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wholly wanting, or very obfcurely revealed under this difpenfation.

And this infufficiency of the Jewish difpenfation, both to our juftification and fanctification, to the reconciling of us to God, and the making of us really good, the Apostle frequently inculcates in the New Teftament; St. Paul Acts xiii. 38, 39. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of fins, and by him all that believe are justified from all thofe things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Mofes; and Rom. viii. 3. What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh; that is, by reafon of the carnality of that difpenfation, confisting in the purification of the body, Gal. iii. 21. he calls it a law unfit to give life; If there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness had been by the law. And the Apoftle to the Hebrews, chap. viii. 6, 7, 8, &c. finds fault with the difpenfation of the law, for the lowness and meanness of its promifes, being only of temporal good things; and for want of conferring an inward and a powerful principle to enable men to obedience; but now hath he obtained (fpeaking of Chrift) a more excellent miniftry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promifes; for if that firft covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been fought for a second; and this fecond and better covenant he tells us, was foretold by the Prophets of the Old Teftament; for finding fault with them, he faith, Behald the days come, faith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Ifrael, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers. For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Ifrael after those days, faith the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts. And chap. x. 1.4. he thews the inefficacy of their facrifices for the real expiation of fin, the law having but a shadow of good things to come, and not the lively reprefentation of the things themselves, can never with thofe facrifices which

they

they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect; for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats fhould take away fins.

I fhould now have proceeded to the third particu lar; namely, that the Chriftian religion hath fupplied all the defects and weakness and imperfection of the Jewish difpenfation; but that I fhall not now enter upon, but make one plain inference from the fubftance of what I have already difcourfed upon this argument.

If our Saviour came not to diffolve and loosen the obligation of moral duties, but to confirm and establish it, and to enforce and bind the practice of thefe duties more ftrongly upon us, then they do widely and wilfully mistake the defign of Chriftianity, who teach that it dischargeth men from the obligation of the moral law, which is the fundamental and avowed principle of the Antinomian doctrine, but directly contrary to this declaration of our Saviour in the text, that he came not to destroy the law and the Prophets, but to perfect and fulfil them; (for to take away the obligation of a law, is plainly to deftroy and make it void;) and contrary to the Apoftle's foJemn refolution of this matter, Rom. iii. 31. Do we then make void the law through faith? that is, doth the gofpel deftroy and take away the obligation of the law God forbid, yea we establish the law; the Chriftian religion is fo far from defigning or doing any fuch thing, that it gives new ftrength and force to it.

But furely they that teach this doctrine, did never duly confider that terrible threatening of our Saviour after the text, which feems to be fo directly levelled at them; Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and' fhall teach men fo, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; for how can men more effectually teach the violation, not only of the leaft, but of the greateft of God's commandments, than by declaring that the gospel hath fet men free from the obligation of the moral law which is in effect to fay, that Chriftians may act contrary to all the duties of morality, that is, da the most impi-ous things in the world, without any offence against God,

God, and notwithstanding this, continue to be his children, and highly in the favour of God.

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And all the fecurity they have against this impious confequence, is that weak and slender pretence, that gratitude and love to God will preferve them from making this ill ufe of the grace of the gospel, and oblige them to abstain from fin, and to endeavour to please God as much as any law could "do." But then they do not confider the nonsense of this; for there can be no fuch thing as fin, if the obligation of the law be taken away, for where there is no law, there can be no tranfgreffion, as the Apostle and common reafon likewise tells us; fo that the law being removed and taken away, all actions become indifferent, and one thing is not more a fin or of fence against God than another. And what then is it they mean that gratitude will oblige men to, or preferve them from when there can be no fuch thing as fin or duty, as pleasing or offending God, if there be no law to oblige us to the one, or restrain us from the other.

And what is, if this be not, to turn the grace of God into wantonness, and to make Chriftian liberty a cloak for all forts of fins? A man cannot do a greater defpite to the Chriftian religion, nor take a more effectual courfe to bring it into contempt, and to make it to be hiffed out of the world, than to reprefent it as a lewd and licentious doctrine, which gives men a perfect discharge from all the duties of morality, and obligeth them only to believe confidently, that Chrift hath purchased for them a liberty to do what they will, and that upon thofe terms, and no other, they are fecured of the favour of God in this world, and eternal falvation in the other. This is the fum and the plain refult of the Antinomian doctrine, the most pernicious herefy, and moft directly deftructive of the great end and defign of Chritianity, that ever yet was broached in the world. But ye have not fo learned Chrift, if fo be ye have beard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jefus, that ye put off concerning your former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt ac cording

cording to the deceitful lusts, and that ye be renew. ed in the fpirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness, and true holiness.

SERMON CV.

Christianity doth not deftroy, but perfect the law of Mofes.

MATTH. V. 17.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the Prophets. I am not come to deftroy, but to fulfil.

I

The fecond fermon on this text.

Have confidered this faying of our Saviour's with refpect to the moral law, and thofe precepts which are of natural and perpetual force, and that our Saviour did not come either to diffolve or loofen the obligation of them; for the illuftration of which, I propounded to clear thefe three points.

First, That the main and ultimate design of the law and the Prophets, was to engage men to the practice of moral duties, that is, of real and fubftantial goodnefs.

Secondly, That the law of Mofes, or the difpenfation of the Jewish religion, was comparatively very weak, and infufficient to make men truly good, and ineffectual to promote inward and real righteousness. These two points I have spoken to. I fhall now

proceed to the

Third, namely, That the Chriftian religion doth fupply all the defects and weakneffes and imperfections of the Jewish difpenfation.

The Jewish religion had very confiderable advantages above the mere light of nature, which was all that the heathen world had to conduct them towards eternal happiness; the Jews had the knowledge of

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the one true God, and very signal and particular teftimonies of the divine Providence, which did naturally tend to beget in them good hopes of a future life, and the rewards of another world, they had the natural law revealed, and the main precepts of it written with God's own hand, and by Mofes delivered to them; by which means they had a more certain and diftinct knowledge of their duty: they had Prophets frequently fent to them, to admonish them of their duty, and to exhort them to repentance, and to warn them of approaching judgments: They had good encouragement given to hope for the pardon of fin, by God's appointment of feveral ways of expiation; which how unlikely foever they were to be available to the effectual expiation of fin, yet they did fignify that the divine nature was placable, and did feem to figure fome more effectual way, defign, ed by God for that purpose, that fhould be exhibited in due time. And finally they had most exprefs promifes and threatenings of temporal bleffings and judg ments, to encourage them in their obedience, and to deter them from the tranfgreffion of God's laws. These advantages the Jews plainly had above the rest of the world, God did not deal fo with other nations, neither had the Heathen fuch a knowledge of God's laws.

But notwithstanding this, the Jewish religion was very fhort and defective, very weak and ineffectual to the great end of righteoufnefs and true holiness, and to raise men to that perfection of goodness, of which human nature, through the grace of God, is capable; and therefore there wanted a more perfect inftitution, to fupply the defects and weakness, and imperfection even of that divine revelation which God had made to the Jews, and really to effect and accomplish that which the Jewish religion attempted and aimed at, and was but, as I may fay, rudely begun under that imperfect inftitution. And this the GoIpel, or the Chriftian religion revealed by our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift hath fully effected,. as will evidently appear by a particular furvey, and confideration of the main defects of the Jewish religion,

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