riage first instituted; all men thenceafter being commanded to cohabit with their wives, rather than with their father and mother. That murder and cruelty was also forbidden both before the law written, and before the flood itself, it is manifest; God himself making it appear, that it was one of the greatest causes of the destruction of mankind by the general flood. For God said unto Noah, An end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with cruelty through them; and behold I will destroy them from the earth. That offence therefore, for which all perished, could not be unknown to all that perished; God's mercy and justice interposing between the untaught and revenge. This commandment God repeated to Noah, after the waters were dried up from the earth. e Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God hath he made man. Also the law of honouring and reverencing our parents was observed among the faithful, and the contrary punished by the father's curse; as, fCursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Again, we find that the unnatural sin of the Sodomites was punished in the highest degree, as with fire from heaven. The sin of adultery and ravishment was before the law no less detested than the rest, as appeareth by that revenge taken for 8 Dinah's forcing; and by the judgment which hJudah gave against Tamar, That she should be burnt; and by the repentance of Pharaoh and Abimelech, against whom this sentence was pronounced, Thou art but dead, because of the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife. To these we may add the ordinance of sacrifice, of distinction of clean and unclean beasts, of circumcision, of the brother to raise d The common reading is cum terra: but God did not destroy the earth; and why may not this preposition in this place have the same force which it hath, according to Junius, Gen. iv. 1. item xliv. 4. and Deut. xxxiv. 1. especially seeing these words are but a repetition of f Gen. ix. 25. Gen. xxxiv. 25. up seed to his brother, that left a widow childless, and divers other constitutions, partly moral and partly ceremonial, which being delivered before the written law, were after by it confirmed. So that this divine law imposed, of which the law of Moses containeth that which is called the Old Testament, may be said, not only to have been written in the hearts of men, before it was engraven in stone, but also in substance, to have been given in precept to the patriarchs. For as St. Paul witnesseth of himself, I knew not sin, but by the law; so the law ever naturally preceded and went before offences, though written after offences committed. It is true, that all the creatures of God were directed by some kind of unwritten law; the angels intuitively; men by reason; beasts by sense and instinct, without discourse; plants by their vegetative powers; and things inanimate by their necessary motions, without sense or perception. SECT. IX. Of the moral, judicial, and ceremonial law, with a note prefixed, How the scripture speaketh not always in one sense, when it nameth the law of Moses. NOW as the word law in general, as is aforesaid, hath divers significations, and is taken for all doctrine which doth prescribe and restrain; so this law, called the law of Moses in particular, is taken by St. Paul diversely; as sometimes for all the Old Testament, as, i Now we know whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them which are under the law. i When it is opposed, or differenced from the prophets and psalms, it is there taken for the five books of Moses. For so St. Luke hath distinguished them; as, k All must be fulfilled, which are written of me in the law, in the prophets, and in the psalms. 1 When it is opposed to the gospel, then it is taken for the law moral, ceremonial, and judicial; as, 1 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law. i Rom. iii. 19. Luke xxiv. 44. 1 Rom. iii. 28. When it is opposed to grace, it signifieth the declaration of God's wrath, and our guilt of condemnation; or the extremity of law, and summum jus; as, m For ye are not under the law, but under grace. When it is opposed to the truth, namely, where the ceremonies or signs are taken for the things signified; as the sacrifice for Christ, and the like; then it signifieth but shadows and figures; as, " The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. n Lastly, When it is opposed to the time of Christ's coming, it signifieth the whole policy of the Jews' commonweal; as, ° Before faith came, we were kept under the law, &c. or the law of the order and institution of the Aaronical priesthood; as, All the prophets, and the law, or the priests, prophesied unto John. P And if the priesthood be changed, the law also, to wit, of the priesthood, must needs be changed. The word law is sometimes also taken by the figure metonymia, for interest, authority, and empire, or for constraining. force; as, a The law of the Spirit of life, the law or the force of sin and death, the enforcements