Covenant still on which account it is promised of the New Covenant Heb. 8. 10. I will write my Law in their Hearts all which argue the perpetuity thereof 2. The Mount Sinai dispensation as a Covenant is not continuing It is generally granted that it is abrogated in respect of some circumstances fruits and effects of it as servile imbondaging fear and such like but I apprehend that none are under the obligation of it as a Covenant or Testament in Gospel times This may appear these waies 1. The succession of the New Covenant in the room and stead of the Old argue that it is not continuing for one must be removed when another taketh its place Deut. 2. vers 12 21 22. 25. vers 6. 19. vers 1. Now the new Covenant succeedeth the old the Hebrews were apt to be doting upon that made at Mount Sinai to take them off from it he telleth them of a better come in the place and stead of it Heb. 8. vers 8 9. and observe the contradistinction is between Covenant and Covenant not barely between circumstances and accidents of the same Covenant and vers 13. in that he saith a new Covenant he hath made the first old now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away It is the Covenant that is old and the same is said to vanish away and therefore it must needs be that the Sinai Covenant should cease and come to an end as Calvin saith because the second is of another quality It is true that the New Covenant in the substance of it or as a Covenant is found in that with Abraham though not under the notion of New for that is given it in opposition to the Old but it could not be said to succeed until the Old expired 2. The Ceremonial and Judicial Laws are generally granted to be abrogated and so the old Covenant as to them which make a considerable part of it is not continuing indeed the judicials as to their moral equity are deemed binding but not as they are a part of that Covenant for then they must oblige exactly as they stand in it these had a peculiar reference to the Jews They are called judgements Exod. 21. vers 1. determining of rights between man and man and of punishments upon transgressions with reference to the interest of that people in the land of Canaan saith Dr. O. on Hebrews pag. 275. and hence they cannot formally oblige others who have nothing in that Land As to Ceremonials the Apostle to evidence that they are abolished speaketh thus Heb. 7. vers 11 12. If therefore perfection were by the Levitical Priesthood c. where he asserteth perfection viz. as to remission of sin justification c. Heb. 10. vers 16 17 18. was not obtained by the Levitical Priesthood or legal sacrifices and performances but only by Jesus Christ who was typified therein this he proveth thus for under it the people received the Law which importeth that when they arrive at evangelical perfection they are free from the Law do not receive that viz. as a testament as vers 22. and he speaketh of the moral Law as distinguished from the Ceremonial and if perfection were by that saith he vers 11. what further need was there that another Priest should arise after the order of Melchisedeck and not be called after the order of Aaron The necessity of a new order of Priesthood argueth the imperfection of the old and thence he inferreth the abrogation of the Ceremonial Law Vers 12. For the Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change of the Law there is such a connexion between the Priesthood and the Law as they stand and fall together if one be abolished as the Aaronical Levitical Priesthood is of necessity the Ceremonial Law by which it stood must be abrogated also and he calleth it a carnal commandment vers 16. vers 18. for there is verily not only an altering and changing but a disanulling of the Commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof The same might also be cleared from Heb. 9. where he speaketh of Ceremonial usages and they were till the time of reformation they were the patterns and figures of heavenly things the substance being come the shaddow must vanish the antitype Jesus Christ being come the type must cease and O what a glorious priviledge is it that we have freedom from that load of burdensom ceremonies required in the Law There remaineth only the moral Law that any can suppose these promises and threatnings now to be annexed to and as to that 3. Jesus Christ hath perfectly satisfied and fulfilled the mount Sinai Moral Law as it was a Covenant for eternal life and therefore as such it is not still continuing it was impossible for us perfectly to obey the Law by reason of the infirmity of our flesh Rom. 8. vers 3 4. but whatever is demanded there in any of its Precepts as the condition of life Jesus Christ hath performed it for us Matth. 3. vers 15. 5. vers 17. and so hath brought in a perfect righteousness to be imputed to us Rom. 10. vers 4. 2 Corin. 5. vers 21. yet we are not exempted from all obedience to the Moral Law by his obeying perfectly in our stead for his righteousness was for one end viz. to merit eternal life for us Rom. 5. vers 21. our obedience is for other ends as to testifie our conformity and subjection unto God and so to glorifie him c. as his sufferings were for one end viz. to make satisfaction for our sin our afflictions and sufferings are for other ends and not for that Also he satisfied all the threatnings of the Sinai Covenant these all did meet upon him Gal. 3. vers 13. He was made a curse for us so that these faederal Precepts and Curses expire by satisfaction as the Judicial and Ceremonial Laws did by abrogation There remain then only the Promises of it and upon his satisfying the other he altereth these and turneth them from Conditional into absolute as we see in the New Covenant Hence whereas in the Sinai Covenant that cluster of promises concerning their being a peculiar treasure a Kingdom of Priests a holy Nation c. Exod. 19. vers 5 6. did run upon the condition of obedience If ye will obey Jesus Christ having done and suffered all which that Covenant could exact now he hath given all forth in an absolute form to believers and expresseth all as already accomplished unto them 1 Pet. 2. vers 9. But ye are a chosen generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation c. a peculiar people c. it is not now upon an If as in the Sinai Covenant but the promise is fulfilled to them and in Christ they are such as it was conditionally promised of old they should be Thus Rev. 1. vers 5 6. hath made us Kings and Priests unto Goâ— and his Father but how he hath loved us
