CHAPTER XI.

Whether the mosaic law be represented in the
old testament as A temporary, or A perpetual
institution.

A very great part of Dogmatic Theology among Christians is founded upon the notion that the Jewish Law was a temporary dispensation, only to exist till the coming of Jesus, when it was to be superseded by a more perfect dispensation.

On the contrary, the Jews are persuaded that their Law is of perpetual obligation, and the Doctrine of the Trinity itself is hardly more offensive to them, and, as they think, more contradictory to the Scriptures, than the notion of the abrogation of it.  Now, that the Jews are on the right side of this question, i. e., arguing from the Old Testament, I shall endeavour to prove by several arguments.  They are all comprised in these positions, 1.  That the Mosaic Institutions are most solemnly, and repeatedly declared to be perpetual; and we have no account of their being abrogated, or to be abrogated in the Old Testament. 2.  They are declared to be perpetual by Jesus himself, and were adhered to by the twelve apostles.

1.  Nothing can be more expressly asserted in the Old Testament than the perpetual obligation of those rites which were to distinguish the Jews from other nations.  It appears, for instance, (from the 17th ch. of Genesis,) in the tenor of the covenant made with Abraham, that circumcision was to distinguish his posterity, to the end of time.  It is called “an everlasting covenant” to be kept by his posterity through all their generations.  See the ch. where the condition of the covenant is, that God would give to Abraham and his posterity, the perpetual inheritance of the promised land with whatever privileges were implied in his being their God, on condition that their male children were circumcised in testimony of putting themselves under that covenant.  There is no limitation with respect to time; nay it is expressly said that the covenant should be perpetual.

The ordinance of the Passover is also said to be perpetual, Ex. xii. 14, &c.  “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations.  You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.”  This is repeated afterwards, and the observance of this rite is confined to Israelites, Proselytes, and slaves who should be circumcised, v. 48.

The observance of the Sabbath was never to be discontinued, Ex. xxxi. 16.  “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.  It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever.”

The appointment of the Family of Aaron to be Priests, was to continue as long as the Israelites should be a nation.  See Lev. vii. 35.