IT2 TAE DIFFERV CL BETWEEN THE [Disc. m.' transcript of the holy name of God ; it is hay, just, and good; Rom. vii 1:Q. and it would have been a great ho nour put on the law, if it could have recovered a sinful ruined creation. If fallen man could have performed this law, and an- swered the demands of it, here had been a glorious dis- play of all the wisdom and majesty, goodness and holi- ness, which first made the law of Cod, exemplified in the recovery of a poor, fallen, perishing creature by this lttw of his. But this could not be. The law was weak,,, and insufficient for this purpose, through the flesh, i. e. through the weaknessof fallen man. 3. If the lave could have given life, righteousness should have been appointed and obtained for fallen man by it; because God would never have been at the ex- pence of a gospel, if there had been no need of it, to recover fallen man, and to do that which the law could do. God does not lay out his thoughts or counsels, nor his riches of grace, in needless things, or in useless con- trivances. Now if the law would have attained this end, viz. the justification and salvation of man, then the gos- pel had been needless: then all these glorious riches of grace, and these counsels of wisdom, and mysteries of mercy, had been in vain. Surely if the law could have done this work, the blessed God would never have sent his own Sonout of his bosom, upon such a long journey to this sinful province of his dominion, to this lower world, to take flesh and blood upon him, and to be exposed to sufferings and labours, reproaches and shame, pain and anguish, and death ; if the law could have done the work of the salvation of tnan without it. God hath more value for the peace, and honour, and life of his Son, than to expose it at this rate; but it is plain from scripture, that the Son of God was sent into the world to do " that which the law could not do;" Rom. viii. 3. These treasures of wisdom and goodness, these riches of grace, which appear in the gospel, were all laid out to save a ruined creature, whom the law could not save; otherwise Christ "died in vain," so the apostle saith expressly Gal. ii. 1. Observ. III. No law could give life and salvation to poor fallen man. Here kt it be considered, that all laws are either
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