31. The eleventh family concerns MARRIAGES, in eight prohibi- tions:—1. That a bastard take not an Israelitess to wife, Deut. xxii. 2. 2. That no ewnuch take a daughter of Israel, Deut. xxii. 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 dv- vorced 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.
$2. 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 treaswres 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-
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498 THE LAW AND PRECEPTS THEREOF. [ EXERC. XX.
tend, of their oral law: which may easily be improved unto a convic- tion 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 concern- ing sacrifices, that are no way taken notice of by them in this col- lection, 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 neces- sary 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 or- dinances” 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, im- posed 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 ad- ministration 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 circum- stances, 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 prin- cipally 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
SECT. 34, 35.] THE SANCTION OF THE LAW, ETC. 499
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 haying 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-in- flicted by God himself, and by others. 10,11. Punishment nvm >>2, what. 12, Providential punishments—Partial—Total. 13. Persons intrusted with power of punishment. 14. The original distribution of the people—Task- masters and officers in Egypt, who, 15. The authority of Moses. 16. The distribution of the people in the wilderness. 17. Institution of the sanhe- drin, judges, kings. 18. Penalties ecclesiastical, 19. The three degrees of it explained and examined—Causes of niddwi. 20, 21. Instance, John ix, 22. 22. Of cherem; and shammatha. 23-25, Form of an excommuni- cation. 26. The sentence, Ezra x. 7, 8, explained. 27, 28. Civil penalties, 29, 30. Capital punishments—The several sorts of them.