their lives; though not for the same end, for which I fulfilled it.

Duty is always one and the same-a debt always due to God. But the debt of obe

dience being withheld, and the death of suffering being incurred, the believer is taught to plead his discharge from suffering under Christ, and his fulfilling of obedience in the righteousness of Christ. With this faith he has a delightful prospect of duty. God is now at peace with him. God loves him in his Son. It is his high privilege to enjoy the sense of those distinguishing favours. For this end he is admitted to walk with his God. What an honour is this! Having received the adoption of sons, he is blessed with his Father's love, and is taken into near fellowship with him. What a happiness is this! "Son, all that I have is thine; it is freely given to thee in Jesus; and thou art now called upon to enjoy me and mine in thy holy walk." Here duty becomes his privilege. It is exalted and spiritualized into a gospel grace. He is bound to it, but it is by the cords of love. The pleasing bonds of

gratitude tie his heart to obedience--to a free, holy, evangelical obedience. He obeys, not as a slave, but as a son-not for fear, but because Christ has set him at liberty-not that God may accept, pardon, and justify him, but because God has done all for him, and will do all in him-not that he may have heaven for his obedience, but because heaven is reserved for him, and he for it. He, therefore, looks at duty, as greatly refined by the gospel. Every act of it, done in faith, is an act of fellowship with the Father and with the Son; and by the grace of the Spirit, every act brings the Father's love, through the Son's salvation, into experience. He has communion with his God in all he does. ennobles duty. It is hereby raised to a divine honour for it is hereby made, to them who are in Christ, the highest privilege they can have on this side of heaven.

This

When the holy Spirit writes the law upon the heart, he then teaches this obedience of faith. He does not abolish duty, but he enforces it upon right motives, and directs it to a right end. The same duties remain in the

gospel, but not upon the same obligation. Law duties, as conditions of life, cannot be fulfilled. The Judge himself has decreed, that by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Therefore the law, as a covenant of works, does not enter into the believer's obedience. He obeys because he is freed from this covenant-not freed from doing the same duties, which this covenant required, but freed from doing them upon law motives, neither expecting the promised life on account of keeping the precepts, nor fearing the threatened penalty on account of not keeping them. It is his privilege to obey, because he is saved. He works from a free spirit, and with a thankful heart. He does all his duties in faith. He is spiritual in them, acting upon the endearing motive of God's love to him in Christ, as it has been revealed to his heart by the holy Spirit. He hopes for the acceptance of them only through the intercession of Christ: And after he has done them ever so well, he desires grace from Christ to return him all his glory. Thus in every duty he aims at

fellowship with God in Christ through the Spirit, and seeks to present an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.

Whatever thou art required to do, remember, O my soul, that thou art under grace, and it is thy privilege to do it in faith. View the two tables in the hand of thy Saviour, and receive the ten commandments from his mouth. Happy for thee, Jesus is thy lawgiver. His spirit will gospelize thine obedience. He will bring thine heart into it. He will set thee in the chariot of love, and thou shalt ride on prosperously: he will oil the wheels of duty, and they shall run easy and pleasant. Thou shalt be carried sweetly through duty, thy beloved being present and conversing with thee in it: yea, thy faith working by love to him will render fellowship with God in all thou doest, the joy of thy heart and the glory of thy life.

O beg of thy divine teacher thus to spiritualize thine obedience. From him only canst thou learn the two great commandments, which are the sum and substance of

the will of thy God. In the first his nature is revealed, and then his worship. He is the Lord thy God, Jehovah thy Alehim; Jehovah means the self-existent Godhead; and Alehim, the persons in covenant, Father, Son, and Spirit, partakers of the same selfexistence, and divine glory, without any difference, or inequality. There can be no true religion without the true object of worship, and he cannot be worshipped unless he be known; therefore it is an indispensable duty to know the Lord God. But how shall fallen man attain to this knowledge? He lost it by sin, and he cannot by any reasoning faculty, or power of his own, recover it. It is a matter of fact, that no

searching, find out God;

man did ever, by

and attested, by

infallible authority, that the world, by its

wisdom knew not God.

There is no true

description of the Godhead, but what is revealed in Scripture; and it is altogether from the teaching of the holy Spirit, that any one savingly understands what is revealed. He, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation opens the eyes of the mind, sets the object before