CHAP. that neither their Fathers, nor any of their ChilVIII dren were able to bear: A Law by the Performance of which merely, no Fleft poffibly could be juftified, any more than by Obedience to the firft original Law or Covenant; With respect to the Jews therefore call'd the first Covenant, couching under it the fecond and better, into which the Apoft les endeavoured to lead them, as into the true Sense, End, and Meaning of the other.

WHILST all the Expectation they had of entering into Life was the fame as the old Patriarchal Way, the Love of God and our Neighbour,

greatest Efteem with fome Nations bordering on Canaan, as Blood, the Flesh of Swine, Birds of Prey, Fish without Scales, a Kid feeth'd in its Mother's Milk, &c. All Communication in Victuals and Worfhip being fo cut off, it was morally impoffible for them, keeping thofe Statutes, to commix with other People during the Term they were to be feparate. Still fuch occafional Statutes could not be fo good as the moral Law, which obliged always, and equally in all Places. These Severation-Rites from other Nations are called Statutes and Judgments. See Lev. xx. 22, &c. And that Law of Ordinances was impofed upon, that stiff-necked People, because of the great Tranfgreffion, IDOLATRY, of the Neighbour Nations, they were fo prone to. Idolatry then being as modifh, as French Fashions have been fince to fome People. accordingly interpofed his Authority, That after the idolatrous Doings of the Land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, fhall ye not do, and after the Doings of the Land of Canaan, whither I fhall bring ye, fhall ye not do, neither fhall ye walk in their Ordinance, Lev. xviii. 3. Ye shall be holy unto me, for I have fever'd you from other People, that ye fhould be mine, Lev. xx. 26. Tacitus accordingly represents their Character, Lib. XXI. As " People whofe religious Ufages were contrary to all the World befides, that what to others was moft facred, they accounted prophane, and on the contrary allowed and obferv'd what by others was forbidden.' And Dion Caffius affirms, They were diftinguifh'd from all others both in their Way of Living, and Religion," Lib. XXXVII.

God

in Hopes of the PROMISE of the Covenant CHAP. of Grace; which Covenant, as to the End of it, VIII. was couch'd under the Decalogue, wrote, not by Mofes, but by the Finger of the Mediator of it, upon Tables called the Tables of the Covenant, kept in an Ark, called the Ark of the Covenant: and as to the Mediator of it, veiled under the Prophecies, Types, and Shadows of the good Things to come; renew'd with Abraham in the Sanction of Faith, extended to all Nations four hundred and thirty Years before their Law by Mofes; these were the wondrous Things of God's Law, which David knew to be conceal'd, and prayed to have a clear Sight of. The High-Priest with his Gifts and Sacrifices was the Mediator of that old ritualiz'd Covenant; and ferv'd as a Figure and Parable (till the Time of Reformation) of the Mediator of the new and better; and the Offerings and Sacrifices of the former, which took away only ceremonial Impurities, the purifying of the Flesh, were a Figure of the Sins and Pollutions of Confcience, which could only by any poffibility be removed from any Sinner by the Blood of the Mediator of the Jecond; purifying and propitiating every Guilt pertaining to Confcience. In fhort, the whole of that Law was a School-mafter to bring them to Chrift, who was the real End and true Conftruction of it. The Jews first and fecond Covenant refpected Mofes, and the Meffiab; whilft the first and fecond Covenant with the human Race, had refpect to the first and fecond Adam, Chrift. The Reward of their firft Covenant, or School master, being confined to literal Canaan, was temporal Felicity, as well to every private Perfon, as to the publick, and without any Failure, as often as either of them kept up to the Righteoufnefs of duly ob

ferving

CHAP. ferving the Ceremonies thereof; in which Senfe VIII. the Obfervation of the Pfalmift held exactly true,

that he never faw the Righteous forfaken, nor their Seed begging their Bread. With refpect to the other Covenant and its Rewards, they were Strangers and Pilgrims of promifcuous Fortune.

