nor have occasion to be concerned about it. For where there is no law there is no transgression." In answer to this objection, I shall, first, endeavour to show you, in what respects our blessed Saviour has, in our place and stead, answered the demands of the law, and thereby delivered the believer from its power and dominion; and then proceed to show, in what respects the law has still a claim to the believer's observance, notwithstanding his interest in and union to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our blessed Redeemer has these several ways fulfilled the law for believers :-He has fulfilled all the penal demands of it; and hath "redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," Gal. iii. 13. We being guilty criminals, the law condemns us to deserved punishment, and the justice of God demands satisfaction. The blessed Saviour has therefore stepped in between us and the avenging justice of God, and has received the flaming sword into his own bowels. Justice is satisfied, and the guilty offender released, upon his acting faith in this blessed Surety. The law does moreover require of us a perfect active obedience, as we are rational and moral agents; and accordingly the original terms of our acceptance with God were, "Do this, and live-The man which doth these things shall live by them-But cursed is every one that continueth not in all things of the law to do them." Now Christ has in this respect also answered the demands of the law. He has fulfilled all righteousness, and taken away the power of the law, as it is the strength of sin, as it is a killing letter, and ministration of death, on the behalf of all that believe in him; so that it no longer demands perfect personal obedience, as the condition of their acceptance with God. In this respect believers are "not under the law, but under grace," Rom. vi. 14. I may add to this, that there is an infinite merit in this twofold obedience of our blessed Mediator. He being an infinite Person, the value of his obedience was proportionate to the glory and dignity of his Divine nature; and he has therefore, by his fulfilling the law, purchased all grace here and glory hereafter, for all who shall believe in him, and be thereby united to him. Thus, then, the believer's first husband is dead; they are loosed from the law of their husband: and they are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that they may be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, Rom. vii. 2. 4. And now, in order to answer the second part of my promise, and show you in what respect the law has still a claim to the believer's observance, I must remind you of what I have formerly observed, that the moral law is also to be considered as a rule of living, as the standard or directory of our conduct. As such, it is a copy, or transcript of the Divine perfections; in particular, of his rectitude, justice, and holiness and therefore is immutable, like the infinitely glorious nature from whence it was derived. It would be utterly inconsistent with the infinite perfections of the glorious God, for him to give us a rule of life, contrary to what is contained in the moral law. Should the law in this sense be abrogated and buried, the holiness and justice of God must be buried in the ruins of it. Now, though our blessed Saviour has in this sense also fulfilled the law, he has fulfilled it to establish it, and not to vacate or destroy it. He has fulfilled it as our exemplar, to give us a pattern of obedience, that we may walk in his steps. He has fulfilled it to glorify his heavenly Father, that, in imitation of him, we also may glorify him, by bringing forth 66 much fruit. In this respect, then, the law retains its "He And now, sir, it is for you to consider whether the antinomians have any handle at all for their licentious principles, from the doctrine of our union to 1 Christ, rightly considered and understood. If no man can have any good evidence of his union to Christ, without repentance and humiliation for his offences against God, then no man can have reason to be easy and secure in sinning, from a presumption of his union to Christ. If the sins of believers are, by virtue of their union to Christ, more aggravated than the sins of other men, they have more cause than others to lament their sins before God, and to be deeply humbled on the account of them. If believers, as well as others, must repent of their sins, or perish, they have then the same cause which others have to mourn for their sins, and, with the greatest detestation, to renounce and forsake them. If believers, by means of their union to Christ, though perfectly justified, are yet not perfectly sanctified, but in many things do all offend; if Christ has not taken away the pollution of sin, and personal innate guilt, though he has borne the curse, and taken away the penalty of sin from believers; if the law still remains a rule of obedience to believers, and if their deviation from, or violation of that rule, be sin, and brings them under guilt and defilement, they have then cause to be humbled for their sins, to groan under the burden of them, and ardently to pant after deliverance from their remaining body of death. All these premises are, I think, fully proved, and the consequences cannot, therefore, be fairly denied. Whence it follows, that whoever quiet their conscience with such vain pretences, expose themselves to the dreadful consequences of a licentious life, Divine rejection, and wrath unto the uttermost. You will be pleased however to bear with me, whilst I offer one answer more, which will equally obviate all your objections. You will readily allow, if it be impossible, from the nature of things, that one who is truly united to Jesus Christ, should be habitually careless and at ease, indifferent and indolent in a way of sinning, that your objections are then all groundless, and without any rational foundation; and that this is so, may be made abundantly clear and evident. If a true and sincere love to God be a necessary consequence of our union to Jesus Christ, and be also utterly inconsistent with those licentious conclusions which you have mentioned, it will then follow, that it is impossible, from the nature of things, that any one who is truly united to Jesus Christ should be careless, easy, and indifferent in a way of sinning: that all who are united to Jesus Christ do habitually love God, and dwell in the love of God, is expressly asserted by the apostle, "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him," 1 John iv. 16. And it is also necessary, from the very nature of our union to Christ. Being united to Christ, we shall partake of all the graces of the blessed Spirit which are in Christ, as in a fountain or repository, to be communicated unto us; as I have shown you before. Let us therefore proceed to consider, whether the love of God be, from the nature of it, compatible or consistent with a carelessness and indifference about sinning against him. Can we love God, and be careless and indifferent about affronting him, and loading him with indignity, at the same time? Can we love God, and yet be content to dishonour his name, violate his laws, and trample his sacred authority and attributes under the feet of our lust? This cannot be, till love and hatred, friendship and enmity, become the same thing. Our profession of love would hardly |