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converfion, Gal. iii. 2. and of true holinefs, Tit. ii. 11, And what is it that makes the gospel the power of God to falvation, and the powerful inftrument of converting finners to God? Even becaufe therein is revealed the righteoufnefs of God, from faith to faith, Rom. i. 15. 17. and therein the righteoufnefs of God, without the law, is manifefted, Rom. iii. 21. What was the reafon, that, in the beginning of our glorious Reformation such great multitudes were quickened to fpiritual life, and made fruitful in the ways of God? Why, God raised up fome inftruments to publifh and illuftrate the doctrine of grace, and their preaching wrought wonders, the power of God attending the publication of it; they harped moft upon this ftring, to clear the doctrine of juftification by grace, without the works of the law, and in oppofition to the damnable doctrine of the church of Rome, which fets up men's works as the matter of their juftification: but as all the Reformers harped fweetly upon the firing of grace, fo this article, fays Luther, reigns in my heart," That we are juftified freely by grace, through the redemption that is in "Chrift." But now-a-days, we are become fo far afhamed of the gofpel of Chrift, that as all imaginable methods have been taken to difparage the preaching of it; fo fome, that have but a faint inclination to preach it, are difcouraged from meddling too much with this theme; and others betake themfelves to a legal strain; or, if they preach grace, it is in fuch a hampered way, and with fo many cautions and circumlocutions, as if there were a great danger in preaching free grace, but no danger in preaching the law. Is there need of caution in preaching of CHRIST, and no caution to be used, in preaching Mofes? I am not against fuitable caution on all hands; but it is to be feared, there will be little revival of a Reformation, till the doctrine of grace vent more freely under the conduct of the Spirit, giving fuch an appropriating faith and perfuafion of the free favour, love, and grace of God in Chrift, as took place in our Reformers days. Whence is it that all manner of fin and profanenefs rages in our day? Why, gofpel-light is VOL. V.

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either darkened or flighted, and men remain under the law, which is the ftrength of fin.

2. See hence the dreadful corruption and depravation of our nature, and the deplorable condition of finners in their natural flate, in that the law, which forbids fin, fhould be in men the ftrength of fin, and fhould irritate corruption, and ftir up to more fin.. The law, inflead of healing that, difeafe, does increase it; as it is faid, Hofea vii. 1. "When I would have healed Ifrael, then the iniquity of Ephraim was difcovered, and the wickednefs of Samaria." See alfo Rom. viii. 9, 10, 11. It fares with men under the dominion of the law, as with wolves and dogs, that grow more fierce by their being tied up and confined: and as with a brook, which if not interrupted, runs calmer; but if it be dammed up, then Supens et fervens, et ab obice fevior ibit; "It fwells beyond its bounds, and rages and runs down afterwards the more violently." When the fun of the law fhines upon mens dunghill hearts, they bring forth the more noifom fmell; hence, tell the unregenerate man of his fins, he is the more inclined thereto; tell him of his duties, he is the more averfe therefrom: why, whence does this proceed? It even comes to pafs by these two means. 1. God is provoked by fin, to work thefe ftrange effects upon men, as an angry Judge; he makes the law, which fhould be their fouls meat and drink, to be poifon to them. 2. Because the law is

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contrary to fin, therefore fin is contrary to it; they violently oppofe each other. If there were no fin, the law would be pleafant to them, they would wear it as jewels about their neck, and write it upon the tables of their heart; but now, oh! how oppofite is the carnal heart to all fpiritual work! Some fpeak of their good hearts, and good nature; but, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" any good thing out of a finful nature? Naturally we delight in good, juft as fifh delight to be out of the water; take a fifh out of its watery element, and fo long as it lives it is not quiet, it does nothing but leaps and tumbles up and down; fo, fet carnal men upon spiritual work, they are out of their element, they cannot live, cannot reft there, Hof. vi. 5. Praying and preach

ing does, as it were, hew and flay, vex and torment them; they are never eafy till they be in their own element again. That horfe muft be a froward beaft, that, the more he is fpurred forward, the more he runs backward; and a ftubborn child, that, the more his father injoins him to do a thing, the more he fets himself againit it: this is the flate of every one by nature; men huff and fauff at reproof, and cannot endure contradiction. And as our nature is a corrupt and contradi&ting nature, in oppofition to the law; fo it is a heterogeneous and felf-contradictory nature: men are, while under the curfe of the law, both under the power of fin, and under the power of felf-righteoufnefs; having a curfed oppofition to the law as a rule of holinefs, and yet a woeful inclination to be juftified by the law as a covenant of works, Rom. x. 3.; and, as the expreflion is, Gal. vi. 21. they defire to be under the law, to be faved by it; and yet they cannot endure to be under it, to be ruled by it. They take occafion to fia from the law, Rom. vii. 8.; as fome evidently do, when they fcorn their teachers, and turn their preaching into feoffing: and yet they take occafion to boaft from the law, Rom. ii. 27. as if they were too wife to be inftructed, and too good and righteous to defpair of life by the law. Thus the law they are under is their ruin, and they know it not. While the commandment never came with power to their effectual conviction, fin and felf remain in their power; and yet of this they are ignorant, that, The Strength of fin is the law. They perceive not the ftrength of fin that they are under, nor the firength of natural corruption, nor the dreadful curfe they are under, because they know not the law they are under, nor perceive it in its fpirituality and feverity, in its mandatory and minatory power, which gives fin both its commanding and condemning ftrength.

