judgment, Exod. xxiii. 3. 6. That we have no pity for a manslayer, or other criminal person, Deut. xix. 11-13. 7. That the judgment of the poor be not perverted, Exod. xxiii. 6; 8. Nor of the stranger, widow, or orphan, Deut. xxiv. 17. 9. That one party be not heard in the absence of another, Exod. xxiii. 3. 10. That we decline not after many in the judgment of law; 11. Nor shall a judge condemn according to the opinion of another; but his own, Exod. xxiii. 2. 12. That none be chosen a judge that is not learned in the law, though he be wise in other things, Deut. xvi. 18. 13. That none bear false witness, Exod. xx. 16. 14. That no offender be justified, Exod. xxiii. 1. 15. That kinsmen be not witnesses, Deut. xxiv. 16. 16. That none be condemned upon one witness, Deut. xix. 15. 17. That none be condemned to death on conjecture, opinions, or thoughts, but upon clear witnesses, Exod. xxiii. 7. 18. That we kill not, Exod. xx. 13. 19. That a guilty person be not put to death before he appear in judgment, Num. xxxv. 12. 20. That no reward be taken for the life of a murderer; 21. Nor for him that commits manslaughter by error, Num. xxxv. 31, 32. 22. That none be judge and witness in a criminal cause, Num. xxxv. 30. 23. That none pity the woman mentioned, Deut. xxv. 11, 12. 24. She that is forced is not to be punished, Deut. xxii. 25, 26. 25. That none appear against the blood of his neighbour, Lev. xix. 16. 26. That no cause of offence or falling be left in an house, Deut. xxii. 8. 27. That none lay a stumbling-block before an Israelite, Lev. xix. 14. 28. That the beating with stripes exceed not the number of forty, Deut. xxv. 3. 29. That none calumniate or accuse falsely, Lev. xix. 16. 30. That we hate not our neighbour in our heart, Lev. xix. 17. 31. That none put an Israelite to reproach, Lev. xix. 17. 32. That none exercise revenge on his neighbour; 33. That none bear ill-will in his mind, Lev. xix. 18. 34. That the mother and its young be not taken together, Deut. xxii. 6. 35. That a scall be not shaven, Lev. xiii. 33. 36. That the signs of leprosy be not removed, Lev. xiii. 45, 46. 37. That the place where the heifer is beheaded be not tilled, Deut. xxi. 4. 38. That a sorcerer be not suffered to live, Lev. xx. 27. 39. That a new married man be not bound to go forth to war, Deut. xxiv. 5. 40. That none be rebellious against the sanhedrin at Jerusalem, and their doctrine, Deut. xvii. 11. That nothing be added to the precepts of the law; 42. That nothing be taken from them, Deut. iv. 2. 43. That we speak not evil of the judge, nor of the prince of the people, Exod. xxii. 28. 44. That none speak evil of any in Israel, Lev. xix. 14. 45. That none curse father or mother; 46. That none strike father or mother, Exod. xxi. 17. 41. 29 The ninth family of negative precepts concerns FEASTS, and contains ten prohibitions:-1. That no work be done on the Sabbath, Exod. xx. 10. 2. That none go out or beyond the bounds of the 497 city on the Sabbath, Exod. xvi. 29. 3. That no punishment be inflicted on the Sabbath, Exod. xxxv. 3. 4. That no work be done on the first day of the passover; 5. That no work be done on the seventh day of the passover, Lev. xxiii. 7, 8. 6. That no work be done on the feast of weeks, Lev. xxiii. 21. 7. That no work be done on the first day of the seventh month, Lev. xxiii. 24, 25. 8. That no work be done on the day of expiation, Lev. xxiii. 30. 9. That no work be done on the first day of the feast of tabernacles; 10. That no work be done on the eighth day of release, Lev. xxiii. 34–36. 30. The tenth family of negative precepts is concerning CHASTITY, and AFFINITY, and PURITY, in twenty-four precepts:-1. That none uncover the nakedness of his mother; 2. Of his father's wife; 3. Of his sister; 4. Of the daughter of his father's wife, Lev. xviii. 7-9, 11; 5. Of the daughter of his son; 6. Of the daughter of his daughter; 7. Of his own daughter; Lev. xviii. 10; 8. Of a woman and her daughter; 9. Of a woman and the daughter of her son; 10. Of a woman and the daughter of her daughter, Lev. xviii. 17; 11. Of a father's sister; 12. Of a mother's sister, Lev. xviii. 12, 13; 13. Of an uncle's wife, Lev. xviii. 14; 14. Of a daughter-in-law, Lev. xviii. 15; 15. Of a brother's wife, Lev. xviii. 16; 16. Of a wife's sister, she being living, Lev. xviii. 18; 17. Of a married woman, Exod. xx. 14; 18. Of a separated woman, Lev. xviii. 19. 19. That none commit the sin of sodomy, Lev. xviii. 22. 20. That none uncover the nakedness of her father; 21. Nor of the brother of her father, Lev. xviii. 7, 14. 22. That filthiness be not committed with any beast by a man; 23. Nor by a woman, Lev. xviii. 23. 24. That none draw nigh to a prohibited woman, Lev. xviii. 6. 