CHAPTER 10.
THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.22[7]
This chapter consists of four parts. I. The sum, utility, and
necessity of this discussion, sec. 1. II. A proof that, generally speaking, the
old and new dispensations are in reality one, although differently
administered. Three points in which the two dispensations entirely agree, sec.
2-4. III. The Old Testament, as well as the New, had regard to the hope of
immortality and a future life, whence two other resemblances or points of
agreement follow--viz. that both were established by the free mercy of God, and
confirmed by the intercession of Christ. This proved by many arguments,
passages of Scripture, and examples, see. 5-23. IV. Conclusion of the whole
chapter, where, for fuller confirmation, certain passages of Scripture are
produced. Refutation of the cavils of the Sadducees and other Jews.
Sections.
1. Introduction, showing the necessity of proving the similarity of both
dispensations in opposition to Servetus and the Anabaptists.
2. This similarity in general. Both covenants truly one, though differently
administered. Three things in which they entirely agree.
3. First general similarity, or agreement--viz. that the Old Testament,
equally with the New, extended its promises beyond the present life, and held
out a sure hope of immortality. Reason for this resemblance. Objection
answered.
4. The other two points of resemblance--viz. that both covenants were
established in the mercy of God, and confirmed by the mediation of Christ.
5. The first of these points of resemblance being the foundation of the other
two, a lengthened proof is given of it. The first argument taken from a
passage, in which Paul, showing that the sacraments of both dispensations had
the same meaning, proves that the condition of the ancient church was similar
to ours.
6. An objection from John 6:49--viz. that the Israelites ate manna in the
wilderness, and are dead, whereas Christians eat the flesh of Christ, and die
not. Answer reconciling this passage of the Evangelist with that of the
Apostle.
7. Another proof from the Law and the Prophets--viz. the power of the divine
word in quickening souls before Christ was manifested. Hence the believing Jews
were raised to the hope of eternal life.
8. Third proof from the form of the covenant, which shows that it was in
reality one both before and after the manifestation of Christ in the flesh.
9. Confirmation of the former proof from the clear terms in which the form is
expressed. Another confirmation derived from the former and from the nature of
God.
10. Fourth proof from examples. Adam, Abel, and Noah, when tried with various
temptations, neglecting the present, aspired with living faith and invincible
hope to a better life. They, therefore, had the same aim as believers under the
Gospel.
11. Continuation of the fourth proof from the example of Abraham, whose call
and whole course of life shows that he ardently aspired to eternal felicity.
Objection disposed of.
12. Continuation of the fourth proof from the examples of Isaac and Jacob.
13. Conclusion of the fourth proof. Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
and others under the Law, looked for the fulfilment of the divine promises not
on the earth, but in heaven. Hence they termed this life an earthly pilgrimage,
and desired to be buried in the land of Canaan, which was a figure of eternal
happiness.
14. A fifth proof from Jacob's earnestness to obtain the birth-right. This
shows a prevailing desire of future life. This perceived in some degree by
Balaam.
15. A sixth proof from David, who expects such great things from the Lord, and
yet declares the present life to be mere vanity.
16. A seventh proof also from David. His descriptions of the happiness of
believers could only be realised in a future state.
17. An eighth proof from the common feeling and confession of all the pious
who sought by faith and hope to obtain in heaven what they did not see in the
present shadowy life.
18. A continuation and confirmation of the former proof from the exultation of
the righteous, even amid the destruction of the world.
19. A ninth proof from Job, who spoke most distinctly of this hope. Two
objections disposed of.
20. A tenth proof from the later Prophets, who taught that the happiness of
the righteous was placed beyond the limits of the present life.
21. This clearly established by Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones, and a
passage in Isaiah.
22. Last proof from certain passages in the Prophets, which clearly show the
future immortality of the righteous in the kingdom of heaven.
23. Conclusion of the whole discussion concerning the similarity of both
dispensations. For fuller confirmation, four passages of Scripture produced.
Refutation of the error of the Sadducees and other Jews, who denied eternal
salvation and the sure hope of the Church.
1. FROM what has been said above, it must now be clear, that
all whom, from the beginning of the world, God adopted as his peculiar people,
were taken into covenant with him on the same conditions, and under the same
bond of doctrine, as ourselves; but as it is of no small importance to
establish this point, I will here add it by way of appendix, and show, since
the Fathers were partakers with us in the same inheritance, and hoped for a
common salvation through the grace of the same Mediator, how far their
condition in this respect was different from our own. For although the passages
which we have collected from the Law and the Prophets for the purpose of proof,
make it plain that there never was any other rule of piety and religion among
the people of God; yet as many things are written on the subject of the
difference between the Old and New Testaments in a manner which may perplex
ordinary readers, it will be proper here to devote a special place to the
better and more exact discussion of this subject. This discussion, which would
have been most useful at any rate, has been rendered necessary by that
monstrous miscreant, Servetus, and some madmen of the sect of the Anabaptists,
who think of the people of Israel just as they would do of some herd of swine,
absurdly imagining that the Lord gorged them with temporal blessings here, and
gave them no hope of a blessed immortality.228 Let us guard pious
minds against this pestilential error, while we at the same time remove all the
difficulties which are wont to start up when mention is made of the difference
between the Old and the New Testaments. By the way also, let us consider what
resemblance and what difference there is between the covenant which the Lord
made with the Israelites before the advent of Christ, and that which he has
made with us now that Christ is manifested.
