whence is it that felf-jufticiaries, that hold juftification by their own works, are ordinarily moft licentious in their life and converfation? Why, the reafon is, because the very fame notions of God that make them fancy he is not fo ill-pleafed with their works, but that he can juftify them by their works, do alfo make them fancy, that he is not fo ill pleafed with their fins as that he will be too fevere against them; and fo here is a root of licentioufnefs on which fin grows, the ftrength whereof is the law. (2.) If we confider God's righteoufnefs, as the righteoufnefs God requires of us in the law; ignorance of this makes them adventure on a righteoufnefs of their own, and go about to establish it, and fo remain under the law as the ftrength of fin. Men are ready to dream, that the law refpects only fome outward duties, which, when they comply with, they dream alfo that they are acquit by the law, and fo they give loofe reins to all other difobedience: but they do not know or confider, that the law requires perfection; and that internal, in heart and nature; external, in life and converfation; and eternal, in refpect of perpetuity and duration; yea, finlefs obedience; infomuch that it cannot justify any that is, or ever was a finner. If this were confidered, then their hopes by the law would give up the ghoft. (3.) If we confider God's righteoufnefs, as the righteoufnefs which God hath provided for us in the gospel; that is,Chrift the end of the law for righteoufnels to every one that believeth," Rom. x. 3, 4. which is the principal meaning of the word here; it is the want of the knowledge of this righteoufnefs, that makes men go about to establish a righteoufnefs of their own, and truft to it ; and fo, remaining under the law, are under the power and ftrength of fin, because they remain under the curfe of the law fo long as they want this law-magnifying righteoufnefs, this law-fulfilling righteoufnefs: for the law cannot but curfe every breaker of it; and fo, the ftrength of fin being a part of the curfe, they remain under the ftrength of fin fo long as they remain under the curfe of the law, through the want of this righteoufnefs, which would make them to be accounted perfect keepers of the law, law, and fo would really free them from the firength of fin. See then, what a dangerous thing it is to be ignorant of God's righteoufnefs. 8. Hence fee, what need there was that our help fhould be laid upon fuch a mighty One as our Lord Jefus is, he being the end of the law for righteoufnefs, who alone can deliver us from the ftrength of fin. There is no power can conquer fin, but that power that can fatisfy the law, both in its command and demand. It is utterly impoffible for any man to deliver himfelf from the ftrength of fin; nay, we can no more do it, than we can fhake off the curfe of the law that we are under: the strength of fin hath the ftrength of the curfe on its fide; the strength of the curfe of the law hath the ftrength of infinite juftice on its fide and fo, the power that can only remove or break the ftrength of fin, is that infinite. power that can fully fatisfy infinite juftice; this, therefore, is the work of him who is the wifdom of God, and the power of God. We need not only a helper, but a ftrong One; therefore God hath laid help upon One that is mighty, Pfal. lxxxix. 19. We need not only a Saviour, but a great One, and fo Chrift is called, Ifa. xix. 29. “He fhall fend them a Saviour, and a great One, and he fhall deliver them." He must be a great Saviour, that is the author of fo great a falvation; none elfe but the eternal Son of God, who is effentially one with the Father and the Holy Ghoft. Woe to the Arian blafphemy, that would rob us of the only ground of our hope; yea, rob the Son of God of his fupreme Deity. This is our mighty Samfon, that carries away the gates of Gaza, the gates of hell, that they might not prevail against us; and he only was able to carry away the ftrength of fin, by giving full fatisfaction to the law and Lawgiver, and fotoftop the progress of God's infinite wrath against finners with his everlasting righteousness; which law-magnifying righteoufnefs being once imputed and applied, the legal and condemning ftrength of fin is broken, and thereupon the actual and commanding ftrength of it gradually broken, according to the measure of faith's daily improvement of this righteousness of Christ, till it be wholly deftroyed in the very in-being thereof VOL. V. + K at at death. For, as he is able, fo he will fave to the uttermoft all that come to God by him. 9. Hence fee, what obligations believers are under to Chrift, their great Captain of falvation, and glorious Conqueror, that delivers them from the law. How fweet is this fan-fong in the view of death, "O death, where is thy fting? O grave, where is thy victory? The fting of death is fin, and the ftrength of fin is the law; but thanks be to God that giveth us the victory, thro' Jefus Christ our Lord." What makes fin, as it is the fling of death, and death, as it bears that fting, to be fo terrible? Why, it is the law, as it is the ftrength of fin; but now, the great Law-giver becoming, in the perfon of his Son, the law-fatisfier, in the room of the finner the lawbreaker, and thereupon the Judge becoming the juftifier, according to Rom. iii. 26. the law hath no more power to curfe the believer; and fo fin hath loft its ftrength, and death loft its fting, and the grave its victory. The believer being perfectly delivered from the curfe of the