( 165 .) DISCOURSE III. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. In several Sermons preached in Bury-street, December, 1'0.1. CAL. iii. 21, 22. Is the law then against the promises of God ? . God forbid ; For if there had beena law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law: But the scripture hath. conclude& all under sin, that the promise of faith by Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. HAVE long had a design to explain this text to you, because it seems to be a key, whereby we are let into the sense and meaning of this apostle, in his long and la- boured arguments about the law and gospel, in his epis- tles to the Romans and the Galatians, and in the con- stant distinction that he there observes between them. These Galatians, who were converted to the faith of Christ, had been closely beset by some zealous judaizing christians, who would fain have had them circumcised, and engaged to keep the Jewish law ; çhap. vi. 12, 13. The apostle, who well understood the liberty of the gos- pel, would not suffer them to be thus imposed upon z and therefore he argues, he allures, he threatens, hG denounces, he uses all the proper methods of an apostle, and a preacher of christianity, to establish them in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them fret, and to guard them against yielding a tittle of compliance with the Jewish ceremonies and bondage. He shews them, in this chapter, that the promise was given to Abraham, the great believer, with all the bles- sings of salvation contained in it, and to all those who imitate his faith, by trusting in the gospel of Christ; for they are the seed of Abraham ; ver. 8, 9. And the law curses and condemns sinners ; ver 10. but it does not, it cannot save them ; ver. 11. And that the law which came in four hundred years after the promise to Abraham, could not disannul the promise or make it of none effect. The question arises then in the 19th verse ;113
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