The Use of the Law

Romans 7:13. Was that then which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin [namely was made death to me] that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good: that sin by the Commandment might become exceeding sinful.

Here we find the original discovery of all that sinfulness of sin which we have hitherto insisted upon, namely the manifesting, and working property which is in the Law of God. It will be therefore very requisite by way of appendix to the preceding treatise, and of introduction to the consequent, to unfold out of these words the use of the Law; by which we shall more distinctly understand the scope and purpose of the Holy Ghost, in loading the spirit of man with the vanity of the creature, and in shutting up the conscience under the sinfulness of sin; both which have respect to the Law, that as an effect of the cursing, and this of the convincing power thereof: and yet in both nothing intended by God but peace and mercy.

The Apostle in the beginning of the chapter shows that we are by nature subject to the Law, and death, which is an unavoidable consequent of the breach thereof, even as the wife is to her husband as long as he lives. And that by Christ we are delivered from that subjection, who has slain our former husband, and taken him out of the way, as the Apostle elsewhere speaks. Now because this doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, and deliverance from the Law by him, was mainly opposed by the Jews, and was indeed that chief stumbling block which kept them from Christianity (which I take it was the reason why the false brethren, under pretense the better to work on that people, to pacify affections and reconcile parties, and join the churches together would have mingled the Law with Christ in the purpose of justification, as the papists now upon other reasons do:) therefore the Apostle (who was very zealous for the salvation of his brethren and kinfolk according to the flesh) labors to clear this doctrine from two main objections in this chapter, which it seems the Jews did use against it.

The ground of both is tacitly implied, and it is the same general hypothesis, or supposition that all deliverance is from evil, and carries necessary relation to some mischief which it presupposes. Therefore if that doctrine be true which teaches deliverance from the Law, then it must be granted that the Law is evil; for to be unsubjected to that which is good is no deliverance, but a wild and brutish looseness. Now evil is but twofold, either sin or death. So then if the Law be evil, it must be either sin or death.

The former objection is made, verse 7: What shall we say then, is the Law sin, that we should now hear of a deliverance from it? Does not the Scripture account the Law a privilege, an honor, an ornament to a people? And from the justness and holiness of the Law conclude the dignity and greatness of a nation? What nation is so great, says Moses, which has statutes and judgments so righteous as I set before you this day? He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and judgments to Israel; He has not dealt so with every nation, says David. I sent to them the honorable and great things of my Law, says the Lord, but they were counted as a strange thing. And is that which Moses and the Prophets esteemed a privilege and honor become now a yoke and burden? Shall we admit a doctrine which overthrows the Law and the Prophets? To this the Apostle answers, God forbid. The Law is not sin, for I had not known sin but by the Law. It is true, sin took occasion by the Law to become more sinful, verse 8, but this was not occasion given but seized — no occasion naturally offered by the law, but perversely taken by sin, whose venomous property it is to suck poison out of that which is holy. So then the Law is not sin, though by accident it enrages sin. For of itself it serves only to discover and reveal it, verse 9. But as the Gospel, as well when by men's perverseness it is a savor of death, as when by its own gracious efficacy it is a savor of life, is both ways a sweet savor: so the Law either way, when by itself it discovers, and when by accident it enrages sin, is still holy, just, and good, verse 11.

Upon this follows the second objection in the words of the text: Is that which is good made death to me? If a deliverance presupposes an evil in that from which we are delivered, and no evil but belongs either to sin or death, then admitting a deliverance from the Law, if it be good in respect of holiness, it must needs be evil in the other respect; and then that which is good is made death to me. And this casts a more heavy aspersion and dishonor upon God than the former, that he should give a Law merely to kill men, and make that which in its nature is good, to be mortal in its use and operation. Wine, strong waters, hard meats are of themselves very good to those purposes to which they are proper: yet under pretense of their goodness to cram the stomach of a suckling infant with them, would not be kindness but cruelty, because they would not in that case comfort or nourish, but kill. Gold is good of itself, but to fetter a man with a chain of gold would be no bounty, but a mockery. So to conceive God to publish a Law good indeed in itself, but deadly to the subjects, and to order that which is holy in its nature, to be harmful and damnable to the creature in its use, is so odious an aspersion upon so just and gracious a God, as may safely bring into suspicion and disgrace any doctrine which admits of so just an exception. Now to this likewise the Apostle answers, God forbid. The Law is not given to condemn or clog men, not to bring sin or death into the world; it was not promulgated with any intention to kill or destroy the creature. It is not sin in itself; it is not death to us, in that sense as we preach it (namely as subordinated to Christ and his Gospel). Though as the rule of righteousness we preach deliverance from it, because to that purpose it is made impotent and invalid by the sin of man, which now it cannot prevent, or remove, but only discover and condemn.

