19. HITHERTO we have surveyed the state of the Church in the constant succession of the Patriarchal Line. But if we step a little further into the History of those times, we shall find that there were some extraordinary persons without the Pale of that holy Tribe, renowned for the worship of God, and the profession of Religion; among whom two are most considerable, Melchisedeck and Job. Melchisedeck was King of Salem in the land of Canaan, and Priest of the most high God. The short account which the Scripture gives of him hath left room for various fancies and conjectures. [Page XXII] The opinion that has most generally obtained is, that Melchisedeck was Sem, one of the sons of Noah, who was of a great Age, and lived above LXX. years after Abraham's coming into Canaan, and might therefore well enough meet him in his triumphant return from his conquest over the Kings of the Plain. But notwithstanding the universal authority which this opinion assumes to it self, it appears not to me with any tolerable probability, partly because Canaan, where Melchisedeck lived, was none of those Countries which were allotted to Sem and to his posterity, and unlikely it is that he should be Prince in a foreign Country: partly, because those things which the Scripture reports concerning Melchisedeck, do no ways agree to Sem, as that he was without Father and Mother, without genealogie, &c. whenas Moses does most exactly describe and record Sem and his Family, both as to his Ancestors, and as to his posterity. That therefore which seems most probable in the case, is, that he was one of the Reguli, or petty Kings (whereof there were many) in the land of Canaan, but a pious and devout man, and a worshipper of the true God, as there were many others in those days among the Idolatrous Nations; he being extraordinarily raised up by God from among the Canaanites, and brought in without mention of Parents, original or end, without any Predecessor or Successor in his office, that he might be a fitter type of the Royal and Eternal Priesthood of Christ. And for any more particular account concerning his person, it were folly and rashness over-curiously to enquire after what God seems industriously to have concealed from us. The great character under which the Scripture takes notice of him, is his relation to our blessed Saviour, who is more than once said to be a Priest, [...], after the order, in the same way and manner that Melchisedeck was, or (as the Apostle explains himself) after the similitude of Melchisedeck. Heb. 7.15. Our Lord was such a Priest as Melchisedeck was, there being a nearer similitude and conformity between them, than ever was between any other Priests whatsoever. A subject which S. Paul largely and particularly treats of. Passing by the minuter instances of the parallel, taken from the name of his person, Melchisedeck, that is, King of righteousness, and his title to his Kingdom, King of Salem, that is, of Peace; we shall observe three things especially wherein he was a type of Christ. First, in the peculiar qualification of his person, something being recorded of him uncommon to the rest of men, and that is, that he was without Father, Heb. 7.3. without Mother, and without descent. Not that Melchisedeck like Adam was immediately created, or in an instant dropt down from Heaven, but that he hath no kindred recorded in the story, which brings him in without any mention of Father or Mother, [...],Homil. 12. in Hebr. p. 1838. as Chrysostom glosses, we know not what Father or Mother he had: He was (says S. Paul) [...], without genealogie, without having any pedigree extant upon record, whence the ancient Syriack Version truly expresses the sence of the whole passage thus, Whose neither Father nor Mother are written, [...] among the generations, that is, the genealogies of the ancient Patriarchs. And thus he eminently typified Christ, of whom this is really true: He is without Father in respect of his humane nature, begotten only of a pure Virgin; without Mother, in respect of his Divinity, being begotten of his Father before all Worlds, by an eternal and ineffable generation. Secondly, Melchisedeck typified our Saviour in the duration and continuance of his office; for so 'tis said of him, that he was without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a Priest continually. [Page XXIII] By which we are not to understand that Melchisedeck never died, for being a man he was subject to the same common Law of mortality with other men: But the meaning is, that as he is said to be without Father and Mother, because the Scripture speaking of him makes no mention of his Parents, his Genealogy and descent: So he is said to abide a Priest for ever, without any beginning of days, or end of life, because we have no account of any that either preceeded, or succeeded him in his