should split on that rock. But it is not probable, that they who walked in a good conscience before God, and knew they had to do with a most merciful Father, were tormented, all their life, with the continual dread of death for examples of such rigour were rare; but instances of paternal indulgence common and conspicu ous before their eyes.

LXII. True it is, long life in the land of Canaan was a pledge of eternal life in heaven; and it was necessary to love this pledge, as it pleased God to grant the enjoyment of it. But I cannot conceive, how the taking away of the external and perishing pledge was to be so much dreaded, when they were to obtain an eternal good in its room, of which they had only an earnest in the pledge; since the godly were assured of receiving the heavenly inheritance, immediately upon, and even by death. For the exchange of the typical for the true and heavenly inheritance is not to be dreaded, but rather to be desired and longed for.

and truly worthy of And then they were

LXIII. Pious persons under the Old Testament, who deprecated an untimely death, are not said to have done so from any fond love to the earthly pledge, but from a desire of glorifying God among the living, Psal. vi. 4, 5. Is. xxxviii. 18, 19. This exercise of piety made the psalmist's life agreeable, the name of life, Psal. xviii. 17. public persons, who were fond of a longer lease of life, not so much out of a regard to themselves, as to the kingdom and church, whose advantages they watched over. However, it is not to be doubted, but all the saints, whenever they considered themselves separately, and compared the imperfections of this life with the perfections of the future, desired to be dissolved, and be with God in glory. For this was then to them, as it is now to us, far better.

VOL. III.

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LXIV. The people of Israel, in general, had hopes of seeing Christ in their own land; but this was not the case of every individual. Nor was it lawful for those who lived in Canaan many ages before the coming of the Messiah, to expect such a long term of life, as to hope to see Christ's day; nor be struck with horror at the thoughts of a death, that perhaps might cut off all those hopes. Those who were actuated by a higher Spirit, had more exalted apprehensions than the vulgar, longed, indeed, to see those things, which the disciples saw, Matth. xiii. 17. searched diligently what, or what manner of time, the prophetic Spirit, which foretold those things, should happen, 1 Pet. i. 11. But I know not from whence the brethren could have learned, that every one in particular, whom they make subject to the fear of death, or that the generality of believers without distinction, expected perhaps, in their time, the coming of Christ, and hence arose their horror of death. Peter speaks the contrary, ver. 12. that it was revealed unto them, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister those things. Can the brethren then mention so much as a single instance of any, who, on that account, is said to have been afraid of death?

LXV. These hypotheses are groundlessly built on the saying of Paul, Heb. ii. 15. where the fruit of Christ's death is said to be the delivering them, who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage. For, 1. What reason can persuade, nay admit, that the fruit of that death, for undergoing which it was necessary Christ should become man, should be restrained to the Jews alone, the inhabitants of Canaan? For the benefit of Christ's death belongs to all the elect from the beginning to the end of the world; and the apostle is here treating of all those that are

sanctified by Christ, whom Christ calls his brethren, and the children given him by the Father.

LXVI. 2. It is without proof inferred, that those here described are considered as believers already; since it is more suitable to imagine, that the most miserable state of the elect is here delineated while they were themselves out of Christ. For during all that time they must needs be tormented in a fearful manner with the dread of death, whenever they think of God as a judge and unless the death of Christ had intervened, that dread would continue upon them all their life long.

age

LXVII. 3. We are here by bondage under no necessity to understand bondage to the elements of the world; for as the apostle a little before had said, that the devil is destroyed by the death of Christ, what is more natural than to explain, what he now speaks of bondage, concerning that wretched condition of men, when under the tyranny of the devil? And surely it is a much greater blessing to be delivered from the bondof the devil, than from that to the elements of the world; and as both is a fruit of Christ's death, why shall we restrict the apostle's meaning to the least, and exclude the greatest? Besides, there is no such difference between the fear of death, and the bondage of the devil, as to make it improbable for them to be joined together in the same discourse; for the one is cherished by the other the bondage of the devil begets the fear of death; and the fear of death, in an unsanctified conscience, heightens the hatred of God, and consequently the bondage of sin and the devil.

LXVIII. 4. The term death is most unreasonably restricted to temporal death. The apostle argues in this manner: It was necessary for Christ to become man, because he was to die. He was to die, 1. That,

•

by his death, he might destroy the devil, who had the power of death. 2. That he might deliver his people from death itself, and from the fear of it. What can be more plain, than that the whole of that death is here meant, over which the devil has power, both temporal and eternal, especially the last? The fear of temporal death, as the brethren describe it, was good and holy in itself, only somewhat troublesome and uneasy; and can it be thought probable, that the apostle, when speaking of the effects of Christ's death, should explain in very magnificent terms the freedom from a thing good and holy in itself, because it produced some uneasiness, and omit the deliverance from that which comprehends all evils and miseries? and yet so form his discourse, as if he seemed to have spoke rather of that which is the greatest, than of that which is the least evil, and what he alone intended?

LXIX. 5. and lastly, I could also wish it was explained, what is that universality of saints, denoted by the term, oso1, which Christ delivered from the fear of losing the pledge by death. Were the saints who died before Christ, of this number? That does not appear; for they are supposed to be troubled by the fear of death all their lifetime. And yet, if I mistake not, they were delivered from this when once they died. What then did the death of Christ profit them in this respect? Are we then to understand those saints who lived at the time of Christ's death? The brethren seem to intend this, when they say, "As many as bore bondage with that disposition, were delivered by Christ when he died," Ad Heb. ii. § 89. But who are those? Not believers of the Gentiles, who had no country given them for a pledge. It must then be the Jews. But it could not be all of them. For many of them lived out. of the land, in a voluntary exile, without enjoying that

pledge. How greatly then is this fruit of Christ's death limited? Let us suppose, it was they, who, after the death of Christ, received Christ by faith in the land of Canaan, that constituted this universality. But how were these delivered from the fear of losing the pledge? Was it because, after Christ's death, the land ceased to be a pledge, and was shortly to be given up to the Gentiles to a total destruction? Is this the meaning of the brethren? how flat and mean! Well says the celebrated interpreter on Zech. ix. § 23. "They voluntarily $23. renounced the inheritance of the land of Canaan, and exchanged it in order to partake of the heavenly Jerusalem, and the inheritance of the world." But neither will this remove all the difficulty: for Paul speaks of those who all their lifetime were subject to the fear of death, which the brethren themselves, at other times, urge; but they whom we suppose to be delivered by Christ cease not to live, when delivered from the fear of death. I beg of these learned persons, again and again to consider, in what intricate perplexity they intangle themselves, while, without any just ground, they quit the trodden and plain road.

LXX. Ninthly, It is most of all grievous, and tends to stir up the resentment of the meekest person, that believers under the Old Testament are often, and that • at great length, said to have been under wrath and the curse. And indeed this assertion is shocking to tender ears, and unusual in the reformed churches. The brethren took occasion to speak thus from Gal. iii. 10. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Which passage they think is to be explained, as if it was there said, Whoever are subject to the ceremonial law, bear testimony, that the curse is not yet removed by Christ, nor the blessing yet actually obtained. For though they are free from the curse be