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Cocceians

Charles Buck Theological Dictionary

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Charles Buck Dictionary
• Cocceians
Watson's Theological Dictionary
• Cocceians

A denomination which arose in the seventeenth century; so called from John Cocceius, professor of divinity in the University of Leyden. He represented the whole history of the Old Testament as a mirror, which held forth an accurate view of the transactions and events that were to happen in the church under the dispensation of the New Testament, and unto the end of the world. He maintained that by far the greatest part of the ancient prophesies foretold Christ's ministry and mediation, and the rise, progress, and revolutions of the church, not only under the figure of persons and transactions, but in a literal manner, and by the very sense of the words used in these predictions; and laid it down as a fundamental rule of interpretation, that the words and phrases of Scripture are to be understood in every sense of which they are susceptible, or, in other words, that they signify in effect every thing that they can possibly signify. Cocceius also taught, that the covenant made between God and the Jewish nation, by the ministry of Moses, was of the same nature as the new covenant, obtained by the mediation of Jesus Christ. In consequence of this general principle, he maintained that the ten commandments were promulgated by Moses, not as a rule of obedience, but as a representation of the covenant of grace

that when the Jews had provoked the Deity by their various transgressions, particularly by the worship of the golden calf, the severe and servile yoke of the ceremonial law was added to the decalogue, as a punishment inflicted on them by the Supreme Being in his righteous displeasure

that this yoke, which was painful in itself, became doubly so on account of its typical signification; since it admonished the Israelites from day to day of the imperfection and uncertainty of their state, filled them with anxiety, and was a perpetual proof that they had merited the righteous displeasure of God, and could not expect before the coming of the Messiah the entire remission of their iniquities

that indeed good men, even under the Mosaic dispensation, were immediately after death made partakers of everlasting glory; but that they were nevertheless, during the whole course of their lives, far removed from that firm hope and assurance of salvation, which rejoices the faithful under the dispensation of the Gospel

and that their anxiety flowed naturally from this consideration, that their sins, though they remained unpunished were not pardoned; because Christ had not as yet offered himself up a sacrifice to the Father, to make an entire atonement for them.