2O8 THE LAW AND THEOOSPEL. Abraham was made a child ofGod by trusting in the ancient pro- mise, so we are made the children of Godbyfaith, or trusting in Jesus Christ', the Messiah ; Gal. iii. 26. Having explained the words so particularly, I come to lay down these observations : I. Observ. There is aconstant andhappy harmony between the several revelations of God to men. The promise to Abra- ham, or the gospel proposed and preached to him, is notcontrary to the law given by Moses to the Jews. The law Signifies the precepts of God revealed or discovered tomen, more particularly to the Jews. The gospel isthe promise ofthe special blessings of God re- vealed or discovered tomen, particularlyto Abraham of old, and to us in a plainer manner, in these latter days. Here I shall shew, in the first place, that the law and the gospel, i. e. the precept and the promise, cannot contra- dict one another; for they both run through all the different dispensations that ever God gave to the children of men since the fall. Secondly, The law and gospel do not contradict one another, for they are two diffèrent discoveries of the mind and will of God, made to men for very different purposes. The law, since the fall of Adam, was given for the disco- very or conviction ofsin, and to shew men not only their duty, but also how exceeding sinful their natures are, and how unable they are to fulfil their duties perfectly ; and therefore to lay them under a sense of guilt and condemnation. The promise, or gos- pel, was given for the relief of guilty man, whom the law had condemned, and to provide a righteousness, or justification, and life for them, who, according to the law, had a sentence ofdeath passed upon them. Therefore the law is called the ministration ofcondemnation and death, and thegospel the ministration of the spirit and righteousness,,or ofjustfcation and eternal life; 2'Cor. hi. 7, 8, 9. I confess, if the law had been given for the same end as the gospel, if the law had been given for man ruined and sinful, to obtain life and salvation by it as well as the gospel, then they might have been supposed to contradict 'one ano- ther, and the objection in my text had stood firm, and we could not have easily and fairly answeredit ; but since they are given for different purposes, they are but diffèrent revelations of God, which are made happily subordinate one to another, and their different ends and designs are both obtained The law con- vinces and condemns sinners, and the gospel relieves and pardons them, justifies and saves them. See Rom. iii. 20-22, &c. Gal. iii. 10-14: Object. 1. But doth not St. Paul himself say, that the law was ordained forlife I Rom. vii. 10.
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