Mount Sinai, which gendereth to boudage, which is Agar.-Gal. iv: 24; for this Agar is Mount. Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. Gal. iv: 25. The house of Israel receiving this law from Sinai, for that nation to walk by until the Messiah become mediator of the spiritual law or new covenant which proceeds from Mount Sion. So the Jews took this

thence to Jerusalem.

law from Sinai, and from Paul tells his brethren this alegory answered for Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. This Sinai law only gave the Jews the knowledge of sin, but could not deliver them from sin. Paul calls it a ministration of death. Paul was once under this law from Sinai, which he styles Agar the bondwoman; but Paul shows us how he got rid of that death which the bond-woman held him under; he says: 'It was the law of the spirit of life from Christ Jesus our Lord, which made him free from the law of sin and death. The Mount Sinai law which Paul calls Agar, kept Israel in bondage, because there was no spirit in that law, but the law that proceeds from spiritual Sion, or the New Jerusalem, hath a

Israel, was about Paul calls the Sinai

spirit in it, which is able to convert the sinner to God, and bring him into the liberty of the children of God, and makes free from sin: see Gal. iv: 26; but Jerusalem, which is above, is the mother of us all; this law brings both Jews and Gentiles into the liberty of the sons of God, when we believe in it. Paul tells us that the Sinai law once given to to vanish away in his day. law the letter, that killeth, or the ministration of death. Panl speaking of these two covenants to his Corinthian brethren, says: II Cor. iii. 6; but our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us able ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfast behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away. What Paul calls the face of Moses, was the face of the law of Moses, which glory he says, was soon to vanish away. Paul speaking of the ministration of death, calls it a glorious ministration; but speaking of the ministration of the spirit or

ministration of

law of the new covenant, says it is far more glorious than the Sinai covenant: see Cor. iii. 8. For if the miuistration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the righteousness exceed in glory. Paul is clear as to his opinion that the law of Moses was done away. Though he calls it a glorious ministration, he says, for even that which was made glorious, had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. Paul shows clear that the law of Sinai was done away that was once given to Israel; he says, if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.' When Paul is speaking of the face of Moses, he has reference to the law of Moses, not to his natural face, as though he had a veil on that, the veil was on the law of Moses, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished, which was the law engraved on stones. But their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in reading the OLD testament-which was the law of Moses-which veil Paul tells us is done away in Christ.—But

it appears that Israel, through unbelief, did not perceive it. Paul says, but until this day, when Moses is read, or the law of Moses, the veil is on their hearts, nevertheless when they shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away; as much as to say, when the unbelieving Israelites come to be believers in the law of Christ, which is a spiritual law of life, they will discover that the law of Moses is actually abolished, and they themselves brought into the liberty of the sons of God. Paul speaks further upon this law of liberty. Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. This is the law of the new covenant, which Paul had reference to when he was speaking of the new covenant; he saith that it was established on better promises than the Mount Sinai covenant was. It is evident that we Gentiles were never commanded to keep the Sinai law, as the Jews were, though there were some in the apostles days who taught the Gentiles, who had become believers in the gospel, that they must keep the law of Moses, or they could not be saved: see Acts xv: 5. But there rose certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was

needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. This brought the apostles together to consider the matter.Peter rose up and exhorted them not to lay on the Gentiles, who had turned from Idols to serve the living God, a yoke that they nor their fathers were ever able to bear. Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabus, namely, Judas and Silas, chief men among the brethren, and they wrote letters by them after this manner: The Apostles and Elders, and brethren, send greeting, unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia, it seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you, with our beloved Barnabus and Paul, men who have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we have sent, therefore, Judas and Silas, who will tell you the same things by mouth, for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, that ye abstain from Idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which if