by the facrifice of himself, and thereby to purchase the Spirit, as a Spirit of holinefs and fanctification, to deftroy the power of fin and corruption; and therefore it is a bafe calumny to fay, that this gofpel-doctrine does open the door to fin and licentioufnefs; this he proves by two arguments. 1. Because the faith of Chrift does not deftroy itself, verfe 18. "I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." Sin is like an old houfe, which I have razed and deftroyed, by my doctrine of free juftification by faith, and not by works of the law; for by this doctrine I preached freedom from fin through Chrift; and therefore, if I fhould build up these old wastes of fin again, it is not Chrift, but I that would be the finner, or minifter of fin; nay, I would be a madman, to build with one hand what I deftroyed with the other. 2. Becaufe liberty to fin is contrary to the very scope of the gofpel, and to the defign of this doctrine of juftification by faith without the works of the law; "For, I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God," ver. 19.

This is a very ftrange and wonderful text, that flesh and blood can hardly hear, without fufpecting, that it favours too much of a new scheme of doctrine: and if it were not the divinely inspired words of the apofile, it would hardly escape being taxed as an Antinomian paradox. I remember, Luther upon the text, fays, The falfe apoftles taught, unless you live to the law, you cannot live to God;' and therefore Paul here must be the most heretical of all heretics; his herefy is unheard-of herefy, reafon and human wisdom cannot receive it, that if we will live to God, we must be dead wholly to the law: yet fo it is here, he declares it of himself, and in the name of all believers in Christ, yea, as the very doctrine of faith, "I thro' the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God."

In which words you may notice two remarkably different things, death and life; mortification and vivification. 1. A wonderful DEATH; "I through the law am DEAD to the law." 2. A remarkable LIFE, proceeding out of that death: "That I might LIVE unto God."

ift, You

ift, You have a wonderful DEATH, or Paul's ftrange mortification; "I thro' the law am DEAD to the law :" and of this mortification we have here three things; 1. The general nature of it, it is called a DEATH; “I am dead." 2. The object of it, The law. 3. The means of it, The law; "I through the law am dead to the law;" all very odd things to carnal reason.

1. The general nature of it, it is called a DEATH; "I am DEAD." There are feveral forts of death commonly spoken of, viz. temporal, fpiritual, and eternal; but this is none of them. Temporal death is a feparation betwixt foul and body; but this death takes place where there is no fuch feparation : Paul was thus alive, when he faid here, "I am dead." Spiritual death is a feparation betwixt God and the foul; but this death is a mean of joining God and the foul together. Eternal death is an eternal feparation betwixt God and the foul; but the death here fpoken of, makes way for eternal communion with God.--This is a strange death, a ftrange mortification; especially if you confider,

2. The object of it, The LAW; "I am dead to the law:" not only the ceremonial law, but even the moral law itself, as under the form of a covenant of works, and as a condition of life. I renounce, might he say, the righteousness of the law, feeking no falvation in the works thereof; nay, in this respect it is dead to me, and I to it; it cannot fave me, and I cannot expect falvation by it; nay, "I am dead to the law." To be dead to fin, is a mortification that people may think they can easily understand; but the mystery of it, in being dead to fin, by this mean of being dead to the law, is what cannot be fo well understood; for one would think, that to die to the law, were to live in fin: nay, fays the the apoftle, it is quite otherwife; that I die to fin, "I am dead to the law."

3. You have the means of this death, which is as ftrange, namely, The law; "I thro' the law am dead to the law." As to this mean of death to the law, viz. THE LAW, I find fome divines underftand it a different law from the other; as if the apoftle fhould fay,

⚫ I by

I, by the law of Chrift, am freed from the law of Mofes; or, I, by the law of faith, am freed from the law of works.' But I incline to join with the cur rent of found divines, who underítand both of the fame law, q. d. I am dead to the law, THROUGH the law the law hath taught me that I am a finner, that cannot be juftified by the law, which curfes and condemas finners: "By the law is the knowledge of fin;" and having thus by the law known myfelf to be a guilty wretch, I am dead to all expectation of righteousness by the law. The law then, having thus killed me, and all my hope of life by it, hath been a bleft mean of drawing me out of myself, and all my legal righteouf nefs, to feek life and juftification in Chrift, and his righteousness received by faith. Thus you have a wonderful death here fpoken of.

