ing ftill for the mastery, yea, fometimes ufurping the throne feemingly, and acting the tyrant over them for a season, against the fixed judgment and settled bent of their mind and heart, which in the account of gofpel grace is the man? Now, looking upon themfelves, if tried by the law and justice, as liable to be condemned with the world, they have therefore no hope of being faved by any works of righteoufhefs, which they have done, but only look for mercy, the mercy of the Lord Jefus Chrift, to be magnified in their deliverance out of the present state of imperfection. In the mean time their fins, yea, their unavoidable infirmities, are their burden, under which they figh and bemoan themselves: afhamed and grieved even for difallowed frailties, morë than unregenerate finners for their wilful and feandalous enormities. Is it any uncommon cafe for a child of God, in a repenting frame, paffionately to lament in the ftrain of Rom. vii. Judging himfelf for carnality, complaining of fpiritual captivity, and crying out, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me! Nor finding any refuge, but the grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift? Where is any injuflice done the infpired writer, or the leaft injury to Chriftianity, by fuppofing this to be the very cafe the apoftle had in view? Or what one word is there in all his defeription of the cafe before him, but is fairly accommodable to this interpreta tion? And what occafion then to fuppofe the apoftle ufes fuch a metachematiím here, as fome do fuppofe; transferring to himself thofe odious things which belonged only to an unregenerate legalist, and putting them in his own cafe, merely out of modefty, and to avoid giving offence to the party reproved?

2. We find the apoltle here giving characters of him felf that are the diftinguifhing marks of a regenerate flate; characters, that do not, that cannot, agree to any 'unconverted perfon in the world. It is, for instance, the peculiar property of a child of God, to hate that which is evil; and to have a will present with him to that which is good. No unregenerate perfon is able truly to fay, that he would do that which is good; and would Hot do that which is evil. The confcience indeed, and

the judgment of an unregenerate man, may in fome fenfe be faid to be against the fin: but his will is for it, and the lufts of a depraved will habitually govern the mang fo that he always inclines to fin, in one kind or another, in one degree or another, and does always ac tually indulge himself in fin, except only when under fome fpecial reftraints by flame or fear of punishment. He can never be faid to hate fin; though he hate the mifery that is like to be the confequence of it: but he rather hates the law that punishes fin. And to be sure, it cannot be faid of any unregenerate man, that he hates evil and would do good, indefinitely: that is, that he hates all evil, and would do all good, without any dif tinction or referve; as the apoftle here affirms of himself. No, there is fome Delilah in reterve, fome bofom lust retained, fome methods of vital piety (either of heart or life) rejected, by the greateft proficients in morality among the unconverted world. None but the truly regenerate can fay with David, I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things, to be right: and I hate every false way, Pfal. cxix. 128.

To this I may add, that it is the diftinguishing cha racter of a child of God, to delight in the law of the Lord, after the inward man. An unregenerate man may, by the lathes of an awakened confcience, and terrors of the law, be kept under fome flavish restraints, and be forced to fome fervile endeavours of obedience; but could he with a quiet confcience, and hopes of falvation, enjoy his choice, he would break through all these restraints, and always gratify his finful and fenfual inclinations. To have our inward man, our very heart and mind delighted in the law of God, is to have our fouls delighted in a conformity to God; the law being but a tranfcript of his moral perfections. That is, in other words, it is to love God himself, to delight ourselves in his nature and government, to love to be like him in the inward man, having the law written on the tables of our heart, which is the fum of all religion, the whole and only evidence of vital Chriftianity, all other marks and characters of a Christian indeed being contained in it. Whence it is, that the pfalmift so often mentions his delight in God's commandments, which he had loved, as a mark of

his uprightness. No unregenerate profeffor does really delight in God, as the holy and righteous governor and Judge of the world: and therefore no unregenerate perfon can truly fay, as the apoftle here, I delight in the 6 law of God, after the inward man.'

I may likewife add, that it is the diftinguishing cha racter of a child of God, to groan under the burthen of the body of death, to long for deliverance from it, and to have a war maintained between the law of his members, and the law of his mind. Awakened finners may groan under a sense of guilt and danger; and have a war between their confciences and their lufts. But they are believers, and none but they, who groan under the bur den of their heart corruptions: and after a further pro grefs in holiness, Unrenewed finners may have a law in their members, warring against their awakened confciences: but they have no contrary law in their minds, no fuch habitual bent of foul, or itated and settled difpofition of their affections, as has the force of a law with them, and maintains a constant war with their inward corruptions, their vain imaginations, finful appetites and paffions. They do indeed love the Lord, that thus hate evil, Pfal. xcvii. 10. And they who thus fight the good fight of faith, will lay hold on eternal life, 1 Tim. vi. 12. It is one characteristick of a true believer, that he refifts fim, in all the lufts thereof, even the moft fecret, and hidden from the eye of the world. Every creature has its antipathies: the new creature, as well as any other; and as fin is the greatest contrariety to its temper and taste, to its interefts and comforts, the divine nature always is difpofed to exert itself in an opposition to indwelling fin, studying to mortify it more and more.

