When persons hear of our being " delivered from the law," and " dead to the law," they feel a jealousy upon the subject of morality, and begin to fear that we open to men the flood-gates of licentiousness : but their fears are both unnecessary and unscrip- tural ; for the very circumstance of our being deli- vered from the law as a covenant of works, is that which most forcibly constrains us to take it as a rule of life. Hear how St. Paul speaks on this subject : " I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto Godh:" and again, "My brethren, ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto Godc." You perceive then that the liberty to which we are brought by Jesus Christ, has the most friendly aspect imaginable upon the practice of good works, yea, rather, that it absolutely secures the performance of them. Whilst therefore we would urge with all possible earnestness a simple affiance in Christ as your Mediator, we would also entreat you to receive the commandments at his hands, and to observe them with your whole hearts. Take our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, for instance : study with care and diligence the full import of every pre- cept in it. Do not endeavour to bring down those precepts to your practice, or to the practice of the world around you; but rather strive to elevate your practice to the standard which he has given you. In like manner, take all the precepts contained in the epistles, and all the holy dispositions which were exercised by the Apostles ; and endeavour to emulate the examples of the most distinguished saints. You are cautioned not to be righteous over-much; but re- member, that you have at least equal need of caution to be righteous enough. If only you walk in the steps of our Lord and his Apostles, you need not be afraid of excess : it is an erroneous kind of righteousness, against which Solomon would guard you, and not against an excessive degree of true holiness ; for in
b Gal. ii. 19. c Rom. vii. 4.