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there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation," Heb. x. 26, 27. But it is one thing with Job to be brought into judgment, and another thing to be given up to a fearful looking for of it.

7. The seventh and last branch of the penal part of the law is the discovery it makes of the woful depth of man's fall, his depravity, and the inbred corruptions which he brings into the world with him. The law is spiritual; it penetrates the deepest recesses of the soul, and lays all open, not only actual transgressions, but the bitter root from which they spring. And sure I am that no man can see himself in this glass and live. "The commandment came, sin revived, and I died." The blindness of the understanding, the perverseness and stubbornness of the will, the carnality and enmity of the mind, the hardness and impenitency of the heart, the confusion of the judgment, and the corruption of the affections, all are laid open. All unwarrantable claims upon God, false notions of a God all mercy, human righteousness, a dead formality, false confidences and legal hopes, give up the ghost, and perish for ever. "By the law is the knowledge of sin. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead." 66 For my comeliness was turned in me into corruption," says Daniel, “and I retained no strength." "I abhor

myself, says Job, "and repent in dust and ashes." "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," Gen. vi. 5. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," says the prophet Jeremiah. "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my sore ran in the night, and ceased not; my soul refused to be comforted;" says the psalmist. "There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin," Psal. xxxviii. 3. No hypocrite in Zion, no impostor nor apostate, no minister of the letter, knows any thing of the application of this branch of the law. They are ignorant of the plague of the human heart; their heart knows nothing of its own bitterness; nor have we any of these complaints from the worst of apostates when under their most alarming terrors. Judas complains of one sin, that of betraying his Master; but he was called a devil long before that. Cain complains of his punishment: and Saul acknowledged that he had done foolishly. None but the elect of God, to whom the Holy Ghost applies the law, know any thing of the spirituality of it; and therefore, being themselves lawless, they cannot handle it lawfully.

I shall now come to the real morality of the law. I say real morality, for every thing is not morality that is so called. There never was,

since Adam fell, one grain of real morality found in the hearts of any of the children of men, except in those who are regenerated and born again of the Holy Ghost. Love is the fulfilment of the law. But do carnal men love God? No; "The carnal mind is enmity [in the abstract] against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." And do carnal men love their neighbour as themselves? No, says Paul; "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." If this witness be true, where is the natural man's morality, seeing that love to God and love to the neighbour are the two commandments upon which all the law and the prophets hang. If Milton may be credited, and I am sure the Bible does not contradict him, the devils themselves have as much morality as a carnal man.

Devil with devil damn'd

Firm concord holds; men only disagree

Of creatures rational!

Paul declares that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, Rom. viii. 4. And if this be true, that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who are led by the Spirit's dictates, and who follow after his most precious fruits, sweet operations, love visits, divine consolations, and promised aid and assistance; I say,

if the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in these, then the real morality of the law, or "the end of the commandment, is charity out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned," 1 Tim. i. 5. If this be the end that the law aimed at, and Christ be the fulfilling end of this law for righteousness to all that believe, and if this law be fulfilled in all them that walk after the Spirit, then the righteousness of the law by Christ, and in the saints, is established, magnified, honoured, and fulfilled for evermore: and this was the ultimate end that the lawgiver aimed at.

I shall now come to describe the morality of the law; for, though I have done this before, and even in this work, yet to write the same things to my reader to me is not grievous, but for him it is safe. "Beware of dogs; beware of the conci sion." When Adam stood complete before God and his law, the word of God declares that he had knowledge, righteousness, true holiness, and goodness: God pronounced him very good. But the fall deprived us of all these. Hence we are said to be blinded by the god of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4; and, instead of righteousness, by the fall of Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, Rom. v. 18. Instead of true holiness, we are all as an unclean thing, Isa. lxiv. 6, And, instead of goodness, every imagination of the heart is evil, and only evil. And sure I am that, unless this fourfold adorning decorate the soul of man, and make him all glorious within,

he can never stand with intrepidity before God, before his law, or even before his own conscience when the midnight cry alarms it. But, blessed be God, he has made provision for us in all these; for Christ is made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Wisdom makes the fool wise and knowing, righteousness makes the criminal just and righteous, sanctification makes the filthy creature clean and holy, and redemption makes us pure, and whiter than snow in Saimon. God has appointed his dear Son in our nature to be our surety and head of influence; to his dear Son he draws us, and in him he accepts us. "He hath made us accepted

in the beloved."

His obedience to the law becomes our robe of righteousness and garments of salvation, Isai. lxi. 10. This is our breastplate, through which no curse from a broken law shall ever penetrate, through which no sentence of damnation shall ever pass; for God will never condemn the just, nor justify the wicked. This is the first branch of saving knowledge restored to the elect of God among the sons of Adam. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;" that is, by the knowledge that he shall teach; for, as justification is said to be unto life, Rom. v. 18, so eternal life is promised to saving knowledge. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." To know God as our justifier, and

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