being dead wherein we were held; that we should ferve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. He fays again, Chrift is the End of the law. He Rom.x.4, tells the Galatians that by the works of the law no flesh fhall be juftified.

who bath bewitched them that

Gal. ii.

16.

And asks, iii. 1. 19. they should 24, &c.

not obey the truth? (that is, adhere to the Gospel, and abandon the Law.) And in cafe any Judaizing Chriftian, by way of Oppofition, should demand of him, wherefore then ferveth the law? To what end was it inftituted? He anfwers; It was added because of tranfgreffions, till the feed Should come, to whom the promife was 'made. He fays, Before faith came we were kept under the law, put up unto the faith which fhould afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Chrift; that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a school-mafter.

Again, he chides them feverely, for their Inclination to Judaize, or obferve the Ceremonies of the Law: Now, after that ye Gal. iv. bave known God, or rather are known of 9, 10, 11. God, bow turn ye again to the weak and

beggarly

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.

He tells the Ephefians, that tho' they Eph. ii. were once without CHRIST, being aliens. 13. 15. from the commonwealth of Ifrael, and strangers from the covenants of promife, 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

nances.

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

16. 14.

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.

He asks the Hebrews, If perfection were Heb. vii. by the Levitical priesthood, for under it 11, 18. the people received the law) what further need was there that another Prieft should rife (as David foretold there should) after the order of Melchifedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? A little after, he says, 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 house 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 band 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, new covenant, He hath made the firft old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away.

a

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 pres fent; in which were offered both gifts and facrifices, that could not make him, that did the fervice, perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which flood only in meats and drinks, and diverfe 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 Person of the Pfalmift, faying to God' the Father; In burnt-offerings and facri

ib. x. 6, &c.

6.

fices for fin, Thou hadst no pleasure: Then Pfalm xl. Said 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.

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 Ifa. ii. 4. ix. 6. him by the Prophets, he declares in his xỉ. I, Sermon upon the Mount, Whatfoever &c. to the 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. xii. That ye love one another. By this fhall all 34. men know that ye are my difciples, if ye

ye

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

"

9.