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and unfullied with the luftings of the flesh against the fpirit, by the titles of grace and of glory; which yet must not be fo understood, as if grace did not fubfist and shine forth in the laft as well as the first. That those who do fuch things cannot enter into either of them, the Apoftle's authority is fufficient affurance: for it is no more but the declaration of the testimony of God, and that by his fpecial direction and command; and to fay the thing as it is, if what the prophets and apostles testify in God's name is received on any other ground but the teftimony of God, it is not, cannot be reckoned faith. But in this case we have all the authority of reason, improved and enlightened as it is by the inftruction God has graciously given us, that in every view we can take of thefe fame works of the flesh, the conclufion will come out ftrong, that they who do fuch things, cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

On the other hand, those who bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, as thefe are of a nature directly contrary to the other, fo they have a contrary iffue. He does not fay directly, that fuch as do these things fhall enter into the kingdom of heaven;

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heaven; but he fays what is equivalent to it, and what moreover carries the strongest affurance that they fhall not, nay, and that they cannot enter into condemnation; for he says, there is no law against them. It is the fame cafe which this fame apoftle put, Rom. viii. 1. "There is "therefore now no condemnation to thofe "who are in Chrift Jefus, who walk not "after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

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What he adds there," that the law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus, had made them free from the law of fin and death," explains what he says here, verf. 18. that thofe who are led by the Spirit, are not under the law. They who are in Christ, are dead to the law, through the body of Chrift, and raised up in him to a new ftation, and have a new principle of action; they are directed and led by the Spirit. And when it appears, by the fruits of the Spirit, that they are fo, the law has nothing to fay to them; they are, as we may fay, out of its jurifdiction, and are under another government; where the measures of judgement, both in justifying and condemning, are altogether different; "He who believeth and is baptized, fhall

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be faved; and he who believeth not, fhall be damned." The law had its courfe on Jefus Christ, and in him, on all who are made conformable unto him in his death, and has no more to say to them. They are left dead in the hands of their great creator, and are quickened by his fovereignly free grace: for surely no body will pretend, that God was under any the least obligation to employ his creating power to raise any of the apoftate race; and if he was bound to none, he may quicken whom he will; and none can complain of being injured, when he leaves them where they have chosen to be.

But this fame fovereignty of grace, where-ever it is exerted, is fo far from inferring the conclufion which fome, who reckon themselves very wife, very ignorantly faften upon it, viz. that it encourages men to continue in fin, and neglect the study of holiness; that it is abfolutely impoffible for those who have tafted of the grace of God in truth to draw any fuch conclufion from it. It is true, the external doctrine of grace may be, and has been, turned into wantonnefs; but that is only grace in the theory but where-ever it is VOL. III. 3 G received,

received, and entertained in the heart, it teaches men effectually to deny ungodliness and wordly lufts. The Apostle gives the reafon, Rom. vi. 2.-11. and the fame truth he inculcates here, verf. 24. they that are Chrift's, have crucified the flesh, with the lufts and affections of it. He does not fay barely, they have crucified the affections and lufts, but the flesh itself, "in which no good thing can dwell," the old man whofe deeds these are: and moft certainly they are the deeds of the man, the child of Adam; and in thefe he will employ himfelf until he is born again, and created anew in Chrift Jefus unto good works, by the Spirit of Christ living. and abiding in him. It is by this Spirit he lives; and no confequence can be stronger than that which we have, verf. 25. If we live in or by the Spirit, let us alfo walk in or by the Spirit. I put it thus, because the Greek particle is ufed for both, and often rendered by our tranflators either in or by, as they judged the place and matter required.

After what has been faid upon this fubjec, it might be justly deemed superfluous to take any notice of a fet of men who make no difference between the fpiritual, and the rational or fenfual world.

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They feem to imagine, that man is fuch a perfect being, and endued with fomething fo near felf-fufficiency, that he has no need of the Spirit of Chrift, or even of Christ himself; for he and his Spirit are but one. When the Apostle therefore fays, Chriftians, live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit, they think he means no more by the Spirit but the rational foul, the spiritual part of the man; in the ftrength of which they seem to have no doubt but that they fhall regulate all their affections with fuch exactness, that God himself must be pleafed with them, and reward them more liberally, than Adam, in the utmost purity of his innocence, had any reafon to expect. We know the Chriftian "can do all "things, through Chrift ftrengthening "him." But let thefe men seriously try what they can do without him, and they will foon find themselves fo ftrongly bound under fin and death, that nothing but the hand of omnipotence can loose them; or in the Apostle's words, that the law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus, and that alone, can make them free from the law of fin and death: they will feel, on the firft ferious attempt, what 3 G 2

they

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