THE DIFFERENCE Between the OLD and NEW COVENANT Stated and Explained WITH An Exposition of the Covenant of Grace in the Principal Concernments of it By SAMUEL PETTO Minister of the Gospel Isaiah 55. 3. I will make with you an everlasting Covenant even the sure mercies of David LONDON Printed for Eliz. Calvert at the Sign of the Black Spred-Eagle at the West end of St. Pauls 1674. TO THE READER IT is a matter of highest concernment unto the souls of men to have a special acquaintance with the Covenant of Grace the great Charter which all spiritual and eternal blessings are holden by and the way and means wherein they have their conveyance or are derived to them There are many useful Treatises already extant on this subject but still there are some weighty points referring to it as with Jesus Christ and especially concerning the Old mount Sinai Covenant and also the New which have need of farther clearing for the unfolding of many Scriptures the establishing the faith and promoting the comfort of Christians If it might be the fruit of my present undertaking to contribute any thing this way or to give light into those glorious mysteries so as God might be honoured thereby I should have my aim In order to the further opening of some matters insisted on in this Treatise I shall add that which followeth As the Covenant of Works was made with the first Adam and all his seed in him promising preservation in life upon condition of mans own perfect obedience to the will of God Gen. 2. 17. So the Covenant of Grace was made with Jesus Christ not meerly as God but as to be incarnate or designed to be Mediator as a second Adam and with a Gospel seed in him promising all spiritual blessings even eternal life and salvation upon the condition or consideration of his undergoing the curse and yielding perfect obedience to the Law on their behalf Isai 53. 10 11. Rom. 5. 6. to the end In this large sense it compriseth that between the Father and the Son for our redemption which was full of grace and did flow from the free favour of God to poor sinners 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 2. as well as that to or with us viz. the New Covenant for the application of what is promised thereupon which some speak of as if it only were the Covenant of Grace Thus its constitution was from eternity Tit. 1. 2. though its revelation was in time to Adam Abraham David c. Gen. 3. 15. 12 c. Now that being the condition of the Covenant of Grace that the righteousness of the Law should be performed or all the demands of it as to duty and penalty answered by Jesus Christ hence it was necessary that there should be some means for his coming actually under our very obligation to that end the Lord in infinite wisdom made a revival or repetition of the Covenant of works as to the substance of it with a new intent in the Covenant at Mount Sinai which did run upon Do and Live Gal. 3. 10 12. not that Israel should have eternal life by their own doing but that Jesus Christ should be born under the very Law that we were obliged by Gal. 4. 4. Not meerly to make a valuable satisfaction by something in lieu of it for his taking our nature and making intercession or other works of his being of infinite merit and valùe might then have served the turn without his sufferings but as that word Gen. 2. 17. required to undergo the very curse and to fulfil the very righteousness of it in our stead which he did accordingly and herein especially consisteth our redemption Gal. 3. 12. Gal. 4. 4 5. The fulfillng the Old and confirming the New Covenant are the immediate effects of his death He stood therein as the Mediator not of the Old but of the New Testament Heb. 9. 15. therefore he died not meerly to procure a New Covenant or that God might with honour deal with men upon new terms but to make good the terms or conditions of the New The Mount Sinai Covenant with reference to the matter of it may be said to express the Legal Condition of the Covenant of Grace as to be fulfilled by Jesus Christ even as the New Covenant holdeth forth the blessings promised unto us that condition being performed by him These are matters so distinct as I hope none will take offence that I as I have explained my self speak of the Old and New as two distinct Covenants when compared each with other as Gal. 4. 24. Heb. 8. Seeing I do not assert that at Sinai to be a Covenant of works for eternal life to Israel upon their obedience to it as some would have it rather its reference is wholly to that of grace though it be not the whole of it Neither do I assert two Covenants of Grace or ways of salvation for substance distinct But whereas it is usually judged that the Old is one and the same with the New differing from it only in some circumstances and accidents as rigorous exaction of duty by fear terror c. I on the other hand think that spiritual blessings were dispensed out by the Covenant with Abraham and though Israels obedience to the Moral Law was on another account a fruit of holiness and sanctification yet as the same obedience had relation to the Mount Sinai Covenant so it ushered in only temporals to them even as a child oweth obedience to his Father by a natural obligation but if a Father should promise an estate upon some acts of the same obedience then they would be cloathed with a double respect or have a double use so here The Mount Sinai Covenant being thus opened many Scriptures will be explained and it will be discovered what those works of the Law are which we are so often denied to have justification by viz. All works performed by our selves as the least of a righteousness unto justification or which cometh to the same as a condition giving right and title to Salvation Act. 15. 1. Rom. 9. 30 31 32. Phil. 3. 9. It is only the Obedience of Jesus Christ to the Law that availeth to these ends The Apostle industriously proveth that men have not such eternal mercies by their own works morla or ceremonial either without or in conjunction with Jesus Christ Rom. 3. 20. 9. 3. Gal. 3. 11 21. Gal. 5. 4. the seeking to be justified or saved thereby is opposite unto true sanctification whence discourses thereof are often interwoven in the Epistle to the Romans and Galatians It 's true the very works of the Law of Moses are most particularly opposed because the controversie of that day with the Jews and Judaizing professors of Christianity was concerning these yet if men give any other works the same place and office by acting upon a legal ground they become as works of the Law and the Apostles arguments are equally forcible against them For he
wilderness of Sinai and both the matter of the Covenant and manner of its promulgation we see in that and the following Chapters It is a conditional grant it promiseth nothing but upon the condition of obedience Exod. 19. vers 5. If ye will obey my voice and keep my Covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure All is upon an If So Levit. 26. vers 3 4 c. If ye walk in my Statutes and keep my Commandments and do them then will I give you rain c. The like in many other places all Promises run there upon the condition of keeping his Commandments The whole Law is generally distributed into three parts viz. Moral Judicial and Ceremonial no Precept but may be referred to one of these and obedience to all of them is required as the condition of this Sinai Covenant or all are comprised therein 1. The Moral Law is such a principal part of it as it beareth the very name of the Covenant and the Table thereof are called the Tables of the Covenant Exod. 34. vers 28. Deut. 9. vers 9 11 15. Yea the terrible appearances of God in thundrings and lightnings and the noise of the Trumpet was at the promulgation of the Moral Law before the Ceremonial was given forth Exod. 19. vers 16. Exod. 20. 1 to 19. So that the first constitution of the Sinai Covenant was only of the Moral Law it is very observable that Moses having rehearsed these very Commandments Deut. 5. he closeth up thus vers 22. These words the Lord spake unto your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire of the Cloud and of the thick darkness and he added no more i. e. in making this Covenant he added no more than these Moral Precepts although he reserved to himself a liberty to add the Coremonials afterward yet for the present he did not indeed virtually they were contained therein but not actually before the discovery of them any more than Gospel Institutions which Israel was not obliged to until revealed and after that were equally reducible thereunto The holy God that he might tame their rebellious Spirits he cometh in this terrible way requiring exact obedience to the Moral Commandments and added no more At the first hand he revealed no way for their relief and succour yet then before any Ceremonials were added it made a Covenant vers 2. Even when the people could see nothing but wrath and a curse before them they were forbidden coming up into the Mount upon pain of death and so were not admitted to familiar converses with God must have dreadful tokens of a Divine presence as a consuming fire and in that respect the Sinai Covenant is opposed to the New Heb. 12. vers 18. to vers 25. For ye are not come to the Mount that might be touched and that burnt with fire c. That is ye are not come to Mount Sinai and the terrour of that Old Covenant but ye are come to Mount Sion To Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant 2. The Judicial Laws belong to it these are called Judgements Exod. 21. 1. and obedience unto them is urged therein upon as strict terms as to the other Levit. 18. ver 4 5. Ye shall therefore do my Judgements Ye shall therefore keep my Statutes and my Judgements which if a man do he shall live in them I am the Lord. Here keeping his Judicial Laws is urged as necessary unto Life 3. The Ceremonial Law also appertaineth to the Sinai Covenant For the Apostle mentioneth the Levitical Priesthood and Sacrifices c. as belonging to the Old Testament and preferreth the Ministry of Jesus Christ before it even in the Text in that he is a Mediator not of the Old but of the New Testament Heb. 7 and 8. Chap. Heb. 9. ver 1 2 3 c. ver 15. These Ceremonial Laws were called by the name of Statutes containing Institutions of worship and are urged also on as strict terms as the Moral Lev. 18. v. 5. Ye shall therefore keep my Statutes and my Judgements which if a man do he shall live in them These Positive Precepts his Statutes run upon those terms do and live and therefore belong to the Law in the strict sense Rom. 10. ver 5. Yea exact obedience to these ceremonials is required on pain of the Curse Deut. 26. ver 27. compared with Gal. 3. vers 10. So Levit. 