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after his. As the stream of a river freely flows through its course, according to the laws of providence; so the spirit of a Christian, turned aright, tends towards Christ with a willing affection, according to the order and in the way appointed for him. This is the principle of all holy obedience in a Christian. His heart and soul are in it; whereas none but a Christian's ever can be.

In this view of the case, the question, "Whether the moral law is not the rule of a Christian's duty," appears to be perfectly idle. The moral law enjoins nothing but the love of God and the love of man, and declares to every sinner, and to every saint, how far they come short of the pure glory of God, revealed in and to be spiritually understood by it. Of course, it is purity itself, the transcript of the holy mind of God, and ne cessarily therefore holy, just, and good. Certainly, no Christian can plead for the violation of any of the commandments; and, if not for the violation, then conse quently for obedience. He must love God; and he must love man; which is the sum of the moral law: he dares not justify hatred to either: his grief is, that he cannot love both, more perfectly and more entirely. With the apostle, he delights in the law of God after the inward man, and bemoans his captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members, looking out for the time, when he shall have full and everlasting deliverance from it.

It is one thing, to consider the law as a principle of life, and quite another to look upon it as a direction for duty. In the former case, it is death and condemnation to us, all that is awful and horrible; because we are all that is vile and sinful, and therefore sentenced by it to

satan

satan and hell. We must of course utterly cast it out of our consciences and meditation, in all our approaches. to God for pardon and justification. We must then consider it as nothing, or entirely done away by our Redeemer. But, in the other case, the condemnation being removed by the obedience and death of Christ to every believer, there remains nothing in the law but what is pleasant and congenial to that renewed mind, which the Holy Spirit hath wrought in him. He therefore doth not love the law (more than David or the apostle) for life, or to gain life from it; but because he is alive. The law was his enemy, when he was in the death of trespasses and sins; but, in Christ, it is his friend, pleads for his salvation through the righteousness with which Christ hath magnified and made it honourable,* and demands an everlasting reward for him in the court of heaven. It is no more the law of bondage to the Christian, but a considerable part of the law of liberty and love, which though he cannot absolutely come up to in his present state, he will conform himself to it as far as possible; because he is assured, that hereafter he shall be as perfect as this measure of perfection itself, and that it is his very happiness now to bear upon him this pourtrait of his holy Lord, and to walk in blessed sympathy with his pure mind.

The life of Christ, our example, was carried on in full conformity to the law; and indeed there can be no holiness, or knowledge of what holiness means, but according to a description or rule. And what rule can

Isaiah xlii. 21,

we

we find for this, but the revealed rule or mind of God? If therefore we live according to Christ, we cannot live in the allowed breach of any one of his commandments; for, if we thus live, and especially if we justify it, we surely do not follow our great example, but rather insult and condemn it.

As Christ is the example, so his life is our life, if we are his members. I live (says the apostle) yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life, which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. It would be strange to suppose, that the life of Christ could be a life of transgression against that law, which he came to honor and fulfil; nor can any man in his senses, and least of all a Christian man, believe so mad a proposition. The life of faith is given and supported by the Holy Spirit, to bring us nigh unto God in Christ, to give us access by Christ in prayer and praise, to mortify our · members which are upon the earth, to subdue the whole body of sin, to obtain fresh and fresh incomes of grace and experience, to know more of the love of God, to increase more in our love towards him and our neighbour, and to long more for the full fruition of our Redeemer in his kingdom. As, without faith, it is impossible to please God, or to live and act for his honor; so every one, who has true faith, must so act, and cannot allow himself to act otherwise. He has no liberty for a cloke of maliciousness or sin, which is only miserable bondage; but liberty for that dignified and spiritual "service, which is perfect freedom." For this end, Christ is

* Gal. ii. 20.

his

his apoyos, his guide and accomplisher, who surely can only lead him inthe way of God's commandments, when he hath set his heart at liberty. And, therefore, the apostle thus urges upon the Phillippians; because it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure; xalıpyağıσbe, be diligently and constantly employed upon, cultivate, go through with, your own salvation, with fear and trembling.* And what is this but the life and business of holiness?

There are also subordinate examples, whom it is our duty to regard. Indeed, our duty in Christ is but another name for our privilege; for no duty is set before us, but what it is our privilege and interest to perform. The examples of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and pastors, are to be followed, as they followed Christ; and, though they are but imperfect types or models, they are, for that reason, examples of less awe and more encouragement. Their very failings forbid us to despair, under the view of our own infirmities; while their faith and practice point out to us the road,† by which they and all the redeemed of the Lord must travel to Zion.

He that lives under the dominion of sin, and loves it; he that can cherish it, as a sweet morsel, in his heart, or in secret; is not the servant or member of Christ, but of satan. It is true; sin is in his mortal body, and may rebel; but it doth not reign. It is sin in captivity and chains; it is sin dying, and soon to be dead; it is sin

* Eph. ii. 12, 13. So 1 Tim. iv. 15.

This road is strikingly marked out in Isa. xxxv. 8. And an high way, or exalting way, and a way even the way of holiness shall it be called: the unclean shall not pass upon it; but he [God] himself will be with them, walking in the way; and even the fools shall not err therein.

hated,

hated, and loathed, and condemned; it is sin, over which the Christian rejoices as an enemy, that shall ere long be destoyed for ever.

On the other hand, it is both sweet and lovely to follow Christ in the regeneration, or newness of life; and it is the special delight of all the children of God. This holy life, like a shining flame, burns with bright and fervent zeal for the truth of Jesus, and for all his gracious will and righteous ways. It cannot endure the least slight to be put upon his person, his doctrines, or his graces. It loves them all most dearly, and follows them all most nearly. Any distance is grievous, any doubt distressing. If there were no hell, the inward man of a Christian would make no abatement in the love of holiness or hate of sin. If there were no heaven; yet it would be something like it in his apprehension, to walk soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, and far better than all the joys of those, who serve the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Christian; I appeal to thy heart and experience, if it be not so. Thou art an evidence of this noble truth,. and a witness for me in declaring it. I am sure, thou hast never had greater pleasure, than when thou hast been able to work most diligently, or to feel most zealously, for thy Master. His service is such a reasonable one, as not only to be right in itself, but to afford unspeakable satisfaction in the very doing it. The performance is crowned with payment all the way through. It is a service, which makes the tenor of life chearful, and encourages the soul to look upon the approach of death as only "Eternity's birth-day." From the prospect and assurance of life eternal, the heart of a Chris-

tian

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