1. Christ came not to dissolve our obligation to God, but to promote it rather. Certainly not to dissolve it to free us from obedience to the law ; for that is impossible that a creature should be sui Juris, or without law ; for that were to make it supreme, and independent, and so to establish our rebellion, rather than to suppress it. No, he came upon no such design, to leave us to our own will, to live as we list, without law and rule. He came to restore us to obedience, to bring us back again in heart and life to God : Luke i. 75, ' He hath delivered us from the hands of our enemies, that we might serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives.' To this end tended his doctrine : ' 1 came not to destroy the law, V)ut to fulfil it: ' Mat. v. 17. His ex- ample ; He came to do what God had commanded, and to teach us to do the same : Mat. iii. 15, ' For thus it become th us to fulfil all right- eousness : ' and Heb. v, 8, 9, ' Though he were a Son, yet learned he o})edience by the things which he suffered ; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to them that obey him.'
2. Christ dispenseth by virtue of his merit, regeneration, or the spirit VOL. xr. 2 E
434 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. Y.
of holiness, that all new creatures might voluntarily keep this law, though not in absolute perfection, yet by sincere obedience. This grace is dispensed to put us into a capacity of loving, pleasing, and obeying God ; this is that he promiseth in the new covenant : Ezek. xxxvi. 27, ' And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.' So Jer. xxxi. 33, * I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.' He doth not say, I will prepare them another law, as if the old law of God were to be abandoned and abolished, and some other precepts substituted in their room ; no, but to make them conformable to it in heart and life, the new man is created after God for this end and purpose : Eph. iv. 24, fitted to obey the law ; so that the great blessing of the gospel is grace to keep the law.
3. None enter into the gospel state but those that entirely and readily give up themselves to do the will of God ; and therefore none can have benefit by the sin-offering and satisfaction of Christ but those that consent to return to the duty of the law and live in obedience to God. Surely God never pardoneth any while they are in rebellion, and live under the full power and dominion of sin ; no, they must consent to forsake and return to the allegiance due to their proper Lord. This is evident ; for the way of entering into the new covenant is by faith and repentance, is nothing else but a sincere purpose of new obedience, or living according to the will and law of God. It is defined to be a ' breaking off of sin : ' Dan. iv. 27 ; and therefore the scripture runs in this strain : Isa. Iv. 7, ' Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un- righteous man his thoughts : and let him return to me, saith the Lord, and I will abundantly pardon: ' and Isa. i. 16, 'Wash you, make you clean,' and then ' though your sins were as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' The least that can be gathered from these places, is, that a serious vow and thorough resolution of new obedience, are neces- sary to begin our interest in the grace of the new covenant.
4. The more we fulfil our covenant, vow, and resolution, by obeying the law, our right is the more clear, and evident, and more confirmed to us ; our participation of the blessings of the gospel is more full, and our comfort more strong: Ps. cxix. 165, 'Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them;' and Gal. vi. 16, 'As many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them.' God loveth us the more, the more we obey his law. It is holiness maketh us more amiable in his eyes, and the objects of his delight. God loveth us as sanctified rather than pardoned; we love him as pardoning and forgiving so great a debt to us; but he delights in holiness or the impress of his own image upon us : Prov. xi. 20, ' The upright in the way are his delight.' When the Spirit bath renewed us according to the image of God, we are made objects of his com- placency. Now we know God's love by the effects ; and therefore the more we act and draw forth this grace, the more God rewardeth our obedience with the sense of his love, and the comforts of his Spirit. The sum of all religion is to love God, and to be beloved of him ; to love him and obey him is our work ; and to be beloved of him is our reward and happiness. Now the one followeth the other : John xiv. 22, 23, ' Lord 1 how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not