Both these conclusions that the Law is neither sin nor death, I find the Apostle before in this Epistle excellently [reconstructed: proving]. Until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed where there is no Law: nevertheless, death [reconstructed: reigned] from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. That is, as I conceive, over those who did not [reconstructed: sin] against so notable and evident characters of the Law of nature, written in their hearts, as Adam in Paradise did (for sin had between Adam and Moses so obliterated and defaced the impressions of the moral Law, that man stood in need of a new edition and publication of it by the hand of Moses.) That place serves thus to make good the purpose of the Apostle in this. Sin was in the world before the publication of the Law, therefore the Law is not sin. But sin was not imputed where there is no Law; men were secure and did flatter themselves in their way, were not apt to charge or condemn themselves for sin, without a Law to force them to it. And therefore the Law did not come anew to beget sin, but to reveal and discover sin. Death likewise not only was in the world, but reigned even over all men therein, before the publication of the Law. Therefore the Law is not death neither. There was death enough in the world before the Law, there was wickedness enough to make condemnation reign over all men; therefore neither one nor other are natural or essential consequences of the Law. It came not to beget more sin; it came not to multiply and double condemnation; there was enough of both in the world before. Sin enough to displease and provoke God, death enough to devour and torment men. Therefore if the Law had been useful to no other purposes, than to enrage sin, and condemn men; if God's wisdom and power had not made it applicable to more wholesome and saving ends, he would never have newly published it by the hand of Moses (Romans 5:13).

Here then the observation which from these words we are to make, (and it is a point of singular and special consequence to understand the use of the Law) is this. That the Law was revived, and promulgated anew on Mount Sinai, by the ministry of Moses, with no other than Evangelical and merciful purposes. It is said in one place, that the Lord has no pleasure in the death of him that dies (Ezekiel 18:32): but it is said in another place, that the Lord delights in mercy (Micah 7:18). Which notes, that God will do more for the salvation, than he will for the damnation of men; he will do more for the magnifying of his mercy, than for the multiplying of his wrath: for if that require it, he will revive and newly publish the Law, which to have aggravated the sins, and so doubled the condemnation of men, he would never have done.

Before I further evidence the truth of this doctrine, it will be needful to remove one objection which does at first proposal thereof offer itself. If God will do more for his mercy, than for his wrath and vengeance, why then are not more men saved, than condemned? If Hell shall be more filled than Heaven, is it not more than probable that wrath prevails against grace, and that there is more done for fury, than there is for favor. To waive the solution given by some, that God will intentionally and effectually have every man to be saved, but few of that every will have themselves to be saved — (an explication purposely contradicted by Saint Austin, and his followers, whose most profound and inestimable judgment the Orthodox churches have with much admiration and assent followed in these points) I rather choose thus to resolve that case. It will appear at the last great day that the saving of a few is a more admirable and glorious work, than the condemning of all the rest. The Apostle says that God shall be glorified in his saints, and admired in those that believe. For first, God shows more mercy in saving some when he might have judged all, than justice in judging many when he might have saved none. For there is not all the justice which there might have been, when any are saved; and there is more mercy than was necessary to have been, when all are not condemned. Secondly, the mercy and grace of God in saving any is absolute, and all from within himself, out of the unsearchable riches of his own will: but the justice of God, though not as essential in him, yet as opera[reconstructed: tive] toward us, is not absolute but conditional, and grounded upon the supposition of man's sin. Thirdly, his mercy is unsearchable in the price which procured it; he himself [reconstructed: was] to humble and empty himself, that he might show mercy. His mercy was to be purchased by his own merit; but his justice was provoked by the merit of sin only. Fourthly, glory which is the fruit of mercy is more excellent in a few, than wrath and vengeance is in many; as one bag full of gold may be more valuable than ten of silver. If a man should suppose that God's mercy and justice, being equally infinite and glorious in himself, should therefore have the same equal proportion observed in the dispensation and revealing of them to the world; we might not from there conclude, that that proportion should be arithmetical, that mercy should be extended to as many, as severity. But rather as in the payment of a sum of money in two equal portions, whereof one is in gol[reconstructed: d], the other in silver, though there be an equality in the sums, yet not in the pieces by which they are paid: so, inasmuch as glory being the communicating of God's own blessed vision, presence, love, and everlasting society, is far more honorable and excellent than wrath, therefore the dispensation of his mercy in that among a few may be exactly proportionable to the revelation of his justice among very many more in the other. Suppose we a prince, upon the just condemnation of a hundred malefactors, should profess, that as in his own royal breast mercy and justice were equally poised and tempered, so he would observe an equal proportion of them both toward that number of malefactors, suffering his justice to condemn, and his mercy to spare just so many as might preserve his attributes i[reconstructed: n] equilibrio, that the one might not outweigh the other: certainly in this case there would be more mercy in saving ten out of favor, than in punishing and condemning all the rest for their just demerit. Fifthly, and lastly, let me problematically and by way of [illegible] only propose this question. Why may it not be justly said that there shall be in Heaven as much glory distributed among those few which shall be saved, as wrath in Hell among those many which perish? I dare not speak where the Scripture is silent; yet this by way of argument may be said. The proportion of wrath is measured by the finite sins of men, the proportion of glory from the infinite merits of Christ. There is more excellence and virtue in the merit of Christ to procure life for his few, than vileness or demerit in sin to procure death for many. As there may be as much liquor in ten great vessels, as in a thousand smaller: so there may be as much glory by the merit of Christ in a few that are saved, as wrath, from the merit of sin in multitudes that perish.

