ry of all the good wrought in, 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 and Saviour, both now and for evermore.

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 that 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;" (Eph. ii. 3—10.) and under this conviction it is natural for us to inquire," wherefore then serveth the law?" (Gal. iii. 19.) The Apostle indeed introduces this question, as the objection of a Judaizing teacher 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is meant; the former typified, and the latter introduced, the clear revelation of the gospel; and they were both superseded and antiquated by the coming of Christ.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 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 that God shall please at any time to make to us of his glorious perfections; cordially to believe every truth he shall reveal and authenticate; and willingly to obey every positive appointment which he shall at any time be pleased to institute, (Essay iv.)

This law is immutable in its own nature; for it could not be abrogated, or altered, without an apparent intirnation 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 temporal 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 appointment 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 it may be arranged, or however such schemes may be 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 arrange 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 equal love of each other, 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 probation 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 confused apprehensions respecting the moral law, in the ministers and professors of the gospel.

I. The Apostle says, "I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God;" (Gal. ii. 19.) He doubtless meant, by being dead to the law, that he had entirely given up all hope and every thought of justification by the law, or of obtaining 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 hath to hope or fear from his friends or enemies. When he was a proud 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, good, and spiritual; to which he "consented that it was good," even while he failed of answering its strict demand; in which he “delighted after the inward man," which he "served with his mind," (Rom. vii. 7—25.) 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 justified 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, intention, affection, disposition, motive, word, and work; that it demands absolute, uninterrupted, and perfect obedience, from the first dawn of reason to the moment of death; and that it denounces an awful curse on 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 be brought to genuine self-abasement. A man may be clearly convicted of high treason, according to the letter of the statute: but if he think 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 themselvs justified in desponding inactivity, or they will take refuge in an-tinomianism or infidelity. But when every precept is undeniably shown to be "holy, just, and good," requiring nothing but what is reasonable, equitable, and beneficial: the views and 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 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; for this constitutes the grand means, which the Lord blesses, to show 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 minds 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 proves " a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith."

II. The law is exceedingly useful to illustrate the necessity, nature, and glory of redemption. "The Lord is rich in mercy," yea, "he delighteth in mercy:" why, then, does he not pardon all sinners by a mere act of sovereign grace? What need was there of a Surety, a Redeemer, or an atonement? Why must God be manifest in the flesh?