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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
been
a
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