times, the honour and glory which is his due. Nor could they heartily approve of it, that the least contempt by them cast upon the DEITY, should expose them to his everlasting displeasure; unless they saw the infinite evil of such a crime resulting from God's being infinitely worthy to be loved with all the heart, and obeyed in every thing. Nor could they heartily take all the blame to themselves, notwithstanding their inability to yield perfect obedience; unless they felt that their inability did not lessen their blame. Nor could they reconcile the eternal torments of hell, threatened by their law, to the infinite wisdom and goodness of the supreme governor, unless they saw that sin deserved so great a punishment; that it is a wise and good thing for the supreme governor of the world to punish those that treat him with contempt, according to their deserts; that this honour and respect, herein shown to the DEITY, is due to his sacred majesty, and is needful to establish his authority, and secure the honour of his government.

But let a Jew have these views, and an answerable frame of heart; even such a supreme respect to the Deity, and regard for his honour, as in the nature of the thing is absolutely necessary to reconcile him to the law, and induce him heartily to approve of it, and he would at the same time be disposed to approve of, and comply with the Gospel. If the law, although a ministration of death, appeared glorious to the Jew, as being suited to exalt God, to secure to him his just rights, to maintain the honour of his government and authority, to deter from every instance of rebellion; much more would the Gospel appear glorious, as being suited, not only to answer these ends to the best purpose, but being also, at the same time, a ministration of life. If it appeared glorious to the Jew that these ends should be answered, although by the eternal damnation of the sinner, much more glorious would it appear, if these ends could be all answered, and yet the sinner eternally saved. If therefore he approved of the law, he would be even ravished with the gospel; which not only exalts God, and discountenances sin, but also humbles and saves the sinner, and glorifies grace, as it is written, "the letter killeth;" i. e. "the law dooms the sinner to eternal

death :" "but the Spirit giveth life;" i. e. the Gospel gives eternal life to the sinner. Now therefore, "if the ministration of death was glorious," as indeed it was, "the glory of Moses' countenance," being a visible emblem of it; "shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? If the ministration of condemnation be GLORY, much more doth the ministration of righteousness," and justification unto life, "exceed in GLORY ?"

7. And the Jew being used to see bulls and goats brought to the tabernacle, and presented before the Lord, and substituted to die in the room of the transgressor of the law; and having often himself brought a bullock or a goat before the Lord, and laid his hands upon the head of the animal, that it might die in his room, and make atonement for his sin; I say, the Jew being thus used to see that which was without spot or blemish substituted to die for the guilty, and this method of atonement having grown familiar by long custom, he would be prepared to understand the Gospel, and to take in the idea which it exhibited of the death of Christ, on whom the iniquities of us all were laid, and who died the just for the unjust, being brought as the bullock of old, and set forth to be a propitiation for sin, that by faith in his blood we might be justified, himself being made a curse for us, that the blessing of Abraham might come on usi.

And the Jew, on the great day of atonement, from year to year, all his life long, having been used to see the high-priest dressed in his holy robes, with the names of the children of Israel upon his heart, and holiness to the Lord written in his forehead, enter the tabernacle, to go into the most holy place, into the immediate presence of God, with the blood of atonement in his hand *, would be hereby prepared understandingly to behold our great HIGH-PRIEST, CHRIST JESUS, with his own blood, enter into heaven, there to appear in the presence of God for us. And thus the law was, in its whole constitution, wisely framed, and suited to be a school-master

e 2 Cor. iii. 6-9.
h Rom. iii. 25.

¡ Heb. ix.

f Isai. liii. 6.

i Gal. iii. 13, 14.

g 1 Pet. iii. 18.
k Exod. xxviii. Lev. xvi.

to bring the Jew to Christ, that he might be justified by faith m

And thus we have gone through what was proposed, have considered the occasion of the words, viewed the character of the persons the apostle had to deal with, seen how these words were introduced in the thread of the apostle's argument, and particularly considered what ground there was in the nature and constitution of the Mosaic dispensation for this observation, from all which the exact sense of the words may be clearly determined.

And that which may, if need be, still further confirm us in it, that we have entered into the apostle's very sentiments in this point, is that this sense of the text seems exactly to harmonize with St. Paul's own experience in the case. For he was born a Jew, and educated a Pharisee, and was once very zealous in the scheme he is now confuting, and now and then in his Epistles he drops a hint, or rather plainly declares, how he himself was brought off from the Pharisaical scheme of justification, to an entire dependence on Christ Jesus for salvation. While he was a Pharisee, he had the same superficial, indistinct, and confused notion of the law, as the rest of that sect had; as a rule to which, if he conformed his life, he should enjoy the favour of God, and eternal happiness. Not once imagining, that it required sinless perfection on pain of eternal damnation. "No; so far from it, that I not only thought I could, but thought I actually did, live up to what the law required. For as touching the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless, for I was then without the law, without any knowledge, or sense of its true meaning. And this was the reason my sinfulness was by me unobserved. For in those days, I saw little, or no corruption

m OBJ. Under the Jewish dispensation "the priest made atonement for sin by sacrificing a beast, ONLY as that was a sign and testimony of the sacrificer's pure and upright heart." Taylor on Atonement, page 22. "Nor would they be finally saved but by their own obedience." p. 114.

