and to promote, the duties of moral obedience to God, the obligation to which no man can deny; this, therefore, recommends it: On the other hand, by promising the reward of eternal life, to the practice of virtue and obedience, it tends to swell the pride of the human heart, makes the sinner blind to the depravity of his soul, and strengthens his enmity to the grace of the gospel.

THE laws of Christ are not to be restricted to the doctrines and ordinances of the gospel; they include also the moral law. This is a rule of obedience, arising from the moral relation beween God and men, and can never cease to bind as such. This is the law man violated, the law by which he is found guilty, and his mouth stopped; it is the law binding him to perfect obedience, in all things under the pain of the curse. To deliver the sinner from the curse of this law, and to restore him to a state in which he might be enabled again to obey it, was the design of the scheme of grace, according to the everlasting covenant. Hence it is, that the moral law is incoporated with the gospel, and the duties of it enjoined upon Christians, both by Christ and his Apostles. There is no new law given to man in place of the moral law, under the gospel, nor has the gospel abrogated that law. "Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Rom. iii. 31. The grace of God that brings salvation teaches men to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly and those who believe in God are enjoined to maintain God works. It is necessary, then,, that we consider the moral law as included among the laws of Christ, in short the whole will of God revealed to us, discovering what we are to believe and practise, is

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the laws of Christ; all are put into his hand to be administered to us according to the tenor of the New co

venant.

IN receiving and obeying these laws, their connection with the covenant of grace, and the design of that covenant concerning them, are to be carefully considered. If this is done we must perceive that the scheme of this covenant excludes every idea of a mere moral government: and indeed if it did not do this it could not be of the smallest utility to sinners. When

Christ received the moral law from the Father, as the rule of his substitutionary obedience, he was not to obey it as a rule of mere moral government. As this law respected sinners under the broken covenant of works, it could be viewed in no other light than the rule of moral government; but when it is viewed in its connection with the scheme of redemption, it appears in quite another light. The terms of Christ's substitutionary work were stated from the broken covenant of works; but they were engrossed into the covenant of redemption, and inseparably connected with the grace of that covenant. The whole of Christ's obedience was founded in and sprung from this grace. Hence we find the grace of this covenant promised to fit him for that obedience, to influence and direct him in every part of it, and to carry him through all his sufferings. We find him, therefore, filled with the Spirit." He grew, waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him." He fulfilled the law and endured the curse of it according to his transaction with the Father, as the condition of life to us. The curse is abolished and life is secured for sinners. The law, however, remains in his hand, and in the dispensation of the covenant is delivered to men, not as a condition to

secure life, but as a rule of holy obedience under the influence of the grace of the covenant.

In receiving the law according to this covenant, various things are to be attended to.-You must first be partakers of the grace of the covenant. Adam first received the law, and, by keeping it, was to secure life; but you must first have life by grace. Sin must be subdued, the enmity of the carnal mind destroyed, and a new divine life imparted to your souls. Till this be done, you have neither will nor ability to obey the law: The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." In order that you may obey the law, it must be written on your hearts, but this cannot take place till your hearts are renewed. God must, then, take away the stony heart, and give you a new heart, and a new spirit, before he can write his law upon it, or you take delight in it, after the inner man.-You must receive the law as sprinkled with the blood of this covenant, If you receive the law without this, you receive it with its curse unabolished, which will render your condemnation certain for every violation of the law, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Gal. iii. 10. The curse was removed by the blood of Christ, that pardon, for every transgression, might be conferred upon you. This you ought to consider as one of the first consolations of the gospel; for though you shall not be able to avoid many violations of the law, the curse cannot reach you, because Christ has redeemed you from it, and you cannot come into condemnation. If you do not receive the law in the way of this covenant you can never apply to God for pardon, as he confers it only by this covenant. Beware

of converting this security against condemnation into an occasion of licentiousness, and continuing in sin because grace abounds. If you are forgiven much, you must love much. Do this by increasing in your hatred of sin, guarding against all temptations to it, and daily improving the blood of the covenant to have it mortified in your hearts. As often as you transgress the law repair to the covenant for a renewed sense of pardon, in the sprinkling of your consciences with the blood of its surety. You must obey the laws of Christ by the grace of the covenant. If it is not enough that your hearts are renewed, and the laws of your divine Lord written upon them by his Spirit; you are to live in a daily observation of them in all that you do this renders it necessary that you have constant supplies of grace. You are to live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, You have many promises of the Spirit, answerable to "Your heaevery purpose for which you need him.

venly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." Ask, then, and you shall receive. He is pro. mised for the very purpose of leading you in the way of holy obedience. "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.". Ezek. xxxvi. 27. In this way your obedience will be both easy and pleasant. Your hearts will be enlarged, your strength increased; and you will then delight in the laws of Jesus after the inner man, you will mount up with wings as eagles, you shall run and not be weary, and walk and not be faint.-But your obedience must be accepted and approved by your king. If this is not done, all your labour is to no purpose. it more necessary than in this to proceed

In no case is on the footing

of the covenant. Your best, your most pious exertions to obey your Lord, possess nothing that can recommend them to his approbation; they fall exceedingly short of that perfection which the law requires, and, therefore, cannot be approved in terms of the law, for the law requires you to continue in all things which it commands, under pain of the curse. Your obedience, notwithstanding its imperfections, can be accepted according to the covenant. It has already made provision for all your defects, in the perfect satisfaction of Christ for all sin: on this account he is that altar which sanctifies every gift laid upon it. His intercession perfumes your prayers and all your services, rendering them holy and acceptable unto God. Jesus is the mediator of this covenant, through whom God will communicate all grace to fit you for obeying his laws, and accept all your services, though attended with many imperfections, because Jesus, on whose account he doth this, is worthy.

4. WE may farther infer the wickedness and pernicious tendency of all innovations, attempted by men, in the laws, rights and liberties of the church. Jesus is sole legislator; to him belongs the exclusive right of enacting all laws and institutions; and to determine by whom they shall be administrated. He has invested his church with an exclusive power to manage all her concerns independently of any other power whatever; so that any attempt by an exotic power, to interfere with her internal concerns, is an infringement of her rights. Though it is the duty of the civil magistrate to hold sacred the laws, rights, and liberties of the church, and defend them against every encroachment, it has been almost his universal practice, where she has existed, to usurp a tyranical supremacy over her, and infringe her rights. She has been modelled according to the max