2. It is possible, indeed, to explain both in
one word. The covenant made with all the fathers is so far from differing from
ours in reality and substance, that it is altogether one and the same: still
the administration differs. But because this brief summary is insufficient to
give any one a full understanding of the subject, our explanation to be useful
must extend to greater length. It were superfluous, however, in showing the
similarity, or rather identity, of the two dispensations, again to treat of the
particulars which have already been discussed, as it were unseasonable to
introduce those which are still to be considered elsewhere. What we propose to
insist upon here may be reduced to three heads:--First, That temporal
opulence and felicity was not the goal to which the Jews were invited to
aspire, but that they were admitted to the hope of immortality, and that
assurance of this adoption was given by immediate communications, by the Law
and by the Prophets. Secondly, That the covenant by which they were
reconciled to the Lord was founded on no merits of their own, but solely on the
mercy of God, who called them; and, thirdly, That they both had and knew
Christ the Mediator, by whom they were united to God, and made capable of
receiving his promises. The second of these, as it is not yet perhaps
sufficiently understood, will be fully considered in its own place (Book 3
chap. 15-18). For we will prove by many clear passages in the Prophets, that
all which the Lord has ever given or promised to his people is of mere goodness
and indulgence. The third also has, in various places, been not obscurely
demonstrated. Even the first has not been left unnoticed.
3. As the first is most pertinent to the present
subject, and is most controverted, we shall enter more fully into the
consideration of it, taking care, at the same time, where any of the others
requires explanations to supply it by the way, or afterwards add it in its
proper place. The Apostle, indeed, removes all doubt when he says that the
Gospel which God gave concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, "he had promised
aforetime by his prophets in the holy Scriptures," (Rom. 1:2). And again, that
"the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the
law and the prophets," (Rom. 3:21). For the Gospel does not confine the hearts
of men to the enjoyment of the present life, but raises them to the hope of
immortality; does not fix them down to earthly delights, but announcing that
there is a treasure laid up in heaven, carries the heart thither also. For in
another place he thus explains, "After that ye believed [the Gospel,] ye were
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our
inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession," (Eph. 1:13, 14).
Again, "Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye
have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,
whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel," (Col. 1:4).
Again, "Whereunto he called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ," (2 Thess. 2:14). Whence also it is called the word of
salvation and the power of God, with salvation to every one that believes, and
the kingdom of heaven.229 But if the doctrine of the Gospel is
spiritual, and gives access to the possession of incorruptible life, let us not
suppose that those to whom it was promised and declared altogether neglected
the care of the soul, and lived stupidly like cattle in the enjoyment of bodily
pleasures. Let no one here quibble and say, that the promises concerning the
Gospel, which are contained in the Law and the Prophets, were designed for a
new people.230 For Paul, shortly after making that statement
concerning the Gospel promised in the Law, adds, that "whatsoever things the
law saith, it saith to those who are under the law." I admit, indeed, he is
there treating of a different subject, but when he said that every thing
contained in the Law was directed to the Jews, he was not so oblivious as not
to remember what he had said a few verses before of the Gospel promised in the
Law. Most clearly, therefore, does the Apostle demonstrate that the Old
Testament had special reference to the future life, when he says that the
promises of the Gospel were comprehended under it.
4. In the same way we infer that the Old
Testament was both established by the free mercy of God and confirmed by the
intercession of Christ. For the preaching of the Gospel declares nothing more
than that sinners, without any merit of their own, are justified by the
paternal indulgence of God. It is wholly summed up in Christ. Who, then, will
presume to represent the Jews as destitute of Christ, when we know that they
were parties to the Gospel covenant, which has its only foundation in Christ?
Who will presume to make them aliens to the benefit of gratuitous salvation,
when we know that they were instructed in the doctrine of justification by
faith? And not to dwell on a point which is clear, we have the remarkable
saying of our Lord, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it
and was glad," (John 8:56). What Christ here declares of Abraham, an apostle
shows to be applicable to all believers, when he says that Jesus Christ is the
"same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," (Heb. 13:8). For he is not there
speaking merely of the eternal divinity of Christ, but of his power, of which
believers had always full proof. Hence both the blessed Virgin231
and Zachariah, in their hymns, say that the salvation revealed in Christ was a
fulfilment of the mercy promised "to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed
for ever," (Luke 1:55, 72). If, by manifesting Christ, the Lord fulfilled his
ancient oath, it cannot be denied that the subject of that oath232
must ever have been Christ and eternal life.
5. Nay, the Apostle makes the Israelites our
equals, not only in the grace of the covenant, but also in the signification of
the Sacraments. For employing the example of those punishments, which the
Scripture states to have been of old inflicted on the Jews, in order to deter
the Corinthians from falling into similar wickedness, he begins with premising
that they have no ground to claim for themselves any privilege which can exempt
them from the divine vengeance which overtook the Jews, since the Lord not only
visited them with the same mercies, but also distinguished his grace among them
by the same symbols: as if he had said, If you think you are out of danger,
because the Baptism which you received, and the Supper of which you daily
partake, have excellent promises, and if, in the meantime, despising the
goodness of God, you indulge in licentiousness, know that the Jews, on whom the
Lord inflicted his severest judgments, possessed similar symbols. They were
baptised in passing through the sea, and in the cloud which protected them from
the burning heat of the sun. It is said, that this passage was a carnal
baptism, corresponding in some degree to our spiritual baptism. But if so,
there would be a want of conclusiveness in the argument of the Apostle, whose
object is to prevent Christians from imagining that they excelled the Jews in
the matter of baptism. Besides, the cavil cannot apply to what immediately
follows--viz. that they did "all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink
the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed
them: and that Rock was Christ," (1 Cor. 10:3, 4).