26. vers 2 3 4 14 15. He injoyneth reverencing his Sanctuary and keeping his Statutes and Judgements threatening deâ—th upon the neglect thereof and Verse 46. These are the Satutes and Judgements and Laws which the Lord made between him and the Children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses and also he closeth up the Book of Leviticus thus Levit. 27. vers 34. These are the Commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the Children of Israel in mount Sinai By which it is evident that those Laws contained in that Book of Leviticus of which many are ceremonial and judicial as well as moral do belong to the Sinai Covenant So also do some contained in the Book of Numbers compare Numb 19. vers 3 4. with Heb. 9. vers 13. and 13. vers 11. And also some contained in the Book of Deuteronomy for the Apostle mentioneth that as part of the Law Gal. 3. vers 10. which is drawn from Deut. 26. vers 27. I do not say that all things in those Books are to be esteemed as parts of the Sinai Covenant For some matters are not of a federal nature as the taking the summ of the Congregation Numb 1. the order of their Tribes Numb 2. the stories of their murmuring Numb 10. vers 33. to the end Numb 11. vers 1. c. of Miriams case Numb 12. of the Spies searching the Land Numb 13 and 14. of the rebellion of Korah Numb 16. of Balaam and Balak Chap. 23 and 24. of Israels journeys Chap. 33. and many other stories as Deut. 1 and 2 and 3. These are not included in it but whatever scattered up and down in those Books hath the nature of such a Covenant in it whereof obedience is the condition that is to be deemed as belonging to the Sinai Covenant The Ceremonial Law came in by way of addition to the other after an apparent interval upon their desiring a Mediator that might receive the Law for and declare it to them Exâ—d 20. 19 24 25 26. and Exod. 21 and 22 and 23 Chapt. There was a solemnization and ratification of all upon the peoples promising to fulfill it Exod. 24. God himself uttered the Moral Law to the people with great terrour but the Ceremonial although it did after belong to the Sinai Covenant yet was revealed to Moses in the Mount without those thundrings and lightenings which the other was attended with I have wondred what should be the reason of these additional things But I consider that temporal mercies being promised by that Covenant unto Israel upon their
still be come up to only under the Covenant of Works man was personally to perform it for himself but now Jesus Christ is admitted to work out this perfect righteousness of the Law for him Rom. 5. vers 18 19. By the obedience of one i. e. of Jesus Chist many are made righteous Hence he is said to be made of God to us wisdom and righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. and we are said to be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. vers 21. It is not the righteousness of a meer man but of one who is also God that we must stand in Now the Sinai Covenant is a Platform of the legal righteousness which was indispensibly necessary unto Life there it is deciphered delineated and described more clearly than in any other federal expressurn The Sinai Covenant excelleth all other in discovering what that righteousness is upon which we enjoy Eternal Life The Promissory part of the Covenant of Grace is more fully revealed in other federal expressures as that with Abraham David and the New Covenant but the Mandator and Minatory part of it in order to Life the duty to be performed and the Curse to be indured is most fully set forth in that a◠Mount Sinai Adam was obliged to a righteousness in obedience to a Position Command of not eating of the Tree o◠Knowledge Gen. 2. vers 17. as well a◠to Moral Commands answerably in the Sinai Law there is a righteousness required of the same kind standing in obedience to many Positive and ceremonial Commands and this was fulfilled by Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 did take it as his Office to fulfill not only some but all righteousness Mat. 3. 15. And also the righteousness of the Moral Law Mat. 5. vers 17 18. he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it he yielded obedience to the Moral Commands yea and satisfied Heb. 9. 15. even for transgressions that were under the first Testament 2. The Sinai Covenant denounceth a dreadful Curse which can be undergone by none but Jesus Christ upon the least failing of perfect obedience and therefore expresseth the legal condition of the Covenant of Grace to be performed by Christ or is a Covenant of Works as to be fulfilled by him for that only threatneth a Curse upon the least imperfection in point of obedience Now the Sinai Law doth that Gal. 3. vers 10. For as many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them The Law then runneth upon such terms as if a man should perform never so many acts of obedience yet if he should not come up to all that is written in the Book of the Law it curseth him If he should come up to all yet if he did not continue therein it curseth him it exacteth perfect obedience upon pain of a Curse Nothing can more fully express the nature of a Covenant of Works than this that with Adam in innocency cannot be one if this be not so For there is no more in that then if thou Eatest thou shalt Die and there is as much here if thou dost not all thou shalt be Cursed and yet the Apostle is not speaking here of the very Covenant with Adam in innocency but of one in the matter of it resembling that made a long time after even at Mount Sinai For he saith it is written thus now it is in Moses Law long after Adam that this was