A77854:710
Vindiciæ legis
Vindiciæ legis: or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the errors of papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians. In XXIX. lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London. / By Anthony Burgess, preacher of Gods Word.Vindiciæ legis: or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the errours of papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians. In XXIX. lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London. / By Anthony Burgess, preacher of Gods Word.
London: printed by James Young for Thomas Underhill, 1646
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. Or else the Law may be taken in a more large way for the administration 1of it by Moses, in all the particulars of it; and thus Christ was intended directly, and not by accident; that is, God when he gave the Law to the people of Israel, did intend that the sense of their impossibility to keep it, and infinite danger accruing thereby to them, should make them desire and seek out for Christ: which the Jews generally not understanding, or neglecting, did thereby, like Adam, go to make fig-leaves for their covering of their nakedness, their empty, external obedience.
2. Or else the Law may be taken in a more large way for the administration 1of it by Moses, in all the particulars of it; and thus Christ was intended directly, and not by accident; that is, God when hee gave the Law to the people of Israel, did intend that the sense of their impossibility to keep it, and infinite danger accrewing thereby to them, should make them desire and seek out for Christ: which the Jewes generally not understanding, or neglecting, did thereby, like Adam, goe to make fig-leaves for their covering of their nakednesse, their empty, externall obedience.
- 1As the Law is taken largely for the administration of it by Moses, so Christ was intended directly.
According to this purpose Aquinas hath a good distinction about an end; That an End is two-fold: Either such, to which a thing doth naturally incline of it self: Or secondly, That which becometh an end, by the mere appointment and ordination of some Agent. Now the end of the Law, to which naturally it inclineth, is eternal life to be obtained by a perfect righteousness in us; but the instituted and appointed end, which God the Lawgiver made in the promulgation of it, was the Lord Christ: So that, whatsoever the Law commanded, promised, or threatened, it was to stir up the Israelites unto Christ. They were not to rest in those precepts or duties, but to go on to Christ; so that a believer was not to take joy with any thing in the Law till he came to Christ, and when he had found him, he was to seek no further, but to abide there. Now this indeed was a very difficult duty, because every man naturally would be his own Christ and Saviour. And what is the reason, that under the Gospel believers are still so hardly persuaded to rest only on Christ for righteousness, but because of that secret self dependence within them.