Part II. for the Entrance and Empire of divine Grace in the Soul. The end of all is our Sanctification, to make us holy here, that we may be eternally happy hereafter. If then we cherish and clofe with thefe holy Motions, we delight the Holy Spirit, and engage him to dwell and abide with us: but if we quench and fupprefs thefe pious Inspirations, and fuffer them to go off without leaving any Impreffion upon us, we then grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and provoke him to withdraw his Graces and bleffed Influences from us, He will no longer ftrive with us, but will leave us to the hardness of our own Hearts, and to the malignity of those evil Spirits that only feek our Destruction. Wherefore if we would feel this fanctifying Influence of the Holy Ghoft, let us beware of difpleafing him by refifting the publick Calls or private Admonitions of this divine Monitor; but rather let us liften to and join Iffue with all the good Motions and holy Inspirations he is pleas'd to vouchfafe to us, to whom we owe all the Graces and good Difpofitions we have or hope for. To this end, let us

2. Thankfully own and hearken to thefe divine Inspira tions, not looking upon them as the common and ordinary Suggestions of Fancy, to be receiv'd or rejected at pleasure; but attending to them as Calls and Meffages from Heaven, and obeying them as the means of our Sanctification. Let us blefs God, that he doth not abandon us to ourselves, or leave us to the ways of our own Hearts; but that he is ftill folliciting and ftriving with us, importuning us for our good, and befeeching us to accept the Terms and Methods of our own Salvation. And because of the many Difficulties and Temptations that lie in our way, let us,

Laitly, Pray unto God for the Aids and Affiftances of his Holy Spirit; to establish our Hearts with Grace, and ftrengthen them against all Temptations; that he would create a clean Heart, and renew a right Spirit within us; that our Ears may be open to hear Inftructions, and our Hearts mollify'd to receive the Impreffions of Piety and Virtue. Particularly, let us pray for the three divine and excellent Graces, Faith, Hope and Charity; that fo being thereby fanctify'd with all the elect People of God, we may be e'er long glorify'd together.

The End of the First Volume.

A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION of the Second Part of the ChurchCatechifm.

DISCOURSE I.

MATTH. V. 17.

Think not that I am come to deftroy the Law and the Prophets; I am not come to deftroy, but to fulfil.

H

AVING in a former Treatife fhew'd what we are to believe in order to Salvation, by the Explication of the Apostles Creed; I proceed to fhew what we are to do as neceffary to that end, by a particular Explication of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. To this the Next Queftion and Answer in the Catechifm lead us, in these words: You faid, that your God-fathers and God-mothers did promife for you, that you should keep God's Commandments; tell me how many there be, To which

The Anfwer is, Ten; the fame which God Spake in the 20th Chapter of Exodus, faying, &c.

But before I enter upon the Commandments, 'twill be requifite to premife fomething touching the Obligation, the Excellence, and the Extent of the Divine Law. Of the

First of thefe I fhall treat at this time, from these words of our Saviour, Think not that I am come to deftroy the Law, &c.

The occafion of which words, was from a certain Jealousy of the Jews and others, that Chrift defign'd to destroy the Old Law, which they held in great Veneration. This they gather'd from his frequent oppofing what he faid, to what had been faid to them of old becaufe he gave other and higher Precepts than thofe they had receiv'd, and put a ftricter sense upon the Law and Prophets than was commonly known and receiv'd among them; they concluded he was about to diffolve the whole Frame of Mofes's Law, and to fet up a new Doctrine in oppofition to it.

Now to remove this Sufpicion, he wills them, in the words of our Text, Not to think that he came to destroy the Law and the Prophets; affuring them the contrary: for he came not to destroy, but to fulfil it. In treating of which words, I must shew,

First, What we are to understand by the Law and the Prophets.

Secondly, What is here meant by destroying, and fulfilling of it.

Thirdly, In what fenfe our Saviour denies the one, and affirms the other, that he came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it. For the

First, By the Law and the Prophets, we are to underftand the Writings of Mofes and the Prophets, or the whole Revelation of the Divine Will deliver'd by them, and contain'd in the Books of the Old Teftament which Law confifted of three great Parts or Branches, viz. the Moral, the Judicial, and the Ceremonial Precepts.

