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312

SERM.

XII.

SERMON

XII.

Christ born in the Ful-
nefs of Time.

GAL. IV. 4, 5.

When the Fulness of Time was
come, God fent forth his Son,
made of a Woman, made un-
der the Law; to redeem them
that were under the Law,
that we might receive the
Adoption of Sons.

TH

HE Defign of the Apoftle's Difcourfe in this Place is to convince the Galatians, that there was no Obligation upon Chriftians to obferve the Law of Mofes, To which End he

reafons

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Chrift born, &c.

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reafons thus. Under the Mofaic Dispen. fation the Church was in her Minority; but under the Gospel she is at full Age. Wherefore when the Gofpel came, the Levitical Law, which was calculated only for the Nonage of the Church, had no longer any Power over her. For as an Heir, while he is a Child, is under the Direction of Tutors and Governours, till the Time appointed by his Father's Will; but when that Time is come, enters upon the Eftate, and is no longer fubject to his former Governours: even fo the People of God, while they were Children, were in Bondage under the Elements of the World; i. e. were fubject to the Ordinances of the Levitical Law; but when God's appointed Time was expir'd, the Children of God were freed from their former Servitude by the coming of Chrift, entred upon the Poffeffion of thofe Bleffings which he purchased for them, and enjoy'd the Privileges of adult Sons. When the Fulness of Time was come, God fent forth his Son, made of a Woman, made under the Law;

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SERM.

XII.

to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the Adoption of Sons.

IN which Words there are these three Things confiderable.

I. THE Time of the Meffiah's com ing; when the Fulness of Time was

come.

2. A CHARACTER and Defcription of the Meffiah; He was the Son of God, made of a Woman, made under the Law. 3. THE End and Design of His coming; to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the Adoption of Sons.

Firft, THE Time of the Meffiah's coming; when the Fulness of Time was come; i. e. when the Time appointed by God, and prefix'd by the Prophets, was expired.

THREE remarkable Predictions there are in the Old Teftament, pointing out the Time of the Meffiah's coming. The firft, of the Patriarch Jacob; the fecond, of the Prophet Daniel; the third, of the Prophet Haggai.

THE

THE Prediction of Jacob is recorded by Moses in the XLIXth Chapter of Genefis, in thefe Words. The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his Feet, until Shiloh come. That by Shiloh is fignified the Meffiah, is acknowledg'd by the most antient Jewish Writers; who all agree, that the Meaning of these Words of Jacob is this. The Defcendants of Judah fhall not be difpoffefs'd of the Sovereign Power, nor cease to be governed by their own Laws, till the Meffiah fhall appear. Now about twelve Years after the Birth of our Saviour, it must be confefs'd that the Sceptre began to depart from Judah. For at that Time Judaa was made a Province of the Roman Empire; and the Power of Life and Death was taken from the Jews, and lodged in the Hands of the Roman Procurator. And within lefs than forty Years after our Lord's Crucifixion, the whole Jewish Polity was, together with their City, quite overthrown; and there hath been no Sceptre in Judah, nor any Lawgiver between his Feet ever

fince;

SERM.

XII.

SERM.

XII.

fince; but from that Time to this, the Jews have been difpers'd over the Face of the whole Earth, and fubjected to the Laws of the feveral Countries in which they fojourn.

IN the latter Part of the 1xth Chapter of the Book of the Prophet Daniel, the Angel Gabriel foretells the exact Time of our Bleffed Saviour's Death, when Tranfgreffion was to be finished, and an End was to be made of Sins, and Reconciliation for Iniquity, and everlasting Righteousness was to be brought in, and the Vision and Prophecy to be feal'd up, and the moft Holy to be anointed, and Meffiah was to be cut off, tho' not for himself. All which was to happen within feventy Weeks of Years from the Time of the going forth of the Commandment to reftore and to build Jerufalem. Now if from the Time of the going forth of this Commandment in the Reign of Artaxerxes, we count downwards four hundred and ninety Years, they will expire in the nineteenth Year of Tiberius the Roman Emperor; in

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