that the full fignifies the church of the New Teftament, to understand by the thirsty, that which is oppressed with the cere monies; and immediately to undo all this, and turn the words to this meaning, that the full fall deftroy the thirty; that is, the Jews, who are zealous for the discarded ceremonies, who seem to themselves be to full, fhall perfecute thofe, that pant after Chrift. What is it to put white for black, if this is not? Can any thing more abfurd be devifed, than that one word fhould fignify, at the same time, the Christian church, which fuffers perfecution, and the congregation of the malignant Jews, who perfecute her? And yet learned men fondly please themselves with fuch inventions.

XXXI. What then, you will fay, is the genuine meaning of the words of Mofes ? I really think, it is plain and obvious. When any perfon commits, with pleasure, the crime he has conceived in his mind, he is faid, proverbially, " to drink iniquity as water," Job xv. 16. When a perfon ruminates on impious projects in his mind, he is as one that thirfteth after evil But when he executes his premeditated designs, he furfeits himfelf with diabolical delights, and becomes, as it were, fatiated, or drunk. Finely fays the celebrated Cocceius, on Zech. ix. §. 14. "Outrageous, favage men are faid to thirft after blood, and, while they fhed it with pleasure, are faid, to drink it, Rev. xvi. 6. What any one is delighted with, is said to be his meat, and he is faid to drink it as water, John iv. 34. Job xv. 16. and Job xxxiv. 7. To add, therefore, the drunken, or the fatiated, to the thirsty, is, not only to burn with an eager defire to commit wickednefs, but also to accomplish it by abominable actions, and to follow after it, till his mind, which is bent upon evil, is fully fatisfied. This the despisers of the deity do, who fecure in their crimes, call the proud happy, and give way in all things to their unbridled lufts. And these are they whom Mofes here describes. Should these things give less satisfaction, I recommend above others, the discourses of the very learned Lud. de Dieu, who is large on this paffage.

XXXII. They also feem to be as far from the meaning of Zechariah, who think, that he compares the condition of the fathers of the Old Testament, " to the pit wherein is no water," Zech. ix. 11. For, ift, Those very fathers fung, Pfal. xxiii. 2." he maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters." Which is quite different from the pit, wherein is no water. 2dly, We admit, as a most certain rule of interpretation, which the brethren ufually infift upon, that the words, unless any thing fhould hinder, are to be taken in their full import. But the emphafis is far greater, if, by the VOL. II.

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pit without water, we understand the condition of an unregenerate finner; who, while in himself, he is without Chrift, is wholly deftitute of all thofe things, which can yield him confolation, and quench his thirst after happinefs. And there is no reafon, why we may not thus explain it. For, the prophet fpeaks concerning what is impetrated by the blood of Chrift, which is the blood of the covenant, or New Testament, and fhed, not only to remove the yoke of ceremonies, but especially to abolish the bondage of fin. Why thall we confine what is fpoken, to that which is the lefs, fince the words may not only bear, but alfo perfuade, nay almoft conftrain us, to interpret them of what is greater? 3dly, The prophet here comforts the mourners in Zion, and promifes them deliverance from that evil, with which they were most of all oppreffed, and for which they expected a remedy from the Mefliah, who was to come. But that evil was not the bondage of ceremonies, which yielded little or no comfort; but rather the abyfs of fpiritual mifery, into which fin had plunged them. The yoke of which, under the devil, who exacts it of them, is infinitely more grievous, than that yoke of ceremonies, that God laid upon them. 4thly, Though the ceremonies, confidered in themselves, and separate from Chrift, could not yield fo much as a drop of comfort: yet the fathers were not, on that account, in a pít, wherein is no water. For, what they could not draw from the ceremonies, they drank out of the ftreams of divine grace, flowing from Chrift, an everlafting fountain, to whom they looked by their faith. We therefore dare not fay, the ancient condition of the fathers, was a pit, wherein is no water: though, with fcripture we maintain, that they had a thirst after better things; nevertheless they were not deftitute of the waters of faving grace, for their neceffary confolation.

I

CHA P. XIV.

Of the Abrogation of the Old Teftament.

T now remains, we fpeak of the abrogation of the Old Teftament, or of those things which were formely superadded to the covenant of grace, as fhadows, types, and fymbols of the Meffiah to come. For the more exact profecution of this fubject, we fhall proceed in the following order. I. Shew that the ancient ceremonies were of fuch a nature, that, in a

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way confiftent with the honour of God, they might be abrogated. II. Prove, that they were really and actually to be abrogated. III. Make it appear, that they ought, one time or other to be abrogated; and that it was not poffible the cafe should be otherwife. IV. Explain the progress itself and the various degrees of their abrogation.

II. To begin with the firft. The foundation of the moral laws, whofe perpetuity and unchangeablenefs is an unquestionable truth, is of a quite different nature, from that of the cere monial inftitutions, as appears from the following confiderations. ift, Because the former are founded on the natural and immutable holiness of God, which cannot but be the exemplar to rational. creatures; and therefore cannot be abolished, without abolishing the image of God: but the latter are founded on the free and arbitrary will of the lawgiver. And therefore only good, because commanded; and confequently, according to the different nature of times, may be either prefcribed, or otherwife prefcribed, or not at all prescribed. This diftinction was not unknown to the Jewish doctors; and hence was framed that of Maimonides, in præfat. Abhot. c. 6. fol. 23. col. 3. into intellectual precepts, whofe equity was felf-evident to the human understanding; and into thofe "apprehended by the hearing of the law," whose entire ground is refolved into the faculty of hearing, which receives them from the mouth of God. Concerning the former, the wife. men have faid that "if they were not written it was just they fhould:" concerning the latter Maimonides affirms, that "if the law had not been declared, thofe things, which are contrary to them, would not have, on any account, been evil.