ANS. Then the law was not a school-master to bring them to Christ, that they might be justified by faith, as St. Paul affirms. But rather a school-master to bring them to their own righteousness, that they might be justified by that. It was adapted to train them up in a self-righteous temper, and effectually to prepare them to reject the great atonement of Christ. Rom. x. S.

in my heart; and what I did see, did not terrify me. I apprehended no danger. For while I was without the law sin was dead. And now in these days I was an enemy to Christianity, and persecuted it, and did all I could to suppress it. For I was alive without the law at that time, confident of my own goodness, and of God's favour, and in high expectations of eternal life upon the foot of my own virtue, ignorant of God, and of his law, and of my own heart. But when the commandment, as requiring sinless perfection on pain of eternal damnation, came into view, and was set home upon my heart and conscience by the spirit of God, my fancied goodness began to appear as dung, a heap of filth, and sin revived, even all the wickedness of my heart and life rose up into clear view, and stared me in the face; and I immediately felt myself under the curse, and expected to have it executed in a moment. I stood guilty before God: I was shut up under sin; I saw no way to escape; my heart failed me; I died; I felt I was a dead man, a lost man, by law; and I gave up all hopes of ever obtaining life this way. The law which was ordained to life, and by which I thought life was to be obtained, I found to be unto death. It slew me. It killed all my false religion, and all my selfrighteous hopes, and made me for ever despair of obtaining life by my own goodness. And my mouth was stopped; I had nothing to say, because I saw the law was holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. And thus 1 through the law became dead to the law. But ever since that solemn hour, when Jesus Christ, and the way of salvation by free grace through him was revealed in me, I have sought to be found in Christ, and expected to be justified by faith without the deeds of the law. And in a word, all my hopes and expectations are so entirely built on Christ, that I may truly say, that the life I live in the flesh, is by faith on the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." So St. Paul experienced, and so he believed, and so he preached, and so he wrote in all his Epistles. See Rom. iii. 19, 20. And Chap. vii. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Gal. i. 18-16. And Chap. ii. 16. 19, 20. Phil. iii. 3-9 ".

n Perhaps, by this time, some readers may begin to pause, and reason within

And now there is but one thing more that needs to be observed, in order to our full understanding of the apostle's reasonings upon this subject, and to prepare the way to apply all that has been said to us, who are not Jews, who were not Jews, who were never under Moses' law, but are by nature Gentiles, viz.

That the law given at Mount Sinai, as to its moral preeepts, was nothing more than a new and plainer edition and republication of the law of nature, which had been in force from the beginning of the world, and was equally binding to all nations, and in all ages. To love God with all the heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, being equally the duty of the Gentiles as of Jews; and the least sin exposing Gentile as well as Jew to the everlasting wrath of God.

All this is implied in Rom. i. 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. He means, be they Jews or Gentiles, as is plain themselves, and say,-" How can these things be? I never experienced any such thing. And there are many good men I know of, who never did. Nor do they think it necessary: but think as I do, that if men are sincere in the service of God, they will be saved at last. And it must be so: for neither Abraham nor David were perfect. And there is no man that liveth and sinneth not.”

ANS. 1. However sincere a man may be, in what he calls religion; yet he cannot possibly be sincere in the service of God, properly speaking, until after he has been brought to this right understanding of the law, and to this hearty approbation of it.—He must have this right understanding of the law, or he does not so much as know what the law of God is, or what God would have him do : and therefore he cannot so much as desire to do it; or exercise any kind of sincerity about it.—And if he has this right understanding of the law, he must also approve of it; or he is so far from sincerity in God's service, that he is an enemy to God. He to whom the law, although a ministration of death, does not appcar glorious, in all its rigour; to him, God himself does not appear glorious. For the law is but a transcript of the divine nature. It is the very image of God's heart. Or, if any such imagine they love God, it is but a false image of God they have framed in their own fancy. For no man loves God, who does not love the law. He that is an enemy to the ONE, is to the OTHER. Rom. viii. 7. And there is nothing in the religion of such men that pleases God. Rom. viii. 8. 2. And if a man is brought rightly to understand, and heartily approve of the law, it will effectually kill a self-righteous spirit, and bring him to Christ, to be justified by faith. So Abraham and David were justified, and all other good men. Therefore be not deceived with vain words. But perhaps you will say, (for the sinner dreads to be shut up under sin, and shut up to the faith,) "We never were under the law of Moses, and so all this is nothing to us."-Well, this comes next to be considered. To the law, and to the testimony let us go.