required in the LAW. Faith involves love; for there can be no true`saving faith without it.

8. To the obedient, the same blessings are promised in the Law of Moses, as in the Gospel of Christ.

Christ came down upon the Mount, and delivered the law to Moses for the good of his people. And if the fear of God had been in their hearts, the fear of evil would have been far from them. "For perfect love casteth out fear." "And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces that ye sin not." Hence, "The law," says Paul, "was added because of transgression:" The meaning is, the law was added to guard men against transgression. The same blessings are promised to those who obey this Law as to those who obey the Gospel. God has promised in the LAW to show mercy to thousands of those who love him, and keep his commandments.

Moses was in the cloud on the mount forty days and forty nights. Here God taught him the economy of worship in the tabernacle. Moses taught the people according to the word of the Lord. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." God promised to meet with the people of Israel. And saith the Lord, “I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God." Moses found grace in the sight of the Lord. And so did all others of the chilhad an obedient heart.

dren of Israel who

That the best of blessings both spiritual and temporal, are promised in the LAW of Moses to the obedient, is evident from what is there said to the people of Israel: "Know, therefore," says Moses, "that the Lord thy God, he is God the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations: thou shalt, therefore, keep the commandments and the judgments which I command thee this day, to do

them. If ye hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them, the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and mercy which he sware unto thy fa thers: and he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee; he also will bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, and thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of the kine, and the flocks of the sheep in the land, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee."* thee."* Here we see that the greatest and the best of blessings, both temporal and spiritual, are promised to the obedient. Therefore the blessings of the SINAI LAW and of the GOSPEL OF GOD, are all equal, one and the same.

4. The curses of the Gospel denounced against the disobedient, are, equally dreadful to any of the curses denounced against them, in the Law given to Moses on the mount.

It is the sentiment of some that the Gospel of God is full of blessings; but that the Law of Moses is full of curses. But if we search the Scriptures, I believe, we shall find no such contrast between them. Both Law and Gospel bless the righteous; and they both equally denounce curses against the wicked. The Gospel draws a line of distinction between the righteous and the wicked, the obedient and disobedient, and so does the Law. The one is no more accurate than the other. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." Salvation however, was no more certain in the days of Christ and the apostles, to those who believed and were baptized, than it was in the days of Moses, to those who loved God and were circumcised.

And no law since the apostasy, has ever threatened destruction to the wicked, more peremptorily, than the Gospel now threatens damnation to those of the same character. The Law is no more full of terrour to the disobedient than is the Gospel. The Law therefore

* Deut. vii.

will not kill men in opposition to the Gospel; neither will the Gospel save men in opposition to the LAW.

In a view of these things, perhaps some will inquire, What then does the apostle Paul mean, when he says, God "hath made us able ministers of the New Testa ment; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." In reply, I would observe, that the apostle cannot mean, that they were able ministers of the New Testament in distinction from the Old; meaning the books of the evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles, in distinc tion from the BOOKS of the Old Testament. The apostles could not mean that their ministry was confined to the BOOKS of the New Testament for those books were not then written. The texts of the apostles were always selected from the BOOKS of the Old Testament. The apostles in the above sense of New Testament, were as equally able ministers of the Old Testament, as of the New. If they could not preach Jesus without recurring to the Old Testament for an illustration and confirmation of their doctrine, they could not preach him at all: for those were the Scriptures which testified of Christ. Paul therefore meant by the New Testament the same as by, the NEW COVENANT, which is the COVENANT OF GRACE. The apostles therefore were able ministers of the spirit of the new covenant and not of the letter merely. The reason why they were able ministers of the new covenant was, because the Corinthian saints were converted by their ministry. "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." The Spirit giveth life: And as the word was made to quicken sinners who were dead in sin, by the ministry of the apostles, so, in this sense, they were able ministers of the New Testament. That is in preaching Jesus, or the doctrine of the new covenant, their ministry had been a savour of life unto life: whereas, if they had had no success in their ministry their preaching would

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have been only as a dead letter. Therefore the letter of the LAW killeth, that is, bringeth death upon all those who have not "the LAW written upon the fleshy tables of the heart." Hence the preaching of the tles to those who were not converted by their ministry, was a savour of death unto death." "If," therefore, "the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?" It was evidently therefore not an object with the apostle to distinguish between Law and Gospel, but to distinguish between the mere engraving of the LAW in tables of stone, and the writing of it in the fleshy tables of the heart by the Spirit of the living God.

It is readily granted, that between the moral LAW and the rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses there is a wide difference. But between the requirements of the two great commandments, on which hang ALL THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS, and the requirements of the Gospel, there is no essential difference. For the salvation of him who loves God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself, is as certain, as the salvation of him who believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he who loveth not God, is equally wretched with him, who believeth not on the Son of God. True faith and real benevolence should go together; and in the sincere Christian they are never separated.

The apostle Peter, in his address to the strangers scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, speaks of love, faith, hope and obedience; and he evidently considers all of them as belonging to the Christian character, and with each of these graces he connects salvation. And the foundation of all the Christian graces and Christian joys is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. See the second verse of the first chapter of his first Epistle. "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." In the next verse he says, "God hath begotten us again unto a lively

HOPE by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He then goes on to inform them that they were kept by the power of God through FAITH unto salvation. He then brings Christ into view as being equally the object both of faith and love: "Whom having not seen ye LOVE; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."

We ought to be very careful how we handle "the word of life." We ought not to make distinctions where there is no difference; and we ought not to separate what God hath joined together.

It is dangerous to confine religion, and a title to salvation to any one of the Christian graces. We are all liable to deception; some however are more liable than others to be deceived as to their religious character and state. But they are the most apt to be deceived who make the whole, or the main part of religion to consist in believing. Such are in great danger of thinking that they have much religion, and a fair title to heaven, when they are in "the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity." "Simon believed also; but his heart was not right in the sight of God." He therefore was called upon to "repent of his wickedness" and pray God that the thought" of his "heart" might be “forgiven him " This idea is further confirmed by Saint James, "He shall have judgment without mercy who hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and be ye filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone."