whereas he simply declares himself loyal to Christ, or under the regulating influence of Christ. The parenthesis may be freely paraphrased thus: Though I am not under the law written on tables of stone, or with ink, as the regulating influence of my life, yet I am not without a regulating influence from God. His Spirit takes the place of the law; and being in Christ, I am in a spiritual law of righteousness, though I am not under the written law.' Regulation of life is to be distinguished from the means by which it is produced. God may govern by law, or he may govern by his Spirit. The apostle simply means to refer the regulation of his life to the immediate influence of God in Christ, that no one may suppose him to be, in an evil sense, lawless, because he says he is without law.'

There is a generic sense in which all regulating influence is properly called law. In this sense we may speak of the law of matter;' not meaning by that expression, that matter is governed by imperative verbal enactments, but that it is governed by a regulating power which produces the same orderly effects as law produces in the moral world. In a similar sense we may call the spiritual influence by which the sons of God are governed, a law; not because it is verbal, imperative, or penal; but because it produces those orderly effects which are required by the written law of God. Indeed Paul frequently uses language in this way. Romans 8: 2, 3, is a good example. "The LAW of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfill'ed in us,'&c. Here are three distinct laws: 1, the law of the Spirit of life; 2, the law of sin and death; 3, the written law. Now no man will say that the second law is a verbal enactment. The law of sin and death' is not a command operating upon men, but a spiritual principle working in them-a 'law in their members.' See Rom. 7: 23. But the law of the Spirit of life' is the exact counterpart of this principle. One is the antagonist of the other. The first law then, like the second, is a spiritual power, working in men's members,' and as such only is competent to produce that righteousness which the verbal law can only require. Paul was in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' but not under either the law of commandments or the law of sin and death.

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$28. ANTI-LEGALITY NOT ANTINOMIANISM.

WHEN we say we are not under law,' we do not mean that we are not under government. God does not cease to reign over man by the change from Judaism to Christianity. He is king of saints' in heaven. His throne is forever and ever.' But government may be administered in various ways. Law is not the only means by which a king may seek and secure obedience to his will. Even earthly governments, in many cases, rely on education more than on law. Our position is, that in the Christian dispensation, God reigns not by law, but by other and far more effectual influences, viz., by grace and truth.

Neither do we mean, in saying that we are not under law,' that we are released from fulfilling the righteousness of the law. Perfect love to God and man is the only standard of holiness, under the Christian, as well as the Jewish dispensation-the great end for which God administers his everlasting government. But law is not the only influence that can be used to secure that end. A king may certainly induce his subjects to love himself and each other, by personal persuasion, by the influence of the press, by general education, as well as by the exhibition of authority and penalty. The question at issue between us and the legalists, relates not to the standard of holiness, the ultimate object of God's government-but to the measures which God chooses to employ to effect that object. It is not a moral but a prudential question. We may suppose God to have presented it to his own mind thus: It is right that men should love; they can never be admitted to my presence till they do: now shall I drive them into love by a threatening law, or shall I draw them into it by exhibiting to them my own love, giving them grace and truth?' We believe the latter policy characterizes the Christian, as the former did the Jewish dispensation. We look upon God in Christ, not as a law-giver, but as a Father, governing his children, not by formal statutes, but by the power of his spirit, his word, and his example. This is what we mean when we say we are not under law.'

The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.' Did grace and truth come only to help the law, or to take its place? Was Jesus Christ sent only as an auxiliary to Moses, or as his substitute? We answer in the words of Paul-Christ is the END of the law.' When God commenced his government by grace and truth, he abolished the statutes of Moses. But did he abolish the moral law? Yes. Paul expressly speaks of the law written on tables of stone,' as done away.' 2 Cor. 3: 11. We find no sufficient authority in scripture for the separation which is commonly made between the moral and ceremonial law. The decalogue certainly contains one command which in its nature is ceremonial, viz. that relating to the Sabbath; and the whole code of Moses is an intermixture of natural with artificial laws. Paul never attempted to sunder them as modern theologians have done, but called them all the law,' and declared them abolished in Christ. And indeed the very nature of the new government, instituted at

the coming of Christ, as we have before defined it, required the abolishment of all previous law.