But to return to that from which I have digressed. Manifest it is that God will do more for the magnifying of his mercy, than [reconstructed: for] the multiplying of his wrath, because to be merciful he will anew publish the Law, which for enlarging his judgments he would not have done; but would have left men to that reign of sin and death which was in the world between Adam and Moses. Notable to this purpose is that place which I have before [reconstructed: cited] touched, and shall now [reconstructed: proceed] again more particularly to unfold, with submission of my judgment therein to the better learned. It is Galatians 3, beginning at the 15th verse. "Brethren I speak after the manner of men: though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man annuls or adds to it." The Apostle before mentioned the covenant of Promise and Grace made to Abraham, and in him as well to the Gentiles as to the Jews; to which the consideration of the Law's insufficiency to justify, and by consequence to bless, had led him. In these words he does by an allusion to human contracts prove the fixedness and stability of the covenant of mercy even from the courses of mutable men. If one man make a grant, and covenant to another, engross, sign, seal, take witnesses, and deliver it to the other for his benefit and behoof, it becomes altogether irreversible and uncancelable by the man which did it. If a man make a testament, and then die, even among weak and mutable men it is counted sacred; and impiety it is for any man to add, diminish, or alter it. But now, says the Apostle, God is infinite in wisdom to foresee all inconveniences, and evil consequences which would follow upon any covenant of his, and so if need be to prevent the making of it. Things future in their execution and issuing out of second causes, are yet all present to the intuition of God; and so anything which might after happen to annul, or void the covenant, was present and evident to his omniscience before, and therefore would then have prevented the making of it. If then men, whose wills are mutable, whose wisdom may miscarry, who may repent and be willing to revoke their own covenants again, do by their hand, seal, and delivery disable themselves to annul their own act, when it is once past: much more God, who is not like man that he should repent when he makes a covenant, does make it sure and stable, constant and irreversible, especially since it is a covenant established by an oath, as the Apostle elsewhere shows, and when God swears he cannot repent. Thus the Apostle proves the covenant of mercy and grace to be perpetual, from the immutability and wisdom of him that made it; and if it be perpetual, then all other subsequent acts of God do refer some way or other to it.

It follows verse 16: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made, he says not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, which is Christ." Where by one, we understand one mystically and in aggregato, not personally or individually; and by Christ, the whole Church, consisting of the head and members, as he is elsewhere taken (1 Corinthians 12:12). Now these words do further ratify the stability of the covenant; for though a covenant be in itself never so constant and irreversible, yet if all the parties which have interest in or by it should cease, the covenant would of itself by consequence expire and grow void: but here, as the covenant is most constant in regard of the wisdom, and unvariableness of him that made it, so it can never expire for want of a seed to whom it is made; for as long as Christ has a Church, and members upon earth, so long shall the promise be of force.

Verse 17: "And this I say, that the covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot annul that it should make the promise of no effect." These words are a prolepsis or prevention of an objection which might be made. A man might thus argue: when two laws are made, of which the one is expressly contradictory to the other, the later does in common presumption abrogate and annul the former (else men should be bound to contraries, and so punishments would be unavoidable). But here we find that four hundred and thirty years after the promise to Abraham, there was a law published extremely contrary to the promise: a law without mercy or compassion, a law both impossible and inexorable, which can neither be obeyed, nor endured: therefore it should seem that some cause or other had happened to make God repent, and revoke his former covenant. The Apostle retorts this objection. And his meaning I thus apprehend. If there be a covenant made, by a lawgiver in wisdom infinite, to foresee beforehand, and to prevent any inconveniences which might follow upon it, any reasons which might fall out to abrogate it; a lawgiver in all his ways constant and immutable, (as being by no improvidence, disappointments, or unexpected emergencies ever put to repent) and this covenant made to a man and his seed forever, and that without dependence upon any condition, (being all of grace and promise) save only that Abraham have a seed, and Christ a body: then if it happen, that another law be after made, which prima facie, and in strict construction, does imply a contradiction to the terms and nature of the former law (for abrogation notwithstanding which there have no other reasons at all de novo intercurred, than only such as were actually in being when it was made, namely the sins of the world, and yet were not then valid enough to prevent the making, and therefore by consequence have no force to alter or annul it) then it is certain that this latter law must be understood in some other sense, and admit of some other subordinate use, which may well consist with the being and force of the former covenant; and not in that which prima facie seems to contradict, and by consequence to abrogate it.

Now in the next words, verse 18: For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. The Apostle shows what the purpose of the covenant to Abraham was, namely to give life and salvation by grace and promise, and therefore what the purpose of the latter covenant by Moses was not, neither could be, namely to give the same life by working; since in those respects there would be contradiction and inconsistency in the covenants, and so by consequence instability and unfaithfulness in him that made them. The main conclusion then which hitherto the Apostle has driven at is this, that the coming of the law has not voided the promise, and that the law is not of force towards the seed to whom the promise is made, in any such sense as carries contradiction to, and by consequence implies abrogation of the promise before made. Therefore if it be not to stand in a contradiction, it follows that it must stand in subordination to the gospel, and so tend to evangelical purposes.