3. The apoftle is here giving the character of a per fon who has a twofold principle in him: the one a go verning principle, that may be called himself: the other a fubdued principle, which is not he, but fin that dwelleth in him. Now can any unconverted perfon in the world truly fay, it is not he, that tranfgreffeth the law, when the natural bent and disposition of his foul is to evil, only to evil, and that continually, notwithstanding all the restraints of the law and checks of conscience and when all the fins of his heart and life are imputed

to him, and will be punished upon him, if he remain in his present state? Can any unconverted perfon in the world fay, that he himself (all in him which in God's account can be called himfelf) ferves the law of God, though with his fiefh (his remaining carnal affections and appetites) the law of fin; when it is certain, that every unconverted man is, both with his mind and flesh, a fervant to fin, and free from righteousness, as the a poftle affures us, in the fixth chapter of this epistle, ver. 16. 17, 20.

4. What juftifies my interpretation beyond all reafonable opposition, is, that the apoftle draws that conclufion from thofe very characters here given of himself, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Chrift Jefus, who walk not after the flefb, but after the spirit: for the law of the spirit of life, in Chrift Fe fus, hath made me free from the law of fin and death. chap. vii. 1. 2. Two things do here appear to me certain and unquestionable. One is, that the firft verfe of this 8th chapter is here reprefented (as plainly as any thing can be represented by words) as a neceffary confequence or just inference from the premises, and from the characters the apostle had there given of himself; and is therefore a full proof, that every one in the fame fpiritual Itate defcribed in the latter part of the preceding chapter, is in Chrift Jefus, and freed from condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation, &c. Wherefore? Becaule they who are in Chrift Jefus are freed from fin, and do not walk after the flesh, but after the fpirit, as belore defcribed and particularly because they themselves do ferve the law of God, as expressed in the verse immediately foregoing. This conftruction is neceflary, to make the connection of this verfe with what went before, congruous and rational Nay, it is the conftruction on which the apoftle himfelt purposely leads us to, in the 2d verfe. For the law of the fpirit of life, in Chrift Jesus, hath made me free from the law of fin and death. As if he had faid, they who are in Chrift Jefus cannot be under condemnation, fince they are made free from the law (from the dominion though not from the remains) of fin and death; which I have already faewn you to be my cafe, in the foregoing defcription

of my fpiritual state and experience, and in the characters I have given of myfelf. Another thing that appears to me most certain and evident is, that the apoftle speaks of himself here (in this 2d verse of chapter 8th) in the fame manner, and to the fame purpose, as he spoke of himself in the latter part of the foregoing chapter: and that these words, with the following verfes, are the fum and conclufion of that whole difcourfe. This was the point the apostle was undertaking to explain; this the fubject of the preceding chapter, as I have already fhewn; in this he fpeaks in the first perfon, as in the former chapter; this is a natural and rational fumming up or drawing the conclufion of the whole, the law of the fpirit of life, in Chrift Jefus, hath made me free from the law of fin and death. Whence it follows, that those characters in the latter part of the feventh chapter, belong to none but fuch who are in Chrift Jefus; and by him freed from condemnation, and from the law of fin and death.

And now, I leave it to you, Sir, to judge whether we have not reafon to conclude, that the apoftle is here fpeaking of him.felf when in a renewed or regenerate ftate; and thereby reprefenting the conflict, which the children of God in their highest attainments have with their remaining corruptions: fince there is fo plain a transition (by the change of the tenfe) from confidering what he once had been, to a reprefentation of what he now was, at the time of writing this epiftle. Have we not reafon to conclude this, when all (the very beft) of the children of God, do always experience the fame ftruggle with their corruptions, as is here defcribed ? May we not confidently draw this conclufion, when we find that the characters here given are applicable to none but the regenerate only? None but they hate that which is evil; and have a will prefent with them to that which is good. To be fure none but they hate all evil and have a will to all good, without referve or diftinction. None but they delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man. None but they groan under the burthen of the body of death; and maintain a constant war with the law of fin in their members. May we not fafely main, tain this conclufion against all oppofition, when we find