The Life ofFaith. 2 3 7 Would you draw the picture of your friend like an Ape or a Monkey, or a Montle: ? Or would you have the King piEfured like a fool ? Or would you have his Laws written like the words ofa Bedlam, or the Laws ofBarbarians or Can- nibals? How much more intollerable were it to with, that an unholy or unrighteous Law, fhou'd be the prod udt and imprefs of the moti great, moll wife and holy God ? This thought fhould make every Believer exceedingly in love with. the Holinefs of Gods Commands, becrufc they are the Ap- pearance or Image ofhis Holinefs, and neceffary to his honour, as he is the Governour of the world, Rom. 7.6,'7, ts. When. Paul confeffeth that he could no more perfe6ily keep the Law without fin, than a fettered prifoner can walk at liberty (for that is the fence of the text) yet Both he give the Law this honour, that it is holy, juJf andgood, and therefore he loveth ir, and fain wouldperk ly obey ir, ifhe could. SecPfal.; 9.7, t 2; &C. r t 9.72. & 37.3 r. & r. a. Ifa.5. 24, &c. Dire& 6. Remember that both Pronsifes, and Threatnings, andGods Mercies, and bit Judgements, are appointed means re bring us to obey the Precepts ; and therefore obedience, which is their end, if highly to be rJfeemed. It feemeth a great difficulty whether the Precept befoeliic Promije, or the Promifefor the Precept ; which is the End, and which is the Means; whether obedience be a means to attain the reward, or the reward be a means to procure obedience: And the anfwer is as pleafant to our confideration, viz. that as the works of the Trinity ofperlons, andof Gods Power, andWit= dom, andGoodnefs ad extra are undivided ; fo are the effee`;ts of the one in Gods Laws, the effcds altoof the other; and they arc harmonioufly and infeparably conjunt`k: fo that we mutt obey theCommand, that we may attain the blefing of the Pro- wife, and beaffured ofit:. And we muff believe the Promije, and theReward; that we may be moved to obey the Precept : And when all is done, we find that all comes to one; and in the end, the dutyand. the reward will be the fame, when duty cometh to perfel ion : And that the rewardwhich is promifed ksourperfcc`kion in that Holinefs, and Love, andConformity to theWill of God,in which God doth take that complacency which it our ultimate end.. Gg 3 But
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