was ftrange language; nay, but in the cafe of juftification, "Mofes and his tables, muft give place to "Chrift," as Luther fays. Yea, he adds, in this fenfe, "I will fay to thee, O law, Be gone: And if it will not "be gone, thruft it out by force: Call out the bond"woman." Further, the apofile adds, chap. v. 1. "Stand faft, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Chrift hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Read alfo, ver. 4, 5, 6. where you fee, that the believer, being free from the law, and having the fpirit of life, and the fpirit of faith, bringing forth fruit to Gol; of which fruits of the Spirit of Chrift, in oppofition to the fruits of the flesh, you read, ver. 16, 17. and downward.

The fourth witnefs that I cite, is, Colof. ii. 13, 14: "You being dead in your fins,hath he quickened." Now, by what means does this quickening, or being made alive to God, come about? It is by the "Blotting out of the hand-writing-nailing it to his crofs:" Intimating, that there is no living unto God, without being dead to the law, and having the law dead to us, by viewing it crucified with Chrift, and nailed to his crofs.

The fifth witnefs is, Colof. iii. 3, 4, 5. "For ye are dead, [that is, dead to the law, as he had cleared before, and fo dead to fin, felf, and the world,] and your life is hid with Chrifi in God; and when Chrift, who is our life, fhalt appear, then fhall ye alfo appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." The believer is faid to be dead with Chrift, ver. 20. of the preceding chapter, and fo dead to the law, which was nailed to the crofs of Chrift. And, ver. 1. of this chapter, the believer is faid to be rifen with Chrift, and fo he fits together with Chrift in heavenly places: but though his best part is above, even his glorious Head, whom he will follow; yet he hath members on earth, which he is called to mortify; which mortification of fin is, you fee, the native fruit of his being dead with Christ, and rifen with him. The fixth witnefs that I cite, is, Rom. iii. 28. 31. "We conclude that a man is juftified by faith, without the deeds of the law;" and fo he is dead to the law."

Now, does this doctrine deftroy our living to God? Nay, "Do we make void the law, through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law :" We establish it as a covenant of works, while we believe in Chrift for righteoufnefs, to be imputed for our juftification; and we eftablifh it as a rule of life, and holinefs, while we believe in Chrift for ftrength, to be imparted for our fan&tification; and fo being dead to the law, in point of juftification, we live unto God in fanctification.

The feventh witnefs that I cite, is, Rom. vi. 14. "Sin fhall have no dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace." Where you fee, that a man's being under grace, and not under the law, is the very means by which he comes to be delivered, and freed from the dominion of fin, and fo lives unto God. Here is the privilege, deliverance from the dominion of fin; and the means of it is, by the grace of God in Chrift Jefus, by which we are delivered from the law: for, as the motions of fin, Rom. vii. 5. are faid to be by the law, fo the law being dead to us, and we, by grace, being married to another hufband, we bring forth fruit unto God; "The grace of God, that, bringeth falvation, teaching us to deny ungodlinefs," Titus ii. 1 1. While the law hath power over a man, he cannot but be bringing forth fruit unto death, Rom. vii. 5.— There was never yet an effectual courfe taken for the mortifying of fin, but by the gofpel, and the grace of Chrift, which yet fome ignorantly think leads to licentioufnefs, as they thought in Paul's days, Rom. vi. 15. Nay, while we are under the law, we are the fervants of fin; "But now being made free from fin, and become fervants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end ever lafting life," verfe 22.

The eighth witnefs that I cite, is, Rom. viii. 2, 3. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus, hath · made me free from the law of fin and death." Why? How comes that about? Verfe 3. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak, through the flesh, God fending his own Sen, in the likeness of finful flesh; and for fin condemned fin in the flefh." Where ye fee

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the quality of every believer; he is one that lives to God, and walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit: And now, what is the foundation of this? Even free. dom from the law, which, through our weakness, could not justify us; but our help was laid upon One that is mighty, who, having come under the law, did, by a facrifice for fin, condemn fin in the flesh, that the righ teoufnefs of the law might be fulfilled in us, both in point of juftification and fanctification.

The ninth witnefs that I cite, is, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. "For the love of Chrift conftrains us,--that he died for all, that they which live, fhould not henceforth live to themfelves, but to him that died for them." There is true fanctification, and living unto God; but how came it about? The means thereof, is the death of Christ, which we have been celebrating in the facrament of the fupper; this is both the means and the motive thereof. What ftronger motive than this, to live to him that died for us; and, by his death, redeemed us from the law? For we are dead to the law by the body of Chrift," Rom. vii. 4.; that is, by the death of Chrift, the facrifice of his human nature and hence comes true fpiritual life, or living to him.

