mean; and we interpret his words according to our notions, and thus give them a sense which is, perhaps, exactly the opposite of that which he himself intends.

This remark applies particularly to what he says concerning the law, and concerning grace. It has given rise to innumerable disputes and explanations, and has been misunderstood in a very surprising manner, because our own experience does not at all help us to comprehend what the Apostle is speaking of. So in the text, when he "Sin shall not have dominion over you, says,

for you are not under the law but under grace;" many persons will find it hard to conceive what the law has to do with the matter, or how their being under grace should more free them from the dominion of sin, than their being under the law. It helps to confuse their notions, that they think that, as the law of Moses is done away, they cannot themselves be now living under the law, and therefore they suppose that they must be living under grace: but yet they cannot find any thing in their present condition which makes it hard for them to fall under the dominion of sin. They know that they are as apt to sin as ever the Jews could be, and yet fully believing that they are not under the law but under grace, they cannot see

why St. Paul should say, "Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace."

It may help then to clear our notions of a great many parts of St. Paul's Epistles, and of the other Scriptures, and to make us look at ourselves with something more of suspicion and anxiety, if we first see what St. Paul means by the "Law," and then consider whether it is true that we, that is, the great majority of Christians, are living not under the law, but under grace.

Now by the word " Law," it is true that St. Paul very often means only the law of Moses, and sometimes only the ceremonies of that law; but it is not true that this is his only meaning of the word, or that it is the whole of it. By the word " Law" he rather means " any rule of life which restrains our natural inclinations, and which we obey through fear, and with an effort." Thus he says, in his first epistle to Timothy, "The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane," and for the wicked, in short, of every description. And again, in his epistle to the Galatians, after counting up the different fruits of the Spirit," Love, joy, peace, long-suffer

ing, &c. he subjoins, " against such there is no law." Hence he calls the law a bondage, and

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our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ," adding, "but now that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." And again, more strongly," If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law," that is, "if your hearts and affections are changed by the Holy Spirit, so that you love God really, and desire to please him, you are no longer under the law, but have outgrown it, and are a law unto yourselves." You will act rightly, not because the law threatens you with punishment if you do not, but because you love to do so, and never think of the law while you are acting naturally according to the Holy Spirit. For example, the law tells us to honour our father and our mother, yet all good children love their parents without thinking at all of the commandment of the law; they love their parents naturally out of their own hearts; and their affection is a great deal more valuable, than if it were shewn merely to comply with the law, and avoid its penalties. Now supposing that of two men, one had no affection for his parents, or but very little, but that at the same time he thought it right to show them attention, and to honour them, because it was his duty; whilst the

other loved them so heartily, that it was a great pleasure to him to make them comfortable; which of these, do we think, would be likely best to perform the duty of a good son? We should all, I suppose, say, the latter; because every body does better what he does from liking it, than what he does because he is obliged to it. And this then is exactly the Apostle's meaning, when he says, "Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.”

This also will help to explain the language which is used in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul there talks of the law as having brought them into condemnation; and he says, that without it people's guilt was not nearly so great as with it. "Without the law," indeed, in the strictest sense, no man is or ever has been. No man has been altogether without some notion of right or wrong, or without something within him, which would tell him that he was not as good as he ought to be. But some people have had much more than others, inasmuch as the revealed law of God in the Scriptures, is much better than the mere natural law of conscience. Now the more a man knows of his duty, he is certainly the less excusable for not

acting up to it. Here then is the case of two men, one very ignorant of good and evil, and indulging his passions hardly knowing that there was any harm in them; the other, taught by the revealed word of God, to know what he ought to do, and what not, but having no fondness for his duty, and therefore always struggling against his inclination to perform it. The latter of these, he says, is much more blameable than the former: the law, that is, the command of duty,—although excellent and holy, and good in itself, has yet done the man rather more harm than good, because it has given him an opportunity of which he has not availed himself. Now in the same way, good advice may do a man harm rather than good, if he refuses to follow it; because he is more to be blamed for doing wrong when advised of his danger, than if he had had no warnings at all : and yet we are clear that we ought to advise a man, and we think it an advantage that he should be advised. This is all that St. Paul means when he calls the law death; it made our sins the greater, because it had given us a knowledge of their guilt; and our consciences. bore witness that it spoke justly. It made our bondage to sin appear more evidently shameful, when although we were aware of our condition,