they have made fufficient provifion for preventing the bad effects of what is to come; they may now indulge themselves in their pleafure, fince they fuppofe they have fatisfied the Law-giver with fome obedience. What is this but the ftrength of fecurity foftered by the law? When men after fuch and fuch duties allow themfelves a latitude, they draw ftrength to their carnal fecurity from the law; "We fhall have peace, though we walk after the imaginations of our hearts." And thus it is the ftrength of negligence alfo: none are readily more negligent of the duties of the law, than thefe that boaft of the law, and of winning to heaven by their good works; whence is this, but from the law of works cutting them fhort of ftrength through their abuse of it? Why, is it poffible that men will neglect duty, and yet think to be juftified by their duties? Yea, and why fo? Because they make their own duty a falve for their fore; and as they but feldom find their fores, fo they feldom make application even of their own falve. In a word, the law of works is thus the firength of all fin. IV. The fourth thing propofed, was, To fhow how and in what refpect the law is the ftrength of fin. This is the main queftion and the grand myflery here to be folved; for, that the law is the ftrength of fin, is plain from the text, wherein the Holy Ghoft declares it in exprefs terms; terms that we durft never have used, if the Spirit of God had not used them before us: but how the law is the firength of fin, remains yet to be confi dered. Befides the hints that I have given before, there are thefe eight following refpects, wherein the law of works, now violated and broken, is the ftrength of fin, ever fince the original breach and violation thereof. 1. The law is the ftrength of fin, in refpe&t of the extenfive malediction and curfe of the law, whereof the power and ftrength of fin is a principal part, and fo the breach of it could not but neceffarily infer the ftrength of fin. Death temporal, fpiritual, and eternal, was the penalty of the law, in cafe of the breach thereof. Now, fpiritual death is nothing elfe but the power of fin; and this power of fin, or fpiritual death, being the main breach breach of the law-threatening; "In the day thou eatest thou fhalt furely die," Ezek. xviii. 4. Gal. iii. 10. Now, this is the primary and radical refpect wherein the law is called the ftrength of fin; any other particular that I am to mention, is rather fecondary and confequential unto this. Let this, therefore, be remembered, as the main thing, the chief respect wherein the law is the strength of fin, that it cannot be otherwife in the nature of the thing, and according to the conftitution of the law, or covenant of works, denouncing the leading judgment of fpiritual death upon the breaker of it. No fooner was it broken, than mankind came under the curfe of it; and all men, by nature, being under the curfe of the law, they are by this very curfe under the power and ftrength of fin, becaufe the ftrength of fin is the main part of the curfe of the law: man's being given up to the power of fin, is the main branch of the punishment of fin, and the chief death threatened in the law. Temporal death is nothing, if you take away the ftrength of fin; it hath no fting, no ftrength to harm. Eternal death would have no being; and, as it lies in mere torment, is but the confequential evil of fin, and nothing to the intrinsical evil and power of it in fpiritual death. This being the main threatening, the main curfe; to be under the curfe of the law, and under the power of fin, is one and the fame thing. In this refpect then, efpecially, the ftrength of fin is the law. Happy is the believer in Chrift, that is delivered from the curfe of the law; for, ipfo facto, by this very mean he is delivered from the strength of fin: and fad is your cafe, that are Chriftlefs unbelieving finners, and who have never fled to Chrift for. refuge; for you, being under the curse of the law, are neceffarily under the power of fin: This is the main part of your curfed ftate, that the firength of fin is not felt, is not broken, is not weakened in you; but its commanding and condemning power both of them remain, and will remain while you are under the law, for the ftrength of fin is the law; and if you be not disjoined and divorced from the law, and joined and united to Chrift the end of the law, the firength of fin will be your death and your doom for ever. But then, F 4 2. The 2. The law is the ftrength of fin, in refpect of its of fice, to difcover fin, and make it known in the power and ftrength of it; Rom. iii. 20. By the law is the knowledge of fin; for, without the law, fin was dead, fays the fame apoftle, Rom. vii. 8. Dead, and, as it were, deftitute of life and firength, becaufe the life and power of it was hid and out of fight; For I was alive without the law, fays he, ver. 9. Before the commandment came with power, difcovering the fpirituality of the law, I was, as it were, without the law; and fo they that are without law, are without fin: for, Where no law is, there is no tranfgreffion. Without the law, then, fin was dead, and I was alive; the life and ftrength of fin did not appear; and I thought, I had an innocent and holy life of it: But when the commandment came, fo,as by the law I got the knowledge of fin, then the life and ftrength of fin appeared'; fin revived, and I died. Before the law came with convincing power, might he fay, fin was dead, and I was alive; but whenever the commandment came, giving me the knowledge of fin, then fin was alive, and I died; my carnal confidence