3. Hence we may fee the duty of all unbelievers under the power of fin, namely, to come to Chrift, and to come under his grace, who is the end of the law for righteoufnefs to every one that believeth, as they would not remain under the yoke of the law, and fo under the ftrength of fin. Oh! what a fearful thing is it to be under the law!

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"For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curfe." Your works can never fatisfy the law; to attempt this, were to build a caftle in the air: and, as a fnow-ball, the more it is rolled, the bigger it grows; fo, the more you go on to get a righteousness in yourself to fulfil the law, the further off you are from it, and the more involved under the curfe, as being a debtor to do the whole law, Gal. v. 3. And, Oh! how dreadful will your ftate be in a dying hour, and on the brink of eternity, if you have no righteoufnefs that can pleafe the holinefs, or pacify the juflice of God! you will have nothing to expect, but to bear the weight of your own fins for ever, where God will open the treafures of his fury, and fhut the bowels of his mercy for ever upon you; and when you have fuffered millions of years in hell, yet not one mite of a million of your law-debt will be paid! O then, defpair, abfolutely defpair of getting any good by the law, whether by your own doing or fuffering; and fee the neceffity of flying to Christ, and his doing and fuffering, knowing that there is no other way of getting both the law and the Law-giver satisfied. O happy thefe, who are perfuaded, through grace, to take this way, namely, of coming to Chrift alone, for deliverance from the law, and fo from the firength of fin!

4. Hence we may fee what is the duty of believers in Chrift, who are delivered from the law. Surely they ought to give evidence that they are delivered from the ftrength of fin, by afpiring after the strength of grace: for, as it is faid of believers, Rom. vi. 14. "Sin fhall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace;" which fays, that by their being delivered from the law, they are delivered from the reigning ftrength of fin; fo it is the duty of believers to give evidence that they are not under the law, nor confequently under the ftrength of fin, by aiming at the ftrength of grace, or the highest and nobleft degrees thereof, in oppofition to the ftrength of fin.

If you afk, When is it that the ftrength of grace does appear in a believer?

I fhall offer fome inftances of the ftrength of grace: I speak

I fpeak not now of grace in the fountain, as it is in God, but of grace in the ftreams, as it ought to fhine in the believer.

(1.) The firft inftance of the ftrength of grace is when the believer can be high and yet low; high in his attainments, and yet low in his thoughts and apprehenfions of himfelf. Thus Paul was high in gifts, high in graces, high in comforts, high in fervices, high in fuccefs, high in manifeftations, high in many excellent refpects, and yet low and humble in fpirit: for, if we take his own verdict of himfelf, he looks on himself as the leaft of all faints, the chief of all finners, not worthy to be called an apoftle, as I might inftance in feveral of his epiftles; yea, he calls himself nothing, 2 Cor. xii. 11. And, O how becoming is it for believers to be low and humble amidit thefe high and eminent graces and attainments! For he that was the highest became the loweit ; "Learn of me, fays Chrift, for I am meek and lowly in heart:" and yet so high, that, in the preceding verfe, he had fhewed how all things were delivered to him by his Father, Mat. xi. 27, 28, 29. Oh! may not duft and afhes blush and be afhamed to be proud, when GoD humbled himself! Oh! for a vile worm to fwell, when MAJESTY humbled itfelf!

(2.) The fecond inftance of the ftrength of grace, is, when the believer is low, and yet high; lying low in the duft before God continually, and yet high and heavenlyminded, according to Col. iii. 1, 2. when the lower he finks in felf-abafement, the higher he mounts up as cn eagles wings in fpiritual-mindedness and holy loftiness of heart, looking down with a generous difdain upon worldly things, that carnal minds are fo much taken up with.

(3.) The third inftance of the ftrength of grace, is when a believer is full, and yet empty; full of worldly enjoyments, and yet empty of love to the world; enjoying all manner of temporal good things, and yet able to fay, as Pfal. lxxiii. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none on earth that I defire befide thee? And with Paul, I am crucified to the world, and the world to me. It is an inftance of great grace, when a man can 13

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