Blessed One delighteth in them above all the idolatrous nations; and out of His favour and goodness to them, gave them the laws of truth, and planted amongst them the tree of life; and the Shechinah was with them. Now what doth all this signify ? thus much : that since the Israelites are signed with the holy seal in their flesh, they are thereby acknowledged for the sons of God: as, on the contrary, they that are not sealed with this mark in their flesh, are not the sons of God, but are the children of uncleanness: wherefore it is not lawful to contract familiarity with them, or to teach them the words of the law'.' This afterwards is urged further by another of their masters: Whosoever instructeth any uncircumcised person, though but in the least precepts of the law, doth the same as if he should destroy the world, and deny the name of the Holy Blessed One'.' All this plainly amounts to thus much as we had before out of the Talmudists, that the law was given unto the Israelites for this purpose-to enrich them with good works, and to augment their merits, and so to establish the foundations of life and blessedness amongst them; and to make it a medium of the union betwixt God and men, as R. Eliezer, in the same book, speaketh of the near union between these three, 'the Holy Blessed One, the Law, and Israel3.' col. 131 in Lev. ר' אבא אמ' זכאה חולקא דישראל 1 כל מאן דלא אתגזר ויהבין ליה 2 דק"בה אתרעי בהו מכל שאר עממין אפי' את זעירא דאורית אכאלו ריב ,Zoltar עלמא ומשק' בשמא דקב"ה : ובגין רחימותא דיליה עלייהו יהיב לון נימוסין דקשוט נטע בהו אילנא דחיי שארי שכינתא בינייהו מט' בגין דישראל הלומד לתלמיד שאינו הגון נופל בגהינם: Quicunque docet discipulumn qui non est רשימין ברשימא קדישא בבשריהון .idoneus, ille incidet in gehennam. -Gen ואשתמודען דאינהו דיליה ואשתמודען מבני היכלי' ובגיני כך כל אינון דלא Kiddushin, fol. 70. I. Vide Buxtorf. רשימין ברשימ' קדישא בבשרהון לאו אינון דיליה ואשתמודען דכלהו מסטרא ג' דרגין אינון מתקשרן דא בדא 3 There are three קב"ה אוריתא וישראל: דמסאבות אתיין ואסיר לאתחברא בהו ולאשתעשא בהדייהו במלוי דקב"ה orders bound up one with another; the ואסיר לאודעא להו מלי דאוריתא: Zohar, col. 130 in Lev. There is one passage more in our forenamed author R. Simeon Ben Jochai, at the end of Parashah Jethro, which, though it be more mystical than the rest, yet may be well worth our observing, as more fully hinting the perfection of the law, and setting that forth as an absolute and complete medium of rendering a man perfect; upon which R. Jos. Albo, in his third book De Fundamentis, hath spent two or three chapters. Thus therefore, as if the law were the great magazine and storehouse of perfection, our foresaid author there telleth us, 'That when the Israelites stood upon mount Sinai, they saw God eye to eye, or face to face, and understood all secrets of the law, and all the arcana superna et inferna',' &c. and then he adds, "That the same day in which the Israelites stood upon mount Sinai, all uncleanness passed away from them, and all their bodies did shine in brightness like to the angels of heaven, when they put on their bright, shining, robes to fit themselves for the embassy upon which they are sent by God their Lord?.' And a little after, thus: 'And when their uncleanness passed away from them, the bodies of the Israelites became shining and clear without any defilement; and their bodies did shine as the brightness of the firmament"." And then thus concludeth all: When the Israelites received the law upon mount Sinai, the world was then perfumed with a most aromatic smell, and heaven and One was revealed in his glory on mount 2 בההוא שעתא כל רזין דאורייתא 1 וכל רזין עלאין ותתאין לא אעדי מנייהו בגין דהוו חמאן, עינא בעינא זיו יקרא ההוא יומא דקיימו ישראל על ב טורא דסיני אעבר זוהמא מנייהו, וכל דמריהון מה דלא הוה בההוא יומא גופין הוו מצחצחן בצחצחא דמלאכין מיומא דאתברי עלמא דקב"ה אתגלי At that time ביקריה על טורא דסיני: עלאין כד מתלבשן בלבושי מצחצחן .Ibid למיעבד שליחותא דמריהון: כד אעבר מנייהו ההוא זוהמא 3 no mystery of the law, nor any mystery, high or low, was withheld from them, for אשתארו ישראל גופין מצחצחן בלא they beheld, eye to eye, the splendor of מנופא כלל ונשמתין לגו כזוהרא דרקיעא .Ibid לקבלא נהורא: the glory of their Lord, so that no day was like that, from the day when the world was created, for the Holy Blessed Y earth were established, and the Holy Blessed One was known above and below, and He ascended in His glory above all things'.' By all these mystical and allegorical expressions our author seems to aim at this main scope, viz. To set forth the law as that which of itself was sufficient, without any other dispensation from God, for the perfecting of those to whom it was dispensed; and to make them comprehensors of all righteousness here, and glory hereafter: which they are wont to set forth in that transcendent state of perfection which the Israelites were in at the receiving of the law; whence it hath been an ancient maxim amongst them, In statione montis