stone are also to be considered For in them the nature of that first Covenant with its inexorableness as unto perfect Obedience was represented And because none could answer its demands or comply with it therein it was called the Ministration of Death causing fear and bondage 2 Cor. 3. 7. 2. It revived the Sanction of the first Covenant in the Curse or Sentence of Death which it denounced against all Transgressors Death was the penalty of the transgression of the first Covenant In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death And this Sentence was revived and represented anew in the Curse wherewith this Covenant was ratified Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them Deut. 27. 26. Gal. 3. 10. For the design of God in it was to bind a sense of that Curse on the Consciences of men until he came by whom it was taken away as the Apostle declares Gal. 3. 14 15 16. 3. It revived the Promise of that Covenant that of eternal Life upon perfect Obedience So the Apostle tells us that Moses thus describeth the Righteousness of the Law that the man which doth these things shall live by them Rom. 10. 5. as he doth Lev. 18. 5. Now this is no other but the Covenant of Works revived Nor had this Covenant of Sinai any Promise of eternal Life annexed unto it as such but only the Promise inseparable from the Covenant of Works which it revived saying Do this and live Hence it is that when our Apostle disputeth against Justification by the Law or by the Works of the Law he doth not intend the Works peculiar unto the Covenant of Sinai such as were the Rites and Ceremonies of the Worship then instituted but he intends also the Works of the first Covenant which alone had the Promise of Life annexed unto them And hence it follows also that it was not a New Covenant of Works established in the place of the Old for the absolute Rule of Faith and Obedience unto the whole Church for then would it have abrogated and taken away that Covenant and all the sorce of it which it did not 2. The other instance is in the Promise This also went before it neither was it abrogated or disannulled by the introduction of this Covenant This Promise was given unto our first Parents immediately after the entrance of sin and was established as containing the only way and means of the Salvation of Sinners Now this Promise could not be abrogated by the introduction of this Covenant and a new way of Justification and Salvation be thereby established For the Promise being given out in general for the whole Church as containing the way appointed by God for Righteousness Life and Salvation it could not be disannulled or changed without a change and alteration in the counsels of him with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning Much less could this be effected by a particular Covenant such as that was when it was given as a general and eternal Rule But whereas there was an especial Promise given unto Abraham in the Faith whereof he became the Father of the Faithful he being their Progenitor it should seem that this Covenant did wholly disannul or supersede that Promise and take off the Church of his Posterity from building on that foundation and to fix them wholly on this New Covenant now made with them So saith Moses The Lord made not this Covenant with our Fathers but with us even us who are all of us alive here this day Deut. 5. 3. God made not this Covenant on Mount Sinai with Abraham Isaac and Jacob but with the People then present and their Posterity as he declares Deut. 29. 14 15. This therefore should seem to take them off wholly from that Promise made to Abraham and so to disannul it But that this it did not nor could do the Apostle strictly proves Gal. 3. 17 18 19 20 21 22. Yea it did divers ways establish that Promise both as first given and as afterwards confirmed with the Oath of God unto Abraham two especially 1. It declared the impossibility of obtaining Reconciliation and Peace with God any other way but by the Promise For representing the Commands of the Covenant of Works requiring perfect sinless Obedience under the Penalty of the Curse it convinced men that this was no way for Sinners to seek for Life and Salvation by And herewith it so urged the Consciences of men that they could have no rest nor peace in themselves but what the Promise would afford them whereunto they saw a necessity of betaking themselves 2. By representing the ways and means of the Accomplishment of the Promise and of that whereon all the efficacy of it unto the Justification and Salvation of Sinners doth depend This was the Death Bloodshedding Oblation or Sacrifice of Christ the promised Seed This all its Offerings and Ordinances of Worship directed unto as his Incarnation with the Inhabitation of God in his Humane Nature was typed by the Tabernacle and Temple Wherefore it was so far from disannulling the Promise or diverting the minds of the People of God from it that by all means it established it and lead unto it But 3. It will be said as was before observed that
the Church of Rome do commonly place this difference in three things 1. In the Promises of them which in the Old Covenant were temporal onely in the New spiritual and heavenly 2. In the Precepts of them which under the Old required onely external Obedience designing the righteousness of the outward man under the New they are internal respecting principally the inner man of the heart 3. In their Sacraments For these under the Old Testament were only outwardly figurative but those of the New are operative of Grace But these things do not express much if any thing at all of what the Scripture placeth this difference in And besides as by some of them explained they are not true especially the two latter of them For I cannot but somewhat admire how it came into the heart or mind of any man to think or say that God ever gave a Law or Laws Precept or Precepts that should respect the outward man onely and the regulation of external duties A thought of it is contrary unto all the essential Properties of the Nature of God and meet only to ingenerate apprehensions of him unsuited unto all his glorious excellencies The life and foundation of all the Laws under the Old Testament was Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul without which no outward Obedience was ever accepted with him And for the third of the supposed differences neither were the Sacraments of the Law so barely figurative but that they did exhibit Christ unto Believers for they all drank of the spiritual Rock which Rock was Christ nor are those of the Gospel so operative of Grace but that without Faith they are useless unto them that do receive them The things wherein this difference doth consist as expressed in the Scripture are partly circumstantial and partly substantial and may be reduced unto the Heads ensuing 1. These two Covenants differ in the circumstance of time as to their promulgation declaration and establishment This difference the Apostle expresseth from the Prophet Jeremiah in the 9th verse of this Chapter where it must be more fully spoken unto In brief the first Covenant was made at the time that God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and took its date from the third month after their coming up from thence Exod. 19. Chap. 24. From what is reported in the latter place wherein the people give their actual consent unto the terms of it it began its formal obligation as a Covenant And we must afterwards enquire when it was abrogated and ceased to oblige the Church The New Covenant was declared and made known in the latter days Heb. 1. 1. in the dispensation of the fulness of time Eph. 1. 10. And it took date as a Covenant formally obliging the whole Church from the Death Resurrection Ascension of Christ and sending of the Holy Ghost I bring them all into the Epocha of this Covenant because though principally it was established by the first yet was it not absolutely obligatory as a Covenant until after the last of them 2. They differ in the circumstance of place as to their promulgation which the Scripture also taketh notice of The first was declared in Mount Sinai the manner whereof and the station of the people in receiving the Law I have in my Exercitations unto the first Part of this Exposition at large declared and thither the Reader is referred Exod. 19. 18. The other was declared on Mount Sinai and the Law of it went forth from Jerusalem Isa. 2. 2. This difference with many remarkable instances from it our Apostle insists on Gal. 4. 24 25 26. These are the two Covenants the one from Mount Sinai which gendreth unto bondage which is Agar That is Agar the Bondwoman whom Abraham took before the Heir of Promise was born was a Type of the Old Covenant given on Sinai before the introduction of the New or the Covenant of Promise For so he adds For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth unto Jerusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children This Mount Sinai when the Old Covenant was given and which was represented by Agar is in Arabia cast quite out of the Verge and Confines of the Church And it answereth or is placed in the same Series Rank and Order with Jerusalem namely in the opposition of the two Covenants For as the New Covenant the Covenant of Promise giving freedom and liberty was given at Jerusalem in the Death and Resurrection of Christ with the Preaching of the Gospel which ensued thereon so the Old Covenant that brought the People into Bondage was given at Mount Sinai in Arabia 3. They differ in the manner of their promulgation and establishment There were two things remarkable that accompanied the Solemn Declaration of the first Covenant 1. The dread and terror of the outward appearance on Mount Sinai which filled all the People yea Moses himself with fear and trembling Hebr. 12. 18 19 20 21. Exod. 19. 16. Chap. 20. 18 19. Together herewith was a Spirit of Fear and Bondage administred unto all the People so as that they chose to keep at a distance and not draw nigh unto God Deut. 5 23 24 25 26 27. 2. That it was given by the ministry and disposition of Angels Acts 7. 13. Gal. 3. 19. Hence the People was in a sense put in subjection unto Angels and they had an authoritative ministry in that Covenant The Church that then was was put into some kind of subjection unto Angels as the Apostle plainly intimates Hebr. 2. 5. Hence the worshipping or adoration of Angels began among the People Col. 2. 18. Which some with an addition unto their Folly and Superstition would introduce into the Christian Church wherein they have no such authoritative Ministry as they had under the Old Covenant Things are quite otherwise in the promulgation of the New Covenant The Son of God in his own Person did declare it This he spake from heaven as the Apostle observes in opposition unto the giving of the Law on the earth Hebr. 12. 25. yet did he speak on the earth also the mystery whereof himself declares John 3. 13. And he did all things that belong unto the establishment of this Covenant in a spirit of meekness and condescension with the highest evidence of love grace and compassion encouraging and inviting the weary the burdened the heavy and laden to come unto him And by his Spirit he makes his Disciples to carry on the same work until the Covenant was fully declared Hebr. 2. 3. see John 1. 17 18. And the whole Ministry of Angels in the giving of this Covenant was meerly in a way of service and obedience unto Christ and they owned themselves the Fellow-servants only of them that have the testimony of Jesus Rev. 19. 10. So that this world to come as it was called of old was no way put in subjection unto them 4. They differ in their Mediators The Mediator of the
first Covenant was Moses It was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3. 19. And this was no other but Moses who was a Servant in the House of God Hebr. 3. 6. And he was a Mediator as designed of God so chosen of the people in that dread and consternation which befell them upon the terrible promulgation of the Law For they saw that they could no way bear the immediate presence of God nor treat with him in their own persons Wherefore they desired that there might be an Internuntius a Mediator between God and them and that Moses might be the person Deut. 5. 25 26 27. But the Mediator of the New Covenant is the Son of God himself For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 4 5. He who is the Son and the Lord over his own House graciously undertook in his own Person to be the Mediator of this Covenant and herein it is unspeakably preferred before the Old Covenant 5. They differ in their subject matter both as unto Precepts and Promises the advantage being still on the part of the New Covenant For 1 The Old Covenant in the preceptive part of it renewed the Command of the Covenant of Works and that on their original terms Sin it forbad that is all and every sin in matter and manner on the pain of death and gave the promise of life unto perfect sinless obedience only Whence the Decalogue itself which is a Transcript of the Law of Works is called the Covenant Exod. 34. 28. And besides this as we observed before it had other Precepts innumerable accommodated unto the present condition of the People and imposed on them with rigor But in the New Covenant the very first thing that is proposed is the accomplishment and establishment of the Covenant of Works both as unto its Commands and Sanction in the obedience and suffering of the Mediator Hereon the Commands of it as unto the obedience of the Covenanters are not grievous the yoke of Christ being easie and his burden light 2. The Old Testament absolutely considered had 1 No promise of grace to communicate spiritual strength or to assist us in obedience nor 2 Any of eternal life no otherwise but as it was contained in the promise of the Covenant of Works The man that doth these things shall live in them and 3 Had promises of temporal things in the Land of Canaan inseparable from it In the New Covenant all things are otherwise as will be declared in the Exposition of the ensuing Verses 6. They differ and that principally in the manner of their Dedication and Sanction This is that which gives any thing the formal nature of a Covenant or Testament There may be a Promise there may be an Agreement in general which hath not the formal nature of a Covenant or Testament and such was the Covenant of Grace before the death of Christ. But it is the solemnity and manner of the Confirmation Dedication and Sanction of any Promise or Agreement that gives it the formal nature of a Covenant or Testament And this is by a Sacrifice wherein there is both Bloodshedding and Death ensuing thereon Now this in the confirmation of the Old Covenant was only the Sacrifice of Beasts whose blood was sprinkled on all the People Exod. 24. 5 6 7 8 9. But the New Testament was solemnly confirmed by the Sacrifice and Blood of Christ himself Zech. 9. 11. Hebr. 10. 29. Chap. 13. 20. And the Lord Christ dying as the Mediator and Surety of the Covenant he purchased all good things for the Church and as a Testator bequeathed them unto it Hence he says of the Sacramental Cup that it is the New Testament in his Blood or the Pledge of his bequeathing unto the Church all the Promises and Mercies of the Covenant which is the New Testament or the disposition of his Goods unto his Children But because the Apostle expresly handleth this difference between these two Covenants Chap. 9. v. 18 19. we must thither refer the full consideration of it 7. They differ in the Priests that were to officiate before God in the behalf of the People In the Old Covenant Aaron and his Posterity alone were to discharge that Office in the New the Son of God himself is the only Priest of the Church This difference with the advantage of the Gospel state thereon we have handled at large in the Exposition of the Chapter foregoing 8. They differ in the Sacrifices whereon the Peace and Reconciliation with God which is tendred in them doth depend And this also must be spoken unto in the ensuing Chapter if God permit 9. They differ in the way and manner of their solemn writing or enrollment All Covenants were of old solemnly written in Tables of Brass or Stone where they might be faithfully preserved for the use of the Parties concerned So the Old Covenant as to the principal fundamental part of it was engraven in Tables of Stone which were kept in the Ark Exod. 31. 18. Deut. 9. 10. 2 Cor. 3. 7. And God did so order it in his Providence that the first draught of them should be broken to intimate that the Covenant contained in them was not everlasting nor unalterable But the New Covenant is written in the fleshly Tables of the hearts of them that do believe 2 Cor. 3. 3. Jer. 31. 33. 10. They differ in their ends The principal end of the first Covenant was to discover sin to condemn it and to set Bounds unto it So saith the Apostle It was added because of transgressions And this it did several ways 1 By Conviction for the knowledge of sin is by the Law it convinced sinners and caused every mouth to be stopped before God 2 By condemning the Sinner in an application of the Sanction of the Law unto his Conscience 3 By the judgments and punishments wherewith on all occasions it was accompanied In all it manifested and represented the justice and severity of God The end of the New Covenant is to declare the love grace and mercy of God and therewith to give Repentance Remission of Sin and Life Eternal 11. They differed in their effects For the first Covenant being the ministration of death and condemnation it brought the minds and spirits of them that were under it into servitude and bondage whereas spiritual liberty is the immediate effect of the New Testament And there is no one thing wherein the Spirit of God doth more frequently give us an account of the difference between these two Covenants than this of the liberty of the one and the bondage of the other see Rom. 8. 15. 2 Cor. 3. 17. Gal. 4. 1 2 3 4 24 25 30 31. Heb. 2. 14 15. This therefore we must a little explain Wherefore the bondage which was the effect of the Old Covenant arose from several causes concurring unto the effecting of it 1.
Covenant comparatively with the New and this part of its nature that it was typical and shadowy is a great debasement of it But consider it absolutely and the things wherein it was so were its greatest glory and excellency For in these things alone was it a Token and Pledge of the Love and Grace of God For those things in the Old Covenant which had most of bondage in their use and practice had most of light and grace in their signification This was the design of God in all the Ordinances of Worship belonging unto that Covenant namely to typisie shadow and represent the heavenly substantial things of the New Covenant or the Lord Christ and the work of his Mediation This the Tabernacle Ark Altar Priests and Sacrifices did do and it was their glory that so they did However compared with the substance in the New Covenant they have no glory 15. They differ in the extent of their administration according unto the Will of God The first was confined unto the Posterity of Abraham according to the flesh and unto them especially in the Land of Canaan with some few Proselytes that were joined unto them Deut. 5. 3. excluding all others from the participation of the benefits of it And hence it was that whereas the personal Ministry of our Saviour himself in preaching of the Gospel was to precede the introduction of the New Covenant it was confined unto the People of Israel Mat. 15. 24. And he was the Minister of the Circumcision Rom. 15. 8. such narrow bounds and limits had the Administration of this Covenant affixed unto it by the will and pleasure of God Psal. 141. 19 20. But the Administration of the New Covenant is extended unto all Nations under Heaven none being excluded on the account of Tongue Language Family Nation or place of Habitation All have an equal interest in the rising Sun The partition wall is broken down and the gates of the new Jerusalem are set open unto all comers upon the Gospel invitation This is frequently taken notice of in the Scripture see Matt. 28. 19. Mark 16. 15. John 11. 51 52. John 12. 32. Acts 11. 18. Acts 17. 30. Gal. 5. 6. Ephes. 2. 11 12 13 14 15 16. Chap. 3. 8 9 10. Col. 3. 10 11. 1 John 2. 12. Rev. 5. 9. This is the grand Charter of the poor wandering Gentiles Having wilfully fallen off from God he was pleased in his Holiness and Severity to leave all our Ancestors for many Generations to serve and worship the Devil And the mystery of our recovery was hid in God from the foundation of the world Ephes. 3. 8 9 10. And although it was so foretold so prophesied of so promised under the Old Testament yet such was the Pride Blindness and Obstinacy of the greatest part of the Church of the Jews that its accomplishment was one great part of that stumbling Block whereat they fell yea the greatness and glory of this mystery was such that the Disciples of Christ themselves comprehended it not until it was testified unto them by the pouring out of the Holy Ghost the great Promise of the New Covenant upon some of those poor Gentiles Acts 11. 18. 16. They differ in their efficacy For the Old Covenant made nothing perfect it could effect none of the things it did represent nor introduce that perfect or compleat state which God had designed for the Church But this we have at large insisted on in our Exposition of the foregoing Chapter Lastly They differ in their duration for the one was to be removed and the other to abide for ever which must be declared on the ensuing Verses It may be other things of an alike nature may be added unto these that we have mentioned wherein the difference between the two Covenants doth consist But these instances are sufficient unto our purpose For some when they hear that the Covenant of Grace was always one and the same of the same nature and efficacy under both Testaments that the way of Salvation by Christ was always one and the same are ready to think that there was no such great difference between their state and ours as is pretended But we see that on this Supposition that Covenant which God brought the People into at Sinai and under the yoke whereof they were to abide until the New Covenant was established had all the disadvantages attending it which we have insisted on And those who understand not how excellent and glorious those Priviledges are which are added unto the Covenant of Grace as to the administration of it by the introduction and establishment of the New Covenant are utterly unacquainted with the nature of spiritual and heavenly things There remaineth yet one thing more which the Socinians give us occasion to speak unto from these words of the Apostle that the New Covenant is established on better Promises For from hence they do conclude that there were no Promises of Life under the Old Testament which in the latitude of it is a sensless and brutish Opinion And 1. The Apostle in this place intends only those Promises whereon the New Testament was legally ratified and reduced into the form of a Covenant which were as he declares the Promises of especial pardoning mercy and of the efficacy of Grace in the renovation of our Natures But it is granted that the other Covenant was legally established on Promises which respected the Land of Canaan Wherefore it is granted that as to the Promises whereby the Covenants were actually established those of the New Covenant were better than the other 2. The Old Covenant had express Promises of eternal life He that doth these things shall live in them It was indeed with respect unto perfect Obedience that it gave that Promise however that Promise it had which is all that at present we enquire after 3. The Institution of Worship which belonged unto that Covenant the whole Ministry of the Tabernacle as representing heavenly things had the nature of a Promise in them for they all directed the Church to seek for Life and Salvation in and by Jesus Christ alone 4. The question is not what Promises are given in the Law itself or the Old Covenant formally considered as such but what Promise they had who lived under that Covenant and which were not disannnlled by it For we have proved sufficiently that the additions of this Covenant did not abolish or supersede the efficacy of any Promise that God had before given unto the Church And to say that the first Promise and that given unto Abraham confirmed with the Oath of God were not Promises of eternal life is to overthrow the whole Bible both Old Testament and New And we may observe from the foregoing Discourses 1. That although one state of the Church hath had great Advantages and Priviledges above another yet no State had whereof to complain whilest they observed the terms prescribed unto them We have seen in how many things and those
Covenant with Abraham saying Unto thy Seed will I give this Land As unto the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies a Covenant improperly properly it is a testamentary disposition And this may be without any conditions on the part of them unto whom any thing is bequeathed 2. The whole of the Covenant intended is expressed in the ensuing description of it For if it were otherwise it could not be proved from thence that this Covenant was more excellent than the former especially as to security that the Covenant Relation between God and the People should not be broken or disannulled For this is the principal thing which the Apostle designs to prove in this place and the want of an observation thereof hath led many out of the way in their exposition of it If therefore this be not an entire description of the Covenant there might yet be something reserved essentially belonging thereunto which might frustrate this end For some such conditions might yet be required in it as we are not able to observe or could have no security that we should abide in the observation of them And thereon this Covenant might be frustrated of its end as well as the former which is directly contrary unto Gods declaration of his design in it 3. It is evident that there can be no condition previously required unto our entering into or participation of the benefits of this Covenant antecedent unto the making of it with us For none think there are any such with respect unto its original constitution nor can there be so in respect of its making with us or our entering into it For 1. This would render this Covenant inferior in a way of Grace unto that which God made with the people at Horeb. For he declares that there was not any thing in them that moved him either to make that Covenant or to take them into it with himself Everywhere he asserts this to be an Act of his meer Grace and Favor Yea he frequently declares That he took them into Covenant not only without respect unto any thing of good in them but although they were evil and stubborn See Deut. 7. 7 8. Chap. 9. 4 5. 2. It is contrary unto the Nature Ends and express Properties of this Covenant For there is nothing that can be thought or supposed to be such a condition but it is comprehended in the Promise of the Covenant itself For all that God requireth in us is proposed as that which himself will effect by vertue of this Covenant 4. It is certain That in the outward dispensation of the Covenant wherein the Grace Mercy and Terms of it are proposed unto us many things are required of us in order unto a participation of the benefits of it For God hath ordained that all the Mercy and Grace that is prepared in it shall be communicated unto us ordinarily in the use of outward means wherewith a compliance is required of us in a way of Duty To this end hath he appointed all the Ordinances of the Gospel the Word and Sacraments with all those Duties publick and private which are needful to render them effectual unto us For he will take us ordinarily into this Covenant in and by the rational faculties of our natures that he may be glorified in them and by them Wherefore these things are required of us in order unto the participation of the benefits of this Covenant And if therefore any one will call our attendance unto such Duties the condition of the Covenant it is not to be contended about though properly it is not so For 1 God doth work the Grace of the Covenant and communicate the Mercy of it antecedently unto all ability for the performance of any such duty as it is with elect Infants 2 Amongst those who are equally diligent in the performance of the duties intended he makes a discrimination preferring one before another Many are called but few are chosen and what hath any one that he hath not received 3 He actually takes some into the Grace of the Covenant whilest they are engaged in an opposition unto the outward dispensation of it An example of this Grace he gave in Paul 5. It is evident That the first grace of the Covenant or Gods putting his Law in our hearts can depend on no condition on our part For whatever is antecedent thereunto being only a work or act of corrupted nature can be no condition whereon the dispensation of spiritual Grace is superadded And this is the great ground of them who absolutely deny the Covenant of Grace to be conditional namely that the first grace is absolutely promised whereon and its exercise the whole of it doth depend 6. Unto a full and compleat interest in all the Promises of the Covenant Faith on our part from which Evangelical Repentance is inseparable is required But whereas these also are wrought in us by vertue of that Promise and Grace of the Covenant which are absolute it is a meer strife about words to contend whether they may be called conditions or no. Let it be granted on the one hand that we cannot have an actual participation of the relative grace of this Covenant in Adoration and Justification without Faith or Believing and on the other that this Faith is wrought in us given unto us bestowed upon us by that Grace of the Covenant which depends on no condition in us as unto its discriminating administration And I shall not concern my self what men will call it 7. Though there are no conditions properly so called of the whole grace of the Covenant yet there are conditions in the Covenant taking that term in a large sense for that which by the order of divine constitution precedeth some other things and hath an influence into its existence For God requireth many things of them whom he actually takes into Covenant and makes Partakers of the Promises and Benefits of it Of this nature is that whole Obedience which is prescribed unto us in the Gospel in our walking before God in uprightness and there being an order in the things that belong hereunto some acts duties and parts of our gracious Obedience being appointed to be means of the farther additional supplies of the grace and mercies of the Covenant they may be called conditions required of us in the Covenant as well as duties prescribed unto us 8. The Benefits of the Covenant are of two sorts 1 The Grace and Mercy which it doth collate 2 The future Reward of glory which it doth promise Those of the former sort are all of them means appointed of God which we are to use and improve unto the obtaining of the latter and so may be called conditions required on our part They are only collated on us but conditions as used and improved by us 9. Although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used may signifie and be rightly rendred a Covenant in the same manner as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth yet that