31. The eleventh family concerns MARRIAGES, in eight prohibitions:-1. That a bastard take not an Israelitess to wife, Deut. xxiii. 2. 2. That no eunuch take a daughter of Israel, Deut. xxiii. 1. 3. That no male be made an eunuch, Lev. xxi. 17-24. 4. That there be no whore in Israel, Deut. xxiii. 17. 5. That he who hath divorced his wife may not take her again after she hath been married to another, Deut. xxiv. 4. 6. That a brother's widow marry not with a stranger, Deut. xxv. 5. 7. That he divorce not his wife who hath defamed her in her youth, Deut. xxii. 19. 8. That he that hath forced a maid shall not divorce her, Deut. xxii. 29. 32. The twelfth family concerns THE KINGDOM, and is made up of four precepts:-1. That no king be chosen of a strange nation, Deut. xvii. 15. 2. That the king get not himself many horses, Deut. xvii. 16. 3. That he multiply not wives; 4. That he heap not up to himself treasures of silver and gold, Deut. xvii. 17. 33. This is the account that the Jews give of the precepts of the law, and both the number of them, as also their distribution and distinction which they have cast them into, are part, as they pre VOL. XVIII. 32 tend, of their oral law: which may easily be improved unto a conviction of the vanity of it; for whereas it is evident that many of these precepts are coincident, many pretended so to be are no precepts at all, and sundry of them are not founded on the places from whence they profess to gather them, yea, that in many of them the mind of the Holy Ghost is plainly perverted, and a contrary sense annexed unto his words, so it is most unquestionable that there are sundry commands and institutions, especially in, about, and concerning sacrifices, that are no way taken notice of by them in this collection, as I could easily make good by instances sufficient. It is evident that that rule cannot be from God whereof this collection is pretended to be a part; but, as I have said before, because there is a representation in them of no small multitude of commands, especially in things concerning their carnal worship, it was necessary that they should be here represented, though they have been before transcribed from them by others. My principal design herein, is to give light into some passages of our apostle, as also to other expressions concerning this "law of commandments contained in ordinances" in other places of the Scripture. ..... 34. The account our apostle gives of this whole system of divine worship, Heb. ix. 1, 10, "The first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary, . . . . . which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation," is very remarkable. Let any one cast an eye upon this multitude of commands about meats and drinks, washings, and outward carnal, observances, which are here collected, and he will quickly see how directly and pertinently the description given by our apostle is suited to their services, and that not only as to the manner and multitude of them, but also as to their nature. They are carnal things, and could by no means effect the great, spiritual, glorious, and eternal ends which God had designed, proposed, and promised, in that covenant unto whose administration they were annexed until "the time of reformation" should come. Hence elsewhere, as Col. ii. 20, he calls them "the rudiments of the world,"-ordinances about touching, tasting, and handling, about meats and drinks, things outwardly clean or unclean, all which perish with the using. 35. A little view also of the multiplicity of these precepts, and the scrupulous observances required about them and their circumstances, will give light into that of another apostle, Acts xv. 10, calling the law "a yoke which neither their fathers nor themselves were able to bear." For although the weight of this yoke did principally consist in the matter of it, and the performance of duties required in it, yet it was greatly increased and aggravated by that multitude of commands wherein it consisted; whence our apostle calls it "the law of commandments contained in ordinances," Eph. ii. 15, consisting of an endless number of commands, concerning which their minds could never attain any comfortable satisfaction whether they had answered their duty aright in them or no. EXERCITATION XXI. THE SANCTION OF THE LAW IN PROMISES AND THREATENINGS. 1. The sanction of the law in promises and threatenings-The law considered several ways; 2, 3. As the rule of the old covenant; 4. As having a new end put upon it; 5. As it was the instrument of the Jewish polity. 6. The sanction of it in the last of these senses. 7. Promises of three sorts, to be fulfilled by God himself. 8. Promises dependent on others-Parents, how they prolong the lives of their children. 