But while we say this, it must be borne in mind, that the abolishment of the Mosaic code is not an abolishment of the nature of God and man, in which the necessity of the righteousness required by that code is grounded. It is not the abolishment of the will of God that men should love himself and each other, but only of a particular legal form of expressing and enforcing that will. To illustrate: Suppose the Legislature of Vermont to be annihilated by a sudden revolution, and its whole code of laws to be thus abolished. Would that be an abolishment of all the moral truth contained in that code? Would it leave the people of Vermont at liberty to steal and murder with impunity, and with a good conscience? The nature of things remaining the same, the nature and necessity of virtuous conduct would remain the same, though the authority of the local legislature, and the specific penalties of their code, should be removed. So the abolishment of the whole Mosaic institute, (which, as compared with the eternal foundations of moral truth, is but a local legislature,) affects not the value and necessity of love to God and man; while it enables God to approach men as a father, instead of a law-giver, and thus by grace and truth, to put the righteousness of the law in their hearts.

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But Christ says, 'Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill: for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.' How is this consistent with the truth that Christ is the end of the law?' The difficulty in the case bears as heavily on the common doctrine, that the ceremonial law only was abolished by the coming of Christ,' as on the doctrine we have presented; for if Christ abolished the ceremonial law, he destroyed in some sense a tittle' at least of the law. If it is answered, that Christ established and fulfilled the spirit, though he abolished the letter of the ceremonial law, the self-same answer is good in respect to the moral law; he established and fulfilled its spirit, though he abolished its letter. We may take a view of the whole matter by an illustration. Suppose a family, in the absence of its head is subjected to an imperative code of written regulations, some of them founded in the immutable nature of things, and some of them merely temporary and circumstantial. The father at length returns to his place in the household. At the outset of his personal administration, he addresses the family thus: Think not that I am come to set aside the principles which have hitherto directed your conduct; my object is to carry them into full execution; and I shall do this, not by means of the formal statutes which have heretofore been your rules, but by my own personal influence and example. I now abolish the written code the whole of it,-and call upon you to look to me for direction.' In such a case, it might be said, in one sense, that the law of the household was established, and in another, that it was abolished. But it would certainly be foolishness to divide the written code, and say a part of it was established and a part of it abolished. It is true that in the new personal government, the distinction between that which was necessary and that which was only circumstantial in the old code might appear. Essential moral

principle might be insisted upon in the exhortations, persuasions, and ex ample of the father, while mere formal regulations might be neglected.Even so Christ and his apostles transferred the vital elements of the Mosaic law to the discipline of the gospel, while they left the ceremonial part under the sentence of abrogation.

Wherefore then serveth the law?' In answer to this question, we will notice, first, the purpose which the law served while it was in force as God's instrument of government; and secondly, its use in the present dispensation as a witness of truth. 1. Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith that should afterward be revealed.' The law was an enclosure, which, while it by no means purified its subjects, yet kept them within the reach of God's influences, till the purifying power of the gospel could be brought in. A shepherd proposing to wash his flock, first shuts them up in a fold, to bring them within his reach. The use of the fold is not to wash the sheep, but to keep them within necessary bounds, till the shepherd can take them and wash them himself. 2. Though the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is without the law,' yet it is witnessed by the law and the prophets.' Rom. 3: 21. The Mosaic code, though abolished as an instrument of government, yet stands on record as a glorious developement of truth. While we cannot give it the place of Christ, as our sanctifier and judge, we may still interrogate it as a witness: for though we are not under law, we are under grace and truth; and the truth contained in the record of the law, is a part, and a very important part, of the instrumentality of the gospel. Indeed the information conveyed by the law, concerning the holiness of God, the standard of character necessary to man's acceptance with him, and the wrath which awaits ungodliness, is the very platform on which the gospel is erected.

