ianism and infidelity than any of the parties are willing to allow: and thus, so far as my feeble voice shall he heard, I would sound the alarm, and endeavor to excite the watchfulness of all true Christians and ministers against this insinuating mischief; which underhand, and without avowing itself, probably does as much or more harm to the cause of God in this age and nation, than any one of the numerous heresies which prevail; because it is more specious, less suspected, and therefore less opposed. Nor do I scruple to aver that all those supposed converts, however numerous and in other respects specious, who see no glory and excellence in the law of God; who think hardly of it, and cannot bear to hear it much insisted on in preaching; who use derogatory language concerning it, and have a fixed antipathy to ministers who stand up for its excellence; IF THEIR EXPERIENCE BE CONSISTENT, are mere stony ground or thorny ground hearers.-Let no man deceive himself; he who indeed sees no glory in the law of God, which St. Paul calls holy, just, and good, cannot possibly perceive any glory in the gospel, which is designed by God to pnt honor on the law. He really has no more knowledge of, or love for the intrinsic excellency of the one than of the other; however his self-love, which influences him to hate the ministry of condemnation, may, by co-operating with a strong delusion concerning his own good state, influence him to a selfish love of the ministration of righteousness. .... "I cannot help expressing my melancholy apprehensions that this sort of religion and experience is too common amongst us, and too little guarded against. May God of his infinite love and mercy stir up the hearts of all his faithful ministers to oppose it; and to counteract that malicious enemy, who thus carries on his black designs, transformed into an angel of light! "He then, who perceives the spirituality and excellency of the law, understands in consequence the malignant nature of sin, and the insufficiency of any temporal sufferings of his own to atone for it; and by the same light he sees the sufficiency of the atonement of Christ in our stead. He sees the utter insufficiency of his own defective righteousness to justify him before God, who requires truth in the inward parts; and by the same light he discovers the sufficiency of the divine righteousness of the Mediator for that purpose. Seeing then that in this way God is just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; convinced by this internal glory of the gospel that it is indeed from God, he truly believes; in prayer waits for the hope of righteousness by faith; and receives the gift of righteousness from God-by which gift or imputation it becomes his own: and now he is allowed to say, He, who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Thus the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." 3. THE LAW A RULE OF LIFE. Ir may possibly assist the apprehension of some readers to observe, that we are said to be under the law as a covenant, when we are to stand or fall by our own obedience or failure of obedience to it. This is to be understood as having been the case of Adam in his probation. But we are under the law as a rule of life only, when it forms, indeed, to us the standard of our duty, every deviation from which calls for repentance, and needs to be pardoned, but shall not be imputed to us to condemnation. And this, it is contended, is the case of every true believer in Christ. This premised, we proceed with the extract. "God doth further honor his law, in the application of redemption, by delivering it, through the hands of a Mediator, to be a RULE OF LIFE to all true believers; who are not without law to God, but under the law to Christ. "If the moral law have its foundation in the reason and nature of things, it must necessarily be, in substance, unalterable: for, being perfectly right and good, suited to the nature and relations of God and man, and resulting from them, if it were to be altered it must be for the worse: which must be impossible to an infinitely wise and good God.......Indeed, as the loveliness of God manifested in the gospel, and the rich goodness exercised towards every true believer, immensely transcend every thing that had before attracted the attention of any creature; every such character must be under vastly greater obligations to love and obey God than before; and sin, the transgression of the law, must in him be immensely baser. "The truth of our present proposition might be argued vastly more at large from almost innumerable passages of the New Testament, wherein Christians are exhorted to perform the duties which the law required, and to avoid the sins which the law forbad, by the same motives by which these things are enforced upon other intelligent agents; namely the reasonableness, excellency, and profitableness of the perfect will and law of God; and frequently also by motives peculiar to themselves; such as the example of Christ, and the obligations of redeeming love: and not unfrequently this is done with express quotations from the ten commandments, which are the very law of God that lay at the foundation of the covenant of works.Every where the blessed Redeemer and his holy apostles speak most honorably of this law, as holy, and just, and good: and, while they are peremptory in declaring that by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before God, they are equally full in enforcing it as a rule of life.