to shew that we are still under the law to Christ, I come,
In the II. d place, to enforce its obligations.
Is the law designed to be a rule to govern us after we have laid hold on the covenant of grace ? Let us use it for that end, without attempting to lower any one of its demands, and with the utmost cheerful- ness and zeal. Let us, first, use it for that end. Doubtless, its primary uses must be carefully kept in remembrance. We must never forget, that its first office is, to convince us of sin, and to shew us our undone state, according to the covenant of works. In this view it must produce in us the deepest humi- liation, and an utter renunciation of all dependence on our own works, either in whole or in part, for justification before God. Its next use must be, to drive us to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may obtain salvation through his meritorious death and passion. There is no righteousness but his, that is commensurate with its demands ; and there is no other in which we can ever stand accepted before God. These things, I say, we must ever bear in remembrance; and be careful never to make, in any degree, our obedience to the law a ground of our hope. But, having this well settled in our minds, we must address ourselves to a diligent performance of all that the law enjoins. It is by this that we are to shew ourselves to have experienced a work of grace in our souls : for " we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before or- dained that we should walk in them." If we profess to hope that we have been "chosen of God" and " predestinated unto life," shall we make these mysterious truths an occasion of remissness in the path of duty ? God forbid : on the contrary, we must ever bear in mind, that, if we have been chosen of God at all, " we have been chosen that we may be holy, and without blame before him in love ;" and if we have been predestinated by God at all, we have been predestinated " to be conformed to the image of his Son." And if we glory in the finished work of