6. To take off the force of this passage of Paul,
an objection is founded on the words of our Saviour, "Your fathers did eat
manna in the wilderness, and are dead." "If any man eat of this bread, he shall
live for ever," (John 6:49, 51). There is no difficulty in reconciling the two
passages. The Lord, as he was addressing hearers who only desired to be filled
with earthly food, while they cared not for the true food of the soul, in some
degree adapts his speech to their capacity, and, in particular, to meet their
carnal view, draws a comparison between manna and his own body. They called
upon him to prove his authority by performing some miracle, such as Moses
performed in the wilderness when he obtained manna from heaven. In this manna
they saw nothing but a relief of the bodily hunger from which the people were
then suffering; they did not penetrate to the sublimer mystery to which Paul
refers. Christ, therefore, to demonstrate that the blessing which they ought to
expect from him was more excellent than the lauded one which Moses had bestowed
upon their fathers, draws this comparison: If, in your opinion, it was a great
and memorable miracle when the Lord, by Moses, supplied his people with
heavenly food that they might be supported for a season, and not perish in the
wilderness from famine; from this infer how much more excellent is the food
which bestows immortality. We see why our Lord omitted to mention what was of
principal virtue in the manna, and mentioned only its meanest use. Since the
Jews had, as it were by way of upbraiding, cast up Moses to him as one who had
relieved the necessity of the people by means of manna, he answers, that he was
the minister of a much larger grace, one compared with which the bodily
nourishment of the people, on which they set so high a value, ought to be held
worthless. Paul, again, knowing that the Lords when he rained manna from
heaven, had not merely supplied their bodies with food, but had also dispensed
it as containing a spiritual mystery to typify the spiritual quickening which
is obtained in Christ, does not overlook that quality which was most deserving
of consideration. Wherefore it is surely and clearly proved, that the same
promises of celestial and eternal life, which the Lord now gives to us, were
not only communicated to the Jews, but also sealed by truly spiritual
sacraments. This subject is copiously discussed by Augustine in his work
against Faustus the Manichee.
7. But if my readers would rather have passages
quoted from the Law and the Prophets, from which they may see, as we have
already done from Christ and the Apostles, that the spiritual covenant was
common also to the Fathers, I will yield to the wish, and the more willingly,
because opponents will thus be more surely convinced, that henceforth there
will be no room for evasion. And I will begin with a proof which, though I know
it will seem futile and almost ridiculous to supercilious Anabaptists, will
have very great weight with the docile and sober-minded. I take it for granted
that the word of God has such an inherent efficacy, that it quickens the souls
of all whom he is pleased to favour with the communication of it. Peter's
statement has ever been true, that it is an incorruptible seed, "which liveth
and abideth for ever," (1 Peter 1:23), as he infers from the words of Isaiah
(Is. 40:6). Now when God, in ancient times, bound the Jews to him by this
sacred bond, there cannot be a doubt that he separated them unto the hope of
eternal life. When I say that they embraced the word which brought them nearer
to God, I refer not to that general method of communication which is diffused
through heaven and earth, and all the creatures of the world, and which, though
it quickens all things, each according to its nature, rescues none from the
bondage of corruption. I refer to that special mode of communication by which
the minds of the pious are both enlightened in the knowledge of God, and, in a
manner, linked to him. Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, and the other patriarchs,
having been united to God by this illumination of the word, I say there cannot
be the least doubt that entrance was given them into the immortal kingdom of
God. They had that solid participation in God which cannot exist without the
blessing of everlasting life.
8. If the point still seems somewhat involved,
let us pass to the form of the covenant, which will not only satisfy calm
thinkers, but sufficiently establish the ignorance of gainsayers. The covenant
which God always made with his servants was this, "I will walk among you, and
will be your God, and ye shall be my people," (Lev. 26:12). These words, even
as the prophets are wont to expound them, comprehend life and salvation, and
the whole sum of blessedness. For David repeatedly declares, and with good
reason, "Happy is that people whose God is the Lord." "Blessed is the nation
whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he has chosen for his own
inheritance," (Psalm 144:15; 33:12); and this not merely in respect of earthly
happiness, but because he rescues from death, constantly preserves, and, with
eternal mercy, visits those whom he has adopted for his people. As is said in
other prophets, "Art not thou from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?
we shall not die." "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord
is our king; he will save us" "Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee,
O people saved by the Lord?" (Hab. 1:12; Isaiah 33:22; Deut. 33:29). But not to
labour superfluously, the prophets are constantly reminding us that no good
thing and, consequently, no assurance of salvation, is wanting, provided the
Lord is our God. And justly. For if his face, the moment it hath shone upon us,
is a perfect pledge of salvation, how can he manifest himself to any one as his
God, without opening to him the treasures of salvation? The terms on which God
makes himself ours is to dwell in the midst of us, as he declared by Moses
(Lev. 26:11). But such presence cannot be enjoyed without life being, at the
same time, possessed along with it. And though nothing more had been expressed,
they had a sufficiently clear promise of spiritual life in these words, "I am
your God," (Exod. 6:7). For he declared that he would be a God not to their
bodies only, but specially to their souls. Souls, however, if not united to God
by righteousness, remain estranged from him in death. On the other hand, that
union, wherever it exists, will bring perpetual salvation with it.