III. 2dly, Because God himself frequently, on many accounts prefers the moral to the ceremonial precepts; and as the fame Maimonides, More Nevoc. P. 3. c. 32. has wifely obferved, God very often, by the prophets, rebukes men for their too great fondness and exceffive diligence in bringing offerings inculcating upon them, that they are not intended principally, and for themselves, and that himself has no need of them. Thus Samuel fpeaks, 1 Sam. xv. 22. "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and facrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" In like manner, Ifa. i. 11. "To what purpose is the multitude of your facrifices unto me? faith the Lord. And Jer. vii. 22. " for I fpake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day, that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or facrifices: but this thing commanded I them, faying, obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye fhall be my people." On this place Maimonides obferves. It seems ftrange, how Jeremiah fhould introduce

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God fpeaking in this manner, fince the greatest part of the precepts is taken up about facrifices and burnt-offerings: but he anfwers, the scope of these words is thus. The first intention certainly is, that ye cleave to me, and not ferve another, that I may be your God, and you my people. But this precept concerning offerings and my house, is given you to the end, you might learn it hence for your advantage. The parallel places are many, Pfal. 1. 9-11. Jer. vi. 2. Hof. vi. 6. Am. v. 22. If God, therefore, when these precepts were still in full force, rebukes men for their too great attachment to them, we speak nothing unworthy of God, when we affirm, that, for very weighty reasons, it was poffible, he fhould entirely abrogate them.

IV. 3dly, We add, that the church, without any prejudice to religion, was, for many ages, deftitute of the greatest part of the ceremonies; as the Jews themselves reckon two thousand years before the giving of the law. Why then could she not, without detriment to religion, afterwards want the fame ceremonies; in the practice of which, there was no intrinfic holinefs, nor any part of the image of God? This at least is evident, that they are not of the effence of religion, and that it was entirely in God's power to have made them either fewer or more in number, with even a ftricter obligation; or again entirely to abolish them.

V. Nor ought this to ftand in the way as any prejudice; that it was indeed convenient, that God should sometimes inftitute new ceremonies, to render religion more neat, graceful, and pompous; but not fo proper to abrogate what he had once inftituted; because both the inftitution of rites, which are afterwards wifely abrogated, and the abrogation of rites, which were wifely inftituted, equally argue fome defect of wisdom. But we are to have quite different conceptions of those things. God, indeed, in this matter has difplayed his manifold, and even his unchangeable wifdom, which is ever moft confiftent with itself, in fuiting himself to every age of his church: a more plain and eafy kind of worship became her firft and moft tender infancy: but a stricter and pedagogical discipline was better suited to her more advanced childhood, but yet childhood very unruly and headstrong. And adult and manly age required an ingenuous and decent liberty. Our heavenly Father therefore does nothing inconfiftent with his wifdom, when he removes the pedagogue, whom yet he had wifely given his fon during his nonage; and treats him, when he is now grown up, in a more free and generous manner.

VI. Moreover, as the ceremonies were not inftituted for themselves, but for fomething else, as we have juft had Maimonides confeffing, the fame wisdom, wherewith they were inftituted, requires, that when the reafon of the inftitution ceafes, they fhould ceafe alfo. But when the Meffiah is once manifefted, we shall in its proper, place make it appear, by invincible arguments, that thofe reafons ceafed, for which the ceremonies were inftituted. I am only now fhewing, that the ceremonies may be abrogated without any, even the least blemish on the wisdom and unchangeablenefs of God.

VII. But let us now proceed to the fecond head; namely, that God really intended they fhould ceafe in their appointed time. This is evident from the following arguments: Firft, The very institution of the ceremonies leads us to this: for, fince they were given to one people, with a limitation to their particular state, country, city, and temple, the legiflator never intended, that they fhould be binding on all whom he favours with faving communion with himself, and at all times and in all places. But this was really the cafe. And the Jews have always boafted in this, that the body of the Mofaic law was only given to their nation, " even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob," Deut. xxxiii. 4. And God confined it to their generations, Gen. xvii. 7. Lev. vii. 36. and Lev xxiv. 3. But as these generations are now confounded, and the Levites, by no certain marks, can be diftinguished from the other tribes, or the defcendants of Aaron from the other Levites; it follows, that the law ceases, which was confined to the diftinction of generations, which almoft all depended on the tribe of Levi, and the family of the priests. God alfo appointed a certain country for the obfervation of the ceremonies, Deut. vi. 14. Deut. iv. 1. and Deut. xi. 31, 32. a certain city and house, Deut. xii. 5, 13, 14, 16. Since therefore the prophets all along foretold, that the church should afterwards be enlarged, by having many nations added to it; who as they belong not to the generations of Ifrael, fo neither could they inhabit the fame country with them, nor meet in the fame city, much lefs house; it is evident, that the lawgiver never intended, that his people fhould, at that time, be bound to the practice of the ceremonies. For, as we fhall more fully prove in the fequel, the condition of the Ifraelites could not then be different from the other nations, fince all were to be united in one body with Ifrael.

VIII. This argument will have further ftrength when we fhall have obferved, that the reasons of moft of the ceremonies were altogether peculiar, and taken from the fpecial confid

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