the seventh chapter he should overturn all that he had established in the preceding, and say that the holiest men are "captivated" by "the law of sin?" If this be St. Paul's doctrine, what becomes of the efficacy of faith to produce holiness: and how could he have answered that objection which he proposes to himself, chap.. vi. 1-15, "Shall we continue in sin? Shall we sin, we that are under grace?" St. Paul ought to have granted the objection, if it be true, that the most regenerate are sold under sin. But it is plain, that in the seventh chapter he goes on to prove what he had laid down already, namely, that the gospel sanctifies men; and not only this, but that the gospel alone can sanctify men, and that the law could not. This is the scope of the whole chapter. In the very first four verses, he shews that "Christians are no longer under the law," nor consequently under sin; "and that they are dead to the law, that they may bring forth fruit unto God." He expresses himself more clearly yet in the fifth verse, where he says, that there is a considerable difference between those who are under the law, and those who are in Jesus Christ. He plainly distinguishes these two states, and the time past from the present. "When we were in the flesh," he observes, "the motions of sin which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death; but now we are delivered from the law, that we should serve in newness of spirit." Here are the two states: the state past was a state of corruption, the present state is a state of holiness. But as it might have been inferred from thence, that the law was the cause of sin, the apostle refutes that imagination, from the seventh to the fourteenth verse. After this, he describes the miserable condition of a man who is not regenerated by grace, and who is still under the law. He begins to do this from the fourteenth verse, by saying, "The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin," &c. And here no doubt it will be said, that St. Paul speaks of himself, and not of those who are under the law; for, says he, "I am carnal," &c. But one may easily see that the apostle uses here a way of speaking which is very ordinary in discourse, and by which he that speaks, puts himself in the place of those he speaks of. And St. Paul had the more reason to express himself after this manner because he had been himself under the law, before he was converted to Christianity. There are many instances in Scripture of this way of speaking; and we find one in this very chapter, which is beyond exception. St. Paul says, in the ninth verse, "I was alive without the law once," &c. If we do not admit here a figurative expression, or if these words are strictly taken; then we must say, that there was a time when this apostle was without law, which is both false and ridiculous. As, therefore, it is plain, that when he says, ver. 9, "I was without law," he speaks of the state of those men to whom the law was not given; so it is unquestionable, that when he says, "I am carnal," &c. he describes the state of a corrupt man, living under the law, and not his own. This is a key which lets us into the meaning of his discourse, in which the law is mentioned almost in every verse. 3. Lastly, that which makes it as clear as the sun, that this is his true sense, is, that when the apostle considers and speaks of himself as a Christian, he uses quite another language. To be satisfied of this, we need but run over this chapter, and compare it with other places in his Epistles. If he says here, verse 7, 8, "that concupiscence is felt and reigns within a man, who is under the law;" he declares, Gal. v. 24, "that Christians have crucified the flesh with the lusts of it." If he says, verse 9, 10, "that sin lives within him, and he is dead;" he had said, chap. vi. 2, 11, "that he was dead to sin and living unto God through Jesus Christ;" if he says, verse 14, "that he is carnal and sold under sin," it is apparent that he does not speak of himself, since, chap. viii. 1, 8, he tells us, "that those who are in Christ Jesus are not in the flesh, and that those who are in the flesh cannot please God, and have not his Spirit." If he says here, verse 19, "I know that in me dwelleth no good thing;," he declares, Eph. iii. 37," that Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith." If he says verse 19, "the good that I would I do not; and the evil which I hate, that I do;" he testifies in many places, "that the faithful do that which is good, and abstain from evil." If he complains, verse 21, 22, 23, "of his being captivated to the law of sin;" he teaches, chap. vi. 17, 22, "that Christians are no longer the servants of sin, that they are freed from it, and become the servants of righteousness." If he cries out, verse 24, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" it is manifest, that these are not the expressions of a man regenerated by Jesus Christ, for he adds immediately, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Rom. viii. 1, 2. Now let any body judge, whether what is said in this chapter can be applied to St. Paul, considered as a regenerated Christian? Can it be said, that concupiscence reigns in him who has crucified it? That sin lives in him who is dead to sin? That he who is not in the flesh is a carnal man? That he who is freed from sin is sold to sin? That no good thing dwells in those in whom Christ dwells? That a man is at the same time miserable and happy, a slave, and yet delivered by Jesus Christ, dead and alive? To say this, is it not to call good evil, and evil good, to put darkness for light, and light for darkness? Is it not to admit downright contradictions in Scripture? But especially, is it not to open a door to licentiousness, and to give us a strange notion of a regenerate man? By all that has been said, I do not mean that there are no remnants of corruption in those who are regenerated. Neither do I deny, that in those, whose regeneration is just begun, there is some such struggle as that which is described in this chapter. To this may be added the following declaration of Jeremy Taylor, "that St. Paul does not speak these words (Rom. vii. 19,) of himself but by a Melasxnuzhouos metaschematismos, under his own borrowed person, he describes the state of a carnal, unredeemed, unregenerate, person, is expressly affirmed by St. Irenæus and Origen, by Tertullian and St. Basil, by Theodoret and St. Chrysostom, by St. Jerome, sometimes