sinners, not seeing the grounds of loving God with all their hearts, do not see the reason of the law; they do not see how holy, just, and good the law is, and the carnal mind being enmity against God, is, at the same time, enmity against the law, which is a transcript of the divine nature....(Rom. viii. 7.) And hence, sinners do not love to believe either God or his law to be what they really are: And this temper makes them blind to what the scripture says, and leads them to frame a false image of God, and entertain false notions of his law, that they may have a God and a law both to their own minds.

And now, as are men's notions of the law, such are their notions of religion; the essence of which principally consists in a conformity to the law.

Hence, here is one; he pleads for great abatements in the law, and he contents himself with the mere form of religion. He is not unjust, nor an extortioner, nor an adulterer; but much better than some of his neighbors: He prays in his family, goes to public worship, and attends the Sacrament, and thinks himself a very good man; like him in Luke xviii. 9, 10, &c. But as for the doctrines relating to our natural depravity, regeneration, conversion, faith, communion with God, and all the inside of religion, he understands nothing about them; they seem as strange as it did to Nicodemus to hear Christ discourse about the new birth.... John iii. And all the talk about the inward influences of the holy spirit, in awakening, convincing, humbling, and converting a sinner, and in enlightening, teaching, quickening, comforting, and sanctifying a believer, is quite unintelligible; for these things do not come into his notions of religion. According to his opinion, the law is brought down so low, that it is an easy thing to become a good man: The change is but small, and there is scarce any need of the spirit's help; much less any room for the exercise of sovereign grace ; for he is so good-natured, that he can become good of his own free will, (i. e. according to his notions of goodness,) and do that which shall effectually entitle him to the promises: And thus he has the staff in his own hand. And now here is a

charming religion, perfectly suited to the taste of an apostate world; for it is calculated to quiet the conscience, while the heart lies out estranged from God, and dead in sin...Rom. vii. 8,9. Especially, so much of it as is for their credit, and apparently serves their worldly interest, will pretty readily and heartily be fallen in with; and the best have their failings....no man is perfect....and I endeavor to be sincere....and the best have their doubts.....assurance is not to be attained, and such-like pleas, help to keep their consciences secure. And now, O how they love those ministers, that cry, peace, peace! but hate those that would search things to the bottom, and sound an alarm to secure sinners, and deluded hypocrites. The same temper that makes them hate God and his law, makes them hate his ministers too: And they are for another kind of God, and for another kind of law-another kind of religion, and another kind of ministers, that they may have all to their mind. And, when all is done, they are confident they are now in the right, because they are suited: They love to have it so, and therefore firmly believe it is so.

Hence, again, here is another, who has been mightily terrified, and in great distress, under a sense of the wrath of God and the dreadfulness of damnation; but, in the distressing hour, he has had it revealed to him (by the spirit of God, he thinks) that his sins are forgiven; and now he is sure of heaven, and is ravished at the thoughts of eternal glory: he holds it a great sin to doubt; and all his religion consists in faith and joy, i. e. in believing that his sins are forgiven, and rejoicing in his blessed and happy and safe estate, and in the expectation of future glory: But as for a real conformity to the law, it makes up no part of his religion. He understands rightly nothing what the law requires....he is neither sensible of his duty to God, or to his fellow-men; yea, he hates to hear any thing about law or du ty: It is all legal, he cries, and tends to kill religion, and to wound weak christians, and grieve and drive away the spirit of grace; and no preachingsuits his taste, but what consists in telling over and commending such experiences as his, and in setting forth

the love of God and Christ to such, and calling upon such to believe and rejoice, and never doubt their state again: And, in general, those things which tend to strengthen his confidence and increase his joy, he esteems right and good; and all things of a contrary tendency he esteems wrong and bad. This seems to be his only criterion of right and wrong, and the only rule he makes use of in drawing up a judgment; but as for the law, it is of no use with him. There is doubtless many a man that feels and acts and lives as if the law was abated, who yet will not plead for that doctrine: So, doubtless, there is many a man that feels and acts and lives as if the law wholly ceased to be a rule of life, who yet will not venture to say so. The force of education, and their worldly interest and credit keep men many times from shewing what they are by an open profession : however, secretly this temper reigns within them; yea, sometimes it breaks out into open light, in their visible conduct.— But, as strange as it may seem, there are multitudes that not only have the root of these things in their hearts, but really believe them and openly profess and plead for them. Hence it is, on the one hand, that the Arminian, Neonomian, and Pelagiam errors have taken their rise, and the Antinomian on the other.Wrong notions of God lie at the bottom; and then wrong notions of the law; and then wrong notions of religion in general: and all originally proceed and grow up out of the wrong temper of men's minds; for all unregenerate men would fain have a God, and a law, and a religion to suit the temper of their hearts. Micah iv. 5....For all people will walk every one in the name of

his God.