written viz. Deut. 27. vers 26. He speaketh of it as belonging to the Sinai Law as expressing the renour of that and he doth not mention it only as the opinion of the false Prophets amongst the Galations but as the intention of the Divine Law it self it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all Yea further let it be observed the scope of the Apostle is to evidence the impossibility of attaining Justification by the Works of the Law for saith he as many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse and why Because it is impossible that any meer man should continue in all that is written in the Law the best of men will have some sinful infirmities and imperfections and the least transgression layeth under a Divine Curse according to that Law which must be undergone either by men themselves and that would sink and ruine them for ever or else by Jesus Christ and then the legal condition is performed by him for them 3. Jesus Christ by coming under and fulfilling the Sinai Covenant did work out Redemption for us and therefore that did hold forth not only an obedience to be performed by Israel but also such as was a legal condition of the Covenant of Grace to be performed by Jesus Christ For surely that whereby we are redeemed was not any work of Israel they did not redeem themselves or us but a work of Jesus Christ answering the demand of the Covenant of Grace which is for Redemption Now Gal. 4. vers 4 5. God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law He speaketh of that Law by which they were held in bondage before the Incarnation of Jesus Christ vers 3. which was that at mount Sinai vers 24. and a great design or end of his coming is said to be to Redeem them that were under the Law how this was accomplished or brought about is declared viz. by his being made under the Law and therefore thereby he performed the condition of Redemption Indeed I think one great end of God in bringing Israel under this Sinai Covenant was to make way for Christ his being born or made under the Law in order to the fulfilling of it for us I do not see how by any visible dispensation Jesus Christ could have been born actually under the Law if this Sinai Covenant had not been made For the Covenant of Works with the first Adam being violated it was at an end as to the promising part it promised nothing after once it was broken it remained in force only as to its threatning part it menaced Death to all the sinful seed of Adam but admitted no other into it who were without sin either to perform the righteousness of it or to answer the penalty it had nothing to do with an innocent person after broken for it was never renewed with man again as before therefore an admitting an innocent person as Jesus Christ was into it must be by some kind of repetition or renewing of it though with other intendments than at first viz. that the guilty persons should not fulfill it for themselves but that another a surety should fulfill it for them Some medium or means there must be whereby this innocent person Jesus Christ might be taken into it and come under the very same Law that was broken to fulfil the righteousness and
Cor. 3. Israels obedience is required for its due and proper end but yet under that the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ is principally intended for a higher end viz. Eternal Life for it is applyed unto Christ and the fulfilling of the Law and delivering us from it is ascribed unto him 6. The great difficulties about this Sinai Covenant vanish if we understand it primarily of the legal condition of the Covenant of Grace to be performed by Jesus Christ and any other way they will hardly be removed The tenour of it plainly is Do and Live and Cursed is he that doth not here lieth the difficult of it Hence on the one hand some account that at Sinai a Covenant of Works to Israel and deny it to be a Covenant of Grace or to belong to that it requiring perfect obedience and not dispensing with one offence Gal. 3. vers 10. There being a Curse annexed to the breaking of it as a blessing to the keeping of it even to doing vers 10. The Seed of it being out-casts Gal. 4. the latter end Now all such Objections melt away if we understand it of the Covenant of Grace as to its legal condition to be fulfilled by our Surely immediately it was thus Covenanted by Israel but terminatively it looked at a performance by Jesus Christ that he should be the only doer for Life and thus a perfect doing was aimed at in the Sinai Covenant and thus it was perfectly fulfilled by Jesus Christ no offence dispenced with the Curse fully undergone by him and they that crowd into the place of Jesus Christ in it and would fulfill it for that end he did even for Eternal Life they are the Seed which are the out-casts On the other hand some assert the Sinai dispensation to be an admistration of the Covenant of Grace only gradually or accidentally and in some circumstances differing from other federal expressures even from the New Covenant Whereas all the blessings of the New are promised as precious Fruits and effects of a pre-supposed accomplishment of the Old by Jesus Christ It is easie to discover the invalidity of other interpretations of Do and Live in the Sinai Covenant which confine the Doing to Israel and do not extend it primarily to Jesus Christ As Say some it is not spoken of the Law abstractly and separately considered but of the Law and the Promise joyntly or as including the Promise But this doth not satisfie for the Apostle saith the Law is not of Faith Gal. 3. vers 12. and addeth but the man that doth them shall live in them Therefore the Law speaketh of such a doing for Life as doth not include the Promise for then it should be of Faith Nay plainly it is a doing directly opposite to believing in the matter of Justification and Life Levit. 