iberty of being on the side of the law,
and therefore unrestrained by it in doing right.

Illustrate from laws of coining, housebreaking, &c. We are not under
them.--Because we may break them as we like? Nay--the moment we
desire, the law is alive again to us.

2. As a primer is used by a child to acquire by degrees, principles
and a spirit.

This is the use attributed to it in verse 5. "The end of the
commandment is charity."

Compare with this, two other passages--"Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness," and "love is the fulfilling of the law." "Perfect
love casteth out fear."

In every law there is a spirit; in every maxim a principle; and the
law and the maxim are laid down for the sake of conserving the spirit
and the principle which they enshrine.

St. Paul compares God's dealing with man to a wise parent's
instruction of his child.--See the Epistle to the Galatians. Boyhood
is under law; you appeal not to the boy's reason, but his will, by
rewards and punishments: Do this, and I will reward you; do it not,
and you will be punished. So long as a man is under law, this is
salutary and necessary, but only while under law. He is free when he
discerns principles, and at the same time has got, by habit, the will
to obey. So that rules have done for him a double work, taught him the
principle and facilitated obedience to it.

Distinguish however.--In point of time, law is first--in point of
importance, the Spirit.

In point of _time_, Charity is the "end" of the commandment--in point
of _importance_, first and foremost.

The first thing a boy has to do, is to learn implicit obedience to
rules. The first thing in importance for a man to learn is, to sever
himself from maxims, rules, laws. Why? That he may become an
Antinomian, or a Latitudinarian? No. He is severed from submission to
the _maxim_ because he has got allegiance to the _principle_. He is
free from the rule and the law because he has got the Spirit written
in his heart.

This is the Gospel. A man is redeemed by Christ so far as he is not
under the law; he is free from the law so far as he is free from the
evil which the law restrains; he progresses so far as there is no evil
in him which it is an effort to keep down; and perfect salvation and
liberty are--when we,--who though having the first fruits of the
Spirit, yet groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, "to wit,
the redemption of ou