cut off all approach by sinful man, so all sinners are shut out from the means of eternal life, and the flaming penalty of the law turns every way, to cut them off from hope. This is the nature of law. And until a law can be found, the violation of which does not induce moral corruption upon the soul, none can be found, but such as takes away both the means and disposition to repent, whenever it is transgressed. In short, until a law can be found which holds out as its sanctions, the hope of mercy and promise of pardon to the transgressor, none can be found that supplies the means or the opportunity for repentance. Such a law, it is presumed, never did exist, and, while the meaning of the term continues what it now is, it never can. Such a law would be no law; it would have none of the binding nature of law; its penalty would not be a curse, but a blessing. It would warn the subject of the law not to transgress, on pain of having the opportunity and means furnished him, by the very law he violates, for repentance and forgiveness. Such ludicrous enactments never disgraced the divine code. God's law threatens the transgressor with a stern and an inflexible curse; and at the same time assures him, that "he that offends in one point is guilty of all;" because he thus spreads moral corruption over his soul, and manifests the very spirit of rebellion against the King of Heaven. situation, what shall the sinner do? There is no help in the law, for that worketh wrath. Shall he be put under a milder law? The transgression of any law worketh death; for the wages of sin is death. Hence, to obtain salvation, the sinner wants not another law. A thousand laws, properly so called, would not help his case. He wants something to open the door for repentance; something to enlighten his dark mind, to quicken his benumbed powers, and strengthen his weakness. This is all found in the gospel. The gospel may be considered as affording the opportunity and means for repentance, 1. By giving a day of probation to sinners. This, as it relates to Adam's posterity, is implied in their personal existence, which they, doubtless, would not have had without this provision. The curse of the law would have taken them off in their federal head, and in their seminal existence, but for the intervention of the gospe This existence, therefore, was granted to the race of Adam, in view of a state of probation and second trial, in which man might apply to God, through Christ, and be saved.

In this

2. With this probation, light, strength and grace were provided. so that now the sinner sees and feels his sinfulness and danger. He also sees the way of escape, and has strength and a gracious influence granted him, that he may escape. It is this gospel grace through Christ, that constitutes fallen man a free moral agent, and restores to him the power of choice, which he lost through sin, and thus lays the foundation for all the commands, invitations and directions that are given to the sinner. Whatever sinners, therefore, are required

to do, the gospel furnishes them with ability, and with all necessary helps to perform. perform. "For he that spared not his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not with him also freely give us all things?"

3. Finally, when the sinner, by the grace afforded him, submits to the righteousness of God in Christ, and receives the benefits of the atonement, "the law of the Spirit of life," the controlling influence of the gospel,-ministered by the Holy Ghost, sets him free from the thraldom of his own corrupt nature, begets him again unto a lively hope, and renews him "in knowledge, after the image of him that created him, in righteousness and true holiness."

The law, therefore, through sin, takes away from the transgressor the power and the means to choose good, and destroys all desire for the enjoyment of God; but the gospel restores that power, furnishes those means, and begets that desire in the soul. The one separates the transgressor from all medium of access to his Creator; but the other brings him nigh, and enables him to "come with boldness to the throne of grace, that he may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

V. BY THE POWER OF THE LAW, THROUGH TRANSGRESSION, All THE BLESSINGS OF LIFE ARE CHANGED INTO CURSES; BUT BY THE GOSPEL, THEY ARE AGAIN TRANSFORMED INTO BLESSINGS.

Since sin entered into the world, the whole constitution of the natural as well as the moral world is changed. The earth is cultivated by toil and the sweat of the brow, and, even then, it bringeth forth thorns and thistles. Life is fraught with afflictions and pains. To this subject the apostle has made an allusion, in the same chapter with our text, and that, too, for the purpose of showing the opposite and glorious effects of the gospel, on a sinful world. For while "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain," and even the children of God, "who have the first fruits of the Spirit," are subject to these sufferings, yet, through the power of the gospel, "all things work together for good to them that love God:" and therefore, in all these sufferings and natural evils, they are more than conquerors. The labors, the sweat, the pains and tears, and dying pangs, all of which are included in the curse of the law, are, through the grace of the gospel, made to subserve the interests of the soul, and enhance the felicities of the redeemed. Though through sin, the strength of which is the law, a blooming paradise has been transformed into a gloomy and a toilsome vale of thorns, and thistles, and chilling winds, and blasting mildews, yet the gospel more than brings back the forfeited Eden. It breathes a freshness upon the works of nature, and causes all life's afflictive scenes to hasten the soul onward and upward to a higher and a surer paradise. Yea, though the law threatens death to the body, as well as soul, and actually chains

down this mortal system in the dark and gloomy prison-house, yet "he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken these mortal bodies," and give the triumphant song-"O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory! The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ."