9. To this we may add, that he not only declared
he was, but also promised that he would be, their God. By this their hope was
extended beyond present good, and stretched forward into eternity. Moreover,
that this observance of the future had the effect, appears from the many
passages in which the faithful console themselves not only in their present
evils, but also for the future, by calling to mind that God was never to desert
them. Moreover, in regard to the second part of the promise--viz. the blessing
of God, its extending beyond the limits of the present life was still more
clearly confirmed by the words, I will be the God of your seed after you (Gen.
17:7). If he was to manifest his favour to the dead by doing good to their
posterity, much less would he deny his favour to themselves. God is not like
men, who transfer their love to the children of their friends, because the
opportunity of bestowing kind offices as they wished upon themselves is
interrupted by death. But God, whose kindness is not impeded by death, does not
deprive the dead of the benefit of his mercy, which, on their account, he
continues to a thousand generations. God, therefore, was pleased to give a
striking proof of the abundance and greatness of his goodness which they were
to enjoy after death, when he described it as overflowing to all their
posterity (Exod. 20:6). The truth of this promise was sealed, and in a manner
completed, when, long after the death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he called
himself their God (Exod. 20:6). And why? Was not the name absurd if they had
perished? It would have been just the same as if he had said, I am the God of
men who exist not. Accordingly, the Evangelists relate that, by this very
argument, our Saviour refuted the Sadducees (Mt. 22:23; Luke 20:32), who were,
therefore, unable to deny that the resurrection of the dead was attested by
Moses, inasmuch as he had taught them that all the saints are in his hand
(Deut. 33:3). Whence it is easy to infer that death is not the extinction of
those who are taken under the tutelage, guardianship, and protection of him who
is the disposer of life and death.
10. Let us now see (and on this the controversy
principally turns) whether or not believers themselves were so instructed by
the Lord, as to feel that they had elsewhere a better life, and to aspire to it
while disregarding the present. First, the mode of life which heaven had
imposed upon them made it a constant exercise, by which they were reminded,
that if in this world only they had hope, they were of all men the most
miserable. Adam, most unhappy even in the mere remembrance of his lost
felicity, with difficulty supplies his wants by anxious labours; and that the
divine curse might not be restricted to bodily labour, his only remaining
solace becomes a source of the deepest grief: Of two sons, the one is torn from
him by the parricidal hand of his brother; while the other, who survives,
causes detestation and horror by his very look. Abel, cruelly murdered in the
very flower of his days, is an example of the calamity which had come upon man.
While the whole world are securely living in luxury, Noah, with much fatigue,
spends a great part of his life in building an ark. He escapes death, but by
greater troubles than a hundred deaths could have given. Besides his ten
months' residence in the ark, as in a kind of sepulchre, nothing could have
been more unpleasant than to have remained so long pent up among the filth of
beasts. After escaping these difficulties he falls into a new cause of sorrow.
He sees himself mocked by his own son, and is forced, with his own mouth, to
curse one whom, by the great kindness of God, he had received safe from the
deluge.
11. Abraham alone ought to be to us equal to tens
of thousands if we consider his faith, which is set before us as the best model
of believing, to whose race also we must be held to belong in order that we may
be the children of God.233 What could be more absurd than that
Abraham should be the father of all the faithful, and not even occupy the
meanest corner among them? He cannot be denied a place in the list; nay, he
cannot be denied one of the most honourable places in it, without the
destruction of the whole Church. Now, as regards his experience in life, the
moment he is called by the command of God, he is torn away from friends,
parents, and country, objects in which the chief happiness of life is deemed to
consist, as if it had been the fixed purpose of the Lord to deprive him of all
the sources of enjoyment. No sooner does he enter the land in which he was
ordered to dwell, than he is driven from it by famine. In the country to which
he retires to obtain relief, he is obliged, for his personal safety, to expose
his wife to prostitution. This must have been more bitter than many deaths.
After returning to the land of his habitation, he is again expelled by famine.
What is the happiness of inhabiting a land where you must so often suffer from
hunger, nay, perish from famine, unless you flee from it? Then, again, with
Abimelech, he is reduced to the same necessity of saving his head by the loss
of his wife (Gen. 12:12). While he wanders up and down uncertain for many
years, he is compelled, by the constant quarrelling of servants to part with
his nephew, who was to him as a son. This departure must doubtless have cost
him a pang something like the cutting off of a limb. Shortly after, he learns
that his nephew is carried off captive by the enemy. Wherever he goes, he meets
with savage-hearted neighbours, who will not even allow him to drink of the
wells which he has dug with great labour. For he would not have purchased the
use from the king of Gerar if he had not been previously prohibited. After he
had reached the verge of life, he sees himself childless (the bitterest and
most unpleasant feeling to old age), until, beyond expectation, Ishmael is
born; and yet he pays dearly for his birth in the reproaches of Sarah, as if he
was the cause of domestic disturbance by encouraging the contumacy of a female
slave. At length Isaac is born, but in return, the first-born Ishmael is
displaced, and almost hostilely driven forth and abandoned. Isaac remains
alone, and the good man, now worn out with age, has his heart upon him, when
shortly after he is ordered to offer him up in sacrifice. What can the human
mind conceive more dreadful than for the father to be the murderer of his son?