office, no mention of the time either when he took it up, or laid it down. And herein how lively and eminent a type of Christ, the true Melchisedeck, who as to his Divine nature was without beginning of days from Eternal Ages, and who either in the execution or vertue of his office abides for ever. There is no abolition, no translation of his office, no expectation of any to arise that shall succeed him in it: He was made a Priest not after the Law of a carnal Commandment, a transient and mutable dispensation, but after the power of an endless life. Thirdly, Melchisedeck was a type of Christ in his excellency above all other Priests. S. Paul's great design is to evince the preheminence and precedency of Melchisedeck above all the Priests of the Mosaick ministration, yea, above Abraham himself, the Founder and Father of the Jewish Nation, from whom they reckoned it so great an honour to derive themselves. And this the Apostle proves by a double instance. First, that Abraham, in whose loins the Levitical Priests then were, paid tithes to Melchisedeck, when he gave him the tenth of all his spoils, as due to God and his Ministers, thereby confessing himself and his posterity inferiour to him.Heb. 7.4, 5, 6. &c. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. Secondly, that Melchisedeck conferred upon Abraham a solemn benediction, it being a standing part of the Priests office to bless the people. And this was an undeniable argument of his superiority.Ibid. Ver. 6, 7. He whose descent is not counted from them (the legal Priests) received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises: And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. Whereby it evidently appears, that Melchisedeck was greater than Abraham, and consequently than all the Levitical Priests that descended from him. Now herein he admirably prefigured and shadowed out our blessed Saviour, a person peculiarly chosen out by God, sent into the World upon a nobler and a more important errand, owned by more solemn and mighty attestations from Heaven, than ever was any other person; his office incomparably beyond that of the legal Oeconomy, his person greater, his undertaking weightier, his design more sublime and excellent, his oblation more valuable and meritorious, his prayers more prevalent and successful, his office more durable and lasting, than ever any whose business it was to intercede and mediate between God and man.
Moses the Minister of this Oeconomy. His miraculous preservation. His learned and noble education. The Divine temper of his mind. His conducting the Israelites out of Egypt. Their arrival at Mount Sinai. The Law given, and how. Moral Laws; the Decalogue whether a perfect Compendium of the Moral Law. The Ceremonial Laws, what. Reduced to their proper Heads. Such as concerned the matter of their Worship. Sacrifices, and the several kinds of them. Circumcision. The Passover, and its typical relation. The place of Publick Worship. The Tabernacle and Temple, and the several parts of them, and their typical aspects considered. Their stated times and feasts, weekly, monthly, annual. The Sabbatical Year. The Year of Jubilee. Laws concerning the Persons ministring; Priests, Levites, the High-Priest, how a type of Christ. The Design of the Ceremonial Law, and its abolition. The Judicial Laws, what. The Mosaick Law how divided by the Jews into affirmative and negative Precepts, and why. The several ways of Divine revelation. Urim and Thummim what, and the manner of its giving Answers. Bath-Col. Whether any such way of revelation among the Jews. Revelation by Dreams. By Visions. The Revelation of the Holy Spirit, what. Moses his way of Prophecy wherein exceeding the rest. The pacate way of the spirit of prophecy. This spirit when it ceased in the Jewish Church. The state of the Church under this Dispensation briefly noted. From the giving of the Law till Samuel. From Samuel till Solomon. Its condition under the succeeding Kings till the Captivity. From thence till the coming of Christ. The state of the Jewish Church in the time of Christ more particularly considered. The prophanations of the Temple. The Corruption of their Worship. The abuse of the Priesthood. The Depravation of the Law by false glosses. Their Oral and unwritten Law. Its original and succession according to the mind of the Jews. Their unreasonable and blasphemous preferring it above the written Law. Their religious observing the Traditions of the Elders. The Vow of Corban, what. The superseding Moral Duties by it. The Sects in the Jewish Church. The Pharisees, their denomination, rise, temper and principles. Sadducees, their impious Principles, and evil lives. The Essenes, their original, opinions, and way of life. The Herodians, who. The Samaritans. Karraeans. The Sect of the Zealots. The Roman Tyranny over the Jews.