2dly, You have a remarkable LIFE proceeding out of that death; you may call it Paul's vivification, which was not peculiar to him, but is common to all believers: "That I might live unto God." Where again you may notice three things.

1. The general nature of this vivification; it is called by the name of Life: while a man is alive to the law, he continues dead; but whenever he is dead to the law, then, he is alive; the breath of life is breathed into his noflrils, and he becomes a living foul; for the Spirit of God, the fpirit of life enters into him.

2. The object of this life, or vivification, it is GOD; a living unto God, that is, a new life, a holy life, a divine life; a living to God, to God's honour, to God's glory. Before this, the man lived to himself as his end, as well as from himfelf as his principle; but now he lives from God as his principle, and to God as his end, which only is a holy life, and wherein true fanctification lies.

3. You have the Influence that this death hath upon this life, or this mortification hath upon this vivification; or, the influence that juftification by faith alone, and not by the deeds of the law, hath upon fanctification of heart and life, or living to God, in the particle THAT: "I am dead to the law, THAT I might live

unto

unto God." Now, might the apoftle fay, How falfely do you charge my doctrine, as opening a window to licentioufnels, while I in the name of all believers declare, that this doctrine of juftification by faith alone, or our being dead to the law, in point of juftification, does open the door to true holinefs; for none can live unto God, till they be dead to the law. "I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." But I fhall endeavour further to explain the words upon the following obfervation.

DocT. "That to be dead to the law, in the point “of justification, is neceffary in order to our living unto "God, in point of fanctification: "I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God."

Now, upon this doctrine, I fhall endeavour, through grace, to explain the feveral branches of the text; and the general method fhall be.

I. To clear and confirm the doctrine.

II. To fpeak of the believer's DEATH, or mortification, here intended; "I, through the law, am dead to the law."

III. To fpeak of the believer's LIFE, or vivification; his living unto God.

IV. Of the neceffity of this death, in order to this life; or the influence that our being dead to the law, hath upon our living unto God.

V. Make fome Application of the fubject, in fundry Ufes.

I. To clear and confirm the doctrine; "At the mouth of two or three witneffes, every word fhall be established." But, to fhew that we are not straitened to find out witneffes to atteft the truth of this doctrine, I fhall produce more than two or three.

The first witnefs that I cite, is that, Rom. vii. 4, 5, 6. where you fee, that to be dead to the law, and married, to Chrift, is neceffary, in order to living unto God, VOL. II.

bring

bringing forth fruit to him, and ferving him in newness

of fpirit.

66

The fecond witnefs I cite, is very like to this, Ifa. liv. 1. 5. compared: "Sing, O barren, that did not bear.For more are the children of the defolate [Gentiles] than the children of the married wife." Why? Ver. 5. Thy Maker is thy hufband." Being dead to the law, and divorced from it, and married to Chrift, the barren woman becomes a fruitful bride. And, left And, left you fhould think I put a wrong glofs upon this text, and mistake the meaning of it, you may compare it with,

A third witnefs that I cite, whereby this very glofs that I give it, is confirmed, Gal. iv. 27. "For it is written, Rejoice thou barren, that beareft not; break forth and cry, thou that travaileft not for the defolate hath many more children than fhe which hath an hufband." Now, we would confider what is the fubject here fpoken of: The apoftle is fetting forth believers freedom from the law by the gofpel, or their juftification by faith, without the works of the law; and he confirms it by an allegory, fhewing, that our liberty from the law, was prefigured in the family of Abraham, that we are not children of the bond-woman, or bond-men to the law, but children of the promife, as Ifaac: And the apofile explains the prophet, and fhews his allegory to be founded, not only on the former hiftorical, but alfo on this prophetical Scripture. The gofpel-church, including all believers among Jews and Gentiles, is called the bride, the Lamb's wife and as this bride in general, being divorced from the law, and married to Chrift, is a fruitful bride, bearing many children, many fons and daughters to Chrift, and more under the new difpenfation of the covenant of grace, than under the old legal adminiftration thereof before Chrift's coming; fo every particular believer, being dead to the law, and married to Chrift, is, by this means, fruitful in bringing forth the fruits of holiness and righteousness, to the glory of God; as the apoftle, in profecuting this difcourse, further fhews, ver. 30. "Caft out the bond-woman and her fon." Strange! that the law fhould be called a bondwoman; and then, "Caftiout the bond-woman ;" this

was