Had he been carried off by disease, who would not have thought the old man much
to be pitied in having a son given to him in mockery, and in having his grief
for being childless doubled to him? Had he been slain by some stranger, this
would, indeed, have been much worse than natural death. But all these
calamities are little compared with the murder of him by his father's hand.
Thus, in fine, during the whole course of his life, he was harassed and tossed
in such a way, that any one desirous to give a picture of a calamitous life
could not find one more appropriate. Let it not be said that he was not so very
distressed, because he at length escaped from all these tempests. He is not
said to lead a happy life who, after infinite difficulties during a long
period, at last laboriously works out his escape, but he who calmly enjoys
present blessings without any alloy of suffering.
12. Isaac is less afflicted, but he enjoys very
few of the sweets of life. He also meets with those vexations which do not
permit a man to be happy on the earth. Famine drives him from the land of
Canaan; his wife is torn from his bosom; his neighbours are ever and anon
annoying and vexing him in all kinds of ways, so that he is even obliged to
fight for water. At home, he suffers great annoyance from his daughters-in-law;
he is stung by the dissension of his sons, and has no other cure for this great
evil than to send the son whom he had blessed into exile (Gen. 26:27); Jacob,
again, is nothing but a striking example of the greatest wretchedness. His
boyhood is passed most uncomfortably at home amidst the threats and alarms of
his elder brother, and to these he is at length forced to give way (Gen.
27:28); A fugitive from his parents and his native soil, in addition to the
hardships of exile, the treatment he receives from his uncle Laban is in no
respect milder and more humane (Gen. 29). As if it had been little to spend
seven years of hard and rigorous servitude, he is cheated in the matter of a
wife. For the sake of another wife, he must undergo a new servitude, during
which, as he himself complains, the heat of the sun scorches him by day, while
in frost and cold he spends the sleepless night (Gen. 31:40, 41). For twenty
years he spends this bitter life, and daily suffers new injuries from his
father-in-law. Nor is he quiet at home, which he sees disturbed and almost
broken up by the hatreds, quarrels, and jealousies of his wives. When he is
ordered to return to his native land, he is obliged to take his departure in a
manner resembling an ignominious flight. Even then he is unable to escape the
injustice of his father-in-law, but in the midst of his journey is assailed by
him with contumely and reproach (Gen. 31:20.234) By and bye a much
greater difficulty befalls him (Gen. 32, 33). For as he approaches his brother,
he has as many forms of death in prospect as a cruel foe could invent. Hence,
while waiting for his arrival, he is distracted and excruciated by direful
terrors; and when he comes into his sight, he falls at his feet like one half
dead, until he perceives him to be more placable than he had ventured to hope.
Moreover, when he first enters the land, he is bereaved of Rachel his only
beloved wife. Afterwards he hears that the son whom she had borne him, and whom
he loved more than all his other children, is devoured by a wild beast (Gen.
37:33). How deep the sorrow caused by his death he himself evinces, when, after
long tears, he obstinately refuses to be comforted, declaring that he will go
down to the grave to his son mourning. In the meantime, what vexation, anxiety,
and grief, must he have received from the carrying off and dishonour of his
daughter, and the cruel revenge of his sons, which not only brought him into
bad odour with all the inhabitants of the country, but exposed him to the
greatest danger of extermination? (Gen. 34) Then follows the horrid wickedness
of Reuben his first-born, wickedness than which none could be committed more
grievous (Gen. 36:22). The dishonour of a wife being one of the greatest of
calamities, what must be said when the atrocity is perpetrated by a son? Some
time after, the family is again polluted with incest (Gen. 38:18). All these
disgraces might have crushed a mind otherwise the most firm and unbroken by
misfortune. Towards the end of his life, when he seeks relief for himself and
his family from famine, he is struck by the announcement of a new misfortune,
that one of his sons is detained in prison, and that to recover him he must
entrust to others his dearly beloved Benjamin (Gen. 42, 43). Who can think that
in such a series of misfortunes, one moment was given him in which he could
breathe secure? Accordingly, his own best witness, he declares to Pharaoh, "Few
and evil have the days of the years of my life been," (Gen. 47:9). In declaring
that he had spent his life in constant wretchedness, he denies that he had
experienced the prosperity which had been promised him by the Lord. Jacob,
therefore, either formed a malignant and ungrateful estimate of the Lord's
favour, or he truly declared that he had lived miserable on the earth. If so,
it follows that his hope could not have been fixed on earthly objects.
13. If these holy Patriarchs expected a happy
life from the hand of God (and it is indubitable that they did), they viewed
and contemplated a different happiness from that of a terrestrial life. This is
admirably shown by an Apostle, "By faith he [Abraham] sojourned in the land of
promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which has
foundations, whose builder and maker is God." "These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims
on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a
country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they
came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire
a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be
called their God: for he has prepared for them a city," (Heb. 11:9, 10, 13-16).
They had been duller than blocks in so pertinaciously pursuing promises, no
hope of which appeared upon the earth, if they had not expected their
completion elsewhere. The thing which the Apostle specially urges, and not
without reason, is, that they called this world a pilgrimage, as Moses also
relates (Gen. 47:9). If they were pilgrims and strangers in the land of Canaan,
where is the promise of the Lord which appointed them heirs of it? It is clear,
therefore, that the promise of possession which they had received looked
farther. Hence, they did not acquire a foot breadth in the land of Canaan,
except for sepulture; thus testifying that they hoped not to receive the
benefit of the promise till after death. And this is the reason why Jacob set
so much value on being buried there, that he took Joseph bound by oath to see
it done; and why Joseph wished that his bones should some ages later, long
after they had mouldered into dust, be carried thither (Gen. 47:29, 30;
50:25).
