Chapter 19. Concerning the Outward Means of executing the decree of election, and of the Decalogue.
A GOLDEN CHAIN
Chapter 19. Concerning the Outward Means of executing the decree of election, and of the Decalogue.
After the foundation of Election, which has been presented up to here, it follows that we should address its outward means.
The means are God's Covenant, and its Seal.
God's Covenant is his contract with man, concerning life eternal, upon certain conditions. This covenant consists in two parts: God's promise to man, and Man's promise to God.
God's promise to man is that by which He binds himself to man, to be his God, if man does not break the condition.
Man's promise to God is that by which he vows his allegiance to his Lord, and to perform the condition between them.
Again, there are two kinds of this covenant. The Covenant of Works, and Covenant of Grace. Jer
31.31-33, Behold the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with those of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — this covenant of mine which they break, although I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: after those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts,
WILLIAM PERKINS
and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The Covenant of Works is God's covenant made with a condition of perfect obedience, and it is expressed in the Moral Law.
The Moral Law is that part of God's word which commands to man his perfect obedience, in his nature as well as in his actions; and it forbids the contrary.
Rom 10.5, Moses thus describes the righteousness which is of the Law, that the man who does these things, shall live by them. 1Tim 1.5, The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Luk 10.27, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Rom 7.14, We know that the Law is spiritual.
The Law has two parts. The Edict commanding obedience, and the condition binding man to obedience.
The condition is eternal life to those who fulfill the law; but to transgressors, everlasting death.
The Decalogue or Ten Commandments, is an abridgement of the whole Law, and the Covenant of Works. Exo 34.27-28, And the Lord said to Moses,
Write these words, for after the tenor of these words, I have made a covenant with you, and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights, and neither ate bread, nor drank water, and he wrote in the Tablets the words of the covenant, even the Ten
Commandments. 1Kng 8.9, Nothing was in the Ark, except the two Tablets of stone which Moses had put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. Mat 22.40, On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.
A GOLDEN CHAIN
The true interpretation of the Decalogue must be according to these rules:
I. In the negative, the affirmative must be understood; and in the affirmative, the negative.
II. The negative binds at all times, and to all times; and the affirmative binds at all times, but not to all times; and therefore negatives are of more force.
III. Under once vice expressly forbidden, are comprehended all of that kind — indeed, the least cause, occasion, or enticement to it, is forbidden as well; such as that in 1Joh 3.15, Whoever hates his brother is a manslayer. Mat 5.21 to the end. Evil thoughts are condemned, as well as evil actions.
IV. The smallest sins are entitled with the same names as the one expressly forbidden in that commandment to which they pertain. As in the former passages, hatred is named murder, and to look at a woman with a lusting eye is adultery.
V. We must understand every commandment of the law as annexed with this condition: unless God commands the contrary. For God being absolute Lord, and so above the Law, He may command that which His law forbids. So he commanded Isaac to be offered, the Egyptians to be destroyed, the brazen Serpent to be erected (which was a figure of Christ), etc.
The Decalogue is described in two Tablets.
The sum of the first Tablet is that we love God with our mind, memory, affections, and all our strength. Mat
22.37, This is the first (i.e., in nature and order) and great commandment (namely, in excellency and dignity).