and that men despairing of salvation in and of themselves, might speedily betake themselves to Christ for it. For God in the scripture hath concluded, that is, declared, all men to be under sin, and under the curse due to sin; that, renouncing all confidence in themselves, they should, by faith, have recourse to the only Mediator for righteousness and life, for justification and salvation. Learn hence, That God, in the publication of the law by Moses on mount Sinai, had none but merciful and evangelical intentions. 2. That the publication of the law by Moses, was not against the promise of God made to Abraham; but they had both the same merciful design and gracious intention. To explain the matter by a similitude or illustration, thus: "Suppose a prince should proclaim a pardon to all traitors, if they would come in and plead it; and after this should send forth an officer to attack and arraign them, to threaten and condemn them: is the prince contrary to himself? hath he repented of his mercy? No, sure! but he is unwilling to lose the glory of his mercy, and most desirous to have the honour of it acknowledged; and therefore he bringeth these criminals into extremities, that when their guilt is made evident, they may acknowledge the justice of the law that would condemn them, and the great mercy of the prince in offering a pardon to them." The case is alike between God and us: first to Abraham, and in him to us: God made a promise of mercy and blessedness, even to all that would plead an interest in it, for remission of sins, and acceptance with God. But the world grew secure and though sin was in them, and death reigned over them, they regarded not their miserable condition: being without a law to evidence sin and death unto their consciences, they saw no necessity of pleading the promise of pardon. Hereupon Almighty God publishes by Moses a severe and terrible law, a law which filled the air with thunder, and the mount with fire, insomuch that Moses, the mediator, did exceedingly fear and quake; in all this, God did but pursue his first purpose of mercy, and take a course to make his gospel accounted worthy of all acceptation, that men, being by this law roused from their security, and made sensible of the curse and malediction they lie under, might run from Sinai unto Sion, from Moses to Christ, and, by faith, plead that pardon and remission which in Christ was promised, when God told Abra

ham, that in his seed should all the families of the earth be blessed.

23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Before faith came, that is, before Christ came, and the doctrine of faith was preached, we were in bondage under the law: the ceremonial law was a very great bondage: their frequent going up to Jerusalem at their festivals, was burdensome; their ceremonies were many, inconvenient, and chargeable; their laws for uncleanness and purifications, rendered them unconversable at all times with other people, and sometimes unconversable with one another: yet was the law very useful to the Jews, that so they might be prepared by it to receive the doctrine of Christ, and salvation by faith in him. Hence it is that he calleth the law their schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ; the schoolmaster exercises authority over minors only, not overgrown persons; he teaches only rudiments and first principles for beginners, not such things as require mature judgment and perfect age. Such was the law in comparison of the gospel, and Moses with respect to Christ. Moses and the law is a rigid and severe schoolmaster, who by whips and threats require an hard lesson of their scholars, whether able to learn it or not but Christ and the gospel, is a mild and gentle teacher, who by sweet promises and good rewards invite their scholars to their duty, and guide and help them to do what of themselves they cannot do; by which means they love both their master and their lesson, and rejoice when it is nearest to them, to direct them in their studies. As the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, so Christ is our great prophet that leads us to God. Note farther, That though the law was a good schoolmaster to the Jews in their infancy and minority, yet it has no authority over christians now grown up to maturity The gospel-church, that is, both believing Jews and Gentiles, being like a son come to age, believing in Christ already come, are no longer to be treated as children un

rious christians, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

CHAP. IV.

Our apostle farther proceeds in this chapter, to clear the freedom of christians, under the gospel, from the servitude and bondage of the Mosaic law. He shows, that the abolished ceremonies of the legal dispensation were properly suited to the minority and infant state of the Jewish church, which required instruction in spiritual mysteries, by carnal resemblances: but that now Christ, by his actual appearance in human flesh, bath obtained our freedom from all those yokes, and put us into a fuller possession of the rights of children, even such as are come to age, and are grown up to riper years. The Jewish church before Christ, our apostle compares to an infant in respect of age, they were babes and children; to a servant, in respect of fears and subjection; to a pupil under tutors and governors, under the tuition of a curst schoolmaster, the law, acquainted only with the first rudiments of religion, the high mys teries of faith being not so clearly manifested, nor made known unto them. And accordingly the apostle thus bespeaks them :

NOW I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors, until the time appointed of the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