In the mean time, the truly godly man, who sees that the ob ligation which he is under, to love God with all his heart, resulting from the excellency of the divine nature, is unchangeable, and that the law which requires this is unalterable, instead of going about to contrive a religion that may suit the natural temper of his heart, is convinced that the temper of his heart is the very thing that must be changed: He is convinced of his infinite obligation to be altogether such as the law requires

him to be, and that he is infinitely blameable for the least defect.
Hence, those words, The law is holy, just, and good....the law
is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin : O wretched man
that I am! do exactly express the thoughts of the most exalted
saint on earth; yea, even of the great Saint Paul himself....Rom.
vii. 12, 14, 24. Indeed, had St. Paul thought that the law was
wholly disannulled, or much abated, he might then have ima-
gined that he was so good as to be quite free from sin, or pret-
ty near being so, and been ready to speak the language of the
Pharisee-God, I thank thee, I am not as other men. But now,
notwithstanding all his high and wonderful attainments, yet,
when he considered what the law was which he was under, and
how very
far he was from being exactly what that required, the
native language of his humble heart is, I am carnal, sold under
sin! Owretched man that I am !* And now the Apostle,from
a sense of his infinite obligations to be what the law requires,
and of his great distance from this, forgets the things which are
behind; and he runs....he wrestles....he fights....he strives...he
keeps under his body....he lays aside every weight; in short, he
appears like a man in a perfect agony; so great was his sense
of duty, and so much had he to do: And, at the same time, from
a sense of his impotency and of his unworthiness....of his need
of the redeemer and the sanctifier, it is his maxim to pray al-
ways, and to ask all things in the name of Christ. Now, in his
example we have the temper which prevails more or less in ev-
ery godly man exactly painted: And thus we have had pictured,
in miniature, three different sorts of religion, arising from three
different nations of the law. The picture is begun; and, in the
sequel, I purpose to paint all three as near to the life as I can,
that we may see what they are, and wherein they differ; which

Some have thought that St. Paul had arrived so nigh to ferfection, that he could not speak these words of himself. Their mistake seems to aris from their wrong notions of the law, to which St. Paul compared himself, and according to which he drew up his judgment. And from the same source it seems to be, that they can think those words, (ver. 22,) applicable to the unregenerate...I delight in the law of God after the inward man. When, in truth, the unregenerate are, in their temper, diametrically opposite to the law....Rom. viii. 7.

is right, and which is wrong.-But so much for the first inference, that the law, as a rule of duty, cannot be repealed or abated. And now to proceed,

2. From what has been said, it is evident that the law, in its threatenings of eternal damnation for the least sin, is equally incapable of any repeal or abatement: for if our obligation to love God with all our hearts and obey him in every thing, resulting from the divine perfections, is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable; and if, therefore, the least sin necessarily be infinitely evil, and deserving of an infinite punishment, and unalterably so, then the law, considered as threatening eternal damnation for the least sin, is, in its own nature, unalterably holy and just; and consequently it cannot be repealed, consistently with the holiness, justice, and honor of the great Governor of the world. If the Governor of the world had, in a mere arbitrary manner, made a law that sin should be punished with eternal damnation, then he might, in a mere arbitrary manner, have repealed it but since, in the nature of things, justice called for it, that such a law should be made, therefore, so long as the grounds and reasons of the law remain, the law cannot, in justice, be repealed.

None can deny but that the great Governor of the world has actually made a law that sin shall be punished with eternal damnation; and none can deny but that this law is to be put in execution, to the full, at and after the great judgment-day: But if justice had not called for it, surely the infinitely good Governor of the world would never have made such a law, much less would he ever put it in execution: for, to make and exec such a law, in a merely arbitrary, sovereign manner, when, in the nature of things, justice does not call for it, would be infinitely cruel and tyrannical, and perfectly inconsistent with the divine perfections, as is self-evident....See Genesis xviii. 25. and Ezekiel xviii. 25.

But, then, if the great Governor of the world made this law not arbitrarily, but because, in the nature of things, justice called for it, then, so long as the reason and ground of the law remain, the law itself cannot, in justice, ever be repealed. If jus