Having pointed out this first use of the law, I now come to recommend it in that particular view, and for that express end.
It is well known that men have a great propensity to cleave to the law, and to seek salvation by it. This was the besetting sin of the Pharisees of old : " they had a zeal for God, but not according to know- ledge ; for, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they would not submit to the righteousness of Godh." This was the fault also of the Judaizing teachers : they were always blending the law with the Gospel, as a joint ground of hope before God ; not being aware, that, if they relied upon the law at all, they must stand or fall by it altogether. The moment they did any thing with a view to obtain justification by it, they became " debtors to do the whole law1;" and, not having discharged their whole debt to that, nothing awaited them but chains of darkness for evermore. The same propensity there is in us, though it is indulged by men in very different de- grees. Some look for their justification altogether upon the footing of their good works : these know not for what end good works can be required at all, but with the view of our obtaining justification by them : and, when they are told that they can never be justified by their works, they suppose that we set aside the observance of good works altogether, and encourage all manner of licentiousness. Others see, that some honour is due to Christ ; and that if he came to save us, we must, in part at least, stand indebted to him for salvation. Hence they are will- ing to rely in part on his vicarious sacrifice, and in part on their own obedience to the law. They do not perceive that the one makes void the other ; and that salvation must be wholly of works or wholly of grace ; and therefore they unite the two as the foun- dation of their hope. But they see not that their foundation is only like the image of iron and clay in
h Rom. x. 2, 3. ; Gal. v. 3.