Thus though the Law in itself was good, furnished an excellent rule of life, which in its proper tendency would enlighten the understanding, and convert the foul; yet its very excellence might be urged as a reason why it was defective, as it was too perfect for man to observe, and yet fupplied no relief for his deficiencies, no pardon for his faults; it gave therefore no real confolation in the prefent life, because offering no well-founded trust in a better. In itself confidered, it was confequently weak and unprofitable, and could never make the comers thereunto perfect'. It was weak through the flesh, the carnal defires and natural inclinations of men, which too frequently would precipitate them into fin, regardless of the prohibitions of the legal commandments. The lufts of the flesh they would follow; fo that fin would even reign in their mortal bodies", ufurp a dominion there, luft against the fpirit, and war against the foul. And however good men were pre · See Pfal. xix. 7, 8. u Rom. vi. 12. y 1 Pet. ii. II. t Heb. x. I. * Gal. v. 17. vented from ruinous exceffes, and recalled to the knowledge and pursuit of their duty, yet they were not indebted for their recovery to the terms of the Law, but to that faith, which always influenced the lives of the juft", and which supplied the defects of the Law, by carrying on their views to the bleffed hope of the Gospel. a It is this bleffed hope, which alone can truly restore the human nature, fo as to enable us to perform the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. What the Law of Mofes could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, the law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus enables us to execute. Christ bath redeemed us from the legal inability, and the curfe of the Law, being made a curse for us. For this end God fent his own Son in the likeness of finful flesh, clothed with a mortal body, which became fuch from the taint of original imperfection, yet free himself from z Hab. ii. 4. Rom i. 17. Gal. iii. 11. a Rom. viii. 2. b Gal. iii. 13. all all defilement; so that for fin, or by his being made a facrifice for fin, he condemned fin in the flesh. The body of Christ was subjected to that punishment of death, which was the just wages of fin; and which he underwent, that he might fuffer the condemnation due to finners, and thereby make an atonement for the fins of the world, might redeem us from the guilt of fin, and de For fin. The word aμapria, Sin, is often used in the Old Teftament for a facrifice for fin; as in Lev. iv. 3. v. 6, 7. viii. 2, 14. Pfal. xl. 7. It is not unlike the Hebrew M, which denotes Sin, and the punishment of it, as well as the purification from it. Nothing is more ufual, as Dr. Hammond obferves, than this fenfe of the word, both in the LXX. and the Chaldee paraphrafe. The expreffion papaptias is ufed in like manner in the New Teftament, for an offering or facrifice for fin, as in Heb. x. 6. xiii. 1I. And in the inftance before us, Chrift being appointed meg apagrias means, his being made an offering for fin, or a propitiatory facrifice; whereby he took away the condemning power of Sin. "Sicut "hoftias, quæ pro peccato offerebantur in lege, peccati no"mine vocabant; fic et Chrifti caro, quæ pro peccatis noftris "oblata eft, peccati nomen accepit." Hieron. There is an expreffion of a fingular nature in Hof. iv. 8. They eat the fin, or fins, of my people.. The word in the He. The allufion is to the brew is ПND, and in LXX. aμagrias. priests eating the victims that were offered for fin; and the meaning of the paffage feems to be, that they encouraged and partook of the iniquity, in order to gratify their avarice. feat feat its influence. Hence we are reconciled unto God by the death of his Son; and we confequently joy in God through our Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom we have now received the atonement. For the Law, or the strict rule, was given by Mofes, but grace and truth came by Jefus Chrift. And if righteousness be by the Law, or we can ftill be justified by the mere obfervances of any Law, then Chrift is dead in vain. The design of the prior revelations was to ufher in the Gofpel, and the end of the Law for righteousness is Chrift. The antient Scriptures have concluded all under Sin", under the dominion as well as the guilt of it: and it feems to have been a manifeft intention of the old Law, to difcover to us its inability to deliver us from the ruins of fin, that the promife by the faith of Jesus Christ might be a more valuable gift to them that believe. e John i. 17. d Rom. v. 10, 11. Rom. X. 4. Gal. iii. 22. The The law or religion of nature, we have before seen, was unable to rescue us from the miferies introduced into the world by the venom of this malignant evil; nor can the Law of Mofes, however juft and good in its institutes, fupply this deficiency. So that from the view of things in their naked conftitution, or even aided and ftrengthened by the earlier manifeftations of God's will, there is no redrefs for fin, no deliverance from death; but rather an aggravation of our offences, and of course a fearful looking for of judgement, till we come down to the terms of the new covenant, to the beneficial influences of the religion of Chrift. And thus the expediency, at leaft, of our redemption will be demonftrated, as there was no knowledge of pardon, of juftification, or of falvation to be obtained without it. All which bleffings, and indeed all the best comforts in the prefent life, as well as hopes in a future one, were made known to us by the Gofpel. It is then a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Chrift Jefus came into the world |