-To deny it to be such is either to deny that the believer can sin at all, or to assert that there is some other rule to distinguish sin from righteousness, than the law of God. Its "But indeed, when antinomianism ventures forth in so undisguised a manner, as openly to deny the law to be a rule of life to believers, it seems almost in vain to combat it by arguments from scripture or from sound reason. abettors are then arrived at such a pitch of enthusiasm and spiritual pride, that argument is of no account with them: and we can scarcely do any thing else for them, than pray that God would give them repentance, to the acknowledgment of the truth, that they may recover themselves from the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will...... "I would conclude this head with seriously and solemn ly recommending to the attention of my readers the following words of Christ: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 4. THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART. "THE law of God is likewise magnified and made honorable by the work of the Spirit in conversion, who writes the law in our hearts, and puts it in our inward parts.-This is one great promise of the new covenant: and by it can be meant no less, nor any other, than that there is a judg ment and a disposition of heart produced in every true believer correspondent to the law of God; insomuch that every such person delights in the law of God after the inner man—and this in exact proportion to the degree of grace which he receives....... Indeed this is the grand distinguishing criterion of true faith......and is made, together with its effect in our obedient lives, the only decisive evidence of our being true believers. Hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments: he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. HUMILITY MAINTAINED BY MEANS OF THE LAW. "THUS also it is that true Christians are, to the end of their lives, kept humble, empty, and dependent; even by comparing their conduct with the divine law, and finding how very far they are from coming up to its holy and equitable demands.-When a man is brought to some measure of religious seriousness and reformation, and to a degree of knowledge, and ability to discourse on spiritual subjects, with other gifts of that nature, comparing himself with himself and with others, he is very apt to shine in his own eyes, and to imagine that he shines in the eyes of others, and even in the eyes of God; to forget his vileness; to indulge self-admiring thoughts; and even, in spiritual pride, to fancy himself perfect-which is the very depth of diabolical delusion. But the true Christian, loving the law of God, and counting all that to be sin which comes short of its requirements; and daily comparing his heart and life with that standard, grows in humility, godly sorrow, self-abasement, and genuine repentance, as he grows in knowledge and grace: and thus, whatever his attainments or knowledge may be, he lives and dies a poor sinner trusting in free mercy through the atonement of Christ. "On the other hand, the false pretender to faith, being at heart an enemy to the law, expresses that enmity by words or deeds, or both; leads a loose and negligent, if not a scandalous life; is easily puffed up; has a stupified, unfeeling conscience; and, if only he can keep up his confidence of his safe state, is little troubled about his sins, knows nothing of godly sorrow, self-loathing, or mourning for sin: but, while perhaps his ungodly life is the grief or scandal of his neighborhood, he himself is little affected about it, complains of nothing but his legality and selfrighteousness, and that he is always doubting his good state; and expects ministers to soothe and comfort him in every sermon, or he will censure and revile them. This is a generation of them that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not cleansed from their filthiness. Nor has the Lord Jesus or his gospel worse enemies in the world. "Reader, let me remind thee again, that God has determined to magnify his law, and make it honorable: and I have endeavored to shew thee in what respects. Let me exhort thee to examine thy heart and life on this subject: for delusions are many and fatal. Is the law of God written in thy heart? Dost thou cordially approve it, love it, and delight in it? Is it thy daily endeavor and aim to keep it? Dost thou daily examine thy heart and life by it? Art thou humbled before God, and abased in thy own sight, on account of the imperfection of thy obedience to the good law of God? Does this lead thee simply to trust God's free mercy through the obedient life and death of the great Surety? and influence thee to pray daily for increase of grace, that thou mayest hate sin more, and love holiness more, and keep the law better? Dost thou press forward in this course, forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before? Is this thy experience, thy aim, thy prayer? If so, however weak, thou art certainly sincere. But be not deceived: if thou knowest not experimentally these desires, longings, and endeavors, thou art yet a stranger to true religion. Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. OBSERVATIONS GROUNDED ON THE PRECED ING DISCUSSIONS. 1. ON FAITH. "IT must be obvious that faith, true faith, of which the scriptures speak so much, and to which it expressly ascribes our justification, is most simply and naturally described by the apostle as the belief of the truth; and that other and more intricate definitions only tend to perplex men's minds, to draw them off from plain scripture, and expose them to various delusions of Satan. The truth to be believed is, in general, the whole system of truths |