which is intended is properly a Testament or a Testamentary disposition of good things It is the Will of God in and by Jesus Christ his death and bloodshedding to give freely unto us the whole inheritance of grace and glory And under this notion the Covenant hath no condition nor are any such either expressed or intimated in this place Obs. 1. The Covenant of Grace as reduced into a form of a Testament confirmed by the blood of Christ doth not depend on any condition or qualification in our persons but in a free grant and donation of God and so are all the good things prepared in it 2. The Precepts of the Old Covenant are turned all of them into Promises under the New Their preceptive commanding power is not taken away but grace is promised for the performance of them So the Apostle having declared that the People brake the Old Covenant adds that in the New grace shall be supplied for all the Duties of Obedience that are required of us 3. All things in the New Covenant being proposed unto us by the way of promise it is Faith alone whereby we may attain a participation of them For Faith onely is the grace we ought to exercise the duty we ought to perform to render the promises of God effectual to us Heb. 3. 1. 4. Sense of the loss of an interest in and participation of the benefits of the Old Covenant is the best preparation for receiving the mercies of the New Thirdly The Author of this Covenant is God himself I will make it saith the Lord. This is the third time that this expression saith the Lord is repeated in this Testimony The work expressed in both the parts of it the disannulling of the Old Covenant and the establishment of the New is such as calls for this solemn interposition of the authority veracity and grace of God I will do it saith the Lord. And the mention hereof is thus frequently inculcated to beget a reverence in us of the work which he so emphatically assumes unto himself And it teacheth us that God himself in and by his own soveraign Wisdom Grace Goodness Allsufficiency and Power is to be considered as the onely Cause and Author of the New Covenant Or the abolishing of the Old Covenant with the introduction and establishment of the New is an act of the meer soveraign wisdom grace and authority of God It is his gracious disposal of us and of his own grace That whereof we had no contrivance nor indeed the least desire Fourthly It is declared who this New Covenant is made withall With the House of Israel ver 8. They are called distinctly the House of Israel and the House of Judah The distribution of the Posterity of Abraham into Israel and Judah ensued upon the division that fell among the people in the days of Rehoboam Before they were called Israel only And as before they were mentioned distinctly to testifie that none of the Seed of Abraham should be absolutely excluded from the grace of the Covenant however they were divided among themselves so here they are all jointly expressed by their ancient name of Israel to manifest that all distinctions on the account of precedent Priviledges should be now taken away that all Israel might be saved But we have shewed before that the whole Israel of God or the Church of the Elect are principally intended hereby Fifthly The Time of the accomplishment of this Promise or making of this Covenant is expressed After those days There are various conjectures about the sense of these words or the determination of the time limited in them Some suppose respect is had unto the time of giving the Law on Mount Sinai Then was the Old Covenant made with the Fathers But after those days another should be made But whereas that time those days were so long past before this Prophesie was given out by Jeremy namely about 800 years it was impossible but that the New Covenant which was not yet given must be after those days Wherefore it was to no purpose so to express it that it should be after those days seeing it was impossible that otherwise it should be Some think that respect is had unto the Captivity of Babylon and the return of the People from thence For God then shewed them great kindness to win them unto Obedience But neither can this time be intended for God then made no New Covenant with the People but strictly obliged them unto the terms of the Old Mal. 4. 3 4 5. But when this New Covenant was to be made the old was to be abolished and removed as the Apostle expresly affirmeth ver 13. The promise is not of new obligation or new assistance unto the observance of the Old Covenant but of making a New one quite of another nature which then was not done Some judge that these words After those days refer unto what went immediately before And I regarded them not which words include the total rejection of the Jews After those days wherein both the House of Judah and Israel shall be rejected I will make a New Covenant with the whole Israel of God But neither will this hold the Tryal For 1 Supposing that expression And I regarded them not to intend the rejection of the Jews yet it is manifest that their excision and cutting off absolutely was not in nor for their non-continuance in the Old Covenant or not being faithful therein but for the rejection of the New when proposed unto them Then they fell by unbelief as the Apostle fully manifests Chap. 3. of this Epistle and Rom. 11. Wherefore the making of the New Covenant cannot be said to be after their rejection seeing they were rejected for their-refusal and contempt of it 2 By this interpretation the whole House of Israel or all the natural Posterity of Abraham would be utterly excluded from any interest in this Promise But this cannot be allowed For it was not so de facto a Remnant being taken into Covenant which though but a remnant in comparison of the whole yet in themselves so great a multitude as that in them the Promises made unto the Fathers were confirmed Nor on this Supposition would this Prediction of a New Covenant have been any promise unto them or any of them but rather a severe denunciation of judgment But it is said expresly that God would make this Covenant with them as he did the former with their Fathers which is a promise of grace and mercy Wherefore after those days is as much as in those days an indeterminate season for a certain So in that day is frequently used in the Prophets Isa. 24. 21 22. Zech. 12. 11. A time therefore certainly future but not determined is all that is intended in this expression After those days And herewith most Expositors are satisfied Yet is there as I judge more in the words Those days seem to me to comprize the whole time alotted unto the oeconomy of
and the souls of men In this sense alone God is properly said to make this Covenant with any The preparation and proposition of Laws is not the making of the Covenant And therefore all with whom this Covenant is made are effectually sanctified justified and saved These things being premised as it was necessary they should be unto the right understanding of the mind of the Holy Ghost I shall proceed unto the particular parts of the Covenant as here expressed namely in the blessed properties and effects of it whereby it is distinguished from the former The two first expressions are of the same nature and tendency I will put my Laws in their mind and write them in their hearts In general it is the reparation of our nature by the restauration of the image of God in us that is our sanctification which is promised in these words And there are two things in the words both doubly expressed 1 The Subject wrought upon which is the mind and the heart 2 The manner of producing the effect mentioned in them and that is by putting and writing And 3 The things by these means so communicated which is the Laws of God 1. The Subject spoken of is the mind and heart When the Apostle treats of the depravation and corruption of our nature he placeth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes. 4. 18. that is the mind and the heart These are in the Scripture the seat of natural corruption the residence of the principle of alienation from the life of God which is in us Wherefore the renovation of our natures consists in the rectifying and curing of them in the furnishing them with contrary Principles of Faith Love and Adherence unto God And we may observe that The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Covenant in its being and existence in its healing repairing efficacy is as large and extensive as sin in its residence and power to deprave our natures This is the difference about the extent of the New Covenant and the grace of it Some would have it to extend unto all persons in its tender and conditional Proposition but not unto all things as unto its efficacy in the reparation of our natures Others assert it to extend unto all the effects of sin in the removal of them and the cure of our natures thereby but as unto persons it is really extended unto none but those in whom these effects are produced whatever be its outward administration which was also always limited unto whom I do subscribe The first thing mentioned is the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle renders by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inward part The mind is the most secret inward part or power of the Soul And the Prophet expresseth it by the inward part because it is the onely safe and useful Repository of the Laws of God When they are there laid up we shall not lose them neither Men nor Devils can take them from us And he also declares wherein the excellency of Covenant Obedience doth consist It is not in the conformity of our outward actions unto the Law that be required therein also but it principally lieth in the inward parts where God searcheth for and regardeth truth in sincerity Psal. 51. 6. wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the mind and understanding whose natural depravation is the spring and principle of all disobedience the cure whereof is here promised in the first place In the outward administration of the means of grace the affections and if I may so speak the more outward part of the Soul are usually first affected and wrought upon But the first real effect of the internal promised grace of the Covenant is on the mind the most spiritual and inward part of the Soul This in the New Testament is expressed by the renovation of the mind Rom. 12. 1. Col. 3. 5. And the opening of the eyes of our understandings Ephes. 1. 17 18. God shining into our hearts to give us the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. Hereby the enmity against God the vanity darkness and alienation from the life of God which the mind naturally is possessed and filled withall are taken away and removed Of the nature of which work I have treated at large elsewhere For the Law of God in the mind is the saving knowledge of the mind and will of God whereof the Law is the Revelation communicated unto it and implanted in it 2. The way whereby God in the Covenant of Grace thus works on the mind is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Apostle renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I will give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving may by an Exallage be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will give So is it expressed in the next clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the future Tense I will write The word in the Prophet is I will give we render it I will put But there are two things intimated in the word 1 The freedom of the Grace promised it is a meer grant gift or donation of Grace 2 The efficacy of it That which is given of God unto any is received by them otherwise it is no gift And this latter is well expressed by the word used by us I will put which expresseth an actual communication and not a fruitless tender This the Apostle renders emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is that which I do am doing in this Covenant namely freely giving that Grace whereby my Laws shall be emplanted on the minds of men To shew in general before we proceed to the nature of this work so far as is necessary unto the exposition of the words we may here consider what was observed in the third place namely what it is that is thus promised to be communicated and so carry it on with us unto the other clause of this Promise That which is to be put into this spiritual Receptacle is in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Laws in the plural number Expositors inquire what Laws are here intended whether the moral Law only or others also But there is no need of such enquiry There is a Metonomy of the subject and effect in the words It is that knowledge of the mind and will of God which is revealed in the Law and taught by it which is promised The Laws of God therefore are here taken largely for the whole revelation of the mind and will of God So doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originally signifie Doctrine or Instruction By what way or revelation soever God makes known himself and his will unto us requiring our obedience therein it is all comprised in that expression of his Laws From these things we may easily discern the nature of that Grace which is contained in this first branch of the first promise of the Covenant And this is the effectual operation of
his Spirit in the renovation and saving illumination of our minds whereby they are habitually made conformable unto the whole Law of God that is the Rule and the Law of our obedience in the New Covenant and enabled unto all Acts and Duties that are required of us And this is the first grace promised and communicated unto us by vertue of this Covenant as it was necessary that so it should be For 1 The mind is the principal seat of all spiritual obedience 2 The proper and peculiar actings of the mind in discerning knowing judging must go before the actings of the will and affections much more all outward practices 3 The depravation of the mind is such by blindness darkness vanity and enmity that nothing can inflame our Souls or make an entrance towards the reparation of our natures but an internal spiritual saving operation of Grace upon the mind 4 Faith itself is principally ingenerated by an infusion of saving light into the mind 2 Cor. 4. 4 6. So All the beginnings and entrances into the saving knowledge of God and thereon of obedience unto him are effects of the Grace of the Covenant Secondly The second Part of this first Promise of the Covenant is expressed in these words And will write them upon their hearts which is that which renders the former part actually effectual Expositors generally observe that respect is had herein unto the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai that is in the first Covenant For then the Law that is the ten words was written in Tables of Stone And although the original Tables were broken by Moses when the People had broken the Covenant yet would not God alter that dispensation nor write his Laws any other way but commanded new Tables of Stone to be made and wrote them therein And this was done not so much to secure the outward letter of them as to represent the hardness of the hearts of the people unto whom they were given God did not God would not by vertue of that Covenant otherwise dispose of his Law And the event that ensued hereon was that they brake these Laws and abode not in obedience This event God promiseth to obviate and prevent under the New Covenant and that by writing these Laws now in our hearts which he wrote before only in Tables of stone that is he will effectually work that obedience in us which the Law doth require for he worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure The heart as distinguished from the mind compriseth the will and the affections and they are compared unto the Tables wherein the letter of the Law was engraven For as by that writing and engraving the Tables received the impression of the letters and words wherein the Law was contained which they did firmly retain and represent so as that although they were stones still in their nature yet were they nothing but the Law in their use so by the grace of the New Covenant there is a durable impression of the Law of God on the wills and affections of men whereby they answer it represent it comply with it and have a living principle of it abiding in them Wherefore as this work must necessarily consist of two parts namely the removal out of the heart of whatever is contrary unto the Law of God and the implanting of principles of obedience thereunto so it comes under a double description or denomination in the Scripture For sometimes it is called a taking away of the heart of stone or circumcising of the heart and sometimes the giving of an heart of flesh the writing of the Law in our hearts which is the renovation of our natures into the image of God in righteousness and the holiness of truth Wherefore in this promise the whole of our sanctification in its beginning and progress in its work upon our whole Souls and all their faculties is comprized And we may observe 1. The work of Grace in the New Covenant passeth on the whole Soul in all its faculties powers and affections unto their change and renovation The whole was corrupted and the whole must be renewed The image of God was originally in and upon the whole and on the loss of it the whole was depraved see 1 Thess. 5. 23. 2. To take away the necessity and efficacy of renewing changing sanctifying Grace consisting in an internal efficacious operation of the principles habits and acts of internal grace and obedience is plainly to overthrow and reject the New Covenant 3. We bring nothing to the New Covenant but our hearts as Tables to be writters in with the sense of the insufficiency of the Precepts and Promises of the Law with respect unto our own ability to comply with them The last thing in the words is the Relation that ensues hereon between God and his people I will be unto them a God and they shall be my people This is indeed a distinct Promise by itself summarily comprizing all the Blessings and Priviledges of the Covenant And it is placed in the center of the account given of the whole as that from whence all the grace of it doth spring wherein all the blessings of it do consist and whereby they are secured Howbeit in this place it is peculiarly mentioned as that which hath its foundation in the foregoing Promise For this Relation which implies mutual Acquiescency in each other could not be nor ever had been if the minds and hearts of them who are to be taken into it were not changed and renewed For neither could God approve of and rest in his love towards them whilest they were enemies unto him in the depravation of their natures nor could they find rest or satisfaction in God whom they neither knew nor liked nor loved This is the general expression of any Covenant-relation between God and men He will be unto them a God and they shall be a people unto him And it is frequently made use of with respect unto the first Covenant which yet was disannulled God owned the People therein for his peculiar Portion and they avouched him to be their God alone Nor can this be spoken of God and any People but on the ground of an especial Covenant It is true God is the God of all the world and all People are his yea he is a God unto them all For as he made them so he sustains rules and governeth them in all things by his Power and Providence But with respect hereunto God doth not freely promise that he will be a God unto any nor can so do For his power over all and his rule of all things is essential and natural unto him so as it cannot otherwise be Wherefore as thus declared it is a peculiar expression of an especial Covenant Relation And the nature of it is to be expounded by the nature and properties of that Covenant which it doth respect Two things we must therefore consider to discover the nature of
that was the ground of his Resurrection He was brought again from the dead through the blood of the Covenant And the efficacy of his death depends on his Resurrection only as the evidence of his acceptance with God therein 5 That Christ confirmed his Doctrine by his Blood that is because he rose again All these Principles I have at large refuted in the Exercitations about the Priesthood of Christ and shall not here again insist on their examination This is plain and evident in the words unless violence be offered unto them namely that the Blood of Christ that is his suffering in Soul and Body and his obedience therein testified and expressed in the shedding of his Blood was the procuring cause of the expiation of our Sins the purging of our Consciences from dead works our justification sanctification and acceptance with God thereon And There is nothing more destructive unto the whole Faith of the Gospel than by any means to evacuate the immediate efficacy of the Blood of Christ. Every opinion of that tendency breaks in upon the whole mystery of the wisdom and grace of God in him It renders all the Institutions and Sacrifices of the Law whereby God instructed the Church of Old in the Mystery of his Grace useless and unintelligible and overthrows the foundation of the Gospel The second thing in the words is the means whereby the Blood of Christ came to be of this efficacy or to produce this effect And that is because in the shedding of it he offered himself unto God through the eternal Spirit without spot Every word is of great importance and the whole Assertion filled with the mystery of the wisdom and grace of God and must therefore be distinctly considered There is declared what Christ did unto the End mentioned and that is expressed in the matter and manner of it 1 He offered himself 2 To whom that is to God 3 How or from what principle by what means by the eternal Spirit 4 With what qualifications without spot He offered himself To prove that his Blood purgeth our Sins he affirms that he offered himself His whole Humane Nature was the Offering the way of its Offering was by the shedding of his Blood So the Beast was the Sacrifice when the Blood alone or principally was offered on the Altar For it was the Blood that made Atonement So it was by his Blood that Christ made Atonement but it was his Person that gave it efficacy unto that end Wherefore by Himself the whole Humane Nature of Christ is intended And that 1 Not in distinction or separation from the Divine For although the Humane Nature of Christ his Soul and Body only was offered yet he offered himself through his own eternal Spirit This Offering of himself therefore was the Act of his whole Person both Natures concurred in the Offering though one alone was offered 2 All that he did or suffered in his Soul and Body when his Blood was shed is comprised in this Offering of himself His Obedience in Suffering was that which rendred this Offering of himself a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor unto God And he is said thus to offer himself in opposition unto the Sacrifices of the High Priest under the Law They offered Goats and Bulls or their blood but he offered himself This therefore was the Nature of the Offering of Christ It was a Sacred Act of the Lord Christ as the High Priest of the Church wherein according unto the Will of God and what was required of him by vertue of the eternal Compact between the Father and him concerning the Redemption of the Church he gave up himself in the way of most profound Obedience to do and suffer whatever the Iustice and Law of God required unto the expiation of Sin expressing the whole by the shedding of his Blood in answer unto all the Typical Representations of this his Sacrifice in all the Institutions of the Law And this Offering of Christ was proper Sacrifice 1 From the Office whereof it was an Act it was so of his Sacerdotal Office he was made a Priest of God for this end that he might thus offer himself and that this Offering of himself should be a Sacrifice 2 From the Nature of it For it consisted in the sacred giving up unto God the thing that was offered in the present destruction or consumption of it This is the Nature of a Sacrifice it was the destruction and consumption by Death and Fire by a sacred Action of what was dedicated and offered unto God So was it in this Sacrifice of Christ. As he suffered in it so in the giving himself up unto God in it there was an effusion of his Blood and the destruction of his Life 3 From the End of it which was assigned unto it in the wisdom and sovereignty of God and in his own intention which was to make Atonement for Sin which gives an Offering the formal Nature of an Expiatory Sacrifice 4 From the way and manner of it For therein 1. He sanctified or dedicated himself unto God to be an Offering Iohn 17. 19. 2. He accompanied it with Prayers and Supplications Heb. 5. 7. 3. There was an Altar which sanctified the Offering which bore it up in its Oblation which was his own Divine Nature as we shall see immediately 4. He kindled the Sacrifice with the fire of Divine Love acting it self by zeal unto God's Glory and compassion unto the souls of men 5. He tendred all this unto God as an Atonement for Sin as we shall see in the next words This was the free real proper Sacrifice of Christ whereof those of old were only Types and obscure Representations the Prefiguration hereof was the sole cause of their Institution And what the Socinians pretend namely that the Lord Christ offered no real Sacrifice but only what he did was called so Metaphorically by the way of allusion unto the Sacrifices of the Law is so far from truth as that there never had been any such Sacrifices of Divine Appointment but only to prefigure this which alone was really and substantially so The Holy Ghost doth not make a forced accommodation of what Christ did unto those Sacrifices of old by way of allusion and by reason of some resemblances but shews the uselesness and weakness of those Sacrifices in themselves any farther but as they represented this of Christ. The Nature of this Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ is utterly overthrown by the Socinians They deny that in all this there was any offering at all they deny that his shedding of his Blood or any thing which he did or suffered therein either actually or passively his obedience or giving himself up unto God therein was his Sacrifice or any part of it but only somewhat required previously thereunto and that without any necessary cause or reason But his Sacrifice his Offering of himself they say is nothing but his appearance in Heaven and the Presentation of himself before
the best works of men antecedently unto the purging of their Consciences by the blood of Christ are but dead works However men may please themselves in them perhaps think to merit by them yet from death they come and unto death they tend 6. Justification and Sanctification are inseparably conjoined in the design of God's grace by the blood of Christ. Purge our Consciences that we may serve the living God 7. Gospel-worship is such in its spirituality and holiness as becometh the living God and our duty it is always to consider that with him we have to do in all that we perform therein VER XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vul. Et ideo and therefore Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter hoc For this or propterea itaque ob id And for this cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He himself was the Mediator He is the Mediator Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man coming between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vul. ut morte intercedente by the Interposition of death The Syriac reads the passage who by his death was a redeemer unto them who had transgressed against the first Testament probably to avoid the difficulty of that Expression For the Redemption of transgressions The Aethiopic corrupts the whole Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Redemptionem eorum praevaricationum Vul. Ad Redemptionem eorum transgressionum properly for the Redemption of transgressions or those transgressions which were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vul. Syr. That they may receive the promise who are called to the eternal Inheritance But in the Original and in the Vulgar eternal inheritance is joyned unto and regulated by the Promise the promise of an eternal Inheritance VER XV. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by means of death for the Redemption of the transgressions under the first Testament they who are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance THe things which are to be considered in this verse are 1 The note of Connexion in the Conjunction And. 2 The Ground of the ensuing Assertion For this cause 3 The Assertion itself He is the Mediator of the new Testament 4 The especial Reason why he should be so For the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Testament 5 The way whereby that was to be effected By the means of death 6 The End of the whole That those who are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance But before we proceed unto the Exposition of the whole or any part of it a difficulty must be removed from the words as they lie in our Translation For an enquiry may be justly moved why we render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Testament in this place whereas before we have constantly rendred it by a Covenant And the plain reason of it is because from this verse unto the end of the Chapter the Apostle argues from the nature and use of a Testament among men as he directly affirms in the next verse Hereby he confirms our faith in the expectation of the Benefits of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Covenant or Testament We may answer he doth it because it is the true and proper signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly a Testamentary disposition of things as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Covenant For in the Composition of the word there is nothing to intimate a mutual compact or agreement which is necessary unto a Covenant and is expressed in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However there is a great affinity in the things themselves For there are Covenants which have in them free Grants and Donations which is of the nature of a Testament And there are Testaments whose force is resolved into some Conventions Conditions and Agreements which they borrow from the nature of Covenants So there is such an affinity between them as one name may be expressive of them both But against this it will be replied that what the Apostle speaks unto is in the Hebrew called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Covenant and no where signifies a Testament so that from thence the Apostle could not argue from the nature of a Testament what is required thereunto and what doth depend thereon Hereunto it is answered that the LXX constantly rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Berith by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle made use of that Translation and that signification of the word But this will not solve the difficulty For it would resolve all the Apostles arguings in this great and important Mystery into the Authority of that Translation which is fallible throughout and at least as it is come to us filled with actual mistakes We must therefore give another answer unto this Objection Wherefore I say 1 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not be more properly rendred by any one word than by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it being mostly used to express the Covenant between God and Man it is of that nature as cannot properly be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Covenant or Compact upon equal terms of distributive Iustice between distinct parties But Gods Covenant with man is only the way and the declaration of the terms whereby God will dispose and communicate Good things unto us which hath more of the nature of a Testament than of a Covenant in it 2 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used to express a free promise with an effectual donation and communication of the thing promised as hath been declared in the foregoing chapter But this hath more of the nature of a Testament than of a Covenant 3 There is no word in the Hebrew language whereby to express a Testament but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only Nor is there so in the Syriack Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrews express the thing by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to order dispose give command concerning the house or houshold of a dying man Isa. 38. 2. 2 Sam. 17. 23. But they have no other word but Berith to signifie it and therefore where the nature of the thing spoken of requires it it is properly rendred a Testament and ought so to be Wherefore there is no force used unto the signification of the word in this place by the Apostle But that which makes the proper use of it by him evident in this place is that he had respect unto its signification in the making of the Covenant with the people at Sinai For this he compares the New Testament unto in all its causes and effects And in that Covenant there were three things 1. The Prescription of Obedience unto the People on the part of God which was received by their consent in an express compliance with the Law and Terms of it Deut. 5. 14. Herein the nature of it so far as it