In order to take our Nature upon him, he despised not to receive his mysterious Birth into this World from a Woman only; that as from a Woman was the Beginning of our Sin and Mifery, fo from a Woman might be the Begin ning of our Reftitution to Life and Happiness eternal. And who can queftion the Power of God, which is bounded by nothing but what is impoffible, or unfit to be done, being able to unite the Divine and Human Nature into one Christ or Mediator, equally confifting of both? Which reduces the Credibility of it, with respect to internal Evidence, to the fame Certainty with that of the Creation, which the Reason of Man cannot deny.

IF therefore Reafon allows God a Power of creating out of nothing; and fo many Abfurdities overtake the contrary Suppofition, that there is no Pretence for difbelieving, but a Neceffity of believing it: Why not allow, that God can make a new Thing, a fecond Adam, out of TWO SOMETHINGS; for the Redemption of Mankind, who had deftroyed themselves, after he had created them? Accordingly in Lukei. 35. the Son of God, who was therefore perfect God, taking our Nature from the Virgin's Womb, and united by Birth to the Son of Man, to be perfect Man alfo, is called the Son of the HIGHEST; the Power of the Highest shall over fhadow thee; nothing

nothing of that Sort is impoffible with God, ver. 37. CHAP. And Chrift is elsewhere called the Power, as VIII. well as the Wisdom of God unto Salvation, i Cor.

i. 24.

It was neceffary that he should be born in this extraordinary Way, that his Human Nature might be in the fame upright untainted State with that of the first Adam, as he came out of his Maker's Hands, and fo by his exemplary unerring Obedience therein, vindicate the Righteoufnels and the Practicableness of that moral Law given unto Man, fo exactly fuited to his Nature and the Relation between God and Man; and fo be free from any the leaft Sin of his own, when he offer'd up his Life for the Sins of the repenting World.

WHEN the Almighty undertakes to make one Perfon out of two Natures,, fhall vain Philofophy difpute and pretend a Difficulty how thefe Things can be? Efpecially when the two intelligent Agents, or Principles of Acting, confifting of Understanding, and Will, Divine, and Human, make one Perfon in the Senfe of Interpofer pro hac vice, (not an eternal Perfon) which Sort of Perfon the Mediator has taken up for a Time, to be laid down at the Confummation of all Things, when God will be all in all. Has not God made Man the Center and Connection between the Angelical and animal World? And when the reconciling all Things to Himfelf requires his Power and Wisdom, fhall there be wanting a competent Medium, confifting equally of his own uncreated Nature, and the created Nature of Man, true Son of God of a true Father; true Son of Man of a true Mother? More particularly, when there is

Q 3

little

VIII.

CHAP. little or no Objection as to the Difficulty of the manner how, but what is folv'd in the Perfon of the Objector, who is himself a Medium of immaterial and material Natures: Let him reconcile the Difficulties of that Matter of Fact, the Union of Soul and Body; and then he will be able to give an Account to himself, of the Union of God and Man, in the Person of Christ.

THEY must be minute Philofophers indeed, who can fuppofe the Power of God in Aid of his own Will and Pleafure, incapable of effecting an Union of the Divine and Human Nature. For to ask them in their own Way, after the manner of Men, is it not much easier to unite two Somethings, how different foever in Subftance and Effence, by a Copula they know nothing of, than to make a World (and perhaps innumerable many) out of Nothing? He is wonderful in his other Doings, why not in the Birth of him who is call'₫ wonderful?" The Souls of Men, fays Simplicius

on Epit. cap. 1. are fo contriv'd, as to link "together into one Perfon, an Heavenly and "Earthly Nature." Who then can fuggeft a Defect in Divine Power for uniting into one Perfon the Divine and Human Nature? Convenerunt fimul fempiterna Divinitas & temporalis Humanitas, &ea tenore facta eft utriufque naturæ Unitas, fays Cyprian. When the Power and the Spirit of the Higheft interpofes, how eafy is it for the exprefs Image of the Father to unite the made Image of God, made by the Word of God, to himfelf; in order to restore the loft Refemblance to its primitive Attitude and Afpect, to Truth and Virtue, and to the Love of both, in the Underftanding, Will, and Affections? They must be Strangers to true Reasoning in Philofophy, who

don't