The apostle, in these words, compares the church of God, under the Old Testament, to an infant or child in its minority and nonage; partly with respect to their weakness in understanding, and want of the means of knowledge comparatively to what we enjoy; and, partly, with respect to the discipline they were under from their rigid schoolmaster, the ceremonial law. " Now," says the apostle," as a child, though he be heir to, and owner of, all his Father's inheritance in hope, yet so long as he is a minor, and under age, he differeth nothing from a servant, in point of subjection, but is under the management of tutors and directors: in like manner the church when in its infant state, under the Old Testament, was kept in bondage and subjection under the rigid administration and rigorous exaction of the law, and tied to almost a numberless number of ceremonial observances, by which it pleased Almighty God to instruct the former ages of his church." Learn hence, That the Jewish church, in its infant state, was obliged to learn and practise the elements of a religion chiefly consisting in visible and bodily perform

VOL. II.

ances of the ceremonial law; which were but rudiments, in respect of that heavenly doctrine concerning spiritual life which the gospel now reveals, and clearly makes known unto us: When we were children, of the world. we were in bondage under the elements

4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

That is, "When the fulness of time was come, which God the Father had appointed for the finishing of the legal dispensation, and for the abolishing the ceremonial rites, God sent forth from himself the Son of himself, his only-begotten Son, made, that is, born of a

woman, made under and obedient to the law, subjecting himself both to its precepts and its curse, to redeem them who were under and the malediction of it: that we believthe law, and discharge them from the curse ers, we the members of the christian church, might receive the adoption of sons, without any observance of circumcision, or other ceremonial rites." Observe here, 1. That Christ was God's Son, his own Son, the Son of himself, as the original calls him, Rom. viii. 3. his Son, not barely in regard of his miraculous conception, or in regard of his sanctification and mission, or in regard of his resurrection and exaltation, or in regard of that endeared affection which the Father bare unto him; but in regard of his essence and nature as begotten by him his Son by eternal and ineffable generation; being for nature co-essential, for dignity co-equal, and for duration coeternal, with the Father. Observe, 2. That Christ, God's own Son, was sent forth by God the Father; God sent forth his Son. This sending of the Son doth, 1. Presuppose his pre-existence before his incarnation; (for if he had not had a being, he could not have been sent ;) it supposes also his personality, and that he was a Person, not an operation or manifestation only, for that he could not be sent; and that he

was

a Person really distinct from the Father, for how else could one send the other? 2. God's sending of Christ doth imply his ordaining, constituting, and ap pointing Christ from all eternity to come into the world; also his fitting and qualifying of him for his incarnation, and his

Y

authorizing and commissioning of Christ to take our nature upon him, and in that nature to do and suffer for us, as our pattern, and as our surety. Observe, 3. That Christ, God's own Son, sent forth by God the Father, was made of a woman, did really assume and take upon him our flesh, and was made manifest in our nature. It was not an indigested, unshapen mass or lump of flesh, that Christ assumed, but that flesh was organized and formed into a perfect body, having the same parts, members, lineaments, and proportions, which ours have; St. Paul calls it, Colos. i. 22. the body of his flesh; a body, to show the organization of it; and a body of flesh, to show the reality of it. Observe, 4. That the season in which Christ was sent forth, was not in the beginning of time, nor at the end of time, but in the fulness of time. He came not in the beginning of time; to excite his people's affections and longing desires for his coming, and to teach them to prize him the more when come. He staid not till the end of time; lest the faith of the church and people should have failed. The patriarchs believed in Christ to come, the apostles believed in Christ then present among them, and we believe in Christ as come, and gone again to heaven. Thus in all differences of time past, present, and to come, faith had, has, and will have, its suitable work and proper employment. Observe, 5. That the great end of God in sending Christ unto us, and the gracious design of Christ in his undertaking for us, was our redemption from the bondage and curse of the law, and our adoption into the number of God's children: To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

As if the apostle had said, "That you are now, under the gospel, become and made the sons of God, appeareth by this, that God hath sent the Spirit of his natural Son into your hearts, to authorize and enable you to call upon him, not only as your God, but as your Father; the gospel assuring you, that you are no longer in that servile condition you were in whilst under the law; but God will deal with you now upon gospel terms, and justify you by faith without the deeds of the law. Now God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into