Sinai Israelitæ erant sicut angeli ministerii. And thus we have endeavoured to make good that which we first propounded, namely, to show that the grand opinion of the Jews concerning the way to life and happiness was this: "That the law of God externally dispensed, and only furnished out to them in tables of stone and a parchment roll, conjoined with the power of their own free-will, was sufficient both to procure them acceptance with God, and to acquire merit enough to carry them with spread sails into the harbour of eternal rest and blessedness.' So that, by this time, we may see that those disputes which St Paul and other apostles maintain against the Jews, touching the law and faith, were not merely about that one question, Whether justification formally and precisely respects faith alone; but were of a much greater latitude. שמיא וארעא ואשתמודע קב"ה עילא כיון דקבילו ישראל אורייתא על 1 טורא דסיני כדין אתבסם עלמא ואתקיימו .Ibid ותתא ואסתלק ביקריה על כלא : CHAPTER IV. The second inquiry, concerning the evangelical righteousness or the righteousness of faith, and the true difference between the law and the gospel, the old and the new covenant, as it is laid down by the apostle Paul. A more general answer to this inquiry, together with a general observation of the apostle's main end in opposing faith to the works of the law, viz. To beat down the Jewish proud conceit of merit. A more particular and distinct answer to the inquiry, viz. That the law or old covenant is considered only as an external administration, a dead thing in itself, a dispensation consisting in an outward and written law of precepts: but the gospel or new covenant is an internal thing, a vital form and principle of righteousness in the souls of men, an inward manifestation of divine life, and a living impression upon the minds and spirits of men. This proved from several testimonies of Scripture. HAVING done with the first inquiry, we now come to the second, which was this: What the evangelical righteousness, or the righteousness of faith, is, which the apostle sets up against that of the law, and in what notion the law is considered by the apostle: which in sum was this, viz. That the law was the ministry of death, and in itself an external and lifeless thing, neither could it procure or beget that divine life, and spiritual form of godliness, in the souls of men, which God expects from all the heirs of glory, nor that glory which is only consequent upon a true divine life. Whereas, on the other side, the gospel is set forth as a mighty efflux and emanation of life and spirit, freely issuing forth from an Omnipotent source of grace and love, as that true godlike vital influence, whereby the Divinity derives itself into the souls of men, enlivening and transforming them into its own. likeness, and strongly imprinting upon them a copy of its own beauty and goodness: like the spermatical virtue of the heavens, which spreads itself freely upon this lower world, and subtilely insinuating itself into this benumbed, feeble, earthly matter, begets life and motion in it. Briefly, -It is that whereby God comes to dwell in us, and we in Him. But that we may the more distinctly unfold the difference between that righteousness which is of the law, and that which is of faith, and so the better show how the apostle undermines that fabric of happiness which the Jews had built up for themselves; we shall observe first, in general, That the main thing which the apostle endeavours to beat down was, that proud and arrogant conceit which they had of merit, and to advance against it the notion of the divine grace and bounty, as the only fountain of all righteousness and happiness. For, indeed, that which all those Jewish notions, of which we have before taken notice, aimed principally at, was the advancing of the weakened powers of nature into such a height of perfection as might render them capable of meriting at God's hands and that perfection of which they speak so much, (as is clear from what hath been said) was nothing else but a mere sublimation of their own natural powers and principles, performed by the strength of their own fancies. And, therefore, these contractors with heaven were so pleased to look upon eternal life as a fair purchase which they might make for themselves at their own charge; as if the spring and rise of all were in themselves: their eyes were so much dazzled with those foolish fires of merit and reward kindled in their own fancies, that they could not see that light of divine grace and bounty which shone about them. And this fastus and swelling pride of theirs (if I mistake not) is that which St Paul principally endeavours to chastise, in advancing faith, so much as he doth, in opposition to the works of the law. For this purpose he spends the first and second chapters of his epistle to the Romans in drawing up a charge of such a nature, both against Gentiles and Jews, but principally against |