do! Sin's juft authority is exauctorated; and Christ, by fatisfying the law, which is the ftrength of fin, hath condemned fin in the flesh. Sin hath a fort of right to reign in wicked men, and these that are under the law; but none in the believer, who is delivered from the law, which is the ftrength of fin: Tho' it actually exercise authority, yet it is but an ufurped authority; as fin hath no power nor authority to condemn the foul that is in Christ, fo it hath no authority to reign; and fin fhall never reign unto death over them, Rom. v. laft. And the believer that hath caft off the authority of fin, as being no more his lawful king, may complain of its unjuft oppreffion, and plead with a righteous God, that the power of fin may be more and more broken, and fo it fhall be. But the legalist, who is alive to the law, in regard that he is both under the commanding and condemning power of the law, is alfo under the commanding and condemning power of fin. The law commands him, and he obeys it as his Lord; and fin commands him also, and he obeys it too, and makes his legal duties a plaifter to cure his confcience of his fin, like Lewis XI. of France, who would fwear a bloody oath, and for a pardon kifs a crucifix, and swear again, and kiss it again, and fo runs the round. However, the believer is delivered from the power of the law, and the power of fin too; having caft off the law as a covenant, and finding nothing fatisfy and still his confcience, but the blood and righteoufnefs of Chrift, that fatisfies divine juftice. As in this way he finds reft from the curfe of the law, fo alfo fome reft from the rule and dominion of fin; the faith of God's love in Chrift purifies the heart, and kills his natural enmity, infomuch 04 infomuch that he can atteft, to his fweet experience, that the faith of the love of God in Chrift is fo far from leading him to licentioufnefs of life, or encouraging laziness, that he finds it the hottest fire in the world to melt his heart for fin, and the strongest cord in the world to bind him to duty, while the love of God is fhed abroad upon him. Try by these things if you be dead to the law. In a word, if you be dead to the law, then you will be living unto God; I through the law, am dead to the law, &c. He is led fweetly to the Jaw as a rule of life. Quest. How shall I know if I be living unto God? This leads me to the other part of the examination. ·Secondly, Try if you be living unto God. Having inlarged fo much upon the preceeding head, and having offered several particulars upon this head already in the doctrinal part, which may be improved by way of trial; therefore I'll offer you but thefe two marks of this. 1. If you be living unto God, then the fpirit of God will be the chief principle of your life; The water that I shall give him (John iv. 14.) shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life. The man hath not only the water within him, the graces of the fpirit; but the well itself, the spirit himself dwelling in him. And as we know a fpring-well, by feeing the water bubbling up; fo a man may know he hath the fpirit, by the bubbling up of this water now and then. None have a life unto God, but thefe that have the fpirit of Chrift in them, caufing them to walk in his ftatutes; for where the fpirit of life is, he is a fpirit of faith, and a spirit of love; a fpirit of faith, leading the man to the obedience of faith; which fets him to duty from the authority authority of God, and in a dependance upon Chrift, both as his ftrength for affiftance, and as his righteousness for acceptance in the performance thereof: A fpirit of love, leading the man to the obedience of love; and this obedience makes a man ferve like a fon, and not like a flave, and makes the service sweet and pleafant, 1 John v. 3. This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. This makes the believer's obedience while he lives unto God, a mystery to the world, who reckon it a burden to keep the fabbath, a burden to wait on ordinances, a burden to perform duties. Why? On the other hand, when the believer is mounted up in the chariot of love, indeed it is a burden to him to leave off duty, it is a burden to him to leave ordinances, it is a burden to him to think of going back to the world again. Why? The matter is, he is about the obedience of love, which makes the commands of God, not grievous, but delicious. Try your obedience, and living to God, by this principle of it, the Spirit of God as a spirit of faith and love, leading to the obedience of faith and love. 2. If you be living unto God, then the glory of God will be the chief end of your life.. Queft. How fhall I know if the glory of God be my chief end in my obedience? Indeed it is a material queftion. I'll offer a thought upon it: If the glory of God be the chief end of your life, then you will have a continual conflict with felf, and how to get felf-ends mortified. I fee felf creeping in upon me, in all my preaching, praying, communicating; how fhall I get this enemy killed? Here the flesh lufts against the spirit, and the fpirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary the one to the other. The : The believer finds a war here against felf, as his greatest enemy; and it is his joy and the triumph of his heart, when he gets felf dashed to the ground, and debased; when the loftiness thereof is brought down, and the Lord alone is exalted in him. The man that hath God's glory as his chief end, can fometimes trample even his own happiness under his feet, in a manner, when it comes in competition with the glory of God and Chrift: The glory of God is of more worth than ten thousand heavens and therefore the self-denied believer, rather than the divine glory fhould fink, would venture his all, tho' he had a thousand lives: Blot me out of thy book, fays Mofes; let me be accurfed, fays Paul; and all was, that God might be glorified, that Chrift might be magnified, and have a glorious name in the world. There were fome things indeed extraordinary in that measure that Mofes and Paul attained to; but there may be fomething like it, I think, tho' in a smaller measure, that believers may know in their experience! O whatever fhould become of me, let thy name be glorified; let Chrift have a numerous train to praise him to eternity; let me decrease, and him increafe; let him be exalted, though I should be for ever abafed; and if it might contribute to his mounting of the throne, let me be even the footstool on which he may afcend. The man prefers Chrift's publick intereft before his own private intereft: If I forget thee, O Jerufalem, &c. In a word, the man that lives to God, as his chief end, acts in duties, because God is thereby honoured and glorified; and he hates fin in himself and others, because God is thereby dishonoured. Finally, If you be living unto God, your life, your obedience will be influenced by by the grace of the new covenant, being dead to the law, or to the old covenant: But of this I have spoken at large on the 4th general head. Thus much for trial. The 3d use may be for lamentation over, together with reproof of all, both doctrinal and practical, legalifts. 1. As to doctrinal legalifts, we might bewail and refute the legal schemes that take place in the world. I name thefe two, 1. The Popish Scheme denying the imputation of Chrift's righteousness. The imputed righteoufnefs of Chrift is blafphemed by the church of Rome; they call it an affectitious imaginary air, a putative righteoufnefs, contrary to the very ftrain of our apoftle in his epiftles. They talk of a twofold justification; Their first juftification is that, whereby an unjustified man becomes juftified, or a wicked man becomes godly; where they confound justification and fanctification. The Second is that whereby a man already righteous, becomes more aud more righteous, more and more holy. We know no juftification, but one juftification by faith, in the day of clofing with Chrift; laying hold upon the blood of Chrift, whom God hath fet forth to be the propitiation, &c. It is a compleat righteousness, we have it all at once; and it is not within us, but without us: It is in Chrift inherently, and in us, imputatively. They tell us, that we are not juftified by the works of the ceremonial law, but by the works of the moral law: They tell us, that we are not juftified by perfect obedience, but by imperfect; and by an acceptilation, it is looked on by God as perfect: And, in a word, they tell us, that we are justified, not meritoriously, and fimply by works done in our own ftrength, but by works acted |