the gospel both the Redeemer and the truth of his redemp tion are more explicitly understood. John i. 17. "the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." THE LAW OF GOD is either written or unwritten.

The unwritten law is no other than that law of nature given originally to Adam, and of which a certain remnant, or imperfect illumination, still dwells in the hearts of all mankind; which, in the regenerate, under the influence of the Holy Spirit,. is daily tending towards a renewal of its primitive brightness. Rom. i. 19. "God hath showed it unto them.' v. 32. "who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." ii. 14. 15. "the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts."

Hence the law is often used for heavenly doctrine_in_the abstract, or the will of God, as declared under both covenants. Jer. xxxi. 33. "I will put my law in their inward parts." John x. 34. "is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" though the passage alluded to is found in the Psalms, not in the law properly so called.

The manifestation of this gratuitous covenant under the law was partly anterior to, and partly coincident with, Moses.

Even before Moses the law was already in part delivered, although not in a written form. Gen. iv. 3. 4. " Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah." v. 26. "then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah." vii. 1. 2. "thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation: of every clean beast," &c. viii. 20, 21, &c. "Noah builded an altar unto Jehovah." 2 Pet. ii. 5. "Noah, a preacher of righteousness." The same is said of the other patriarchs beforeMoses. Gen. xii. 4, 5. xiii. 18. xxv. 22. xxviii. 18. Ceremonial purification is likewise mentioned, xxxv. 2. "be clean and change your garments." Compare v. 14. Exod.

xvii. 5.

A certain manifestation or shadowing forth of the covenantwas exhibited under Moses, first, in the redemption from bondage by the liberation from Egypt under the guidance of Moses; secondly, in the brazen serpent. John iii. 14—16.

The symbols of expiation and redemption, both before and

under Moses, were the sacrifices and the priests, Melchisedec and Aaron with his posterity.3 Heb. viii. 5. "who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things."

THE MOSAIC LAW WAS A WRITTEN CODE CONSISTING OF MANY PRECEPTS, INTENDED FOR THE ISRAELITES ALONE, WITH A PROMISE OF LIFE TO SUCH AS SHOULD KEEP THEM, AND A CURSE ON SUCH AS SHOULD BE DISOBEDIENT; TO THE END THAT THEY, BEING LED THEREBY TO AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE DEPRAVITY OF MANKIND, AND CONSE. QUENTLY OF THEIR OWN, MIGHT HAVE RECOURSE TO THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE PROMISED SAVIOUR; AND THAT THEY, AND IN PROCESS OF TIME ALL OTHER NATIONS, MIGHT BE LED UNDER THE GOSPEL FROM THE WEAK AND SERVILE RUDIMENTS OF THIS ELEMENTARY INSTITUTION TO THE FULL STRENGTH OF THE NEW CREATURE, AND A MANLY LIBERTY WORTHY THE SONS OF GOD. Heb. ix. 8, &c. as above.

INTENDED FOR THE ISRAELITES ALONE. Exod. xix. 5, 6. "if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." Deut. iv. 45. "these are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt." 1 Kings viii. 21. 1 Kings viii. 21. "I have set there a place for the tark, wherein is the covenant of Jehovah, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt." Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20. "he sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel: he hath not dealt so with any nation, and as for his judgments, they have not known them." This wall of partition between the Gentiles

3 Melchisedec.. incited to do so, first, by the secret providence of God, intending him for a type of Christ and his priesthood' The likeliest means to remove Hirelings out of the Church. Prose Works, III. 9.

4 It cannot be unknown by what expressions the holy St. Paul spares not to explain to us the nature and condition of the law, calling those ordinances, which were the chief and essential office of the priests, the elements and rudiments of the world, both weak and beggarly.' Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty, Prose Works, II. 451. St. Paul comprehends both kinds alike, that is to say, both ceremony and circumstance under one and the same contemptuous name of weak and beggarly rudiments.' Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Taus I!. 539.

