Page 287
Exercitatio XXI.
The Sanction of the Law in Promises and Threatnings. The Law considered several ways. As the Rule of the old Covenant. As having a new end put to it. As it was the Instrument of the Jewish Polity. The sanction of it in those senses. Punishments threatned to be inflicted by God himself. By others. Promises of three sorts. To be fulfilled by God himself. By others. Pa∣rents how they prolong the lives of their children. Punishment 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 what. Provi∣dential punishments. Partial. Total. Persons entrusted with power of punishment. The ori∣ginal distribution of the people. Task-masters and Officers in Egypt, who. The authority of Moses. The distribution of the people in the Wilderness. Institution of the Sanhedrin. Judges. Kings. Penalties Ecclesiastical. The three degrees of it explained and examined. Causes of Niddui. Instance, Joh. 9.20. Of Cherem. And Shammatha. Forms of an Ex∣communication. The Sentence, Ezra 10.7, 8. explained. Civil Penalties and Capital. The several sorts of them.
BY the Sanction of the Law we intend the Promises and Penalties wherewith, by [§ 1] God, the observation of it, and obedience unto it, was enforced. This the Apostle hath respect unto in sundry places of this Epistle, the principal whereof are reported in the fore-going Dissertation. To represent this distinctly, we may observe, that the Law falls under a three-fold consideration: First, As it was a Repe∣tition and Expression of the Law of Nature, and the Covenant of Works established thereon. Secondly, as it had a new End and design put upon the Administration of it, to direct the Church unto the use and benefit of the Promise given of old to Adam, and renewed unto Abraham four hundred and thirty years before. Thirdly, As it was the Instrument of the Rule and Government of the Church and People of Israel, with respect unto the Covenant made with them in and about the Land of Canaan. And in this three-fold respect it had a three-fold Sanction.
First, As considered absolutely, it was attended with promises of life, and threatnings [§ 2] of death, both Eternal. The original promise of life upon obedience, and the curse on its transgression were inseparably annexed unto it; yea, were essential parts of it, as it contained the Covenant between God and Man. See Gen. 2. Deut. 27.26. Rom. 6.23. Rom. 4.4. Rom. 10.5. Rom. 11.6. Lev. 18.5. Ezek. 29.11. Gal. 3.12, 13.
Now in the Administration of the Law, the Church was thus far brought under [§ 3] the obligation of these Promises and Threatnings of Life and Death eternal, so far in∣terested in the one, and made obnoxious unto the other, as that if they used not the Law according to the new dispensation of it, wherein it was put into a subserviency unto the Promise; as Gal. 3.19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. that they were left to stand and fall according to the absolute tenure of that first Covenant and its ratification, which by reason of the entrance of sin proved fatally ruinous unto all that cleaved unto it, Rom. 8.3. chap. 9.31.
Secondly, The Law had in this Administration of it, a new End and design put [§ 4] upon it, and that in three things. First, that it was made directive and instructive unto another End, and not meerly preceptive as at the beginning. The Authoritative In∣stitutions that in it were super-added to the Moral commands of the Covenant of works, did all of them direct and teach the Church to look for Righteousness and Sal∣vation, the original ends of the first Covenant, in Another, and by another way; as the Apostle at large disputes in this Epistle, and declares positively, Gal. 3. throughout. Secondly, In that it had a dispensation added unto the commands of obedience and interpretation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, by condiscension, given by God himself, as to the perfe∣ction of its observance, and manner of its performance, in reference unto this new end. It required not absolutely perfect obedience, but perfectness of heart, integrity and upright∣ness in them that obeyed. And unto the Law thus considered, the former promises and threatnings are annexed. For the neglect of this use of it left the Transgressors obnoxious to the Curse denounced in general against them that continued not in the