OLD, ancient. We say the Old Testament, by way of Contradistinction to the New. Moses was the Minister of the Old Heb. ix. 19, 20.Testament, of the Old-age of the Letter; but Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the New Heb. ix. 15.Testament, or of the New Covenant, which consists not of the Letter, but of the Spirit.
Rom. vi. 5.The old Man, the old Adam, in a moral Sense, is what we derive from corrupted Nature, and which we ought to crucify with Jesus Christ, that the Body of Sin may die in us; vetus homo noster simul crucifixus est, ut destruatur corpus peccati. In another Passage the Apostle enjoins us, to put off the old Man with his Deeds, and to put on the new Man, which is renewed in Knowledge after the Image of him that created him. And again elsewhere, we are to put off the old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts.
The old Leaven, is Concupiscence, and an Adherence to the literal and ceremonial Observances of the Law. St. Paul advises; 1 Cor. v. 8.Let us keep the Feast, not with old Leaven, neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness; but with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth. Jesus Christ expresses almost the same thing, when he Luk. v. 37.says, that no Man putteth new Wine into old Bottles, else the new Wine will burst the Bottles, and be spilled, and the Bottles shall perish.
Hannah, the Mother of Samuel, says in 1 Sam. ii. 3.her Canticle; Recedant vetera de ore vestro. Let the old Reproaches of Barrenness, which you made to me formerly, be now quite banish’d from your Mouths.
The old Fruits and the new, which succeed close after one another, and which are mentioned in Levit. xxv. 2. xxvi. 10. and in the Canticles, vii. 13. represent a very great Abundance. You shall have so much, that to make room for the new you shall be obliged to throw away the old.