are born : and on the terms prescribed by it we look for happi- ness or misery in the future world. The connexion between us and it is indissoluble ; like that of an husband ; our obligations to whom nothing but death can dissolve.]
But by the death of Christ we are liberated from it —
[Christ, our incarnate Lord, has fulfilled every part of God's law; enduring its penalties, as well as executing its commands : and this he has done, as our Surety : so that, if we believe in him, we may plead his obedience unto death in bar of all the punishment it denounces against us ; and may even plead it also as having procured for us a title to all its pro- mised blessings. Our blessed Lord, in fulfilling the law, has abrogated it as a covenant ; and has obtained for us a new and better covenant, of which he himself is the Surety b. As a rule of conduct, the law does, and ever must, continue in force; because it is the transcript of the mind and will of God, and contains a perfect rule for the conduct of his creatures0: but as a covenant it is dissolved ; and is, in respect of us, dead ; so that we have no more connexion with it than a woman has with her deceased husband : our obligations to it, and our expectations from it, have ceased for everd. This is a just and beautiful representa- tion of the believer's state : perhaps there is not in all the Scriptures another image that conveys a complete idea of our state, in so clear, and so intelligible a way as this. We all see in a moment the bonds by which a woman is tied to her husband during his life, and the total dissolution of them all by his death : we see that the deceased husband has no longer any authority over her, nor can any longer be to her a source either of good or evil. Now if we transfer this idea to the law, and think of the law as a husband that is dead, or as a covenant that is annulled, then we shall have a just view of a believer's state respecting it. Throughout the whole context, St. Paul expatiates so fully upon this point, and explains him- self so clearly, that we cannot possibly mistake his meaning e. The only doubt that can arise is, what law he refers to? But this doubt is dissipated in a moment: for he speaks of that law which prohibits inordinate desire ; and consequently it is, and must be, the moral lawf.]
Such being the liberty which Christ has procured for us, let us consider, II. The improvement we should make of it —
Our blessed Lord offers himself to us as an hus- band—
*> Heb. viii. 6, 8, 13. c 1 Cor. ix. 21. d Gal. ii. 19.
e vcr. 1 — 0. f ver. 7.