Does not the example of our Lord, in quoting the Scriptures, for the resistance of temptation, and for proof of his own divine mission,—his continual reference to them in his discourses, his express attestation of their high authority,—his commission to his Apostles to preach, and to write, and also the declaration of the Spirit through the Apostle, that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," sufficiently refute these unauthorised and fallacious opinions, which afford another sorrowfully affecting proof, of the danger of setting up an inward light above the attested revelation of the Spirit of God.
With regard to the passage of Scripture so dreadfully perverted, "The letter killeth," (2 Cor. iii. 6) the meaning is plainly, that by the letter of the law, which we have all broken, we are condemned to death: as in the following passages,—
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"I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died; and the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. |
But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." Rom. vii. 9-14. "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. iii. 20. |
