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That the gospel dispensation, instead of relaxing the principles of moral obligation, strengthens and renders the sin committed under its light the most inexcusable, may be illustrated —

I. FROM THE NATURE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. He is a being of absolute purity. Being thus perfect in Himself, He must love every resemblance of His own perfection in any of His intelligent creatures; and the more nearly they resemble Him, the more must they be the objects of His favour.

II. FROM THE CHARACTER AND OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER. The Redeemer is the beloved Son of God, one with the Father; and, therefore, the arguments drawn from the perfections of God, to illustrate the purity of the gospel dispensation, are equally conclusive with respect to the Redeemer. In His several offices, no less than in His personal character, Christ invariably promoted the cause of righteousness. For this He sustained the office of a prophet; for this He became our great High Priest, to restore that intercourse which sin had interrupted. For this end, too, He became our King, and gave us a system of laws suited to that state of reconciliation. Now, such being His character, such the offices which He sustained as our Redeemer, and such the end for which He did sustain them, it follows, by necessary consequence, that the dispensation of the gospel, so far from relaxing the obligations of moral duty, tends powerfully to confirm them.

III. FROM THAT PERFECT RULE OF MORAL CONDUCT WHICH THE GOSPEL PRESCRIBES. It is at once the most simple, the most pure and perfect that ever was delivered to the world; as superior to the much-famed systems of philosophers as its Divine author was superior to them. It lays the foundation of moral duty in the heart, the true spring of action; and by one simple principle of which every heart is susceptible, even the principle of love, it provides for the most perfect moral conduct, and for the proper discharge of the duties of life.

IV. FROM A CONSIDERATION OF THE BRIGHT EXAMPLES WHICH ARE SET BEFORE US IN THE GOSPEL.

V. FROM THE POWERFUL AID WHICH THE GOSPEL PROMISES TO ENABLE US TO OBSERVE ITS PRECEPTS AND IMITATE THE BRIGHT EXAMPLES WHICH IT SETS BEFORE US. The gracious Author of this Divine influence is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, the third person in the ever blessed Trinity.

VI. FROM THE ULTIMATE END AND DESIGN OF THE WHOLE SCHEME. The great end of the gospel scheme undoubtedly is to bring us to a state of perfect felicity in the glorious kingdom of our God; to the full enjoyment of that immortality which our Saviour hath revealed. With the attainment of this glorious end, holiness, or moral purity, and inseparably connected, both in the nature of things and by the positive laws of God's moral government.

1. In the nature of things, the unholy or immoral must be excluded from heavenly happiness. They are incapable of it. There is no conformity between the dispositions which they have cultivated and the joys of the celestial regions.

2. It is not only in the nature of things, but by the positive law of God's moral government, that the unrighteous are excluded from heaven and happiness.

(G. Goldie.)

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KJV: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

WEB: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?