Page images
PDF
EPUB

instead of baptism; the passover instead of the Lord's supper; service in the oldness of the letter instead of the newness of the Spirit; and the works of the law instead of the work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope!

Quot. The church owns Christ for her King, as well as her Priest; her Master, as well as her Saviour. She takes his yoke upon her; and feels herself under the strictest obligations of duty, love, and gratitude, to yield the most filial, evangelical obedience to his commands, as well as to believe and rejoice in his gracious promises.

Answ. All this is true; though the authors, by experience, know neither what they say, nor what they mean. The church owns Christ as a King, because the dominion of grace is set up in her heart, and she is not under the law, but under grace. She can do no less than own him as her Priest, because he has redeemed her from under the law, and from the curse of it; so that she is neither under its commanding power nor dreadful sentence. She owns him for her Lord, because he has delivered her from the lordly power of the law; the accusations of Moses, Satan, and sin; saying, "O Lord, our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name." She loves him as a husband, because she is not under Moses, who allowed of putting away, but under a covenant of eternal wedlock, by which she is betrothed in righteousness, lovingkindness, faithfulness, ten

der mercies, and for ever. She loves him as a brother, because she is in the brotherly covenant: sa that he is her brother, who has sucked the breasts of her mother, which is not Hagar, nor yet Jerusalem in bondage, but Zion, where he was born as well as she. She loves him as a friend, because she is reconciled, and the mysteries of the kingdom are revealed to her; but, as to bond servants under the law, they know not what their Lord doth. She loves him as her Master, because she is partaker of the fruits of the Spirit before she labours. She takes his yoke upon her indeed, which she finds to be light; and stands in her liberty, unless false brethren bewitch her, as they did the Galatians, who were entangled by them, and brought again into bondage; her adherence to which is both her folly and her loss. If she feels herself under the strictest obligations of duty, love, and gratitude, to yield the most filial, evangelical obedience to his commands, how can she be justly charged with antinomianism, or licentiousness, for this her obedience to the faith; this service in the newness of the Spirit; or for these works of faith, labours of love, and patience of hope?

Quot. "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."

Answ. This proves that there is a manifest distinction between the commandments of a killing letter and that commandment which is eternal

more.

life. The one is the Father's commandment, which was given by Moses: the other is the life-giving command, which is of grace, and which came by Jesus Christ. The one is a command given to us to work for life; the other is a command given to Christ, to give us that life which man could never earn, and which the law could never give. Upon mount Zion hath God commanded the blessing, even life for evermore, Psal. cxxxiii. 3. Here is a blessing commanded to be given to Zion, the elect of God; and this blessing is life for everBut then to whom was this command given? I answer, to Jesus, the great king whom God set upon his holy hill. This blessing, and this life for evermore, were given to him. God sent his Son Jesus Christ to bless us, by turning us from our evil way. Yea, saith Christ," He gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that his commandment is life everlasting;" or, as the Psalmist says, life for evermore. But then why is it called a commandment? Because the Saviour, in obedience to his Father's will, by his own powerful voice, speaks life to the dead sinner's soul; at which voice the sting and sentence of death both depart, and life and immortality are brought to life through the gospel. Such souls hear the voice of the Son of God, and live; yea, they pass from death to life, and shall never come into condemnation. "Lazarus, come forth!" says the Saviour. Here is a life-giving command, and a resurrection

immediately ensues. thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, Live! Yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live!" It is one thing for Christ to say to a dead soul, live! and it is another thing for the Father to say, This do, and thou shalt live! Besides, the law never held forth eter, nal life: “For, had there been a law given that could have given life, verily righteousness should have come by the law." Life in Eden was all that was intimated to Adam before the fall; with thẹ loss of which he was threatened, in case of disobe dience. Length of days, in the land of Canaan, was all that the moral law held forth to Israel. Life eternal was to come by that Prophet which Moses foretold; and nothing less than destruction was threatened to them who should refuse to obey the voice of that prophet.

"And when I passed by

Before people sit down to unmask what they call antinomianism, it is necessary that they should have some insight into the scriptures of truth; and not destroy the law as a covenant of works, and then build the law of love, and the life-giving commandment of the gospel, upon its destruction. The commandment of Zion, and the command. ment of Sinai, are two distinct things. The scriptures reveal two distinct mothers, and their children compose two distinct families. God is a father to the one, and a master to the other. has commanded the blessing of life for evermore

He

upon mount Zion. And to the children of Zion

Wisdom speaks thus: "My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee." This proverb speaks to us as to children; it speaks to the children of God, not to the bond children; for Christ palmed them upon another father. And we are exhorted to keep our Father's commandment, commandment in the singular number; which commandment is not the moral law, for then it would have been in the plural, for they are ten. This commandment of the Father is called the law of our mother; but neither Hagar, Sinai, nor Jerusalem in bondage, are our mother. We must not look to either of them. We must look unto Abraham our father, and to Sarah that bare us; for God called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. And it is clear that the blessing of eternal life was given by God our Father to Abraham and Sarah, who are the father and mother of us all. This law of our mother Sarah was not graven on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tables of her heart. This law, Wisdom says, is to be bound upon the heart. It is a girdle of truth, that keeps the mind and heart from departing from God. It is to be tied about the neck. It keeps the soul in union with the covenant head: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done

« PreviousContinue »