This the Apostle proceeds to show, verse 19: Therefore, what serves the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels, in the hand of a mediator. To what end, says the Apostle, should there be a publication of a law so expressly contrary to the covenant formerly made? In his answer to this doubt, there are many things worthy of special observation. First, it was added or put to. It was not set up alone, as a thing [reconstructed: established] by itself, as any adequate, complete, solid rule of righteousness (as it was given to Adam in Paradise); much less was it published as a thing to void and annul any precedent covenant: but so far was it from abrogating, that it was added to the promise. Now when one thing is made an appendant or addendum to another, it does necessarily assume the being of that to which it is appendant, and presuppose a strength and vigor in it still. But how then was it added? Not by way of ingrediency as a part of the covenant, as if the promise had been incomplete without the law (for then the same covenant should consist of contradictory materials, and so should overthrow itself; for if it be of works, it is no more of grace, else grace is no more grace); but it was added by way of subserviency and attendance, the better to advance and make effectual the covenant itself. In Adam's heart the law was set up solitary and as a whole rule of righteousness and salvation in itself: but though the same law were by Moses revived, yet not at all to the same purpose, but only to help forward and introduce another and a better covenant.

Secondly, it was added because of transgressions. To make them appear, to awaken the consciences of men (who without a law would not impute, nor charge their sins upon themselves) and make them acknowledge the guilt of them, and own the condemnation which was due to them: to discover and disclose the venom of our sinful nature, to open the mouth of the sepulcher, and make the heart smell the stench of its own foulness.

Thirdly, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. There were two great promises made to Abraham and his seed. The one, In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, and this promise respects the person of Christ (which yet seems to be a promise not so much made to Christ, as in him to Abraham and all nations, who were Abraham's seed by promise, though not after the flesh, as Saint Paul distinguishes in Romans 9). The other, I will be a God to you, and to your seed after you, which respects all nations who should believe. Now whichever way we understand these words they confirm the point which we are upon, that the law has evangelical purposes. If we understand by seed the person of Christ, then this shows that the law was put to the promise, the better to raise and stir up in men the expectations of Christ, the promised seed, who should deliver them from that unavoidable bondage and curse which the law did seal and conclude them under. If we understand by seed the faithful (which I rather approve), then the Apostle's meaning is this, that as long as any are either to come into the unity of Christ's body and to have the covenant of grace applied to them, or to be kept in the body of Christ when they are come in, so long there will be use of the law to discover transgressions, both in the unregenerate that they may see to Christ for sanctuary, and in those that are already called, that they may learn to cast all their faith and hope and expectations of righteousness upon him fully. For the same reason which compels men to come in is requisite also to keep them in; else why does not God utterly destroy sin in the faithful? Certainly he has no delight to see Christ have leprous members, or to see sin in his own people. Only because he will still have them see the necessity of righteousness by faith, and of grace in Christ, he therefore suffers concupiscence to stir in them, and the law to conclude them under the curse. This then manifestly shows that there was no other intention in publishing the law but with reference to the seed; that is, with evangelical purposes, to show mercy: not with reference to those that perish, who would have had condemnation enough without the law.

Fourthly, it was ordained by angels (who are ministering spirits sent forth for the good of those that shall be saved) in the hand, or by the ministry of a mediator, namely of Moses (with relation to whom Christ is called mediator of a better covenant); for as Christ was the substantial and universal mediator between God and man, so Moses was to that people a representative, typical, or national mediator. He stood between the Lord and the people when they were afraid at the sight of the fire in the mount (Deuteronomy 5:5), and this evidently declares that the law was published in mercy and pacification, not in fury or revenge (for the work of a mediator is to negotiate peace, and treat for reconcilement between parties offended); whereas if the Lord had intended death in the publishing of the law, he would not have proclaimed it in the hand of a mediator, but of an executioner.

Verse 20. Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one, but God is one.] Two expositions I conceive may be given of these words, both which tend to clear that use of the Law which we are upon. First, where there is a Mediator there must be parties at variance that are two by their differences and disagreements, and not one. This then shows first for what reason the Law was promulgated, namely to convince men of their offences which had separated between them and God, who were at the first one in peace and mutual affections towards each other. Secondly, the words following show why the Law was published in the hand of a Mediator, because God is one: Though the law serve to convince men thus of their sinful variance with God, yet they should not thereupon despair, and sink under the fear of his wrath: for as he made a covenant of promise to Abraham and his seed, so he is the same God still; one in his grace and mercy towards sinners; As a Mediator does show that men by sin are at variance with God, so does he show likewise that God by grace is at unity with men. For when the party offended sends a mediator to him who had done the offence to parley and make tender of a reconcilement, two things do herein manifestly appear. First, that before this there was a breach, or else there would have been no need of a Mediator. Secondly, that notwithstanding that breach, yet the party offended (from whom the Mediator comes) is at unity and peace again; so that though a mediator is not of one, but of disagreeing parties; yet God is one, that is, He, in sending this Mediator does declare to mankind, that He is at peace and unity with them again, if they will accept of the reconcilement.