by St. Austin, by St. Ambrose, and St. Cyril, by Macarius and Theophylact; and is indeed that true sense and meaning of these words of St. Paul, which words none can abuse or misunderstand, but to the great prejudice of a holy life, and the patronage of all iniquity." JEREMY TAYLOR's Sermons, Supplement, fol. edit. p. 18. Cornwall. W. B. Note. See a Treatise concerning the causes of the present corruption of Christians, so called, and the remedies thereof, highly commended by Bishop Burnet. THE WORKS OF GOD DISPLAYED. To the Editor of the Methodist Magazine. THE globe which we inhabit has been considered as a GRAND MUSEUM, furnished with the works of the Supreme Creator. The insertion of the subjoined remarks in your popular and edifying Miscellany, will confer a favour on, dear Sir, Kettering. Your's, with high esteem, REMARKS ON THE BENEFICENCE OF THE GOD OF NATURE. "That there is a Creator All nature cries aloud in all her works." "In wavy gold thy summer vales are dress'd; "When golden morn's refulgent rays Then fragrant flowers perfume the gale." VOL. XLII. JUNE, 1819. True wisdom contemplates the Creator in his works. In what a goodly and well-furnished world hath the Almighty placed us; he has stretched out the heavens as a curtain over our heads, and therein hath" set a tabernacle for the sun," which as a celestial, universal lamp, enlighteneth all the inhabitants of the earth. "His going forth is from the end of the heavens, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." Again, how wonderfully hath he furnished this lower world for the maintenance of the creatures which his hand has formed. "The heaven, even the heaven of heavens are the Lord's, but the earth he hath given to the children of men." "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" As God's works "praise him" unceasingly, his saints should "bless him." Too many look upon the operations of nature, and the works of the God of nature, with indifference. Human grandeurs, in many instances, are preferred before this God-like magnificence, "so amazing; so divine." With what an unsparing munificent hand does our common Parent provide the means for our felicity! How diffused are his blessings from pole to pole! and from shore to shore! How suitable, exuberant, and beneficial! What were the advantages of our forefathers compared with those we so richly enjoy. Our fields, now so abundantly covered with harvests, and orchards, and flocks, did not then furnish the necessaries of life. They roved from place to place, procuring by hunting a precarious subsistence, and not daring to trust to nature. Her simple phænomena filled them with terror. They trembled at the sight of an eclipse, and were petrified with dismay, upon many similar grounds. Let us suppose that a celebrated philosopher, like the late SIR ISAAC NEWTON, had then furnished them with the spectacle of some of our natural sciences; had shewn them, with the microscope, forests in mosses, mountains in grains of sand, thousands of animals in drops of water, and all the wonders of nature, which in her progress, multiplies the sources of her information, while the human eye is incapable of perceiving her limits; that, after displaying to them in the heavens, a progression of greatness equally infinite, he had shewn them among the planets, scarcely visible, worlds much greater than ours, Saturn at the distance of three hundred millions of leagues; among the fixed stars, infinitely more remote, suns which probably illuminate other worlds; stars, that is, suns innumerable, decorating the face of heaven, like grains of dust upon the earth, without man's knowing whether this may not be merely the threshold of the creation-with what transport would they have viewed a spectacle which we behold with too much indifference. Had any one, in those barbarous inauspicious ages, distributed among them simple presents of nature, before unknown, sheaves of corn, plants of the vine, sheep covered with wool-O! what would have been the gratitude of our forefathers. These, however, are only the smallest part of the blessings for which their opulent descendants are indebted to the God of nature. The whole world, yea every quarter of the universe, contributes to our pleasure, gratification, and happiness. Asia sends her diamonds, spices, and porcelain; America, the gold and silver of her mountains, the emeralds of her rivers, the dying materials of her forests, the cochineal, the sugar-cane, the cocoa of her fervid plains. Africa her ivory, her gold, and by far too long her very children were torn from her beloved embrace, to serve as beasts of burden over many parts of the earth. May that horrid, disgraceful, and inhuman traffic cease for ever among all the nations of the earth! We appear to be approximating towards that grand era, when the day-star of African liberty shall arise higher, and their entire deliverance from every species of oppression shall be consummated amongst all nations. The language of cur own beloved country, is most elegantly and happily expressed by a poet of great celebrity, in the following lines: "Thy chains are broken; Africa, be free: Through radiant realms, beneath the burning zone, MONTGOMERY. Having made this digression, I now return to the subject, the beneficence of the author of nature. There is not any portion of the globe, but what furnishes some article of enjoyment. The gulphs of the ocean supply us with pearl, its rocks with coral, and its ices with furs. Have we not transported to our shores, and imported into our highly favoured country, the jasmine from Arabia, the orange from China, the pine-apple from the Brazils, and a multitude of perfumed plants from every region of the torrid zone. Not any of the productions of nature are withheld from us. What cannot be got living, is procured when dead. The insects, the birds, the shells, the minerals, nay the very soil of the most remote regions, fill our cabinets. Earth and air, land and water, conspire together, and respectively and providentially contribute, from their vast resources, to the benefit of the children of men. Ought not, then, a chorus of praise to ascend night and day from our habitations to the great Author of nature? Never did the ancient kings of Asia accumulate so many means of enjoyment at Susa or Ecbatana, as we enjoy in common in our day and generation. Yet each returning day these monarchs paid adoration to the gods. They undertook * 3 E 2* |