THE ECONOMY OF THE DIVINE COVENANTS. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. Of the Divine Covenants in General. The subject with care. WHOEVER attempts to discourse on the subject and design of the Divine Covenants, by which eternal sal- to be treated vation is adjudged to man, on certain conditions equally worthy of God and the rational creature, ought, above all things, to have a sacred and inviolable regard to the heavenly oracles, and neither, through prejudice nor passion, intermix any thing, which he is not firmly persuaded is contained in the records, which hold forth these covenants to the world. For, if Zaleucus made it a condition to be observed by the contentious interpreters of his laws: "That each party should explain the meaning of the lawgiver in the assembly of the thousand, with halters about their necks; and that what party soever should appear to wrest the sense of the law, should, in the presence of the thousand, end their lives by the halters they wore," as Polybius, a very grave author relates, in his history, book xii. c. 7; and if the Jews and Samaritans in Egypt, each disputing about their temple, were admitted to plead before the king and his courtiers on this condition only, that "the advocates of either party, foiled in the dispute, should be punished with death," according to Josephus in his antiquities; book xiii. 6, certainly he must be in greater peril, and liable to sorer destruction, who shall dare to pervert and wrest the sacred mysteries of the Divine Covenants; our Lord himself openly declaring, that "whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven," Matt. v. 19. It is, therefore, with a kind of sacred .awe I undertake this work; praying God, that, laying aside every prejudice, I may demean myself a tractable disciple of the Holy Scriptures, and with modesty impart to my brethren, what I think I have learned from them: if happily this my poor performance may serve to lessen the number of disputes, and help to clear up the truth; than which nothing should be ac counted more valuable. Etymology .ברית It II. As it is by words, especially the words of those of the word languages in which God was pleased to reveal his sacred mysteries to men, that we can, with hopes of success, come to the knowledge of things, it will be worth while more accurately to inquire into the import both of the Hebrew word, and the Greek diann, which the Holy Spirit makes use of on this subject. And first, we are to give the true etymology, and then the different significations, of the Hebrew word. With respect to the former, the learned are not agreed some derive it from x2, which in Piel signifies to cut down; because, as we shall presently observe, covenants were solemnly ratified by cutting or dividing animals asunder. may be also derived from the same root in a very different signification; for as a properly signifies to create, so, metaphorically, to ordain or dispose, which is the meaning of diarioai. And hence it is, that the Hellenist Jews make use of TO KTIŽELV. Certainly it is in this sense that Peter, 1 Pet. ii. 13, calls power appointed by men, and for human purposes, avoρwπívn Krios, "the ordinance of man;" which, I think, Grotius has κτίσις, learnedly observed on the title of the New Testament. Others had rather derive it from (as a from w), signifying, besides other things, to choose. And in covenants, especially of friendship, there is a choice of persons, between whom, of things about which, and of condition upon which, a covenant is entered into nor is this improperly observed. sotá, Im Its different III. But is variously taken in Scripture: somesignifications. times improperly, and sometimes properly. properly, it denotes the following things:-1st. An immutable ordinance made about a thing: in this sense God mentions “his covenant of the day, and his covenant of the night," Jer. xxxiii. 20. That is, that fixed ordinance made about the uninterrupted vicissitude of day and night, which, chap. xxxi. 36, is called pn, that is, statute, limited or fixed, which nothing is to be added to, or taken from. In this sense is included the notion of a testament, or of a last irrevocable will. Thus God said, Numb. xviii. 19, "I have given thee and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee by a statute for ever : it is a covenant of ,להק עילם ברית מלח עילם היא salt for ever." This observation is of use, more fully to explain ;behold, I make a covenant הנה אנכי ברת ברית the nature of the covenant of grace, which the apostle proposes Διαθηκη. IV. No less equivocal is the dianкn of the Greeks, The signifi which, both singularly and plurally, very often denotes cations of a testament; as Budous shows, in his Comment. Ling. Græc. from Isocrates, Eschines, Demosthenes, and others. In this sense, we hinted, it was used by the apostle, Heb. ix. 15. Sometimes, also, it denotes a law, which is a rule of life; for the Orphici and Pythagoreans denominated the rules of living, prescribed to their pupils, dia@nka, according to Grotius. It also often signifies an engagement or agreement; wherefore Hesychius explains it by ovvwuooía, confederacy. There is none of these significations but will be of future use in the progress of this work. ,בראת ברית To "cut a from dis mals. V. Making a covenant, the Hebrews call to strike a covenant, in the same manner as the Greeks and Latins, ferire, icere, percutere fœdus; which had its name doubtless took its rise from the ancient ceremony of sected ani. slaying animals, by which covenants were ratified. Of which rite we observe very ancient traces, Gen. xv. 9, 10. This was, then, either first commanded by God, or borrowed from some extant custom. Emphatical is what Polybius, book iv. p. 398, relates of the Cynathenses, ἐπὶ τῶν σφαγίων τὸς ὅρκος καὶ τας πίστεις ἐδιδοσαν αλλήλοις, "over the slaughtered victims they took a solemn oath, and plighted faith to each other:" a phrase plainly similar to that God uses, Ps. 1. 5, mar by, enna enna "those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." They also used to pass in the middle between the divided parts of the victim cut asunder, Jer. xxxiv. 18. Whoever wants to know more about this rite may consult Grotius on Matt. xxvi. 28, and Bochart in his Hierozoicon, book ii. 33, p. 325, and Owen's Theolog., book iii. 1. It was likewise a custom, that agreements and compacts were ratified by solemn feasts. Examples of which are obvious in Scripture. Thus Isaac, having made a covenant with Abimelech, is said to have made a great feast, and to have eaten with the guests, Gen. xxvi. 30. In like manner acted his son Jacob, after having made a covenant with Laban, Gen. xxxi. 54. We read of a like federal feast, 2 Sam. iii. 20; where a relation is given of the feast which David made for Abner and his attendants, who came to make a covenant with him in the name of the people. It was also customary among the heathen, as the learned Stuckius shows in his Antiquitates Conviviales, lib. i. 40. The significa VI. Nor were these rites without their significancy. tion of these The cutting the animals asunder denoted, that in the rites. same manner the perjured and covenant-breakers should be cut asunder, by the vengeance of God. And to this purpose is what God says, Jer. xxxiv. 18, 19, 20: "And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof-I will even give them into the hands of their enemies, and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth." See 1 Sam. xi. 7. An ancient form of these execrations is extant in Livy, book i.: "The Roman people do not first break these conditions; but if they should, avowedly, and through treachery, break them, do thou, O Jupiter, on that day, thus strike the Roman people, as I do now this hog; and be the stroke the heavier as thy power is the greater." By the ceremony of the confederates passing between the parts cut asunder, was signified, that being now united by the strictest ties of religion, and by a solemn oath, they formed but one body, as Vatablus has remarked on Gen. xv. 10. These federal feasts were tokens of a sincere and lasting friendship. Applied to the divine cove nants. VII. But when God, in the solemnities of his covenants with men, thought proper to use these or the like rites, the significancy was still more noble and divine. They who made covenant with God by sacrifice, not only submitted to punishment, if, impiously revolting from God, they slighted his covenant; but God likewise signified to them, that all the stability of the covenant of grace was founded on the sacrifice of Christ, and that the soul and body of Christ were one day to be violently separated asunder. "All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen,' 2 Cor. i. 20. His blood is the "blood of the New Testament," |