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him, the Spirit's might ftrengthened him, hope emboldened him, patience bore the daily crofs, and the quickening Spirit gave him all his activity, life, zeal, and motion; and the apostle owns that the three principal labourers in the souls of the faints are faith, hope, and love: "Remembering without ceafing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jefus Chrift," 1 Theff. i. 3. And again; God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have fhewed toward his name,” Heb. vi. 10: from all which we may conclude that all works without faith are dead works; all labour without love is loft labour; and patience without hope is not the patience of Chrift. Once more, and I have done.

Paul fays, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man," Rom. vii. 22. By the inward man he means the whole crop of divine grace, love being the most noble member or principle of this inner man, and the heart and foul of all the reft. This love delights in the gospel of Chrift; for there can be no delight where there is no love, which Paul himself explains elsewhere, when he fays" Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." Here is the love of the new man, called Charity; and the delight of charity is here called rejoicing; and here is Paul's law explained, called Truth. Paul does not say, I rejoice, although this is true; but he fays that cha

rity, which is the love of God, rejoiceth in God's
truth; and, if ever there was an evangelist in this
world, Paul was one. Take it in fhort thus-the
Spirit of life, of faith, and of a found mind,
prompts me to the fervice of God; and the love
of the Spirit in me delights in the glorious gospel
of Chrift, and rejoices in it: but my corrupt affec-
tions find no pasture, no delight in these things;
all that these affect, and fuck their sweetness from,
are the imaginary lufts of the flesh; which, being
against God, and a corruption of the ways of
God, they are in love with fin, and at enmity
with God. These are not to be preffed into God's
service, nor to be expected to embark in it; for,
if they did, it would amount to no more than vo-
luntary humility and will worship. "Put off the
old man, which is corrupt according to the deceit-
ful lufts," Ephef. iv. 22. Obferve alfo that cor-
rupt affections are the life of fin in men; for
what men love they are alive to, and delight in.
But the love of God in Chrift Jefus, dethroning
the idols of corrupt love, fubduing our corrup-
tions, ravishing the foul, and making it alive to
God; this is called the death of corrupt affec-
tions, and of the things thefe affections crave after
and feed on: 66
They that are Chrift's have cru-
cified the flesh, with the affections and lufts,"
Gal. v. 24; and this crucifixion is a dying daily,
1 Cor. xv. 31. Beloved, farewell.

THE COALHEAVER.

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PAUL'S LAW IN HIS MEMBERS CONSIDERED.

In a Letter to the Rev. J. Jenkins.

ROM. vii. 23.

"But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind."

My dearly beloved and faithful brother in the Lord Jefus Chrift, who is the Son of the Father in truth and love:

I HAVE of late come to fome little degree of certainty, and fatisfaction to myself, about this law in Paul's members, and the nature of its warrings. The contents of my private thoughts in hints, fcraps, and fragments, I here fend to my venerable and dearly beloved friend and fellow-labourer.

It was true in the days of old, and it is a prefent truth, that "Love is of God," 1 John iv. 7; and he that loveth is a partaker of the incorruptible feed, which liveth and abideth for ever, 1 Pet. i. 23. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit fin; for his feed remaineth in him," 1 John iii. 9. This, my beloved friend, is that charity that never faileth, 1 Cor. xiii. 8; it paffeth into heaven with every child of God, and is ex

prefsly called the love of God, in contradiftinction. from all other lore, and "is fhed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghoft which is given unto us," Rom. v. 5. This is that holy feed which the law of God refpects and commands, as our Lord declares; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thy mind," Matt. xxii. 37; " and thy neighbour as thyfelf. On thefe two com mandments hang all the law."

This law was in brief made with Adam, and the love that this law required was put into Adam, and under this law God placed him.

And we are informed by Paul that this law is fpiritual, reaching to the foul and to every faculty of it, as our Saviour fheweth; therefore Adam muft have fomething spiritual in him, or he never could ftand upon a level with this spiritual law. "For we know that the law is fpiritual; but I am carnal, fold under fin," fays Paul. Here is the difparity that now fubfifts between the law and the natural man. But this was not the cafe with Adam in his ftate of innocence, for he had the image of God in him; and John tells us that, "God is love," and God's image in Adam was love, and nothing else. "God," fays John, "is light," and this is the fame as love; for, "He

that loveth his brother abideth in the light." "God made man upright," fays Solomon; and he adds, "The upright love thee," Canti

B

cles i. 4. God's image is faid to be knowledge, Colofs. iii. 10; "And every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God," 1 John iv. 7. God's image is faid to be righteoufnefs; and "Love is the fulfilling of the law," which to fulfil is our righteoufnefs, Deut. vi. 25. God's image is faid to be true holiness, Ephef. iv. 24; and the faints are to be "holy and without blame before him in love," Ephef. i. 4.

Now the man was created in the image of God, yet God's image was fomething distinct from man, for Adam remained a man after the lofs of God's image. When God breathed the breath of life into Adam, the Holy Spirit entered into him, created his foul, quickened his body, and gave him life: "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life," Job xxxiii. 4. The most holy Spirit of God entering into Adam, and forming his foul within him, adorned every power of that foul with his divine love: this the law of Adam ftill calls for of every one that is under it. The Spirit not only adorned every faculty of Adam's foul with love, but he put it on him as his righteoufness, his robe and diadem; and, when this was loft, he is faid to be naked; not in his body, for fo he was before, but in his foul: and this is the cafe with all Adam's children to this day, for Chrift declares they are blind and naked, Rev. iii. 17.

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