And it is so called in opposition unto the Inheritance which by vertue of the first Testament God granted unto the Israelites in the Land of Canaan That was an Inheritance and was conveyed by a Promise And when God threatned to deprive them of that Land he said he would disinherit them Numb 14. 12. And this Inheritance consisted not only in the Land itself but principally in the Priviledges of Holy Worship and Relation unto God which they enjoyed therein Rom 9. 5. But yet all things that belonged unto it were in themselves carnal and temporary and only Types of Good things to come In opposition hereunto God provided an eternal Inheritance And as the State of those who are to receive it is twofold namely that in this life and that in the life to come so there are two parts of their Inheritance namely Grace and Glory For although Grace be bestowed and continued only in this life yet the things we enjoy by vertue of it are Eternal The other part of their Inheritance is Glory which is the way of the full unchangeable possession and enjoyment of it This therefore is not to be excluded from this Inheritance at least as the end and necessary consequent of it But that which is principally and in the first Place intended by it is that state of things whereinto believers are admitted in this life The whole inheritance of Grace and Glory was in the first place given and committed unto Jesus Christ. He was appointed Heir of all things chap. 1. 3. By him is it communicated unto all believers who thereby become Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 15 16 17. For the Lord Christ as the Great Testator did in and by his Death bequeath unto them all his Goods as an eternal Legacy All that Grace Mercy and Glory all the riches of them which are prepared in the Covenant are comprised herein And a Goodly Inheritance it is the Lines are fallen unto Believers in pleasant Places And the way whereby we become interested in this Inheritance is by gratuitous Adoption If Sons then Heirs This is that which is the end of all and regulates all that preceeds in this verse It declares the way whereby God would communicate unto some persons the Inheritance which in free Grace and Bounty he had provided And It is an Act of meer sovereign Grace in God to provide such a blessed Inheritance for any of them who had sinfully cast away what they were before entrusted withal And into this are all Gods following dealings with the Church to be resolved If there were nothing in us to move God to provide this Inheritance for us no more is there of the communication of any part of it unto us as we shall see further on the next words 2. The way whereby God did convey or would communicate this Inheritance unto any was by promise Might receive the promise of an eternal Inheritance The Syriac Translation refers the Inheritance unto the called Those that are called to an eternal Inheritance But in the Original it respects the Promise the Promise of an eternal Inheritance For by the Promise is assurance given of it and it is the means of the actual conveyance of it unto us And the Apostle hath respect unto what he had discoursed about the promise of God and the Confirmation of it by his Oath Chap. 6. 15 16 17 18. So he declares it also Gal. 3. 18. The promise made unto Abraham and confirmed by the Oath of God was concerning the eternal Inheritance by Christ. The Inheritance of Canaan was by the Law or the first Covenant But this was by Promise And we may consider three things 1 What is the Promise intended 2 How and why it was by Promise 3 How we do receive the Promise of it 1. The Promise principally intended is that which was given unto Abraham and confirmed by the Oath of God For the Inheritance that is the eternal Inheritance was of the Promise Gal. 3. 18. namely that in the seed of Abraham all Nations should be blessed It includes indeed the first promise made unto our first Parents which was the spring and foundation of it and respects all the following Promises concerning the Lord Christ and the Benefits of his Mediation with all the Grace which is administred by them which were further declarations and confirmations of it but that great solemn Promise is principally intended For the Apostle designes to convince the Hebrews that neither by the Law nor the Sacrifices nor Ordinances of it they could come unto the Inheritance promised unto Abraham and his seed This was the Promise of eternal Inheritance whereof that of the Land of Canaan was a Type only 2. We must enquire how and why this Inheritance is conveyed by Promise And God made this settlement by Promise for these ends 1 To evince the absolute freedom of the preparation and grant of it The Promise is everywhere opposed unto every thing of works or aesert in our selves It hath no respect unto what we were or did deserve The Land of Canaan was given to the Posterity of Abraham by Promise And therefore doth God so often mind them of the freedom of it that it was an act of meer Love and sovereign Grace which in themselves they were so far from deserving as that they were altogether unworthy of it Deut. 9. 4 5. chap. 7. 7 8. Much less hath the Promise of the eternal Inheritance respect unto any thing of works in our selves 2 To give security unto all the Heirs of it unto whom it was designed Hence in this Promise and the Confirmation of it there was the highest engagement of the faithfulness and veracity of God There was so unto the end that the Promise might be sure unto all the seed Rom. 4. 16. Wherefore God doth not only declare the Relation of it unto his essential Truth God who cannot lye hath given this promise of eternal life Tit. 1. 1. but confirmed it with his Oath that by two immutable things wherein it was impossible that God should lye it might be established The Reasons of the use and necessity hereof have been declared on chap. 6. 17 18. 3 It was thus conveyed and is communicated by Promise unto all the Heirs of it in their sucessive Generations that the way of obtaining this Inheritance on our part might be by faith and no otherwise For what God had only promised doth necessarily require faith unto its reception and faith only There is nothing can contribute ought unto an interest in the Promise but the mixing of it with faith chap. 4. 2. And it is of saith that it may be of Grace Rom. 4. 16. namely that it may be evidenced to be of the meer Grace of God in opposition unto all worth works and endeavours of our own And if all Grace and Glory all Benefits of the Mediation of Christ our Sanctification Justification and Glorification be an Inheritance prepared in
be done by that Covenant against which the Sins were committed neither by the Priests nor Sacrifices nor any other Duties of it Therefore had he promised the Abolition of it because of its weakness and insufficiency unto this end as also the introduction of a new to supply its defects as we have seen at large in the Exposition of the foregoing Chapter For it became the Wisdom Goodness and Grace of God upon the removal of the other for its insufficiency to establish another that should be every way effectual unto his purpose namely the Communication of an Eternal Inheritance unto them that are called But then the Enquiry will be How this Covenant or Testament shall effect this end what is in it what belongs unto it that should be so effectual and by what means it might attain this end All these are declared in the words And Sixthly In general all this arose from hence that it had a Mediator and that the Lord Christ the Son of God was this Mediator The dignity of his Person and thereon both the Excellency and Efficacy of his Priestly Office whereunto alone respect is had in his being called here a Mediator he had abundantly before demonstrated Although the word in general be of a larger signification as we have declared on Chap. 8. 6. yet here it is restrained unto his Priestly Office and his acting therein For whereas he had treated of that alone in the foregoing Chapter here declaring the Grounds and Reasons of the necessity of it he says for this cause is he the Mediator And proceeding to shew in what sense he considers him as a Mediator doth it by his being a Testator and dying which belongs to his Priestly Office alone And the sole end which in this place he assigns unto his Mediatory Office is his death That by means of death Whereas therefore there were Sins committed under the first Covenant and against it and would have been so for ever had it continued which it was no way able so to take away as that the called might receive the Inheritance the Lord Christ undertook to be the Mediator of that Covenant which was provided as a Remedy against these Evils For herein he undertook to answer for and expiate all those Sins Whereas therefore Expiation of Sin is to be made by an Act towards God with whom alone Atonement is to be made so as that they may be pardoned the Mediation of Christ here intended is that whereby suffering death in our stead in the behalf of all that are called he made Atonement for Sin But moreover God had a further design herein He would not only free them that are called from that death which they deserved by their Sins against the first Covenant but give them also a Right and Title unto an Eternal Inheritance that is of Grace and Glory Wherefore the Procurement hereof also depends on the Mediation of Christ. For by his Obedience unto God in the discharge thereof he purchased for them this Inheritance and bequeathed it unto them as the Mediator of the New Testament The Provision of this Mediator of the New Testament is the greatest Effect of the infinite Wisdom Love and Grace of God This is the Center of his Eternal Counsels In the womb of this one Mercy all others are contained Herein will he be glorified unto Eternity 1 The first Covenant of Works was broken and disannulled because it had no Mediator 2 The Covenant at Sinai had no such Mediator as could expiate Sin Hence 3 Both of them became means of Death and Condemnation 4 God saw that in the making the New Covenant it was necessary to put all things into the hand of a Mediator that it also might not be frustrated 5 This Mediator was not in the first place to preserve us in the state of the New Covenant but to deliver us from the guilt of the breach of the former and the Curse thereon To make provision for this End was the Effect of Infinite Wisdom Seventhly The especial way and means whereby this Effect was wrought by this Mediator was by death Morte obita facta interveniente intercedente by means of death say we Death was the means that whereby the Mediator procured the Effect mentioned That which in the foregoing Verse is ascribed unto the Blood of Christ which he offered as a Priest is here ascribed unto his death as a Mediator For both these really are the same only in the one the thing it self is expressed it was death in the other the manner of it it was by blood in the one what he did and suffered with respect unto the Curse of the first Covenant it was death in the other the ground of his making Expiation for Sin by his death or how it came so to do namely not meerly as it was death or penal but as it was a voluntary Sacrifice or Oblation It was therefore necessary unto the End mentioned that the Mediator of the New Testament should dye not as the High Priests of old dyed a natural death for themselves but as the Sacrifice dyed that was slain and offered for others He was to dye that death which was threatned unto Transgressions against the first Covenant that is death under the Curse of the Law There must therefore be some great Cause and End why this Mediator being the onely begotten of the Father should thus dye This was say the Socinians that he might confirm the Doctrine that he taught He dyed as a Martyr not as a Sacrifice But 1 There was no need that he should dye unto that End For his Doctrine was sufficiently confirmed by the Scriptures of the Old Testament the Evidence of the Presence of God in him and the Miracles which he wrought 2 Notwithstanding their pretence they do not assign the Confirmation of his Doctrine unto his Death but unto his Resurrection from the dead Neither indeed do they allow any gracious Effect unto his death either towards God or men but only make it something necessarily antecedent unto what he did of that kind Nor do they allow that he acted any thing at all towards God on our behalf Whereas the Scripture constantly assigns our Redemption Sanctification and Salvation to the death and blood of Christ. These Persons 1 deny that of it self it hath any influence into them wherefore 2 they say that Christ by his death confirmed the New Covenant but hereby they intend nothing but what they do also in the former or the Confirmation of his Doctrine with an addition of somewhat worse For they would have him to confirm the Promises of God as by him declared and no more as though he were God's Surety to us and not a Surety for us unto God Neither do they assign this unto his Death but unto his Resurrection from the dead But suppose all this and that the death of Christ were in some sense useful and profitable unto these Ends which is all they plead
Principle and Foundation of all Religious Worship which if it be not well and firmly laid in our hearts all our supplication will be in vain Now unless we do believe that he doth accept and bless our Duties we cannot believe that he is such a Rewarder or as he expressed it in the Covenant with Abraham an exceeding great reward But he hath descended to the lowest instances of a little Goats hair to the Tabernacle a Mite into the Treasury a Cup of water to a Disciple to assure us that he despiseth not the meanest of our sincere Services But this must be spoken unto again on ver 9. and therefore I shall not here farther confirm it Some perhaps will say that their best Fruits are so corrupted their best Duties so defiled that they cannot see how they can find Acceptance with so holy a God Every thing that proceeds from them is so weak and infirm that they fear they shall suffer loss in all And this very Apprehension deprives them of all that Consolation in the Lord which they might take in a course of holy Obedience I answer 1 This consideration of the defilements of sin that adhere to the best of our Works or Duties excludes all Merit whatever and it is right it should do so For indeed that cursed Notion of the Merit of good Works hath been the most pernicious Engine for the ruine of mens Souls that ever Sathan made use of for on the one hand many have been so swollen and puffed up with it as that they would not deign in any thing to be beholding to the Grace of God but have thought Heaven and Glory as due to them for their Works as Hell is to other men for their Sin or the wages of an Hireling to him for his Labour which cries to Heaven against the Injustice of them that detain it Hence a total neglect of Christ hath ensued Others convinced of the Pride and Folly of this presumption and notwithstanding the encouragement unto fruitful Obedience which lies in Gods gracious Acceptation and Rewarding of our Duties have been discouraged in their Attendance unto them It is well therefore where this Notion is utterly discarded by the consideration of the sinful Imperfection of our best Duties so it is done by the Church Isa. 64. 6. Rom. 2. 21. 2 This consideration excludes all hopes or expectation of Acceptance with God upon the account of strict Justice If we consider God only as a Judge pronouncing Sentence concerning us and our Duties according to the Law neither we nor any thing we do can either be accepted with him or approved by him For as the Psalmist says concerning our Persons If thou Lord mark what is done amiss O Lord who can stand and prays Enter not into Judgement with thy Servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no Flesh living be justified So it is with respect unto all our Works and Duties of Obedience not any one of them can endure the Trial of God as judging by the Law but would appear as a filthy thing Whilst therefore persons are only under the power of their Convictions and are not able by Faith to take another view of God and his dealings with them but by the Law it is impossible that they should have any comfortable Expectation of the Approbation of their Obedience Wherefore that we may be perswaded of the gracious Acceptation of all our Duties even the least and meanest that we do in sincerity and with a single Eye to the Glory of God and that our Labour in the Lord should not be lost we are always to have two things in the Eye and View of our Faith 1 The tenor of the Covenant wherein we walk with God God hath abolished and taken away the Covenant of Works by substituting a new one in the room thereof and the reason why he did so was because of a double insufficiency in the Law of that Covenant unto his great end of Glorifying himself in the Salvation of sinners For 1 It could not expiate and take away sin which must be done indispensably or that End could not be obtained this our Apostle asserts as one reason of it Rom. 8. 3. and proves at large in this Epistle afterwards 2 Because it neither did nor could approve of such an Obedience as poor sanctified sinners were able to yield unto God for it required Perfection when the best which they can attain unto in this Life is but Sincerity What then do we make void the Law by Faith doth not God require perfect Righteousness of us the Righteousness which the Law originally prescribed yes he doth do and without it the Curse of the Law will come upon all men whatever But this also being that which in our selves we can never attain unto is provided for in the new Covenant by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto them that do believe So the Apostle expresly states the matter Rom. 10. 3 4 5 6. On this supposition God in this Covenant hath provided for the Acceptance of sincere though imperfect Obedience which the Law had no respect unto The sum is That his Acceptance now shall be suited unto the operation of his Grace He will Crown and reward all the actings of his own Grace in us whatever Duty therefore is principles by Grace and done in sincerity is accepted with God according to the Tenour of this Covenant This therefore we are always to eye and consider as the bottom of the Acceptance of our imperfect weak unworthy Services 2 Unto the same End is the Mediation of Christ to be considered in an especial manner without respect unto him neither we nor any thing we do is approved of God And a double regard is in this matter always to be had unto him and his Mediation 1 That by one Sacrifice he takes away all that is evil or sinful in our Duties whatever is of real defilement disorder self in them whereby any guilt might be contracted or is so he hath born it and taken it as unto its legal all away Whatever therefore of guilt doth unavoidably adhere unto or accompanieth our Duties we may by Faith look upon it as so removed out of the way by the Sacrifice and Mediation of Christ as that it shall be no hindrance or obstruction to the gracious Acceptation of them 2 Whereas all that we do when we have used our utmost endeavours by the Assistance of Grace and setting aside the consideration of what is evil and sinful from the principle of corrupted Nature remaining in us is yet so weak and imperfect and will be so whilst we are but Dust and Ashes dwelling in Tabernacles of Clay as that we cannot apprehend how the goodness which is in our Obedience should extend its self to God reach unto the Throne of his Holiness or be regarded by him the Merit of our Lord Jesus Christ doth so make way for them put such a value on them in the sight of
in the world than to abuse Gospel Truths When the Doctrine of free Justification by Faith through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ was first fully revealed and declared his great Design then was to perswade men that there was no need of Obedience and so they could attain any manner of perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel or make profession thereof they might live in sin as they pleased and neglect all good Works and Duties of Obedience And although this be now condemned by all yet indeed is it no more but what upon the matter most do practise according unto For they suppose that by being of this or that Religion Papists or Protestants or the like they shall be saved whatever their ways and works are So Papists for Instance are indeed the greatest Solifidians in the world For to own the Faith of the Church is enough with them to secure the Salvation of any This Abomination having been early started was seasonably suppressed by the writing of James and John For the former directly and plainly lays open the Vanity of this pretence declaring that that Faith which they professed and boasted of was not the Faith whereby any should be justified before God nor of the same kind with it For this Faith is living operative and fruitful and evidenceth it self unto all by its Works and Fruits Whereas that Faith whereof vain men living in their sins did boast was so far from being a Grace of the Spirit of God that it was no other but what was in the Devils themselves and which they could not rid themselves of if they would The latter without expressing the occasion of it spends his Epistle in declaring the necessity of Love and Obedience or keeping the Commandments of Christ. Wherefore the enemy of our Salvation being defeated in this Attempt he betook himself unto the other extream contending that the works of Faith had the same place in our Justification with Faith it self And why should they not are not Faith and they equally Acts of Obedience in us are not Faith and they equally required by the Gospel why may they not be supposed to have an equal influence into our Justification at least in the same kind though Faith on some considerations may have the pre-eminence I say these things are speciously pleaded but in short the Design is not to advance works into an Equality with Faith but to advance them into the room of Christ and his Righteousness For when we say we are justified by Faith only we do not say that Faith is our Righteousness but as it apprehends the Righteousness of Christ as he is the End of the Law for Righteousness unto them that do believe And this is the use that God hath designed Faith unto and which in its own nature it is suited for But bring in the works of Obedience into the same place and they are of no use but to be imputed unto us for Righteousness and so to possess the place of Christ and his Righteousness in our Justification unto their Exclusion But all this trouble might have been spared if men had not been too ready and prone to receive Impressions from the crafty actings of Sathan against the purity and simplicity of the Gospel For nothing is more evidently expressed and taught therein than are these two things 1 That we are justified freely by Faith through the Redemption that is in the Blood of Christ and so the Imputation of his Righteousness unto us 2 That the Faith which hath this effect which is of this use is living operative fruitful and will evidence it self by works in Obedience unto the Commands of God And this is that which here we contend for namely that a living Faith will be a working Faith And he is a vain man that deceives himself with any thing else in the room thereof And yet this is the course of multitudes But yet men do not deceive themselves herein notionally but practically I never yet met with any man in my life who professed it as his Judgement that so he believed aright he might live as he pleased follow his Lusts and neglect all good Works or holy Duties of Obedience For this implies a contradiction So to believe is so far from believing aright as that it contains in it a total Rejection of the Gospel But practically we see that the generality of men content themselves with that knowledge they have of Religion and that Faith which they suppose they have in Christ without once endeavouring after amendment of life or fruitfulness in good works Now this is not from any conclusions they draw from any Doctrines which they profess to believe but from the power of Darkness and the deceitfulness of Sin that ruleth in them And it is no otherwise among them who are taught to believe that they are justified by their works For there is not a race of greater and more flagitious sinners than for the most part are the men of that Perswasion Only for their Relief their Leaders have provided them with a Commutation of some other things instead of their good works which shall do the deed for them as Penances Pardons Purgatory Confessions Pilgrimages and the like But be mens Perswasion what it will right or wrong where sin is predominant they will be wicked and whatever be the Object of their Faith if it be not living in the subject it cannot work nor be fruitful We ought to look on Obedience as our work which will admit neither of sloth nor negligence Here lies the occasion of the ruine of the Souls of men who profels the Gospel The Duties of Profession are a thing of course unto them and that which lies without the compass of their principal work and business in the world This makes their Profession serve to no other end but to make them secure in a perishing condition Now that our Obedience may indeed be our work it is required 1 That the carrying of it on the attendance unto it and furtherance of it in order unto the Glory of God be our principal design in the world That is a mans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper work which is so God severely threateneth those which walk with him at peradventures Levit. 26. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you shall walk with me fortuito at hap hazard that is without making it your principal design and using your utmost diligence and care to proceed in it in a right manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 24. then will even I my self walk with you at all adventures though I continue with you as one walking with you in my outward Ordinances and Institutions yet will I have no regard unto you as to do you any good yea I will sorely punish you notwithstanding the Appearance of our walking together as it follows in the place Yet is this the course of many who please themselves in their condition They walk with God in outward
so deported himself as that he might not be unmeet to receive the succeeding mercies whereof he was to be made partaker And this is the method of Gods communicating his Grace unto sinners His first Call and Conversion of them is absolutely gratuitous He hath no consideration of any thing in them that should induce him thereunto Neither is there any thing required unto a condecency herein God takes men as he pleaseth some in one condition and posture of mind some in another some in an open course of sin and some in the execution of a particular sin as Paul And he indeed at the instant of his call was under the active power of two of the greatest hinderances unto Conversion that the heart of man is obnoxious unto For first he was zealous above measure of the Righteousness of the Law seeking earnestly for Life and Salvation by it and then he was actually ingaged in the persecution of the Saints of God These two qualifications constant resting in Legal Righteousness with rage and madness in persecution than which there are not out of Hell more adverse principles unto it were all the preparations of that Apostle unto converting Grace But after that this Grace which is absolutely free and Soveraign is received there is an order in Gods Covenant which for the most part he observeth in the communication of ensuing Graces and Priviledges namely that Faith and Obedience shall precede the increase and enlargement of them Thus was it with Abraham who received his last great signal Promise and Priviledge Gen. 22. upon that signal Act of his Faith and Obedience in offering up his Son upon Gods Command As it was with Abraham so is it with all those who in any Age are made partakers of Grace or spiritual Priviledges Secondly The Promise here intended as to the spiritual part of it may be considered with respect unto all Believers of whom Abraham was the Representative And two things are contained therein 1. The giving and sending of the Son of God to take on him the Seed of Abraham This was the life and soul of the Promise the ancient and first expressed regard of Divine Grace unto sinners In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed that is the Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head The Incarnation of the Son of God promised from the Foundation of the world shall be fulfilled in thy Seed he shall take on him the Seed of Abraham So our Apostle argues Gal. 3. 16. Now to Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made he saith not unto Seeds as of many but as of one and thy Seed which is Christ. For the Promise which is made concerning Christ in one sense is made unto him in another As to the benefit and effects of the coming of Christ it was made concerning him unto Abraham and all his Seed but as unto the first grant intention and stability of the Promise it is made unto Christ himself with respect unto that Everlasting Covenant which was between the Father and him in his undertaking the work of Mediation Or the Lord Christ may be considered either as the undertaker of the Covenant with God and so the Promise was made unto him or as the Accomplishment of the terms of it for us so the Promise was concerning him 2. The nature of the benefit which is to be received by Christ thus promised and that in general is a Blessing in thy Seed shall they be blessed And two things are comprised in this Blessing as the Springs of other mercies innumerable The Promise of Christ himself was the fountain and all other Promises were particular streams from it especial Explications and Applications of that Promise 1 The removal of the Curse of the Law which was come on all men by reason of sin The Curse could not be removed but by a Blessing and that which doth it is the greatest of Blessings as that was the greatest of Curses and Miseries 2 The bringing in of a blessed Righteousness on the account whereof we might be accepted with God See Gal. 3. 13 14 15. Before we proceed we may observe two things in general concerning this Promise 1 That this was the Life of the Church of the Old Testament the Spring of its continuance unto its appointed season which could never be dried up How many times were that whole people the posterity of Abraham at the very brink of Destruction For sometimes they fell generally into such terrible provoking sins as that their utter casting off might have been justly expected by Angels and men sometimes they were in the just Judgement of God given up unto such wasting Desolations in their Captivities as that they were wholly like dry bones on the face of the Earth without hopes of a Resurrection Yet mercy patience and power wrought through all and preserved them in a Church state until this Promise was accomplished This it was alone or the Faithfulness of God therein whence all their healing and recoveries did proceed And when this Promise was once fulfilled it was beyond the power of all the world to keep them unto their former condition All depended on the issue of this Promise in whose fulfilling all things were to be cast into a new mold and order 2 This was that which preserved the Spirits of true Believers among them from ruining Despondencies in the times of the greatest Apostasies Calamities and Desolations of the People They had this Promise still to plead and rested therein notwithstanding all the Interveniencies which oft-times seemed to render the case of that people very desperate See their Faith expressed Micah 7. 18 19 20. Isa. 7. 13 14 15. chap. 5. 3. Luke 1. 70 71 72 73. And I would hope there is mercy lies treasured in the Bowels of this Promise not yet brought forth toward the remainders of the Posterity of Abraham according to the Flesh. Who knows but that by virtue of the ingaged Love and Faithfulness of God declared in this Promise these withered Branches may revive and these dead bones rise again Our Apostle placeth the Hopes of it on this ground alone that as touching the Election they were beloved they were beloved for the Fathers sake Rom. 11. 28. As to Profession they were then vsibly falling off but as to Election as to Gods purpose concerning them the Love which he bare to their Fathers ingaged unto Abraham in this Promise will one day find them out and bring them in unto a plentiful share in this Blessing Wherefore on all accounts the Instance chosen by the Apostle was of singular use unto the Hebrews and singularly suited unto their present condition For as they received many Advantages from his personal Priviledges who was their Father according to the Flesh so they succeeded unto him in the spiritual part of the Promise and therefore as the like Duties of Faith and Obedience and Perseverance were required of them as of him so they in
things therefore may be considered in the Wisdom of God giving Immutability to his Counsel concerning the Salvation of the Elect by Jesus Christ. 1 Thereby he saw at once not only whatever was needful for the Accomplishing of it but that which would infallibly effect it He chose not probable and likely means for it and such as might do it unless some great obstruction did arise such as whose efficacy might be suspended on any conditions and emergencies but such as should infallibly and inevitably reach the End intended In the first Covenant wherein God had not immutably decreed to preserve mankind absolutely in their Primitive Estate he made use of such means for their preservation as might effect it in case they were not wanting unto themselves or that Obedience which they were enabled to perform This man neglecting the means appointed of God as to their success depending thereon by Gods own Appointment that End which in their own Nature they tended unto was not attained and that because God had not immutably determined it But now whereas God engaged himself in an unchangeable-Purpose in his infinite Wisdom he fixeth on those means for its Accomplishment as shall not depend on any thing whereby their efficacy might be frustrated Such was his sending of his Son to be Incarnate and the Dispensation of Grace of the New Covenant which is in its Nature infallibly effectual unto the End whereunto it is designed 2 God in his infinite Wisdom foresaw all the Interveniencies on our part that might obstruct the certain Accomplishment of the Promise The Promise was first given indefinitely unto all mankind in our first Parents But soon after the wickedness of the whole world with their absolute contempt of the Grace of the Promise was such as that any Creature would conceive that it would be of none effect being so visibly so universally rejected and despised But a perfect View hereof lying under the Wisdom of God he provided against it for the Immutability of his Purpose and Infallibility of his Promise by singling out first one then another and at last the whole Posterity of Abraham towards whom the Promise should be accomplished But yet after a long season there came the last and uttermost trial of the whole matter For the generality of the Seed of Abraham rejected the Promise also whereby it appeared really to have been frustrated and to be of none effect as our Apostle declares in his Answer to that Objection Rom. 9. 6. But instead of changing his Purpose God then more fully discovered wherein the Immutability of his Counsel did consist and whereon it did depend as Gal. 3. 8. And this was that all along and under all those Apostasies he ever had and ever will have in the world an Elect people chosen by him before the foundation of the world in and towards whom his Purpose was Immutable and his Promise Infallible No Interveniency can possibly shake or alter what hath been settled by infinite Wisdom There is not a particular Believer but is made so sensible of his own unworthiness that at one time or another he cannot but be almost brought to a loss how it should be that such a one as he should ever inherit the Promise But God foresaw all that hath befallen us or will do so and hath in his infinite Wisdom provided against all Interveniencies that his Purpose might not be changed nor his Promise frustrated Infinite Goodness as acting it self in Christ was not satisfied in providing and preparing good things for Believers but it would also shew and declare it unto them for their present Consolation God was willing to shew to the Heirs of Promise and the end was that they might have strong Consolation As it is with a good wise Father and an Obedient Son The Father is possessed of a large and profitable Estate And as the son hath a present allowance suitable to his Condition so being Obedient he hath a just expectation that in due time he shall enjoy the whole Inheritance this being usual amongst men and that which the Law of Nature directs unto For Parents are to lay up for their Children and not Children for their Parents But the whole being yet absolutely in the Fathers power it is possible he may otherwise dispose of it and it may not come to the right Heir But now if his Father seeth his Son on some occasion to want Encouragement or he be to put him on any difficult Service where he may meet with Storms and Dangers he will shew unto him his Deeds of Settlement wherein he had irrevocably confirmed unto him the whole Inheritance So God deals with Believers with his Children in this case He is Rich in Grace Mercy and Glory and all his Children are Heirs of it Coheirs with Christ and Heirs of God Rom. 8. 17. that is of the whole Inheritance that God hath provided for his Children This they have an expectation of by the Promise according to the Law of the New Covenant But although their state be thus secured by their being Heirs of the Promise yet God knowing that they have a difficult work and warfare to go through withall and what it is to serve him in Temptations for their Encouragement and Consolation he produceth and sheweth them his irrevocable Deed of Settlement namely his Promise confirmed by his Oath whereby the whole Inheritance is infallibly secured unto them He was free and willing to shew it unto the Heirs of Promise At first God gave out a meer Precept as the Declaration of his Will and a Promise couched in a Threatening This was that which Divine Goodness acting in a way of Nature did require and whereof man had no cause to complain For as the mind of God was sufficiently declared therein so man in himself had no grounds of discouragements from a compliance therewith And God might so deal with us all giving out the whole Revelation of his Will in a systeme of Precepts as some seem to suppose that he hath done But things are now changed on two Accounts For 1 It was herein the peculiar Design of God to glorifie his Goodness Love Grace and Mercy by Jesus Christ and he will do it in an abundant manner He had before glorified his Eternal Power and infinite Wisdom in the Creation of the World and all things therein contained Psal. 19. 1 2 3. Rom. 1. 21. And he had glorified his Holiness and Righteousness in giving of the Law accompanied with Eternal Rewards and Punishments But Grace and Truth in the provision of it and the Accomplishment of the Promise came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 18. And therefore that the Lord Christ in all this may have the preheminence he will do it in an abundant and unconceiveable manner above the former Declarations of his Glory in any other of his Attributes Hence in the Scripture the Communication of Grace is expressed in words that may intimate its exceeding and passing all understanding
