Part 2: On Mosaic Theology

The fame of the Sinaitic legislation — Before it, laws were nowhere publicly enacted, let alone written — The Gentiles acknowledge Moses as the most ancient lawgiver — The origins of laws ascribed to God — Zaleucus was the first among the nations to commit laws to writing — His age — The foundations of Mosaic theology — First: Divine revelation is the sole norm of religious worship — The worship of God has never been left to the discretion of men — Explanation and confirmation of this first foundation — No doctrine is to be regarded as infallibly true except insofar as it is immediately revealed by God — All the ordinances of God are to be observed with the utmost submission of soul — Nothing not ordained by God is pleasing to Him in His worship — This foundation established by the penalty of transgressors — Second: Justification by mere grace — Its parts — Acknowledgment of natural misery — All privileges freely granted to unworthy sinners — Deprivation of spiritual powers — Reconciliation through the sacrificial expiation of sins — The offering up of brute animals in sacrifices to that end — The true High Priest who would bear all sins in His own person — Third: That the ceremonial worship would not be absolutely eternal — A fixed term appointed to it — Christ set forth to all — The glory, holiness, and faith of the Jewish church — The prophetic ministry.

I. All the records of antiquity and the monuments of the origins of laws teach that the fame of the most celebrated Mosaic legislation, which we have briefly described, spread early throughout nearly the whole world. There are those who affirm that the use of letters was known to peoples before that time. What prevents me from agreeing with them has been set out elsewhere. But there is no one, as far as I know, who has demonstrated that written laws existed among the human race prior to those of God. Indeed, the arguments brought forward to prove that any writing preceded what God Himself engraved on tablets of stone are mere conjectures. Nor, to continue our appointed course, is it confirmed by any adequate testimony that peoples established fixed laws — however unwritten — beyond the dictates of right reason, for their own governance, before the Mosaic age. In those earliest times of nations and peoples, the will of those who held power was the law of public society. What was expected of them in return was that they would faithfully observe that common equity and goodness which is congruous with human nature, together with ancient customs and the principles of reason and utility upon which the people relied in forming themselves into a body. But the Holy Spirit had foretold that the fame of this most holy legislation would spread most widely (Deuteronomy 4:5, 6): "See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as Jehovah my God commanded me. You shall therefore observe and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, hearing all these statutes, will say, Surely this great people is a wise and understanding people." When this legislation was heard and the equity of these laws perceived, they would convict themselves of foolishness and rashness, in that they had until then lived wandering and unstable, almost in the manner of wild beasts, loosed from law. Those who therefore watched over the good of their peoples diligently sought to express and imitate among their own people this benefit which God had conferred upon that nation. For the wisest of the Greeks acknowledge that Moses was the very first of all lawgivers. Thus Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, book 1, chap. 94: "After the ancient ordering of life in Egypt, which is fabulously reported to have been under gods and heroes, they say that Moses was the first to persuade the multitude to use written laws and to live by them, a man commended both for greatness of soul and for fitness of life —"

"According to the ancient ordering of life that existed in Egypt, which is fabulously reported to have been under gods and heroes, they say that Moses first persuaded the multitude to use written laws and to live by them — a man most highly commended both for greatness of soul and for fitness of life." II. The wise have always understood that all right and power of one or more over others derives its origin from God Himself. For since all power is seated in God pre-eminently, they rightly judged that no one could rightly become a partaker of it except through Him; and accordingly they held it fitting that by His divine authority laws should be imposed upon the society of peoples. Moreover, they had either seen or heard that this truth was attested in this Mosaic legislation. Hence the most celebrated lawgivers among the nations — Zaleucus, Lycurgus, Minos, Numa — consistently pretended that the laws by which they intended to bind their peoples they had received from gods of some kind: Numa, for instance, in the Arician grove from Egeria; Lycurgus in the Cretan cave from Jupiter; Minos at Delphi from Apollo; Zaleucus from Minerva. For those inventions owe their origin to nothing other than the fame of this most celebrated Israelite legislation.