18. vers 5. with Rom. 10. vers 5 6. Gal. 3. vers 12. viz. if any men undertake to be the Doers Say others it is not Do and Live by Doing but in Doing Christians live in obedience though not by obedience But this doth not satisfie For it is such a doing as maketh up a righteousness unto Life and is contradistinguished from the righteousness of Faith Rom. 10. vers 5 6. and hence it cannot be meant only of sincere or Evangelical obedience to be performed by Christians at all times but vastly differeth therefrom Say others This Do and Live hath not reference to the Moral Law only but to the Ceremonial also Neither doth this satisfie for there is no ground to exclude the Moral Law it was such a Law as concluded all under sin Gal. 3. 22. Besides the difficulty is the same whether it be by one or the other If in Do and Live a ceremonial doing were intended for Israel that would speak as much for its being a Covenant of Works as if it were a Moral doing even that with Adam in innocency did run upon a Positive Precept concerning Eating or not Eating that Fruit Gen. 2. vers 17. Neither doth the Lord here make a repetition of the Covenant of Works to put them upon their choice whether they would be saved by Working or Believing For they were already within the Covenant of Grace and had the Lord for their God Exod. 20. 1. And doubtless the Lord would not leave them to a liberty to go back from that Grace much less would he enter into such a solemn Covenant as that at Sinai was with them for that end to open a door for their crossing his grand design of free Grace Say others If we look upon the Law separately so it standeth upon opposite terms but if you look upon it relatively as it hath respect to the Promise so those opposite terms have their subservient ends to the Promise and Grace convincing of our sin and impotency c. The Law considered absolutely in it self as Gal. 4. vers 21 to the end so it is nothing else but a Covenant of Works but considered respectively and rerelatively as Gal. 3. vers 17. to Gal. 4. vers 21. and so it is not a Covenant of Works Now it is true that the Sinai Covenant was designed for the ends of the Covenant of Grace or of the Gospel for the Apostle putting the Question Is the Law against the Promise Gal. 3. vers 21. He Answereth God forbid we must then so understand the Sinai Law as in respect of its design and end it may not be against the Promise vers 24. The Law was our Schoolmaster until Christ yet it was for a Gospel end not that we might be justified by the Law but that we might be justified by Faith But still the difficulty remaineth in that separately and absolutely considered it is the Sinai Covenant and runneth upon Do and Live Yea it gendreth to bondage Gal. 4. vers 24. Even as it is the Sinai Covenant It would not conduce to those ends the convincing of sin humbling for it exciting to believing c. But by its own inability for the getting of Life and the avoiding of the Curse as Arguments that way it is therefore presupposed as such a Covenant before its usefulness to these ends Neither can we imagine that the great God would trifle with men in entring into such a solemn Covenant with them on those terms Do and live if there must not be this very doing here intended by some or other or else no life to be attained and it is perfect doing that is called for as I have proved which could not be fulfilled by Israel they were utterly unable for it Gal. 3. vers 21. and therefore it is a doing by Jesus Christ for them that is there intended Say others The Law is taken largely for the whole Doctr ine and Administration of the Sinai Covenant and so it holdeth forth life upon believing in Christ Rom. 10. vers 4. Gal. 3. vers 23 24. and is a Covenant of faith or it is taken strictly as it is an abstracted rule of
possibly by another Covenant But for the clearing of that Sinai dispensation and preventing some ill effects even in practice of misunderstanding the nature thereof I shall add 4. It is probable that Spiritual and Eternal blessings were not dispenced out to Israel by the Old Sinai Covenant but only were typically represented therein I take the main purport and design of it to be under that servile administration of the Covenant of Grace to point out the higher and more Spiritual matters thereof and to shew that as upon literal Israels performing the obedience which was required of them as a condition thereof they did injoy temporal blessings therein promised to them so upon the performance of the main condition thereof by Jesus Christ even perfect obedience the true Spiritual Israel should enjoy the Spiritual blessings promised unto them So that Temporal blessings were afforded by the Sinai Covenant but Spiritual blessings were not dispenced out thereby This with submission to better Judgements seemeth to me to be so upon these among other grounds 1. No life was attainable by Israels performing of the Sinai Covenant and therefore other Spiritual blessings were not dispenced out to them thereby Gal. 3. ver 21. For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law The great blessings then of the Covenant of Grace viz. life could not be had by their obedience to the Sinai Law of which he there speaketh Ver. 17. And therefore neither could other blessings be had thereby which had their dependance upon and issued from that As Christians are not now so Israelites were not then to do for Life That Moses and Aaron must not enter into the Promised Canaan but go up to the Mount and die may be to signifie that the Sinai Covenant would not give an entrance into