is pleased to give this Variety unto his Divine Testimony which he did ex Abundanti not only beyond what he was any way obliged unto but whatever we could desire or expect For 2 this makes the Evidence absolute and uncontroulable that as they are two things which are produced to make it good so they are both of them equally Immutable such as neither in their own Nature nor in their Execution were any way exposed or liable unto Alteration For the Promise it self was absolute and the thing promised depended on no Condition in us on nothing without God himself For there was in the Promise it self all the Springs of all that is good and of Deliverance from all that is Evil so that on every side it brings along with it the Condition of its own Accomplishment But whereas God in the Covenant of Works did give no Promise unto Mankind but what was Conditional and suspended on such things on our part as might or might not be whence it came to pass that we sinned and came short of it God in the giving out of this Promise which is the foundation of the Covenant of Grace to assure us that it is utterly of another nature and such as on no occurrence is liable unto change confirms it with his Oath Moreover the Apostle confirmeth this Testimony yet further from the Nature of him by whom it was given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In or by which it was impossible that God should lye or deceive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not absolutely to lye but by any means to deceive him who hath cause to trust what we say or do The highest Security among men consists in a Promise confirmed with an Oath and this is and must be unto them an End of Strife for higher they cannot go But yet it is possible there may be a lye and deceit in their Testimony and he who trusts unto them may be deceived as it often falls out in the world For although the things themselves are good and such as would secure the Interest of Truth only yet men that use them are changeable yea liars But it is God who makes use of them in our Case and therefore is it Impossible that he should lye God having made this double engagement of his Truth and Faithfulness it is utterly impossible that he should deceive any one thereby But why doth the Apostle put an Emphasis upon this that by these things it was impossible that God should lye or deceive For it is necessary unto God from his own Being that it should in all things be impossible for him to lye He cannot lye He cannot deceive He cannot deny himself or his Word these things are repugnant unto his Being I Answer That the Apostle speaks not of the Nature of the things themselves but of their manifestation with respect unto us Nothing was added to the Promise of God to render it more certain firm and stable but an Addition was made unto it to give our minds greater security Gods Immutability in promising and impossibility in deceiving are both equally from his Nature but the distinct proposition of them is needful unto our Encouragement and Establishment Fallen sinful man stands in need of the utmost Encouragement that Divine Condescension can extend unto to prevail with him to receive and lay hold of the Promise of Grace and Mercy by Jesus Christ. There is nothing that we are so prone unto as to distrust the Promises of God Nothing that we are with more difficulty won over unto than to mix them with Faith To evidence this we may consider 1. That the first entrance of Sin into the world was by a disbelief of the Truth of God yea that very sin formally consisted in an Apprehension that God in his Promises and Threatenings had a mind to deceive us Gen. 3. 4 5 6. And as sin thus laid its foundation by the Craft of Sathan so it endeavours to carry on its building It continually suggests to the Hearts and Minds of men that they shall certainly be deceived in trusting to Gods Promises For 1 Secret thoughts there are in the Hearts of men which are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked that neither the Promises nor Threatenings of God are true in the terms and sense wherein they are proposed unto them They neither think that it shall be so bad with any as he threateneth nor so well as he promiseth Did men believe the Threatenings of God as to the fearful and Eternal Ruine of Sinners it were not possible they should live in Sin as they do without any Endeavour of Amendments so to fly from the Wrath to come Nor do they think in their Hearts that it shall be with them that believe according as God hath promised They say in their Hearts The Lord will not do good neither will he do evil Zeph. 1. 12. namely as he hath either promised or threatened 2 Men think that there are still some reserves and latent Conditions in the Promises and Threatenings of God and that God knows it shall be otherwise than they seem to pretend By this Imagination Sathan deceived our first Parents as to the Truth of God in his Threatening He perswaded them that there was a reserve therein that was directly contrary unto what the words of it declared and that by transgressing of his Commands they should not dye but be Wise and like himself And still men suppose that the Promises propose a fair ground indeed but that if they should go to build upon it there is a Mine under it which would be sprung at one time or another unto their Ruine They cannot apprehend that it shall be with them according unto and as the Promise doth declare If they should attempt to believe yet one latent condition or other would defeat them of obtaining it whereas indeed the whole and entire Condition of enjoying the Promise is Faith alone 3 Whatever may be the Truth of the Promise yet they cannot conceive that God intends them therein whereas yet there is no Declaration or Intention of God whereby our Duty is to be regulated and whereon we shall be judged but what is contained and expressed in the proposal of the Promise it self On these and the like grounds the great contest in the world between God and Man is whether God be True or a Liar in his Promise It is not thus directly stated in the minds of Men for they have many other pretences why they do not believe but this is that which it is resolved into For he that receives not the Testimony of God maketh him a Liar So was it with the People in the Wilderness whose Carkasses fell therein because of their Unbelief The Reasons they pretended and pleaded why they would not attempt to enter the Land of Canaan were that the People were strong and the Cities walled and Giants among them Numb 13. 28 32 33. But the true reason was their Unbelief of
and Condition It is therefore highly vain to confound the Consideration of our Concernment in what Adam did as he was the Head of the Covenant with what he afterwards did and other intervenient Progenitors might do All this our Apostle confirms at large Rom. 5. 7. Abraham was taken into a new Administration of the Covenant with new Promises and Seals But he neither was nor could be made the Head and Representative of that Covenant whereinto he was taken otherwise than Typically Hence his Moral Good or Evil could not be reckoned unto his Posterity in Covenant But yet he was made the Head and Spring of the Administration of its outward Priviledges and this so far as his Trust extended was imputed unto his Posterity as in the case of Circumcision Wherefore seeing what he did unto Melchisedec belonged unto the Administration of the Covenant committed unto him Levi is rightly said to have done it in him also And so these things do mutually Illustrate one another But to deny that we were all in Adam as the Head of the first Covenant that we sinned in him that the Sin which we in any sence have sinned is imputed unto us is not to dispute with us but expressely to contradict the Holy Ghost But we may take some Observations from these words As 1. They who receive Tithes of others for their work in Holy Administrations are thereby proved to be Superiour unto them of whom they do receive them They are given unto them among other Ends as an acknowledgment of their Dignity So it was when they were paid of Old by Gods Institution and so it would be still if they might be paid or received in a due manner with respect unto the Labour of any in Gospel Administrations But whereas not one among thousands doth give or pay them on any other Ground but because they must do so whether they will or no nor would do so any more were it not for the coercive enforcing Power of Humane Laws If they on the other side that do receive them do look on them not as a free Pledge of the Peoples Respect and the Honour that they bear unto them but as their own Right and due by Law they are a Testimony neither of the Peoples Obedience nor of the Ministers Dignity but only of the extream Disorder of all things in Religion 2. It is of great Concernment unto us what Covenant we do belong unto as being esteemed to do therein what is done by our Representatives in our Name There were never absolutely any more than two Covenants Wherein all Persons indefinitely are concerned The first was the Covenant of Works made with Adam and with all in him And what he did as the Head of that Covenant as our Representative therein is imputed unto us as if we had done it Rom. 5. 12. The other is that of Grace made Originally with Christ and through him with all the Elect. And here lieth the life and hope of our Souls That what Christ did as the Head of that Covenant as our Representative it is all imputed unto us for Righteousness and Salvation And certainly there is nothing of more Importance unto us than to know whether of these Covenants we belong unto we are also some way concerned in them by whom that one or the other of these Covenant-states is conveyed unto us For before we make our own Personal voluntary Choice we are by the Law of our Natures and of the Covenant it self inclosed in the same Condition with our Progenitors as to their Covenant-state And thence it is that in the severest Temporal Judgments Children not Guilty of the actual Transgression of their Parents not having sinned after the similitude of them by imitation do yet oft-times partake of the Punishment they have deserved being esteemed in some manner to have done what they did so far as they were included in the same Covenant with them And many Blessing on the other hand are they partakers of who are included in the Covenant of those Parents who are Interested in the Covenant of Grace For such Parents succeed in the room of Abraham every one of them And what Abraham did as to the Administration of the Covenant intrusted with him his Posterity whose Representative he was therein are said to have done in him as Levi is in this place and therefore had the Seal of the Covenant given unto them in their Infancy And an Alteration in this Dispensation of Grace hath not yet been proved by any or scarce attempted so to be VER 11. IN this Verse after so long a Preparation and Introduction whereby he cleared his way from Objections and secured his future Building the Apostle enters on his Principal Argument concerning the Priesthood of Christ and all the Consequences of it with respect unto Righteousness Salvation and the Worship of God which depend thereon This being his main Design he would not engage into it before he had in every respect declared and vindicated the Dignity and Glory of the Person of Christ as vested with his Blessed Offices And from hence unto the didactical part of the Epistle he proceeds in a Retrograde Order unto what he had before insisted on For whereas he had first declared the Glory of the Person of Christ in his Kingly Office Chap. 1. then in his Prophetical Chap. 2 3. And having now entred on his Sacerdotal he goes on to enlarge upon this last Function then he returns unto his Prophetical and shuts up the whole with a renewed mention of his Kingly Power as we shall see in their Order and proper places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consummatio perfectio A Sacred Perfection or compleatness of State and Condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the Hand of the Priesthood of Levi himself Because Levi himself received not the Priesthood in his own Person but his Posterity Tremellius renders it Levitarum the Priesthood of Levites The Original leaves no scruple By the Levitical Priesthood The Priesthood that was confined to the House Family Tribe and Posterity of Levi. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M. S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corruptly Nam sub hoc populo sancita est Lex Beza For under it the Law was established to the People Sub ipso populus legem accepit acceperat Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom or whereby the Law was imposed upon the People if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom relate unto Levi the sence is mistaken and much more by the Arab. who takes the Law only for the Law of the Sacerdotal Office from which it is plainly distinguished The Aethiopick reads the whole Verse to this purpose And the People did according to the Law of the Priesthood which was appointed what need was there therefore that he should give another Priest whose appointment one should say was according to Melchisedec which Argues the great unskilfulness of
yet continued obstinate in this Perswasion That the Law of Moses was yet to continue in force Acts 20. 21. And with this Opinion some of them troubled the Peace and hindred the Edification of the Churches called from among the Gentiles as hath been at large elsewhere declared This matter therefore which the Apostle now entreth upon was to be managed with care and diligence This he enters upon in this Verse being a Transition from one point unto another having made way for his intentions in the verse foregoing That which hitherto he hath insisted on in this Chapter is the Excellency of the Priesthood of Christ above that of the Law manifested in the Representation made of it by Melchisedec In the pursuit of his Argument unto that purpose he proves that the Aaronical Priesthood was to be abolished because after its Institution there was a Promise of the Introduction of another wherewith it was inconsistent And herein observing the strict Conjunction that was between that Priesthood and the Law with their mutual dependance on one another he proves from thence that the Law it self was also to be abolished Herein therefore lay the Principal Design of the Apostle in this whole Epistle For the Law may be looked on under a double consideration 1. As unto what the Jews in that degenerate state of the Church obstinately looked for from it 2. As unto what it did really require of them whilst it stood in force and power And under both these Considerations it was utterly inconsistent with the Gospel The Jews at that time expected no less from it than Expiation of Sin by its Sacrifices and Justification by the works of it It is true they looked for these things by it unjustly seeing it promised no such thing nor was ever ordained unto any such purpose but yet these things they looked for and were resolved so to do until the Law should be removed out of the way And it is evident how inconsistent this is with the whole work of the Mediation of Christ which is the sum and substance of the Gospel But suppose they looked not absolutely for Attonement and Justification by the Sacrifices and VVorks of the Law yet the continuance of their observance was repugnant unto the Gospel For the Lord Christ by the One Offering of himself had made perfect Attonement for Sin so that the Sacrifices of the Law could be of no more Use or Signification And the continuance of them wherein there was renewed mention of the Expiation of Sin did declare that there was not a perfect Expiation already made which over-throws the Efficacy and Virtue of the Sacrifice of Christ. Even as the daily repetition of a Sacrifice in the Mass continueth to do Again VVhereas the Lord Christ by his Obedience and Righteousness had fulfilled the Law and was become the End of it for Righteousness unto them that do Believe the seeking after Justification as it were by the Works of the Law was wholly repugnant thereunto And in the next place the Law may be considered as it prescribed a way of Worship in its Ordinances and Institutions which God doth accept This the People were indispensably obliged unto whilst the Law stood in force But in the Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ had now appointed a new Spiritual Worship suited unto the Principles and Grace thereof And these were so inconsistent as that no Man could at once serve these two Masters VVherefore the whole Law of Moses as given unto the Jews whether as used or abused by them was repugnant unto and inconsistent with the Gospel and the Mediation of Christ especially his Priestly Office therein declared Neither did God either design appoint or direct that they should be co-existent If then the Law continue in its force and have Power to oblige the Consciences of Men and is still so to abide there is neither room nor place for Christ and his Priesthood in the Church nor indeed for the Discharge of his other Offices And this opposition between the Law and the Gospel VVorks and Grace our own Righteousness and that of Christ our Apostle doth not only grant but vehemently urge in all his Epistles allowing none to suppose that they may have both these strings unto their Bow One of them he is peremptory that all Mankind must betake themselves unto Here the Jews were entangled and knew not what to do The greatest part of them adhered unto the Law with an utter rejection of the Gospel and the Author of it perishing in their Unbelief Others of them endeavoured to make a composition of these things and retaining of Moses they would admit of Christ and the Gospel also And this the Holy Ghost in the Apostles did for a while bear withal But now whereas the whole Service of the Tabernacle was of it self fallen down and become as Useless so of no Force its Obliging Power ceasing in its Accomplishment by Christ and whereas the Time was drawing near wherein God by his Providence would utterly remove it the inconsistency of it with the Gospel-state of the Church was now fully to be declared This therefore our Apostle grants that there was such a Repugnancy between the Law and the Gospel as unto the Ends of Righteousness and Divine Worship as that one of them must of Necessity be parted withal Wherefore the whole Controversie turning on this hinge it was highly incumbent on him to manifest and prove that the Law did now cease according unto the Appointment of God and that God had of old designed fore-told and promised that so it should do and be abolished upon the Introduction of that which was the End and Substance of it And this I look upon as the greatest Trial the Faith of Men ever had in the concerns of Religion namely to believe that God should take away abolish and leave as dead and useless that whole System of Solemn Worship which he had appointed in so Glorious a manner and accepted for so many Generations But yet as we are to acquiesce in the Soveraign pleasure of God made known by Revelation against all Reasonings of our own whatsoever So it must be confessed that Faith was greatly bespoken and prepared by the Nature End and Use of all those Institutions which more than intimated that they were appointed only for a time and served to introduce a more Glorious Dispensation of Divine Wisdom and Grace The Proof therefore of the utter Cessation of the Law the Apostle enters upon by the Invincible Argument whose Foundation or Proposition is laid in this verse and the especial parts of it are explained confirmed and vindicated in those that follow And in his ensuing Discourse his Principal Design is to prove That the Church is so far from being a loser or disadvantaged by this Change as that she receiveth thereby the highest Priviledge and greatest Blessing that in this World she is capable of In the words of this verse there is a Supposition of the
had Apostatized from him despised his Authority and rebelled against him falling thereby under the sentence and curse of the Law should again be received into his favour and be made partakers of Grace and Glory This therefore the Lord Christ took upon himself as the Surety of the Covenant 2. That those who were to be taken into this Covenant should receive Grace enabling them to comply with the Terms of it fulfil its conditions and yield the obedience which God required therein For by the Ordination of God he was to procure and did merit and procure for them the Holy Spirit and all the needful supplies of Grace to make them New Creatures and enable them to yield obedience unto God from a New Principle of spiritual life and that faithful unto the end So was he the Surety of this better Covenant Obs. The stability of the New Covenant depends on the Suretiship of Christ and is secured unto Believers thereby The Introduction of a Surety in any case is to give Stability and Security For it is never done but on a supposition of some weakness or defect on one Account or other If in any Contract Bargain or Agreement a man be esteemed every way responsible both for Ability and Fidelity there is no need of a Surety nor is it required But yet whereas there is a defect or weakness amongst all men mentioned by our Apostle in the next verses namely that they are all mortal and subject unto death in which case neither Ability nor Fidelity will avail any thing men in all cases of Importance need Sureties These give the utmost confirmation that affairs among men are capable of So doth the Suretiship of Christ on our behalf in this Covenant For the evidencing whereof we may consider 1. The first Covenant as made with Adam had no Surety As unto that which in the New Covenant the Suretiship of Christ doth principally respect it had no need of any For there was no sin Transgression or Rebellion against God to be satisfied for so that it was absolutely incapable of a Surety unto that end But as to the second part of it or his undertaking for us that through supplies of strength from him we shall abide faithful in the Covenant according to the Terms and Tenure of it this had no inconsistency with that first state As the Lord Christ upon his undertaking the work of Mediation became an immediate Head unto the Angels that sinned not whereby they received their establishment and security from any future defection so might he have been such an Head unto and such an undertaker for man in Innocency No created nature was or could have been unchangeable in its condition and state meerly on its root of Creation As some of the Angels fell at first forsaking their habitation falling from the principle of obedience which had no other Root but in themselves so the Rest of them all of them might afterwards have in like manner Apostatized and fallen from their own innate stability had they not been gathered up into the new head of the Creation the Son of God as Mediator receiving a New Relation from thence and establishment thereby So it might have been with man in Innocency But God in his infinite Soveraign wisdom saw it not meet that so it should be Man shall be left to the Exercise of that Ability of living unto God which he had received in his Creation and which was sufficient for that end A Surety God gave him not And therefore although he had all the Advantage which a sinless nature filled with holy Principles Dispositions and Inclinations free from all vitious habits rebellious affections inordinate imaginations could afford unto him yet he broke the Covenant and forfeited all the benefits thereof Whatever there was besides in that Covenant of Grace Power Ability and the highest obligations unto Duty yet all was lost for want of a Surety And this abundantly testifies unto the Preheminence of Christ in all things For whereas Adam with all the innumerable Advantages he had that is all helps necessary in himself and no Opposition or Difficulty from himself to conflict withal yet utterly brake the Covenant wherein he was Created and Placed Believers who have little strength in themselves and a powerful inbred opposition unto their stability are yet secured in their station by the Interposition of the Lord Christ as their Surety 2. When God made a Covenant with the People in the wilderness to manifest that there could be no stability in it without respect unto a Surety that it could not continue no not for a day he caused it to be dedicated or confirmed with the blood of Sacrifices This the Apostle declares and withal its Typicalness with respect unto the new Covenant and the confirmation of it with the blood of Christ Chap 9. 18 19 20 21. And afterwards as we have declared the high Priest in the Sacrifices that he offered was the Typical Mediator and Surety of that Covenant And the end of this Appointment of God was to manifest that it was from the Blood of the true Sacrifice namely that of Jesus Christ that the new Covenant was to receive its stability And we need a Surety unto this purpose 1. Because in the state and condition of sin we are not capable of immediate dealing or Covenanting with God There can be no Covenanting between God and sinners unless there be some one to stand forth in our name to receive the Terms of God and to undertake for us So when God began to treat immediately from Heaven with the people of old they all jointly professed that such was the Greatness and Glory of God such the Terror of his Majesty that it was impossible for them so to treat with him and if he spake unto them any more they should all dye and be consumed VVherefore with one consent they desired that there might be one appointed between God and them to transact all things and to undertake for them as to their Obedience which God well approved in them Deut. 5. 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. Adam indeed in the state of innocency could treat immediately with God as unto that Covenant wherein he was placed For notwithstanding his infinite distance from God yet God had made him for converse with himself and did not despise the work of his own hands But immediately upon the entrance of sin he was sensible of the losse of that Priviledge whereon he both fled and hid himself from the Presence of God And hence those who of Old thought they had seen God concluded that they should dye as being sensible of their incapacity to treat immediately with him So when the Prophet cryed out that he was undone or cut off because of the immediate Presence of God his Eyes having seen the King the Lord of Hosts Isa. 6. 5. He was not relieved from his Apprehensions untill his mouth was touched with a coal from the Altar a