of concupiscence, &c. But the written law of Moses, or the law of the Old Testament, of which we now speak, is thus defined; The law is a doctrine, which was first put into the minds of men by God, and afterwards written by Moses, or by him repeated, commanding holiness and justice, promising eternal life conditionally, that is, to the observers of the law, and threatening death to those which break the law in the least. For, according to St. James, Whosoever shall keep the whole, and faileth in one point, is guilty of all. The definition used by the schoolmen, in which both the old and new law are comprehended, is thus given: Lex divina est divinum decretum, hominibus præscribens modum necessarium ut apte pervenire possint ad supernaturalem beatitudinem, quæ est ultimus humanæ vitæ finis; "The divine law," say they, "is m Rom. vi. 14. Gal. iii. 18. u John i. 17. • Gal. iii. 23. Luke xvi. 16. r P Heb. vii. 12. and x. 1. "the decree of God, prescribing unto men a necessary "mean, whereby they may aptly attain supernatural beati"tude, which is the last end of man's life." The law of Moses hath three parts; moral, ceremonial, and judicial. The moral part commandeth this or that good to be done, and this or that evil to be avoided, in particular; as also it declareth for whose sake it is to be done; as, Do this, for I am the Lord; whereas the law of nature commands it but in general. Again, the moral law entreateth of virtue and goodness; the ceremonial of divine service and of holiness; (for external worship, and the order of hallowing ourselves unto God, is called ceremony ;) and the judicial teacheth the particular government, fit for the commonwealth of the Jews, and prescribeth orders for justice and equity. And therefore was it said of St. Paul, Rom. vii. 12. The commandment is just, holy, and good; just, or justice, being referred to the judicial; holy, or holiness, to the ceremonial; good, or honest, to the moral. The judi.cial part is touching the government of the commonwealth of the Jews, in which many things must needs be proper to that estate, as, such as were instituted either in respect of place or persons. The ceremonial is divided into four parts, according to the four kinds of things of which it speaketh, to wit, sacrifice, holy things, sacraments, and observances. To sacrifices belong beasts, and the fruits of the earth; to holy things the tabernacle, temple, vessels, altars, and the like; to sacraments, circumcision, the passover, and such like. For the observances, they consisted either in prohibition of certain meats, as not to eat the blood and fat of beasts; or in some other outward things, as in washings, purifyings, anointings, and attire, as not to wear mixed garments of linen and woollen; as also it prohibiteth other unnatural and unproper commixtions, as, Thou shalt not yoke together in a plough an ox and an ass, or cast mingled seed in one field. It also exhorteth natural compassion, and forbiddeth cruelty even to beasts, birds, and plants, whereby the creatures of God might be destroyed without any profit to man. For so some refer these precepts; Thou shalt not kill the bird sitting on her nest, nor beat down the first buds of the tree, nor muzzle the labouring ox, and the like, to the ceremonial law. Neither is there any of these three parts of the law of Moses, but it hath as yet in some respects the same power which it had before the coming of Christ. For the moral liveth still, and is not abrogated or taken away, saving in the ability of justifying or condemning; for therein are we commanded to love and worship God, and to use charity one towards another, which for ever shall be required at our hands. Therein also are we in particular directed how this ought to be done; which power of directing by special rules and precepts of life it retaineth still. For these things also are commanded in both testaments to be observed; though principally for the fear of God in the one, and for the love of God in the other. The ceremonial also liveth in the things which it foresignified. For the shadow is not destroyed, but perfected, when the body itself is represented to us. Besides, it still liveth, in that it giveth both instruction and testimony of Christ, and in that it giveth direction to the church for some ceremonies and types of holy signification, which are still expedient; though in a far fewer number than before Christ's coming, and in a far less degree of necessity. Lastly, The judicial liveth in substance, and concerning the end and the natural and universal equity thereof. But the moral faileth in the point of justification, the ceremonial, as touching the use and external observation, (because Christ himself is come, of whom the ceremonies were signs and shadows,) and the judicial is taken away, as far forth as it was peculiar to the Jews' commonweal and policy. SECT. X. A proposal of nine other points to be considered, with a touch of the five first. AS for that which remaineth in the general consideration |