Baxter - BV4253 B39 C78 1658

TheCrucifyingof the world, works, and by the Law, in that feparated fenfe. Bu; theApoflle Paul Both plead againft thiserrour, and tells them that Chrift ra the endof the Law to allBelievers and that he iY the fulfilling o f it; and that through him it is fulfilled in thole that walk, not after theflefh, but after the Spirit and that by the dredt of the Lath in this feparated fenfe, no fiefh can bejuflrlîed -; and thatthe Letter feparated from the fenfe of it killetb : but Chrift by his Spirit , who is the fenfe of it giveth life. 'If thefe Jews had taken and ufed the Law as God intended it, and had taken the fenfe and - fpirit with the latter, and had undertlood that Chrift was the very life, and end, and all of the Law. Paul would never have cryed down the Law, nor Juftification by it in this fenfe : for that had been to cry down Juftification by Chritt. But it was Ju- ffification by the Letter, or the Law as feparated from Chrift whowas themeaningof it. So is it in our prefent cafe. The crea- ture is the letter,and God the fenfe ; and Carnal men do under - Band only the Letter of the creature , and fall in love with it : and thus God cryeth down the world, and vilifieth, and-fpeaketh contemptuoullyof the world ; When as if it had not been for the feparation, he would never have cry ed it down nor fpoken an hardword of it. As the Lawhad never been fo hardly fpo- ken of, if the mif-underflanding Jew had not feparated it from Chrift. So the world had never been fo oftencalled, Va<iry, and a Lie, andWóthing, and a`Dream, and that which it not brezd, and that which prefiteth net, a Shadow, a Deceiver, with abun.. dance of the like contemptuous terms, if carnal fanners bad not in their minds and af'fecftions feparated it from God. And thus Ihave (hewed you in what Refpec`ls theWorld mull beCrucified. jekND let me add in the Conclufion as moll neceffary for your obfervation, that there is in the world an infeparahie aptitude to tempt us dangeroufly to the forefaid abufe : and therefore when we havedone all that we can in Crucifying and fublimating it, we mull never imagine that we can make it fo wholfom or harmlefsa thing, as that we may feed upon it with- out great cautionand fufpition, or ever return tofriendfhip whb it again, till fire have refined it, and grace bath perfeelly refined ut.

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