Thus the Gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Rom. i. 16), and as its fruits spring up and _abound_ in any heart they will in some or other form overflow to those around, and make it a minister of righteousness, a testimony-bearer to the truth as it is in Jesus: it may be in word and doctrine, in the private circle of association, or even in the quiet testimony of a peaceful spirit, and a faithful discharge of duties, recommending by its example the Gospel of Christ.
“For the _law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus_ hath made me free from _the law of sin and death_. . . . That _the __righteousness of the law_ might be fulfilled in us, _who walk not after the flesh_, _but after the Spirit_.” “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they _that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit_” (Rom. viii. 2–5).
Allusion has been made at a former page (40) to the _precepts of the law_, having been superseded by the higher _principles_ of the Gospel of Christ. The New Testament, instead of prescribing precise instructions for conduct between man and man, sums up our duties in the general principle, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; love worketh no ill to his neighbour; love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. xiii. 9, 10); at the same time illustrations are given, both of the fruits of the Spirit, and of the fruits of sin in the heart (See Eph. iv. 22 to end, and ch. v.; Rom. i. 28–32; Rev. xxi. 8).
The law written in the heart is the effect of the Holy Spirit’s work there. He works in us to will and to do of God’s good pleasure;—“to do those things which are well pleasing in His sight;”—which should “be known and read of all men,” by its effects on the conduct, &c. (2 Cor. iii. 2). It was the distinguishing feature of Christ’s coming—“Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Heb. x. 9). And though we cannot attain to His perfection, the work of the Spirit is always to beget within us more of the love of God, and to incline our hearts to serve Him more faithfully. As we sit, as it were, at the feet of Jesus, looking unto Him, the Spirit or Comforter will take of the things of Christ, and show them to us, and there will be a growth in grace, and in conformity to the will and law of God;—a subordination of the flesh to the Spirit, which has no necessary, or perhaps no natural, limit, but in the summons to quit the militant, and join the triumphant, Church above.