The Moral Law contains the Decalogue, or Ten Com-mandments, which are the Dictates of Natural Light, or the Rules of a Holy Life; thefe were firft engraven on the Tables of the Heart by the Finger of God himself. And when they began to be blotted and defac'd by the defection of Mankind, there was a Second Edition of them on Mount Sinai, engraven on two Tables of Stone, and deliver'd to the People of the Jews by the Hand of Mofes. After which, being corrupted by the falfe Gloffes of the Scribes and Pha rifces, our Saviour gave a Third Edition of them on the Mount of Olives; in which he refcu'd them from their cor

rupt

369 rupt Interpretations, and refin'd them into a more pure Rule of Life and Manners. The Publication hereof on Mount Sinai, was attended with Thunder and Lightning, and with all the ftern and pompous Solemnities of Dread and Terror, to awe the World into the obfervance of them, as you may read at large in the 19th Chapter of Exodus. This laft Edition of them on the Mount of Olives, was deliver'd in the more pleafing Sound of Peace and Bieffednefs, to draw Difciples by the Cords of Love, and by the most obliging Attractives, to encourage and reward their Obedience, as you may fee in Mat. 5.

The Judicial Law confifted of thofe Laws and Statutes that were given to the Jews as they were a Commonwealth, and were prefcrib'd to them by God Almighty for their Civil Government.

The Ceremonial Law confifted of Sacrifices, Offerings, and divers kinds of Wafhing; all which, were typical Representations of the Life and Death of the Meffias, or memorative Signs and Shadows of good things to be receiv'd by him.

In fhort then, the whole Oeconomy of the Jewish Religion contain'd in the Old Teftament, and particularly the Rules of a Holy Life deliver'd to the World before the coming of our Saviour, is what we understand here by the Law and Prophets. But,

Secondly, What is it to deftroy the Law and the Prophets, and what to fulfil it? To deftroy a Law, is to take off the Obligation of it, and to loofe thofe from any farther Duty and Obfervance of it, that were before bound by it: And this is done, either,

1. By enacting fomething in oppofition to it, whereby it is formally repeal'd, and fo declar'd null, and void of any farther Obligation. Or elfe,

2. By removing all Occafions of any farther use of it, whereby the Obligation ceases of course, as the Laws of War ceafe and have no place in times of Peace.

To fulfil a Law, is not only to obferve and perform what is requir'd by it, but to advance and improve it, to fill up the Vacuities of it, and to anfwer and accomplish all that is intended by it.

These things being premis'd, I proceed to enquire,

VOL. II.

Cc

Thirdly,

Thirdly, In what fenfe our Saviour declares here, that he came not to deftroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil it.

In answer whereunto, we must note, that tho Chrift did not properly deftroy the Ceremonial or Judicial Laws of Mofes, by oppofing, violating or contradicting either; yet thefe words of our Saviour are principally meant of the Moral Law, or thofe Precepts of Natural Light fum'd up and deliver'd in the Ten Commandments: which he was fo far from diminishing or difannulling, that he rather confirm'd and heighten'd the Obligation, as plainly appears by his expounding of it in this Chapter.

As for the Ceremonial Law, that may be faid rather to die of itself, than to be deftroy'd; for as Darkness vanishes at the approach of Light, fo the dark Types of the Law, which were only Figures and Shadows of good things, yielded to the Subftance, and disappear'd of courfe by the brightnefs of his coming.

:

As for the Judicial Law of the Jewish State, that was not deftroy'd by our Saviour, but fell of itself by the deftruction of the Commonwealth for thofe Laws being peculiar only to the Jewish Nation, were to continue no longer than the Commonwealth continu'd; infomuch, that when the City of Ferufalem was deftroy'd, and the Jewish Polity diffolv'd by becoming a Roman Province, there was an end of the Commonwealth, and confequently of the Laws by which it was govern'd: which, without any Violence or Violation offer'd to them by our Saviour, fell of their own accord, with the Diffolution of the Government. So that he cannot be faid truly to destroy either of thofe Laws by any exprefs Repeal or Oppofition to them, tho they both ceas'd and fell to the ground.

But this Saying of our Saviour, that he came not to destroy the Law, was chiefly intended of the Moral Law, or Ten Commandments; for he never abrogated or difpens'd with any one Precept of that Law, but left his Followers under the perpetual Obligation and Obfervance of them; he renew'd and ratify'd the Precepts of both Tables, requiring us to love God with all our Heart, and with all our Mind, and our Neighbour as ourselves; adding, that on these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Again, in this Sermon of his on the Mount, he adopts into his Religion that Dictate of Natural Light, All things whatsoever

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