the patriarch Abraham. By faith he avers the Patriarch to have been juftified; by faith, as contra-distinguished from works, as oppofed to works (u). Contra-diftinguished from what works? Opposed to what works?: The works of the Ceremonial Law? No. The Ceremonial Law was not known until four hundred additional years had rolled away. Even the only rite of that future law, which, by anticipation, was enjoined to the Patriarch, was not enjoined to him until after the period when faith was reckoned to him for rightcoufnefs. He received the fign of circumcifion, a feal of the righteoufnefs of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcifed. What then are the works which the Apostle excludes from bearing a part in the juftification of Abraham, but those of the Moral Law? And what are the works but thofe of the Moral Law which the Apostle excludes universally from bearing a part in the juftification of men, when he proceeds to state that all men, whether Jews or Gentiles, must be justified according to the pattern of the faith of the Father of the faithful?

In the next place, attend to the several characteristic marks, which St. Paul attributes to the law concerning which he fpeaks. (u) Rom. iv.

Hear

Hear him describing this very law, of which he is affirming, Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead, (as to its condem-s ning power over true believers,) wherein we were held (w); hear him immediately de fcribing this very law not only as holy, just and good (x), terms much more applicable to a Moral than to a Ceremonial Law, but as Spiritual (y); an epithet applicable only to a Moral Law..

Again: it is a law, by which is the know ledge of fin. By the deeds of the law there fhall no flesh be juftified in His fight for by the law is the knowledge of fin (z). Is this cha racteristic the more applicable to a Ceremo nial or to a Moral Law? Is it here descrip tive of the Ceremonial or of the Moral Law The Apostle will anfwer thefe inquiries : `I `bad not known fin but by the law: for I had not known luft, except the law had faid, Thou shalt not covet (a). Of what law is the commandment, Thou shalt not covet, a precept? The Apostle, by producing a precept of the Moral Law as a fpecimen of the law concerning which he difcourfes, demonftrates that law to be the Moral Law.

Again;-if it can be needful to accumu

(w) Rom. vii. 6. (z) Róm. iii. 20.

(x) Rom. vii. 12.

(a) Rom. vii. 7.'

Rom. vii. 14.

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late

late farther proof, St. Paul, when reasoning concerning the law which cannot justify, alludes, in more places than one, to tranfgreffions of it (b). In another paffage he exemplifies the nature of these transgreffions→→ throats that are open fepulchres tongues that bave used deceit lips under which is the poison of afps-mouths full of curfing and bitterness→→→ feet fwift to fhed blood (c). Of which law, the Ceremonial or the Moral, are the deeds in question tranfgreffions?

Once more. The Apostle, ftill describing that law by which it is evident that no man is juftified, pronounces, that as many as are of the works of the law are under the curfe, for it is written, Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them (d). Turn to the chapter (e) where the law has written its curfes, and mark who are the objects of them. The idolater the man that fetteth light by his father or his mother: he that removeth this neighbour's land-mark : · he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way he that perverteth the judgement of the ftranger, the fatherless, and the widow:

(6) Rom. iv. 15. v. 13. (c) Rom. iii. 9-13, where it is to be observed, that St. Paul is fpeaking both of Jews and Gentiles. (d) Gal. iii. 10. 11. (4) Deut xxvii. 15, 26.

he

he that is in any respect unchaste: he that fmiteth his neighbour fecretly: he that taketh reward to flay the innocent. Are thefe Ceremonial offences? Is the law, which denounces its curfe against them, the Ceremonial Law?

On the whole then, need we to hesitate in affirming that St. Paul, when labouring to establish the grand principle of the Gospel, that a man is justified only by faith in the atoning blood of Chrift without the deeds of the law; had principally in view not the Ceremonial but the Moral Law? He had the Ceremonial Law avowedly in contemplation; because by it the Jews fought to be juftified. He had the Moral Law principally before him; because in every age the natural pride of the human heart, and miftakes respecting fcriptural doctrine, would concur in impelling men, whether of Jewish or of Gentile stock, to truft, altogether or in part, to their moral works for juftification before God.

Confider whether this conclufion, at which we have at length arrived, is not one which must approve itself to every unprejudiced mind. Is it poffible that we can be justified by the Moral Law? Its language respecting justification is, The man which doeth thefe things

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things fhall live by them (f). Have we done them? Have we not tranfgreffed the law times without number? Are not we in fome point continually offending against it? And can we be juftified by a law which we have broken? Perhaps you fay, "In various

points we have kept the law." Be the fact allowed. Of what avail is it as to juftification under the law? The law juftifies or condemns: pronounces innocent or guilty. Can it pronounce a man innocent who has broken it? Curfed is the man who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Is not the cafe the fame under human laws? He who tranfgreffes against a single statute of the land is condemned and punished by his country as a bad fubject. In tranfgreffing against that ftatute he is guilty, in the language of St. James, of all; guilty of tranfgreffing against the authority of the whole law, and of the legiflature. He who offends in a fingle point against the Moral Law" of God, fins against the authority of the whole law, and of God, who commands the obfervance of the whole. Can fuch a man, can any man, be juftified by the law? The law worketh wrath. For all have finned,

() Rom. x. 5. Gal. iii. 12.

and