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“ and joy in the Holy Ghost : " 1 how then can we rejoice "in the Lord always," without his blessed influences?

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But this subject is most copiously discussed in the eighth chapter of the epistle to the Romans. Regard to brevity, however, forbids me to enlarge on the passage: let it suffice in general to observe, that the apostle there ascribes the believer's" deliverance from the law of sin and death, to “ the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus;' and derives the spirit"ual mind, which is life and peace," from the same source. They, in whom "the Spirit of God dwells," are "not in "the flesh but in the Spirit ;" but "if any man have not "the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." They, who through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, shall live;" they "that are led," or willingly guided and in"fluenced, by the Spirit, are the children of God." He dwells in them, not as a Spirit of bondage" to induce them to obey God from servile motives; but "as a Spirit "of adoption, by whom they cry, Abba, Father:" and, thus produeing all filial dispositions and affections in their hearts," he witnesses with their spirits, that they are the "children and heirs of God." They have, therefore, “ the "first fruits of the Spirit;" called also the "seal of the "Spirit," being the renewal of the divine image on their souls; and the "earnest of the Spirit," or the beginning and sure pledge of heavenly felicity. 3 But who can deny that these things are essential to genuine Christianity, at all times, and in all places?

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Finally, we are directed" to pray in" or by ،، the Holy "Ghost," who also helpeth our infirmities;" and, whatever words we use, his influences alone can render our worship spiritual. Our holy tempers, affections, and actions are called "the fruits of the Spirit," 4 to distinguish them from mere moral conduct, proceeding from worldly or selfish principles. We are said to "live in the Spirit: and "to "walk in the Spirit," and to "be filled with the Spirit:" and all our heavenly wisdom, knowledge, strength, holiness, joy; all things relative to our repentance, faith, hope, love, worship, obedience, meetness for heaven, and foretastes of it, are constantly ascribed to his influences: nor can we escape fatal delusions, resist temptations, overcome the world, or glorify God ; except as we are taught, sanctified, strengthened, and comforted by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in all believers" as a well of water springing up into everlasting life.' We need not then wonder at the low state into which vital Christianity is fallen, when we consider how many

1 Rom. xiv. 17.

2 Cor, i, 22, Eph, i, 13, 14, iv, 30,

• Rom, viii, 28

↑ Gal. v. 22, 23, Eph. v, 9.

169 nominal Christians utterly disclaim all dependence on the Spirit, as enthusiasm: and how greatly this part of the gospel is overlooked by numbers, who are zealous for other doctrines of it. The subject, therefore, suggests to us the vast importance of owning the divine Person and whole work of the Spirit, in all our services; of praying for, that we may pray by, the Spirit; of applying to him, and depending on him in all things; of cautiously distinguishing his genuine influences from every counterfeit, by scriptural rules; of avoiding those worldly cares, and that indolence and procrastination which "quench," and all those evil tempers which "grieve the Spirit of God;" and of giving the glory of all the good wrought in us, or by us, to him as its original Source and Author.-Thus, depending on the Mercy of the Father, the Atonement of the Son, and the Grace of the Spirit; we shall be prepared to give glory to the Triune God our Saviour, both now and for ever

more.

ESSAY XV.

On the Uses of the Moral Law, in Subserviency to the Gospel of Christ.

WHEN We have duly considered our situation as fallen creatures, and those things which relate to our recovery, by the mercy of the Father, the redemption and mediation of the Son, and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit; we must be convinced that " we are saved by grace, through faith; (and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God :) not of "works, lest any man should boast: "2 and under this conviction it is natural for us to enquire, " Wherefore then ser"veth the law?" 3 what end does it answer? The apostle indeed introduces this question, as the objection of Judaizing teachers to the doctrines of grace; but in the present endeavour to state the uses of the law as subservient to the gospel, it is necessary to premise, that neither the. ritual law nor the legal dispensation, is meant: the former typified, and the latter introduced, the clear revelation of the gospel; and they were both superseded and rendered obsolete by the coming of Christ. The moral law alone is intended, which was originally written in the heart of man as created "in "the image of God;" was afterwards delivered with awful solemnity from mount Sinai, in ten commandments; is elsewhere summed up, in the two great commandments of loving 1 Luke xi, 18. 2 Eph. ii. 8-10.

3 Gal, iii. 19.

God with all our hearts, and our neighbour as ourselves; and is explained and enlarged upon in a great variety of particular precepts, throughout the whole Scripture. This law, besides what it more directly enjoins, implicitly requires us to love, admire, and adore every discovery, which God shall ever please to make to us of his glorious perfections; cordially to believe every truth which he shall reveal and authen- ticate; and willingly to obey every positive institution which he shall at any time be pleased to appoint.

