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prefs those that are thirfty; and afterwards harrafs thofe that are filled. And these things are fo joined, as, taken together, to complete the full meaning of the words. See Ult. Mofis, §. 121-138. and Lexicon ad vocem. But I think, that as these things are altogether new; fo they are remote from the meaning of Mofes, for the following reafons.

XXX. Ift, Because in thefe words, Mofes defcribes the language of an idolater, whofe heart is turned away from the Lord God, to go after the worship of the gods of the Gentiles, and who, having renounced all fear of God, flights the folemn engagements of the covenant, and notwithstanding this, promifes peace to himself, ver. 16, 28. fuch as were thofe of whom Jer. xliv. 17. But furely fuch an idolater as this, can give himself no trouble to force New Teftament believers, who are free, to fubmit to the yoke of the Mofaic bondage, which he himself has fhaken off, and has in abhorrence. 2dly, The person whom Mofes here reprefents, is one of abandoned impiety, which he himself does not fo much as conceal, and an avowed defpifer of God and religion: but they, whom the celebrated interpreter imagines to be here pointed out, put on a great appearance of fanctity, and, in all their actions, made religion a pretence; as is well known from the gospel-history. 3dly, If the thirty fignifies the church of the Old Teftament, and the watered, the church of the New; to add the watered to the thirsty, can only fignify, to add the New Teftament church, to that of the Old, and join both together: which the scripture declares was done by Chrift, Eph. ii. 13. and Eph. iii. 6. But it is one thing to add the fatiated to the thirsty; another to reduce the fatiated to the condition of the thirsty. The obftinate zealots for the ceremonies are no where said to have joined to themselves the free Chriftians; but rather to have feparated them from themselves, and expelled them the fynagogues, Ifa. lxv. 5. and Ifa. Ixvi. 5. 4thly, As there can be only one literal sense, it is afferted, contrary to all rules of right interpretation, that the word, can, in the very fame propofition, be taken for, partly, to destroy, or confume; partly, to join and unite; and the participle ns, partly, for y, with; partly, for the fign of the accufative. It is one thing, under the general fignification of one word, to comprize more things pertaining to the fame fignification, which often takes place in explaining scripture: another, to afcribe to the fame word, at the fame time, different, or opposite fignifications; which is contrary to all reafon. If m fignifies here to join, it cannot fignify to destroy. If n fignifies with, it cannot be the fign of the accufative. 5thly, What is more abfurd, than, after having established at large,

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that the full fignifies the church of the New Teftament, to understand by the thirsty, that which is oppreffed with the cere monies; and immediately to undo all this, and turn the words to this meaning, that the full fhall deftroy the thirfty; that is, the Jews, who are zealous for the difcarded ceremonies, who seem to themselves be to full, fhall perfecute those, that pant after Christ. What is it to put white for black, if this is not? Can any thing more abfurd be devised, than that one word fhould fignify, at the fame time, the Chriftian 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 Moses? I really think, it is plain and obvious. When any person 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 defigns, 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 thirst after blood, and, while they fhed it with pleasure, are faid, to drink it, Rev. xvi. 6. What any one is delighted with, is faid to be his meat, and he is faid to drink it as water, John iv. 34. Job xy. 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 wickedness, 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 defpifers 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 Moses here describes. Should these things give less fatisfaction, I recommend above others, the discourses of the very learned Lud. de Dieu, who is large on this paffage.

XXXII. They also seem to be as far from the meaning of Zechariah, who think, that he compares the condition of the fathers of the Old Teftament, "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 paftures, he leadeth me befide 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 usually 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 those things, which can yield him confolation, and quench his thirst after happiness. And there is no reason, 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 Teftament, and fhed, not only to remove the yoke of ceremonies, but especially to abolish the bondage of fin. Why fhall we confine what is fpoken, to that which is the lefs, fince the words may not only bear, but also perfuade, nay almost constrain 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 moft of all oppreffed, and for which they expected a remedy from the Meffiah, who was to come. But that evil was not the bondage of ceremonies, which yielded little or no comfort; but rather the abyfs of spiritual 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 feparate from Chrift, could not yield fo much as a drop of comfort: yet the fathers were not, on that account, in a pit, 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 everlasting 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 scripture we maintain, that they had a thirst after better things; neverthelefs they were not deftitute of the waters of faving grace, for their neceffary confolation.

CHA P. XIV.

Of the Abrogation of the Old Teftament.

I. 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 symbols 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 fhould be otherwife. IV. Explain the progrefs 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 com manded; and confequently, according to the different nature of times, may be either prefcribed, or otherwise prescribed, or not at all prefcribed. 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, whose 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, Becaufe God himfelf frequently, on many accounts prefers the moral to the ceremonial precepts; and as the fame Maimonides, More Nevoc. P. 3. c. 32. has wifely observed, God very often, by the prophets, rebukes men for their too great fondness and exceffive diligence in bringing offerings inculcat ing 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 strange, how Jerniah 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 houfe, 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 thefe precepts were ftill in full force, rebukes men for their too great attachment to them, we fpeak nothing unworthy of God, when we affirm, that, for very weighty reafons, 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 the not, without detriment to religion, afterwards want the same ceremonies; in the practice of which, there was no intrinfic holiness, 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 fhould fometimes 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 first and moft tender infancy: but a stricter and pedagogical discipline was better fuited 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.

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