Divinity Original Sin 2 Max Ap
4. THE Code and Digest of those Laws, which God now gave to the Jews as the terms of that National Covenant that he made with them, consisted of three sorts of Precepts, Moral, Ecclesiastical and Political; which the Jews will have intimated by those three words, that so frequently occur in the writings of Moses, Laws, Statutes and Judgments. By [...] Laws, they understand the Moral Law, the notices of good and evil naturally implanted in mens minds: By [...] or Statutes, Ceremonial Precepts, instituted by God with peculiar reference to his Church: By [...] or Judgments, Political Laws concerning Justice and Equity, the order of humane society, and the prudent and peaceable managery of the Commonwealth. The Moral Laws inserted into this Code are those contained in the Decalogue, Deut. 4.13. [...] as they are called, the ten words that were written upon two Tables of Stone. These were nothing else but a summary Comprehension of the great Laws of Nature, engraven at first upon the minds of all men in the World; the most material part whereof was now consigned to writing, and incorporated into the body of the Jewish Law. I know the Decalogue is generally taken to be a complete System of all natural Laws: But whoever impartially considers the matter, will find that there are many instances of duty so far from being commanded in it, that they are not reducible to any part of it, unless hook'd in by subtilties of wit, and drawn thither by forc'd and unnatural inferences. What provision except in one case or two do any of those Commandments make against neglects of duty? Where do they oblige us to do good to others, to love, assist, relieve our enemies? Gratitude and thankfulness to benefactors is one of the prime and essential Laws of Nature, and yet no where that I know of (unless we will have it implied in the Preface to the Law) commanded or intimated in the Decalogue: With many other cases, which 'tis naturally evident are our duty, whereof no footsteps are to be seen in this Compendium, unless hunted out by nice and sagacious reasonings, and made out by a long train of consequences, never originally intended in the Commandment, and which not one in a thousand are capable of deducing from it. It is probable therefore that God reduc'd only so many of the Laws of Nature into writing, as were proper to the present state and capacities of that people to whom they were given, super-adding [Page XXXIII] some, and explaining others by the Preaching and Ministery of the Prophets, who in their several Ages endeavoured to bring men out of the Shades and Thickets, into clear light and Noon-day, by clearing up mens obligations to those natural and essential duties, in the practice whereof humane nature was to be advanced unto its just accomplishment and perfection. Hence it was that our Lord, who came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil and perfect it, has explained the obligations of the natural Law more fully and clearly, more plainly and intelligibly, rendred our duty more fixed and certain, and extended many instances of obedience to higher measures, to a greater exactness and perfection, than ever they were understood to have before. Thus he commands a free and universal charity, not only that we love our friends and relations, but that we love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute us: He hath forbidden malice and revenge with more plainness and smartness; obliged us not only to live according to the measures of sobriety, but extended it to self-denial, and taking up the Cross, and laying down our lives, whenever the honour of God, and the interest of Religion calls for it; he not only commands us to do no wrong, but when we have done it, to make restitution; not only to retrench our irregular appetites, but to cut off our right hand, and pluck out our right eye, and cast them from us, that is, mortifie and offer violence to those vicious inclinations, which are as dear to us, as the most useful and necessary parts and members of our body. Besides all this, had God intended the Decalogue for a perfect summary of the Laws of Nature, we cannot suppose that he would have taken any but such into the collection, whereas the Fourth Commandment concerning the Seventh day is unquestionably Typical and Ceremonial, and has nothing more of a Natural and Eternal obligation in it, than that God should be served and honoured both with publick and private worship, which cannot be done without some portions of time set apart for it: but that this should be done just at such a time, and by such proportions, upon the Seventh rather than the Sixth or the Eighth day, is no part of natural Religion. And indeed the reasons and arguments that are annexed to it, to enforce the observance of it, clearly shew that it is of a later date, and of another nature than the rest of those Precepts in whose company we find it, though it seems at first sight to pass without any peculiar note of discrimination from the rest. As for the rest they are Laws of Eternal righteousness, and did not derive their value and authority from the Divine sanction which God here gave them at Mount Sinai, but from their own moral and internal goodness and equity, being founded in the nature of things, and the essential and unchangeable differences of good and evil. By which means they always were, always will be obligatory and indispensable, being as Eternal and Immutable as the nature of God himself. 2ff7e9595c
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