the heavenly Canaan Moses obtained that not through the works of the Law but in a way of Faith 2. Spiritual blessings were not dispenced out upon the condition of Israels obedience to the Sinai Covenant for they often violated that Covenant Jer. 31. ver 32. Which Covenant they brake And therefore their Spiritual mercies had been forseited and lost if they had been dispenced out then upon the condition of their keeping that Covenant seeing they come so much short of it whereas there was no falling from special Grace in that day any more than now When they had made a forfeiture of their temporal mercies therein Promised by breaking of it they were forced to make another plea Exod. 34. ver 13. Remember Abraham Isaac and Israel thy Servants to whom thou swarest by thine own self c. When the anger of the Lord waxed hot against Israel ver 11. for committing Idolatry by making the Calf Moses doth not plead that made at Sinai but fleeth from that to the Covenant with Abraham for their relief Indeed there was an external representation of Spirituals in the Sinai Covenant As they making attonement and offering Sacrifices for diverse sins it is said they should be forgiven them Levit. 4. ver 26 27 28 29 31. Levit. 5. ver 10 13 16 18. Num. 15. ver 28. But no real attonement was made thereby for the Law made nothing perfect Heb. 7. ver 19. Heb. 9. ver 9. No real forgiveness was afforded by these acts of obedience unless so far as that those sins should not hinder their attaining the temporal mercies promised in that Covenant or that the temporal Curses of it should not be inflicted these did but typically represent the Spiritual forgiveness which they by another Covenant even that with Abraham should attain unto Thus their entring into Covenant with the Lord is said to be that he might establish them that day for a people to himself and that he might be unto them a God Deut. 29. ver 12 13. They were thereby owned or confirmed in a federal relation unto God but so as upon their miscarriages he could say to them Loammi Hos 1. ver 9. Ye are not my people and I will not be your God and therefore it was externally only that they were his and he theirs by that Covenant 3. The ceremonials which seemed most to intimate the dispencing out of Spiritual blessings were only typical representations thereof these were but shaddows of heavenly things Heb. 8. ver 5. The forgiveness of sin in the Sinai Covenant was such as not to have temporal punishments inflicted and thus it was but a shaddow of the real and true forgiveness which in opposition thereunto is restrained unto Jesus Christ Heb. 9 and 10. Chapters Their acceptance was unto some end viz. so as to be priviledged with their temporal mercies and it was but a shaddow of Spiritual acceptation Their long Life in Canaan a shaddow of Eternal Life in Heaven Spiritual blessings seem not to be dispenced out but only to be signified by these 4. Those that look for Spiritual blessings only by the Sinai Covenant and their personal performance of it are excluded from being sharers in them Gal. 4. ver 30. Cast out the Bondwoman and her Son for the Son of the Bondwoman shall not be Heir with the Son of the Free-woman The Bondwoman is expresly said to be the mount Sinai Covenant or Testament this is Hagar ver 24. and that as a Covenant must be cast out and also those that are the seed of it begotten to a profession only in a legal way by legal duties or terrours those that stand upon an Old Covenant bottom and put themselves under that shall not inherit shall not be Heirs of the everlasting Inheritance it is another an opposite seed begotten by a Gospel Promise which shall injoy that and therefore that Sinai Covenant was not intended that Souls should have Spiritual and everlasting blessings dispenced out by yielding obedience unto that for then its seed should inherit as well as the other but that by the sight of the impossibility of their keeping it they might be provoked to become the Children of the Free-woman which are born by Promise by a distinct Covenant Neither doth he speak in these things of the Law only taken abusively in the sense urged and intended by the false Prophets but really in its self as it was established by God at mount Sinai For as an Argument to draw them off from the errours of the false Prophets he saith ver 21 22. Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law do ye not hear the Law for it is written that Abraham had two Sons one by the Bondwoman the other by a Free-woman c. And further that these were an antient Allegory foreshewing two Covenants or Testaments the one gendering to bondage whose seed must be cast out as giving no inheritance and therefore he concludeth that the Lord himself in giving that Covenant at mount Sinai never intended that it should be for communicating of the eternal inheritance unto the Sons of men he telleth them that
