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elaid eds of nibroyon digastyas What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Is not my word as a fire and as a hammer which breaketh the rock in pieces? Jerem, xxiii. 28,29.

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That is a sure evidence that the word is sent forth from God, and comes from Him, when it cuts, as it were, and strikes, and work's efficaciously in the heart, and excites men with earnestness of mind to live according to it, and to desire more and more to hear it; as it is written, He that eateth me, shall hunger more after me; and he that drinketh me shall thirst more after me. And thence comes it, that in our times, preachers are indeed most elegant and fine, and yet, but little fruit is produced by them. The reason is, it is they who say such and such things of themselves, instead of following God, and the people hear what they affirm, and do not believe it as the word of God, Thus man's reason presumptuously shines unto man's reason; whereas, it must be grace and not reason, God and not man, toward

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Bearge one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Gal, -vi. 2.1

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and manage of yourself, and gives
you time for it, that you may finish
the learning of it, and leaves you to
do as you are accustomed, and as
you can, till you gain strength, and
know the truth more clearly and
certainly. Therefore we must so
learn Christ, as to remember that in
his kingdom there are only sick and
diseased folk, and that it is nothing
else than an hospital, where the
bruised and sick lie, on whom we
must willingly and affectionately
attend,
JRib din la modemont pows
od 101 00141996 to 69910
(To be continued.)
baltagmog eldi odi bat

o ouw stads, bus ambao ut To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

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A CORRESPONDENT, who signs himself FUTURUS, has solicited the attention of your readers, in a late number of your valuable work, to the Moral Law. I confess myself to be one of those plain men who never thought that the subject want ed that kind of erudite and elaborate discussion which he seems to require. At the same time, I admire the spirit in which he writes; and I' those approve, on the whole, ideas which he seems to entertain respecting the qualifications of a To settle theological disputant. points of doctrine, and to incolcate them, are two distinct provinces;

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the latter tolerating a looser kind of statement and variety of illus tration, while the former requires solid judgment and keen discernment; wisdom, order, argument, and calmness.

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If your correspondent is acquaint

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of opinions, and if he has made any just observations on the human cha racter, he must know, that objectionChrist's doctrine does not reject you able tenets in religion owe their at once, if you cannot so quickly turn, origin principa remarkable yourself, and so easily yield, though events, in wh in which the attention of it has too much cause for doing its men was was suddenly awakened to the but it sees that you are wounded, important subjects or to anomalous and weak, and deals with you teu-, individuals, who thus by thehiselves derly, and teaches you the right, excellent in proportion as fey were trugh, and bears with you and suf-, singular. All men uk themselves others cannot so well stand wiser if and there are you, you

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too many principles in our nature our own which urge us to maintain our re notions with obstinacy, and to recommend them with vehemencé.

To all subtlety in religion I am and any wish,'t

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an utter stranger. If I admire what is learned, yet I have always found, that I am chiefly edified by what is plain. I have heard the reasonings of the Deist: I have heard the gay dreams of the enthusiast: I have often listened to the mutilated, eccentric, and partial statements of the sectarist: but I have turned away from them all with different degrees of aversion; for those who rejected the Bible I was compelled to condemn, and those who in my view misinterpreted its doctrines I could not approve.

If names were sufficient to decide a question, the subjection of believers to the Moral Law could no longer be a subject of dispute. The names of those who graft the doc. trine of absolute liberty on the merciful dispensation of the Gospel, are few, and of no great weight, when compared with those who have advocated the doctrines of mercy without abrogating the authority of law. Agricola was only an excrescence of the Reformation; whose sentiments probably were formed on the partial and ambiguous sentences of the great, but often incautious, Luther. Crisp was inconsistent with himself, and therefore deserves no notice on the subject. The modern Hercules of theological absurdity was better acquainted with plausible effusion than with the logical examination of Divine truth. The name of one calm, thoughtful, learned, and dispassionate divine would fairly outweigh a whole host of such singular combatants.

But I must say, as a plain man, that I consider names, however I may revere them, as a very inferior kind of evidence, as only a tolerable auxiliary, when a disputed point in theology is brought forward for discussion. A Hooker is sublime, a Hopkins is decided, an Andrews is CHRIST. OBSERY. No. 155. **