A second exposition may be thus. A Mediator is not of one. By one here may perhaps be understood not one party but one matter, business, or covenant. And then the meaning runs thus. As the Lord has published two covenants, a promise to Abraham, and a law to Israel, so he has appointed two Mediators of those covenants or businesses which he had to communicate to men. Moses the Mediator of the Law (for the Law came by Moses;) and Christ the Mediator of the promise or better covenant, (for grace came by Jesus Christ) Moses the representative, and Christ the substantial and real Mediator. But now though there be two covenants, and two Mediators, and they so much in appearance contrary to one another, as that God may in them seem inconstant, and to have by one cancelled and repented for the other: yet all this while God is one, that is, He is the same in both covenants, carries the same purpose and intention both in the Law and in the Gospel, namely a benevolence and desire of reconcilement with men.

Verse 21. Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a Law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the Law.] Here we have an objection of the Jews. If God be one, then He does not speak one thing and mean another, pronounce the Law in some words, and require them to be otherwise understood: And then it will follow that the Law is against the promises, for in the common construction and sense of the words it is manifestly contrary. This objection the Apostle does retort upon them. In as much as the Law would be against the promise if it should stand for a rule of justification by itself, and not for a [reconstructed: guidance] to Christ; therefore God being one and the same, constant in his promise for righteousness which he made to Abraham, therefore they were in a manifest error who sought for righteousness from the Law, because that would evidently infer one of these two things, either inconstancy in God's will, or inconsistency in his acts. The substance and strength of the Apostle's answer I take to be this. Contrariety is properly in the nature of things considered by themselves. Now though there be in the Law an accidental contrariety to the Gospel by reason of the sin of man which has brought weakness upon it, so that the Law now curses, and the Gospel blesses; the Law now condemns, and the Gospel justifies; yet of itself it is not contrary. For if any Law would have given life and righteousness, this would have done it. That which is, Ex se, considered in itself, apt to carry to the same end to which another thing carries, is not of itself contrary thereto: but the Law is of itself apt to carry to life and righteousness, as now the Gospel does, therefore of itself it is not contrary to the Gospel; but that difference which is, is from the sin of [illegible] which has weakened the Law. But now the Law in the hand of a Mediator, is not only not against, but it is for the promises. Suppose we two ways to one city, whereof the one is accidentally, either by bogs, or enclosures, or some other reasons become utterly impassable, the other smooth and easy, these are not contrary ways considered in themselves (for of themselves they point both to one place) but only contrary in respect of travelers, because the one will in fact bring to the city which the other by accident is unable to do. So here, the Law is one way to Heaven, the Gospel another; but sin has made the Law weak and impassable, which otherwise of itself would have sufficed to righteousness. And yet even thus the Law is not against the promise: for the impossibility which we find in the Law, enforces us to bethink ourselves of a better and surer way to bring us to righteousness and salvation. And this the Apostle shows in the next words.

Verse 22: But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the Promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Though sin has made the Law contrary to the Promise, in that it curses and condemns, and concludes men under sin and wrath: yet such is the mercy of God that he has subordinated all this, and made it subservient to the Gospel, that the Promise thereby may be applied, and advanced. For it is all ordered to no other purpose but that men might believe, and inherit the Promises. But what? Does the Law make men believe, or beget faith? Formally it does not, but by way of preparation and introduction it does: As when a man finds one way shut up, he is thereby induced to inquire after another. To sum up all that has been spoken touching the use of the Law in a plain similitude. Suppose we a Prince should proclaim a pardon to all Traitors if they would come in and plead it: and after this should send forth his officers to attach, imprison, examine, convince, arraign, threaten, and condemn them. Is he now contrary to himself? Has he [reconstructed: repented] of his mercy? No, but he is unwilling to lose his mercy, he is desirous to have the honor of his mercy acknowledged to him; and therefore he brings them to these extremities, that when their mouth is stopped, and their guilt made evident, they may, with the more humility and abhorrence of their former lewdness, acknowledge the justice of the Law, which would condemn them, and the great mercy of the Prince, who has given them liberty to plead his pardon. The same is the case between God and us. First, to Abraham he made promise of mercy and blessedness to all that would plead interest in it for the remission of their sins. But men were secure, and heedless of their estate, and though sin was in them, and death reigned over them, yet being without a Law to evidence this sin and death to their consciences, therefore they imputed it not to themselves, they would not own them, nor charge themselves with them, and by consequence found no necessity of pleading that promise. Hereupon the Lord published by Moses a severe and terrible Law, so terrible that Moses himself did exceedingly fear and quake; a Law which filled the air with Thunder, and the Mount with fire; a Law full of blackness, darkness, and tempest; a Law which they who heard it could not endure, but entreated that it might not be [reconstructed: spoken] to them any more: yet in all this God does but pursue his first purpose of mercy, and take a course to make his Gospel accounted worthy of all acceptation; that when by this Law men shall be roused from their security, shut up under the guilt of infinite transgressions, affrighted with the fire and tempest, the blackness and darkness, the darts and curses of this Law against sin, they may then run from Sinai to Zion, even to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant, and by faith plead that pardon and remission which in him was promised. Thus we see the point in the general [reconstructed: declared], That God in the publication of the Law by Moses on mount Sinai, had none but merciful and evangelical intentions. I shall further draw down the doctrine of the use of the Law into a few conclusions.