law, he is perfectly delivered from the ftrength of fin, as it is a branch of the curfe. Queft. What is the ftrength of fin that fill remains with the believer while here, if it be not a part of the curfe? Anfw. (1.) Sin in all unbelievers is, as I faid, both a breach of the law, and a branch of the curfe: but, with refpect to believers, though their fin be a breach of the law, yet they are under no part of the curfe of the law; for, though fin be a curfed thing, and the law curfes fin where ever it is, and curfes the fin of believers, as well as the fin of others; yet, as the law cannot curfe the perfon of the believer, fo the fin that is fuffered to remain in him, is defigned for fome other purpose than to be a curfe to him; for it is one of the great privileges of the believer, that he is delivered from the wrath of God, and the curfe of the moral law. There fore, (2.) Though fin in itfelf, and in its own nature, is a curfe and a mifery where ever it is; yet, with refpect to the believer, whenever he is delivered from the curfe of the law; the remaining ftrength of fin in him is made fub fubfervient to fome cther end than ever it had before, through the infinite wildom of that God who can turn a curie to a bleffing, and a mifery to a mercy. Though he ftill looks upon fin as his greatelt mifery, and on himfelf as miferable and wretched because of fin, faying, with the apoftle, Rom. vii. 24. O wretched man that I am! who fall deliver me from the body of fin and death? yet it is his mercy that he fees fia to be his mifery now, inafmuch as it fhall not make him miferable hereafter. Sin is fill the greatest burden to the believer; but it is his mercy that fin is his burden now, that it may not weigh him down to hell, as it will do the reft of the world, who feel not the burden of fin in time. Sin is fill, to the believer, the greateft difeafe; but it is his mercy that fin is his difeafe: for, whereas others that go on' in fin impudently, and without fpiritual remore, fin is not their difeafe, with which they are affe&ted or afilicted, and they are in danger of dying of that difeafe, like a man that is diftempered with a fever, and yet hath no fenfe of it; but believers in Chrift, having fin for their difeafe, under which they figh, and fob, and moan, and groan, the difeafe is not unto death, eternal death, but unto the glory of God, and to their good. It is to the glory of God, as he is JEHOVAH-ROPHI, the Lord their helper and phyfician; and it is ordered to their good, the curfe is turned fo far to a blefling, that the remaining ftrength of fin in the believer is made fubfervient to thefe following good ends. 1. It ferves for his inftruction, that he may fee more and more of the corruption of his nature and the daily need that he hath of Chrift, both for righteoufnefs and ftrength, that Chrift may be more and more precious to him, as the brazen ferpent to the ftung Ifraelites. Sin in itself tends to deftruction, but, through grace, it turns to the believer's inftruction; for hereby he learns more and more, that his own righteoufnefs is but filthy rags, that Chrift's righteoufnefs is the only fair and glorious robe he learns more and more, that as his damnation would have been juft, if he had been fent to hell; fo, his falvation will be free, if he be brought SER. LXXVII. to heaven he learns more and more many fad experiences in the daily working of fin in him, and many fweet experiences in the daily improvement of Chrift. 2. The remaining ftrength of fin in the believer ferves for his correction, as Peter's fall was for the correction of his pride and felf-conceit, when he faid, Though all men forfake thee, yet will not I. Indeed, it is one of the foreft effects of God's fatherly anger towards his children, when he leaves them to one fin, thereby to correct them for another: under fuch a dreadful correction as this, the believer may have dreadful apprehenfions of God through unbelief, as if he were defigned to ruin and deftroy him, faying, as the church, Ifa. lxiii. 16. "Wherefore haft thou made us to err from thy ways? and hardened our hearts from thy fear?" It is what the Lord's people may have frequent occafions to observe, that the Lord fharply reproves and corrects them for their floth and unwatchfulnefs, by leaving them to other fins; as it was with David in the matter of Bathsheba: therefore, Watch and pray, fays Christ, that ye enter not into temptation. 3. The remaining ftrength of fin in the believer ferves for his humiliation; 2 Chron. xxii. 26. Hezekiab was bumbled for the pride of his heart. Believers are in danger of being lifted up, even after great manifeftations; as Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 7.; therefore, a thorn in the flesh, and a meffenger of Satan, may be ordered to buffet them, left they fhould be exalted above measure. 4. The remaining ftrength of fin in the believer ferves for his excitation and upftirring; it is fo ordered, that fin fhould abide in believers, that it may be the continual ground, reafon, and occafion of the exercif ing of all graces, and putting a luflre on their obedience fome excellent graces, fuch as repentance and mortification, could have no exercife, if the ftrength of fin were altogether removed; and while we are in this world, there is a beauty in thefe graces, that is an overbalance for the evils of the remainders of fin. And it renders fpiritual obedience the more valuable, the more that remaining fin renders it difficult and impracticable to nature. [1.] The |