plain, and all of them are pious; but all of them are men, and there's fore all of them are fallible. good as I would wish, therefore, Futurus, P person who is notor satisfied respecting the authority of the Moral Law, to forget names, and to confine their attention to Scrip ture; being fully aware, as all ought to be, that Scripture, meditation, and prayer will always form thew best divine and the best Christian. The subject I am now upon is extensive, if it were followed sto any length, according to the hints given by Futurus. The advocates of total liberty think that they have scriptural proof: it must be shewn that they wrest the Scriptures. The advocates of total liberty suppose that the authority of law is incom. patible with the fulness and free ness of mercy: it must be shewn that these are not incompatible. The advocates of total liberty main... tain that their statement, excluding all reference to the Law as an authoritative rule of conduct, as a rulesof conduct in its own nature binda ing, is that alone which gives Christ f his full honour, and the Christiana full satisfaction and comfort: ite must be shewn that they are egreso giously mistaken. Assert the com manding power of the Law over the t believer, and, if he will suffer himen self to be guided by scriptural truth and sober thought, and not by human opinion or a dreaming fancy, he will have no reason to complain, b that so much as a single jota is deli ducted from the mercy of the Go spel, the honour of its great Author, or his own comfort. The oppugna ers of the law may be specious, and they will be obstinate. He knows but little indeed of intellectual matters who does not know, that sophists are the worst men to deal with in the walks of literature. So phists are in the walks of literature, v what knaves are in the common walks of life. But that I may i abridge my reflections, I shall leave this view of the subject to those of your correspondents who may judge

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it expedient to unfold and discuss the point in its various parts and bearings.

From what I have said already, it may be concluded, that I see no passages in Scripture that deny the plenary and universal authority of the Moral Law, and that I do not see how any advantage is derived to the Gospel by denying it. Christ, to the real Christian, is, in all respects, every thing. He is his "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." This must be readily admitted, and strenuously maintained...

But while the Gospel confers every mercy, the Law enjoins every duty. Now take up the point on the ground of reason; and it appears to me evident, that supreme authority and abundant mercy may exist in the same government, and also in respect of the same persons. A king rules by laws. His subjects break those Jaws. He pardons the offenders. The laws, though broken, do not lose their authority; they are the immotable laws of the government, The pardoned offenders can claim nothing, it is evident, from their sovereign, on the score of their obedience they live by his mercy: but still, as necessarily members of the same government, they owe subjection to the laws. How far this may illustrate the point I am upon in religion, I leave others to determine. But I confess it has always appeared to me that the Moral Law must, from its nature, be immutable, and therefore of equal authority in every possible dispensation of truth. I am utterly at a loss to discover how it can be otherwise. It rests in nothing accidental or varying, but in the essential nature of things. If God creates beings free agents, he must give them directions. Creatures are not independent: they must be subject to certain laws, that relate to right and wrong; and since right and wrong are always the same, the Law has the same character and autho

rity at all times. If men sin, and,
according to the mercy of God re-
vealed in the Gospel, obtain par-
don, this does not in the least de-
gree affect the nature of the Law.
Nothing, I think, can be more per-
verse, or more unfounded, than to
maintain, that faith in Christ, for
justification, pardon, and acceptance
with God, places man on a ground
on which the Law has no authority
over him.

Of the religion of the first ages
of the world, we have only in some
respects obscure information: but
obscure as it is, we may say, that
the Moral Law was then known, and
existed in full force as the directing
and commanding guide of all men.
The First Table of the Law is to be
deduced, and not unfairly, from the
sanctification of the Sabbath-day.
It niay also be asked, how could
Abraham teach his family to "do
justice, and judgment," if he was
not familiar with the Second Table
of the Law?

According to my opinion, the Moral Law derived no additional authority by its promulgation on Sinai. Moral relations are always the same: moral enactments, there fore, which are in fact only the visible expressions of those relations, are invariable. If, then, the Moral Law existed previous to the Sinaidispensation, which cannot be disputed, it must also exist, and that with the very same character, after that dispensation became obsolete by the introduction of the Gospel. I have always thought the testimony of our Lord, in the fifth chapter of St. Matthew conclusive on this point.

If the Law is of no force as it respects the believer, I would ask, how does St. Paul, in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, not only speak of the Law as

holy, just, and good," but assert, that he "delighted in the law of God after the inward man," and also that "with his mind he served he law of God?" If it be admit ted that St. Paul here speaks as a

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believer, then it must also be admitted, that being a believer, he regarded the Law in such a manner could who was not persuaded of its authority over him.

as no one

The New Testament abounds with commands. Those commands are addressed to believers, and, as I suppose, are binding upon them, But what are those commands, but, in effect, the Moral Law? For the Moral Law, though summarily contained in the Ten Commandments, consists of the preceptive parts of Scripture so far as such parts are of a moral nature. Moral commands are moral laws, and are binding wherever they occur. They abound in the Gospel; and are especially directed to those who have embraced the mercy which it offers.

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The notion of some, that real Christians obey the commands of God from a principle of love, and that these commands have, for that reason, no authority over them, is so absurd that it clearly shews us that they speak without knowledge. Every one who reflects must be convinced, that the authority of a moral law resides in the law itself, and is not diminished or even af fected, whether the law be obeyed or not obeyed, or whether it be obeyed from a principle of love, or fear, or from any other principle.