Type of the Mediation and Sacrifice of Christ. VVhilst we have any thing of sin remaining in us we can have nothing to do with God immediately Wherefore that there may be any Covenant between God and us much more such an one as shall be ordered in all things and Sure there must be one to stand before God in our stead to receive the Terms of God and declare them unto us and to undertake for us that we shall stand unto them and make them good to the Glory of God And in this sense was the New Covenant firstly made with Christ not only as he undertook the work of Mediation which he did upon the especial eternal compact which was between the Father and him but also as he undertook for all the Elect to receive the Terms of the Covenant from God for them in which sense the Promise in the first place was made unto the seed that is One which is Christ Gal. 3. 16. and to answer for them that they should receive and stand to those Terms For he said surely they are my People Children that will not lye so he was their Saviour Isaiah 63. 8. VVherefore it could not be upon the Account of Gods Holiness and glorious greatness that there should be any New Covenant at all between God and sinners without the interposition of a Surety Nor did it become the infinite VVisdom of God after Man had broken and disanulled the Covenant made with him in innocency to enter into a New Covenant with him in his fallen Condition without an immediate undertaker that it should be assuredly kept and the ends of it attained If you have lent a man a thousand pounds upon his own security when he owed nothing else nor was indebted to any other and he hath not only failed in his payment but contracted other debts innumerable will you now lend him ten thousand pounds on the same security expecting to receive it again Had God entred into never so many Covenants with men without such a surety and undertaker they would have been all broken and disanulled as he well knew He knew that we would deal very treacherously and were rightly called Transgressors from the VVomb Isaiah 48. 8. But so to Covenant with us would no way have become the infinite VVisdom of God VVherefore he laid help upon one that is mighty he exalted one chosen out of the People Psal. 89. 19. He committed this work unto Jesus Christ and then said concerning us now deliver them for I have found a Ransom 2. The changeableness of our Condition in this World requires a Surety for us to render the Covenant firm stable and unalterable So the Psalmist complaining of our frail and mutable Condition shews that it is in Christ alone that we have all our establishment Psal. 102. 25 26 27 28. Of old thou hast laid the Foundations of the Earth c. That it is the Lord Christ the Son of God that in an especial manner is intended I have shewed and proved at large on Chap. 1. 10. where this passage in the Psalm is applyed unto him And the conclusion that the Psalmist makes from the consideration of his immutability is this the Children of thy Servants shall continue and their Seed shall be established before thee ver 28. Without an interest in him and his stability we are subject to Change Alter Decline so as it is impossible the Covenant should be Sure unto us The very Nature of the Principle whereby we live and walk before God in this world renders our Condition Alterable in it self For we walk by Faith and not by Sight 2 Cor. 5. 7. It is vision alone or the immediate enjoyment of God which will enstate us in an Unalterable Condition Whilst we walk by Faith it is otherwise with us and we depend wholly on our Surety for our security in the Covenant 3. VVho is it among the whole society of Believers that is not sensible of such actual dispositions unto change yea such actual changes as that it is not evident unto him that his final stability depends on the undertaking of a Surety No man can give an Account from himself whence it is that he hath not already utterly broken Covenant with God There is no one Corruption No one Temptation but doth Evidence a sufficiency in themselves to defeat us of our Covenant interest if we stood upon our own bottoms It is Faith alone with respect unto the Suretiship of Christ which discovers how we have been kept hitherto and which gives us any comfortable prospect of our future Preservation And the same is evident from the Consideration of all the Adversaries of our Covenant interest Here we might stay a while to contemplate the glory of Divine wisdom and grace in providing this Surety of the Covenant and to adore the infinite Love and condescension of him who undertook the discharge of this Office for us But we must proceed only observing 2. That the Lord Christs undertaking to be our Surety gives the highest Obligation unto all Duties of Obedience according to the Covenant For he hath undertaken for us that we shall yield unto God this Covenant Obedience and said surely they are Children that will not lye He is no Believer who understands not somewhat of the Force and Power of this Obligation VER 23 24 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vulg. Lat. Et alij quidem plures facti sunt sacerdotes And many others truly were made Priests or and others truly were made many Priests The Rhemists reduce it to this sense and the other indeed were made Priests being many rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by alij instead of illi which corrupts the sense and takes off from the immediate respect unto the Priests of the Order of Aaron intended by the Apostle Et illi quidem plures sunt facti sacerdotes And they truly were many Priests So the Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they were many Priests omitting the note of Asseveration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were made not only the event and matter of fact but Gods Institution is also intended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vulg. Lat. Idcirco quòd morte prohiberentur permanere Rhem. because that by death they were prohibited to continue Ours Because they were not suffered to continue by Reason of Death quoniam per mortem non sine bantur permanere which is the true meaning of the words Syr. Because they died and were not left to continue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic autem at iste But this Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quòd maneat in aeternum quoniam ipse in aeternum maneat propterea quòd in aeternum manet all to the same purpose Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he standeth or continueth for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sempiternum perpetuum habet sacerdotium Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Priesthood passeth not away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Obedience and Reward that was between God and him was not expresly called a Covenant but it contained the express nature of a Covenant For it was the agreement of God and Man concerning Obedience and Disobedience Rewards and Punishments Where there is a Law concerning these things and an agreement upon it by all Parties concerned there is a formal Covenant Wherefore it may be considered two ways 1 As it was a Law only so it proceeded from and was a consequent of the nature of God and man with their mutual Relation unto one another God being considered as the Creator Governor and Benefactor of man and man as an intellectual Creature capable of moral Obedience This Law was necessary and is eternally indispensible 2 As it was a Covenant and this depended on the will and pleasure of God I will not dispute whether God might have given a Law unto men that should have had nothing in it of a Covenant properly so called as is the Law of Creation unto all other Creatures which hath no Rewards nor Punishments annexed unto it Yet this God calls a Covenant also inasmuch as it is an effect of his purpose his unalterable will and pleasure Jer. 33. 20 21. But that this Law of our Obedience should be a formal compleat Covenant there was moreover some things required on the part of God and some also on the part of man Two things were required on the part of God to compleat this Covenant or he did so compleat it by two things First By annexing unto it Promises and Threatnings of Reward and Punishment the first of Grace the other of Justice Secondly The expression of these Promises and Threatnings in external signs the first in the Tree of Life the latter in that of the knowledge of good and evil By these did God establish the original Law of Creation as a Covenant gave it the nature of a Covenant On the part of man it was required that he accept of this Law as the Rule of the Covenant which God made with him And this he did two ways 1 By the innate Principles of Light and Obedience concreated with his Nature By these he absolutely and universally assented unto the Law as proposed with Promises and Threatnings as good holy just what was meet for God to require what was equal and good unto himself 2 By his acceptance of the Commands concerning the Tree of Life and that of the knowledge of good and evil as the signs and pledges of this Covenant So was it established as a Covenant between God and man without the interposition of any Mediator This is the Covenant of Works absolutely the old or first Covenant that God made with men But this is not the Covenant here intended For 1. The Covenant called afterwards the first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testament So it is here called It was such a Covenant as was a Testament also Now there can be no Testament but there must be death for the confirmation of it Chap. 9. 16. But in the making of the Covenant with Adam there was not the death of any thing whence it might be called a Testament But there was the death of Beasts in Sacrifice in the confirmation of the Covenant at Sinai as we shall see afterwards And it must be observed that although I use the name of a Covenant as we have rendred the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the true signification of that word will more properly occur unto us in another place yet I do not understand thereby a Covenant properly and strictly so called but such an one as hath the nature of a Testament also wherein the good things of him that makes it are bequeathed unto them for whom they are designed Neither the word used constantly by the Apostle in this Argument nor the design of his Discourse will admit of any other Covenant to be understood in this place Whereas therefore the first Covenant made with Adam was in no sense a Testament also it cannot be here intended 2. That first Covenant made with Adam was as unto any benefit to be expected from it with respect unto acceptation with God Life and Salvation ceased long before even at the entrance of sin It was not abolished or abrogated by any Act of God as a Law but only was made weak and insufficient unto its first end as a Covenant God had provided a way for the salvation of sinners declared in the first Promise When this is actually embraced that first Covenant ceaseth towards them as unto its Curse all its Concerns as a Covenant and obligation unto sinless obedience as the condition of life because both of them are answered by the Mediator of the New Covenant But as unto all those who receive not the grace tendered in the Promise it doth remain in full force and efficacy not as a Covenant but as a Law and that because neither the Obedience it requires nor the Curse which it threatens are answered Thence if any man believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him For its Commands and Curse depending on the necessary relation between God and man with the Righteousness of God as the Supreme Governor of Mankind they must be answered and fulfilled Wherefore it was never abrogated formally But as all Unbelievers are still obliged by it and unto it must stand or fall so it is perfectly fulfilled in all Believers not in their own persons but in the person of their Surety God sending forth his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemning sin in the flesh that the righieousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us Rom. 8. 3 4. But as a Covenant obliging unto personal perfect sinless Obedience as the condition of Life to be performed by themselves so it ceased to be long before that Introduction of the New Covenant which the Apostle speaks of that was promised in the latter days But the other Covenant here spoken of was not removed or taken away until this New Covenant was actually established 3. The Church of Israel was never absolutely under the power of that Covenant as a Covenant of Life For from the days of Abraham the Promise was given unto them and their Seed And the Apostle proves that no Law could afterwards be given or Covenant made that should disannul that Promise Gal. 3. 17. But had they been brought under the Old Covenant of Works it would have disannulled the Promise For that Covenant and the Promise are diametrically opposite And moreover if they were under that Covenant they were all under the Curse and so perished eternally which is openly false For it is testified of them that they pleased God by Faith and so were saved But it is evident that the Covenant intended was a Covenant wherein the Church of Israel walked with God until such time as this better Covenant was solemnly introduced This is plainly declared in the ensuing Context especially in the close of the Chapter where
as a Covenant For then all the Worship of the Church was to proceed from it and to be conformed unto it Then it was established Hence it follows in answer unto the second difficulty that as a Promise it was opposed unto the Covenant of Works as a Covenant it was opposed unto that in Sinai This Legalizing or authoritative establishment of the New Covenant and the Worship thereunto belonging did effect this alteration In the last place the Apostle tells us whereon this establishment was made and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on better Promises For the better understanding hereof we must consider somewhat of the original and use of Divine Promises in our Relation unto God And we may observe 1. That every Covenant between God and man must be founded on and resolved into Promises Hence essentially a Promise and a Covenant are all one and God calls an absolute Promise founded on an absolute Decree his Covenant Gen. 9. 11. And his Purpose for the continuation of the course of nature unto the end of the World he calls his Covenant with day and night Jer. 33. 20. The Being and Essence of a Divine Covenant lies in the Promise Hence are they called the Covenants of Promise Ephes. 2. 12. Such as are founded on and consist in Promises And it is necessary that so it should be For 1. The Nature of God who maketh these Covenants requireth that so it should be It becometh his Greatness and Goodness in all his voluntary Transactions with his Creatures to propose that unto them wherein their advantage their happiness and blessedness doth consist We enquire not how God may deal with his Creatures as such what he may absolutely require of them on the account of his own Being his absolute essential excellencies with their universal dependance upon him Who can express or limit the Sovereignty of God over his Creatures All the Disputes about it are fond We have no measures of what is infinite May he not do with his own what he pleaseth Are we not in his hands as Clay in the hands of the Potter And whether he make or marr a Vessel who shall say unto him What doest thou He giveth no account of his matters But upon supposition that he will condescend to enter into Covenant with his Creatures and to come to agreement with them according unto the terms of it it becometh his Greatness and Goodness to give them Promises as the foundation of it wherein he proposeth unto them the things wherein their Blessedness and Reward doth consist For 1 Herein he proposeth himself unto them as the eternal Spring and Fountain of all Power and Goodness Had he treated with us meerly by a Law he had therein only revealed his Soveraign Authority and Holiness the one in giving of the Law the other in the nature of it But in Promises he revealeth himself as the eternal Spring of Goodness and Power For the matter of all Promises is somewhat that is good and the communication of it depends on Soveraign Power That God should so declare himself in his Covenant was absolutely necessary to direct and encourage the Obedience of the Covenanters And he did so accordingly Gen. 17. 1. Gen. 15. 1. Hereby he reserves the glory of the whole unto himself For although the terms of agreement which he proposeth between himself and us be in their own nature holy just and good which sets forth his praise and glory yet if there were not something on his part which hath no antecedent respect unto any goodness obedience or desert in us we should have wherein to glory in our selves which is inconsistent with the glory of God But the matter of those Promises wherein the Covenant is founded is free undeserved and without respect unto any thing in us whereby it may in any sense be procured And so in the first Covenant which was given in a form of Law attended with a Penal Sanction yet the foundation of it was in a Promise of a free and undeserved Reward even of the eternal enjoyment of God which no goodness or obedience in the Creature could possibly merit the attainment of So that if a man should by virtue of any Covenant be justified by Works though he might have whereof to glory before men yet could he not glory before God as the Apostle declares Rom. 4. 2. and that because the Reward proposed in the Promise doth infinitely exceed the Obedience performed 2. It was also necessary on our part that every Divine Covenant should be founded and established on Promises For there is no state wherein we may be taken into Covenant with God but it is supposed we are yet not arrived at that perfection and blessedness whereof our nature is capable and which we cannot but desire And therefore when we come to Heaven and the full enjoyment of God there shall be no use of any Covenant any more seeing we shall be in eternal rest in the enjoyment of all the blessedness whereof our nature is capable and shall immutably adhere unto God without any farther expectation But whilst we are in the way we have still somewhat yea principal parts of our blessedness to desire expect and believe So in the state of Innocency though it had all the Perfection which a state of Obedience according unto a Law was capable of yet did not the Blessedness of eternal Rest for which we were made consist therein Now whil'st it is thus with us we cannot but be desiring and looking out after that full and compleat happiness which our nature cannot come to rest without This therefore renders it necessary that there should be a Promise of it given as the foundation of the Covenant without which we should want our principal encouragement unto Obedience And much more must it be so in the state of Sin and Apostasie from God For we are now not only most remote from our utmost happiness but involved in a condition of misery without a deliverance from which we cannot be any ways induced to give our selves up unto Covenant Obedience Wherefore unless we are prevented in the Covenant with Promises of deliverance from our present state and the enjoyment of future Blessedness no Covenant could be of use or advantage unto us 3. It is necessary from the nature of a Covenant For every Covenant that is proposed unto men and accepted by them requires somewhat to be performed on their part otherwise it is no Covenant But where any thing is required of them that accept of the Covenant or to whom it is proposed it doth suppose that somewhat be promised on the behalf of them by whom the Covenant is proposed as the foundation of its acceptance and the reason of the duties required in it All this appears most evidently in the Covenant of Grace which is here said to be established on Promises and that on two Accounts For 1 At the same time that much is required of us in the way
Fogs that are about him and immediately every thing appears quite in another shape unto him so as indeed he is ready to think he is not where he was His way is plain he is certain of it and all the Region about lies evident under his eye yet is there no alteration made but in the removal of the Mists and Clouds that interrupted his sight So was it with them under the Law The Types and Shadows that they were enclosed in and which were the only medium they had to view spiritual things in represented them not unto them clearly and in their proper shape But they being now removed by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings in the dispensation of the Gospel the whole mystery of God in Christ is clearly manifested unto them that do believe And the greatness of this priviledge of the Gospel above the Law is unexpressible whereof as I suppose we must speak somewhat afterwards 2. In the plentiful communication of Grace unto the community of the Church For now it is that we receive Grace for Grace or a plentiful effusion of it by Jesus Christ. There was Grace given in an eminent manner unto many holy Persons under the Old Testament and all true Believers had true real saving Grace communicated unto them But the measures of Grace in the true Church under the New Testament do exceed those of the Community of the Church under the Old And therefore as God winked at some things in them as Polygamy and the like which are expresly and severely interdicted under the New nor are consistent with the present administrations of it so are sundry Duties as those of Self-denial readiness to bear the Cross to forsake Houses Lands and Habitations more expresly enjoined unto us than unto them And the Obedience which God requireth in any Covenant or administration of it is proportionable unto the strength which the administration of that Covenant doth exhibit And if those who profess the Gospel do content themselves without any interest in this priviledge of it if they endeavor not for a share in that plentiful effusion of Grace which doth accompany its present administration the Gospel itself will be of no other use unto them but to increase and aggravate their condemnation 3. In the manner of our access unto God Herein much of all that is called Religion doth consist For hereon doth all our outward Worship of God depend And in this the advantages of the Gospel-administration of the Covenant above that of the Law is in all things very eminent Our access now to God is immediate by Jesus Christ with liberty and boldness as we shall afterwards declare Those under the Law were immediately conversant in their whole Worship about outward Typical things the Tabernacle the Altar the Ark the Mercy-seat and the like obscure representations of the presence of God Besides the manner of the making the Covenant with them at Mount Sinai filled them with fear and brought them into bondage so as they had comparatively a servile frame of Spirit in all their Holy Worship 4. In the way of Worship required under each administration For under that which was legal it seemed good unto God to appoint a great number of outward Rites Ceremonies and Observances and these as they were dark in their signification as also in their use and ends so were they by reason of their nature number and severe Penalties under which they were enjoined grievous and burdensom to be observed But the way of Worship under the Gospel is spiritual rational and plainly subservient unto the ends of the Covenant itself so as that the use ends benefits and advantages of it are evident unto all 5. In the Extent of the Dispensation of the Grace of God For this is greatly enlarged under the Gospel For under the Old Testament it was upon the matter confined unto the Posterity of Abraham according to the flesh But under the New Testament it extends it self unto all Nations under Heaven Sundry other things are usually added by our Divines unto the same purpose See Calvin Institut lib. 2. cap. 11. Martyr loc com loc 16. sect 2. Bucan loc 22 c. The Lutherans on the other side insift on two Arguments to prove that not a twofold Administration of the same Covenant but that two Covenants substantially distinct are intended in this Discourse of the Apostle 1. Because in the Scripture they are often so called and compared with one another and sometimes opposed unto one another the first and the last the new and the old 2. Because the Covenant of Grace in Christ is eternal immutable alwayes the same obnoxious unto no alteration no change or abrogation neither can these things be spoken of it with respect unto any administration of it as they are spoken of the Old Covenant To state our thoughts aright in this matter and to give what light we can unto the Truth the things ensuing may be observed 1. When we speak of the Old Covenant we intend not the Covenant of Works made with Adam and his whole Posterity in him concerning which there is no difference or difficulty whether it be a distinct Covenant from the New or no. 2. When we speak of the New Covenant we do not intend the Covenant of Grace absolutely as though that were not before in being and efficacy before the Introduction of that which is promised in this place For it was always the same as to the substance of it from the beginning It passed through the whole dispensation of times before the Law and under the Law of the same nature and efficacy unalterable everlasting ordered in all things and sure All who contend about these things the Socinians only excepted do grant that the Covenant of Grace considered absolutely that is the Promise of Grace in and by Jesus Christ was the onely way and means of Salvation unto the Church from the first entrance of sin But for two Reasons it is not expresly called a Covenant without respect unto any other things nor was it so under the Old Testament When God renewed the Promise of it unto Abraham he is said to make a Covenant with him and he did so but it was with respect unto other things especially the proceeding of the promised Seed from his loins But absolutely under the Old Testament it consisted only in a Promise and as such only is proposed in the Scripture Acts 2. 39. Hebr. 6. 14 15 16. The Apostle indeed says that the Covenant was confirmed of God in Christ before the giving of the Law Gal. 3. 17. And so it was not absolutely in itself but in the Promise and Benefits of it The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full legal establishment of it whence it became formally a Covenant unto the whole Church was future only and a Promise under the Old Testament For it wanted two things thereunto 1 It wanted its solemn confirmation and establishment by the
if it did neither abrogate the first Covenant of Works and come in the room thereof nor disannul the Promise made unto Abraham then unto what end did it serve or what benefit did the Church receive thereby I answer 1. There hath been with respect unto Gods dealing with the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain dispensation and disposition of times and seasons reserved unto the sovereign will and pleasure of God Hence from the beginning he revealed himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as seemed good unto him Chap. 1. 1. And this Dispensation of times had a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fulness assigned unto it wherein all things namely that belong unto the Revelation and Communication of God unto the Church should come to their height and have as it were the last hand given unto them This was in the sending of Christ as the Apostle declares Eph. 1. 10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might bring all unto an Head in Christ. Until this season came God dealt variously with the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in manifold or various wisdom according as he saw it needful and useful for it in that season which it was to pass through before the fulness of times came Of this nature was his entrance into the Covenant with the Church at Sinai the Reasons whereof we shall immediately inquire into In the mean time if we had no other Answer to this Enquiry but only this that in the order of the disposal or dispensation of the seasons of the Church before the fulness of times came God in his manifold wisdom saw it necessary for the then present state of the Church in that season we may well acquiesce therein But 2. The Apostle acquaints us in general with the ends of this dispensation of God Gal. 3. 19 20 21 22 23 24. Wherefore then serveth the Law it was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the Promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Now a Mediator is not of one but God is one Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid for if there had been a Law given which could have given Life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe But before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed Wherefore the Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith Much light might be given unto the mind of the Holy Ghost in these words and that in things not commonly discerned by Expositors if we should divert unto the opening of them I will at present only mark from them what is unto our present purpose There is a double Enquiry made by the Apostle with respect unto the Law or the Covenant of Sinai 1 Unto what end in general it served 2 Whether it were not contrary to the Promise of God Unto both these the Apostle answereth from the Nature Office and Work of that Covenant For there were as hath been declared two things in it First A Revival and Representation of the first Covenant of Works with its Sanction and Curse Secondly A direction of the Church unto the Accomplishment of the Promise From these two doth the Apostle frame his Answer unto the double Enquiry laid down And unto the first Enquiry Unto what end it served he answers it was added because of transgressions The Promise being given there seems to have been no need of it why then was it added to it at that season it was added because of transgressions The fulness of time was not yet come wherein the Promise was to be fulfilled accomplished and established as the onely Covenant wherein the Church was to walk with God or the Seed was not yet come as the Apostle here speaks to whom the Promise was made In the mean time some order must be taken about sin and transgression that all the order of things appointed of God were not overflowed by them And this was done two ways by the Law 1 By reviving the Commands of the Covenant of Works with the sanction of Death it put an awe on the minds of men and set bounds unto their lusts that they should not dare to run forth into that excess which they were naturally inclined unto It was therefore added because of transgressions that in the declaration of Gods severity against them some Bounds might be fixed unto them for the knowledge of Sin is by the Law 2 To shut up Unbelievers and such as would not seek for Righteousness Life and Salvation by the Promise under the Power of the Covenant of Works and Curse attending it It concluded or shut up all under sin saith the Apostle ver 20. This was the end of the Law for this end was it added as it gave a revival unto the Covenant of Works Unto the second Enquiry which ariseth out of this Supposition namely That the Law did convince of sin and condemn for sin which is whether it be not then contrary to the grace of God The Apostle in like manner returns a double Answer taken from the second use of the Law before insisted on with respect unto the Promise And First He says that although the Law doth thus rebuke sin convince of sin and condemn for sin so setting bounds unto Transgressions and Transgressors yet did God never intend it as a means to give Life and Righteousness nor was it able so to do The end of the Promise was to give Righteousness Justification and Salvation all by Christ to whom and concerning whom it was made But this was not the end for which the Law was revived in the Covenant of Sinai For although in itself it requires a perfect Righteousness and gives a Promise of Life thereon He that doth these things he shall live in them yet it could give neither Righteousness nor Life unto any in the state of sin see Rom. 8. 3. Chap. 10. 4. Wherefore the Promise and the Law having divers ends they are not contrary to one another Secondly Saith he The Law had a great respect unto the Promise and was given of God for this very end that it might lead and direct men unto Christ which is sufficient to answer the Question proposed at the beginning of this Discourse about the ends of this Covenant and the advantage which the Church received thereby What hath been spoken may suffice to declare the Nature of this Covenant in general and two things do here evidently follow wherein the substance of the whole Truth contended for by the Apostle doth consist 1. That whil'st the Covenant of Grace was contained and proposed only in the Promise before it was solemnly confirmed in the Blood and Sacrifice of Christ and
cause God saw it necessary and it pleased him to put a grievous and heavy yoke upon them to subdue the pride of their spirits and to cause them to breathe after deliverance This the Apostle Peter calls a yoke that neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 20. that is with peace ease and rest which therefore the Lord Christ invited them to seek for in himself alone Matth. 11. 29 30. And this yoke that God put on them consisted in these three things 1. In a multitude of Precepts hard to be understood and difficult to be observed The present Jews reckon up 613 of them about the sense of most of which they dispute endlesly among themselves But the truth is since the days of the Pharisees they have increased their own yoke and made obedience unto their Law in any tolerable manner altogether unpracticable It were easie to manifest for instance that no man under Heaven ever did or ever can keep the Sabbath according to the Rules they give about it in their Talmuds And they generally scarce observe one of them themselves But in the Law as given by God himself it is certain that there were a multitude of arbitrary Precepts and those in themselves not accompanied with any spiritual Advantages as our Apostle shews Chap. 9. 5. only they were obliged to perform them by a meer soveraign Act of Power and Authority 2. In the severity wherewith the observance of all those Precepts were enjoined them And this was the threatning of death For he that despised Moses 's Law died without mercy and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward Hence was their complaint of old Behold we die we perish we all perish whosoever cometh near unto the Tabernacle of the Lord shall dye shall we be consumed with dying Numb 17. 12 13. And the Curse solemnly denounced against every one that confirmed not all things written in the Law was continually before them 3. In a Spirit of Bondage unto Fear This was administred in the giving and dispensation of the Law even as a Spirit of Liberty and Power is administred in and by the Gospel And as this respected their present Obedience and manner of its performance so in particular it regarded Death not yet conquered by Christ. Hence our Apostle affirms that through fear of Death they were all their life-time subject unto Bondage This state God brought them into partly to subdue the pride of their hearts trusting in their own righteousness and partly to cause them to look out earnestly after the promised Deliverer 4. Into this estate and condition God brought them by a Solemn Covenant confirmed by mutual consent between him and them The Tenure Force and Solemn Ratification of this Covenant is expressed Exod. 24. 3 4 5 6 7 8. Unto the terms and conditions of this Covenant was the whole Church obliged indispensibly on pain of Extermination until all was accomplished Mal. 4. 4 5 6. Unto this Covenant belonged the Decalogue with all Precepts of Moral Obedience thence educed So also did the Laws of Political Rule established among them and the whole Systeme of Religious Worship given unto them All these Laws were brought within the verge of this Covenant and were the matter of it And it had especial Promises and Threatnings annexed unto it as such whereof none did exceed the Bounds of the Land of Canaan For even many of the Laws of it were such as obliged no where else Such was the Law of the Sabbatical year and all their Sacrifices There was Sin and Obedience in them or about them in the Land of Canaan none elsewhere Hence 5. This Covenant thus made with these Ends and Promises did never save nor condemn any man eternally All that lived under the Administration of it did attain eternal life or perished for ever but not by vertue of this Covenant as formally such It did indeed revive the commanding Power and Sanction of the first Covenant of Works and therein as the Apostle speaks was the Ministry of condemnation 2 Cor. 3. 9. For by the deeds of the Law can no flesh be justified And on the other hand it directed also unto the Promise which was the instrument of life and salvation unto all that did believe But as unto what it had of its own it was confined unto things temporal Believers were saved under it but not by vertue of it Sinners perished eternally under it but by the Curse of the original Law of Works And 6. Hereon occasionally fell out the ruine of that People their Table became a snare unto them and that which should have been for their welfare became a trap according to the Prediction of our Saviour Psal. 69. 22. It was this Covenant that raised and ruined them it raised them to Glory and Honour when given of God it ruined them when abused by themselves contrary to express declarations of his mind and will For although the generality of them were wicked and rebellious always breaking the Terms of the Covenant which God made with them so far as it was possible they should whil'st God determined to reign over them unto the appointed season and repined under the burden of it yet they would have this Covenant to be the only Rule and Means of righteousness life and salvation as the Apostle declares Rom. 9. 31 32 33. Chap. 10. 3. For as we have often said there were two things in it both which they abused unto other ends than what God designed them 1 There was the Renovation of the Rule of the Covenant of Works for righteousness and life And this they would have to be given unto them for those ends and so sought for righteousness by the works of the Law 2 There was ordained in it a Typical Representation of the way and means whereby the Promise was to be made effectual namely in the Mediation and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ which was the end of all their Ordinances of Worship And the outward Law thereof with the observance of its Institution they looked on as their only relief when they came short of exact and perfect righteousness Against both these pernicious Errors the Apostle disputes expresly in his Epistle unto the Romans and the Galatians to save them if it were possible from that ruine they were casting themselves into Hereon the Elect obtained but the rest were hard ned For hereby they made an absolute renunciation of the Promise wherein alone God had enwrapped the way of life and salvation This is the nature and substance of that Covenant which God made with that People a particular temporary Covenant it was and not a meer dispensation of the Covenant of Grace That which remains for the declaration of the mind of the Holy Ghost in this whole matter is to declare the differences that are between those two Covenants whence the one is said to be better than the other and to be built upon better Promises Those of
