especially also directed in the words of my text. The Apostle says in my text, " We know that the law is spiritual." Now, that is not true respecting either the judicial or ceremonial law: not of the judicial ; for that was only a code of laws for the regulation of the state, just like any other code of laws that exists in any other state : nor of the ceremonial ; for that the Apostle expressly calls, " a law of a carnal com- mandment :" and he represents it as consisting alto- gether of " carnal ordinances0." We are arrived, therefore, at the point where we desired to come ; namely, to shew the spirituality of this law : and this we will shew by an examination of it in all its parts.
The law, if we merely attend to the words in which it was promulgated, seems to refer only to external acts, whereas, in reality, it was intended to bind us to the performance of every thing connected with those acts, either in word or thought ; and to prohibit every thing which could in any way, even by inclination or desire, prove an incentive to trans- gression. The duties of the first table did not merely forbid outward idolatry, such as the serving of gods of wood and stone ; but the inward respect of the soul, as paid to any creature in comparison of the Creator. Nothing, either within us or without us, is to stand in competition with him. Nothing is to be made, in any respect or any degree, an object of our affiance. Our own wisdom, strength, righteousness, must be altogether renounced as objects of depen- dence ; and God alone be acknowledged as the source of all good. So neither must we seek our happiness in any creature, except in entire subser- viency to him. For though " he has given us all things richly to enjoy," our enjoyment must be, not so much of the creature itself, as of God in it ; that God may be to us our " all in all." The reverence of his great name, and the observance of his Sabbaths, come in as component parts of the regard we are to shew towards him. They must not be limited to
c Heb. vii. 16. and ix. 10.