1)ISCO17ßSE iV. 219 ]surf to obey the law of God, we cannever be fit for that happiness Which God promises, and which the creature wants: Without holiness of heart we can never be prepared for heaven, which consists in the blissful vision of God ; nor indeed are we capa- ble of it, i` Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ;" Mat. v. 8. " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord ;" Hob. xii. 14. Indeed none canbe trulyhappybut those whoare sanctified and assimilatedto the holyJesus. A childof aatait, and an enemy of righteousness, and of the law of God, can never be happy in the midst of the children of God, who have his law written in their hearts, and are ever practising obedience to his law in perfection. holiness indeed is apart of salvation, which consists ina re- lease from the bondage of sin, and the power of it in our own hearts, as well as from the guilt and punishment of it in our per- sous. And the man who professees to receive the gospel of Christ, and hope in God for salvation, he doth not know what he professes, if he does net hope for holiness, and longfor it, and desire it If he goes to trust in Christas a Saviour, merely from the wrath of God and hell, he cloth not accept df Jesus, as such a Saviour as the gospel represents him ; i. e. a Saviour.from sin; Mat. i. 21. as well as from hell and wrath. .Lastly, Remarks drawn-from the whole text, thus opened: explained, and proved. Remark 1. Seewhy St. Paul always denies justification to be obtained by the law, i. e. by any lawwhatsoever; (viz.) be-. cause none have fulfilled, or can fulfil, any moral law of God in perfection, and a law requires perfect obedience, in order to jus- tification by it : Nor is it in the nature or power of it, to justify those who are under it, andyield not perfect obedience. Cursed be every one that continueth not in.allthings, which are written in thebook of the law, to do theriz ; Gal. iii. 10. The epistles to the Rommuws and GalatiansAre full of this doctrine. Whether it be the law of nature ; Rom. ii. 14, 15. or whether the law under which the Jews were, which includes the moral, ceremonial, and political precepts of it ; Rom. iii. 19, 20, 23. all hate sinned, and come short of Me glory of God. By the works of the lass, any law whatsoever, no flesh shall he justified. Man doth not, cannot, obtain life by any law ; it cannot give life. In this sense all laws are laws of works : Do this and live, is their language and sense. The man that doththem, shall live in them; Gal. iii. 12. 2. See here to what a wretched and deplorable state of guilt and misery are we fallen, that no law which God canmake, in our circumstances, can saveus. God cannot makea law which doth not require perfect holiness, in thought, word, and deed : Ile cannot make a law which allows sin and imperfection : For
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