CHAPTER 4

Why it is we reject the Jews' Way of Life, though we accept their Writings.

THESE, then, are the reasons why we have accepted and loved as belonging to ourselves the sacred books of the Hebrews, including as they do prophecies relating to us Gentiles. And the more so, since it was not Moses only who foretold the coming of the Lawgiver of the Gentiles after him, but really the whole succession of the prophets, who proclaimed the same truth with one voice, as David, when he said:

"Appoint, O Lord, a Lawgiver over them: let the nations know that they are but men."

See how he too speaks of a second Lawgiver of the nations. And in the same spirit in another (psalm) he calls on the Gentiles to sing, not the ancient song of Moses, but a new song, when he says:

"1. Sing to the Lord a new song; | sing to the Lord all the whole earth: | 3. proclaim among the nations his glory, | among all peoples his wonders: | 4. For great is the Lord, and very worthy to be praised, | he is terrible above all gods. | 5. For all the gods of the nations are demons, | but it is the Lord that made the heavens. | 7. Bring to the Lord ye families of the nations; | 8. bring to the Lord glory to his name."

And again: .

"10. Say among the nations, The Lord is King. | - 23 - For he has established the world, that it shall not be shaken."

And again:

"1. Sing to the Lord a new song, | for he hath done marvellous things, | 2. The Lord hath made known his salvation; | Before the nations he hath revealed righteousness. | 3. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God."

And notice how he ordains the new song not for the Jewish race only; the ancient song of Moses suited them, but for all the nations. This new song is called by Jeremiah, another Hebrew prophet, "a new covenant"where he says:

"31. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda: 32. not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: for they abode not in my covenant, and I disregarded them, saith the Lord. 33. For this is my, covenant which I will make with the house of Israel, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds, and on their hearts I will write (them), and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

You see here that he distinguishes two covenants, the old and the new, and says that the new would not be like the old which was given to the fathers. For the old covenant was given as a law to the Jews, when they had fallen from the religion of their forefathers, and had embraced the manners and life of the Egyptians, and had declined to the errors of polytheism, and the idolatrous superstitions of the Gentiles. It was intended to raise up the fallen, and to set on their feet those who were lying on their faces, by suitable teaching.

"For the law, it is said, is not for the righteous, but for the unjust and disorderly, for the unrighteous and for sinners, and for those like them."

But the new covenant leads those who, through our Saviour - 24 - by the grace and gift of God are raised up, to a rapid march into the kingdom promised by God. It summons all men equally to share together the same good things. This "new covenant" Isaiah, another of the Hebrew prophets, calls the "new law,"when he says:

"3. For out of Sion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And all the nations shall go, and all the peoples shall be gathered together, and shall say, Let us go up to the Mount of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob."

This law going forth from Sion, different from the law enacted in the desert by Moses on Mount Sinai, what can it be but the word of the Gospel, "going forth from Sion" through our Saviour Jesus Christ, and going through all the nations? For it is plain that it was in Jerusalem and Mount Sion adjacent thereto, where our Lord and Saviour for the most part lived and taught, that the law of the new covenant began and from thence went forth and shone upon all, according to the commands which He gave his disciples when He said:

"Go ye, and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you."

What could He mean but the teaching and discipline of the new covenant? Since, then, I have proved my facts, let us proceed to investigate together the character of the new covenant, and the new song and the new law that were foretold.