2. The prophets —
[These confessedly, with one voice, spoke of Christ: so that, from the first promise of " the seed of the woman to bruise the serpent's head," to the last that was uttered re- specting " the Sun of Righteousness that should arise with healing in his wings," all spake of him ; all directed to him ; and he was the life and soul of all ]
To those who thus enter into the full scope of revelation, it will be made known,
II. In its effects, as a ministration of liberty —
The whole of it, altogether, is " that truth which will make us free'." It will impart liberty,
1. From all legal obligation —
[As for the ordinances of the ceremonial law, they were all intended to be " abolished^" and are abolished^. But even the moral law itself, so far as it was a covenant of life and death, is abolished. We are brought under " a better covenant," a covenant of grace «>. We therefore hear the curses of the law without any emotion, except of love and gratitude. The thunders of Mount Sinai have no terror for us : *' there is no condemnation to us," because we believe in Christ", and have in him a righteousness fully commensurate with its strictest demands". He has borne its curse for us; and left for us nothing but unalloyed and everlasting bless- ings p ]
2. From all legal exertions —
[We no longer abstain from any thing through the fear of hell, nor engage in any thing to purchase heaven. As far as we are animated by the spirit of the Gospel, we can adopt those words of David, " I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way^:" that is, I view thy ways as so excellent, that I would walk in them though there were no reward annexed to such a line of con- duct : and I view sin as so odious, that I would not live in it, though I might do so with impunity. Indeed, were the Christian penetrated with any other spirit than this, he would render all his obedience worthless in the sight of God ; who, though he tells us to huy the blessings of salvation, tells us that we must buy them " without money, and without price''"
i John viii. 32. k yer. 11.
1 Col. ii. 14, 20—22. Heb. vii. 18. m Heb. viii. 6—13.
n Rom. viii. 1. « Rom. iii. 22. p Gal. iii. 13.
1 Ps. cxix. 128. r isai. ly. 1.