EXTRACT FROM NEAD'S THEOLOGY.
By A. J. Stover
[Bro. Smith : Peter Nead is one of the bishops of the German Baptist (Dunkard) church. His writings entitled "Nead's Theology," are in great favor with his brethren, and are pretty extensively read by them, with few exceptions. It is an excellent work. I make from it the following extract for Review.
A. J. Stover.] After speaking about the promise of the Messiah to Adam, and that preparations had to be made for his coming, and through Abraham all the families of the earth were to be blessed &c., he says, God gave the law to Moses upon two tables of stone. Ex. xix, xx. In this law we have the righteousness of God revealed, or that righteousness which God will be pleased with. Adam was clothed with this righteousness prior to his disobedience, and could have remained in that state forever had he not partaken of the forbidden fruit; and after his transgression he forfeited or lost this righteousness. And this was not all: he became so weak and helpless that he never could recover that righteousness; yea, it was not attainable by him or any of his posterity. It was this which led the apostle to declare that by the deeds of the law, no flesh could be justified. Rom. iii, 20. That the law requires perfect obedience, see James ii, 10; Deut. xxvii, 26. Having briefly stated the nature of the moral law, I shall now touch a little upon the use of the same, and then call the attention of the reader, in a few words, to the nature and use of the ceremonial law. By the moral law, I mean the law which God wrote with his own fingers upon two tables of stone, and gave unto Moses. I have stated that preparations had to be made for the coming of the Messiah; therefore the law had to precede the gospel. The attentive reader can easily perceive the use, or design, of the moral law, from what I have advanced. It is, in the first place, to show the sinner what a righteous and holy Being he has to do with, as the prophet tells us that God is of purer eyes150than to behold sin with the least degree of allowance. Inasmuch as the law is holy, just and good, it is therefore an image of God. The law makes no allowance for sin, neither does God, as has been declared by the prophet. And, in the second place, by comparing himself with the law, he can see that he comes far short of that righteousness which is therein revealed, and that he is now in a state of condemnation, and that of himself he is not able to attain to that righteousness, and therefore having a clear insight of his guilty condition, it may be asked why sentence should not be passed upon him? I answer, though the law pronounces man guilty, yet as God designs his salvation, it is intended as a means to cause man to seek for refuge in the rent veil of Emanuel's flesh, or the atonement. Therefore God gave the Israelites another law, which is termed the ceremonial law, or Levitical dispensation. This law, given by Moses, was binding upon the Israelites until the coming of the Messiah, and after his coming was to be null and void. The reader will peruse the second and third books of Moses, where he will find this law plainly revealed. This law speaks of priests, altars, and various vessels and of their different uses, and then of various oblations, and of their distinguishments into burnt-offerings, peace-offerings, sin-offerings, and trespass-offerings, and of their design or intention. By the moral law is the knowledge of sin, and by the ceremonial law is revealed the expiation for sin. So, from the ceremonial law we learn that sin must be atoned for. The question may be asked, Were those sacrifices offered up under this dispensation able to take away sin? I answer, No; for the apostle tells us, "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin." Heb. x, 1-4. "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect," &c. Hence we learn that those sacrifices were not able to purge from sin. They could not produce a change in man; yet they were of great service to guilty man, for it was by the law of sacrifices that the great atonement of Christ, the Son of God, was prefigured, or shadowed forth.