Having disposed of the law, we come now to inquire more particularly, What are God's instruments of government in the kingdom of Christ? And first of all, we name the power of the cross of Christ. In that, God set man a perfect example of love. That example lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness, in the sight of sinners, is a moral engine far mightier than

the law.

Next in importance, is the Holy Ghost. By this power the cross is spiritually revealed to believers, and its virtue infused into their hearts, so that they receive it not as a mere outward example, but as an assimilating energy, by which they are crucified with Christ to the world, become dead to sin, and fully subject, as Christ was, to the perfect will of God. While the Holy Ghost thus plants the root of all righteousness in the heart, it also leads the understanding into all truth, sanctifies the susceptibilities and directs the outward conduct.

A third influence by which God governs men in his kingdom of grace, is his outward word. One vehicle of that word is the scriptures. But the principal external agency employed in the primitive church was that of apostles, prophets and teachers. The chief office-work of these also was to bear witness of the cross of Christ. They were auxiliaries of the Holy Ghost, in setting forth before the eyes of men and applying to their hearts, the great example of God's perfect love.

But it is evident that they were not mere witnessess. The whole record of the New Testament exhibits them as commissioned to reprove, correct, exhort, and watch over the church. There is reason to believe that this element of the government of the gospel has been extensively confounded with the law. Many have seemed to suppose that the doctrine that 'we are not under law,' necessarily implies that we are not subjects of exhortation and correction. The falsehood of this notion might be assumed, from the simple fact, that Paul, from whom in fact we get all our anti-legal views, was 'instant in season and out of season, reproving, rebuking, exhorting, with all long-suf fering.' It is not to be supposed that he misunderstood and practically contradicted his own doctrine; that on the one hand he taught believers that they were not under law, and on the other imposed law upon them. He evidently saw a clear distinction between the government of a father, and that of a law-giver. Exhortations and even commands, addressed by spiritual men to spiritual men, were certainly not regarded as savoring of legality in the primitive church. And in truth, a little reflection will discover that the exhortations of Paul differed from law in many particulars. In the first place, they were not like law, dead-letter rules, but like the words of Christ, they were spirit and life. Moreover, they did not depend on a penalty for their execution, but carried with them the power of their own fulfilment. As they were living words, they found a living echo in the hearts of those to whom they were addressed; and obedience was not a matter of conscientious constraint, but of spiritual impulse. Love, instead of fear, presided over the transaction. So in their effects, Paul's spiritual commands proved themselves to be widely different from laws. We know that the law worketh wrath ;' but Paul's letter of reproof to the Corinthian church, in respect to the case of fornication, wrought a thorough reformation. See 2 Cor. 7: 8-11.

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We admit that this branch of the gospel government, is in its nature temporary, adapted only to the incipient stages of the spiritual dispensation. It is manifest that the kingdom of God as administered in heaven, has no occasion for the employment of exhortation and reproof; and in the progress of the church on earth, when we shall ALL come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,' (a state which we believe is attainable and will be attained in this world,) this semi-legal part at least, of the office of apostles, prophets and teachers, will come to an end. But few will venture to affirm that that time has already come to us. Experience has shown that the same necessity of discipline, exhortation and reproof, exists now, as existed in the primitive church; and we may reasonably expect that God, as a wise father, looking at the necessities, not of individuals, but of his whole household, will in due time provide the necessary agencies of temporary external discipline.

In order to complete our view of the means of government in the kingdom of Christ, a fourth element of discipline should be noticed, viz., God's providential application of suffering. It is evident that fiery trials,' both of a temporal and spiritual nature, were among the chief agencies of the educa tion of the primitive saints; insomuch that Paul said, 'If ye endure chasten