The Renovation of the terms and sanction of the Covenant of Works contributed much thereunto For the People saw not how the Commands of that Covenant could be observed nor how its Curse could be avoided They saw it not I say by any thing in the Covenant of Sinai which therefore gendred unto bondage All the prospect they had of deliverance was from the Promise 2. It arose from the manner of the delivery of the Law and Gods entring thereon into Covenant with them This was ordered on purpose to fill them with dread and fear And it could not but do so when ever they called it to remembrance 3. From the severity of the Penalties annexed unto the Transgression of the Law And God had taken upon himself that where punishment was not exacted according to the Law he himself would cut them off This kept them always anxious and sollicitous not knowing when they were safe or secure 4. From the Nature of the whole Ministry of the Law which was the ministration of death and condemnation 2 Cor. 3. 16. which declared the desert of every sin to be death and denounced death unto every Sinner administring by its self no relief unto the minds and consciences of men So was it the letter that killed them that were under its power 5. From the Darkness of their own minds in the means ways and causes of deliverance from all these things It is true they had a promise before of Life and Salvation which was not abolished by this Covenant even the Promise made unto Abraham But this belonged not unto this Covenant And the way of its accomplishment by the Incarnation and Mediation of the Son of God was much hidden from them yea from the Prophets themselves who yet foretold them This left them under much bondage For the principal cause and means of the liberty of Believers under the Gospel ariseth from the clear light they have into the mystery of the love and grace of God in Christ. This faith and knowledge of his Incarnation Humiliation Sufferings and Sacrifice whereby he made Attonement for Sin and brought in everlasting Righteousness is that which gives them liberty and boldness in their Obedience 2 Cor. 3. 17 18. whilest they of old were in the dark as unto these things they must needs be kept under much bondage 6. It was increased by the yoke of a multitude of Laws Rites and Ceremonies imposed on them which made the whole of their Worship a burden unto them and unsupportable Acts 15. 9. In and by all these ways and means there was a Spirit of Bondage and Fear administred unto them And this God did thus he dealt with them to the end that they might not rest in that state but continually look out after deliverance On the other hand the New Covenant gives liberty and boldness the liberty and boldness of Children unto all Believers It is the Son in it that makes us free or gives us universally all that liberty which is any way needful for us or useful unto us For where the Spirit of God is there is liberty namely to serve God not in the oldness of the Letter but in the newness of the Spirit And it is declared that this was the great end of bringing in the New Covenant in the accomplishment of the Promise made unto Abraham namely that we being delivered from the hands of all our enemies might serve God without fear all the days of our lives Luke 1. 72 73 74 75. And we may briefly consider wherein this Deliverance and Liberty by the New Covenant doth consist which it doth in the things ensuing 1. In our freedom from the commanding power of the Law as to sinless perfect Obedience in order unto Righteousness and Justification before God Its commands we are still subject unto but not in order unto life and salvation For unto those ends it is fulfilled in and by the Mediator of the New Covenant who is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. 2. In our freedom from the condemning power of the Law and the Sanction of it in the Curse This being undergone and answered by him who was made a curse for us we are freed from it Rom. 7. 6. Gal. 3 13 14. And therein also are we delivered from the fear of death Heb. 2. 15. as it was paenal and an entrance into judgment or condemnation John 5. 24. 3. In our freedom from conscience for sin Heb. 10. 2. That is Conscience disquieting perplexing and condemning our persons the hearts of all that believe being sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ. 4. In our freedom from the whole System of Mosaical Worship in all the Rites and Ceremonies and Ordinances of it which what a burden it was the Apostles do declare Acts 15. and our Apostle at large in his Epistle to the Galatians 5. From all the Laws of men in things appertaining unto the Worship of God 1 Cor. 7. 23. And by all these and the like instances of spiritual liberty doth the Gospel free Believers from that Spirit of bondage unto fear which was administred under the Old Covenant It remains only that we point at the Heads of those Ways whereby this Liberty is communicated unto us under the New Covenant And it is done 1. Principally by the grant and communication of the Spirit of the Son as a Spirit of Adoption giving the freedom boldness and liberty of children John 1. 12. Rom. 8. 15 16 17. Gal. 4. 6 7. From hence the Apostle lays it down as a certain Rule that where the Spirit of God is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. Let men pretend what they will let them boast of the freedom of their outward condition in this world and of the inward liberty or freedom of their wills there is indeed no true liberty where the Spirit of God is not The ways whereby he giveth freedom power a sound mind spiritual boldness courage and contempt of the Cross holy confidence before God a readiness for obedience and enlargedness of heart in duties with all other things wherein true liberty doth consist or which any way belongs unto it I must not here divert to declare The world judges that there is no bondage but where the Spirit of God is For that gives that conscientious fear of Sin that awe of God in all our Thoughts Actions and Ways that careful and circumspect walking that temperance in things lawful that abstinence from all appearance of evil wherein they judge the greatest bondage on the earth to consist But those who have received him do know that the whole world doth lie in evil and that all those unto whom spiritual liberty is a bondage are the Servants and Slaves of Satan 2. It is obtained by the evidence of our justification before God and the causes of it This men were greatly in the dark unto under the first Covenant although all stable peace with
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 The property of it it is a New Covenant 1. He who gives this Testimony is included in tht word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith For finding fault with them he saith He who complains of the People for breaking the Old Covenant promiseth to make the New So in the next Verse it is expressed Saith the Lord. The Ministry of the Prophet was made use of in the declaration of these words and things but they are properly his words from whom they are by immediate inspiration 1. He saith that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Lord is the formal object of our faith and obedience Hereinto are they to be refered herein do they acquiesce and in nothing else will they so do All other foundations of Faith as thus saith the Pope or thus saith the Church or thus said our Ancestors are all but delusions Thus saith the Lord gives rest and peace 2. There is the Note of Introduction calling unto attendance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold It is always found eminent either in itself or in some of its circumstances that is thus performed For the word calls for a more than ordinary diligence in the consideration of an attention unto what is proposed And it was needful to signalize this Promise for the People unto whom it was given were very difficultly drawn from their adherence unto the Old Covenant which was inconsistent with that now promised And there seems to be somewhat more intimated in this word besides a call unto especial attention And that is that the thing spoken of is plainly proposed unto them concerned so as that they may look upon it and behold it clearly and speedily And so is this New Covenant here proposed so evidently and plainly both in the entire nature and properties of it that unless men wilfully turn away their eyes they cannot but see it 2. Where God placeth a Note of Observation and Attention we should carefully fix our Faith and Consideration God sets not any of his marks in vain And if upon the first view of any place or thing so signalized the evidence of it doth not appear unto us we have a sufficient call unto farther diligence in our enquiry And if we are not wanting unto our Duty we shall discover some especial impression of Divine Excellency or another upon every such thing or place 3. The things and concernments of the New Covenant are all of them Objects of the best of our consideration As such are they here proposed and what is spoken of the declaration of the nature of this Covenant in the next Verse is sufficient to confirm this Observation 3. The time is prefixed for the accomplishment of this Promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The days come Known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world and he hath determined the times of their accomplishment As to the particular precise times or seasons of them whilest they are future he hath reserved them unto himself unless where he hath seen good to make some especial Revelation of them So he did of the times of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt of the Babylonish Captivity and of the coming of the Messiah after the return of the People Dan. 9. But from the giving of the first Promise wherein the foundation of the Church was laid the accomplishment of it is frequently referred unto the latter days See our Exposition on Chap. 1. ver 1. Hence under the Old Testament the days of the Messiah were called the world to come as we have shewed Chap. 2. 5. And it was a Periphrasis of him that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 11. 3. He that was to come And the Faith of the Church was principally exercised in the expectation of his coming And this time is here intended And the expression in the Original is in the Present Tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The days coming not the days that come but the days come And two things are denoted thereby 1. The near approach of the days intended The time was now hastening apace and the Church was to be awaken'd unto the expectation of it And this accompanied with their earnest desires and prayers for it which were the most acceptable part of the Worship of God under the Old Testament 2. A certainty of the thing itself was hereby fixed in their minds Long expectation they had of it and now stood in need of new security especially considering the tryal they were falling into in the Babylonish Captivity For this seemed to threaten a defeat of the Promise in the casting away of the whole Nation The manner of the expression is suited to confirm the Faith of them that were real Believers among them against such fears Yet we must observe that from the giving of this Promise unto the accomplishment of it was near 600 years And yet about 90 years after the Prophet Malachi speaking of the same season affirms That the Lord whom they sought should suddenly come unto his Temple Mal. 3. 1. Ob. There is a time limited and fixed for the accomplishment of all the Promises of God and all the Purposes of his Grace towards the Church See Hab. 2. 3 4. And the Consideration hereof is very necessary unto Believers in all Ages 1. To keep up their hearts from desponding when difficulties against their accomplishment do arise and seem to render it impossible Want hereof hath turn'd aside many from God and caused them to cast their lot and portion into the world 2 To preserve them from putting themselves on any irregular ways for their accomplishment 3 To teach them to search diligently into the wisdom of God who hath disposed times and seasons as unto his own glory so unto the tryal and real benefit of the Church 4. The Subject matter of the Promise given is a Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The LXX render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testament And that is more proper in this place than a Covenant For if we take Covenant in a strict and proper sense it hath indeed no place between God and man For a Covenant strictly taken ought to proceed on equal terms and a proportionate consideration of things on both sides But the Covenant of God is founded on Grace and consists essentially in a free undeserved Promise And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Covenant is never spoken of between God and man but on the part of God it consists in a free Promise or a Testament And a Testament which is the proper signification of the word here used by the Apostle is suited unto this place and nothing else For 1 Such a Covenant is intended as is ratified and confirmed by the death of him that makes it And this is properly a Testament For this Covenant was confirmed by the death of Christ and that both as it was the death
Law of God written in their hearts and their sins pardoned according unto the promise of it as the People of old were brought into the Land of Canaan by vertue of the Covenant made with Abraham These are the true Israel and Judah prevailing with God and confessing unto his Name Obs. The Covenant of Grace in Christ is made only with the Israel of God the Church of the Elect. For by the making of this Covenant with any the effectual communication of the grace of it unto them is principally intended Nor can that Covenant be said to be made absolutely with any but those whose sins are pardoned by vertue thereof and in whose hearts the Law of God is written which are the express Promises of it And it was with respect unto those of this sort among that People that the Covenant was promised to be made with them See Rom. 9. 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33. Chap. 11. 7. But in respect of the outward dispensation of the Covenant it is extended beyond the effectual communication of the grace of it And in respect thereunto did the priviledge of the carnal Seed of Abraham lie 2. Those who are first and most advanced as unto outward Priviledges are oftentimes last and least advantaged by the grace and mercy of them Thus was it with these two Houses of Israel and Judah They had the Priviledge and Preeminence above all Nations of the World as unto the first tender and all the benefits of the outward dispensation of the Covenant yet though the number of them was as the sand of the Sea a remnant only was saved They came behind the Nations of the World as unto the grace of it And this by reason of their unbelief and the abuse of the Priviledges granted unto them Let not those therefore who now enjoy the greatest Priviledges be high-minded but fear 3. The manner of making this Covenant is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perficiam consummabo I will perfect or consummate In the Hebrew it is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pangam feriam I will make but the Apostle renders it by this word to denote that this Covenant was at once perfected and consummate to the exclusion of all additions and alterations Perfection and unalterable establishment are the Properties of this Covenant An everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure 4. As unto its distinguishing Character it is called a New Covenant so it is with respect unto the Old Covenant made at Sinai Wherefore by this Covenant as here considered is not understood the promise of grace given unto Adam absolutely nor that unto Abraham which contained the substance and matter of it the grace exhibited in it but not the compleat Form of it as a Covenant For if it were only the Promise it could not be called a New Covenant with respect unto that made at Sinai For so it was before it absolutely 2500 years and in the person of Abraham 400 years at the least But it must be considered as before described in the establishment of it and its Law of spiritual Worship And so it was in time after that in Sinai 800 years Howbeit it may be called a New Covenant in other respects also As first because of its eminency So it is said of an eminent work of God Behold I work a new thing in the earth And its duration and continuance as that which shall never wax old is denoted thereby VER IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Quotation and Translation of these words out of the Prophet Jeremiah the Reader may consult the Exercitations in the first Volume Exercit. V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle in this place renders by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in this place onely the reason whereof we shall see afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which my Covenant they brake rescinded dissipated the Apostle renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they continued not in my Covenant For not to abide faithful in Covenant is to break it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I was an Husband unto them or rather a Lord over them in the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I regarded them not On what reason and grounds the seeming alteration is made we shall enquire in the Exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non secundum Testamentum secundum illud Testamentum and so the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not according unto that Testament others faedus and illud faedus Of the different Translation of this word by a Testament and a Covenant we have spoken before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I gave quod feci which I made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Fathers for that is required to be joined to the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore the Syriack omitting the Preposition turns the Verb into gave gave to the Fathers which is proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum Patribus eorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vulg non permanserunt others perstiterunt So the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they stood not they continued not Maneo is used to express stability in Promise and Covenants ut tu dicti Albani maneres and tu modo promissis maneas So is permaneo in officio in Armis in Amicitia to continue stedfast unto the end Wherefore it is as well so rendred as by persisto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so used by Thycidydes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to abide firm and constant in Covenants And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is he who is firm stable constant in Promises and Engagements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ego neglexi despexi neglectui habui Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I despised I neglected I rejected them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is curae non habeo negligo contemno a word denoting a casting out of care with contempt VER IX Not according to that 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 Egypt because they continued not in my Covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord. THE greatest and utmost mercies that God ever intended to communicate unto the Church and to bless it withall were enclosed in the New Covenant Nor doth the efficacy of the Mediation of Christ extend itself beyond the verge and compass thereof For he is onely the Mediator and Surety of this Covenant But now God had before made a Covenant with his People a good and holy Covenant it was such as was meet for God to prescribe and for them thankfully to accept of Yet notwithstanding all the Priviledges and Advantages of it it proved not so effectual but that multitudes of them with whom God made that Covenant were so far from obtaining the blessedness of Grace and Glory thereby as that they came short and were deprived of the temporal benefits that were included therein Wherefore as God
hereon promiseth to make a New Covenant with them seeing they had forfeited and lost the advantage of the former yet if it should be of the same kind therewith it might also in like manner prove ineffectual So must God give and the Church receive one Covenant after another and yet the ends of them never be obtained To obviate this Objection and the Fear that thence might arise God who provideth not only for the safety of his Church but also for their comfort and assurance declares before-hand unto them that it shall not be of the same kind with the former nor liable to be so frustrated as to the ends of it as that was And there are some things remarkable herein 1 That the Preface unto the Promise of this New Covenant is a blame charged on the People finding fault with them blaming them charging them with sin against the Covenant that he had made with them 2 That yet this was not the whole ground and reason of making this New Covenant It was not so I say that the People were not stedfast in it and unto the terms of it For had it been so there would have no more been needful to re-instate them in good condition but only that God should pardon their former sins and renew the same Covenant unto them again and give them another venture or trial thereon But inasmuch as he would do so no more but will make another Covenant of another nature with them it is evident that there was some defect in the Covenant itself it was not able to communicate those good things which God designed to bless the Church withall 3 These two things being the only reason that God gives why he will make this New Covenant namely the sins of the People and the insufficiency of the first Covenant to bring the Church into that blessed estate which he designed them it is manifest that all his dealings with them for their spiritual and eternal good are of meer soveraign grace and such as he hath no motive unto but in and from himself alone There are sundry things contained in these words 1. An Intimation that God had made a former Covenant with his People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is in these Verses a repetition three times of making Covenant And in every place in the Hebrew the same words are used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Apostle changeth the Verb in every place First he expresseth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 8. and in the last place by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is most proper v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are usual in other Authors here he useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in reference unto that Covenant which the People brake and God disannulled And it may be he did so to distinguish their alterable Covenant from that which was to be unalterable and was confirmed with greater Solemnity God made this Covenant as others of his outward works which he resolved to alter change or abolish at the appointed season It was a work whose effects might be shaken and it self afterwards be removed so he speaks Chap. 12. 27. The change of the things that are shaken is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as of things that are made made for a season so made as to abide and endure for an appointed time only such were all the things of this Covenant and such was the Covenant itself It had no Criteria Aeternitatis upon it no evidences of an eternal duration Nothing hath so but what is founded in the blood of Christ. He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the everlasting Father or the immediate Author and Cause of every thing that is or shall be everlasting in the Church Let men labour and contend about other things whilest they please They are all shaken and must be removed Obs. 1. The Grace and Glory of the New Covenant are much set off and manifested by the comparing of it with the Old This is done here by God on purpose for the illustration of it And it is greatly made use of in this Epistle partly to prevail with us to accept of the terms thereof and to abide faithful therein and partly to declare how great is their sin and how sore will be the destruction of them by whom it is neglected or despised As these things are insisted on in other places so are they the Subject of the Apostles discourse Chap. 12. from ver 15. unto the end 2. All Gods Works are equally good and holy in themselves but as unto the use and advantage of the Church he is pleased to make some of them means of communicating more grace than others Even this Covenant which the New was not to be like unto was in itself good and holy which these with whom it was made had no reason to complain of Howbeit God had ordained that by another Covenant he would communicate the fulness of his grace and love unto the Church And if every thing that God doth be improved in its season and for its proper ends we shall have benefit and advantage by it though he hath yet other ways of doing us more good whose seasons he hath reserved unto himself But this is an Act of meer soveraign goodness and grace that whereas any have neglected or abused mercies and kindnesses that they have received instead of casting them off on that accounts God takes this other course of giving them such mercies as shall not be so abused This he did by the introduction of the New Covenant in the room of the Old and this he doth every day So Isa. 57. 16 17 18. We live in days wherein men variously endeavour to obscure the grace of God and to render it unglorious in the eyes of men but he will for ever be admired in them that do believe 3. Though God makes an alteration in any of his Works Ordinances of Worship or Institutions yet he never changeth his intention or the purpose of his Will In all outward Changes there is with him no variableness nor shadow of turning Known unto him are all his works from the foundation of the world and whatever change there seems to be in them it is all effected in pursuance of the unchangeable purpose of his Will concerning them all It argued not the least change or shadow of turning in God that he appointed the Old Covenant for a season and for some certain ends and then took it away by making of another that should excel it both in grace and efficacy 2. It is declared with whom this former Covenant was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their Fathers Some Latine Copies read cum Patribus vestris with your Fathers But having spoken before of the House of Judah and of the House of Israel in the third person he continueth to speak still in the same So likewise is it in the Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Fathers Their Fathers their Progenitors were those that this People
then upon our Conjectures to supply other words into it than what are contained in it This is not to explain but to corrupt the Scripture Wherefore one learned man Pocock in Miscellan hath endeavoured to prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by all Rules of Interpretation in this place must signifie to despise and neglect and ought to have been so Translated And this he confirms from the use of it in the Arabick Language The Reader may find it in the place referred unto with great satisfaction My apprehensions are grounded on what I have before observed and proved The Apostle neither in this nor in any other place doth bind up himself precifely unto the Translation of the words but infallibly gives us the sense and meaning and so he hath done in this place For whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies an Husband or to be an Husband or a Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being added unto it in construction as it is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is as much as jure usus sum Maritali I exercised the right power and authority of an Husband towards them I dealt with them as a Husband with a Wife that breaketh Covenant that is saith the Apostle I regarded them not with the love tenderness and affection of an Husband So he dealt indeed with that generation which so suddenly brake Covenant with him He provided no more for them as unto the enjoyment of the inheritance he took them not home unto him in his habitation his resting place in the Land of Promise but he suffered them all to wander and bear their Whoredoms in the Wilderness until they were consumed So did God exercise the Right and Power and Authority of an Husband towards a Wife that had broken Covenant And herein as in many other things in that dispensation did God give a representation of the nature of the Covenant of Works and the issue of it 4 There is a confirmation of the truth of these things in that expression Saith the Lord. This Assertion is not to be extended unto the whole matter or the promise of the introduction of the New Covenant For that is secured with the same expression v. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Lord. But it hath a peculiar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it being added in the close of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and respects only the sin of the People and Gods dealing with them thereon And this manifests the meaning of the preceding words to be Gods severity towards I used the authority of a Husband I regarded them not as a Wife any more saith the Lord. Now God thus uttereth his severity towards them that they might consider how he will deal with all those who despise break or neglect his Covenant So saith he I dealt with them and so shall I deal with others who offend in an alike manner This was the issue of things with them with whom the first Covenant was made They received it entred solemnly into the bonds of it took upon themselves expresly the performance of its terms and conditions were sprinkled with the blood of it but they continued not in it and were dealt withall accordingly God used the right and authority of an Husband with whom a Wise breaketh Covenant he neglected them shut them out of his house he deprived them of their Dowry or Inheritance and slew them in the Wilderness On this Declaration God promiseth to make another Covenant with them wherein all these evils should be prevented This is the Covenant which the Apostle designs to prove better and more excellent than the former And this he doth principally from the Mediator and Surety of it compared with the Aaronical Priests whose office and service belonged wholly unto the administration of that first Covenant And he confirms it also from the nature of this Covenant itself especially with respect unto its efficacy and duration And hereunto this Testimony is express evidencing how this Covenant is everlasting by the grace administred in it preventive of that evil success which the former had by the sin of the people Hence he says of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according unto it a Covenant agreeing with the former neither in promises efficacy nor duration For what is principally promised here namely the giving of a new heart Moses expresly affirms that it was not done in the administration of the first Covenant It is neither a Renovation of that Covenant nor a Reformation of it but utterly of another nature by whose introduction and establishment that other was to be abolished abrogated and taken away with all the Divine Worship and Service which was peculiar thereunto And this was that which the Apostle principally designed to prove and convince the Hebrews of And from the whole we may observe sundry things Obs. 1. No Covenant between God and man ever was or ever could be stable and effectual as unto the ends of it that was not made and confirmed in Christ. God first made a Covenant with us in Adam There was nothing therein but the meer defectibility of our natures as we were creatures that could render it ineffectual And from thence did it proceed In him we all sinned by breach of Covenant The Son of God had not then interposed himself nor undertaken on our behalf The Apostle tells us that in him all things consist without him they have no consistency no stability no duration So was this other Covenant immediately broken It was not confirmed by the blood of Christ. And those who suppose that the efficacy and stability of the present Covenant doth depend solely on our own will and diligence had need not only to assert our nature free from that depravation which it was under when this Covenant was broken but also from that defectibility that was in it before we fell in Adam And such as neglecting the interposition of Christ do betake themselves unto imaginations of this kind surely know little of themselves and less of God 2. No external administration of a Covenant of Gods own making no obligation of mercy on the minds of men can enable them unto stedfastness in Covenant obedience without an effectual influence of grace from and by Jesus Christ. For we shall see in the next Verses that this is the onely provision which is made in the wisdom of God to render us stedfast in obedience and his Covenant effectual unto us 3. God in making a Covenant with any in proposing the terms of it retains his right and authority to deal with persons according to their deportment in and towards that Covenant They brake my Covenant and I regarded them not 4. Gods casting men out of his especial care upon the breach of his Covenant is the highest judgment that in this world can fall on any persons And we are concerned in all these things For although the Covenant of Grace be stable and effectual unto all who are really partakers
