surate with all the demands of the law, and offers that right- eousness to every man who will believe in Christ. It declares that " Christ himself is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth " ;" and that the law was given as a ministration of death on purpose to shut men up to this right- eousness, and to constrain them to seek salvation in the way provided for them".
The Gospel is also " the ministration of the Spirit." In the first ages, the Spirit was given in his miraculous powers to attest the truth and Divine authority of the Gospel. That end having been fully answered, his miraculous powers are no longer exercised : but his gracious influences still continue, and will continue to the end of time. Still is he sent " to convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:" still it is his office " to glorify Christ," and to " take of the things that are Christ's, and to shew them unto us :" still does he enlighten the minds, and sanctify the souls, of them that believe: still does he, as the Comforter promised to the Church, operate in the saints as " a Spirit of adoption," " witnessing with their spirits that they are the children of God," and " sealing them unto the day of redemption." To none is he imparted for these ends but through the Gospel of Christ; and, wherever the Gospel is faithfully ministered, he does accompany it with these blessed influences ; producing holiness and comfort in all who truly receive it.
Thus the Gospel supplies what the law knew nothing of. We have before said, that the law spake nothing of pardon to the guilty, or of strength to the weak : but the Gospel admi- nisters both ; and that too in such an abundant measure, as is adequate to the necessities of the whole world : it ministers righteousness sufficient to justify the most guilty sinner upon earth ; and imparts the Spirit, so that the weakest may be more than conqueror over all the enemies of his soul.]
Corresponding with this description of the law and of the Gospel were,
II. The different degrees of glory pertaining to each — The law was truly glorious — [It was proclaimed by God himself with an audible voice in the midst of such displays of glory as had never been seen from the foundation of the world: and, that it might never be forgotten, it was written also by the finger of God in tables of stone. Moreover, the person through whom it was given to Israel, had such glory imparted to him, that the people of Israel were no more able to look steadfastly upon his face, than
n Rom. X. 4. 0 Gal. iii. 22, 23.