Chap. 8 . and the Covenant ót' Grace. becaufe evill of their own nature. The Creation Handing, the Law could be no other : if no Law had ever been promulged or given of God to man, yet murder and adultery had been finne.` C.hrifl not changing the Law of Creation, but taking the nature' of man, the fame as it was firft created coming to fave man, be- ing fet up of God over mankinde, mint of neceflity keep on foot that Law that was from the beginning flampt upon him; fo that we fee it is not abolifhed, but ratified, neither is it in a capacity of abolition. It is confeil by a great party , that there is no li- berty to fin in the dayes of theGospel. There be not many that will avouch the contrary, if they do,they have the Gofpel againff them, that bath in a readinefe to avenge all difcbedience, 2 Cor.6. ! o. The Apoftle writes to beleevers,that they fanne not,t John 2. r.And this alone is the definition of fin, i John 3.4. Sin i1 a tranfgYef- on of the Law. As for thofe that fay,Beleevers have no fin, can- not fin, it is to little purpofe to fpeak to them, or having any thing to deale with them. If they beleeve not John, they will not beleeve me telling them that there is no truth in them, i lohn 2.8. Malter Powell anfwers well, page 133. of his Dialogue of the Covenant, That the LaW(or ten ConmandmentJ) is Adoral,and do'h continue in force as Well fence chriff as before. (He that pleafeth may fee a large confirmation of it in Mr. Burg. Vindicia Legis, and Mather Boitons Treatife of the true bounds of Chriftian free - dome, page 77. to 88.) and therefore much forgets himfelf, page 233. of the fame Dialogue, where he befpeaks his Reader in there. words : Confider this ferioufly, that if you be beleevers, and married to Chrifl, the Law hath no more power over you then a dead husband bath over his relit -7 and living Wife , which he prefently interprets of a commanding power, and denies, that the Law hath any com- manding poner over4 beleever. Which affertion of his, that it may be the more obferved, he puts into his Index: The Laalt hath no commanding polder over a beleever. I wonder what force that Law bath, or that husband that bath no power of command ? If death free a wife from the husbands command, fure it leaves her under no force, but frees her from all force that he bath over her. Mailer 'Powell makes three parts of the Law, page /86. a manda- tory part, a promifory x part, and a penall part ; he frees beleevers at large in his Treatife from the two latter, and iE a beleever be alto freed from the mandatory part, I fhall defire to knowwhere H 2 the
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