_Do we then make void the law thro’ faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law._
1. IT has been shewn in the preceding discourse, which are the most usual ways of _making void the law thro’ faith_: namely, first, The not preaching it at all, which effectually makes it all void at a stroke: and this under colour of _preaching Christ_ and magnifying the gospel, tho’ it be in truth, destroying both the one and the other: secondly, The teaching (whether directly or indirectly) that faith supersedes the necessity of holiness: that this is less necessary now, or a less degree of it necessary, than before Christ came: that it is less necessary to us, because we believe, than otherwise it would have been: or, that Christian liberty is a liberty from any kind or degree of holiness: (so perverting those great truths, that we are now under the _covenant of grace_ and not _of works_: that _a man is justified by faith, without the works of the law_; and that _to him that worketh not but believeth, his faith is counted for righteousness_:) or, thirdly, The doing this practically; the making void the law in practice tho’ not in principle: the living or acting, as if faith was designed to excuse us from holiness: the allowing ourselves in sin, _because we are not under the law, but under grace_. It remains to enquire, how we may follow a better pattern, how we may be able to say with the apostle, _Do we then make void the law thro’ faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law._
2. We do not indeed establish the old ceremonial law: we know that is abolished for ever. Much less do we establish the whole _Mosaic_ dispensation. This, we know, our Lord has _nailed to his cross_. Nor yet do we so establish the moral law (which it is to be feared, too many do) as if the fulfilling it, the keeping all the commandments, were the condition of our justification. If it were so, surely _in his sight, should no man living be justified_. But all this being allowed, we still in the apostle’s sense, _establish the law_, the moral law.
I. 1. We _establish the law_, first, By our doctrine: by endeavouring to preach it in its whole extent, to explain and inforce every part of it, in the same manner as our great Teacher did, while upon earth. We establish it, by following St. _Peter_’s advice, _If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God_; as the holy men of old moved by the Holy Ghost, spoke and wrote for our instruction, and as the apostles of our blessed Lord, by the direction of the same spirit. We establish it whenever we speak in his name, by keeping back nothing from them that hear; by declaring to them, without any limitation or reserve, the whole counsel of God. And in order the more effectually to establish it, we use herein great plainness of speech. _We are not as many that corrupt the word of God_, καπηλεύουσι· (as artful men their bad wines) we do not cauponize, mix, adulterate or soften it, to make it suit the taste of the hearers. _But as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God, speak we in Christ_: as having no other aim, than _by manifestation of the truth_, to _commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God_.
2. We then by our doctrine establish the law, when we thus openly declare it to all men: and that, in the fulness wherein it is delivered by our blessed Lord and his apostles: when we publish it in the height and depth and length and breadth thereof. We then establish the law, when we declare every part of it, every commandment contained therein, not only in its full literal sense, but likewise in its spiritual meaning: not only with regard to the outward actions, which it either forbids or enjoins: but also with respect to the inward principle, to the thoughts, desires and intents of the heart.