now, further than the general equity thereof may require.7 SECTION V.-The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God, the Creator, who gave it." Neither doth Christ in the gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.10 Exod. xxi.; xxii. 1-29. Gen. xlix. 10. 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14. Matt. v. 17, 38, 39. 1 Cor. ix. 8-10. Rom. xiii. 8-10. Eph. vi. 2. 1 John ii. 3, 4, 7, 8. 9 James ii. 10, 11. 10 Matt. v. 17-19. James ii. 8. Rom. iii. 31. EXPOSITION. Besides the moral law, God gave to Israel ceremonial and judicial laws; the two latter are of limited and temporary use; the former is of universal and perpetual obligation. 1. The ceremonial law respected the Jews in their ecclesiastical capacity, or as a church, and prescribed the rites and carnal ordinances which were to be observed by them in the external worship of God. These ceremonies were chiefly designed to prefigure Christ, and lead them to the knowledge of the way of salvation through him. Heb. x. 1. This law is abrogated under the New Testament dispensation. This appears-1. From the nature of the law itself. It was given to the Jews to separate them from the idolatrous rites of other nations, and to preserve their religion uncorrupted. But when the gospel was preached to all nations, and Jews and Gentiles were gathered into one body, under Christ, their Head, the wall of separation was taken down. Eph. ii. 14, 15. 2. Because these ceremonies were only figures of good things to come, imposed upon the Jews until the time of reformation, and were abrogated by Christ, in whom they were realized and substantiated. Heb. ix. 9-12. 3. Because these ceremonies were given to the Israelites to typify and represent Christ and his death; and, since Christ has come, and has, by his death and satisfaction, accomplished all that they prefigured, these types must be abolished. Col. ii. 17. 4. Because many of these rites were restricted to the temple of Jerusalem, and the temple being now destroyed, these rites must cease along with it. 5. Because the apostles express ly taught, that the ceremonial law is abrogated under the Christian dispensation. Acts xv. 24. One chief design of the Epistle to the Hebrews is, to prove that this law must necessarily be disannulled. Heb. vii. 12. 2. The judicial law respected the Jews in their political capacity, or as a nation, and consisted of those institutions which God prescribed to them for their civil government. This law, as far as the Jewish polity was peculiar, has also been entirely abolished; but as far as it contains any statute founded on the law of nature common to all nations, it is still obligatory. 3. The moral law is so called because it relates to moral actions, and to distinguish it from the positive laws, which were only of temporary obligation. This law has no relation to times and places, or to one nation more than another; but being founded in the relations of men to their Creator, and to one another, it retains its authority under all dispensations. In opposition to the Antinomians, who say that believers are released from the obligation of the moral law, our Confession teaches that this law is perpetually binding on justified persons, as well as others. Believers are, indeed, delivered from this law in its covenant form; but they are still under it as a rule of life, in the hand of the Mediator, being "not without law to God, but under the law to Christ." 1 Cor. ix. 21. Christ, in the most solemn and explicit manner, declared, that he "came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it." Matt. v. 17. He fulfilled it, as a covenant, by his own perfect obedience, and his most grievous sufferings in the room of his people; and its heavenly precepts he has enforced upon their minds, by the most cogent motives, as a perfect rule of duty. The gospel, instead of weakening the obligation of the law, confirms and strengthens its authority, and enforces obedience to its precepts by the strongest motives: "Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid; nay, we establish the law." Rom. iii. 31. Although the moral law is to believers divested of its covenant form, it remains immutably the same, in regard both to its matter and its authority. And as the law was binding on the first man as a rule of life, antecedent to any covenant-transaction between God and him, we may easily understand that the law may be entirely divested of its covenant form, while it continues in full force as a rule of moral conduct. SECTION VI.-Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified or condemned," yet is it of great use to them, as well as to others: in that, as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly ;12 discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives;13 so as examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin;14 together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and the perfection of his obedience.15 It is likewise of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin;16 and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve, and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law." The promises of it, in like manner, show them God's approbation of obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof,18 although not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works: so as a man's doing good, and refraining from evil, because the law encourageth to the one and deterreth from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law, and not under grace.20 SECTION VII.-Neither are the fore-mentioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the gospel, but do sweetly comply with it;21 the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully which the will of God revealed in the law requireth to be done.22 17 Ezra ix. 13, 14. Ps. lxxxix. 30-34: 18 Lev. xxvi. 1-14. 2 Cor. vi. 16. Eph. vi. 2, 3. Ps. xxxvii. 11. Matt. v. 5. Ps. xix. 11. 19 Gal. ii. 16. Luke xvii. 10. 20 Rom. vi. 12, 14. 1 Pet. iii. 8-12. Ps. xxxiv. 12-16. Heb. xii. 28, 29. 21 Gal. iii. 21. 22 Ezek. xxxvi. 27. Heb. viii. 10. Jer. xxxi. 33. EXPOSITION. It is here affirmed, that true believers are completely delivered from the law, as a covenant of works. Christ, as their representative and surety, endured the curse of the law in all its bitterness, and in its utmost extent, in his sufferings unto death, and thus set them completely free from its condemning power. Gal. iii. 13; Rom. viii. 1. But had Christ only endured the curse of the law, and still left his people under its commanding power as a covenant, this would only have restored them to the same uncertain state of probation in which Adam originally stood, and every transgression would have again involved them under the curse. Christ, however, not only sustained the full infliction of the penalty of the law, he also yielded perfect obedience to its precepts, and thus obtained for his people deliverance from its commanding, as well as its condemning power. To show the complete nature of this freedom, we are told that they are dead to the law through the body of Christ; that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth; and that they are not under the law, but under grace. Rom. vii. 4; x. 4; vi. 14. The doctrine of the believer's freedom from the law, as a covenant, has no tendency to licentiousness; for it has already been established, that they are under the obligation of the law as a rule of life; and here it is further shown that the law is of manifold use to them, as well as to others: "The law is good," says the apostle Paul, "if a man use it lawfully," (1 Tim. i. 8); that is, if he use it in a suitableness to the state wherein he is, either as a believer or an unbeliever. The law serves numerous and important purposes, both to the unregenerate and to the regenerate. Some of these uses may be briefly stated. First. To the unregenerate the moral law is of use in the following respects: 1. To restrain them from much sin. 1 Tim. i. 9. 2. To convince them of their sinfulness and misery. Rom. iii. 20; vii. 9. 3. To discover to them their absolute need of Christ, and drive them to him as their all-sufficient Saviour. Gal. iii. 24. 4. To render them inexcusable, if they continue in their sins, and finally reject the only Saviour of lost sinners. Rom. i. 20, ii. 15; John iii. 18, 36. Second. The moral law is of use to the regenerate in the following respects: 1. To render Christ more precious to them, and excite their gratitude to him who so loved them as to obey its pre cepts and suffer its penalty, that he might deliver them from it as a covenant. Gal. iii. 13; iv. 4, 5. 2. To show them the will of God, and regulate their conduct. Mic. vi. 8. 3. To serve as a standard of self-examination, in order to discover the pollutions of their hearts and lives; to keep them self-abased; to lead them to a constant dependence upon Christ, and to excite them to a progressive advancement in holiness. Phil. iii. 10-14. 4. To serve as a test of their sincerity, that they may assure their hearts that they are of the truth, and that they delight in the law of God after the inward man, notwithstanding their manifold defects in duty. 1 John iii. 19; Rom. vii. 22, 25; 2 Cor. i. 12. CHAPTER XX. OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY, AND LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE. SECTION I-The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law;1 and in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin, from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation; as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto him, not out of slavish fear, but a childlike love, and willing mind." All which were common also to believers under the law; but under the New Testament, the liberty of. Christians is further enlarged in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish Tit. ii. 14. 1 Thess. i. 10. Gal. iii. 13. 2 Gal. i. 4. Col. i. 13. Acts xxvi. 18. Rom. vi. 14. 3 Rom. viii. 28. 4 Rom. v. 1, 2. Ps. cxix. 71. 1 Cor. 5 Rom. viii. 14, 15. 1 John iv. 18. |