2. By the doctrine of faith, the law is also established as rule of life to believers. According to this doctrine, it is established in the hand of the Son of God, the glorious Mediator, whom the eternal Father“hath given for a Commander to the people” (Isaiah 55:4), and has set as His King and Lawgiver “upon His holy hill of Zion” (Psalm2:6).
In the hand of the adorable Mediator, the sovereign authority ofthe law, as the instrument of government in his spiritual kingdom and as the rule of duty in His holy covenant, is confirmed;and the high obligation of it is not only confirmed, but increased. Although believers are, in their justification, delivered from the lawas a covenant of works (Romans 7:4-6), yet according to the gospel they are represented as “being not without law to God, but under the
law to Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2). In the doctrine of faith, the eternal obligation of the law on them is declared; obedience to it is enforced by the strongest motives, and represented as performed under the best influences, from the best principles, andfor the best ends. According to that doctrine, all believers are bound by infinite authority to obey; they are enabled sincerely to obey; theyare constrained by redeeming love to obey; they resolve and delightin dependance on promised grace, to obey; and they cannot but obeythe law as a rule of duty. The love of Christ, as revealed in the gospel, urges them; the blood of Christ redeems them; the Spirit of Christ enables them; and the exceeding great and precious promises of Christ encourage them to obey and yield spiritual and acceptable obedience. The holy law as a rule is written on their hearts, andtherefore they consent unto it that it is good, and delight in it afterthe inward man. While they do not obey it for life, but from life, theyaccount obedience to it not only their duty, but their privilege andtheir pleasure. Thus, according to the doctrine of faith, they present, in the hand of faith, perfect righteousness to the law as a covenant of works; and they perform, as the fruit of faith, sincere obedience to itas a rule of duty. And so effectually do they, by the doctrine of faith establish the law as a rule of duty that they never account their obedience to any of the precepts of it sincere and acceptable but in proportion as their performance of it flows from the unfeigned faith of that doctrine. In their view, nothing is obedience to it but what proceeds from evangelical principles, and is excited by evangelical motives.In the last place, by the grace of faith also, believers establish the law,and that both as a covenant of works and as a rule of life.
