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SEAM.
V.)
OF
THE
MORAL'
LAW,
AND
THE
EVIL
OP
SIN.
SI
release christians from the
precepts of the
law
is
to make
"
Christ the minister
of
sin,
and
to
turn
the
grace of our
God
into
wantonness," which the apostles
Paul
and
Jude
speak
of
with
detestation and abhorrence.
Gal.
ii.
77.
Jude
verse
4.
To pretend that
obedience
to
the moral
law
is
needless
for christians
who believe
the
gospel,
is
to deny and destroy,
as
much
as in us
lies,
the
great end
for
which
Christ and
the gospel came
into the world
;
which
is
to
¢'
redeem
us
from
all
iniquity
that
we
might"
be zealous
of
good works
;"
Tit.
_ii.
14.
"
To deliver
us
from the curse
of
the
law," and the condemnation \of
it,
that
we
might
love
the
precepts
of
the
law,
and
practise
them with
delight and
newness
of
heart.
It
is
not therefore our
preaching
of
the
law to
promote
the
gospel,
that
deserves
the
reproach of
a
legal
sermon;
but
tó
preach
the
law
instead
of
the gospel,
'or
to
preach
the
gospel as
a
law
of
works.
Christ and
St.
Paul
well
understood
the gospel,
and yet they both preached
the
law in
the commands
and terrors
of
it.
We must
learn
the
law
if
we
would be
acquainted
with
our
own
guilt
and
danger,
or
if
we
would know
our
duty,
and practise
religion and virtue.
"
By
the
law
is
the knowledge
of
sin,"
and
by
the
law
our
feet
are guided into the paths
of
righteousness.
It
is
in
the
glass
of
the law
of
God
that
we see
the sinfulness
of
our hearts
and
lives
:
It
discovers
every
blot
in
our
souls,
and every blemish
in
our conver-
sation
:
It
lays
us
under
guilt,
it
makes
us
know
our
misery,
it humbles
us
to the
dust
before God,
and
is
made
use
of
by
the blessed
Spirit to drive
us
out
of
ourselves,
and
all
our
own
pretences
to righteousness,
that
we
may
seek
the appointed salvation
of Jesus, and
fly
to
our
better
hope.
Reflection
III. "
What
a
holy
regard and
jealousy
has
God
shewn for the
honour
of
his
everlasting
law,
and
what
a
sacred indignation has
he
manifested against
sin,
when
he
sent
his
own Son
to obey this
law,
and
to suffer
for
ou
/disobedience
to
it
Not-the
Son
of God him-
self
when he
came into
flesh
and
blood
was
exempted from
the duties
of
this
law,
and
he
magnified
it
and made
it
honourable
by his
practice
of it
in
perfection:
And when
so glorious and
divine a
person condescended to become
a sacrifice
for
our transgressions against
this
law, he
gave
the highest instance of
his own
veneration
for
it
as well
VOL.
III.
G