§. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
These two words grace and truth stand here in Antithesis or opposition to the moral and ceremonial Law, which was given by Moses; For though Christ was the giver of the Law, as well as of the Gospel, and though the giving of the Law was a work of grace, and the doctrine of the Law, a work of truth, yet if the tenor of the Law and the Gospel be compared together, they will be found to differ mainly in these particulars, though there be a grace and truth to be found in either of them.
First, The Law indeed held out the doctrine of Salvation, and taught of good things to come, but it was so darkly and obscurely, and in such vailed types and shadows, that it was rather groped after, than seen: and therefore those things are called darkness at the fifth verse of this Chapter: and the Jews that lived under them, yea and gained salvation from the knowledge of them, yet are said to be, not perfect without us, Heb. 11. 40. that is, imperfect in the knowledge of the doctrine of Salvation, till the Gospel brought us Gentiles in. But the Gospel revealed Christ, and the way of salvation so clearly, and in so evident and plain a manner, that all those types, shadows, predictions, and represen∣tations, received their equity, accomplishment, and fulfilling, and it shewed apparently, what was the substance and intention of them; so that what the Law held out in figures, the Gospel did in truth.
Secondly, Although the Law were in the spirit and marrow of it a Doctrine of Faith, yet in the letter and outward administration of it, it was but a messenger of Death, 2 Cor. 3. 7. challenging exact performance, which no man could yield, and denouncing a curse upon him that performed it not, and so concluded all men under sin and a curse; but the Gospel cometh and preacheth to another tune, and to a more comfortable te∣nor, promising remission to the penitent, though they had not performed what the Law required, and assuring salvation to the believer, though he had no works nor righteous∣ness of his own to own; and thus it speaketh grace and pardon, whereas the other did a curse and condemnation: And therefore is it divinely thus opposed by the Evangelist, be∣twixt the Law and the Gospel in these two particulars, according to the two parts of the Law Moral and Ceremonial, and according to the two main Doctrines of the Gospel, Re∣pentance and Believing.
For the Moral called for obedience, and challenged them under condemnation that obeyed it not: but grace and pardon came by Christ, and was offered in the Gospel to those that should repent for their not obeying.
The Ceremonial Law preached Christ under obscure representations, and difficult to grope him through, but the truth of what those obscurities involved, and what those re∣presentations figured, came by Christ, and the Gospel holds it out, and calls for faith in him that hath accomplished them: And thus is grace and truth said to come by Jesus Christ, and these to be the tenor of the Gospel in opposition to the Law, not as grace opposeth ungraciousness, but as it opposeth condemning, nor as truth opposeth falshood, but as it op∣poseth shadows.