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Who fhall deliver me! nor finding any Refuge, but the Grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift?—-Where is any Injustice done the infpired Writer, or the leaft Injury to Chriflianity, by fuppofing this to be the very Cafe the Apostle had in View? Or what one Word is there in all his Description of the Cafe before him, but is fairly accommodable to this interpretation? And what Occafion then to uppofe the Apostle ufes fuch a Metafchematifm here, as fome fuppofe, transferring to Himself thofe odious Things which belonged only to an unregenerate Legalist, and putting them in his own Cafe, merely out of Modefty, and to avoid giving Offence to the Party reproved?

2. We find the Apostle here giving Characters of himself that are the diftinguishing Marks of a regenerate State; Characters, that do not, that cannot, agree to any unconverted Perfon in the World.It is, for Inftance, the peculiar Property of a Child of God, to hate that which is evil, and to have a Will prefent with him to that which is good.-No unregenerate Perfon is able truly to fay, that he would do that which is good, and would not do that which is evil.-The Confcience indeed, and the Judgment of an unregenerate Man, may in fome Sense be faid to be against the Sin; but his Will is for it, and the Lufts of a depraved Will habitually govern the Man; fo that he always inclines to Sin, in one Kind or another, in one Degree or another, and does always actually indulge himself in Sin, except only when under fome fpecial Restraints by Shame or Fear of Punishment, He can never be faid to hate Sin, though he hate the Mifery that is like to be the Confequence of it; but he rather hates the Law that punishes Sin.And to be fure, it cannot be faid of any unrege nerate Man, that he hates Evil and would do Good, indefinitely;

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indefinitely; that is, that he hates all Evil, and would do all good, without any Distinction or Referve, as the Apostle here affirms of himfelf.-No! there is fome Delilah in Referve, fome BofomLuft retained, fome Methods of vital Piety (either of Heart or Life) rejected, by the greatest Proficients in Morality among the unconverted World. None but the truly Regenerate can fay with David, I efteem all thy Precepts concerning all Things to be right, and I hate every falfe Way. Pfal. cxix. 128.

To this I may add, that it is the distinguishing Character of a Child of God, to delight in the Law of the Lord after the inward Man.An unregenerate Man may, by the Lafhes of an awakened Confcience, and the Terrors of the Law, be kept under fome flavish Restraints, and be forced to fome fervile Endeavours of Obedience; but could he, with a quiet Confcience, and Hopes of Salvation, enjoy his Choice, he would break through all these Reftraints, and always gratify his finful and fenfual Inclinations. To have our inward Man, our very Mind and Heart delighted in the Law of God, is to have our Souls delighted in a Conformity to God; the Law being but a Transcript of his moral Perfections; that is, in other Words, it is to love God himself, to delight ourselves in his Nature and Government, to love to be like him in the inward Man, having the Law written on the Tables of our Heart, which is the Sum of all Religion, the whole and only Evidence of vital Chriftianity, all other Marks and Characters of a Chriftian indeed being contained in it.Whence it is, that the Pfalmift so often mentions his Delight in God's Commandments, which he had loved, as a Mark of his Uprightnefs. No unregenerate Profeffor does really delight in God, as the holy and righteous Governor and Judge of the World: And therefore no unregenerate

unregenerate Perfon can truly fay, as the Apoftle here, I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man.

I may likewife add, that it is the diftinguishing Character of a Child of God, to groan under the Burthen of the Body of Death, to long for Deliverance from it, and to have a War maintained between the Law of his Members, and the Law of his Mind. Awakened Sinners may groan under a Senfe of Guilt and Danger, and have a War between their Confciences and their Lufts: But they are Believers, and none but they, who groan under the Burthen of their Heart-Corruptions, and after a further Progrefs in Holiness.- Unrenewed Sinners may have a Law in their Members warring against their awakened Confciences; but they have no contrary Law in their Minds, no fuch habitual Bent of Soul, or ftated and fettled Difpofition of their Affections, as has the Force of a Law with them, and maintains a conftant War with their inward Corruptions, their vain Imaginations, finful Appetites and Paffions.-They do indeed love the Lord, that thus hate Evil, Plal, xcvii. 10. And they who thus fight the good Fight of Faith will lay hold on eternal Life, 1 Tim. vi. 12. It is one Characteristic Believer, that he refifts Sin in all the Lufts thereof, even the moft fecret and hidden from the Eye of the World. Every Creature has its Antipathies, the new Creature, as well as any other; and as Sin is the greatest Contrariety to its Temper and Tafte, to its Interests and Comforts, the Divine Nature always is difpofed to exert itself in an Oppofition to indwelling Sin, studying to mortify it more and more.

