192 The NATURE and. POWER prepared to rejeA the reafonings that will offer themfelves from the one and the other of thefe, there is no Banding before the power of this law. The world falls before them every day. With what deceit and violence they are urged and impofedon the minds of men, we flash afterwards de- clare ; as alfo what advantages they have to prevail upon them. Look on the generalityof men, and you Ihall find them wholly by thole means at fin's difpofal. Do the profits and pleafuresof fin lie before them, nothing can withhold them from reaching after them. Do difficulties and incon- veniencies attend the duties of the Gofpel, they will have nothing tó do with them, and fo are wholly given up to the rule and dominion of this law. And this light in general we have into the power and efficacy of indwelling fin, from the general nature of a law, whereof it is par- taker. We may confider nextly what kind of law in particular it is, which will farther evidence that power of it, whichwe are enquiring after. It is not an outward, written, commanding, dircaing law, but an inbred, working, impelling, urging law. A law propofed unto us, is not to be it compared for efficacy to á law inbred in us. Adam laud a law of fin pro- pofed to him in his temptation, but becaufe he had no law of fin inbred and working in him, lie might have withftood it. An inbred law muR needs be effeCual. Let us take an example from that law, which is con-` trary to this law of fin. The law of God, was at fink inbred and natural unto man, it was concreated with his faculties, and was their rectitude both in being and operation, in reference to his end of living unto God, and glorifying of him. Hence it had an efpecial power in the whole foul, to enable it unto all obedience, yea, and to make all obedience eafy and pleafant. Such is the power of an inbred law. And though this law as to the rule and dominion of it, be nowby nature raft out of the fail, yet the remaining fparks of it, becaufe they are inbred, are very powerful and effeetual, as the apollle declares, Rom. ii. 54, 15. Afterwards God re- news this law, and writes it in tables of Bone ; but what is the efficacy of this law will it now as it is external, and propofed unto men, enable theta to per; form the things that it exalts and requires ? Not at all. God knew it would not, unlefs it were turned to an internal law again; that is, until of a moral outward rule, it be turned into an inward real prin- ciple. Wherefore Cod makes his law internal again, and implants it on theheart as it was at full, when he intends to give it power to produce obedience in his people, yer. xxxi. 31, 32, 33. d will pert ny lam in their inwardparts, and write it in their hearts. This is that which God fixeth on, as it were upon a difcovery of the infufíiciency of an outward. law leadingmen unto obedience. The written law, faith he, will not do it; mercies and deliverances from difirefs Will not effeít it ; trials mod affliefions will not accomplifh it ; then faith the Lord, will I take ano- ther courf ; I will turn the written law, into an internal livingprinciple, in their hearts, and that will have furls an efficacy, as Lull affuredly take them any people, and keep .them fo. Now fuels is this law of fin, it is an indwelling lazy, Rom. vii. 17. It is fin that dwelletb in are, ver. 2a Sin that dwelleth in nee, ver. 21. It is prefent with me, ver. 23. It is in my members ; yea, it is fo far in a man, as in fume fenfe it is Paid t3 be the man himfelf, ver. 18. I know that in me, that is, in my flefb, there dwelleth no ood thing. The herb, which is the feat ,nd throne of this law, yea, which indeed in this law, is in fame fenfe the man himfelf, as grace alto is the ne.v man. Now
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=