But whereas they now are, and have been for many generations, deprived of the privilege, as they esteem it, of offering sacrifices according to the law, they hope that their own repentance, with their death, which they pray may be expiatory, will be sufficient to obtain for them the forgiveness of sin. Only, they say this might better and more easily be effected if they might enjoy the benefit of sacrifices. So saith the fore-mentioned Jew, whose dis-
? Sce note, vol. v. p. 296 of Owen’s works.—Ep,
SECT. 18, 19.] PROMISED OF OLD. 165
course is published by Brenius: “ Quamvis jam nulla sint sacrificia, que media erant ad tanto facilius impetrandam remissionem pecca- torum, eadem tamen per peenitentiam et resipiscentiam impetratur.” And again: “ Hodie victimas offerre non possumus destituti mediis ad hoe necessariis, que quando obtinebimus, tum remissio illa tanto facilior reddetur,” Respon. ad Quest. Septim. If they cannot ob- tain the use of sacrifices, yet the matter may be effected by their repentance; only it were much easier to do it by sacrifices. And they seem to long for them principally on this account, that by them they may free themselves from somewhat of discipline and penance, which now their consciences. enforce them unto. But. this, as all other articles of their creed which are properly Judaical, is feigned by them, to suit their present condition and interest: for where do they find that their sacrifices,—especially that which they most trust in, namely, that on the feast of expiation, Lev. xvi.,-—was ever de- signed for this erid, to enable them the more easily to obtain the remission of sins by another means which they use? For it is said directly that the sacrifice on that day did expiate their sin, and make atonement for it, that they might not die; and not that it did help them in procuring pardon another way. But this.is now taken from thém, and what shall they do? Why, rather than they will look or come to Him who was represented in that sacrifice, and on whose account alone it had all its efficacy, they will find out a new way of doing that which their sacrifices were appointed unto; and this they must do, or openly acknowledge that they all perish eternally. I shall not insist long on the casting down of this imagination, all the foundations of it being long ago demolished by our apostle in his epistles, especially those to the Romans, Galatians, and the Hebrews themselves. And this he hath not done merely by a new revelation of the mind and will of, God, but upon the principles and by the testimonies of the Old Testament itself, as will afterwards more fully appear. Only, because it is here set up in competition with that blessed and all-sufficient remedy against sim and the curse which God indeed hath provided, I shall briefly remove it out of our way, and that by manifesting that it is neither in itself suited unto that end, nor was ever of God designed thereunto.
19. That all mankind were cast into the condition we have de- scribed, by and upon the sin of Adam, we have before sufficiently confirmed, Other just reason or occasion of it no man can assign. It hath been also evinced that God would, and consequently did, prepare a remedy for them, or a way of deliverance to be proposed unto them. If this were only the law of Moses, and the observance thereof, as the Jews pretend, I desire to know what became of them, what was their estate and condition, who lived and died before the
_ giving of the law? Not only the patriarchs before the flood, who
166 MESSIAH, THE DELIVERER FROM EVIL, [EXERC. VIII.
some of them had this testimony, that they pleased God, and one of whom was taken alive into heaven, but Abraham also himself, who received the promises, must, on this supposition, be excluded from a participation in the deliverance inquired after; for they observed not the law of Moses. What they dream about the making of their law before the foundation of the world, and the study of God therein, and that night and day, by day in the written law, and by night in the oral Cabala, is not to be mentioned when matters of importance unto the souls of men are under consideration.
But yet I may add, by the way, that neither this nor the like monstrous figments are invented or broached by them without some especial design. In the eighth chapter of the Proverbs there is mention of the Wisdom of God, and such a description given of it as allows not an essential property of his nature to be thereby in- tended. This is there said to be with God before the foundation of the world, his delight and companion; whence it appears that no- thing but the eternal Word, Wisdom, and Son of God, can possibly be intended thereby. To avoid this testimony given unto his eter- nal subsistence, the Jews first invented this fable, that the law was “created before the world,” and that the wisdom of it was that which God conversed with and delighted in. And I have often wondered at the censure of a learned Christian annotator upon the place. “ Hee,” saith he, “de ea sapientia que in lege apparet expo- nunt Hebreei; et sane ei, si non soli, at praecipue heee attributa con- veniunt;” contrary to the faith of the church in all ages. It is true, on verse 22, and those that follow, he affirms they may be expounded by that of Philo de Coloniis: ‘O Aédyog 6 apecCbrepos ray yéveow eidy- Porav, ob nabdmep ofaxos everAninuévos 6 Tov dAwy xuCepynras mnOmALoUYE? ra obumavra, nal bre exoomomrdores xpnokuevos bpydvw rouTw mpbg rip ayurairioy rav amoreAouusvay olcracv. But whether this Platonical declaration of the nature and work of the Word of God, employed by him as an instrument in the making and government of the world, would have been accepted in the primitive church, when this place was vexed by the Arians, and studiously vindicated hy the orthodox fathers, I much question. But to return: if the law, and the observance of it, be the only remedy provided of God against the sin and misery of man, the only means of reconciliation with him, all that died before the giving of it must perish, and that eternally. But the contrary appears from this very consideration, and is undeniably proved by our apostle in the instance of Abraham, Gal. iii. 17: for he received the promise and was taken into covenant with God four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the law; and that covenant conveyed unto him the love and favour of God, with deliverance from sin and the curse; as themselves will not deny.