Look up to him for strength to maintain and to increase these graces. And hope to receive it from his faithfulness. Now he has put a new song in thy mouth, even praise unto thy God, go on thy way believing and rejoicing. Jesus is thine with all his fulness. And he has promised thee a constant supply of the Spirit, that thou mayest have grace for grace to enable thee to walk humbly with thy God.

Mind then, thy walk is to be ordered according to his revealed will, and in his appointed way of obedience to it: For all rational creatures are bound to obey God. As soon as he makes known his will to them, it be comes their indispensible duty. His will is one, like himself, unchangeably the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever: For when revealed by the sovereign Creator it becomes to mankind a law, which altereth not. It binds angels and men every moment, in every point and circumstance. And its obligation will never cease. For all his commandments are sure, they stand fast for ever and ever. What he has commanded is as fixt as the sun before him. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.

It pleased the sovereign Creator to enforce this holy, just and good law by proper sanctions. Out of his mere grace he has promised life to obedience, which man engaged to perform: And he threatened death to disobedience, to which penalty man submitted. Thereby this law became a covenant of works. The promise was to him, who should continue obedient in all things: for Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man who fulfilleth those things shall live by them. But if he does not fulfil them perfectly, without one failing, he then comes under the penalty, which God had threatened to disobedience-❝ Cursed " is he who continueth not in all things, that are writ66 ten in the book of the law to do them." This curse draws after it all the pains and penalties of the broken law in earth and in hell.

Under this law of works Adam was placed, and

under it all his descendants are born. He and they are bound to keep the law in their own persons, if they would receive the promise, or liable to suffer the penalty, if they transgress. Adam broke the law of works, and we all in him; For in him all have sinned. We were all in his loins, when he fell, and forfeited in his attainder. By the offence of that one, judgment came upon men to condemnation. The righteous judge passed all the sentence, and decreed, that by the law of works no flesh living should be saved: For he has proved in his word both Jews and Gentiles to be under the law, and under sin, which is the transgression of it. Whereby every mouth is stopped, and all the world is become guilty before God: Therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.

In the law of works there was no provision made for a surety; but it did not absolutely exclude one: Therefore it left room for the covenant of grace, in which a provision was made in the person of Jesus Christ for securing the divine honour of this holy law. He undertook to stand up in man's place and stead, to magnify the precepts of the law in this life, and to glorify the penalties of the law in his death, that not one jot or tittle of it might fail till all was fulfilled. And as he was God over all, blessed for ever, his life and death put everlasting honour upon the divine law. His obedience was of inestimable value, and his sufferings were infinitely sufficient to take away sin. Christ is now the end of the law for righteousness. He answered the end of the law for his people by obeying and suffering for them: And every one of them can now plead by faith a perfect fulfilling of all the precepts, a perfect suffering of all the penalties in the person of their divine surety. God the Father is faithful and just to his word and engagements with his Son He has made known his will in the immutable record of grace, "that whosoever believeth in Jesus "should not perish, but should have everlasting life." How can he perish? Jesus died for him. He shall live

with God in everlasting life: Because Jesus lived for him. And this is the declared will of the Father, concerning all that believe in his only begotten Son.

Remember then, O my soul, that thou art not under the law, but under grace. Thou art saved from the law, under the form of a covenant of works. Thou art not bound to keep its precepts, in order to have life for thy obedience, nor yet to suffer its penalties for thy disobedience. Thy surety undertook to act and suffer for thee. He was to answer the law in its commands and demands to every jot and tittle. And he did. Whatever it required, whatever it threatened was perfectly fulfilled in the person of thy God and Saviour: And he has absolutely discharged thee from it, as a law of works. Thou art to have nothing to do with it in that view; nay, he has forbidden thee to keep it in hopes that thou mayest live thereby. The irreversible decree entered in the records of heaven has enacted-BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW SHALL NO FLESH BE JUSTIFIED. Thou art now to look upon the law in the `matter of justifying and giving life as a woman looks upon her dead husband. She is freed from the marriage contract with him, and may now give her heart and hand to another: So art thou freed from the bond of the legal covenant. Thou art become dead to the law by the body of Christ, who has espoused and betrothed thee to himself, that serving him in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter, thou mayest bring forth fruit unto God. This is thy high privilege. Thy first husband is dead: happy for thee, thou art lawfully married to another-Thy husband is thy maker, Jehovah of hosts is his name. word made flesh has paid all thy debts, suffered thy punishment, wrought out a perfect righteousness, and won a crown of perfect glory for thee. O what a divine honour has he put upon thee! Thou art now one with Immanuel in a bond of everlasting love. He has given himself to thee, with all he has and all he is; and it is thy happiness now, not to be thine own but the Lord's --not to follow thine own will but his. The law of