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and Israelites was at length broken down by the death of Christ, Eph. ii. 14. until which time the Gentiles were aliens from the whole of the covenant, v. 12. "being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel." Acts xiv. 16, 17. "who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways: nevertheless he left not himself without witness," &c. xvii. 27, 28, 30. "that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one us the times of this ignorance God winked at."

WITH A PROMISE OF LIFE; namely, temporal life, as is obvious from the whole of the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus. Lev. xviii. 5. "ye shall keep my statutes, which if a man do, he shall live in them." Deut. vi. 25. "it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before Jehovah our God, as he hath commanded us." Gal. iii. 12. “the law is not of faith; but the man that doeth them shall live in them." Though the law, however, does not promise eternal life, this latter seems to be implied in the language of the prophets. Zech. iii. 7. "I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by." Luke x. 25-28. See

also below, on the resurrection.

A CURSE ON SUCH AS SHOULD BE DISOBEDIENT. Deut. xxvii. 26. "cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them." Gal. iii. 10. 66 as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the law to do them."

ACKNOWLEDGING THE DEPRAVITY. Rom. iii. 20. "by the law is the knowledge of sin." iv. 15. "the law worketh wrath." v. 20. "moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." vii. 4." when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." v. 7-9. "I had not known sin, but by the law-: but sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.' 12, 13. "wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just, and good: was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid: but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good: that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." Gal. iii. 19.

V.

"wherefore then serveth the law it was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." Hence to those who are not yet regenerate, the law of nature has the same obligatory force, and is intended to serve the same purposes, as the law of Moses to the Israelites. Rom. iii. 19. 66 we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that were under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God," compared with i. 19. "that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed them."

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE PROMISED SAVIOUR. Hence Christ's invitation, Matt. xi. 28. " come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," that is from the curse of the law. Hence also the conflict in the mind of Paul while under the curse of the law, and the thanks which he renders to God for the atonement of Christ; Rom. vii. 24, 25. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" x. 4. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Gal. iii. 11. "that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith."

v. 13.

v. 22.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law," v. 21. 'if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." "but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe; concluded," that is, declared all guilty of sin. v. 24. "wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." 2 Cor. iii. 6. "the letter killeth," that is, the letter of the law (elsewhere called the elements) killeth, in other words does not promise eternal life. Col. ii. 14. "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us." Thus the imperfection of the law was manifested in the person of Moses himself; for Moses, who was a type of the law, could not bring the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, that 1s, into eternal rest; but an entrance was given to them under Joshua, or Jesus.5 Hence Peter testifies that eternal salvation Therefore shall not Moses, though of God Highly beloved, being but the minister

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Of law, his people into Canaan lead;

was through Christ alone under the law, equally as under the gospel, although he was not then revealed: Acts xv. 10, 11. why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? but we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they." Heb. xiii. 8. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day and for ever.” For although, under the law, as many as were able to keep all the commandments were justified, the promise extended only to happiness in this life: Deut. vi. 24, 25. "Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, &c. .... and it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments." But what neither the law itself nor the observers of the law could attain, faith in God through Christ has attained, and that even to eternal life.

CHAP. XXVII.-OF THE GOSPEL AND CHRISTIAN ́LIBERTY. THE GOSPEL is THE NEW DISPENSATION OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE, FAR MORE EXCELLENT AND PERFECT THAN THE LAW, ANNOUNCED FIRST OBSCURELY BY MOSES AND THE PROPHETS, AFTERWARDS IN THE CLEAREST TERMS BY CHRIS HIMSELF, AND HIS APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS, WRITTEN SINCE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE HEARTS OF BELIEVERS,' AND ORDAINED TO CONTINUE EVEN TO THE END OF THE

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But Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call,
His name and office bearing, who shall quell
The adversary serpent, and bring back

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Through the world's wilderness long-wandered man
Safe to the eternal Paradise of rest.

Paradise Lost, XII. 307.

.Thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise

The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon

Plainlier shall be revealed. 149.

The Woman's seed, obscurely then foretold,

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Now amplier known thy Saviour and thy Lord. 543.

He to his own a Comforter shall send,

The Promise of the Father, who shall dwell

His Spirit within them, and the law of faith

Working through love, upon their hearts shall write. 186.