THE TESTIMONY

OF

CHRIST'S SECOND APPEARING.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIGURATIVE IMPORT OF THE MOSAIC DISPENSATION.

That is, of

14.

chap iii. Rom vii. 7.

20, & vii. 7.

THE express purpose of the Law, was to search out and condemn CHAP. I. sin, root and branch. "For until the law sin was in the world; and death by sin reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them Rom. v. 13, that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." Christ Jesus, through whom salvation should be obtained. 2. “ By the law is the knowledge of sin." As it is written, "I had not known sin but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet, or lust." 3. And, although the Law went to search out and condemn sin, yet it could not save the soul from its reigning power, until Christ Jesus, the first born in the work of Redemption should appear. And therefore the law was "added because of transgressions," that the "offence might abound" till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.

4. It is impossible for souls ever to find a full salvation, without a full discovery of their loss. In vain is freedom sought for in any government, where the very seat and centre of action in the government itself, is established in tyranny and oppression, by the consent of the people.

5. In vain is every attempt to change the nature of an evil tree, by lopping off the branches, while the body and root of the tree remain whole; or by any means ever to expect good fruit from a corrupt tree; so in vain are pure waters expected from a corrupt fountain.

Also, Cru-
den on

Concupis
Lust.

cence and

Gal. iii. 19.

Rom. v. 20.

6. "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water Jas, iii. 11, and bitter? Can the fig tree bear olive berries? either a vine

12.

Mat. vii. 16-18.

CHAP. I. figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh." "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."

Gal. v. 22.

Mark, xii.

29-31.

Gal. iii. 24.

Deut.

xxxii. 5. Isa. i. 4. Jer. ii. 21. vi. 28.

Lev. XX. 22.

Deut. vi. 17. xviii. 9.

Lev. xx.
15, 16, 10.
Deut. xxii.
21-24.

Lev. xx.

14. xxi. 9.

7. "The fruit of the Spirit is love;" pure and perfect love. "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength."

8. "And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." This comprehended the spirit and real intention of the whole Law, and was all that God required.

9. But man in his natural and fallen state, is held under the dominion of other objects. And as the law was added because of transgressions, that the offence might abound, and was given to the Israelites as a schoolmaster, to teach them the nature and purity of the promised Messiah's kingdom, it was necessary to point out particularly what kind of fruit this spirit of love would naturally produce, and what would as naturally flow from the want of it.

Then, if man was the

10. The tree is known by its fruit. uncorrupted fruit, or offspring of pure and perfect love, he certainly would discover no other fruit in all his life and actions. But both the law of Moses, and the Prophets, plainly discovered that the tree and the fruit are both corrupt, or in other words, that man in his fallen state is a corrupt creature, and descended from a corrupted and degenerate stock.

11. This was going to the root of the matter. It was more than cutting off as a type, or teaching how the Messiah should lop off the outside branches of a corrupt tree. The root of human depravity is laid naked and open to view, in plain words, written on tables of stone, and delivered by the special command of God.

12. And not only so, but with repeated and solemn injunctions: "Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them; that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out; thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations."

13. The law pointedly condemned every fleshly gratification; such as lying with a beast, lying with another's wife, &c., defiling an unmarried virgin, &c., and, in many cases, it punished such with death.

14. Stoning to death was the penalty for such like abominations. And if a man took a wife and her mother, or if the daughter of any priest committed whoredom, such were to be burnt with fire.

15. Idolatry, giving seed to Moloch, witchcraft, blasphemy, murder, disobedience to parents, &c., were condemned by the Law as evil; the spirit of the Law was therefore holy, just and good, condemning nothing but sin.

16. Yet, however severe the punishments that were inflicted for sin, they only lopped off the branches of a corrupt tree, while the root and foundation of all the abominations that were committed in the earth, remained unchanged.

17. But, when the law proceeded to take cognizance of the very nature of man, and condemned that as sinful and unclean, which might have been supposed to be lawful and right, then the fountain of evil began to be uncovered.

18. Observe: "The law is not made for a righteous man, but 1 Tim. i. 9. for the lawless and disobedient; for the ungodly and for sinners." 10. The spirit of the law was, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and thy neighbor as thyself."

19. When, therefore, any punishment or penalty was inflicted, it is evident that it was for the transgression of the Law, and that the true end and design of the Law had not been answered in that particular thing.

20. The law not only prohibited all carnal and abominable intercourse between man and beast, upon pain of death; but the sexes were wholly prohibited from cohabiting, on pain of being excommunicated, for a time, from the congregation of such as were accounted clean.

" Rev. xxi. 27.

