am to establish is, that " we are under the law to Christ."
In confirmation of this, I assert, that our obedience to the law was contemplated by God himself : first, in all that Christ did and suffered for us ; next, in his liberating of us from the law as a covenant of works ; and, lastly, in his admission of us into a new covenant, the covenant of grace.
First, I say, our obedience to the law was one great object which our Lord and Saviour had in viezv, in all that he did and suffered for us. It was not from death only that he came to save us, but from sin. Indeed, he was on that very account " named Jesus, because he was to save his people from their sins6." Hear how plainly this was declared concerning him, even before he came into the world : " Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, when filled with the Holy Ghost, prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us
to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant ; the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteous- ness before him all the days of our life*." This clearly shews, that, instead of " making void the law, Christ has established " its authority to the very end of time. And to this agrees the testimony of St. Paul : " He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." And again, expressly advert- ing to the government which Jesus still maintains over his people, he says, " None of us liveth to him- self, and no man dieth to himself: for whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord : whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's : for to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living*."
e Matt. i. 21. f Luke i. 67—75. » Rom. xiv. 7, 8.