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Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him, fhould not perish, but have eternal life." If therefore any among the Ifraelites were blind, or voluntarily turned away their eyes, there remained no hope of falvation for them; so neither at this day for unbelievers, or for " those that rebel against the light," Job xxiv. 13. or for thofe, "whofe minds the god of this world hath blinded, leaft the light of the glorious gofpel of Chrift, fhould fhine unto them," 2 Cor. iv. 4. Yet as even a weak fight might be saving; fo a faith still in a state of weaknefs, if it be genuine and fincere, refcues us from death and as whoever was once bit and cured by the fight of the serpent, if again bit, he was to have recourfe to the fame remedy: fo if after our restoration, we fall again into fin, the fame faith fuccours, as before.

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CHAP. XI.

Of the Blefings of the Old Teftament.

1. A grace,

S the Old Teftament is nothing, but the covenant of as it was difpenfed before Chrift came in the flefh, it is neceffary, that all the bleffings or good things, which were promifed by the covenant of grace, as fuch, have likewife a place in the Old Teftament. But the benefits of the covenant of grace are eternal falvation, and whatever has a neceffary connection therewith; fuch as, regeneration, vocation by the word and Spirit of grace, faith, justification, spiritual peace, adoption, and, in a word, all the particulars explained in the preceding book. Though moft of these are much more eminent under the New Teftament, yet all of them as to their substance, were conferred even under the Old, as this is evident from the nature of the thing, and from what we have proved before. We fhall only treat of the good things peculiar to the Old Testament, especially under the Mofaic difpenfation.

II. And they are five. I. The election of the Ifraelites for a peculiar people. II. The inheritance of the land of Canaan. III. The familiar demonftration and inhabitation of the divine majefty. IV. The fhadowing forth of divine myfteries, and daily fealing them by a religion of ceremonies. V. An almost uninterrupted fucceffion of infpired prophets.

III. It was certainly a great benefit, that God should choofe

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the people of Ifrael, above all other nations of the world, to have communion with himself in a most stedfast covenant. God himfelf declares this in these words, Deut. vii. 6. " for thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, Jehovah thy God hath chofen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." In confequence of this election, it was.. ft, That Ifrael was called, "the firft-born fon of God," Exod. iv. 22. That is, above all other people, whose fouls the fame God had made, and to whom he gives life and breath and all things; a fingular people, his only beloved, Lord of all the reft, having a double portion of the bleffing, an inheritance, not only earthly, but alfo fpiritual. 2dly, That they fhould be the peculiar property of God, his treasure, gia and as it were, his royal riches, which he boasts of in the world, and glories in as his Segullah, concerning the emphasis of which word, fee what we have faid, Book 3. chap. xii. §. 7. and chap. xiii. §. 19. 3dly, That they again might glory in God, as in their portion. For, when God took them for a people to himself, he, at the same time, gave them a right to call him their God, and to have him for their portion: as these things are joined together, Deut. xxvi. 17. 18. "thou haft avouched Jehovah this day to be thy God; and Jehovah hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people,” Jer. x. 16. "The portion of Jacob is the former of all things: and Ifrael is the rod of his inheritance, 4thly, That they should have a right to expect the Meffiah, from the midst of them, as one of their brethren, Deut. xviii. 15, 18.

IV. In these things certainly, great was the " advantage of the Jew, and much the profit of circumcifion, much I fay every way," Rom. iii. 1, 2. Hence the apoftle, Rom. ix. 4, 5. in ftrong terms amplifies that advantage of the Jews; "who are Ifraelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the fervice of God and the promises: whofe are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Chrift came." Yet nope of these things, nay not all of them together, if we only confider the external confederation, was fufficient to them for falvation: for "they are not all Ifrael, which are of Ifrael: neither becaufe they are the feed of Abraham, are they all children," Rom. ix. 6, 7. Very many of them, notwithstanding they were the children of the kingdom, were caft out, Mat. viii. 12. Yet in this election of the whole body of the people to the communion of a very close but yet external covenant, there was a certain type of thofe, who were actually chosen to grace and glory and the godly among the Ifraelites, befides

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thefe outward prerogatives, enjoyed the faving favour of God, and the privilege of the mystical covenant, in and by them.

V. The Second benefit or privilege of the Old Testament was the land of Canaan. This God had promised to Abraham and his feed, Gen. xii. 7. Gen. xiii. 15. and Gen. xv. 7. nay, and affigned it to them by oath, Gen. xxvi. 3, 4. Exod. xxxiii. 1. Ezek. xx. 6. This promife, confirmed by oath, God calls a covenant, dixonen, a teftament, that is, the laft and irrevocable difpofal of his will, Gen. xv. 18. " in that fame day Jehovah made a covenant with Abraham, faying, unto thy feed have I given this land." And because, in confequence of that teftament, the feed of Abraham was to poffefs that land, it is therefore called their inheritance, Lam. v. 2. Heb. xi. 8.

VI. But we are by no means to understand this, as if that typical inheritance made up the whole inheritance of the Old Teftament, or that we are to give fuch a confined definition of the Old Teftament, as if it was only the will of giving the land of Canaan. Much lefs are we to fay, that they who deny this, either admit no Old Teftament at all, or confound it with the New. For, the Old Testament, as I have feveral times repeated, is nothing but the testament of grace, as proposed under the vail of types, which were abrogated. But heaven and falvation, and God himfelf are the inheritance of the children of God, by the teftament or covenant of grace: and as that teftament is invariable, the fubftance of the inheritance cannot be one thing under the Old, and another under the New economy of the fame Teftament. The difference of the economies confifts in this, that the fame inheritance is held forth different ways in the New Testament clearly and without any vail; in the Old, wrapt up in many types and earthly pledges; among which, after the covenant was made with Abraham, the typical inheritance of the land of Canaan was the most eminent. In the Old Teftament it was conjoined with bondage; in the New with liberty; to which the inheritance of the Gentiles is likewife added.

