is a proof, that both the obligation to holiness is acknowledged on his part, and the performance of it is expected on yours ; and consequently, that the Gospel is, by your mutual consent, " a doctrine ac- cording to godliness."
From the passage before us, we may in the next place, offer a reproof to those who would abuse the Gospel. We have already acknowledged, and with deep grief we confess it, that there are some persons professedly of Antinomian principles, who are so occupied with contemplating what Christ has wrought out for them, that they cannot bestow a thought on what he has engaged to work in them. To speak of holiness, or any point of duty, they account low, and legal : yea, they think that Christ has by his own obedience to the law superseded the necessity of ho- liness in us ; and that the whole work of salvation is so finished by him, that there remains nothing to be done by us, nothing of repentance for sin, nothing of obedience to God's commands, but solely to maintain confidence in the provisions of God's everlasting Co- venant, and to rejoice in God as our God and portion.
Shocking as these sentiments are, they have been professed of late to a great extent ; and many have been deceived by them : but, to show how unscrip- tural they are, we need only refer to the character of David, as drawn in the words of our text : Does he discard the law as a rule of life ? Does he pour con- tempt upon the precepts of God as unworthy of his notice ? No : throughout all his Psalms he speaks of them as objects of his supreme delight : " O how I love thy law ! all the day long is my study in it." " I love thy precepts above gold ; they are sweeter to me than honey and the honey-comb." To the same effect St. Paul also speaks : " I consent unto the law that it is good :" and again, " I delight in the law of God after the inward man ! " He does, it is true, speak of himself as " dead to the law ;" and of the law as dead with respect to him ; and from thence, that the marriage bonds, by which the law and we were formerly united, are for ever dissolved. But