The Twofold Covenant of the Law and the Gospel; Or, the Inheritance of the Gentile and the Liberty of the Jew, in Christ (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842 edition. Excerpt: ... so rooted out, as to leave no remnant behind for a time; and we know that there have been persons, "desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm" (1 Tim. i. 7); and they perverted many: but what the effects of their doctrines were we see in the Galatians; they once "did run well" and had received "the Spirit," and, no doubt, manifested forth his blessed fruits; but what became of them, when they departed "from the simplicity that is in Christ?" "Foolish Galatians,"--"bewitched"--to "bite and devour one another" (Gal. hi. 1, 2, v. 15); and the same would be the result amongst Hebrew Christians. "Be not carried about," says the Apostle, to Jews, "with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein." (Heb.xiii. 9.) "Before faith came we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Gal. iii. 23--25.) Or applies this to Gentiles only, --were they "kept under the law, shut up," and was the law, which they had not at all, --their "schoolmaster" only, and not that of the Jews? Nay, rather of the Jews only, and of Gentile believers only, in so far as they became fellow-heirs with, and ingraffed amongst, the Jews. But the Apostle Paul had also a vow on himself (Acts xviii. 18.) So may Christians, hke Jacob of old (Gen. xxviii. 20), before the laws concerning vows were given, (Numb. xxx., ) now vow a vow, though in Europe, where this is not the fashion, they would not shave...