VII. That this inheritance was typical, both reafon declares, and the fcripture attefts. For, as the whole habitable world cannot be the happiness of the foul, and is fubject to vanity, by reason of fin, there is no country, confidered in itself, of fuch value, as to deferve to be called the inheritance of the people of God. And certainly, God's covenant-people have fomething more to expect from him, than what even the wicked may poffefs. Nor is there fo vaft a difference between Syria Egypt and Canaan, if we confider only the fertility and plea fantnefs of countries, as that the poffeffion of the Ifraelites, un

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lefs fomething higher was implied, fhould be fo much commended, as to be the envy of all other nations. In fine, if their happiness confifted in the fields which they poffeffed, what became of those pious perfons, who, at the risk of this life, and this earthly inheritance, willingly laid down their lives for the love of their God? and what was the reafon, why Mofes just on the confines of death, expreffed fo great a defire after that land, at least to fee it with his eyes, Deut. iii. 25. but be cause he eagerly wanted fome way or other, to taste that pledge of heaven which he was debarred from entering into.

VIII. But fcripture also very plainly declares the fame thing. When the ungrateful Ifraelites had, by ther murmurings, provoked God, he fware in his wrath, "as truly as I live, they shall not see the land, which I fware unto their fathers," Num. xiv. 21, 23. It is thus expreffed Pfal. xcv. 11. " unto whom I fware in my wrath, that they fhould not enter into my reft." Which Paul, Heb. iv. 1.-11. refers to the Messiah, and to the fpiritual and heavenly reft, purchafed by Chrift: intimiting, that the quiet poffeffion of the land of Canaan, into which Jefus, or Joshua the fon of Nun, introduced the children of those rebels, was a type of the spiritual reft, purchased for the elect by Jefus the Son of God, and of Mary.

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IX. The analogy or fimilitude confifts in the following particulars. Ift, The land of Canaan was eminent for its fituation, pleasantnefs, fertility, and for the excellent fruits of the earth, above very many other countries of the world; whence it is fo often called "a goodly land, a land flowing with milk and honey," a phrafe ufed even by poets as well Greek as Latin; the pleafant land, Pfal. cvi. 24. Zech. vii. 14. and in a word, the glory of all lands, Ezek. xx. 15: where the inhabitants. were made to fuck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, and butter of kine, and the pure blood of the grape," Deut. xxxii. 13, 14. It therefore reprefented the delightful pleasantness and abundant plenty of the fpiritual bleffings in the kingdom of Chrift, both of grace and of glory: concerning which Jeremiah prophefied, chap. xxxi. 12. "therefore they fhall come and fing in the height of Zion, and fhall flow together to the goodnefs of Jehovah, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd; and their foul fhall be as a watered garden, and they fhall not forrow any more at all :" compare Joel iii. 18.

X. 2dly, The land of Canaan was, in a peculiar manner, Jehovah's The author's words are tam invidiofe prædicanda fit which could not, I conceive, be rendered, but by a paraphrafis.

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Jehovah's land, Hofea ix. 3. where himself intended to dwell, Pfal. lxxxiii. 12. Whence it is called " the place where Jehovah had made for himself to dwell in," Exod. xv. 17. “ and his holy habitation," ver. 13. But it is called fo, not only becaufe God was to have a temple in that land, and to display fome peculiar fymbols of his presence but also because in that land, he was to fend his Son to them, and to anoint him in the midst of them, both king and Lord by pouring out his Holy Spirit. The Ifraelites therefore in their land, which in a peculiar manner was the land of God, had a pledge of the revelation of the Messiah in the midst of them. That now oxvwos, inhabitation of God in Canaan was a symbol of what John defcribes, Rev. xxi. 3. "behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell (tabernacle) with them." And in the last place, Jerufalem,which was the throne of glory in the land of Canaan, Jer. iii. 17. was a pledge of heaven, which is the habitation of the holiness and glory of God, Ifa. Ixiii. 15.

XI. 3dly, The land of Canaan was given to Ifrael in virtue of the teftament of grace, not for any merit or worth of theirs, but by the mere favour of God, Deut. vii. 7, 8. "not because ye were more in number than any people-but because Jehavah loved you, and because he would keep the oath, which he had fwore unto your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out with a mighty hand;" compare Deut. iv. 37, 38, Ezek. xvi. 60. and Ezek. xxxvi. 32. Thus alfo the inheritance of heaven comes to believers from the most free grace of God alone, and the moft free teftament of God the Father and of Chrift, Luke xii. 32. Eph. ii. 8. But yet Ifrael was to travail through a large and great wilderness, and to conflict with the Canaanites, in various and fevere battles, before they could enter upon the poffeffion of the promised land. They alfo, to whom a full right to heaven is freely given, through the grace of Christ, are to walk in that narrow way, befet with briars and thorns, and to fight valiantly against the enemies of their falvation, and take the kingdom of heaven by violence.

XII. Laftly, though Mofes indeed, brought Ìfrae! out of Egypt, yet he could not bring them into the promised land : that office was referved for Jofhua. And certainly when the law is fubfervient to the covenant of grace it tends to drive the elect out of themselves, by making them acknowledge their vilenefs and mifery: nevertheless it is by Jefus only, that we are introduced into a ftate of grace. Mofes is to begin the work and prepare the foul, and lead the people round through the wilderness: but it is the office of Jefus to put the last hand

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