This law is immutable in its own nature: for it could not be abrogated, or altered, without an apparent intimation that God was not so glorious, lovely, and excellent; or so worthy of all possible honour, admiration, gratitude, credit, adoration, submission, and obedience, as the law had represented him to be; or without seeming to allow, that man had at length ceased to be under those obligations to God, or to stand in those relations to him and to his neighbour, from which the requirements of the law at first resulted. The moral law, I say, could not be changed, in any essential point, unless we could cease to be under infinite obligations to our great Creator; unless he could allow us in some degree to be alienated from him, and despisers of him; or, to love worldly objects and our own present advantage or pleasure more than his infinite excellency; and to prefer them to his glory, and the enjoyment of his favour: unless he could allow us to be ungrateful for his benefits, to discredit his veracity, to dispute his authority, to reject the appointments of his wisdom; and to injure, neglect, corrupt, or hate one another, to the confusion and ruin of his fair creation. Such absurd and dreadful consequences may unanswerably be deduced, from the supposition of the moral law of God being repealed or altered; and they are the bane of all Antinomianism; and of every system, formed on the absurd notion of a new and milder law promulgated by Jesus Christ, however ingeniously such schemes may be arranged or diversified. The Lord may consistently with the immutable perfections of his nature, and the righteousness of his government, reveal truths before unknown; he may abrogate positive institutions, or appoint others; he may order various circumstances relative to the law in a new manner, according to the different situations in which rational agents are placed: but the love of God with all the powers of the soul, and the love of our neighbour as ourselves, must continue the indispensable duty of all reasonable creatures, however circumstanced, through all the ages of eternity.

This law is the foundation of the covenant of works; and it is the wisdom of every holy creature, in a state of proba

tion, to seek justification by obeying it: but for fallen men who are continually transgressing, to waste their labour, in vainly attempting to justify themselves before God by their own obedience, is absurd and arrogant in the greatest conceivable degree. This attempt is generally called self-righteousness; and all the preachers of Christianity are bound most decidedly to warn men against it, as a fatal rock on which multitudes are continually perishing.

But what purposes then does the moral law answer, under a dispensation of mercy, and in subserviency to the doctrines and the covenant of grace? and what use should the ministers of the New Testament make of it? The following statement may perhaps contain a sufficient reply to these. questions; and likewise make way for some observations on, the bad effects which follow from ignorance, inattention, or: the want of accurate and clear apprehensions, respecting the moral law, in the ministers and professors of the gospel.

1. The moral law, when well understood, is very usefuli in shewing sinners their need of mercy and free salvation. The apostle says, "I, through the law, am dead to the law, "that I might live unto God;" He doubtless meant, by "being dead to the Law," that he had entirely given up alli hope and every thought of justification by the law, or cob taining eternal life as the reward of his own obedience and, having fled to Christ for justification, he was also delivered. from fear of final condemnation by it. He had therefore no more to hope or fear from the law, than a man after his death has to hope or fear from his friends or enemies. When he was a Pharisee "he was alive without the law; but "when the commandment came, sin revived and he died."" Every impartial reader must see, that the apostle, in this remarkable passage, spoke exclusively of the moral law, which he declared to be "holy, just, and good," and "spiritual;" to which he "consented that it was good," even. while he failed of answering its strict demands; in which he "delighted after the inward man; and which he "served " with his mind," or with the decided preference of his judgment, and the habitual purpose of his heart. When the sinner understands the extensive and spiritual demands, and awful denunciations, of the divine law, his hope of being jus tified according to it must expire; for he perceives that it requires a perfectly holy heart, and a perfectly holy life; that it respects every imagination, affection, mative, word, and work; that it demands absolute, uninterrupted,, and perfect obedience, from the first dawn of reason to the mo ment of death; and that it denounces an awful, curse on 4 Rom, vit 7-25.

Gal, ii. 19.

66 every one, who continueth not in all things, written in "its precepts to do them." But unless the goodness or excellency of the law be also discerned, he will not he brought to genuine self-abasement. A man may be clearly convicted of high treason, according to the letter of the statute: but if he thinks the statute itself iniquitous, he will persist in justifying his conduct; and his sullen enmity to the prince, the government, and his judges, will probably increase in proportion, as he sees the execution of the sentence denounced against him to be inevitable.—If men only consider the strictness of the precept, and the severity of the sanction, of the divine law; hard thoughts of God will be excited, they will deem themselves justified in desponding inactivity, or they will take refuge in antinomianism or infidelity. But when every precept is undeniably shewn to be "holy, just, and "good," requiring nothing but what is reasonable, equitable, and beneficial, the convictions thus excited strike at the root of man's self-admiration; the sinner is constrained by them to take part with God against himself; and he can no longer withhold his approbation from the law, even whilst he knows himself liable to be condemned by it. For the more clearly the excellency of the precept is perceived, the more evidently do the odiousness, unreasonableness, and desert of sin appear.

The law should therefore be very fully stated, explained, and applied to the consciences of men, for these purposes: as this constitutes the grand means, which the Lord blesses, to shew sinners in what the divine image consisted, after which Adam was at first created,—and what they ought to have been and to have done during the whole of their past lives; and to convince them, that their sins have been exceedingly numerous and heinous, in thought, word, and deed, by ⚫ leaving undone what they ought to have done, and doing what they ought not to have done;' that their present dispositions, and supposed duties, are vile and unworthy of God's acceptance, yea, deserving of his wrath and abhorrence; and in short, that their case is hopeless and helpless, if they be left to themselves under the old covenant, and dealt with according to the merit and demerit of their works. In this way the pride of men's hearts is abased, their mouths are stopped, their false and legal confidence is destroyed, and they are prepared by the knowledge of their sins, and by deep humiliation before God, to understand and welcome the salvation of the gospel. Thus the law was delivered from mount Sinai, to prepare the mind of the Israelites for the promises and types of good things to come; and it should be delivered from every pulpit with most awful solemnity, in connexion with the blessed gospel ; and in this way of instruction it still