!IiÒ THE DTFEERENCE EETVVEEN THE CDISC.' TI:ft of the lyre; to do them. The law could have given life indeed to Adam, ifhe had continued to obey it ; and the law could give life still, if men were perfectly innocent, and perfectly obedient ; for the law, is not weak in itself, or unable, to give life, but only through the infirmity of our flesh, to fulfil the law ever since the fall ofAdam, by whom sin entered into our natures and death entered into the world by sin : Rom. viii. 3, 4. What the law could not do, in that it was `Weak (not in itself, but) through theflesh, God sending his own Son in the like- ness of sinful flesh, and (as a sacrifice) for sin, con- demned sin in theflesh ; that the righteousness of the lawmight befulfilled in us, who walk not after theflesh, but after the spirit. Answ. 2. The Jewish lawwas brought in to shew how transgressions abounded; Rom. v. 20. Gal. iii. 19. The law entered that sin might abound, or might appear to abound, for by the law is the knowledge of sin; Rom. iii. 20. Object. 2. Were none of the Jews saved, towhom the law of Sinai was given, and who were under this law Were not all of them condemned by it ? Answ. Yes, they were all condemned by this law in the sight of God, considered as the Lord of souls or consciences; for they had all broke it in several in- stances : Nor could the services there required " purify their consciences Heb. ix. 9. But several of them were saved by the promise to Abraham, i. e. by the gos- pel, which was contained in the five books of Moses, and was often intermingled with the declarations of the law : the promise to Abraham, or the gospel, was not annulled but continued, established and ratified by the revelation of Moses ;. Gal. iii. 17. The law which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul it, that it should make the promise of none effect. And Rom. iii. 21. The righteousness offaith, or justification of the gospel. as witnessed by the law and the prophets. So Abraham was saved so David by the grace of God in the covenant of promise ;, Rom. iv. 3, 6. But not -by the works of the law ; for by the works of the law shall noflesh (no man living was or could) bejustified ; Rom. iii. 20. Gal. ii. 16. Let us now recollect the explication of the words, law
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