the Old Testament or dispensation of the Old Covenant Such a time there was appointed unto it in the counsel of God during this season things fell out as described ver 9. The certain period fixed unto these days is called by our Apostle the time of Reformation Chap. 9. 10. After those days that is in or at their expiration when they were coming unto their end whereby the first Covenant waxed old and decayed God would make this Covenant with them And although much was done towards it before those days came absolutely unto an end and did actually expire yet is the making of it said to be after those days because being made in the wane and declension of them it did by its making put a full and final end unto them This in general was the time here designed for the making and establishing of the New Covenant But we must yet farther enquire into the precise time of the accomplishment of this Promise And I say the whole of it cannot be limited unto any one season absolutely as though all that was intended in Gods making of this Covenant did consist in any one individual act The making of the Old Covenant with the Fathers is said to be in the day wherein God took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt During the season intended there were many things that were preparatory to the making of that Covenant or to the solemn establishment of it So was it also in the making of the New Covenant It was gradually made and established and that by sundry Acts preparatory for it or confirmatory of it And there are six degrees observable in it 1. The first peculiar entrance into it was made by the Ministry of John the Baptist. Him had God raised to send under the name in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord Mal. 4. Hence is his Ministry called the beginning of the Gospel Mark 1. 1 2. Until his coming the People were bound absolutely and universally unto the Covenant in Horeb without alteration or addition in any Ordinance of Worship But his Ministry was designed to prepare them and to cause them to look out after the accomplishment of this promise of making the New Covenant Mal. 4. 4 5 6. And those by whom his Ministry was despised did reject the counsel of God against themselves that is unto their ruine and made themselves liable to that utter excision with the Threatnings whereof the Writings of the Old Testament are closed Mal. 4. 6. He therefore called the People off from resting in or trusting unto the Priviledges of the first Covenant Mat. 3. 8 9 10. preached unto them a Doctrine of Repentance and instituted a new Ordinance of Worship whereby they might be initiated into a new state or condition a new Relation unto God And in his whole Ministry he pointed at directed and gave Testimony unto him who was then to come to establish this New Covenant This was the beginning of the accomplishment of this Promise 2. The coming in the Flesh and personal Ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ himself was an eminent advance and degree therein The dispensation of the Old Covenant did yet continue For he himself as made of a Woman was made under the Law yielding Obedience unto it observing all its Precepts and Institutions But his coming in the Flesh laid an Axe unto the Root of that whole dispensation For therein the main end that God designed thereby towards that People was accomplished The interposition of the Law was now to be taken away and the Promise to become all unto the Church Hence upon his Nativity this Covenant was proclaimed from Heaven as that which was immediately to take place Luk. 2. 13 14. But it was more fully and evidently carried on in and by his personal Ministry The whole doctrine thereof was preparatory unto the immediate introduction of this Covenant But especially there was therein and thereby by the truth which he taught by the manner of his teaching by the miracles which he wrought in conjunction with an open accomplishment of the Prophesies concerning him evidence given that he was the Messiah the Mediator of the New Covenant Herein was a declaration made of the Person in and by whom it was to be established and therefore he told them That unless they believed it was he who was so promised they should dye in iheir sins 3. The way for the introduction of this Covenant being thus prepared it was solemnly enacted and confirmed in and by his death For herein he offered that Sacrifice to God whereby it was established And hereby the Promise properly became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testament as our Apostle proves at large Chap. 9. 14 15 16. And he declares in the same place that it answered those Sacrifices whose blood was sprinkled on the People and the Book of the Law in the confirmation of the first Covenant which things must be treated of afterwards This was the Center wherein all the Promises of Grace did meet and from whence they derived their efficacy From henceforward the Old Covenant and all its administrations having received their full accomplishment did abide only in the patience of God to be taken down and removed out of the way in his own time and manner For really and in themselves their force and authority did then cease and was taken away See Eph. 2. 14 15 16. Col. 2. 14 15. But our obligation unto Obedience and the observance of Commands though formally and ultimately it be resolved into the Will of God yet immediately it respects the Revelation of it by which we are directly obliged Wherefore although the causes of the removal of the Old Covenant had already been applied thereunto yet the Law and its Institutions were still continued not only lawful but useful unto the Worshippers until the Will of God concerning their abrogation was fully declared 4. This New Covenant had the complement of its making and establishment in the Resurrection of Christ. For in order hereunto the Old was to have its perfect end God did not make the first Covenant and therein revive represent and confirm the Covenant of Works with the Promise annexed unto it meerly that it should continue for such a season and then die of its self and be arbitrarily removed But that whole dispensation had an end which was to be accomplished and without which it was not consistent with the wisdom or righteousness of God to remove it or take it away Yea nothing of it could be removed until all was fulfilled It was easier to remove Heaven and Earth than to remove the Law as unto its Right and Title to rule the Souls and Consciences of men before all was fulfilled And this end had two parts 1 The perfect fulfilling of the Righteousness which it required This was done in the Obedience of Christ the Surety of the New Covenant in the stead of them with whom
this Relation 1 The foundation of it 2 The mutual actings in it by vertue of this Relation Unto the manifestation of the foundation of it some things must be premised 1. Upon the entrance of Sin there continued no such Covenant Relation between God and man as that by virtue thereof he should be their God and they should be his people God continued still in the full enjoyment of his Soveraignty over men which no Sin nor Rebellion nor Apostasie of man could in the least impeach And man continued under an obligation unto dependance on God and subjection unto his will in all things For these cannot be separated from his nature and being until final judgment be executed after which God rules over them only by power without any respect unto their wills or obedience But that especial Relation of mutual interest by virtue of the first Covenant ceased between them 2. God would not enter into any other Covenant with sinful fallen man to be a God unto them and to take them to be a peculiar people unto him immediately in their own persons nor was it consistent with his wisdom and goodness so to do For if man was not stedfast in Gods Covenant but brake and disannulled it when he was sinless and upright only created with a possibility of defection what expectations could there be that now he was fallen and his nature wholly depraved any new Covenant should be of use unto the glory of God or advantage of man To enter into a new Covenant that must necessarily be broken unto the aggravation of the misery of man became not the wisdom and goodness of God If it be said God might have so made a New Covenant immediately with man so as to secure their future obedience and so to have made it firm and stable I answer it would not have become the Divine wisdom and goodness to have dealt better with men after their Rebellion and Apostasie than before namely on their own account He did in our first Creation communicate unto our nature all that grace and all those priviledges which in his wisdom he thought meet to endow it withall and all that was necessary to make them who were partakers of it everlastingly blessed To suppose that on its own account alone he would immediately collate more grace upon it is to suppose him singularly well pleased with our Sin and Rebellion This then God would not do Wherefore 3. God provided in the first place that there should be a Mediator a Sponsor an Undertaker with whom alone he would treat about a New Covenant and so establish it For there were in the contrivance of his grace and wisdom concerning it many things necessary unto it that could no otherwise be enacted and accomplished Nay there was not any one thing in all the good which he designed unto Mankind in this Covenant in a way of love grace and mercy that could be communicated unto them so as that his honor and glory might be advanced thereby without the consideration of this Mediator and what he undertook to do Nor could Mankind have yielded any of that obedience unto God which he would require of them without the interposition of this Mediator on their behalf It was therefore with him that God firstly made this Covenant How it was needful that this Mediator should be God and man in one person how he became so to undertake for us and in our stead what was the especial Covenant between God and him as unto the work which he undertook personally to perform have according unto our poor weak measure and dark apprehension of these heavenly things been declared at large in our Exercitations on this Epistle and yet more fully in our Discourse of the Mystery and Glory of the Person of Christ. Wherefore as unto this New Covenant it was firstly made with Jesus Christ the Surety of it and Undertaker in it For 1. God neither would nor Salvâ justitiâ sapientiâ honore could treat immediately with sinful rebellious men on terms of grace for the future until satisfaction was undertaken to be made for sins past or such as should afterwards fall out This was done by Christ alone who was therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this Covenant and all the grace of it See 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. Gal. 3. 13 14. Rom. 3. 25. 2. No Restipulation of obedience unto God could be made by man that might be a ground of entering into a Covenant intended to be firm and stable For whereas we had broken our first Covenant engagement with God in our best condition we were not likely of our selves to make good a new engagement of an higher nature than the former Who will take the word or the security of a Bankrupt for Thousands who is known not to be worth one farthing especially if he have wasted a former estate in Luxury and Riot continuing an open Slave to the same lusts wherefore it was absolutely necessary that in this Covenant there should be a Surety to undertake for our answering and firm standing unto the terms of it Without this the event of this New Covenant which God would make as a singular effect of his wisdom and grace would neither have been glory to him nor advantage unto us 3. That Grace which was to be the Spring of all the blessings of this Covenant unto the glory of God and salvation of the Church was to be deposited in some safe hand for the accomplishment of these ends In the first Covenant God at once committed unto man that whole stock of grace which was necessary to enable him unto the obedience of it And the grace of reward which he was to receive upon the performance of it God reserved absolutely in his own hand yea so as that perhaps man did not fully understand what it was But all was lost at once that was committed unto our keeping so as that nothing at all was left to give us the least relief as unto any new endeavors Wherefore God will now secure all the good things of this Covenant both as to grace and glory in a third hand in the hand of a Mediator Hereon the Promises are made unto him and the fulness of grace is laid up in him John 1. 14. Col. 1. 17. Chap. 2. 2. Eph. 3. 8. 2 Cor. 1. 21. 4. As he was the Mediator of this Covenant God became his God and he became the Servant of God in a peculiar manner For he stood before God in this Covenant as a publick Representative of all the Elect. See our Comment on Chap. 1. 5 8. Chap. 2. 13. God is a God unto him in all the Promises he received on the behalf of his mystical Body and he was his Servant in the accomplishment of them as the pleasure of the Lord was to prosper in his hand 5. God being in this Covenant a God and Father unto Christ he became by vertue thereof to be our God and Father
things were in force but now the Covenant is abolished and it hath none of them But this answers not the Apostle's Intention For he acknowledgeth that Covenant and all its Ordinances de facto to have been yet in Being in the patience and forbearance of God Only he affirms that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 8. 13. ready to disappear Nor was he to take for granted what was the principal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between him and the Hebrews but to prove it which he doth accordingly Hence he grants that there were Priests that offered Gifts according to the Law chap. 8. 4. and some who served at the Tabernacle chap. 13. 10. But the Apostle hath respect unto the time wherein that Covenant was first made Then it had these things annexed unto it which were the Priviledges and Glory of it For the Apostle hath in the whole Discourse continual respect unto the first making of the Covenant and the first institution of its Administrations It had them that is they belonged unto it as those wherein its Administration did consist Every Covenant of God had its proper Priviledges and Advantages Even the first Covenant had so and those such as were excellent in themselves though not comparable with them of the new For to make any Covenant with men is an eminent fruit of Goodness Grace and Condescention in God whereon he will annex such Priviledges thereunto as may evince it so to be 2. This first Covenant had two things in general 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both Translations and Interpreters have cast some difficulty on the meaning of these words in themselves plain and evident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the word is generally rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Versions and next unto that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is legal and right The Vulgar Latine rendets it by Iustificationes from the inclusion of Ius Iustum in the signification of it In the new Testament it is used Luk. 1 6. Rom. 1. 32. chap. 2. 26. chap. 5. 16. chap 8. 4. Heb. 9. 1. ver 10. Rev. 15. 4. chap. 19. 8. And in no one place doth it signifie Institution but it may be better rendred Righteousness when alone we so translate it Rom. 5. 16. In the context and construction wherein it is here placed it can have no signification but that of Ordinances Rites Institutions Statutes the constant sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 determined both by its derivation and invariable use Wherefore all inquiries on these words in what sense the Rites of the Law may be called Iustifications or whether because the Observation of them did Iustifie before men or were signs of our Iustification before God are all useless and needless What there is of Iust and Right in the signification of the word respects the Right of God in the constitution and imposition of these Ordinances They were Appointments of God which he had Right to prescribe whence their Observation on the Part of the Church was just and equal These Ordinances or Statutes were so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of service that is as we render it divine service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is originally of as large a signification as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denotes any service whatever But it is here and constantly in the new Testament as is also the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restrained unto Divine service Ioh. 16. 2. Rom. 9. 4. chap. 12. 1. Cultus of worship and so were it better rendred than by Divine service In one place it signifies by it self as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth here Rom. 9. 4 unto whom belonged the giving of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the worship that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ordinances of worship The Ordinances of the Ceremonial Law For although God were served in and according to the commands of the Moral Law or the unchangeable prescriptions the ten words and also in the duties required in the due Observance of the Iudicial Law yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the immediate worship of the Tabernacle and the services of the Priests that belonged thereunto Hence the Jews call all Idolatry and superstition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strange worship And this was that part of Divine worship about which God had so many controversies with the People of Israel under the Old Testament For they were always apt to run into noxious extreams about it For the most part they were prone to neglect it and to run into all manner of superstition and Idolatry For the Law of this worship was an hedge that God had set about them to keep them from those Abominations And if at any time they brake over it or neglected it and let it fall they failed not to rush into the most abominable Idolatry On the other hand ofttimes they placed all their trust and confidence for their acceptance with God and blessing from him on the external observance of the ordinances and institutions of it And hereby they countenanced themselves not only in a neglect of moral Duties and spiritual Obedience but in a course of flagitious sins and wickednesses To repress these exorbitances with respect unto both these extreams the ministry of the Prophets was in an especial manner directed And we may observe some things here in our passage as included in the Apostle's assertion though not any part of his present Design 1. There was never any Covenant between God and man but it had some Ordinances or Arbitrary Institutions of external Divine worship annexed unto it The original Covenant of works had the Ordinances of the Tree of Life and of the Knowledge of Good and Evil the Laws whereof belonged not unto that of natural Light and Reason The Covenant of Sinai whereof the Apostle speaks had a multiplication of them Nor is the new Covenant destitute of them or their necessary observance All Publick worship in and the Sacraments of the Church are of this nature For whereas it is ingrafted in natural Light that some external worship is to be given unto God He would have it of his own prescription and not as unto the modes of it be left unto the inventions of men And because God hath alwayes in every Covenant prescribed the external worship and all the Duties of it which he will accept it cannot but be dangerous for us to make any Additions thereunto Had he prescribed none at any time seeing some are necessary in the Light of nature it would follow by just consequence that they were left unto the finding out and appointment of men But he having done this himself let not us add unto his words lest he reprove us and we be found lyars And in his Institution of these Ordinances of external worship there is both a Demonstration of his Sovereignty and an especial trial of our Obedience in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself And to this end the things ensuing may be observed 1. The Spring the Life and Soul of all this service was the Decalogue the ten words written in Tables of stone called the Tables of the Covenant This is the eternal unalterable rule of our Relation unto God as rational creatures capable of moral obedience and eternal rewards Hereunto all this service related as prefiguring the way whereby the Church might be freed from the guilt of its transgressions and obtain the accomplishment of it in them and for them For 1. It was given and prescribed unto the People and by them accepted as the Terms of Gods Covenant before any of these things were revealed or appointed Deut. 5. 27. Wherefore all these following institutions did only manifest how that Covenant should be complyed withal and fulfilled 2. It was written in Tables of stone and those renewed after they were broken before any of these things were prepared or erected Exod. 34. 1. God by the occasional breaking of the first Tables on the sin of the People declared that there was no keeping no fullfiling of that Covenant before the Provision made in these Ordinances was granted unto the People 3. The Ark was made and appointed for no other end but to preserve and keep these Tables of the Covenant or Testimony of God Exod. 25. 16. And it was hereon the great token and Pledge of the presence of God among the People wherein his glory dwelt among them So the wife of Phinehas the Priest made the dying confession of her faith she said the Glory is departed from Israel for the Ark of God is taken 1 Sam. 4. 22. Wherefore 4. All other things the whole Tabernacle with all the furniture Utensils and services of it were made and appointed to minister unto the Ark and when the Ark was removed from them they were of no use nor signification Wherefore when it was absent from the Tabernacle all the House of Israel lamented after the Lord 1 Sam. 7. 2. For the remaining Tabernacle was no longer unto them a Pledge of his presence And therefore when Solomon afterwards had finished all the Glorious work of the Temple with all that belonged unto it he assembled all the Elders of Israel and all the Heads of the Tribes the chief of the Fathers of the Children of Israel to bring the Ark of the Covenant into its place in the Temple 1. Kings 8. 1 2 3 4. Before this was done all that glorious and costly structure was of no sacred use This order of things doth sufficiently evidence that the Spring of all these services lay in the Tables of the Covenant 2. This Law as unto the substance of it was the only Law of creation the rule of the first Covenant of works For it contained the summe and substance of that obedience which is due unto God from all rational creatures made in his Image and nothing else It was the whole of what God designed in our creation unto his own Glory and our everlasting Blessedness What was in the Tables of stone was nothing but a transcript of what was written in the heart of man originally and which is returned thither again by the Grace of the new Covenant Ier. 32. 35. 2 Cor. 3. 3. 3. Although this Law as a Covenant was broken and disanulled by the entrance of sin and became insufficient as unto its first ends of the Justification and Salvation of the Church thereby Rom. 8. 3. Yet as a Law and Rule of obedience it was never disanulled nor would God suffer it to be Yea one principal design of God in Christ was that it might be fulfilled and established Matt. 5. 17 18. Rom. 3. 31. For to reject this Law or to abrogate it had been for God to have laid aside that Glory of his Holiness and Righteousness which in his infinite wisdom he designed therein Hence after it was again broken by the People as a Covenant he wrote it a second time himself in Tables of stone and caused it to be safely kept in the Ark as his perpetual Testimony That therefore which he taught the Church by in all this in the first place was that this Law was to be fulfilled and accomplished or they could have no advantage of or benefit by the Covenant 4. This Law was given unto the People with great dread and terrour Hereby were they taught and did learn that they were no way able of themselves to answer or stand before the holiness of God therein Hereon they desired that on the account thereof they might not appear immediately in the presence of God but that they might have a Mediator to transact all things between God and them Deut. 5. 22 23 24 25. 5. God himself by all ways declared that if he should deal with the People according unto the Tenor and Rigor of this Law they could not stand before Him Wherefore on all occasions he calls them to place their confidence not in their own Obedience thereunto but in his Mercy and Grace And that this was their Faith themselves professed on all occasions See Psal. 130. 3 4. Psal. 142. 3. 6. All this God instructed them in by those mystical Vessels of the most Holy Place For after the Tables were put into the Ark as under his Eye and in his presence he ordained that it should be covered with the Mercy-seat For hereby he did declare both that the Law was to be kept and fulfilled and yet that mercy should be extended unto them 7. This great mystery he instructed them in three ways 1. In that the Covering of the Ark was a Propitiatory a Mercy-Seat and that its use was to cover the Law in the Presence of God This was a great Instruction For if God should mark Iniquities according unto the Law who should stand 2. In that the Blood of Atonement for sin was brought into the Holy Place and sprinkled on the Mercy-seat Levit. 16. 14. And this was done seven times to denote the Perfection of the Reconciliation that was made And herein were they also taught that the covering of the Law by the Mercy-seat so as that Mercy and Pardon might be granted notwithstanding the sentence and curse of the Law was from the Atonement made for sin by the expiatory Sacrifice 3. By the cloud of Incense that covered both Ark and Mercy-seat testifying that God received from thence a savour of Rest Levit. 16. 13. 8. The Cherubims or Angels under that denomination were the Ministers of God in executing the curse and Punishment on man when after his sin he was driven out of the Garden of God Gen. 3. 24. Hence ensued a fear and dread of Angels on all mankind which they abused unto manifold superstitions But now to testifie that all things in Heaven and Earth should be reconciled and brought under one Head Ephes. 1. 10. There was a representation of their Ministry in this great mystery of the Law and
the Mercy-seat Wherefore they are ready unto the Ministry of the Church of mankind all things being now reconciled Heb. 1. 14. purely with respect unto the Mercy-seat which their faces were turned towards and which they shadowed with their wings 9. Yet was this Mystery so great namely that which was represented by these Types that the Angels themselves were to bow down to look into it 1 Pet. 1. 11. So are they here represented in a posture of admiration and adoration And in their overshadowing of the Mercy-seat with their wings they declared how this Mystery in the fullness of it was hid from the eyes of all men See Eph. 3. 8 9 10 11 12. 10. The Ground was originally blessed of God to bring forth food for man for the preservation of his life in that state and condition wherein he was to live unto God according unto the Covenant of works Gen. 1. 29. But upon the entrance of sin it was cursed neither are the fruits of it any more a Token or Pledge of the favour of God nor are they sufficient to maintain a life unto God Gen. 3. 17 18. Wherefore God declared that there must be bread given the Church from Heaven which might maintain a spiritual life in them This God did by giving them Manna in the wilderness And that all instructions in Grace and mercy might be reduced into an head in this Holy Place because of that whereof it was a Type a Pot filled with it was placed for a memorial in this Holy Place before the Ark and Mercy-Seat See Psal. 78. 24 25. Iohn 6. 31. Hereby were they taught to look for the bread of life from Heaven which should maintain them in their spiritual and nourish them unto eternal life 11. When the whole Church was ready to perish for want of water a Rock was smitten with the Rod of Moses which brought water out of it unto their refreshment God taught them thereby that the Rock of Ages was to be smitten with the Rod of the Law that the waters of life might be brought forth thereby 1 Cor. 10. 4. Wherefore this Rod also was laid up for an instructive memorial before the Ark. In all these things did God instruct the Church by the Tabernacle especially this most Holy Place the Utensils Furniture and Services of it And the end of them all was to give them such a representation of the mystery of his grace in Christ Jesus as was meet for the state of the Church before his actual exhibition in the flesh Hence he is declared in the Gospel to be the Body and Substance of them all And I shall endeavour with all humble reverence to make that application of them unto him which Scripture Light guides us unto 1. In his Obedience unto God according unto the Law he is the true Ark wherein the Law was kept inviolate that is was fullfilled answered and accomplished Matt. 5. 17. Rom. 8. 3. chap. 10. 3. Hence by Gods gracious dealing with sinners pardoning and justifying them freely the Law is not disanulled but established Rom. 3. 31. That this was to be done that without it no Covenant between God and man could be firm and stable was the principal design of God to declare in all this Service without the consideration whereof it was wholly insignificant This was the original mystery of all these institutions that in and by the Obedience of the promised seed the everlasting unalterable Law should be fulfilled In him as the Jews speak was the Law restored unto its pristine Crown signifyed by that Crown of Gold which was round about the Ark wherein the Law was kept Then had the Law its crown and glory when it was fulfilled in Christ. This the Church of Israel ought to have learned and believed and did so whilest they continued to pray for mercy for the Lord's sake as Dan. 9. 17. But afterwards when they rejected the knowledge hereof and adhered unto the Law absolutely as written in Tables of stone they utterly perished Rom. 9. 31 32 33. chap. 10. 2 4. And they do all yet what lieth in them return unto the material Ark and Tables of stone who reject the accomplishment of the Law in and by Jesus Christ. 2. He was the Mercy-Seat that is he was represented by it So the Apostle speaks expresly God set him forth to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3. 25. A Propitiation that is to answer the Mercy-Seat and what was signifyed thereby And this was to cover the Law under the eye of God He interposeth between God and his Throne and the Law that he may not enter into judgment with us in pursuit of the curse of it The Law required Obedience and threatned the curse in case of disobedience With respect unto the obedience which it required Christ was the Ark in whom it was fulfilled And with respect unto the Curse of the Law he was the Mercy-Seat or Propitiation whereby Atonement was made that the curse should not be inflicted Gal. 3. 13. 3. It was his blood in figure that was carried into the Holy Place to make Atonement as the Apostle declares at large in this Chapter The Efficacy of his blood when he offered himself an expiatory Sacrifice for sin unto God that prevailed for an atonement in the Holy Place not made with hands See chap. 10. 11 12 13. 4. It is his Intercession that is the cloud of Incense which covers the Ark and Mercy Seat This gives a continual sweet Savour unto God from his oblation and renders acceptable all the worship of the Church in their approaches unto him Rev. 8. 3. These things did God instruct the Church in by Types and figures to prepare their faith for the receiving of him at his actual oblation And on the representation so made of him all that truly believed lived in the expectation of him and longing after him with the departure of these shadows of good things to come Cant. 2. 7. chap. 4. 6. chap. 8. 14. Luk. 10. 24. 1 Pet. 1. 11. And the refusal of this instruction was that which ruined this Church of the Hebrews 5. It was He who took off the original curse of the Law whose first execution was committed unto the Cherubims when man was driven out of the Garden and kept from all approaches unto the Tree of Life Hereby he made reconciliation between them and the elect Church of God Ephes. 1. 10. Hence have they now a ministery with respect unto the Mercy-Seat for the good of the heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. 6. He was the Bread of Life typed by the Manna kept in the Golden Pot before the Mercy-Seat For he alone is the nourishment of the spiritual life of men The mystery hereof himself at large declares John 6. 31 32 33 34. This were they taught to expect in the memorial of that heavenly food which was preserved in the Sanctuary 7. He was that Spiritual Rock which was smitten with the Rod of