9. Punishments threatened to be inflicted by God himself, and by others. 10, 11. Punishment 5, what. 12. Providential punishments-Partial-Total. 13. Persons intrusted with power of punishment. 14. The original distribution of the people-Taskmasters and officers in Egypt, who. 15. The authority of Moses. 16. The distribution of the people in the wilderness. 17. Institution of the sanhedrin, judges, kings. 18. Penalties ecclesiastical. 19. The three degrees 20, 21. Instance, John of it explained and examined-Causes of niddui. 1. By the sanction of the law, we intend the promises and penalties wherewith by God the observation of it and obedience unto it was enforced. This the apostle hath respect unto in sundry places of this Epistle; the principal whereof are reported in the following dissertation. To represent this distinctly, we may observe that the law falls under a threefold consideration;-first, As it was a repetition and expression of the law of nature, and the covenant of works established thereon; secondly, As it had a new end and design put upon the administration of it, to direct the church unto the use and benefit of the promise given of old to Adam, and renewed unto Abraham four hundred and thirty years before; thirdly, As it was the instrument of the rule and government of the church and people of Israel with respect unto the covenant made with them in and about the land of Canaan. And in this threefold respect it had a threefold sanction: 2. First, As considered absolutely, it was attended with promises of life and threatenings of death, both eternal. The original promise of life upon obedience and the curse on its transgression were inseparably annexed unto it, yea, were essential parts of it, as it contained the covenant between God and man. See Gen. ii. 17; Deut. xxvii. 26; Rom. vi. 23, iv. 4, x. 5, xi. 6; Lev. xviii. 5; Ezek. xx. 11; Gal. iii. 12, 13. 3. Now, in the administration of the law, the church was thus far brought under the obligation of these promises and threatenings of life and death eternal, so far interested in the one and made obnoxious unto the other, as that if they used not the law according to the new dispensation of it, wherein it was put into a subserviency unto the promise, as Gal. iii. 19-24, they were left to stand or fall according to the absolute tenor of that first covenant and its ratification; which, by reason of the entrance of sin, proved fatally ruinous unto all that cleaved unto it, Rom. viii. 3, ix. 31. 4. Secondly, The law had, in this administration of it, a new end and design put upon it, and that in three things:-(1.) That it was made directive and instructive unto another end, and not merely preceptive, as at the beginning. The authoritative institutions that in it were superadded to the moral commands of the covenant of works, did all of them direct and teach the church to look for righteousness and salvation, the original ends of the first covenant, in another and by another way; as the apostle at large disputes in this Epistle, and declares positively, Gal. iii., throughout. (2.) In that it had a dispensation added unto the commands of obedience, and interpretation, xar' izeízeιav, by condescension, given by God himself, as to the perfection of its observance and manner of its performance in reference unto this new end. It required not absolutely perfect obedience, but perfectness of heart, integrity, and uprightness, in them that obeyed. And unto the law thus considered the former promises and threatenings were annexed; for the neglect of this use of it left the transgressors obnoxious to the curse denounced in general against them that continued not in the whole law to do it. (3.) It had merciful relief provided against sin, for the supportment and consolation of sinners, as we shall see in the consideration of their sacrifices. 5. Thirdly, It may be considered as it was the instrument of the rule and government of the people and church of Israel, according to the tenor of the covenant made with them about the land of Canaan, and their living unto God therein. And in this respect it had four things in it:-(1.) That it represented unto the people the holiness of God, the effects whereof are implanted in the law according to its original constitution; whereupon in it they are often called to be holy, because the Lord and Lawgiver is holy. (2.) That it gave a representation of his grace and condescension, pardoning sin in the covenant of mercy, inasmuch as he allowed a compensation by sacrifices for so many transgressions, which in their own nature were forfeitures of their interest in that land. (3.) That it was a righteous rule of obedience unto that people |