SECTION V. 139 lie doth not lessen or diminish the demands of his law, 'avhich requires perfection still ; for his nature is too pure to re+ quire only an imperfect obedience. If God under the gospel had quite laid aside or abolished his law, and required or com- manded no more than such a sincere imperfect obedience, or. such good works which converted and pious men perform, then they would fulfil the requirements or commands of God, and, would have no sin, and such persons would need no pardon. but this iscontrary to the whole tenor of the New Testament. Ifwe say we have no sin, we make God a liar, we deceive our- selves, and the truth is not in us ; 1 John i. 10. The law of God is eternal, and demands perfect obedience of every crea- ture : But his grace pardons those who cannot come up to the perfect demands of this law, by reason of the moral impotence contracted by the fall, if they apply to Jesus Christ his Son, ac- cording to the rules of the gospel. The law therefore is holy, and just, and good, and will be so to all generations ; Rom. vii. 12. and when our Saviour was beginning his divine and admirable expositionof it on the mount, he warns us in Mat. v. 17, 18. Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets : I am not come to destroy but to fulfil : For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfiled ;'" and our Lord Jesus Christ has put honour upon his Fatheres law several ways : 1. He preached and explained it in the glorious purity and perfection of 0.-2. He fulfilled it all himself in most exact obe- dience, and therebyset all his followers an admirable example how to fulfil it. -3. IIe suffered death for the dishonour wehad cast Upon it by our sins. not to destroy the sanction of it, but to free us from the curse. I. He hath taken all the rules or command- lnents of it into the scheme of his gospel, its divine rules and directions for the constant practice of believers, and obliges them to obey it with their utmost care and endeavour, though he hath taken'away from them that curse and condemnation, which origi- nally belongs to every degree of disobedience. -5. He sends his own holySpirit continually to write this law in the hearts of his people, and to form and mould their souls to a delightful con- formity to the rules of it. Tints it appears that Christ Jesus himself and the very scheme of the gospel doth confirm and not abolish the law Rom. 'iii. 31. The law is everlasting, and the gospel loth not destroy it, while yet it relieves guilty creatures from the deserv- ed penalties. III. " How useful is it tomeditate and study, to preach and explain the law of God, and that not only for the direction of our life `and actions, but also for the same eud that our Saviour
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