The attachment of the Jewish converts to the law of Moses was another source of error, which occasioned daily disputes in the churches, and gave rise, in the issue, to dangerous heresies, subversive of the true faith. Even those of them, who had sincerely received the Gospel, could not easily be persuaded that a law, given to Moses by God himself, with so much solemnity, from mount Sinai, was to be entirely abrogated, and that their obligation to it was, ipso facto, vacated the moment they believed in Jesus; who, by his obedience unto death, had accomplished all its types and ceremonies, and wrought out for his people an everlasting righteousness commensurate to its utmost requirements. The apostles, who, after the pattern of their Lord, were gentle and tender to the weak of the flock, bore with their infirmities, and allowed them to retain a distinction of meats and days, and other observances, provided they did not consider these things in such a point of view, as to interfere with God's appointed method of justification by faith in his Son. But the matter was carried much farther; for no sooner was there a church formed at Antioch, than they were troubled with perverse teachers, who told them " that, " except they were circumcised and kept the law of "Moses, they could not be saved." The Galatians were greatly hurt by teachers of this sort; and, as the Jews were dispersed through all the provinces, the peace of the church was more or less affected by their attempts to enforce the observance of the law, in almost every place, till after the Epistle to the Hebrews was received, and obedience to the Levitical law rendered impracticable by the destruction of Jerusalem Rom. xiv. 2—6, f Acts, xv. 1. 8 Gal. v. 4. and the temple. From that period, it is probable, the distinction of Jew and Gentile believers ceased, and both parties were firmly incorporated into one body; but a great number of the zealots for the law separated themselves, and were known in the following age by the name of Ebionites, adopting for their rule a mixture of law and Gospel, so very different from the Gospel St. Paul preached, that they openly expressed an abhorrence both of his person and writings. We have an account likewise of some pretended teachers, who opposed the important doctrine of the Resurrection. Some expressly maintained that there was no resurrection'; whom St. Paul confutes at large in his first Epistle to the Corinthians. Others affirmed the resurrection is passed already. Perhaps they pretended that a moral change was designed by the metaphorical expression of a resurrection; the philosophers had used the word in this sense; and this would be sufficient to gain it admittance with some, who would willingly reconcile their profession to the wisdom of the world. In either way, the very foundations of hope were removed. If this point is denied, the whole system of Christian doctrine falls to the ground, and that dreadful train of consequences must be admitted, which the apostle enumerates': "If there be no resurrection of "the dead, then is Christ not risen, then is our preach"ing vain and your faith also vain, ye are yet in your "sins; then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." Since the fertile resurrection of ancient mistakes, which is the sin and scandal of the present age, we have been gravely told, that the word Col. ii. 16.; Tit. i. 10.; Phil. iii. 2.; 1 Tim. i. 7. 1 1 Cor. xv. 12. * 2 Tim. ii. 18. 11 Cor. xv. 14-18. signifies no more than the soul's awaking from the long sleep into which they suppose the period we call Death will plunge it; and that the body has no share in the revival, but dies without hope. But we may thank God for the Scripture, which brings comfort where philosophy gives up the cause as desperate. Faith in Christ is so closely connected with the doctrine of a resurrection, that it is common with those who oppose the former, to use all their address to explain the latter quite away; and whether they say it is past already, or it will never come, their motives, their design, and their manner of reasoning, are the same. That there were persons who abused the doctrines of grace, as an encouragement to continue in the practice of sin, may be inferred from the Epistle of St. James, and several passages of the other apostles. Such, in our modern phrase, are styled Antinomians; a name, it must be confessed, of very indeterminate application: it is an epithet which many would fix indiscriminately upon all who preach a free salvation by faith in the blood of Jesus. "If it is all of grace, and m " we can do nothing of ourselves, if it is not of him that "willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that "showeth mercy; then we may live as we please, en"deavours are useless, and obedience unnecessary' These are the inferences which the unenlightened heart charges as unavoidable consequences from the Gospel doctrine; and from hence we obtain a corroborating proof, that we do not mistake St. Paul's sense, or preach a Gospel different from his, because he foresaw that the same objections would seem to lie against* Rom. xi. 6.; 2 Cor. iii. 5.; Rom. ix. 16. himself, and he guards and protests against such a perversion," Shall we continue in sin that grace may "abound? God forbid!" It seems to have been upon this account that he was slandered, and by some affirmed to have taught, "Let us do evil, that good may "come","—that is, in modern language (and such things are not spoken in corners amongst us), "If any "man would be a proper subject of what they call Grace, let him become still more vile, and plunge "into the most atrocious wickedness, for the greater "the sinner the better qualified for mercy." We are content to be reproached (as St. Paul was in his time), for the truth's sake; and we would be chiefly concerned for the unhappy scoffers, who, unless God is pleased to give them repentance unto life, will one day wish they had been idiots or lunatics, rather than have vented their malicious wit against the grace and Gospel of the Lord Christ. But it must be allowed we have seen Antinomians in the worst sense of the word, men who have pleaded for sin, and, while they have laid claim to faith, have renounced and blasphemed that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. We cannot wonder that even candid and well-meaning persons have been greatly prejudiced, and discouraged in their inquiries after truth, by the presumption and wickedness of such pretended Christians. But no period of the church, in which the Gospel doctrine was known and preached, has been free from offences of this sort. It was so in the apostles' days. "There were then many "unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, who subverted "whole houses, teaching things which they ought not2; "who professed that they knew God, but in works Rom. vi. 1. P Rom. iii. 8. Tit. i. 10, 11. "denied him, being abominable and disobedient, and "to every good work reprobate';" "who pretended to "faith, but were destitute of those fruits which true "faith always produces." These are described "as "clouds without water, carried about of winds; trees "whose fruit withereth, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved "the blackness of darkness for ever:" "Sporting "themselves with their own deceivings, and beguiling "unstable souls"." In opposition to such deceivers it is written, "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the "truth"." "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth "not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is "not in him ";" for "every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure". "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, "The Lord knoweth them that are his; and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2." St. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians concerning the "man of sin," who was to be fully revealed in the following ages, reminds them, that the mystery of iniquity, though at that time restrained from a full manifestation, did already work; teaching us, that the seeds of that grand apostasy, which at length overspread the whole professing church, were sown, and springing up, at the time of his writing. And he mentions several particulars in his Epistle to the Colossians, such |