21. And, as this statute respected the only motive and manner in which a man and woman were tolerated to cohabit, it sufficiently showed that the very order of nature was corrupted, and that it could never enter that new creation, of which it is said, "There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth.' 22. There was no possible case, in which a man and woman could lie together, in the work of the flesh, and hold their union with the congregation within the camp of Israel. The very act cut them off, and separated them from the camp. Nor could they be again accepted until they were cleansed; for nothing unclean could abide in the camp.

23. And, lest the serpent should try to cover his head under a cloak, by some false gloss upon the generative act, every act of the flesh, even for procreation, was pronounced unclean.

Num. xix. 20, 22

Deut. xxiii.

10, 11.

Num. xii. xiii. 13.

14. & Heb.

Lev. xv. xxii. 4-6.

16. 32.

24. And, concerning the act of sexual connexion, the law said Lev. xv. "The women also with whom man shall lie, in the works of the 18. flesh, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even." This was going at once to the groundwork of man's depravity.

25. And that something more than uncleanness accompanied Lev. xii. the generative act, according to the flesh, is evident from the

2-7.

CHAP. I. statute respecting women after child-bearing, by which they also fell under the penalty of excommunication.

Lev. ii. 13.

Mal. iii. 2,

3.

Lu. xii 49.

Mark, ix.

26. The woman who brought forth a man-child, was unclean seven days, according to the days of her separation for her infirmity; and thenceforth to continue in the blood of her purify ing three and thirty days, and to touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying were fulfilled, which were forty days and eighty days; separation, if she brought forth a female.

27. And, in order to be restored, she was required to bring a burnt offering, and a sin offering, to make an atonement; a sin offering unto the Lord made by fire. And with all their offerings they were commanded to offer salt.

28. The whole of which was nothing short of signifying, in the most pointed manner, that all such carnal and fleshly things as Eph. vi. 17. Were contrary to the pure nature of God, should be kept at a distance from the true seed of promise, and be finally offered up and consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, which is the incorruptible word of God, and the salt of the earth in the children of the regeneration, and the new birth.

49, 50.

Gen xviii.

6, 9.

xxiv. 67.

xxxi. 33.

Ex xix. 10, 15.

Psalms, xxxvii. 3,

7, & li 2, 5.

John, iii. 6. viii. 44.

1 Cor. xv.

50.

Jas. i. 15.

29. If therefore, this conception-sin, and this birth-sin be overlooked, and made something contrary to what God hath signified it to be, it is in vain to look any further for a distinction between good and evil; seeing that "by the law is the knowledge of sin."

30. The patriarchs did not overlook it, when they held their separate tents. Moses did not overlook it, when by the command of God from Mount Sinai, he solemnly charged the people, saying, "Come not at your wives." If something there had not been offensive to God, why was this charge?

31. God did not overlook this as inoffensive, when he commanded that a woman should "not touch any holy thing, nor come into the sanctuary of the congregation, for the space of forty, or even eighty days;" and when he commanded that she should bring a burnt offering, and a sin offering, to make an atonement."

66

32. David did not overlook it, when he said, "There is no rest in my bones because of my sin. My loins are filled with a loathsome disease. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

33. Jesus did not overlook it when he said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;" and, "The lusts of your father ye will do." Nor did Paul, when he said, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." Nor did James, when he said, "When lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin."

34. It is written of the Lord God, that "his work is perfect; CHAP. I. for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without Deut. iniquity, just and right is he."

35. And if so, will the God of perfect justice, judgment, and truth, do that which is contrary to his own nature and attributes? Will he inflict punishment without a cause? or grieve willingly the children of men? Will he count that unclean, which is not unclean? or require an offering for sin, where there is no sin? By no means.

36. Then it is certain, that, where God commanded any one not to touch anything that was counted holy, there was something offensive to his Divine nature; and that wherein he required an offering for sin from any one, there certainly was sin in that case; either in the whole case, in the nature or motive to an unclean action, or in the act itself.

37. Therefore, let that which God has accounted both sinful and unclean, be both sinful and unclean; that God may be just and every man a corrupter, until he fulfills the very spirit of the Law, by loving God supremely; and till no inferior object can take possession of the highest seat in his affections.

38. Thus the true end and purpose of the law will be answered, and it will not be said in vain, "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." And, although it be a severe and mortifying schoolmaster to the pride of fallen man, yet it is a true and faithful one.

39. The law condemned many things as being either sinful or unclean, which arose from natural causes, and were figurative of the heinous nature of sin. Such as the leprosy, which had a striking reference to the plague of sin; touching a dead body; eating unclean beasts and fowls; and many such like things, which prefigured the abominations of man, and which were to be destroyed under the law of grace, by the Gospel.

xxxii. 4.