they did hear the Law and this was the language thereof that those who are born by it or are the seed of it are not of the Free Promise and must be cast out they are excluded even by the Law it self from the eternal inheritance therefore it was alwaies an abuse of it to expect the dispencing out of Spiritual blessings thereby the Lord ordained another way viz. the Free Promise for that end CHAP. VIII Of the Sinai Covenant whether ceased or continuing IT is Questioned by some Whether the mount Sinai Covenant be still continuing so as Christians are laid under the obligation of it in Gospel times I may premise that it is called the Law Mal. 4. 4. Rom. 7. and a Covenant or Testament Exod. 34. 23. Deut. 4. 13. Jer. 31. 31 32. Gal. 4. 24. Answ The moral Law which was contained in the Sinai dispensation is still obliging but consider it as a Covenant or Testament and so it is not continuing Cessavit lex ut norma est operum naturae ex formula foederis operum manet vero iis qui in Christo sunt ut est regula operum gratiae saith Rolloc de Vocat Cap. 2. 1. The moral Law as an external Rule of obedience is universally and perpetually obligatory to the Sons of men Some circumstances as the coming out of Egypt and prolonging the daies in the Land i. e. in Canaan Exod. 20. 2 12. were peculiar to the Children of Israel and it is union with Jesus and an internal vital principle that all acceptable obedience no weth from Joh. 15. 5. but the substance of the ten Commandments is still obliging For 1. The moral Law is a perfect rule of righteousness and conformity to the Will of God and therefore is perpetual All good is commanded and all evil forbidden there 1 Joh. 3. ver 4. Sin is the transgression of the Law The very description of sin is fetched thence that if we be bound not to sin then we are to keep the Law Mat. 4. 4. Remember the Law of Moses and this referreth to the times of the Gospel when the Sun of righteousness ariseth with healing in his wings Indeed it is a repetition of the Law of Nature which is ingraven upon the hearts of those which are most barbarous Rom. 2. 14 15. The work of the Law is upon their hearts and therefore so long as the Nature continueth the obligation to the Law of it must also be continuing Rom. 7. 13. The Law is holy and the Commandment holy just and good whatsoever therefore is opposite to it must be unholy unjust and evil The same moral Law that was delivered at mount Sinai was before and since as it referred to the Free Promise a rule of inward holiness Sanctification and obedience and had Spiritual injoyments attending of it as it had relation to the Sinai Covenant and its end so it ushered in temporal mercies unto Israel 2. The Lord hath declared his approbation of conformity to the moral Law and with great severity witnessed against disconformity to it in all Ages Long before the Sinai ministration Abel is commended for his Faith owning and Worshipping the true God and Cain for the contrary disapproved Gen. 4. 4. Heb. 11. There was a reverend use of the Name of God Gen. 14. 19 20. The Sabbath Instituted Gen. 2. 3. Superiours honoured Gen. 9. 23. and 22. 7. Murther witnessed against in Cain Adultery and Unchastity punished in raining Fire and Brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah Abraham reproved for bearing false witness saying of Sarah she is my Sister Laban accused for defranding and coveting Gen. 31. 7 8 9. So that though the wording of it in the formality of ten Commandments was at mount Sinai yet immoralities were ever sinful Yea in the times of the New Testament Jesus Christ declareth his observing the waies actings and inclinations of men and some are blamed others commended even in his Churches Rev. 2. and 3. the least swarvings from the rule are sinful 3. The Natural tendency of the moral Law is to promote love Jesus Christ himself is giving the Epitome and summ of the Law and reduceth all the ten to two great Commandments Mat. 22. ver 36. to 41. viz. Love to God and the Neighbour Doubtless men are obliged at all times to let the Streams of their Love run out towards God to Love him with all their Heart with all their Soul with all their Mind and to Love their Neighbours as themselves and upon these two hang all the Law and Prophets ver 40. Yea the fulfilling of these is the keeping of the Law 4. The moral Law is explained and obedience to it earnestly pressed in the times of the Gospel to free it from the false glosses of the Jewish Rabbins Jesus Christ himself giveth an explication of it Mat. 5. declaring that not only grosser acts are to be avoided but whatsoever hath a tendency that way unchast looks unclean thoughts are sinful ver 28. Christians are under an obligation not only to sincere but to perfect obedience unto the royal Law of liberty Jam. 1. 15. so as the least failing of it it sinful though it doth not bring believers under condemnation Yielding Worship to God is duty still Mat. 4. 10. as the way to withstand Satan in his temptations and the duties of the second Table are plainly urged Eph. 6. 3. Rom. 13. 8. Love is undeniably a duty in Gospel times and the fulfilling of the Law is wrapt up in it ver 9. Thou shalt not commit Adultery thou shalt not Steal thou shalt not bear false Witness thou shalt not Covet These Commandments then are in force still and the Romans who were Christians of the Gentiles were under the obligation of them and therefore they are perpetual Yea Jesus Christ owneth them as his Joh. 15. 10. If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love c. keeping these by believing and loving one another is the way to the manifestations of his Love this of Love he calleth a new Commandment Joh. 13. 34. Indeed this putteth sweetness into it Christians are under the Law but it is to Christ 1 Cor. 9. 21. to their Mediatour who satisfied for their breaking of it they take it not from the hand of Moses in its terrour and rigour but from the hand of Jesus Christ who hath Redeemed from the curse of it The first Tables which were the work of God were quickly broken Exod. 32. 16 19. but the second Tables that were to be hewed by Moses a typical Mediatour they were more durable of longer continuance and then the Lord proclaimeth his pardoning Mercy Exod. 34. 1 4 6. The moral Law in the hand of Jesus Christ the true Mediator is abiding and pardoning Grace and mercy experienced under it Of old the Ark of the Covenant had only the moral Law put into it not the ceremonial Deut. 10. 2. to note this was to be abolished but the Moral to abide with the