to deliver them; if they conclude that their natural dislike to it is excusable, their inability to keep it a misfortune, and their condemnation for breaking it an act of extreme rigour, bordering on injustice; if they suppose salvation to consist almost wholly in deliverance from condemnation, and do not in the least perceive that all true believers really repent of, and condemn themselves for, breaking the law; are taught to love and delight in it, and are both required and inclined to testify the sincerity of their love by unreserved obedience to all its precepts: they will readily embrace a doctrine which gives relief to their uneasy consciences, and leaves the favourite lusts of their hearts unmolested. Thus stony-ground hearers, who welcome the gospel with impenitent joy, and then in time of temptation fall away, and thornyground hearers, who retain an unfruitful profession with a worldly, covetous, or sensual life, will abound in the visible church-and be as Achans in the camp. No care indeed of man can wholly prevent this; but a clear and distinct view of the holy law of God, and its subserviency to the gospel, is one very important means of preventing such dreadful delusions, and such wide spreading scandals. 4. The prevalence of corrupt and heretical principles originates from the same source. Perhaps it might be shown, that all anti-scriptural schemes of religion in several particulars coincide. They agree in considering the perfect law of God as too strict in its demands, and too severe in its penalty; and in supposing, that it would be inconsistent with the divine justice and goodness, to deal with his rationa! creatures according to it. None of them allow expressly that Christ died to honour this law, and to satisfy the justice of God for our transgressions of it, that he might save sinners without seeming to favour sin but they suppose his death to have been designed exclusively for some other purposes. Nor do any of them consider a total change of nature and disposition to be absolutely necessary to salvation but they all explain regeneration to mean something far short of this new creation unto holiness. They, who differ and dispute most eagerly about other points, when their sentiments are carefully examined, are found to harmonize in these. The philosophical Socinian, who rejects the atonement as needless, and eternal punishment as unjust, here agrees with the antinomian or enthusiast, who, boasting of free grace and extraordinary illumination, reviles and tramples on the law which Christ died to magnify and honour. Almost all errors in religion connect with misapprehensions concerning the Law of God; and the neglect of clearly and fully stating this subject, according to the Scriptures, must therefore tend exceedingly to favour the propagation of heretical opinions of various kinds. A few instances may be mentioned. It would not be so common, as far as we can see, for those, who have been educated in evangelical principles, to diverge into Arian or Socinian sentiments; if such a deep and clear knowledge of the demands, excellency, and uses of the law, were connected with their views of human depravity, redemption, justification, and regeneration, as might assist them in understanding the real nature and necessity of the great doc rines of salvation. For want of this, when they are pressed by subtile reasonings on such subjects, they know not what to answer; and so give up the truth as untenable on rational grounds, instead of perceivEng that it has its foundation in the nature of things, in the divine perfections, and in our condition as ransgressors, and as creatures continually propense o transgress. We can hardly conceive, that men, professing godliness, could ever have fancied themselves perfectly free from all sin, and so have been seduced into a most disgraceful and injurious kind of self-preference and spiritual pride; if they had been previously well grounded in the knowledge of the extensive demands of the divine law. The mystic, who places the whole of his religion in the internal feelings of his mind, or what he calls the voice or the moving of the Spirit; whilst the doctrine of the atonement, the life of faith in a crucified Saviour, the written word, and the means of grace, are contemptuously disregarded by him: and the antinomian, who is satisfied with what he supposes Christ has done for him, and perceives no want of a renovation to the divine image, or a personal holiness of heart and life; must alike stand confuted, if the real nature, excellency, and uses of the holy law, were clearly discovered to them. But where this is overlooked, some or other of these perversions of the gospel will insinuate themselves, and prey insensibly on the vitals of true religion, whatever attempts be made to exclude or eradicate them. 5. Through ignorance of the law, real Christians habitually neglect duties, commit sins, or give way to evil tempers, to the discredit of the gospel, and to the hindrance of their own fruitfulness, comfort, and growth in grace. It has frequently happened, that ministers have heard some of their people acknow. ledge, after receiving practical instructions, that they had not before been sensible, that such or such things were sins; or that this, or the other, was a duty incumbent on them: nay, the meditation on such subjects has sometimes the same effect on the ministers themselves. The knowledge of the precepts, therefore, is the proper method of rendering believers complete in the will of God, " in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," and in bringing them " to walk worthy of God unto all pleasing ;"* and consequently inattention to it must proportionably produce the contrary effects. Lastly. The Scriptures frequently speak concerning the excellency of God's commandments, in the most emphatical language; and with great earnestness, exhort men to abound in the work of the Lord, and to be zealous of good works: yet many, who profess or preach evangelical truth, speak little on these subjects, except in a depreciating manner: and hence additional prejudices are excited against the doctrines of grace, as subversive of holy practice. But if the nature, use, excellency, and necessity, of good works, as the fruits and evidences of true faith, were more fully understood; and the preceptive part of the Bible, in subserviency to the gospel, were more prominent in men's discourses and conduct; * Col. i. 9, 10. such objections would be confuted; and they would "be put to shame, who should falsely accuse" either our holy doctrine, or "our good conversation in Christ Jesus." -000 ESSAY XVI. On the Believer's Warfare and Experience. THE sacred Scriptures always represent the true Christian as a soldier engaged in an arduous warfare with potent enemies, against whom he is supported, and over whom he is made victorious, by the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, through faith in the Lord Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, and by obedience to his commands. Such expressions as fighting, striving, and wrestling; with frequent and varied allusions to military affairs, imply an experience essentially different from that of those persons, who never engaged in the conflict, or who have already obtained the conqueror's palm: nor can any hope, or even assurance, of victory and triumph, or any intervening seasons of peace and joy, entirely preclude this difference. The distinction, therefore, |