I

is Chrift. 17. And this I fay, that the covenant. that was confirmed before of God in Chrift, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. 18. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promife: but God gave it to Abraham by promife.

Had occafion to obferve, from the ac

count the Apostle gives of Abraham, and those who were his children by faith, that from the first promise made upon the entrance of fin, and the revelation of the conftitution of grace, there was established one uniform order, in which, and in which only, any of the finners of mankind could be fuftained as righteous; or, which is the fame thing, have a right to eternal life, in the righteous judgement of God. But by what he had faid of the curfe, under which the law bound all the tranfgreffors of it in any the leaft point, it might have been deemed impoffible that any one could be faved. The import of the curfe was death; and that puts an end to life: thence it must be concluded, as we find the appointment runs, that all men muft die. And in this fentence the Gentiles, though they had

no

no pofitive law inferring it, were as deeply concerned as the Jews. So that to every created understanding, the total deftruction of the human race must have appeared abfolutely inevitable.

But what is impoffible with man, and appears fo to every creature, is quite eafy with God. The interpofal of the promifed feed folves all difficulties; and the Apoftle gives it in one fhort fentence, 1 Cor. XV. 21. "As by man came death, by man

came alfo the refurrection of the dead;" the fame which he here fets before us, Chrift hath redeemed us from the curfe of the law. And never did the weaknefs and perverfeness of human wifdom appear in a ftronger light, than in the almost numberlefs queftions and controverfies that have been raised on this important fubject, on which all the hopes of mankind, for time and eternity, must be founded. We are indeed directed" to contend

earneftly for the faith once delivered to "the faints;" but we must be fure firft, that what we contend for is this fame faith, and not our own interpolations and additions to it. The faith in this grand article is fo fully, and fo plainly, deliver

VOL. III.

C c

ed

ed in the record we have of it, that no fober Christian needs to give himself any trouble about what learned men have faid upon it; which one may fay with confidence has contributed greatly more to involve and darken, than to give any further light into the truth as it is in Jefus.

us.

The Apostle informs us here, that Christ has redeemed us from the curfe of the law; and alfo tells us how he did it, viz. by being made a curfe for us; or, literally, he bought us up out of, or from under, the curfe of the law. The original curfe struck at all the life which Adam had; and especially that which he conveys to That doom is fixed and irreversible; and we find it fo in fact. When Christ then is faid to redeem, or buy up, his people from under the curfe of the law, it cannot be understood to mean, that he defigned by it, either to fave them from dying, or to restore them to that paradifiacal life which the curfe destroyed; but that he delivers them out of that state of death which the curfe had brought them into; and which is done, by putting them in poffeffion of an incomparably higher and better life, conveyed by the

free

free fovereign gift and grant of the only proprietor of it.

ny

"But it became him, by whom, and "for whom, all things are, in bringing mafons unto glory, to make the Captain "of their falvation, their Redeemer, per"fect through fufferings." Sin must be condemned and deftroyed; and that cannot be done but by the deftruction of the finner., Death does that effectually. But it was neceffary, that either the finner fhould be held under death, or that fin fhould be condemned in a more folemn manner. This was fhadowed first in the Old-Teftament facrifices, and the grant of forgiveness annexed to them. But when the ever-bleffed Son of God condefcended to take upon himself the character of a priestinterceffor, and offered himself a facrifice for fin, laid down his life, gave it a ransom for the lives and fouls of finners, or, to fay all in one word, was made a curse for them, it became a juft and a righteous thing with God to forgive the finner, and to raife him up to everlasting life. The grant was cleared of the burden that lay upon it, and carries a full and perfect right

CC 2

right to life to every man who will confent to hold it by this new tenure.

These are plain things; and will yet be more fo, if we carry along what our Lord told his difciples, of the Father appointing or making a grant of the kingdom to him; and compare what he fays to his Father, John xvii. of his finishing the work which was given him to do, with the account the Apostle John gives of the teftimony of God concerning his Son, 1 John v. 11. But thefe we do not ftand on here: what I mention them for is, to fettle the grand point, "That all things

66

are of God," and take their rife in his eternal counfels, and unchangeable purpo

fes. And if we will take our Lord's word for it, and the joint teftimony of all his apoftles, the whole proceeded from, and was defigned to prove and commend the aftonishing love of God, and his everbleffed Son, his perfect image in all refpects, and efpecially that of his love; fuch love as proves him to be effential love: "God fo loved the world," John iii. 16.; "God commendeth his love to us," Rom. v. 8.; "Herein is love," 1 John iv. 10, And the proof of all is no other than this,