ARTICLE VII.

Of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament Everlasting Life is offered to Yankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Han, bring both God and Han. Wherefore they are not to be heard, which feign that the Dld Fathers did look only for Transitory Promises,

Although the Law given from God by Moses, as touching Ceremonies and Rites, do not bind Christian Men, nor the Civil Precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any Commonwealth, pet notwithstanding no Christian Han whatsoever is free from the Dbedience of the Commandments which are called Moral,

THI

THIS Article is made up of the Sixth and the Nineteenth of King Edward's Articles laid together: only the Nineteenth of King Edward's has these words after Moral: Wherefore they are not to be heard, which teach that the Holy Scriptures were given to none but to the weak; and brag continually of the Spirit, by which they do pretend that all whatsoever they preach is suggested to them; though manifestly contrary to the Holy Scriptures. This whole Article relates to the Antinomians, as these last words were added by reason of the extravagance of some enthusiasts at that time; but that madness having ceased in Queen Elizabeth's time, it seems it was thought that there was no more occasion for those words.

There are four heads that do belong to this Article: First, that the Old Testament is not contrary to the New. Secondly, that Christ was the Mediator in both dispensations, so that salvation was offered in both by him. Thirdly, that the ceremonial and the judiciary precepts in the Law of Moses do not bind Christians. Fourthly, that the Moral Law does still bind all Christians.

To the first of these, The Manichees of old, who fancied that there was a bad as well as a good God, thought that these two great Principles were in a perpetual struggle;

VII.

ART. and they believed the Old Dispensation was under the bad one, which was taken away by the New, that is the work of the good God. But they who held such monstrous tenets, must needs reject the whole New Testament, or very much corrupt it: since there is nothing plainer, than that the Prophets of the Old foretold the New, with approbation; and the writers of the New prove both their commission and their doctrine from passages of the Old Testament. This therefore could not be affirmed without rejecting many of the books that we own, and corrupting the rest. So this deserves no more to be considered.

Upon this occasion it will be no improper digression, to consider what revelation those under the Mosaical Law, or that lived before it, had of the Messias: this is an important matter: it is a great confirmation of the truth of the Christian Religion, as it will furnish us with proper arguments against the Jews. It is certain they have long had, and still have, an expectation of a Messias: Now the characters and predictions concerning this person must have been fulfilled long ago, or the prophecies will be found to be false; and if they do meet and were accom. plished in our Saviour's person, and if no other person could ever pretend to this, then that which is undertaken to be proved will be fully performed. The first promise to Adam after his sin, speaks of an enmity between the Gen. iii. 15. seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman: It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. The one might hurt the other in some lesser instances, but the other was to have an entire victory at last; which is plainly signified by the figures of bruising the heel, and bruising the head, which was to be performed by one who was to bear this character of being the woman's Gen. xii. 3. seed. The next promise was made to Abraham, In thee Gen. xxii. shall all the families of the earth be blessed: this was lodgGen. xxvi. ed in his seed or posterity, upon his being ready to offer up his son Isaac: that promise was renewed to Isaac, and Gen. xxviii. after him to Jacob: when he was dying, it was lodged by him, in the tribe of Judah, when he prophesied, that the sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, till Shiloh should come; and the ga thering of the people, that is, of the Gentiles, was to be to him. It is certain the Ten Tribes were lost in their captivity, whereas the tribe of Judah was brought back, and continued to be a political body under their own laws, till a breach was made upon that by the Romans first reducing them to the form of a province, and soon after that destroying them utterly: so that either that predic

18.

24.

14.

Gen. xlix.

10.

tion was not accomplished, or the Shiloh, the Sent, to whom - ART. the Gentiles were to be gathered, came before they lost their sceptre and laws.

17.

VII.

Moses told the people of Israel, that God was to raise up Deut. xviii. among them a Prophet like unto him, to whom they ought to 15. hearken, otherwise God would require it of them. The character of Moses was, that he was a lawgiver, and the author of an entire body of instituted religion, so they were to look for such a one. Balaam prophesied darkly of one whom he saw as at a great distance from his own time; and he spoke of a Star that should come out of Jacob, and a Sceptre out of Num. xxiv. Israel: some memorial of which was probably preserved among the Arabians. In the book of Psalms there are many things said of David, which seem capable of a much auguster sense than can be pretended to be answered by any thing that befel himself. What is said in the 2d, the 16th, the 22d, the 45th, the 102d, and the 110th Psalms, affords us copious instances of these. Passages in these Psalms must be stretched by figures that go very high, to think they were all fulfilled in David or Solomom: but in their literal and largest sense they were accomplished in Christ, to whom God said, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. In him that was verified, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. His hands and his feet were pierced, and lots were cast upon his vesture. Of him it may be strictly said, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. To him that belonged, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. And, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck.