The

thy Lord is liberty. As taught by his spirit, and performed by faith it is perfect freedom. Whilst thou walkest with him with obedience to it, and leanest on thy beloved every step, thou wilt find deliverance from all spiritual tyranny and bondage, and wilt enjoy the light of his countenance, and the love of his heart. When the Son has thus made thee free, thou art free indeed-free now thy heart is set at liberty to run with Jesus in the way of his commandments.

In this view, O my soul, thou canst look with delight at the most holy law. Attend to it closely, and study it carefully. In order to obey, as a christian, these following considerations should be well understood and digested: because under the influence of them every step of thy walk is to be ordered. O pray then for the spirit of wisdom to teach thee practically.

First that thy walk with God in the way of obedience is not to fulfil the law, as a covenant of works. Thou are not required to do this. Thou canst do it. Immanuel, thy divine surety, took it upon himself. Because it was impossible for thee, a fallen creature to keep the law, so as to be justified by it, he therefore came in person to fulfil it. He honoured its precepts by his infinite obedience. He magnified its penalties by his inestimable sacrifice. And this is thy justifying righte ousness. Through faith in the life and death of the God-man, thou art not only freed from guilt and condemnation, from curse and hell, but art also intitled to life and glory. The law is now on The law is now on thy side, and is become thy friend. It acquits thee. It justifies thee. It will give thee the reward promised to obedience. The law in the hand of thy Saviour has nothing but blessings to bestow upon thee. Thou art to receive it at his mouth, and to obey him: But not from any legal hopes of heaven, or from any slavish fears of hell! for then thou wouldst come under the covenant of works again. Whereas thou art not under the law, but under grace: Mind thy privilege, and pray for grace to live up to it. Thou art not under the law, bound to keep it perfectly

in thine own person, or in case of failing condemned by it, and under its fearful curse; but thou art under grace, a state of grace, through faith in the obedience and sufferings of thy blessed surety, and under the power of grace, sweetly inclining thee to love, and mightily enabling thee to keep the law of the Lord thy God. Live thus by grace, and sin shall not have dominion over thee. Under the reign of grace, the tyrant sin is always dethroned. Obey under grace, as freely and fully saved by faith in Jesus, and this will make thy walk easy and evangelical: Thou wilt go on with a free spirit, and wilt delight thyself in the of God, walking with him.

ways

2. By faith, and not by sight. This is the great spring of all gospel obedience. Faith has an universal efficacy: for thus it is written" Without faith it is "impossible to please God." He is not pleased with the thing done, but with the principle on which it is done. He looks at the heart. Hearing the word, or saying prayers, or giving alms, or doing any thing commanded, are not pleasing in themselves; but they must be performed upon a right motive, and to a right end. And both these come from faith. The apostle mentions the motive, which had influenced every step of his christian course, "We walk by faith, and not by sight"-we judge of our state by what God says of it, and we order our walk accordingly. We give credit to his witness of our being pardoned and justified freely by grace through faith; and we depend for the truth of this not on what we see, but on what we believe. We trust not on our good frames, or warm feelings, or sensible comforts, or to any of the genuine fruits and effects of faith, but we trust what God says simply, as his record: and therefore we walk in a constant dependence on the truth of God in his word, and upon the faithfulness of God to his word. Some promised grace we stand in need of every step; and we rely upon his word, which cannot be broken, and upon his faithfulness, which VOL. I.