с causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you; thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." But how shall this excellent promise of God be effected? It follows, "Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you," &c. So again, the Lord maketh a promise of forgiveness of sins, " I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." But for the execution of this promise, God will be sought unto: "Put me in remembrance,” saith he, "and let us plead together."-For when we pray unto God to fulfil his promises, we testify, First, That they are promises of mercy, and not of duty or debt; because God is not bound to tender them unto us, but we to beg them of him. Secondly, We declare our need, and, by consequence, estimation of them, and dependence upon them. And lastly, We subscribe to the truth, and acknowledge the wisdom, power, fidelity, and ways that God hath to make good all his own words unto us. We have no reason, therefore, to esteem any thing a blessing, or fruit of God's promise, which we do not receive from him upon our knees, and by the hand of prayer. As promises are the rule of what we may pray for in faith; so prayer is the ground of what we may expect with comfort. Thus we see what use we are to make of the promises, "To cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit."-And the same use we may make of them likewise to perfect our holiness in the fear of God. For as the exceeding great and precious promises of God do cleanse our natures, and make us escape the corruptions or filthiness which is in the world through lust; so do they serve to add one grace to another, and to make them abound in us, till we come to charity, which is the bond of perfection, as St. Petere shews: And again, "Grow," saith he, "in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." The more a man doth abound in the knowledge of Christ, who is the sum, fountain, seal, treasury of all the promises, the more will he grow in grace and unto perfection. For as some promises are in our c Jere. xxix. 10, 13. d Isai. xliii. 25, 29. e 2 Pet. i. 4, 8. f 2 Pet. iii. 18. hand, and performed already as rewards for our service past; so others are still before our eyes, to call and allure us, as the price unto which we pass. "Be ye steadfast, and unmoveable, and abound always in the work of the Lord," saith the apostle ; "for as much as ye know, that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." Holding fast, and going on hath a crown attending it: The more we proceed in holiness, our salvation is still the nearer' unto us.-If we lose not the things which we have wrought, we shall receive a full reward ". b Phil. iii. 14. 11 Cor. xv. 58. 1 Rom. xiii. 11. Rev. iii. 10, 11. Heb. x. 23. m 2 John v. 8. THE USE OF THE LAW. ROM. VII. 13. Was that, then, which is good, made death unto me? God forbid. But sin [namely, was made death unto me] that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good: That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. HERE we find the original discovery of all that sinfulness of sin, which we have hitherto insisted upon, namely, the manifesting and working property, which is in the law of God. It will be, therefore, very requisite by way of appendix to the preceding treatise, and of manuduction to the consequent, to unfold out of these words, The use of the Law. By which we shall more distinctly understand the scope and purpose of the Holy Ghost, in loading the spirit of man with the vanity of the creature, and in shutting up the conscience under the sinfulness of sin; both which have respect unto the law; that, as an effect of the cursing, and this, of the convincing power thereof; and yet in both, nothing intend ed by God but peace and mercy. The apostle, in the beginning of the chapter, shews, that we are by nature subject to the law and death, which is an unavoidable consequent of the breach thereof; even as the wife is to her husband as long as he liveth. And that by Christ we are delivered from that subjection, who hath slain our former husband, and "taken him out of the way "," as the apostle elsewhere speaks. Now because this doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, and deliverance from the law by him, was mainly opposed by the Jews, and was indeed that chief stumbling-block' which kept them from Christianity, (which, I take it, was the reason why the false brethren a Col. ii. 14. b 1 Cor. i. 23. Rom. ix. 32. Acts xv. 1, 5. с under pretence, the better to work on that people, to pacify affections, and reconcile parties, and ferruminate the churches together, would have mingled the law with Christ in the purpose of justification, as the Papists now upon other reasons do): therefore the apostle (who was very zealous for the salvation of his brethren and kinsfolk according to the flesh ) labours to clear this doctrine from two main objections in this chapter, which (it seems) the Jews did use against it. The ground of both is tacitly implied, and it is the same general hypothesis or supposition,-that all deliverance is from evil, and carries necessary relation to some mischief which it presupposeth. Therefore if that doctrine be true which teacheth deliverance from the law,-then it must be granted, that the law is evil: for to be unsubjected to that which is good, is no deliverance, but a wild and brutish looseness. Now evil is but twofold, either sin or death: so then if the law be evil, it must be either sin or death. 6 e The former objection is made, verse 7. "What shall we say then? Is the law sin," that we should now hear of a deliverance from it? Doth not the Scripture account the law a privilege, an honour, an ornament to a people? and from the justness and holiness of the law, conclude the dignity and greatness of a nation? "What nation is so great," saith Moses, "which hath statutes and judgments so righteous, as I set before you this day?"-" He sheweth his word unto Jacob, His statutes and judgments unto Israel: He hath not dealt so with any nation," saith David .---I sent unto them honorabilia legis,' saith the Lord," the honourable and great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange things."-And is that which Moses and the prophets esteemed a privilege and honour, become now a yoke and burthen? Shall we admit a doctrine, which overthrows the law and the prophets? To this the apostle answers,-" God forbid. The law is not sin; for I had not known sin, but by the law." It is true, "Sin took occasion by the law, to become more sinful," verse 8: but this was not occasio data,' but arrepta;' no occasion naturally offered by the law, but perversely taken by sin, whose venomous property it is to suck poison out of that f Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20. 8 Hos. viii. 12. d Gal. ii. 3, 4. e Deut. iv. 8. which is holy. So then the law is not sin, though by accident it enrage sin for of itself it serveth only to discover and reveal it, verse 9. But as the Gospel, as well when, by men's perverseness, it is a savour of death, as when by its own gracious efficacy it is a savour of life, is both ways a sweet savour;-so the Law, either way, when by itself it discovereth, and when by accident it enrageth, sin,-is still "holy, just, and good," verse 11. Upon this follows the second objection in the words of the text: "Is that which is good, made death unto me?" If a deliverance presuppose an evil in that from which we are delivered, and no evil that belongs either to sin or death, then admitting a deliverance from the law, if it be good in respect of holiness, it must needs be evil in the other respect; and then that which is good, is made death unto me. And this casts a more heavy aspersion and dishonour upon God than the former, that he should give a law merely to kill men, and make that which in its nature is good, to be mortal in its use and operation. Wine, strong waters, hard meats, are in themselves very good to those purposes unto which they are proper: yet under pretence of their goodness,-to cram the stomach of a suckling infant with them, would not be kindness, but cruelty, because they would not, in that case, comfort or nourish, but kill. Gold is good of itself; but to fetter a man with a chain of gold, would be no bounty, but a mockery. So to conceive God to publish a law, good indeed in itself, but deadly to the subjects,—and to order that which is holy in its nature, to be harmful and damnable to the creature in its use, is so odious an aspersion upon so just and gracious a God, as may safely bring into suspicion and disgrace, any doctrine which admits of so just an exception. Now to this likewise the apostle answers, "God forbid." The law is not given to condemn or clog men, not to bring sin or death into the world: it was not promulgated with any intention to kill or destroy the creature. It is not sin in itself,-it is not death unto us, in that sense as we preach it,-namely, as subordinated to Christ and his Gospel ;-though, as the rule of righteousness, we preach deliverance from it, because unto that purpose it is |