law came in upon occafion, for the prevention of idolatry, and by way of condefcenfion to the temper of that people; and thus Maimonides and the learned Jews understand thefe words, Jer. vii. 22. 23. I Spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or facrifices. But this thing commanded I them, faying, Obey my voice, and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people. So likewife in the Prophet Hofea, God plainly prefers the moral before the ritual part of religion, as that which was principally defigned and intended by him, Hof. vi. 6. I defired mercy and not facrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings. But moft plainly and exprefsly, Mic. vi. 6. Wherewith fhall I come before the Lord? Shall I come before him with burnt offer ings? Will the Lord be pleafed with thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil? He hath fhewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do juftly, and to love mercy, and. to walk humbly with thy God? Thefe it feems were the things which God ftood upon, and required of men, even under that imperfect difpenfation; and thefe are the very things which the Chriftian religion. doth fo ftriatly injoin and command; fo that this righteoufnefs which the gofpel requires, was witneffed to by the law and the prophets. I proceed to the II. Second point, that the law of Mofes, or the difpenfation of the Jewish religion, was comparatively very weak, and infufficient to make men truly good, and for the promoting of real and inward righteoufnefs. It gave laws indeed to this purpose, but those not fo clear and perfect, or at least not fo clearly understood as they are now under the gofpel; and it made no exprefs promifes of inward grace, and affiftance to quicken and ftrengthen us in the doing of our duty; it made no explicit promifes of any blef Ang and reward to the doing of our duty beyond this life; fo that the best and most powerful arguments and encouragements to obedience, where either whol ly ly 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 Apoftle 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 juftified from all those things from which ye could not be juftified 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, confifting 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 righteoufnefs 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 meannefs of its promises, 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 alfo 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 the fecond. 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, Behold the days come, faith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the houfe of Ifrael, and with the houfe 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 thofe days, faith the Lord; I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts. And chap. x. 1. 4. he fhews the inefficacy of their facrifices for the real expiation of fin, the law having but a fhadow of good things to come, and not the lively reprefentation of the things themselves, can never with thofe facrifices which they offered year by year conti nually,. nually, make the comers thereunto perfect; for it is not poffible that the blood of bulls and goats fhould take a way fins: I fhould now have proceeded to the third particu lar; namely, that the Chriftian religion hath fupplied all the defects and weaknefs and imperfection of the Jewish difpenfation; but that I fhall not now enter upon, but make one plain inference from the subftance of what I have already difcourfed upon this argument. If our Saviour came not to diffolve and loofen the obligation of moral duties, but to confirm and eftablish it, and to inforce and bind the practice of these duties more ftrongly upon us, then they do widely and wilfully mistake the defign of Chriftianity, to who teach that it difchargeth 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 text, that he came not destroy the law the pro to take away the obligation of a law, is plainly to destroy and make it void); and contrary to the Apoftle's folemn refolution of this matter, Rom. ill. 31. Do won: phets, but to perfect and fulfil ther in the 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: Whofoever shall break one of thefe leaft commandments, and hall teach men fo, he fhall be call ed the leaft 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 gofpel 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, do the moft impious 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. And all the fecurity they have against this impious confequence, is that weak and flender pretence," that gratitude and love to God will preferve them from making this illufe of the grace of the gofpel, 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 nonfenfe 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 Apoftle and common reafon likewife tells us; fo that the law being removed and taken away, all actions become indifferent, and one thing is not more a fin or offence a gainst 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 pleafing or offending God, if there be not law to oblige us to the one, or reftrain 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 confi dently, 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 Chriftianity, that ever yet was broached in the world. But ye have not fo learned Chrift; if fo be ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jefus: That ye put off concerning your former conver lation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful deceitful lufts: And that ye be renewed in the spirit of mind; and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteoufnefs, and true holiness. your SERMON CV. Christianity doth not deftroy, but perfect the law of Mofes. MATTH. V. 17. Think not that I am come to deftroy the law or the pro phets: I am not come to deftroy, but to fulfil. 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 defign of the law and the prophets, was to engage men to the practice of moral duties, that is, of real and fubftantial goodness. Secondly, That the law of Mofes, or the difpenfas tion of the Jewish religion, was comparatively very weak, and infufficient to make men truly good, and ineffectual to promote inward and real righteoufness. Thefe two points I have fpoken to. I fhall now proceed to the III. 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 advanrages 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 the |