14. In short, it is manifest, that in the whole
course of their lives, they had an eye to future blessedness. Why should Jacob
have aspired so earnestly to primogeniture, and intrigued for it at so much
risk, if it was to bring him only exile and destitution, and no good at all,
unless he looked to some higher blessing? And that this was his feeling, he
declared in one of the last sentences he uttered, "I have waited for thy
salvation, O God," (Gen. 49:18). What salvation could he have waited for, when
he felt himself breathing his last, if he did not see in death the beginning of
a new life? And why talk of saints and the children of God, when even one, who
otherwise strove to resist the truth, was not devoid of some similar
impression? For what did Balaam mean when he said, "Let me die the death of the
righteous, and let my last end be like his," (Num. 23:10), unless he felt
convinced of what David afterward declares, "Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints?" (Ps. 116:15; 34:12). If death were the goal and
ultimate limit, no distinction could be observed between the righteous and the
wicked. The true distinction is the different lot which awaits them after
death.
15. We have not yet come farther down than the
books of Moses, whose only office, according to our opponents, was to induce
the people to worship God, by setting before them the fertility of the land,
and its general abundance; and yet to every one who does not voluntarily shun
the light, there is clear evidence of a spiritual covenant. But if we come down
to the Prophets, the kingdom of Christ and eternal life are there exhibited in
the fullest splendour. First, David, as earlier in time, in accordance with the
order of the Divine procedure, spoke of heavenly mysteries more obscurely than
they, and yet with what clearness and certainty does he point to it in all he
says. The value he put upon his earthly habitation is attested by these words,
"I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Verily
every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. Surely every man walketh in
a vain show. And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee," (Ps. 39:12,
5, 6, 7). He who confesses that there is nothing solid or stable on the earth,
and yet firmly retains his hope in God, undoubtedly contemplates a happiness
reserved for him elsewhere. To this contemplation he is wont to invite
believers whenever he would have them to be truly comforted. For, in another
passages after speaking of human life as a fleeting and evanescent show, he
adds, "The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him," (Ps. 103:17). To this there is a corresponding passage in another
psalm, "Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are
the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of
them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and
they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be
established before thee," (Ps. 102:25-28). If, notwithstanding of the
destruction of the heavens and the earth, the godly cease not to be established
before God, it follows, that their salvation is connected with his eternity.
But this hope could have no existence, if it did not lean upon the promise as
expounded by Isaiah, "The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth
shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like
manner; but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be
abolished," (Isa. 51:6). Perpetuity is here attributed to righteousness and
salvation, not as they reside in God, but as they are experienced by men.
16. Nor can those things which are everywhere
said as to the prosperous success of believers be understood in any other sense
than as referring to the manifestation of celestial glory. Of this nature are
the following passages: "He preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth
them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and
gladness for the upright in heart." "His righteousness endureth for ever; his
horn shall be exalted with honour--the desire of the wicked shall perish."
"Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name; the upright shall dwell
in thy presence." "The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance." "The
Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants."235 But the Lord often
leaves his servants, not only to be annoyed by the violence of the wicked, but
to be lacerated and destroyed; allows the good to languish in obscurity and
squalid poverty, while the ungodly shine forth, as it were, among the stars;
and even by withdrawing the light of his countenance does not leave them
lasting joy. Wherefore, David by no means disguises the fact, that if believers
fix their eyes on the present condition of the world, they will be grievously
tempted to believe that with God integrity has neither favour nor reward; so
much does impiety prosper and flourish, while the godly are oppressed with
ignominy, poverty, contempt, and every kind of cross. The Psalmist says, "But
as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was
envious of the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." At length,
after a statement of the case, he concludes, "When I thought to know this, it
was too painful for me: until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood
I their end," (Ps. 73:2, 3, 16, 17).
17. Therefore, even from this confession of
David, let us learn that the holy fathers under the Old Testament were not
ignorant that in this world God seldom or never gives his servants the
fulfilment of what is promised them, and therefore has directed their minds to
his sanctuary, where the blessings not exhibited in the present shadowy life
are treasured up for them. This sanctuary was the final judgment of God, which,
as they could not at all discern it by the eye, they were contented to
apprehend by faith. Inspired with this confidence, they doubted not that
whatever might happen in the world, a time would at length arrive when the
divine promises would be fulfilled. This is attested by such expressions as
these: "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be
satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness," (Psalm 17:15). "I am like a green
olive tree in the house of God," (Psalm 52:8). Again, "The righteous shall
flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that
be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and
flourishing," (Psalm 92:12-14). He had exclaimed a little before "O Lord, how
great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep." "When the wicked spring
as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish: it is that they
shall be destroyed for ever." Where was this splendour and beauty of the
righteous, unless when the appearance of this world was changed by the
manifestation of the heavenly kingdom? Lifting their eyes to the eternal world,
they despised the momentary hardships and calamities of the present life, and
confidently broke out into these exclamations: "He shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved. But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of
destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days,"
(Psalm 55:22, 23). Where in this world is there a pit of eternal destruction to
swallow up the wicked, of whose happiness it is elsewhere said, "They spend
their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave?" (Job 21:13).