III. Now the one who was the first among the nations to write down laws was Zaleucus of Locris, who lived either a little before, or around the time of, the Babylonian captivity. Strabo, on the Locrians: "They are believed to have been the first to use written laws." And Marcianus of Heraclea: —

"Near the Epizephyrian Locrians dwell these people; and they are said to be the first to have used written laws, which Zaleucus set out for them —"

For indeed among the laws of Lycurgus was the provision that they should not be written down. IV. I return to my subject. There were certain general heads, or most holy principles, of the Mosaic theology whose revelation we have expounded, upon which, as upon immovable foundations, the heavenly doctrine and all the institutions of divine worship rested. These must be briefly reviewed.

V. "That divine revelation is the sole foundation, the only norm, the unique rule of all religious worship that is pleasing or acceptable to God, occupies the first place in this theology."

VI. This truth, if any other in religion, is especially necessary to be known, and is now at last consecrated to eternal memory, having been handed down in the faithful monuments of the divine Scriptures. God indeed never from the laying of the foundations of the world permitted the will of men to give measure or limit to His worship. But this excellent foundation of true theology was, until this Mosaic legislation, surrounded by much darkness. Many things besides were passed over in God's connivance, without public rebuke, that were by no means pleasing to Him. But now at last the religious observance of this clearly revealed principle has become a celebrated part of divine worship. Within it, moreover, these three things are contained, of which frequent mention is made in the books of the Old Testament.

VII. For this theological principle first teaches that no doctrines concerning God or His worship — other than those He Himself has revealed — are to be regarded as of infallible or unquestionable truth in religion (Deuteronomy 4:2): "You shall not add to the word that I command you;" and chap. 12:32. That truth alone is salutary and life-giving which is written. It ought to be taught, it ought to be expounded, but it is not likewise to be added to by anyone.

VIII. Furthermore: the same truth teaches that all and every thing ordained by God in His worship — however absurd, difficult, or useless they may seem to reason — are to be observed and kept with the utmost religion and submission of soul, on account of the supreme authority of Him who ordained and enacted them. For very many of the Jewish ordinances were arbitrary, proceeding from the sole good pleasure of the Lawgiver and enacted by sovereign right; and Peter testifies that the whole body of them was a yoke of bondage (Acts 15:10), to which the rational service of Christians is set in contrast. For the sole sake of the preceptive will of God, all these things were to be observed with religious devotion. That nothing whatever is to be added to these things in the worship of God is what remains of this first foundation. And all these things are confirmed by the second precept of the Decalogue.

IX. Now, since proud little men are prone to introducing the fabrications of their own hearts, adorned with specious pretexts — having especial abundance in self-imposed worship and humility — into religious worship, as the experience of all ages attests, God confirmed and established this part of the new theology, that it might henceforth remain altogether inviolable and sacred, by the dreadful punishment of those who were the first to defect from its authority. For after He himself had sent down fire from heaven upon the altar — a type and emblem of the Holy Spirit — and the sons of the high priest, not attending to His intention, had used strange fire in the sacred rites, they were immediately consumed by fire because they had not rightly sanctified the name of God. And this is the first foundation of divine truth in this Mosaic enlargement of theology, solemnly consecrated to eternity.

X. "That righteousness, acceptance before God, liberation from sins, and finally eternal salvation, are to be expected only from pure grace, through the promised seed — this theology indicated in the next place." For there is promised a mediator of peace between God and men, who through His eternal sacrifice was to obtain redemption and to reconcile sinners to God. It taught that all grace before God is to be ascribed entirely to Him. That saving foundation of supernatural theology — that is, the foundation for reconciling sinners to God — which had been set forth somewhat obscurely by the giving of the first promise, and then by the renewal of the covenant with Noah, and had been explained more clearly to Abraham, is now openly and plainly unfolded. And within it are contained these excellent doctrines of the new theology.

XI. 1. "That those theologians who were now gifted with the light of this heavenly truth were in themselves the most wretched of sinners — lost, accursed, children of wrath no less than others, and in no way better than those whom it pleased God to pass over in this manifestation of His grace." This — whatever it amounts to of spiritual misery — God solemnly caused these new theologians to acknowledge

and confess, so that a sharper and firmer sense of it might penetrate into their hearts and consciences (Deuteronomy 26:5): "You shall declare before Jehovah your God, saying, A wandering Syrian was my father."

