fhed, becaufe of the clofs connexion of the purposes) yet, confidering the forefaid reafons, and the nature of this excellent fcripture, which cannot haftily be paffed through (it having much in few words, and therefore requiring fome convenient time for explication) and confidering the weight of it, and its usefulnesfs for all forts of hearers, we are confident it will agree well with the end of this exercise, (which is the end of opening all fcripture) to wit, people's inftruction and edification, to infift a little thereon.

Our purpose is not to aim at any great accuracy, nor to multiply questions and digreffions, nor to infift in application and ufe, but plainly and fhortly (as we are able) to give you the meaning of the law of God; 1. By holding forth the native duties required in every commandment. 2. The fins which properly oppose and contradict each commandment, that by these we may have fome direction and help in duty, and fome fpur to repentance, at least a furtherance in the work of conviction, that fo by it we may be led to Chrift Jefus, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes, Rom 10. 4. which is the principal intent of this law, as it was given to Ifrael.

To make way for the expofition, we fhall, 1. Lay down fome conclufions which arife from the preface. 2. Give you fome ordinary diftinctions. 3. Clear and confirm fome rules or obfervations useful for understanding of the whole law.

The first conclufion that we take for granted is, That this law (as 'tis moral) doth tye even christians and believers now, as well as of old; which appears from this, that he who is God the Lawgiver here, As 7. 38. is the Angel Chrift, and tis his word, as is clear, v. 30, 31. as alfo, the matter of it being connatural to Adam, it did bind before the law was given, and that obligatory force cannot be separated from its nature, (tho' the exercife of right reafon in nature be much obliterate fince the fall) therefore Chrift was fo far from deIftroying this law in its authority, and Paul fo far from making it void by the doctrine of faith, that our Lord tells, he I' came to fulfil it, Matth. 5. 17. and Paul fhews, that his preaching of faith was to establish it, Rom. 3. 31. which truth beting confirmed by them both in their practice and doctrine, fheweth that the breach of the holy law of God is no lefs fin ful to us now, than it was to them before us.

The fecond conclufion is, That tho' this law, and obedi

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Preface. ence thereto, ly on chriftians, and be called for from them, yet it is not laid on them as a covenant of works, or that by which they are to feek or expect juftification; no, but, on the contrary, to overturn felf-righteoufnefs, by this doctrine, which manifefteth fin, and of itfelt worketh wrath; which is also clear, in that he is here called, Our God, which he cannot be to finners but by grace: And also it appears from the Lord's owning of this finful people as his,and his adjoining to this law fo many ceremonies and facrifices, which point out and lead to Chrift; and from his adding the law on mount Sinai, as a help to the covenant made with Abraham, Gen. 17.(which was a covenant of grace, and was never altered as to its fubftance) in which the people of Ifrael, as his feed, was comprehended; therefore it appears that this was never the Lord's intent in covenanting thus with his people, that they fhould expect righteoufnefs and life by the adjoin'd law, but only that it should be useful in the hand of grace to make the former covenant with Abraham effectual: So then, tho' we be bound to obey the law, we are not to feek righteoufnefs or life by the duties therein enjoined.

The third conclufion is, That both minifters in preaching, and people in practising of this law, would carry with fubordination to Chrift; and that the duties called for here are to be performed as a part of the covenant of grace, and of the obligation that lieth upon us thereby: And fo all our obedience to God ought ftill to run in that chanel.

If we ask, How these two differ, to wit, the performing the duties of the law as running in the chanel of the covenant of grace, and the performing of them as running in the chanel of the covenant of works, or how we are to go about the duties of the law with fubordination to Chrift and his grace? I anfwer, They differ in these four things, which fheweth, that these duties are not only to be done, but to be done in a way confiftent with, and flowing from grace: Which also follows from this, that, in the preface to the commandments, he ftileth and holdeth himself forth, as Redeemer, to be the object of our duty, and the motive of it.

1. They differ, I fay, firft, in the end or account upon which they are performed: We are not to perform duties, that life, pardon, or enjoying of God may be meritoriously obtained by them; but to teftify our refpect to him who hath provided thefe freely for us, that we should not reft in duties

which are engraven on these covenant-bleffings.

2. They differ in the principle by which we act them: "Tis not in our own ftrength, as the works of the first covenant were to be performed; but in the ftrength of grace, and by vertue of the promises of fanctification, comprehended in the second covenant, 2 Cor. 7.1.

3. They differ as to the manner of their acceptation: Duties by the first covenant are to abide their trial upon the account of their own worth, and the inherent perfection that is in them, and accordingly will be accepted or rejected, as they are conform or difconform to the perfect Rule of God's law; but, by the second covenant, the acceptation of our performances, prayers, praifes, are founded on Chrift's righteoufnefs, and God's mercy in him, in whom only they are fweetfmelling facrifices,and accepted as our perfons are; for he hath made us to be accepted,as to both,only in the beloved, Epb.1.4.