Where, on the other hand, is the great stability of the saints, who, as David
complains, are not only disturbed, but everywhere utterly bruised and
oppressed? It is here. He set before his eyes not merely the unstable
vicissitudes of the world, tossed like a troubled sea, but what the Lord is to
do when he shall one day sit to fix the eternal constitution of heaven and
earth, as he in another place elegantly describes: "They that trust in their
wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can
by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." "For he
sees that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and
leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall
continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call
their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth
not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly: yet
their posterity approve their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the
morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling,"
(Psalm 49:6, 7, 10-14). By this derision of the foolish for resting satisfied
with the slippery and fickle pleasures, of the world, he shows that the wise
must seek for a very different felicity. But he more clearly unfolds the hidden
doctrine of the resurrection when he sets up a kingdom to the righteous after
the wicked are cast down and destroyed. For what, pray, are we to understand by
the "morning," unless it be the revelation of a new life, commencing when the
present comes to an end?
18. Hence the consideration which believers
employed as a solace for their sufferings, and a remedy for their patience:
"His anger endureth but a moment: in his favour is life," (Psalm 30:5). How did
their afflictions, which continued almost throughout the whole course of life,
terminate in a moment? Where did they see the long duration of the divine
benignity, of which they had only the slightest taste? Had they clung to earth,
they could have found nothing of the kind; but looking to heaven, they saw that
the period during which the Lord afflicted his saints was but a moment, and
that the mercies with which he gathers them are everlasting: on the other hand,
they foresaw that for the wicked, who only dreamed of happiness for a day,
there was reserved an eternal and never-ending destruction. Hence those
expressions: "The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked
shall rot," (Prov. 10:7). "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of
his saints," (Psalm 116:15). Again in Samuel: "The Lord will keep the feet of
his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness," (1 Sam. 2:9); showing
they knew well, that however much the righteous might be tossed about, their
latter end was life and peace; that how pleasant soever the delights of the
wicked, they gradually lead down to the chambers of death. They accordingly
designated the death of such persons as the death "of the uncircumcised," that
is, persons cut off from the hope of resurrection (Ezek. 28:10; 31:18). Hence
David could not imagine a greater curse than this: "Let them be blotted out of
the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous," (Psalm
69:28).
19. The most remarkable passage of all is that of
Job: "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold,
and not another," (Job 19:25-27). Those who would make a display of their
acuteness, pretend that these words are to be understood not of the last
resurrection, but of the day when Job expected that God would deal more gently
with him. Granting that this is partly meant, we shall, however, compel them,
whether they will or not, to admit that Job never could have attained to such
fulness of hope if his thoughts had risen no higher than the earth. It must,
therefore, be confessed, that he who saw that the Redeemer would be present
with him when lying in the grave, must have raised his eyes to a future
immortality. To those who think only of the present life, death is the
extremity of despair; but it could not destroy the hope of Job. "Though he slay
me," said he, "yet will I trust in him," (Job 13:15). Let no trifler here burst
in with the objection that these are the sayings of a few, and do not by any
means prove that there was such a doctrine among the Jews. To this my instant
answer is, that these few did not in such passages give utterance to some
hidden wisdom, to which only distinguished individuals were admitted privately
and apart from others, but that having been appointed by the Holy Spirit to be
the teachers of the people, they openly promulgated the mysteries of God, which
all in common behaved to learn as the principles of public religion. When,
therefore, we hear that those passages in which the Holy Spirit spoke so
distinctly and clearly of the spiritual life were public oracles in the Jewish
Church, it were intolerably perverse to confine them entirely to a carnal
covenant relating merely to the earth and earthly riches.
20. When we descend to the later prophets, we
have it in our power to expatiate freely as in our own field. If, when David,
Job, and Samuel, were in question, the victory was not difficult, much easier
is it here; for the method and economy which God observed in administering the
covenant of his mercy was, that the nearer the period of its full exhibition
approached, the greater the additions which were daily made to the light of
revelation. Accordingly, at the beginning, when the first promise of salvation
was given to Adam (Gen. 3:15), only a few slender sparks beamed forth:
additions being afterwards made, a greater degree of light began to be
displayed, and continued gradually to increase and shine with greater
brightness, until at length all the clouds being dispersed, Christ the Sun of
righteousness arose, and with full refulgence illumined all the earth (Mal. 4).
In appealing to the Prophets, therefore, we can have no fear of any deficiency
of proof; but as I see an immense mass of materials, which would occupy us much
longer than compatible with the nature of our present work (the subject,
indeed, would require a large volume), and as I trust, that by what has already
been said, I have paved the way, so that every reader of the very least
discernment may proceed without stumbling, I will avoid a prolixity, for which
at present there is little necessity; only reminding my readers to facilitate
the entrance by means of the key which was formerly put into their hands
(supra, Chap. 4 sec. 3, 4); namely, that whenever the Prophets make
mention of the happiness of believers (a happiness of which scarcely any
vestiges are discernible in the present life), they must have recourse to this
distinction: that the better to commend the Divine goodness to the people, they
used temporal blessings as a kind of lineaments to shadow it forth, and yet
gave such a portrait as might lift their minds above the earth, the elements of
this world, and all that will perish, and compel them to think of the
blessedness of a future and spiritual life.