XII. 2. "That whatever spiritual privileges either they themselves or their forebears obtained, and moreover all the singular benefits of which they had become partakers, had come to them from God's pure grace alone, without any regard for their works or services." The passage found at Deuteronomy 9:4–6 is especially notable above others for this purpose; to which may be added chap. 7:6–9 and 10:15.

XIII. 3. "That although God had placed among them the unspeakable benefit of His word, they had nevertheless been so utterly destitute of spiritual strength that, unless He himself by His efficacious grace and heart-turning mercy were pleased to come to their aid in this

matter, they would make no use of it — so far as concerns pleasing God and obtaining eternal salvation." Deuteronomy 29:4; 30:6.

XIV. 4. "That reconciliation, expiation of sins, and remission must be procured through a blood sacrifice." All the ordinances taught this; especially that solemn sacrifice offered annually on the day of expiation (Leviticus 16); hence that word of the apostle (Hebrews 9:22): Almost all things are purified by blood according to the law, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

XV. 5. "That no sacrifices of brute animals were in themselves sufficient or adequate to take away sin, such that one who seeks to approach God through them and to expect His favor would be perfectly freed from their guilt." And therefore all these were instituted for this purpose: that they should prefigure another, more excellent sacrifice. Hence it came about that when true theologians had lost the understanding of the proper use of these sacrifices and had so diminished their faith in the coming Messiah, they fell — nowhere secure, nor free from the stings of conscience and the sense of the law's curse — into dreadful idolatry (Micah 6:6–8).

XVI. 6. "That the high priest in his own person would bear all the sins of the whole people" (Exodus 28:38). And these things by that second

were content with the foundation.

XVII. In the place of the third foundation, this theology taught: "All these institutions of religious worship, however excellent and full of glory, of whose benefit those who were partakers would attain a distinguished honor surpassing that of oth-

ers, would last only until an appointed time, and had a certain prescribed period beyond which it was lawful for no one to adhere to them. For that One would at length come, in whom all things were laid up, furnished with the authority of a lawgiver, who would most perfectly declare the will of God, to whose word, under penalty of extermination from the people of God, all were required to be obedient (Deuteronomy 18:16-19).

XVIII. By the light and aid of these principles, that great foundation, the cornerstone, Jesus Christ, the promised seed of Adam and of Abraham, occupied His place in that Israelitic church. And from this flowed the glory and dignity of that church, with God moreover rendering it increased and enriched with new benefits, so that it might become a more illustrious type, of more excellent glory, and of the kingdom of Christ to be administered in a more spiritual manner (2 Corinthians 3). It cannot indeed be denied that many theologians were hindered, by excessive love and admiration of that carnal glory which accompanied the ceremonial worship, from looking forward to the end of the things that were to be abolished. But it is certain that all the faithful burned with a desire to enjoy those things which were prefigured through that entire most holy apparatus. Yet that singular thing which rendered that church, imbued and instructed with the doctrine we have briefly set forth, glorious and dear to God, was that holiness, or saving communion with God Himself, which the greater part of its members cultivated. The faith and obedience of many are indeed consecrated by the Holy Spirit to eternal memory, that they might be for our instruction and consolation. But there were very many others whose names, unknown to us, are written in the book of life, who, relying on the light and guidance of this theology, walked continually in all holy obedience before God, most full of inward peace and of the consolations of the Holy Spirit.

XIX. But after God, in the very founding of this church, had committed these theological principles, which we have reviewed, to its faith through the revelations made to the lawgiver, so that they might better be preserved from oblivion and more effectively instilled into the rebellious people, He raised up, in almost every age, prophets outside the ordinary order, beyond the ordinary ministry of the priests and Levites, who should partly by living voice and partly by inspired writings elucidate these same principles, and exhort the people to order their religious worship and life according to their norm. For the prophets devoted all their effort, as is evident from their writings, to preserving the honor of the word of God, and thereby the authority of God Himself intact; to proclaiming righteousness and the remission of sins through the coming Christ; and to sustaining the church with hope and expectation of the spiritual glory to be introduced by the Messiah.