sanctions. masters." "We are no longer under a school Such was the controversy in the course of which St. Paul asserted that the Law was our pædagogue until or in order to Christ, and that faith being come we are no longer under a pædagogue. The terms "law" and "faith," so frequently repeated in the Epistle to the Galatians, can only be understood by their connection with the context, and their application in passages preceding that in which the Law is said to have been our schoolmaster. The relation which the Law bears to mankind as leading them to Christ; the manner in which its object is accomplished; and the blessings following the attainment of that object; are the subjects of very different and irreconcileable opinions. Some would restrict the term "law" to the Mosaic dispensation; others would apply it to the moral law independently of the Mosaic. Some con sider its office as extinct upon the promulgation of the Christian faith in the Apostolic age; others maintain that it is still a schoolmaster to all until they are convinced by it that their salvation depends solely on the satisfaction rendered to the law by Christ. Some assert the blessings that succeed to Christians subsequently to the pædagogy of the law, to 5 cc Pædagogus proprie notat eum, qui puerum manu prehensum ad magistrum duxit.-Lex ergo hujusmodi pædagogus est, qui nos ad magistrum summum ducit, nempe Christum." Schoettgen. Hor. Hebr. in loc. p. 741. be mainly summed up in the adoption of the Gentile world into the visible Church of Christ, a privilege which by the Apostolic writers is frequently included in the mystery made manifest by the Gospel. Others accommodate the language of St. Paul to what they consider, "the believer's privileges upon flying from the law to Christ," or the particular application of Christ's righteousness to converted Christians. Such is the apparent uncertainty of those terms which are the basis of the enquiry, "In what sense is the law a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ?" The enquiry, therefore, "In what sense the law is a schoolmaster to lead men to Christ," depends upon some previous ones, as, What is understood by the term law?" In how many senses is it to be understood? or to which is it to be restricted? What was the nature of its pædagogy? What were the subjects to which its pædagogy was referred? and lastly, is its office still in being, and exerted over a portion of mankind, or is its power and the occasion of its office at an end? In answer to these questions it is my design to prove, That the Law in Gal. iii. 24. is the Mosaic ; That the Mosaic Law was was a pædagogue to lead men to Christ; Eph. i. 3, 4, 5. 2 Tim. i. 9, 10. Tit. i. 2, 3. 1 Pet. i. 20. That the subjects to which its pædagogy was referred, were the mediation, doctrine, and authority of Christ; That the means by which the Law conducted men to Christ were, indirectly, by the consideration of its own nature and imperfection; directly, by prophetical injunction, by prophecies, and by types; and lastly, That Christians are not under the pædagogy of the Law, but included in the privileges of adoption. CHAP. I. THE LAW IN GALATIANS (ch. iii. 24.) THAT the Law was our schoolmaster to Christ, is not stated as an insulated and independent proposition, but as an inference." But 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 to Christ." If we enquire what is this faith, and what is signified by being kept in durance under the law, we must refer to something yet preceding, and shall be led to trace this connection to its source; by which investigation we find the first express allusion to the "law" in the sixteenth verse of the second chapter. And from the Apostle's argument it will further appear, that this law is the Mosaic of which it is said, that " by it no flesh shall be justified," that Christians are dead to it; that as many as expect salvation as the reward with which it will acknowledge their obedience to it, are under its curse; that it is not a religious, but a political institution; not of faith but of works; a rule for external actions, not the final judgement to be passed upon their moral qua lity, that from its curse Christ has redeemed us; that it was 430 years after the promise made to Abraham; that it was added because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom Abraham's promise belonged; and, finally, that it was a schoolmaster to Christ1. SECTION I. Gal. ii. 15.-iii. 5. "A man is not justified by the works of the Law." Gal. ii. 16. Paul had reproved the Apostle Peter for separating from the Gentiles through fear of giving offence to the Christian Jews who still observed circumcision. "If thou being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" By Peter's living after the manner of the Gentiles, Paul alludes to his eating with the Gentiles before certain Jewish Christians came from Jerusalem who were zealous for the Law of Moses. In so doing, Peter had justified the Gentiles in not observing that Law. Paul, therefore, charges him with inconsistency. "If thou being a Jew livest after the manner of the Gentiles and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law," that obedience to the law is not an essential branch 1 Εις Χριστον. |