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3. The Apoftle is here giving the Character of a Perfon who has a twofold Principle in him: The one a governing Principle, that may be called him

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felf; the other, a fubdued Principle, which is not he, but Sin that dwelleth in him.Now, can any unconverted Perfon in the World truly fay, it is not he that tranfgreffeth the Law, when the natural Bent and Difpofition of his Soul is to Evil, only to Evil, and that continually, notwithstanding all the Restraints of the Law, and Checks of Confcience; and when all the Sins of his Heart and Life are imputed to him, and will be punished upon him, if he remain in his prefent State?-Can any unconverted Perfon in the World say, that he himself (all in him which in God's Account can be called himfelf) ferves the Law of God, though with his Flesh (his remaining, carnal Affections and Appetites) the Law of Sin; when it is certain, that every unconverted Man is, both with his Mind and Flesh, a Servant to Sin, and free from Righteousness? as the Apostle affures us, in the fixth Chapter of this Epiftle, Verfes 16, 17, 20.

4. What juftifies my Interpretation beyond all reasonable Oppofition is, that the Apoftle draws that Conclufion from those very Characters here given of himself, There is therefore now no Condemna sion to them which are in Chrift Jefus, who walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit: For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Chrift Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death, Chap. viii. 1, 2.-Two Things do here appear to me certain and unquestionable: One is, that the first Verfe of this viii. Chapter is here reprefented (as plainly as any Thing can be reprefented by Words) as a neceffary Confequence or just Inference from the Premifes, and from the Characters the Apostle had there given of himself; and is therefore full Proof, that every one in the fame fpiritual State, defcribed in the latter Part of the preceeding Chapter, is in Chrift Jefus, and freed from Condemna.

tion.-There is THEREFORE now noCondemnation, &c. Wherefore? Because they who are in Chrift Jefus are freed from Sin, and do not walk after the Flesh, but after the Spirit, as before defcribed; and particularly because they themselves do ferve the Law of God, as expreffed in the Verfe immediately foregoing. This Conftruction is neceffary to make the Connection of this Verfe, with what went before, congruous and rational. Nay, it is the Conftruction which the Apostle himself purpofely leads us to in the 2d Verfe. FOR the Law of the Spirit of Life in Chrift Jefus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death. As if he had faid, They who are in Chrift Jefus cannot be under Condemnation, fince they are made free from the Law (from the Dominion, though not from the Remains) of Sin and Death; which I have already fhewn you to be my Cafe, in the foregoing Defcription of my piritual State and Experience, and in the Characters I have given of myself.Another Thing that ap. pears to me most certain and evident is, that the the Apostle fpeaks of himself here (in this 2d Verse of Chapter viii.) in the fame Manner, and to the Fame Purpefe, as he spoke of himself in the latter Part of the foregoing Chapter; and that these Words, with the following Verfes, are the Sum and Conclufion of that whole Discourse. This was he Point the Apostle was undertaking to explain; his the Subject of the preceeding Chapter, as I have dready fhewn; in this he speaks in the first Perfon, as in the former Chapter; this is a natural and rational fumming up or drawing the Conclufion of the whole, The Law of the Spirit of Life, in Chrift Jefus, hath made ME free from the Law of Sin and Death. Whence it follows, that thofe Cha*acters in the latter Part of the seventh Chapter, belong to none but such who are in Christ Jesus; and

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