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beggarly elements, whereunto ye defire again to be in bondage? Ye obferve days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, left I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. However, at laft, he exhorts Gal. v. 1. them to ftand faft in the liberty wherewith CHRIST bad made them free, and not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Adding, I Paul fay unto you, that if ye be circumcifed, CHRIST fhall provi. 15. fit you nothing. For in CHRIST JESUS, neither circumcifion availeth anything, nor uncircumcifion, but a new creature.

Eph. ii.

He tells the Ephefians, that tho' they were once without CHRIST, being aliens 13. 15. from the commonwealth of Ifrael, and strangers from the covenants of promise, yet now they were made nigh, by the blood of CHRIST; who had broken down the middle wall of partition between them; having abolished, in his flesh, the enmity, even the law of commandments, contained in ordi

Col. ii.

16. 14.

nances.

He afferts the fame thing to the Coloffians. You being dead in your fins, and the uncircumcifion of your flesh, hath CHRIST quickened together with him, having for

given you all trefpaffes; blotting out the band-writing of ordinances that was against us, and took it out of the way. Let no man therefore judge you, in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or of the newmoon, or of the fabbath-days: which are a Shadow of things to come; but the body is CHRIST.

11, 18.

He asks the Hebrews, If perfection were Heb. vii. by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law) what further need was there that another Prieft should rife (as David foretold there fhould) after the order of Melchifedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? A little after, he fays, There is verily a difannulling of the commandment going before (the Levitical Law) for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect; but the bringing in of a better. hope did.

13.

Again, to evince the Truth of what he affirms, he produces the Prophecy of ib. viii. 8. Jeremiah; Behold the days come, faith the Jer. xxxi. LORD, when I will make a new covenant 31, &c. with the house of Ifrael, and with the houfe of Judah: not according to the covenant

that

Heb. ix.

that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For this is the covenant that I will make, &c. Then adds the Apostle; In that he faith, a new cové, nant, He hath made the firft old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away.

Again, after enumerating the Implements of the Tabernacle, and the Custom of the High-Prieft going once a Year, into the Holy of Holies, he infers that it was all wholly typical; The Holy Ghoft 8, &c. this fignifying, That the way into the Holieft of all, was not yet made manifeft, while as the first tabernacle was yet ftanding: which was a figure, for the time then prefent; in which were offered both gifts and facrifices, that could not make him, that did the fervice, perfect, as pertaining to the confcience; which flood only in meats and drinks, and diverse washings, and carnal ordinances, impofed on them until the time of reformation. But CHRIST being come, &c. And, to conclude, he introduces CHRIST, in the Perfon of the Pfalmift, faying to God the Father; In burnt-offerings and facri

ib. x. &c.

6,

6.

fices for fin, Thou hadst no pleasure: Then Pfalm xl. faid I, Lo I come, (in the *Volume of the Book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. Therefore, confequently, argues the Apostle, He taketh away the firft (Covenant) that he may establish the fecond.

SECT. XVII.

The New CoVENANT. Seeing now that the Ceremonial Law is actually abolish'd by the coming of CHRIST, let us proceed yet a little further to inquire, what it was that he inftituted, or fet up in the ftead thereof. And that, as I obferv'd before, was Univerfal Charity. For, to omit the feveral Inftances wherein this was foretold of Isa. ii. 4. him by the Prophets, he declares in his ix. 6. xi. 1, Sermon upon the Mount, Whatsoever &c. to the ye would that men should do unto you, Mat. vii. do ye even fo to them; For this is the 12. law and the prophets. He fays to his Difciples, A new commandment I give unto you, Joh. xiii. That ye love one another. By this fhall all 34. men know that ye are my difciples, if ye

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9.

*The Book of the Law, Deut, xviii. 15.

12.

Joh. xv. have love one to another. And again; This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

10.

The Apoftles, accordingly, give us to understand, that This was the * Sum total of what they had in Charge to teach Mankind. St. Paul writing to the RoRem. mans, fays, Owe no man any thing, but to xiii. 8. love one another; for be, that loveth another, bath fulfilled the law. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. He affures the GalaCal. v. 6. tians, that In CHRIST JESUS, neither circumcifion availeth any thing, nor uncircumcifion, but faith which worketh by love. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in This, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy felf.

14.

1 Tim. i.

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When he is directing Timothy to charge the Clergy who were left under his Infpection, that they fhould teach no other than the true doctrine, he fays; Now the end of the commandment is charity, out of

*N. B. This univerfal Love can never be rightly prac tis'd, as the Inftitution of JESUS CHRIST, but a man, at the fame time, must believe all the Articles of the Chriftian Faith.

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