many accounts 1 Of the Subject Matter of it which are things eternal none of them are carnal or temporal The state of Bondage from which we are delivered by it in all its causes was spiritual not temporal and the effects of it in liberty grace and glory are eternal 2 Of its Duration It was not for a season like that of the people out of Egypt or the deliverances which they had afterwards under the Judges and on other occasions They endured in their effects only for a season and afterwards new troubles of the same kind overtook them But this was eternal in all the effects of it none that are partakers of it do ever return into a state of Bondage So 3 it endures in those effects unto all eternity in Heaven it self 3. This Redemption Christ obtained by his Blood Having done all in the Sacrifice of himself that was in the Justice Holiness and Wisdom of God required thereunto it was wholly in his power to confer all the benefits and effects of it on the Church on them that do believe And sundry things we may observe from this Verse 1. The Entrance of our Lord Iesus Christ as our High Priest into Heaven to appear in the presence of God for us and to save us thereby unto the uttermost was a thing so great and glorious as could not be accomplished but by his own blood No other Sacrifice was sufficient unto this end Not by the Blood of Bulls and Goats The reason hereof the Apostle declares at large Chap. 10. 5 6 7 8 9 10. Men seldom rise in their thoughts unto the greatness of this Mystery Yea with the most this Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified unto the remainder of his work is a common thing The ruine of Christian Religion lies in the slight thoughts of men about the Blood of Christ and pernicious Errors do abound in opposition unto the true nature of the Sacrifice which he made thereby Even the faith of the best is weak and imperfect as to the comprehension of the glory of it Our relief is that the uninterrupted contemplation of it will be a part of our blessedness unto eternity But yet whil'st we are here we can neither understand how great is the salvation which is tendred unto us thereby nor be thankful for it without a due consideration of the way whereby the Lord Christ entred into the Holy Place And he will be the most humble and most fruitful Christian whose faith is most exercised most conversant about it 2. Whatever difficulty lay in the way of Christ as unto the accomplishment and perfection of the work of our Redemption he would not decline them nor desist from his undertaking whatever it cost him Sacrifice and Burnt-offering thou would'st not have then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God He made his way into the Holy Place by his own Blood What was required of him for us that we might be saved he would not decline though never so great and dreadful and surely we ought not to decline what he requires of us that he may be honoured 3. There was an Holy Place meet to receive the Lord Christ after the Sacrifice of himself and a sutable Reception for such a Person after so glorious a Performance It was a place of great glory and beauty whereinto the High Priest of old entred by the Blood of Calves and Goats the visible pledges of the presence of God were in it whereunto no other person might approach But our High Priest was not to enter into any Holy Place made with hands unto outward visible pledges of the presence of God but into the Heaven of Heavens the place of the glorious residence of the Majesty of God it self 4. If the Lord Christ entred not into the Holy Place until he had finished his work we may not expect an entrance thereinto until we have finished ours He fainted not nor waxed weary until all was finished And it is our duty to arm our selves with the same mind 5. It must be a glorious Effect which had so glorious a Cause and so it was even Eternal Redemption 6. The Nature of our Redemption the way of its procurement with the Duties required of us with respect thereunto are greatly to be considered by us VER XIII XIV THere is in these Verses an Argument and Comparison But the Comparison is such as that the ground of it is laid in the Relation of the Comparates the one unto the other namely that the one was the Type and the other the Antitype otherwise the Argument will not hold For although it follows that he who can do the greater can do the less whereon an Argument will hold à majori ad minus yet it doth not absolutely do so that if that which is less can do that which is less then that which is greater can do that which is greater which would be the force of the Argument if there were nothing but a naked comparison in it But it necessarily follows hereon if that which is less in that less thing which it doth or did was therein a Type of that which was greater in that greater thing which it was to effect And this was the case in the thing here proposed by the Apostle The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The words have no difficulty in them as to their Grammatical Sense nor is there any considerable variation in the rendring of them in the old Translations Only the Syriac retains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from ver 11. instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used And both that and the Vulgar place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the foregoing Verse contrary unto all Copies of the Original as to the order of the words For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vulgar reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per Spiritum Sanctum The Syriac follows the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Eternal Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Original Copies vary some reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our but most 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your which our Translators follow For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth unto the purifying of the flesh How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God The words are Argumentative in the form of an Hypothetical Syllogism wherein the Assumption of the Proposition is supposed as proved before That which is to be confirmed is what was asserted in the words foregoing namely That the Lord Iesus Christ by his blood hath obtained for us eternal redemption This the Causal Redditive Conjunction For doth manifest whereunto the Note of a Supposition If is premised as a Note of an Hypothetical Argumentation There are two Parts of
Moses did therein ver 19. VER XIX For when Moses had spoken every Precept unto all the People according unto the Law he took the Blood of Calves and of Goats with Water and Scarlet Wool and Hyssop and sprinkled both the Book and all the People There are two things considerable in the words 1. The Person made use of in the Dedication of the Covenant which was Moses 2. What he did therein which is referred unto two Heads 1 His speaking or reading the Terms of the Covenant every Precept out of the Book 2 His sprinkling of the Book and People with Blood 1. Moses was the Internuntius between God and the People in this great Transaction On Gods part he was immediately called unto this Employment Exod. 3. And on the part of the People he was chosen and desired by them to transact all things between God and them in the making and confirmation of this Covenant because they were not able to bear the effects of Gods immediate Presence Exod. 19. 19. Deut. 5. 22 23 24 25 26 27. And this choice of a Spokesman on their part God did approve of ver 27. Hence he became in a general sense a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator between God and Men in the giving of the Law Gal. 3. 19. Whatever therefore was done by Moses in this whole Affair of the Dedication of the Covenant on the Part of God or of the People was firm and unalterable he being a publick Person authorized unto this work And 1. There can be no Covenant between God and Men but in the hand or by vertue of a Mediator The first Covenant in the state of Innocency was immediately between God and Man But since the entrance of sin it can be so no more For 1 Man hath neither Meetness nor confidence to treat immediately with God Nor 2 Any Credit or Reputation with him so to be admitted as an Undertaker in his own Person Nor 3 Any Ability to perform the conditions of any Covenant with God 2. A Mediator may be either only an Internuntius a Messenger a Days-man or also a Surety and an Undertaker Of the first sort was the Mediator of the old Covenant of the latter of the New 3. None can interpose between God and a People in any sacred Office unless he be called of God and approved of the People as was Moses 2dly That which Moses did in this Affair was first in way of Preparation And there are three things in the Account of it 1 What he did precisely 2 With respect unto whom 3 According to what Rule or Order he did it 1. He spake every Precept Vul. Lat. lecto omni Mandato having read every command which is the sense intended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much in this place as recited So it is rendred by most Translators cum recitasset that is when he had read in the Book For his first speaking unto the People ver 3. is not here intended but his reading in the Audience of the People ver 7. He spake what he read that is audibly so it is in the story he read it in the Audience of the People so as that they might hear and understand It is added by the Apostle that he thus read spake recited every Precept or Command He took the Book of the Covenant and read in the Audience of the People saith the Text that is the whole Book and all that was contained in it or every Precept And the whole is reduced by the Apostle unto Precepts It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2. 15. a Law a Systeme of Precepts And it is so called to intimate the nature of that Covenant It consisted principally in Precepts or Commandments of Obedience promising no Assistance for the performance of them The new Covenant is of another nature It is a Covenant of Promises And although it hath Precepts also requiring Obedience yet is it wholly founded in the Promise whereby strength and Assistance for the performance of that Obedience are given unto us And the Apostle doth well observe that Moses read every precept unto the People For all the Good things they were to receive by vertue of that Covenant depended on the Observation of every Precept For a Curse was denounced against every one that continued not in all things written in the Law to do them Deut. 27. 26. And we may observe 1. A Covenant that consisted in meer Precepts without an Exhibition of Spiritual strength to enable unto Obedience could never save sinners The insufficiency of this Covenant unto that end is that which the Apostle designs to prove in all this Discourse But thereon a double enquiry may be made 1 Why God gave this Covenant which was so insufficient unto this great End This Question is proposed and answered by the Apostle Gal. 3. 19. 2 How then did any of the People yield Obedience unto God if the Covenant exhibited no Aid nor Assistance unto it The Apostle answereth in the same place that they received it by Faith in the Promise which was given before and not disanulled by this Covenant 2. In all our Dealings with God respect must be had unto every one of his Precepts And the Reason hereof is given by the Apostle James namely that the Authority of God is the same in every one of them and so may be despised in the neglect of the least as well as of the greatest Jam. 2. 10 11. 2dly To whom did Moses thus read every Precept It was saith the Apostle to All the People In the story it is said indefinitely in the Audience of the People as afterwards he sprinkled the People The Apostle adds the note of Universality in both places to All the People For whereas these things were transacted with the Representatives of the People for it was naturally impossible that the one half of the individuals of them should hear Moses reading they were all equally concerned in what was said and done Yet I do believe that after Moses first told the People that is the Elders of them all the words of the Law ver 3. there was means used by the Elders and Officers to communicate the things yea to repeat the words unto all the People that they might be enabled to give their rational consent unto them And we may observe 1. The first eminent use of the writing of the Book of the Law that is of any part of the Scripture for this Book was the first that was written was that it might be read unto the People He gave not this Book to be shut up by the Priests to be concealed from the People as containing Mysteries unlawful to be divulged or impossible to be understood Such conceits befell not the Minds of men until the Power and Ends of Religion being lost some got an opportunity to order the concerns of it unto their own worldly Interest and Advantage 2. This Book was both written and read in the
otherwise The Covenant the Book of the Law and the Tabernacle with all its Vessels were purified in their sacred Dedication unto God and his service Thus were all the Heavenly things themselves purified Christ himself was Sanctified Consecrated Dedicated unto God in his own Blood He Sanctified himself Joh. 17. 19. and that by the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10. 29. even when he was Consecrated or made perfect through sufferings chap. 2. 10. So was the Church and the whole worship of it dedicated unto God made holy unto him Ephes. 5. 25 26. And Heaven it self was dedicated to be an habitation for ever unto the Mystical Body of Christ in perfect Peace with the Angels above who had never sinned Eph. 1. 10. Heb. 12. 22 23 24. But yet there was moreover a real Purification of the most of these things The Church or the Souls and Consciences of Men were really Cleansed Purified and Sanctified with an internal Spiritual Purification Eph. 5. 25 26. Tit. 2. 14. It was washed in the blood of Christ Rev. 1. 5. and is thereby cleansed from Sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. And Heaven it self was in some sense so Purified as the Tabernacle was because of the sins of the People among whom it was Levit. 16. 16. Sin had entered into Heaven it self in the Apostacy of Angels whence it was not pure in the sight of God Job 15. 15. And upon the sin of man a state of Enmity ensued between the Angels above and Men below so that Heaven was no meet Place for an habitation unto them both until they were reconciled which was done only in the Sacrifice of Christ Eph. 1. 10. Hence if the Heavenly things were not defiled in themselves yet in Relation unto us they were so which is now taken away The Summ is As the Covenant the Book the People the Tabernacle were all purified and dedicated unto their especial ends by the Blood of Calves and Goats wherein was laid the Foundation of all gracious entercourse between God and the Church under the Old Covenant So all things whatever that in the Counsel of God belonged unto the New Covenant the whole Mediation of Christ with all the Spiritual and Eternal Effects of it were Confirmed Dedicated unto God and made effectual unto the ends of the Covenant by the Blood of the Sacrifice of Christ which is the spring from whence Efficacy is communicated unto them all and Moreover the Souls and Consciences of the Elect are Purified and Sanctified from all defilements thereby which work is gradually carried on in them by renewed Applications of the same Blood unto them until they are all presented unto God Glorious without spot or wrinkle or any such thing And we are taught that The one Sacrifice of Christ with what ensued thereon was the only means to render effectual all the Counsels of God concerning the Redemption and Salvation of the Church Eph. 1. 3 4 5 6 7. Rom. 3. 24 25 26. Of these Heavenly things it is said that they were purified with better Sacrifices than these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to encrease the signification All sober Expositors agree that here is an Enallage of Number the plural put for the singular The one Sacrifice of Christ is alone intended But because it answered all other Sacrifices exceeded them all in Dignity was of more Use and Efficacy than they all it is so expressed That one Sacrifice which comprized the Vertue Benefit and Signification of all other The Gloss of Grotius on these words is intolerable and justly offensive unto all Pious Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he quia non tantum Christi perpessiones intelligit sed eorum qui ipsum sectantur unà cum precibus operibus Misericordiae Is it possible that any Christian should not tremble to joyn the Sufferings of Men and their works with the Sacrifice of Christ as unto the same kind of Efficacy in purifying of these Heavenly things Do they make Attonement for Sin Are they offered unto God for that end Are they sprinkled on these things for their Purification 4. The Modification of the former Proposition belongs unto this also It was necessary these things should be thus purified 1 As that which the Holiness of God required and which therefore in his Wisdom and Grace he appointed 2 As that which in it self was meet and becoming the Righteousness of God Heb. 2. 10. Nothing but the Sacrifice of Christ with the everlasting Efficacy of his most precious Blood could thus purifie the Heavenly things and dedicate the whole new Creation unto God The last thing we shall observe hereon is that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that this Dedication and Purification is ascribed unto Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a slain Sacrifice a Sacrifice as slain a Sacrifice by Mactation Killing or shedding of blood so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also Wherefore it is the Sacrifice of Christ in his Death and Blood-shedding that is the Cause of these things Other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him there was none he offered none For the vindication hereof we must examine the Comment of Schlictingius on this Place His Words are Licet enim non Sanguinem suum Christus deo obtulerit sed se ipsum tamen sine sanguinis effusione offerre se ipsum non potuit neque debuit Ex eo veró quod diximus sit ut Autor Divinus Christum cum victimis legalibus conferens perpetuò fugiat dicere Christi sanguinem fuisse oblatum et nihilominus ut similitudini serviat perpetuò Christi sanguinis fusionem insinuet quae nisi antecessisset haud quaquam tam plena tamque concinna inter Christum victimas antiquas comparatio institui potuisset Ex his ergo manifestum est in illa sancta celestia ad eorum dedicationem emundationemque peragendam victimam pretiosissimam proinde non sanguinem hircorum vitulorum imò ne sanguinem quidem ullum sed ipsum Dei filium idque omnibus mortalis naturae exuviis depositis quo nulla pretiosior sanctior victima cogitari potuit debuisse inferri Ans. 1 The Distinction between Christ offering his Blood and offering himself to God the Foundation of this Discourse is coyned on purpose to pervert the Truth For neither did Christ offer his Blood unto God but in the offering of himself nor did he offer himself unto God but in and by the shedding and offering of his Blood There is no Distinction between Christ offering of himself and offering of his Blood other then between the Being of any thing and the Form and manner of its being what it is 2 That he could not offer himself without the antecedent effusion of his Blood seems a kind concession but it hath the same Design with the preceding Distinction But in the offering of himself he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slain Sacrifice which was in and by the effusion of his Blood in the very shedding of
impossible that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should take away Sin partly in giving various intimations first and then express Declaration of his Will that they were only prescribed for a season and that a time would come when their Observance should utterly cease which the Apostle proves Chap. 7. and 8. and partly by evidencing that they were all but Types and Figures of good things to come as we have at large declared By these and sundry other ways of the like kind God had in the Institution and Command of these Sacrifices themselves sufficiently manifested that he did neither design them nor require them nor approve of them as unto this end of the Expiation of Sin Wherefore there is in the words no new Revelation absolutely but only a meer express Declaration of that Will and Counsel of God which he had by various ways given intimation of before And we may observe 1. No Sacrifices of the Law not all of them together were a means for the Expiation of Sin suited unto the Glory of God or necessities of the Souls of Men. From the First appointment of Sacrifices immediately after the entrance of Sin and the giving of the promise the observation of them in one kind or another spread it self over the whole Earth The Gentiles retained them by Tradition helped on by some Conviction on a Guilty Conscience that by some way or other Attonement must be made for Sin On the Jews they were imposed by Law There are no Footsteps of Light or Testimony that those of the former sort namely the Gentiles did ever retain any sense of the true Reason and end of their Original Institution and the practice of Mankind thereon which was only the Confirmation of the First promise by a prefiguration of the means and way of its accomplishment The Church of Israel being Carnal also had very much lost the Understanding and Knowledge hereof Hence both sorts looked for the real Expiation of Sin the pardon of it and the taking away of its punishment by the Offering of those Sacrifices As for the Gentiles God suffered them to walk in their own ways and winked at the time of their Ignorance But as unto the Jews he had before variously intimated his Mind concerning them and at length by the Mouth of David in the person of Christ absolutely declares their Insufficiency with his disapprobation of them as unto the end which they in their Minds applied them unto 2. Our utmost diligence with the most Sedulous improvement of the Light and Wisdom of Faith is necessary in our search into and enquiry after the Mind and Will of God in the Kevelation he makes of them The Apostle in this Epistle proves by all sorts of Arguments taken from the Scriptures of the Old Testament from many other things that God had done and spoken and from the Nature of these Institutions themselves as here also by the express words of the Holy Ghost that these Sacrifices of the Law which were of Gods own appointment were never designed nor approved by him as the way and means of the Eternal Expiation of Sin And he doth not deal herein with these Hebrews on his Apostolical Authority and by new Evangelical Revelation as he did with the Church of the Gentiles but pleads the undeniable Truth of what he asserts from these direct Records and Testimonies which themselves owned and embraced Howbeit although the Books of Moses the Psalms and the Prophets were read unto them and among them continually as they are unto this day they neither understood nor do yet understand the things that are so plainly revealed in them And as the great Reason hereof is the Veil of blindness and darkness that is on their Minds 2 Cor. 3. 13 14. So in all their search into the Scripture they are indeed Supinely slothful and negligent For they cleave alone unto the outward Husk or Shell of the Letter utterly despising the Mysteries of Truth contained therein And so it is at present with the most of Men whose search into the Mind of God especially as unto what concerns his Worship keeps them in the Ignorance and Contempt of it all their days 3. The constant use of Sacrifices to signifie these things which they could not effect or really exhibit unto the Worshippers was a great part of the Bondage that the Church was kept in under the Old Testament And hereon as those who were Carnal bowed down their Backs unto the Burthen and their Necks unto the Yoke so those who had received the Spirit of Adoption did continually Pant and Groan after the coming of him in and by whom all was to be fulfilled So was the Law their Schoolmaster unto Christ. 4. God may in his Wisdom appoint and accept of Ordinances and Duties unto one end which he will refuse and reject when they are applyed unto another So he doth plainly in these Words those Sacrifices which in other places he most strictly enjoyns How express how multiplyed are his Commands for good works and our abounding in them Yet when they are made the matter of our Righteousness before him they are as unto that end namely of our Justification rejected and disapproved The First Part of ver 5. declares the Will of God concerning the Sacrifices of the Law The latter contains the supply that God in his Wisdom and Grace made of the defect and insufficiency of these Sacrifices And this is not any thing that should help assist or make them effectual but somewhat brought in in opposition unto them and for their Removal This he expresseth in the last clause of this Verse But a Body hast thou prepared me The Adversative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but declares that the way designed of God for this end was of another Nature than those Sacrifices were But yet this way must be such as should not render those Sacrifices utterly useless from their First Institution which would reflect on the Wisdom of God by whom they were appointed For if God did never approve of them never delight in them unto what end were they Ordained Wherefore although the real way of the Expiation of Sin be in it self of another Nature than those Sacrifices were yet was it such as those Sacrifices were meet to prefigure and represent unto the Faith of the Church The Church was taught by them that without a Sacrifice there could be no Attonement made for Sin wherefore the way of our Deliverance must be by a Sacrifice It is so saith the Lord Christ and therefore the First thing God did in the preparation of this new way was the Preparation of a Body for me which was to be Offered in Sacrifice And in the Antithesis intimated in this Adversative Conjunction respect is had unto the Will of God As Sacrifices were that which he would not unto this end so this preparation of the Body of Christ was that which he would which he delighted in and was well pleased withal So the
Grace conveyed by Promise and received by saith there is no place left for our own works with reference unto the procurement of an Interest in them Freely it was provided freely it is proposed and freely it is received 3. We may enquire what it is to receive the promise And it hath a double sense 1 As the Promise may be considered formally or materially To receive the Promise formally as a Promise is to have it declared unto us and to mix it with faith or to believe it This it is to receive the Promise in opposition unto them by whom it is rejected through Unbelief So Abraham is said to receive the Promises Heb. 11. 17. in that when they were given unto him he staggered not through Unbelief but was strong in faith giving Glory to God Rom. 4. 21 22. As the Promise is materially considered so to receive it is to receive the thing promised So it is said of the Saints under the old Testament that they obtained a good report through faith but received not the Promise Heb. 11. 39. They received the Promises by faith in them as proposed but the principal thing promised that was the coming of Christ in the flesh they received not The receiving of the Promise here mentioned is of both kinds according to the distinct parts of this Inheritance As unto the future state of Glory we receive the promise in the first way that is we believe it rest upon it trust unto the truth of God in it and live in the expectation of it And the Benefit we receive hereby as unto our spiritual life and consolation is inexpressible As unto the foundation of the whole Inheritance in the oblation and Sacrifice of Christ and all the Grace Mercy and Love with the fruits of them whereof in this life we are made Partakers and all the priviledges of the Gospel Believers under the new Testament receive the Promise in the second sense namely the things promised And so did they also under the old Testament according to the measure of the divine Dispensation towards them And we may observe 1. All our Interest in the Gospel Inheritance depends on our receiving the Promise by faith Though it be prepared in the Counsel of God though it be proposed unto us in the dispensation of the Gospel yet unless we receive the Promise of it by faith we have no Right or Title unto it 2. The conveyance and actual communication of the eternal Inheritance by Promise to be received by faith alone tends exceedingly unto the exaltation of the Glory of God and the security of the salvation of them that do believe For as unto the latter it depends absolutely on the veracity of God confirmed by his Oath And faith on the other hand is the only way and means of ascribing unto God the Glory of all the Holy properties of his nature which he designs to exalt in this dispensation of himself Thirdly The Persons unto whom this Inheritance is designed and who do receive the promise of it are those that are called It is to no purpose to discourse here about outward and inward calling effectual and ineffectual complied with or not no other are intended but those that actually receive the Promise It was the design of God in this whole dispensation that all the called should receive the Promise and if they do not so his Counsel and that in the greatest work of his Wisdom Power and Grace is frustrate They are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8. 28. Those who obtain the Inheritance being predestinated according unto the purpose of him who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will Ephes. 1. 11. God here puts forth his Almighty power that his purpose or the Counsel of his will may be established in giving the Inheritance unto all that are called Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified or gave them the whole eternal Inheritance Rom. 8. 10. Hence Estius an Expositor of the Roman Church chargeth the contrary opinion in Catharinus as unorthodox It is not a general Call wherein those who are so called may or may not receive the Inheritance But what God designs unto them that are intended they are so called as that they shall assuredly be made Partakers of it This is the end that God designed in the dispensation of himself by Jesus Christ here declared and therefore respect is had thereunto in the whole of it Some think that by the called here those only are intended who were so under the Old Testament For mention is made only of the Redemption of Transgressions under that Covenant in what sense shall be immediately declared But this is contrary both unto the design of the Apostle and the use of the word For on that supposition he says no more but that Christ was the Mediator of the New Testament that those might be saved who lived and dyed under the Old But his principal design is to prove the advantage that we now have even above the Elect themselves under the Old Testament yet so as not to exclude them from the same benefit with us by the Mediation of Christ as unto the substance of it And the called in the language of this Apostle doth principally signifie the called in Christ Jesus Effectual Vocation is the onely way of entrance into the eternal inheritance For it is accompanied with Adoption which gives us right and title thereunto John 1. 12. In vain do they expect it who are not so called Fourthly Things being thus prepared in the Counsel and Grace of God yet there was an obstacle in the way of actual receiving the Promise namely the transgressions that were under the first Testament God designed unto the Elect an eternal inheritance yet can they not be made partakers of it but in such a way as was suited unto his glory It was unjust and unreasonable that it should be otherwise Whereas therefore they were all of them guilty of sin their sins must be expiated and taken out of the way or they cannot receive the promise of the inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our word Transgressions doth properly express the original word And in the distribution of sins by their names into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lev. 16. 21. We render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by it But it compriseth all sorts of sins whereby the Law is transgressed be they great or small Every thing that hath the nature of sin must be expiated or the Inheritance cannot be enjoyed Though God will give Grace and Glory unto his Elect yet he will do it in such a way as wherein and whereby he may be glorified also himself Satisfaction must be made for Transgression unto the honour of his Righteousness Holiness and Law There are yet sundry difficulties in this Expression which must be enquired into For 1.