First, the Law is not given from primary intention, to condemn men. There was condemnation enough in the world between Adam and Moses, before the Law was newly published. It is true the Law shall prove a condemning and judging Law to impenitent and unbelieving sinners: but to condemn or judge men by it was no more God's intention in the publishing of it by the ministry of Moses, (I speak of condemnation not pronounced, but executed) than it was his purpose to condemn men by the Gospel, which yet in fact will be a savor of death to death to all that despise it. It is said that Christ should be as well for the [reconstructed: fall] as for the rising of many in Israel, and that he should be a stone of stumbling, and a rock of [reconstructed: offense]; yet he says of himself, I came not to condemn the world, but that the world by me might be [reconstructed: saved]. The meaning is, the condemnation of the world was no motive nor impulsive cause of my coming, though it were an [reconstructed: accidental] event, [reconstructed: consequent], and emergence thereupon. Even so the condemnation which by the Law will be aggravated upon [illegible] sinners, the pouring forth of more wrath and vengeance than reigned in the world between Adam and Moses, was no motive in God's intention to publish the Law by his ministry, but only the furtherance and advancement of the Covenant of Grace.

Secondly, the Law was not published by Moses on mount Sinai (as it was given to Adam in Paradise) to justify or to save men. God never appoints anything to an end to which it is utterly unsuitable and improper: now the Law by sin is become weak and unprofitable to the purpose of righteousness or salvation; no, it was in that regard against us, as Saint Paul says (Romans 8:3; Hebrews 7; Colossians 2); and therefore we are delivered from it as a rule of justification, though not as a rule of service and obedience.

Thirdly, the uses of the Law are several according to diverse considerations of it. For we may consider it either in itself, according to the primary intention thereof in its being and new publication; or secondarily, according to those secondary and inferior effects thereof. By accident or secondarily, the Law does, first, irritate, enrage, and exasperate lust, by reason of the venomous and malicious quality which is in sin. And this the Law does not by generating or implanting lust in the heart, but by exciting, calling out, and occasioning that which was there before; as a chain does not beget any fury in a wolf, nor a bridge infuse any strength into the water, nor the presence of an enemy instill or create anew any malice in a man, but only occasionally reduce to act, and call forth that rage which though less discerned, was yet habitually there before.

Secondly, the Law by accident does punish and curse sin. I say, by accident, because punishment is in no law the main intention of the lawgiver; but something added to it, to back, strengthen, and enforce the obedience which is principally intended. Neither could the Law have cursed man at all, if his disobedience had not made way; which shows that the curse was not the primary intention of the Law, but only a secondary and subsequent act upon the failing of the principal. For I doubt not but the Lord accounts himself more glorified by the active and voluntary services, than by the passive and enforced sufferings of the creature. Herein says our Savior, is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit (John 15).

Secondly, consider the law by itself and in its primary intention, and so there are two principal uses for which it serves. First, it has rationem speculi — it is as a glass to manifest and discover sin and death, and thereupon to compel men to fly for sanctuary to Christ, and when they see their misery, to sue out their pardon. And this the law does, first, by convincing the conscience of its own wideness, (as the prophet David speaks, I have seen an end of all perfection, but your law is exceeding broad.) By revealing the compass of sin in proportion to the wideness, and the filthiness of sin in proportion to the purity of that holy law; by discovering the depth and foulness, the deceitfulness and desperate mischief of the heart by nature; and giving some evidences to the soul of that horrid, endless, and insupportable vengeance which is due to sin. We know, says the Apostle, that whatever things the law says, it says to those that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Secondly, by judging, sentencing, applying wrath to the soul in particular, for when it has stopped a man's mouth, evidenced his guiltiness, concluded him under sin, it then pronounces him to be a cursed and condemned creature, exposed, without any strength or possibility to evade or overcome, to all the wrath which his sins have deserved. Therefore it is called the ministry of death and condemnation, which pronounces a most rigorous and unmitigable curse upon the smallest, and most imperceptible deviation from God's will revealed.

Thirdly, by awakening the conscience, begetting a legal faith and spirit of bondage, to see itself thus miserable by the law, hedged in with thorns, and shut up under wrath. For the Spirit first by the law begets bondage and fear, pricks the conscience, reduces a man to impossibilities, that he knows not what to do nor which way to turn, before it works the Spirit of Adoption, or makes a man think with the Prodigal that he has a Father to deliver him. And by these gradations the law leads to faith in Christ; so that though in all these respects the works of the law be works of bondage, yet the ends and purposes of God in them are ends of mercy.

Secondly, the law has rationem fraeni and regulae, to restrain from sin, and to order the life of a man. And in this sense likewise it is added to the Gospel, as the rule is to the hand of the workman. For as the rule works nothing without the hand of the artificer to guide and moderate it, because of itself it is dead, and the workman works nothing without his rule; so the law can only show what is good, but gives no power at all to do it (for that is the work of the Spirit by the Gospel) yet evangelical grace directs a man to no other obedience than that of which the law is the rule.