your hearts." Observe here, 1. The title given to the Holy Spirit: it is called the Spirit of God's Son: that is, the Spirit of Christ; because it is the same Spirit which abode upon him that rested upon us, and because the Spirit is purchased and procured for us by the blood of the Son. Those rivers of living water, by which the effusion of the Spirit is expressed, do flow out of Christ's pierced side: Christ purchased the Spirit for us, before he sent him from heaven to us. Observe, 2. The act respecting his person; God hath sent forth. This imports not any change of place, as if he were more distant from the Father when he was thus sent than he was before; but it notes his commission for some special work in and upon the creature. Observe, 3. The objects which have the benefits of this act : God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, that is, into the hearts of believers; signifying, that the work here intended is an inward work, and a saving work, Ezek. xxxvi. 27. I will put my Spirit in them; not into the brain, to dwell there by common, unsanctified gifts, but into the heart, where all the habits of grace are planted, and from whence all the issues of life proceed. Observe, 4. The office which the Holy Spirit performs in the be liever's heart: first, it cries; secondly, it cries, Abba, Father. The Spirit cries, by enabling us through his gracious influences and assistances to cry or pray unto God; and it cries, Father, Father; the repetition made, and the word redoubled, denotes the strength and vehemency of the desire, and speaks a passionate and extraordinary concernment of soul, for obtaining the mercy desired, and the blessings prayed for. Learn lience, 1. That there are three sacred Persons in the blessed Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; all are held forth to clause of the verse, God hath sent forth us in this single verse, yea, in this single the Spirit of his Son. Learn, 2. That the Spirit is not a quality or operation, but a person that has a real being and substance; else the phrase of being sent could not be properly applied to him. Learn, 3. That the Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and the Son; for he is the Spirit of the Son, and he is sent by the Father. There is an order among the Divine persons, though no priority of being. Learn, 4. That the Spirit of adoption is a spirit of supplication; and the spirit of supplication is the great privilege and advantage of believers under the gospel: for it teaches us

what to pray for, and the manner how we are to pray; it joineth with our prayers his own effectual intercessions; it gives us a right and privilege to come unto God as unto a Father, and gives us also confidence and assurance as sons to be accepted with him. Learn, 5. That the great privilege of adoption is both discovered and improved by the help of the Spirit of Christ. Our privilege of sonship under the gospel excels by far theirs under the law: 1. In point of manifestation and clearness; 2. As to fulness and amplitude of enjoyment. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Note here, 1. That the spirit of the first covenant was a servile spirit, a spirit of fear and bondage, and they that were under that covenant were rather servants than sons; not but that true believers, in and under the Old Testament, were the sons and daughters of the most high God, and we find them challenging their privilege, Isa. Ixii. 16. Doubtless thou art our Father. But yet it was in so defective a degree, that they seemed more like to servants than to sons, and were trained up under suitable discipline. Hence says the apostle here, Thou art now no more a servant: implying, they were once so. Note, 2. That the spirit of the new covenant is a free and ingenuous spirit, and the gospel state a more filial state than the legal state was: Thou art now no more a servant, but a son; and if sons, then are you heirs of God, and have a right to the inheritance of heaven when you die, and to the blessed privileges and royal immunities contained in that great charter and covenant of grace whilst you live: If a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. 9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto desire again to be in bondage?

ye

Our apostle having proved sufficiently the believing christians' freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law; next endeavours to convince the Galatians how absurd and unreasonable it was for them voluntarily to put themselves under the obligation

and obedience of it, and to look upon it as necessary to their justification and salvation. Now in the verses before us he tells them, that when they were Gentiles they were the worst of slaves, serving them that were no gods at all; whereas the Jews served the true God, though in a servile manner. These Galatians, being heathens before conversion, served false gods, and so were in a bondage much worse than that of the Jews. The apostle therefore justly blames them, that they being naturally Gentiles, and never under the ceremonial law, should now desire and choose parently to go backward in religion, or to to enter into that bondage: which was apreturn to those principles which they had already overpast. Thence learn, That it is possible for a professing people to advance very far in the way of christianity, and yet make a foul retreat afterwards in a course of defection and apostasy: After ye have known God, that is, acknowledged the living and true God, and been acknowledged by him, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements? Here note, How contemptuously, or at least disesteemingly, our apostle speaks of the legal rites of the ceremonial law: he calls them elements or rudiments, because they were God's first instructions given to his church for his worship, to which he intended afterwards a more perfect way of worship. Next he calls them weak elements, because the law made nothing perfect, and the observance of it was impotent and unavailable to a sinner's justification before God. And, lastly, he calls them beggarly elements, in comparison of that more rational and spiritual way of worship under the gospel. Whence we may learn, That holy zeal will teach a saint to speak with a sort of contempt of any thing that encroaches upon the honour due to Christ, or any of his offices. True, the Levitical ceremonies were appointed by God himself, as a part of divine worship leading to Christ, and as such to be religiously observed; but when the false apostles did urge the observation of them under the gospel, as a part of necessary commanded worship, and as a part of the Galatians' righteousness before God, St. Paul is bold then to give them the name of weak and beggarly elements.

10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.