The tenth witnels that I cite, is, 1 Cor. xv. 56, 57. "The fling of death is fin, the firength of fin is the law:" Where the law is called the ftrength of fin, not only becaufe by the law is the knowledge of fin, and fin would not have power to condemn us, but by virtue of the law, which difcharges fin; but alfo becaufe fin gets ftrength from the law: "Sin taking occafion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupifcence; for without the law, fin was dead," Rom. vii. 8. Sin and corruption is fo irritated by the law, that thereby the finner becomes to be more finful: which is not the fault of the law, for it prohibites, reproves, and cdemns fin but the fault of corrupt nature, which is fo intent in perpetrating evil, that the more any thing is forbidden, the more impetuously it follows after it; like a mad horfe, the more he is checked with the bridle, the more mad and furious is he. Now, "The ftrength of fin is the law; but thanks be to God, which

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gives us the victory, through Jefus Chrift our Lord.” Victory over the law, which is the ftrength of fin; and fo, being freed from the law, or dead to it, in this way I am freed from fin, and put in cafe to live unto God. Thefe are ten witnelles, inflead of twenty that might be adduced for the confirmation of this doctrine, That to be dead to the law in point of juftification, is neceflary in order to our living unto God, in point of fanctification.--Receive this truth then in the love of it,

II. The Second thing propofed was, To fpeak of this ftrange DEATH of the believer; "I, through the law, am dead to the law." Now here four things are to be touched at: 1. What the law is, that the believer is dead to. 2. What it is in the law, that he is dead to. 3. What it is to be dead to the law. 4. The means of this, that through the law he is dead to the law.

ift, What the law is, that the believer is dead to. I know, I have need to be cautious what I fay in this captious age, especially upon fuch a fubject as this; but it is in the fear of God, to whom I am accountable, and without regard to any man, that I defire to deliver the truths of the gofpel.What is the law, to which Paul faid he was dead? I fhall not trouble you with the feveral acceptations of the law, nor the diftinctions of it into judicial, ceremonial, and moral. But here, though the apofile fpeaks fometimes of the ceremonial, and fometimes of the moral law in this epiftle; yet in this text, I fuppofe, with the current of found divines, that he understands efpecially the moral law, or the law of the ten commandments, confidered under the form of a covenant of works. The law is to be taken

two ways: 1. Materially, for its mere preceptive. and directive part. Or, 2. The law may be taken formally, as it is a covenant, whether of works or grace. Now, the law, materially taken, is ftill the fame, whatever form it be caft into, and it is the tranfcript of the divine image, after which man was created at firft; fo that, long before the law was written in tables of ftone, it was written in the tables of man's heart; and

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man was obliged to give obedience to this law, as a creature to his Creator, though there never had been any covenant made with him; and this obligation to obedience, is eternal, everlasting, and unchangeable.But this law was afterwards caft into two different forms, namely, that of the covenant of works, and afterwards that of the covenant of grace.-Now here, I fay, it is meant of the law, or covenant of works; in which law there were three things, a Precept, a Promife, and a Penalty. 1. The Precept, which is perfect and perfonal obedience, by our own ftrength, and in the old covenant form, Dɔ. 2. The Promife, which is life eternal, Do and Live. 3. The Penalty, which is death temporal, fpiritual, and eternal; if you Do not, you fhall Die, Genefis ii. 17. The covenant of: works commands good, and forbids evil, with a promife of life in cafe of obedience, and a threatening of death in cafe of difobedience: and fo this law of works hath a twofold power; a power to juftify, and a power to condemn; to juftify, if we obey; and to condemn, if we difobey. The command of the law, abftractly. and materially confidered, is, as I faid, eternally binding upon all rational creatures, fo long as they continue to be creatures, and God the Creator: but the command of the law, formally confidered, or under the form of a covenant of works particularly, binds no longer than the form continues. Now, the commanding power of the law, as a covenant of works, is a power calling. us to obey (or injoining us to do) by our own strength; to obey, as a condition of life; and to obey, under pain of damnation.

2dly, As to the fecond thing here, what it is in the law, the believer is dead to. Here it must be obferved,. That it is only the believer that is dead to the law, all others are alive to it; and the believer's being deadto the law, imports, that he is wholly fet free from it; or, as the words of our Confeffion bear, "They are "not under the law as a covenant of works, to be "thereby either juftified or condemned." Thus they are dead to the law. The law is compared, in our text, to a hard and cruel mafter, and we compared to

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