Having reckoned up the expositions of the law, and its vindication given by our Saviour, Matt, v., in the next query he calls them, very ignorantly, " the law of faith, or the new covenant." If Mr B. knows no more of the new covenant but that it is a new law given by our Saviour, Matt, v.-vii. (as upon other accounts), I pity the man. He proceeds, — •
Q. Doth not Christ, then, partly perfect, partly correct the law of Hoses f What is the determination of Christ concerning this matter? A. Matt. V. 21-45.
5G2 VINDICI^ EVANGELICiK.
1. The reason of this query I acquainted the reader with before. These men, seeking for a righteousness, as it were, by the works of the law,^ and not daring to lay it upon that which the apostle doth so often expressly reject, they strive to relieve themselves with this, that our Saviour hath so dealt with the law as here is expressed; so that to yield obedience to it now, as mended, perfected, and re- formed, must needs be sufficient to our justification.
2. Two things are here affirmed to be done by the Lord Christ in reference to the " law of Moses,'' as it is called, — that is, the moral law, as is evident by the following instances given to make good the assertion, — first. That he perfects it ; secondly, That he corrects it : and so a double imputation is laid on the law of God, (1.) Of ityi- 2oerfection; (2.) Oi corruption, that needed amendment or correction.
Before I proceed to examine the particular instances whereby the man attempts to make good his insinuation, the honour of God and his law requires of us that it be vindicated from this double calumny, and demonstrated to be neither imperfect nor to stand in need of correction : —
1. For its perfection, we have the testimony of God himself ex- pressly given thereunto: Ps. xix. 7, " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;" it is the " perfect law of liberty," James i. 25; yea, so perfect as that God hath forbidden any thing to be added to it or to be taken from it, Deut. xii. 32.
2. If the law wants perfection, it is in respect of its essential parts, or its integral parts, or in respect of degrees. But for its essential parts, it is perfect, being, in matter and form, in sense and sentence, divine, holy, just, good, Rom. vii. 12. For its integrals, it com- priseth "the whole duty of man," Eccles. xii. 13; which doing he was to live. And for the degrees of its commands, it requireth that we love the Lord our God with all our hearts and all our souls, and our neighbours as ourselves; which our Saviour confirms as a rule of perfection, Matt. xxii. 86-40.
3. If the law of God was not perfect, but needed correction, it is either because God could not or woxdd not give a perfect and com- plete law. To say the first is blasphemy; for the latter, there is no pretence for it. God giving a law for his service, proclaiming his wisdom and holiness to be therein, and that if any man did perform it, he should live therein, certainly would not give such a law as, by its imperfection, should come short of any of the ends and purposes for which it was appointed.
4. The perfection of the law is hence also evinced, that the pre- cepts of Christ, wherein our obedience requires us to be perfect, are the same and no other than the precepts of the law. His new com- mandment of love is also an old one, 1 John ii. 7, 8, which Christ calls
* 'flj i5 'ipyav yifisu, Eom. IX. 32.
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his new commandment, John xiii, 84; and the like instances might be multiplied. Neither will the instance of Mr B. evince the con- trary, which he argues from Matt. v. ; for that Christ doth not in that chapter correct the law, nor add any new precept thereunto, but ex- pounds and vindicates it from the corrupt glosses of the scribes and Pharisees, appears, —
(1.) From the occasion of the discourse, and the proposition which our Saviour makes good, establisheth, and confirmeth therein, which is laid down, verse 20, " Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." In pursuit of this proposition, he manifest- eth what their righteousness was, by examining their catechism upon the commandments, and the exposition they made therein of them. It is not the righteousness of the law that our Saviour rejects, and re- quires more in his disciples, but that of the Pharisees, whom he every- where called hypocrites. But for the law, he tells them a tittle of it shall not pass away, and he that keeps it shall be called great, or be of great esteem, in the kingdom of God ; and the good works that our Saviour then required in his disciples are no other but those that were commanded in the law,
(2.) The very phraseology and manner of speech here used by our Saviour manifests of whom and concerning what he speaks: "Ye have HEARD that it was SAID to them of old time ;" — " Ye have heard," not " Ye have read." " Ye have heard it of the scribes and Pharisees out of Moses' chair; they have told you that it was thus said." And, " Ye have heard that it was said to them of old;" not " that it was written, that it was written in the law," the expression whereby he citeth what was written. And, " It was said to them of old," — the common pretence of the Pharisees, in the imposing their traditions and expositions of the law. " It is the tradition of the elders; it was said to them by such and such blessed masters of old."