Now then to make some use of all this which has been said: this shows the ignorance and absurdity of those men who cry down preaching of the law, as a course leading to despair and discontentment, though we find by Saint Paul that it leads to Christ. To preach the law alone by itself, we confess is to pervert the use of it; neither have we any power or commission so to do (for we have our power for edification and not for destruction.) It was published as an appendant to the Gospel, and so must it be preached; it was published in the hand of a Mediator, and it must be preached in the hand of a Mediator; it was published evangelically, and it must be so preached: but yet we must preach the law, and that in its own fearful shapes: for though it were published in mercy, yet it was published with thunder, fire, tempests, and darkness even in the hand of a Mediator: for this is the method of the Holy Ghost, to convince first of sin, and then to reveal righteousness and refuge in Christ. The law is the forerunner that makes room, and prepares welcome in the soul for Christ. I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, says the Lord; to note to us that a man will never desire Christ indeed, till he be first shaken. As in Elijah's vision the still voice came after the tempest, so does Christ in his voice of mercy follow the shakings and tempests of the law. First the Spirit of Elijah in the preaching of repentance for sin, and then the kingdom of God in the approach of Christ and evidences of reconciliation to the soul. And the reason is, because men are so wedded to their sins, that they will not accept of mercy on fair terms, so, as to forsake sin withal; as mad men that must be [reconstructed: bound] before they can be cured, so are men in their lusts; the law must hamper and shut them up, before the Gospel, and the spirit of liberty will be welcome to them. Now this is God's resolution to humble the soul so low till it can in truth and seriousness bid Christ welcome upon any conditions: his mercy and the blood of his Son is so precious and invaluable, that he will not [reconstructed: cast] it away where no notice shall be taken of it; but he will make the heart subscribe experimentally to that truth of his, that it is a saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And we know a man must be brought to great extremities, who can esteem as welcome as life the presence of such a man who comes with a sword to cut off his members, or cut out his eyes: and yet this is the manner of Christ's coming, to bring a cross, and a sword with him, to hew off our lusts (which are our earthly members) and to crucify us to the world.

But what then? Must nothing be preached but damnation and Hell to men? God forbid. We have commission to preach nothing but Christ and life in him: and therefore we never preach the Law, but with reference and guidance to him. The truth is, intentionally we preach nothing but Salvation; we come with no other intention but that every man who hears us might believe and be saved; we have our power only for edification, and not for destruction: but conditionally we preach Salvation and Damnation. He that believes shall be saved, he that believes not shall be damned; that is the sum of our Commission. But it is further very observable in that place that preaching of the Gospel is preaching both of Salvation, and of Damnation upon the several conditions. So then, when we preach the Law, we preach Salvation to them that fear it: (as the Lord showed mercy to Josiah because his heart trembled, and humbled itself at his Law) and when we preach the Gospel, we preach Damnation to them that despise it. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great Salvation. The Gospel is Salvation of itself, but he that neglects Salvation is the more certain to perish; and that with a double destruction, Death to Death, to that wrath of God which abides upon him before, will come a sorer condemnation, by trampling under foot the blood of the Covenant, and not obeying the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here then are two rules to be observed. First, by the ministers of the Word, that they so preach the Law as that it may still appear to be an appendant to the Gospel, and not suffer the ministry to be evil spoken of by men who watch for advantages. We must endeavor so to manage the dispensation of the Law, that men may not thereby be exasperated, but put in mind of the Sanctuary to which they should flee. The heart of man is broken as a flint, with a hard and a soft together: a Hammer and a Pillow is the best way to break a flint; a Prison and a Pardon, a Scourge and a Salve, a Curse and a Savior, is the best way to humble and convert a sinner. When we convince the hearers that all the terrors we pronounce are out of compassion to them; that we have mercy and balm in store to pour into every wound that we make, that all the blows we give are not to kill their souls, but their sins; that though our words bring fire and fury with them, yet they are still in the hand of a Mediator; that the Law is not to break them to desperation, but to humiliation, not to drive them to fury but to Faith, to show them Hell indeed, but with all to keep them from it; if we do not by these means save their souls, yet we shall stop their mouths, that they shall be ashamed to blaspheme the commission by which we speak.

Secondly, the people likewise should learn to rejoice when the Law is preached as it was published; that is, when the conscience is thereby frightened, and made to tremble at the presence of God, and to cry to the Mediator as the people did to Moses, Let not God speak any more to us lest we die, Speak with us and we will hear. For when sin is only by the Law discovered, and death laid open, to cry out against such preaching, is a shrewd argument of a mind not willing to be disquieted in sin, or to be tormented before the time; of a soul which would have Christ, and yet not leave her former husband; which would have him no other king than the stump of wood was to the frogs in the fable, or the molten Calf to Israel in the Wilderness, a quiet idol, whom every lust might securely provoke, and dance about. As the Law may be preached too much, when it is preached without the principal, which is the Gospel: so the Gospel and the mercy therein may be preached too much (or rather indeed too little) because it is with less success; if we may call it preaching and not rather perverting of the Gospel when it is preached without the appendant, which is the Law.