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If, then, I am asked, on what ground. I am persuaded of the authority of the Moral Law oyer believers, I should reply, that I rest my persuasion of it on my views of the nature of the Moral Law, and on the testimony of Scripture, which, if I am not mistaken, agrees with those views.

I am aware that my statement is very imperfect; but I shall rejoice if any thing I have advanced, will lead to a more clear, learned, and satisfactory investigation of the subject.

Allow me to conclude my paper with the remarks of Flavel, no mean name in theology, on this

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point, I do not quote him as an authority to decide the question; but having accidentally met with his opinion, after I had written the above remarks, I was struck with the coincidence between his views and my own. Some men will be convinced more by the observations of Flavel than they would by those of our pious and learned prelates.

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"Christ doth not free believers from obedience to the Moral Law; it is true we are no more under it as a covenant for our justification; but we are and must still be under it as rule for our direction. The matter of the Moral Law is unchangeable as the nature of good and evil is, and cannot be abolished except that distinction should, be destroyed. The precepts of the Law are still urged under the Gospel, to enforce duties upon us. It is, therefore, a vain distinction invented by liberlines to say it binds us as creatures, not as Christians: or that it binds the unregenerate part, but not the regenerate; but this is a sure truth, that they who are freed from its penalties, are still under its precepts: though believers are no more under its curse, yet they are still under its conduct: the Law. sends us to Christ to be justified, and Christ sends us to the Law to be regulated. Let the heart of every Christian join therefore with David's in that holy wish; Thou hast commanded me to keep thy precepts diligently; O that my ways were, directed to keep thy statutes!'"

I am, &c.

PHILONOMOS.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer, I was so delighted with a passage which I lately met with in reading the second part of the twenty-third Homi. ly of the United Church of England and Ireland," on alms-deeds," and consider it so admirable an answer to many of the unscriptural statements,

as they appear to me, of the bishop of Lincoln, in his Refutation of Calvinism," and of other writers of the same school, that I venture to beg a place for it in your valuable pages. After having quoted Luke xi. 41." Give alms of such things as ye have; and behold all things are clean unto you;" and having also cited the apocryphal books of Tobit and Ecclesiasticus, as well as some words of Cyprian, in confirmation of what he has before alleged; the writer supposes and answers the following objection. (Oxford ed. of Hom. 1810, pp. 328, &c.) "But here some will say unto me, Ifalms giving, and our charitable works towards the poor, be able to wash away sins, to reconcile us to God, to deliver us from the peril of dam nation, and make us the sons and heirs of God's kingdom: then are Christ's merits defaced, and his blood shed in vain; then are we justified by works, and by our deeds may we merit heaven; then do we in vain believe that Christ died for to put away our sins, and that he rose for our justification, as St. Paul teacheth.

[Nov. salvation, hath so offered his grace especially, and they have so received it fruitfally, that, although by rea son of their sinful living outwardly, they seemed before to have been the children of wrath and perdition, yet now, the Spirit of God mightily working in them, unto obedience to God's will and commandments, they declare by their outward deeds and life, in the shewing of mercy, and charity (which cannot come but of the Spirit of God, and his espe cial grace), that they are the undoubted children of God, appointed to everlasting life. And so, as by their wickedness and ungodly living they shewed themselves according to the judgment of men which follow the outward appearance, to be "re probates and cast-aways: so now, by their obedience unto God's holy will, and by their mercifulness and tender pity, (wherein they shew themselves to be like unto God, who is the fountain and spring of all mercy), they declare openly and manifestly unto the sight of men, that they are the sons of God, and elect of bim unto salvation. For, as the good fruit is not the cause that the tree is good, but the tree must first be good before it can2 bring forth good fruit: so the good deeds of man are not the cause that maketh man "good, but she is first made good, by the Spirit and grace of God, that effectually worketh in him, and afterward, he bring eth forth good fruits. And then, as the good frait doth argue the goodness of the tree, so doth the good and merciful deed of the man argue, and certainly prove the good. ness of him that doeth it, according to Christ's sayings: Ye shall know them by their fruits."

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"But ye shall understand (dearly beloved) that neither those places of the Scripture before alleged, neither the doctrine of the blessed martyr Cyprian, neither any other godly and learned man, when they, in extolling the dignity, profit, fruit, and effect of virtuous and liberal alms, do say that it washeth away sins, and bringeth us to the favour of God, do mean, that our work and charitable deed is the original cause of our acceptation before God, or that for the dignity or worthiness there of our sins may be washed away, and we purged and cleansed of all the spots of our iniquity for that And if any man will object, were, indeed, to deface Christ, and that evil and naughty men do some to defraud him of his glory. But times, by their deeds, appear to be they mean this, and this is the un very godly and virtuous: I will derstanding of those and such like answer, so doth the crab and choke sayings; that God of his mercy and pear seem outwardly to have somespecial favour towards them whom times as fair a red, and as mellow He hath appointed to everlasting a colour, as the fruit that is good,

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