21. One example will suffice. When the Israelites
were carried away to Babylon, their dispersion seemed to be the next thing to
death, and they could scarcely be dissuaded from thinking that Ezekiel's
prophecy of their restoration (Ezek. 37:4) was a mere fable, because it seemed
to them the same thing as if he had prophesied that putrid caresses would be
raised to life. The Lord, in order to show that, even in that case, there was
nothing to prevent him from making room for his kindness, set before the
prophet in vision a field covered with dry bones, to which, by the mere power
of his word, he in one moment restored life and strength. The vision served,
indeed, to correct the unbelief of the Jews at the time, but it also reminded
them how much farther the power of the Lord extended than to the bringing back
of the people, since by a single nod it could so easily give life to dry
scattered bones. Wherefore, the passage may be fitly compared with one in
Isaiah, "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and
the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy
chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little
moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of
his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth
also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain," (Isa.
26:19-21).
22. It were absurd however to interpret all the
passages on a similar principle; for there are several which point without any
veil to the future immortality which awaits believers in the kingdom of heaven.
Some of them we have already quoted, and there are many others, but especially
the following two. The one is in Isaiah, "As the new heavens and the new earth,
which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed
and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to
another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship
before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the caresses
of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die,
neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all
flesh," (Isa. 66:22-24). The other passage is in Daniel. "At that time shall
Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy
people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as there never was since
there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be
delivered, every one shall be found written in the book. And many of them that
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some
to shame and everlasting contempt," (Dan. 12:1, 2).
23. In proving the two remaining points--viz.
that the Patriarchs had Christ as the pledge of their covenant, and placed all
their hope of blessing in him, as they are clearer, and not so much
controverted, I will be less particular. Let us then lay it down confidently as
a truth which no engines of the devil can destroy--that the Old Testament or
covenant which the Lord made with the people of Israel was not confined to
earthly objects, but contained a promise of spiritual and eternal life, the
expectation of which behaved to be impressed on the minds of all who truly
consented to the covenant. Let us put far from us the senseless and pernicious
notion, that the Lord proposed nothing to the Jews, or that they sought nothing
but full supplies of food, carnal delights, abundance of wealth, external
influence, a numerous offspring, and all those things which our animal nature
deems valuable. For, even now, the only kingdom of heaven which our Lord Jesus
Christ promises to his followers, is one in which they may sit down with
Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob (Mt. 8:11); and Peter declared of the Jews of his
day, that they were heirs of gospel grace because they were the sons of the
prophets, and comprehended in the covenant which the Lord of old made with his
people (Acts 3:25). And that this might not be attested by words merely, our
Lord also approved it by act (Mt. 27:52). At the moment when he rose again, he
deigned to make many of the saints partakers of his resurrection, and allowed
them to be seen in the city; thus giving a sure earnest, that every thing which
he did and suffered in the purchase of eternal salvation belonged to believers
under the Old Testament, just as much as to us. Indeed, as Peter testifies,
they were endued with the same spirit of faith by which we are regenerated to
life (Acts 15:8). When we hear that that spirit, which is, as it were, a kind
of spark of immortality in us (whence it is called the "earnest" of our
inheritance, Eph. 1:14), dwelt in like manner in them, how can we presume to
deny them the inheritance? Hence, it is the more wonderful how the Sadducees of
old fell into such a degree of sottishness as to deny both the resurrection and
the substantive existence236 of spirits, both of which where
attested to them by so many striking passages of Scripture. Nor would the
stupidity of the whole nation in the present day, in expecting an earthly reign
of the Messiah, be less wonderful, had not the Scriptures foretold this long
before as the punishment which they were to suffer for rejecting the Gospel,
God, by a just judgment, blinding minds which voluntarily invite darkness, by
rejecting the offered light of heaven. They read, and are constantly turning
over the pages of Moses, but a veil prevents them from seeing the light which
beams forth in his countenance (2 Cor. 3:14); and thus to them he will remain
covered and veiled until they are converted to Christ, between whom and Moses
they now study, as much as in them lies, to maintain a separation.
le cachet d'espoir;" under the guard, and as it were, under the seal of hope.
[2]27 227 As to the agreement of both
dispensations, see August. Lib. de Moribus Eccles. Lat., especially cap. 28.
228 228 The French is, "Veu qu'ils pensent qu notre Seigneur l'ait
voulu seulement engraisser enterre comme en une auge, sans seperance aucune de
l'immortalité celeste;"--seeing they think that our Lord only wished to
fatten them on the earth as in a sty, without any hope of heavenly
immortality.
229 229 Acts 13:26; Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18; Mt. 3:2, 4, 17, &c.,
especially 13.
230 230 "Novo populo." French, "au peuple du Nouveau Testament"--the
people of the New Dispensation;
231 231 "Beata Virgo." French, "la Vierge Marie;"--the Virgin
Mary.
232 232 "Ejus finis." French, "la fin du Vieil Testament;"--the end
of the Old Testament.
233 233 Calv. in Genes. cap. 12:11--15.
234 234 The French is, "Et encore ne peut il pas ainsi eviter
l'iniquité de son beau père, qu'il ne soit de lui
persecuté, et atteint au milieu du chemin; et pourceque Dieu ne
permettoit point qu'il lui advint pis, il est vexé de beaucoup
d'opprobres et contumelies, par eclui du quel il avoit bonne matiere de se
plaindre."--Even thus he cannot escape the injustice of his father-in-law, but
is persecuted by him, and attacked in the midst of his journey; and because God
did not allow worse to happen, he is assailed with much contumely and reproach
by one of whom he had good cause to complain.
235 235 Ps. 97:10, 11; 112:9, 10; 140:13; 112:6; 34:22.
236 236 "Animarum substantiam." French, "immortalité des
ames;"--immortality of souls.