The Prophets gave yet more express predictions concerning the Messias. Isaiah did quiet the fears of Ahaz, and of the house of David, by saying, The Lord himself Isa. viii. 14. shall give you a sign, Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son. It was certainly no sign for one that was a Virgin, to conceive afterwards and bear a son; therefore the sign or extraordinary thing here promised as a signal pledge of God's care of the house of David, must lie in this, that one still remaining a Virgin, should conceive and bear a son; not to insist upon the strict signification of the word in the original. The same Prophet did also foretel, that as this Messias, or the Branch, should spring Isa. xi. 1, 2. from the stem of Jesse, so also he was to be full of the Spirit of the Lord; and that the Gentiles should seek to him. Ver. 10. In another place he enumerates many of the miracles that should be done by him: he was to give sight to the blind, Isa. xxxv.

5, 6.

VII.

2, 3, 4.

Isa. liii.

Isa. Ixi.

ART. make the deaf to hear, the lame to walk. He does further set forth his character; not that of a warrior or conIsa. xlii. 1, queror; on the contrary, He was not to cry nor strive, nor break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax; he was to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles, and the isles were to wait for his law. There is a whole chapter in the same Prophet, setting forth the mean appearance that the Messias was to make, the contempt he was to fall under, and the sufferings he was to bear; and that for the sins of others, which were to be laid on him; so that his soul or life was to be made an offering for sin, in reward of which he was to be highly exalted. In another place his mission is set forth, not in the strains of war, or of conquest, but of preaching to the poor, setting the prisoners free as in a year of jubilee, and comforting the afflicted and such as mourned. In the two last chapters of that Prophet mention is made more particularly of the Gentiles that were to be called by him, and the isles that were afar off, out of whom God was to take some for Priests and Levites: which shewed plainly, that a new dispensation was to be opened by him, in which the Gentiles were to be Priests and Levites, which could not be done while the Mosaical Law stood, that had tied these functions to the tribe of Levi, and to the house of Aaron. Jeremy renewed the Jer.xxiii. 5. promise to the house of David, of a King that should reign and prosper; in whose days Judah and Israel were to dwell safely, whose name was to be, The Lord our Righteousness. It is certain this promise was never literally accomplished; and therefore recourse must be had to a mystical The same Prophet gives a large account of a new covenant that God was to make with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant that he made with their fathers, when he brought them out of Egypt. We have also two characters given of that covenant: one is, that God would put his law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; that he would be their God, and that they should all be taught of him: the other is, that he would forgive their iniquities, and remember their sin no more. One of these is in opposition to their Law, that consisted chiefly in rituals, and had no promises of inward assistances; and the other is in opposition to the limited pardon that was offered in that dispensation, on the condition of the many sacrifices that they were required to offer. There is a prediction to the same purpose in Ezekiel. Joel prophexxxvi. 25. sied of an extraordinary effusion of the Spirit of God on great numbers of persons, old and young, that was to happen before the great and terrible day of the Lord,

Jer. xxxi. sense. 31.

Ezek.

Joel ii. 28.

that is, before the final destruction of Jerusalem. Micah, ART. after he had foretold several things of the dispensation of VII. the Messiah, says that he was to come out of Bethlehem Ephratah. Haggai encouraged those who were troubled Micah v. 2. at the meanness of the Temple, which they had raised af- Hag. ii. 6, ter their return out of the captivity. It had neither the outward glory in its fabric that Solomon's Temple had, nor the more real glory of the Ark, with the Tables of the Law; of fire from heaven on the altar; of a succession of prophets; of the Urim and Thummim, and the cloud between the cherubims; which last, strictly speaking, was the glory; all which had been in Solomon's Temple, but were wanting in that. In opposition to this, the Prophet in the name of God promised, that he would in a little while shake the heavens and the earth, and shake all nations; words that import some surprising and great change; upon which the desire of all nations should come, and God would fill the house with his glory; and the glory of this latter house should exceed the glory of the former, for in that place God would give peace. Here is a plain prophecy, that this Temple was to have a glory, not only equal but superior to the glory of Solomon's Temple: these words are too august to be believed to have been accomplished, when Herod rebuilt the Temple with much magnificence; for that was nothing in comparison of the real glory, of the symbols of the presence of God, that were wanting in it. This cannot answer the words, that the desire of all nations was to come, and that God would give peace in that place. So that either this prophecy was never fulfilled, or somewhat must be assigned during the second Temple, that will answer those solemn expressions, which are plainly applicable to our Saviour, who was the expectation of the Gentiles, by whom peace was made, and in whom the eternal Word dwelt in a manner infinitely more august than in the cloud of glory. Zechary Zech. ix. 9. prophesied, that their King, by which they understood the Messias, was to be meek and lowly, and that he was to make his entrance in a very mean appearance, riding on an ass; but yet under that, he was to bring salvation to them, and they were to rejoice greatly in him. Malachi told Mal. iii. 1. them, that the Lord whom they sought, even the messenger of the covenant in whom they delighted, should suddenly come into his Temple; and that the day of his coming was to be dreadful; that he was to refine and purify, in particular, the sons of Levi; and a terrible destruction is denounced after that. One character of his coming was, that Elijah the prophet was to come before that great and dread- Mal iv. 1.