own authority to fay ti ferve the preface at ve.. our LORD introduces

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Himself gives us to und.. He bere fays, and of elfewhere to the fame upon the law of the C easier for heaven and e tittle of the law to fa!! what He fays, ver. : affertion touching t ablenefs, and perpe law, we must, t - felves, or to make ftrue what He fays law, which He H foundation on whi be no other than vered by Mofes CHRIST Condemi. had He condem had He allowed was an end of tittle of it mi to fall-periff. be worth our the context:

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the context,

In the above paraphrafe on I have endeavoured to take in the whole fenfe of the paffages where this fubject is mentioned, as agreable to, and reconcileable with, the law of the Old Teftament; for it was certainly by this, that our LORD regulated all His thoughts, words, and actions, on every fubject, and upon every occafion, as well as in the inftance of what He faid, Luke xvi. 18.

Had CHRIST been to have introduced a new law, it must have appeared fomewhere in His* commiffion: we have several

* In Deut. xviii. 18, 19. it is faid-I will raife them up a PROPHET from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put MY WORDS in His mouth, and He fhall Speak unto them ALL THAT I SHALL COMMAND HIM. And it fhall come to pass, that whofever will not hearken unto MY WORDS, which He shall Speak IN MY NAME, I will require it of him. And, ver. 15. The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a PROPHET in the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like into me; unto Him ye shall hearken. This general account of CHRIST's miffion as a Prophet, feems to militate against every idea of His fetting up a new law of His own. Had He done this, He had not been like Mofes, who received the law from God, and delivered it to the people, but like Mahomet, who invented a new law of His own, in oppofition to the law of GOD, and imposed it upon his followers as containing the only true religion and worship: whereas the bleffed JESUS gave this teft of His miffion, John iii. 34. He whom God hath fent, Speaketh the words of GOD-for the truth of this, His conftant appeal was to the writings of the Old Testament, and no doubt had the above paffages of Deuteronomy in his view.

I

transcripts

tranfcripts of this, relative to all His of fices, but not a fingle clause is there in any of them to that purpose.

His commiffion as a priest appears in feveral parts of the Old Testament, and is thus fhortly summed up, Dan. ix. 24.To finish the tranfgreffion-to make an end of fins-to make reconciliation for iniquity and (thus) to bring in everlasting righteouf ness.-As a prophet, fays he, by If. lxi. 1. &c. The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me, because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: He bath fent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prifon to them that are bound: to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our GOD; to comfort all that mourn: to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for afbes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praife for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteouf nefs, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. There is nothing about a new law in this part of OUR SAVIOUR'S commiffion.

As to His kingly office, on which He entered after His refurrection from the dead, when He had a name given Him above every name, that at the name of JESUS every knee fhould bow, of things in heaven, and things on

earth,

earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD, to the glory of GoD the Father-His kingdom was to be adminiftered not by any new law, but by that which was from the beginning, once written on tables of flone, but now to be written on the fleshly tables of the heart, 2 Cor. iii. 3. For thus faith the LORD -This is the covenant that I will make with the house of ISRAEL; after thofe days I will put MY LAW in their inward parts, and write IT in their hearts, and will be their GOD, and they shall be my people. Jer. xxxi. 33. Comp. Heb. viii. 10.

If CHRIST then gave a new law, or rule of life, He exceeded His commission, and we must call in queftion His veracity, as well as his fincerity, in that declaration of His, Matt. v. 17, 18, 19. likewife as to what he fays, John xii. 49. I have not spoken of MYSELF, but the Father which fent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should fay*, and what I Should Speak.

But

*If the Father gave CHRIST a commandment to declare that to be a mortal fin against the feventh commandment, which was uniformly allowed as innocent under the Old Testament, this must infer either a change in the divine mind and will, or an abfolute contradiction: this laft is ufually got rid of, as the Mahometan doctors get rid of the contradictions in the Koran-by their doctrine of abrogation-for they VOL. I. D d

pretend

But to return once more to OUR SAVIOUR'S difcourfe with the Pharifees:Can it be imagined that CHRIST, fo remarkable for his precifion, fo thoroughly accurate in all he faid on every other point, fhould ufe fo little in this, as not to make Himself understood by His hearers? Nay-that he should observe fo little precifion, as not to defcribe an offence, which we are to fuppofe Him to condemn? The most flagrant inftances, the most obvious and palpable definitions of polygamy cannot be understood from what He fays.-He that putteth away his wife, by bill of divorcement, and marrieth another does not defcribe a man's taking two wives together, and cohabiting with both; nor—a man's having a wife, and taking another to her, and cohabiting with both. Such was the Old Testament polygamy, not the putting away one in order to take another.-I do not recollect a fingle inftance in which this was ever done during the whole administration of MoJes, the Judges, or Kings, any more than

pretend that God commanded feveral things in the "Koran, which, for good reasons, were afterwards "revoked and abrogated." Thus do fome of our Christian Doctors treat the Old Teftament, in order to establish certain doctrines which they fuppofe to be taught in the New Teftament refpecting marriage.

+ This is the fenfe of the word aroλugal. Matt. xix. 7,8,9.

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