died, my hope of life by the law died: for then I faw the ftrength of fin. Thus the law is the ftrength of fin, in respect of its difcovering the life and ftrength of it, which without the law is dead. Why, may one think, if fin be dead without the law, then better want the law that gives life to it. To this we reply; The apostle here fpeaks of fin's being dead in point of the difcovery thereof; and fin's being dead in this fenfe, and the strength of it hid, is no mercy, but a mifery. It is the mifery of unconverted finners, that the ftrength of it lies dead and buried, as it were, in the rotten fepulchre of their wicked heart and corrupt nature, where, like a ftinking carcafe, it is putrifying the whole foul; while yet the finner, that is alfo dead in fins and trefpaffes, does not find the filthy fmell thereof; for fin is nothing but death and putrefaction, but the dead man does not find the filthy fmell of death and rottennefs about him. The life and strength of fin is juft fpiritual death, and fouldefilement; and when this death is hid and out of fight to the finner, and unfelt by him, the ftrength of that fin and death is not the lefs, but the more fearful an ftrong, that it is not feen and felt: therefore, as it is a mercy to get effectual conviction of fin by the law, fo it is a mifery to be under the power and strength of fin, and yet not to know it; for then the finner, that is alive without the law, is but living in fin, and yet dead while he lives the ftrength of fin being dead and hid to him, while without the law, which is the ftrength of fin, in refpect of its office to difcover it. 3. The law is the ftrength of fin, in refpect of its deficiency and weakness through our flesh to deftroy the ftrength of fin; "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God fending his own Son, in the likeness of finful flefh, and for fin condemned fin in the flesh," Rom. viii. 3. The law is faid to be weak through the flesh, or through our corrupt nature, infomuch, that it cannot juftify a finner, it cannot fanctify, it cannot fave: the broken law cannot give life or strength to the breaker of it; there is no help to be expected there against the strength of fin. Its commanding, condemning, enflaving, and ruining firength being from the law, is violated by us; furely no help against the dominion and rule of fin can come from the law: yea, the law was never ordained of God to convey grace, or fpiritual ftrength, to the foul of man: had it not been so, the promise and the gofpel had been needlefs, as the apoftle argues, Gal. iii. 21. "If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness fhould have been by the law." If it could have given life or ftrength, then it would have produced righteoufnefs, and we should have been juftified by it. The law discovers fin and condemns it, but gives no firength to oppofe it; it was never defigned of God as his ordinance for the dethroning of fin, nor for the deftruction of the power of fin. It was defigned to declare the whole duty of man, but never had power to bar the entrance of fin, nor to caft out fin, when it is once enthroned and the broken law hath nothing to do with finners, but to judge, curfe, and condemn them; it neither contains any grace, nor communicates any for the defroying of fin: therefore, they that are under the law, are under the the dominion of fin. The law is holy, but it cannot make them holy that have made themfelves unholy; the law is juft, but it cannot make them juft, nor justify them whom it does condemn; the law is good, but it can do them no good who have once broken it. Sin will never be dethroned by it, and will never give place to the law, either in its title to dominion, or in its power to exert the fame. When the law preffes on the confcience of thefe that are under it, perplexing or dif quieting them; or when the commandment comes unto them, fo as fin revives, and they die, as I faid already; that is, when the law gives power to fin to flay the hope of the finner, and to diftrefs him with the apprehenfion of guilt and death; when the law is thus giving power to fin to difquiet and condemn finners, then, being preft with a fenfe of the guilt of fin, and deprived of all reft and peace in their minds, they will refolve to caft off the yoke of fin, and endeavour it in fome inftances of duty, and abftinence from fin. But, alas! the law cannot enable them hereunto; it cannot give them life and ftrength to go through with what their convictions prefs them unto; and hence they faint after a while, and grow weary, and at length give quite over, if grace come not in with that aid that the law cannot give. 4. The law is the ftrength of fin, not only in respect of its deficiency, for giving ftrength against fin; but in refpect of its efficiency, in giving ftrength to fin through the corruption of our nature. As the law is weak through the flesh, and affords no ftrength against fin; so it is ftrong through the flesh, for increafing the ftrength of fin. In the former it is deficient, in this latter it is efficient through the flesh; hence it is faid, Rom. iv. 15. The law worketh wrath; that is, not only wrath in God against the finner, that breaks the law; but alfo wrath in the finner against God, and enmity against him; and both these go together. If the law work wrath in God against the finner, the revelation of this wrath works wrath and enmity in the finner against God. It is only the love and grace of God, revealed in the gospel, that works love; We love him, because be firft loved us, 1 John iv. 19. Now, the law makes no revelation of the love, but |