And that by Law, when the Gospel is so named in this Gal. 2. 19. the Apostle means a pure Doctrine of Grace, and not a more moderated Law of Works, appears from ver. 21. I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if Righteousness come by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain. It is as if he should have said, However others despise the Grace of God, and think it too mean and ignoble to owe their Life to it, it shall be my great Zeal to magnify it, to illustrate its Glory, and to pay unto it the highest Honour. However others are Obstacles to its Progress, and endeavour to put a stop to its Victories ⟨p. 21⟩and Triumphs, or attempt to render all its Power and Force vain and ineffectual, yet for my part I will neither say nor do any thing to frustrate it; and none of my Actions, nor any Article of Doctrine which I teach, shall in the least degree have such a Tendency. I will not let fall a Word, which may but seem to lessen or disparage the Favours of my blessed Redeemer, who loved me, and gave himself for me. And can there be a greater Slight, than when he hath done, and suffered so much to save me, not to rest satisfied with his Undertaking and Work as complete, but to be solicitously endeavouring how to supply the Deficiencies, and to perfect it my self? To esteem Christ as insufficient, is certainly to despise him in the highest measure, and he doth not suffice mea, if I join my own Righteousness to his, or add Works done by me in Obedience to any Law unto his great Performances: Nay, if I should assert Righteousness to come by any Law, whether New or Old, I should dishonour Christ so much as to insinuate, that he died very unwisely or unadvisedly: For what could be more unadvised, than to come and suffer all sorts of Miseries, and at last to expire in Torments, and that only to the Purpose of effecting what might have been done very well without such expense of his inestimable Blood? For if by my Obedience to some Law I may be justified, and the Works of that can be my Righteousness, why should Christ die? or to what purpose was he obedient, since no other Ends of his Death and Obedience are assigned, but the Justification of a Sinner? And if this Business can be effected by this Sinner's own Works of what Nature soever, the Blood and Righteousness of Christ comes in uncalled for, and when there is no great or urgent need of themb.
And that by Law, when the Gospel is so nam'd in this Gal. 2. 19. the Apostle means a pure Doctrine of Grace, and not a more moderated Law of Works, appears from ver. 21. I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if Righteousness come by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain. It is as if he should have said, However others despise the Grace of God, and think it too mean and ignoble to owe their Life to it, it shall be my great Zeal to magnify it, to illustrate its Glory, and to pay unto it the highest Honour. However others are Obstacles to its Progress, and endeavour to put a stop to its Victories ⟨p. 21⟩and Triumphs, or attempt to render all its Power and Force vain and ineffectual, yet for my part I will neither say nor do any thing to frustrate it; and none of my Actions, nor any Article of Doctrine which I teach, shall in the least degree have such a Tendency. I will not let fall a Word, which may but seem to lessen or disparage the Favours of my blessed Redeemer, who loved me, and gave himself for me. And can there be a greater Slight, than when he hath done, and suffered so much to save me, not to rest satisfied with his Undertaking and Work as compleat, but to be solicitously endeavouring how to supply the Deficiencies, and to perfect it my self? To esteem Christ as insufficient, is certainly to despise him in the highest measure, and he doth not suffice mea, if I join my own Righteousness to his, or add Works done by me in Obedience to any Law unto his great Performances: Nay, if I should assert Righteousness to come by any Law, whether New or Old, I should dishonour Christ so much as to insinuate, that he died very unwisely or unadvisedly: For what could be more unadvised, than to come and suffer all sorts of Miseries, and at last to expire in Torments, and that only to the Purpose of effecting what might have been done very well without such expence of his inestimable Blood? For if by my Obedience to some Law I may be justified, and the Works of that can be my Righteousness, why should Christ die? or to what purpose was he obedient, since no other Ends of his Death and Obedience are assigned, but the Justification of a Sinner? And if this Business can be effected by this Sinner's own Works of what Nature soever, the Blood and Righteousness of Christ comes in uncalled for, and when there is no great or urgent need of themb.
- aNihil tam apertum, quia si per Legem potuisset homo justificari, Christum non oportuerat mori. Sed quia Lex dare remissionem peccatorum non poterat, neque secundam mortem detriumphans expoliare captivis, quos tenebat causa peccati, idcirco Christus mortuus est, ut ea praestaret, quae Lex non poterat, ac per hoc non gratis mortuus est. Mors enim ejus justificatio peccatorum. Ambros. in Gal. 2. pag. 327. in Tom. 5. oper. Edit. Froben. Basil. 1538. Non debeo illi esse ingratus, qui me tantum dilexit, ut pro me etiam moreretur; abjecta enim est gratia, si sola non sufficit. Comment. in Gal. 2. Incert. Aut. sed Antiqui inter opera Hieronymi. Fol. 216. pag. 2. Tom. 9. Edit. Froben. Basil. 1526.
- bThose Errors with which Crellius the Socinian hath corrupted this Text, when he asserts the Gospel to be a new Law, and that to be justified by our Faith, as our Evangelical Obedience to it, is not excluded here by the Apostle. This Fundamental Error of Socinianism, is excellently refuted by Cocceius, whom I would have transcribed, had the design'd brevity of this Discourse permitted it; I therefore refer the Learned Reader to that Author himself. Cocceius in Gal. 2. 21. in Tom. 4. oper. Amstel. 1673.