4. They differ in refpect of the motive from which they proceed: For the great motive of our obedience in the cove nant of grace is not fear of threatnings and wrath in cafe of difobedience, which by the covenant of works is the main thing fways men to duties; nor is it a purchase of heaven to themselves by their bolinefs, which alfo by that covenant is a predominant motive of mens obedience; but it is love and gratitude, and that not fimply to God as Creator, but as Redeemer, as the text here fheweth, I have brought thee out of the boufe of bondage. It is that we may fet forth the praises of him who bath called us,and that we may glorify him that has bought us. Where duties have thefe qualifications, they are confiftent with grace, and fubfervient to it; but, when those are wanting or excluded, Chrift is wronged, and men turn legal, and in fo far fall from and overturn grace.

Thefe conclufiors, as neceffary caveats, being laid down, we shall propose these diftinctions for clearing of them;

1. We would diftinguish betwixt a law and a covenant, or betwixt this law confidered as a law, and as a covenant. A law doth neceffarily imply no more than, 1. To direct, 2.To command, inforcing that obedience by authority: A covenant doth further neceffarily imply promifes made upon fone condition, or threatnings added, if fuch a condition be nat performed. Now, this law may be confidered without the con fideration of a covenant; for it was free to God to have added or not to have added promifes,and the threatnings (upot fuppor

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fition the law had been kept) might never have taken effect;but the first two are effential to the law,the laft two, to believers are made void through Chrift; in which sense it is faid, That by him we are freed from the law as a covenant, so that believers life depends not on the promises annexed to the law, nor are they in danger by the threatnings adjoined to it': Hence we are to advert, when the covenant of works is spoken of, that by it is not meaned this law fimply, but the law propounded as the condition of obtaining life by the obedience of it, in which refpect it was only fo formally given to Adam. This then is the firft diftinction betwixt the law and the covenant of works.

2. Diftinguish betwixt these ten commandments fimply and ftrictly taken in the matter of them, and more complexly in their full adminiftration, with preface,promises, facrifices, &c. In the first sense they are a law having the matter, but not the form of the covenant of works: fo Mofes by it is faid to defcribe fuch righteousness as the covenant of works doth require, yet he doth not propound it as the righteousness they were to rely on, but his fcope is to put them to a Mediator, by revealing fin through the law, Rom, 10, 3. In the second fenfe it is a covenant of grace, that fame in fubftance with the covenant made with Abraham,and with the covenant made with believers now, but differing in its administration.

3. Diftinguish betwixt God's intention in giving, and the believers in Ifrael their making use of this law; and the carnal multitude among that people their way of receiving it, and corrupt abufing it contrary to the Lord's mind. In the firft fenfe, it was a covenant of grace: In the fecond, it turned to be a covenant of works to them; and therefore it is that the Lord rejects (as we may fee, Ifai. 1. 13. and 66. 2, 3. Fer. 7. 22.) their facrifices and fervices as not commanded, becaufe refted on by them, to the prejudice of grace, and contrary to the ftrain and.fcope of this law complexly confidered.

4. Diftinguish betwixt the moral, and ceremonial, and judicial law. The firft concerns manners, and the right ordering of a godly converfation: and, because these things are of perpetual equity and rectitude, the obligation of this law, as to that, is perpetual; and therefore, in the expounding of it, thefe two terms, moral, and perpetual authority, are all one, and to be taken fo. 2. The judicial law is for regulating outward fociety, and for government, and doth generally (expting what was peculiar to the people of Ifrael) agree with

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the moral law; this, as given to them, is not perpetual, their policy being at an end, 3. The ceremonial law is in ceremonies, types and fhadows, pointing at a Saviour to come; this is alfo abrogate, the fubftance being come. But there is this difference, that the judicial law is but mortua, dead; and may, where 'tis thought fit, with the foregoing caution, be. ; ufed under the new teftament: but the ceremonial law is mor#ifera, deadly, and cannot, without falling from grace, Gal. 5. 2, 4. be revived.

5.When we speak of things moral, we are to diftinguifk between things naturally moral, that is, fuch (as love to God. and our neighbour, and fuch like) which have an innate reAtitude and holiness in them, which, cannot be feparate from them; and things pofitively moral, that have their obligation by a fpecial, pofitive, fuperadded fanction; fo that their rectitude flows not from the nature of the things themselves, as in the former. As for inftance, in the fourth commandment, it is naturally moral that God should be worshipped, nature teacheth it; but that he is to be worshipped on fuch a day particularly, that comes to pass by vertue of his pofitive command: The firft cannot be altered, the fecond by the Lord may; but, till he alter it, the authority lies ftill on all, and it is equally fin to fin againft any of them; tho', without the pofitive fanction, there is no obligation naturally requiring obedience in fome of them.

6. The fixth diftinction is of the moral law in two tables, first and fecond: The firft contains our immediate worship, service and obedience to God himself, and is comprehended in the first four commandments; the fecond contains our mediate obedience to God in all the duties we owe to others, in the laft fix: They were at firft fo divided by the Lord himfelf; for there are ten in all, Deut. 4. 13. From this diftinЄtion take notice, 1. That all the commandments of the second table are of like authority with the firft, God spake all thefe words; yea, as it appears from Acts 7. 38. it was our Lord Jefus. 2. The fins immediately against the firft table are greater than thofe against the fecond; for this caufe, Matth. 22. 38. the firft is called, the firft and great commandment. Therefore, 3. In morals (if they be things of the fame nature) the duties of the fecond table cede and give place to the duties of the first table, when they cannot ftand together; as in the cafe of love to God, and the exercife of love to our

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