" Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth3!"
Further proofs of this point will be adduced in their proper place. What I have here stated is quite sufficient to establish the point proposed ; namely, that the moral law is that chiefly respecting which the Apostle's inquiry is instituted.
Now, then, let me say what I mean by the moral law. It is that law which was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and was " ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator." It was the law of the ten commandments only that God wrote on tables of stone, or that was given to Moses at that time amidst the ministration of angels b. All the ceremonial law was revealed to Moses afterwards, and in private, without any of the attendant pomp with which the moral law was given.
But what was this law ? and in what light was it to be considered ? It was the very law which was originally written upon the heart of man in Paradise ; and which, having been effaced in a great measure by the fall, and altogether obliterated from the minds of men through forgetfulness, and the love of sin, needed now to be republished ; in order that men might know how transgression had abounded ; and how greatly they stood in need of that Promised Seed, whom God had before taught them to expect, and " in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed." It was intended to shew them on what terms life had been originally promised to man in Paradise ; and on what terms alone it could give life to man. But, inasmuch as all had transgressed it, none could obtain life by it now ; but all must seek for life in the way which God had provided, even by faith in the Promised Seed ; to which way of salva- tion the law was now intended to shut them up.
Now, then, we come to shew the true nature of this law. We have shewn, that it is of the moral law that we are speaking : and to that we are more
* Rom. x. 4. b Compare Acts vii. 53. with Deut. v. 22.