SUNDAY XI.

CHAP. XI.

The several Uses of the Law,

ONE obvious and excellent use, is, to serve as a complete unchangeable standard of right and wrong. Whilst man possessed the glory he received from his Maker, a law engraven on tables of stone was needless, because the graces of his soul were a living copy of the law. As face answereth to face in the water, so did Adam's unsullied mind to the will of God. But with fallen man the case is entirely reversed. Instead of innate knowledge of truth, man, if left to himself, must labour by slow and multiplied deductions to know but a small part of his duty. His understanding is so defective in determining what is right and wrong, that things utterly detestable in our judgment, who have the pure light of the law, were practised and approved, without one dissenting voice, in nations most famous for knowledge and arts. A palpable proof, that man has no light in himself to find out a rule of life, which ought to be trusted. It is one grand design of the law from mount Sinai to supply this want; to deliver man from fallacious reasonings about duty; to demand his obedience to a rule of action complete, though short; and which, by virtue of its Author, equally excludes all doubt and all debate.

Another perpetual use of the law is to deter, by its tremendous curse, those persons from sinning against God, who disregard more generous motives. It represents the thunderbolt of divine indignation, as lifted up and ready to fall upon presumptuous

the

offender. It brings men under dread of a Judge, who "will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation," whilst he keeps "mercy for thousands of them that love him, and keep his Commandments."

Now, though it must be confessed, the inclinations of the heart, when restrained by terrors, remain evil as before, yet much mischief, which would follow from indulging them, is prevented. Thousands who abhor no kind of villany, yet dare not disturb the peace of society by acts of violence, through fear of death. And ten thousands are kept from excess in wickedness by the threatenings, which are the sanction of the law of God.

To serve as a standard of right and wrong, and to deter from transgression, are uses which the law of God has in common with human laws. Besides these ends, there are others, which it is designed perpetually to answer. Yet, so mortifying, alas! to human pride, that we are brought with great difficulty to allow them. The scripture teaches us, that the law was given, that every mouth might be stopped, and the whole world become guilty before God. It was given also to serve as a "schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth.”

It is plain, from the inspired apostle's arguing, that one principal design of the law was to confound all who trust in themselves as righteous, by fixing on them a conviction of sin, deserving and exposing to endless misery. For the apostle distinguishes the law of the Ten Commandments, from the ceremonial Jewish ones, by calling it the law written and After this distincengraven on two tables of stone. tion, he calls it the ministration of condemnation, because it binds over every man living to suffer as a criminal, unless a sacrifice and mediator is found to interpose and save, 2 Cor. iii. 9.

Lest we should forget or evade a single declaration of this useful but offensive truth, or think slightly of that condemnation the law brings upon every transgressor, it is called "The Ministration of Death;" it arraigns and convicts all men, and then pronounces sentence of death upon them. And, lest it should be doubted whether we are to understand by death the damnation of hell, or only the dissolution of the body, this law of the Ten Commandments is called "the strength of sin." That formidable power which binds over every unpardoned offender to answer for his sins, and transmits him, after judg. ment, to suffer the bitter pains of hell; that power is the law. And to decide the point, that the grand design of the law was to prove our ruined condition, without redemption by Christ, believers are exhorted to abound in thankfulness to God, for giving them victory over this insupportable accuser, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is celebrated as an inestimable benefactor to his church, "not because he taught us as never man did, or left us a perfect example to copy; not because he came to save all who trust on his arm from a seducing world, and the power of Satan. No, but mark with the utmost attention the gracious declaration, because "he hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," Gal. iii. 13.

Further, God has been pleased to use an admirable method for confirming the capital doctrines of his word, by recording an acknowledgment of their truth, from his most eminent saints. In this striking manner we are taught that the law of the Ten Commandments was given to convince men of their sinful state. St. Paul, by inspiration of God, is directed to relate his ignorance of this grand design of the law, and the change the knowledge of it produced in his mind. "I was alive," says he, "without the law

once:" I thought I was paying such an obedience to it, as, considering human infirmity, must upon the whole render me acceptable to God. "But when the Commandment came," when its meaning, no less than high authority, was understood by me, "sin revived," accused me with irresistible evidence of my guilt, "and I died;" all my hope of life and salvation from my obedience vanished. I felt myself a ruined sinner before the holy law of God. "And the Commandment which was ordained to life," originally designed to be a covenant of life upon perfect obedience, "I found to be unto death.” So far from justifying me, that it annulled every plea I confided in; set aside every method I used for my re. lief, and condemned me to death eternal.

Should it be said (for what will not men say, rather than confess all their misery and vileness?) that, in the passage above, the apostle speaks not in his own person, but in an assumed character: In answer, this apostle as strongly expresses the same truth in his epistle to the Galatians, speaking of himself, as was never doubted. "I, (says he) through the law, am dead to the law." Understanding now the extent of its demands, and the grand design for which it was ordained, not to justify but condemn every soul of man; I have done with all dependence upon it to acquit me from guilt, by any obedience I can pay, "I am dead to the law, that I might live unto God," by faith in his Son.

But as the spirit of God well knew there would appear in all ages learned men, highly conceited of their own goodness, who would confine these declarations to the Jewish ceremonial law, in order to leave room for self-exalting ideas of Christian obedience; to expose this false and pernicious construction, the apostle affirms such things of the law he means, as in no sense belong to the ceremonial law. For the

law he means, is given to stop every mouth, and bring in the whole world guilty before God. Whereas the ceremonial one will never condemn the Gentiles. He means a law which faith in Christ establishes, the same faith which abolished the Jewish law. To the law, he means, believing Romans were dead; but many of them in no degree ever submitted to the ceremonial one. The law he means, the man who obeys shall live," and if the uncircumeision keep the righteousness thereof, his uncircumcision shall be counted for circumcision." It is a law which is spiritual, whereas the Levitical law wholly consisted of carnal ordinances.

There is not one of these properties by which St. Paul distinguishes the law he means, which can with any truth be applied to the ceremonial one; therefore, the law of the Ten Commandments, and its grand end, conviction of sin, can only be intended in this epistle. And, after such various testimonies, what clearer scripture evidence can reasonably be demanded in proof of this doctrine?

Before I proceed to explain the other grand design of the law, viz. of bringing sinners to seek salvation by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it will be useful to make some observations upon the inexorable nature of the law, against which our pride and prejudice are ever ready to rise with great re

sentment.

You think it very hard, probably, that every reasonable creature of God should be under this law. But can less than perfect love, and its effect, perfect obedience, be due to our Maker? Suppose a law given, which would admit of imperfect obedience: it would then be impossible to determine what is sin, or what not; for sin is the transgression of the law. But if the law itself would be satisfied with sincerity of intention, or the best obedience a corrupted