5. But is the zeal of these men according to knowledge? Have they observed the connection between the law and faith? And that considering the close connection between them, to destroy one is indeed to destroy both? That to abolish the moral law is in truth, to abolish faith and the law together? As leaving no proper means, either of bringing us to faith, or of stirring up that gift of God in our soul.
6. It therefore behoves all who desire either to come to Christ, or to walk in Him whom they have received, to take heed how they make void the law through faith; to secure us effectually against which, let us enquire, first, which are the most usual ways of making void the law through faith, and secondly, How we may follow the apostle, and by faith establish the law.
I. 1. Let us, first, inquire, Which are the most usual ways of making void the law through faith. Now the way for a preacher to make it all void at a stroke, is, Not to preach it at all. This is just the same thing, as to blot it out of the oracles of God. More especially when it is done with design; when it is made a rule, “Not to preach the law:” and the very phrase, “A preacher of the law,” is used as a term of reproach, as tho’ it meant little less than, “an enemy to the gospel.”
2. All this proceeds from the deepest ignorance of the nature, properties and use of the law: and proves that those who act thus, either know not Christ, are utter strangers to living faith: or at least, that they are but babes in Christ, and as such unskilled in the word of righteousness.
3. Their grand plea is this: “That preaching the gospel (that is, according to their judgment, the speaking of nothing but the sufferings and merits of Christ) answers all the ends of the law.” But this we utterly deny. It does not answer the very first end of the law, namely, The convincing men of sin, the awakening those who are still asleep on the brink of hell. There may have been here and there an exempt case. One in a thousand may have been awakened by the gospel. But this is no general rule. The ordinary method of God, is to convict sinners by the law, and that only. The gospel is not the means which God hath ordained, or which our Lord himself used, for this end. We have no authority in scripture for applying it thus, nor any ground, to think it will prove effectual. Nor have we any more ground to expect this, from the nature of the thing. They that be whole, as our Lord himself observes, need not a physician, but they that be sick. It is absurd therefore to offer a physician to them that are whole, or that at least imagine themselves so to be. You are first, to convince them, that they are sick. Otherwise they will not thank you for your labour. It is equally absurd to offer Christ to them, whose heart is whole, having never yet been broken. It is in the proper sense, casting pearls before swine. Doubtless, they will trample them under foot. And it is no more than you have reason to expect, if they also turn again and rent you.
4. “But altho’ there is no command in scripture, to offer Christ to the careless sinner, yet are there not scriptural precedents for it?” I think not: I know not any. I believe you can’t produce one, either from the four Evangelists, or the Acts of the Apostles. Neither can you prove this to have been the practice of any of the apostles, from any passage in all their writings.
5. “Nay, does not the apostle Paul say, in his former Epistle to the Corinthians, We preach Christ crucified? ch. i. ver. 23. And in his latter, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord? ch. v. ver. 4.”
We consent to rest the cause on this issue: to tread in his steps, to follow his example. Only preach you, just as Paul preached, and the dispute is at an end.
For altho’ we are certain he preached Christ, in as perfect a manner as the very chief of the apostles, yet who preached the law more than St. Paul? Therefore he did not think the gospel answered the same end.
6. The very first sermon of St. Paul’s, which is recorded, concludes in these words. By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets, Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days, a work which you will in no wise believe, tho’ a man declare it unto you, Acts xiii. 39, &c. Now it is manifest, all this is preaching the law, in the sense wherein you understand the term: even altho’ great part of, if not all his hearers, were either Jews or religious proselytes, ver. 43. and therefore probably many of them, in some degree at least, convinced of sin already. He first reminds them, That they could not be justified by the law of Moses, but only by faith in Christ: and then severely threatens them with the judgments of God, which is in the strongest sense preaching the law.