Lord lives, you will die in a delufion; that if you have not love to God, you have not a spark of holiness tho' you should pray all your days, and work ever fo hard. I will circumcife their hearts to love me, is the promife; and this love is the heart and life of religious duties. Now, you cannot have love, unless you fee fomewhat more or lefs of his love to you: We are naturally enemies to God, tho' we cannot get one of a thousand that will take with it. They think they have a love to God, God forbid, fay they, that we should be enemies. Nay, but I tell you in the name of God, whether you will hear it or not, that as you are enemies by nature, and born with a dagger of enmity in your heart and hand against God; fo, till you get fomewhat of the knowledge of God as in Chrift, reconciling the world to himself, this enmity will never be killed. Now, I fay, it is the believer in Chrift, who being dead to the law, and joined to the Lord, hath this love; and this love conftrains him, so as he brings forth fruit unto God, and lives unto him, Rom. vii. 4. Being dead to the law, and married to Chrift, he brings forth fruit unto God. The believer has fufficient encouragement to make him live unto God; he fees Christ hath satisfied divine juftice, fulfilled all the righteousness of the law, that he hath done that which is impreftible by us; and when by faith he beholds this, he is encouraged to ferve God. Hence fays the Pfalmift, There is mercy with thee, that thou mayeft be feared. Might he not have faid, there is mifty with thee, that thou mayeft be feared? The matter is, the majefty of God would make the finner flee from God, as Adam did, when he heard his voice in the garden; but his mercy makes us fear and love him, ferve

and

and obey him; Then they shall fear the Lord and his goodness, fays the prophet, Hofea iii. 5. If a man hath no faith at all of God's goodness, no hope of his favour in Chrift, where is his purity and holinefs? Nay, it is he that hath this hope, that purifies himself as he is pure. I know not what experience you have firs, but fome of us know, that when our fouls are most comforted and enlarged with the faith of God's favour through Chrift, and with the hope of his goodnefs, then we have most heart to duties; and when through unbelief we have harsh thoughts of God, as an angry Judge then we have no heart to duties and religious exercifes; and I perfuade myself, this is the experience of the faints in all ages.

But, that this moral influence, which dying to the law, or covenant of works, hath upon living to God, or holiness and fanctification, may be further evident: Let us confider, how the law to the believer, having now loft its legal or old covenantform, and being put into a gofpel-form, and changed from the law of works into a covenant of grace, or the law in the hand of Chrift; every part of it now constrains the believer to obedience and fanctification, in a most loving manner. The gofpel-law, or the law of grace, which he is now under, is a chariot paved with love, the law, in the hand of Christ, hath now another face, even a smiling face, in all the commands, promises, threatenings, and

in the whole form thereof.

Firfi, The commands of the law, in the hand of Christ, have loft their old covenant-form, and are full of love. The command of the law of works, is, do, and live; but in the hand of Christ, it is, live, and do: The command of the law of works,

is, do, or else be damned; but the law in the hand of Chrift is, I have delivered thee from hell and damnation, therefore do; The command of the law of works is, do in thy own firength; but the law in the hand of Chrift is, I am thy ftrength, my strength fhall be perfected in thy weakness, therefore do. The command is materially the fame, but the form is different. The command of the law of works is, do perfectly, that you may have eternal life; but now, in the hand of Chrift, the form is, I have given thee eternal life, in me, and by my doing; and therefore do as perfectly as you can, through my grace, till you come to a ftate of perfection. The command, I fay, is the fame materially; for I do not join with these who infinuate, as if here less obedience were required than under the law of works: Though lefs be accepted in these who have a perfect obedience in their head, yet no lefs is required, though not in the old covenant-form. And as the command is materially the fame, fo the authority enjoining obedience is originally the fame, yet vaftly distinct, in that the command of the law is the command of God out of Christ, an abfolute God and Judge; but now under grace, it is the command of a God in Chrift, a Father in him. And fure I am that the authority of a commanding God is not leffened, or loft, that the command is now in the hand of Christ. Chrift is God, coequal and co-effential with the Father: And as God's authority to judge is not loft or leffened, in that all judgment is committed to the Son; fo his authority to command is not loft or leffened, in that the law is in the hand of Chrift. Nay, it is not leffened, but it is fweetened, and made amiable, lovely and defirable to the believer, constrain

ing him to obedience, in that the law is in the hand of his head, his Lord, and his God. The end that he hath in commanding, and that they should have in obeying, is now diftinct, and different from what took place under the law of works. The end that he hath in commanding, is not to lay a heavy yoke of duties on their necks, to be born by their own ftrength; nor, tho' performed by his strength, to be a righteousness for their juftification, or a condition of life; but only to fhew his holy nature, that will not have a lawless people; to fhew his great grace, that condefcends to seek our service; to grace and beautify his people, their chief happinefs confifting in a conformity to his will; that his people may get good, which is neceffarily joined to duties, and connected thereto by the promises; that he may have something to commend his people for; and that he may without a complement have ground to fay, Well done, good and faithful fervants; that by them he may have matter of condemnation against the rest of the world, who walk not in his commandments. In a word, he commands, that his fovereignty may be kept up, and the fenfe thereof in the hearts of his people; and that, by his word of command, he may (as many times he doth) convey ftrength to do what he calls to; and, in cafe of fhortcoming, to drive them out of themselves, under a fenfe of weakness and finfulness, into Jefus Chrift, the end of the law for ftrength to fanctify, as well as for righteousness to juftify: For thefe, and fuch like ends, does the Lord, command. And then the end that they fhould have in obeying, is not to fatisfy confcience, nor to fatisfy juftice, to purchase heaven, or the like; but to glorify God, to edify our neighbour,

and

and amen.

and to teftify our gratitude to God, and Chrift, that hath delivered us from the law as a covenant. 2. The promises of the law, in the hand of Chrift, have loft their old covenant-form, and are full of. love. The law of works promises eternal life, as a reward of our doing, or obedience; and here the reward is a reward of debt: But the law, in the hand of Chrift, promifes a reward of grace to gofpel obedience, especially as it is an evidence of union to him, in whom all the promises are yea Eternal life was promifed in the covenant of redemption to Christ, upon his perfect obedience, who paid that debt, when he came under the law of works for us; and now, eternal life being won to the believer in Chrift,, as the reward of Chrift's obedience to the death, there is no other reward of debt that now takes place. Rewards of grace are now come in fashion, and this heartens the believer to live unto God, that in the way of gofpel-obedience, there is a gracious promife of sweet communion and fellowship with God; He that loves me and keeps my commandments, I will love him and manifeft myself to him, and my Father will love bim, John xiv. 21. Here there is a fatherly promife of God's favour and familiarity with him ; yea, there is a promife of heaven itself, in the way of gofpel obedience, and fanctification: A right to heaven is purchased by the blood of Chrift, and the believer is the young heir of glory; but his poffeffion of heaven is fufpended till he be fit for it, till he do fome bufinefs for his Father, and be made meet for the inheritance of the faints in light. Here is fweet encouragement he hath, to live unto God. 3. The threatnings of the law in the hand of Chrift have loft their old covenant

form,