This therefore should in the next place teach all of us to study and delight in the Law of God, as that which sets forth, and makes more glorious and conspicuous the mercy of Christ. Acquaintance with ourselves in the Law, will first, keep us more lowly and vile in our own eyes, make us feel our own pollution and poverty; and that will again make us the more delight in the Law, which is so faithful to render the face of the conscience; and so make a man the more willing, and earnest to be cleansed. Their heart, says David, is as fat as grease, but I delight in your Law. The more the Law does discover our own leanness, scraggedness and penury, the more does the soul of a holy man delight in it because God's mercy is magnified the more, who fills the hungry, and refreshes the weary, and with whom the fatherless finds mercy.

Secondly, it will make us more careful to live by faith, more bold to approach the throne of grace for mercy to cover, and for grace to cure our sores and nakedness. In matters of life and death, impudence and boldness is not unseasonable. A man will never die for modesty: when the soul is convinced by the law that it is accursed, and eternally lost, if it does not speedily plead Christ's satisfaction at the throne of grace, it is emboldened to run to him: when it finds an issue of uncleanness upon it, it will set a price upon the meanest thing about Christ, and be glad to touch the hem of his garment. When a child has any strength, beauty, or loveliness in himself, he will perhaps depend upon his own parts, and expectations to raise a fortune and preferment for himself: but when a child is full of indigence, impotence, crookedness, and deformity, if he were not then supported with this hope, I have a father, [reconstructed: and] parents do not cast out their children for their deformities, he could not live with comfort or assurance: so the sense of our own pollutions and uncleanness, taking off all conceits of any loveliness in ourselves, or of any goodness in us to attract the affections of God, makes us [reconstructed: rely] only on his fatherly compassion. When our Savior called the poor woman of Syrophoenicia a dog, a beastly and unclean creature, yet she takes not this for a denial, but turns it into argument. The less I have by right, the more I hope for by mercy; even men afford their dogs enough to keep them alive, and I ask no more. When the angel put the hollow of Jacob's thigh out of joint, yet he would not let him go; the more lame he was, the more reason he had to hold. The Prodigal was not kept away or driven off from his resolution, by the fear, shame, or misery of his present estate; for he had one word which was able to make way for him through all this, the name of Father. He considered, I can but be rejected at the last, and I am already as low as a rejection can cast me; so I shall lose nothing by returning, for I therefore return because I have nothing; and though I have done enough to be forever shut out of doors, yet it may be, the word Father may have rhetoric enough in it to beg a reconciliation, and to procure an admittance among my father's servants.

Thirdly, it will make us give God the glory of his mercy the more, when we have the deeper acquaintance with our own misery. And God most of all delights in that work of faith, which, when the soul walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in his name and stays upon him.

Fourthly, it will make our comforts and refreshments the sweeter, when they come. The greater the humiliation, the deeper the tranquility. As fire is hottest in the coldest weather: so comfort is sweetest in the greatest extremities; shaking settles the peace of the heart the more. The Spirit is a Comforter, as well when he convinces of sin, as of righteousness and judgment; because he does it to make righteousness the more acceptable, and judgment the more beautiful.

Lastly, acquaintance with our own foulness and diseases by the law, will make us more careful to keep in Christ's company, and to walk according to his will; because he is a physician to cure, a refiner to purge, a father and a husband to compassionate our estate. The less beauty or worth there is in us, the more carefully should we study to please him, who loved us for himself, and married us out of pity to our deformities, not out of delight in our beauty. Humility keeps the heart tractable and pliant. As melted wax is easily fashioned, so a humble spirit is easily fashioned to Christ's image: whereas a stone, a hard and stubborn heart, must be hewn and hammered before it will take any shape. Pride, self-confidence, and conceitedness, are the [reconstructed: principles] of disobedience; men will hold their accustomed courses till they be humbled by the law. They are not humbled, says the Lord, to this day, and the consequence of this is, neither have they feared nor walked in my law. If you will not hear, that is, if you will still disobey the Lord's messages, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; to note that pride is the principle of disobedience. They and our fathers, says [reconstructed: Nehemiah] in his confession, [reconstructed: dealt] proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to your commandments; and refused to obey. And therefore Hezekiah used this persuasion to the ten tribes to come up to Jerusalem to the Lord's Passover. Do not be stiff-necked as your fathers, but yield yourselves to the Lord. To note that humiliation is the way to obedience; when once the heart is humbled it will be glad to walk with God. Humble yourself, says the prophet, to walk with your God. [reconstructed: Receive] the engrafted word with meekness, says the apostle. When the heart is first made meek and lowly, it will then be ready to receive the word, and the word ready to incorporate in it, as seed in torn and harrowed ground. When Paul was [reconstructed: dismounted], and cast down upon the earth, terrified and astonished at the heavenly vision, immediately he is qualified for obedience, Lord what will you have me to do? When the soul is convinced by the law, that of itself it comes short of the glory [reconstructed: of] God, walks in darkness, and can go no way but to hell; it will then with joy and thankfulness [reconstructed: follow] the Lamb wherever he goes; as being well assured, that though the way of the Lamb be a way of blood, yet the end is a throne of glory, and a crown of life.