VI. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL MAY BE FURTHER CONTRASTED, IN THAT THE LAW, FOR ONE OFFENCE, CONSIGNS THE SINNER TO DEATH AS CERTAINLY AS IF HE HAD BEEN GUILTY OF ALL; BUT THE GOSPEL, THROUGH ONE ACT OF FAITH, FREES THE SINNER FROM ALL OFFENCES, AS ENTIRELY AS IF HE HAD BEEN GUILTY OF NONE.

We are taught by inspiration, that, in a certain sense, "he who offends in one point is guilty of all." This arises out of the very nature of sin. For in whatever form it presents itself, it is high treason against the Sovereign of the universe, and therefore contains, in itself, the very essence of all sin. Against such a rebel the law is armed. He is arraigned by its righteous requisitions; he is condemned by its just and inflexible principles; he is cursed by its awful penalties. Though, if it were possible, he should commit no more sin, still he is condemned. But he will commit more; the depravity which one offence brings in, is the forerunner of a legion. The heart becomes sinful in all its exercises, and the life is a continued course of rebellious acts. Thus, therefore, he is guilty of all—not only because by one offence he embraces the very essence of all sin, which is rebellion against God, but also, because he is thereby disabled, in future, from keeping any of the law, in the spirit of its requirements; and his heart becomes the seat of every unholy principle and passion. From all this guilt, and from this wretched condition, the gospel proposes to deliver the sinner; and that, too, by one act of faith. This is expressed by our apostle in the context, by being in Christ Jesus. And it is the universal doctrine of the New Testament, that we are in Christ, that is, are made partakers of his nature and grace, by faith-that we are justified, sanctified and saved by faith. The necessary and important provisions, spoken of in the fourth division of this discourse, being made, and the mind being enlightened and aided by divine truth and grace, through the Spirit, nothing remains for the justification of the soul, but an exercise of faith in Christ. This subject of justification by faith, the apostle had treated at large, in the third, fourth, and fifth chapters of this epistle, and, therefore, needed not here to go into a detail of the nature and progress of this work. But he would undoubtedly have us understand, that the deliverance, of which he is here speaking, was obtained in the same manner, and was indeed the very same, as that

very

described chap. v. 1, &c.-"Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith, into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." He had, before this, laid down and defended the doctrine of justification by faith, and in the verses just quoted, describes the blessing itself. But in connection with our text, he describes the exercises of the mind, preparatory to this blessing, and then the blessing itself. But in both of these, it seems to be implied, that there was one particular moment, and one particular exercise, in which the soul was made a partaker of this grace. That exercise was the exercise of faith; and that moment was the one in which the soul believed. That the soul is delivered from the penalty of the law is evident, because the apostle says, there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus-they are made free from the law of sin and death. And that the soul is now prepared, by this change, to keep the law, is also evident, because the very design is, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled The sum of all is-the law brings condemnation, the gospel justification-the former condemns for one offence, the latter justifies through one act of faith; by one offence under the law, a door is opened for universal corruption; by one act of faith under the gospel, a foundation is laid for the fulfilment of all righteousness. The change, in one case, is a sudden transition from holiness and happiuess, into guilt and ruin; but in the other case, it is a sudden restoration from guilt and ruin to justification and salvation. This, therefore, is what we mean when we say, the law for one offence consigns the sinner to death as certainly as if he had been guilty of all: "but the gospel, through one act of faith, frees the sinner from all offences, as entirely as if he had been guilty of none. "For the judgment was by one to condemnation; but the free gift is of many offences unto justification."

in us.

In view of the foregoing doctrine, two or three reflections naturally arise.

1. The gospel implies the law, and acknowledges its claims-they harmonize together in their general design, but are altogether distinct in their character an offices.

That the gospel presupposes the law, is evident from the fact already established-that it is an expedient to meet both its penal and preceptive claims. But for the law, therefore, there would have been no gospel. Hence, when the gospel comes, proclaiming salvation, it always directs the sinner to the purity and rigor of the law; it clears his spiritual vision, that he may see his danger, and quickens his moral sensibilities, that he may feel his guilt. The gospel detracts nothing from the extent of these claims, and pleads nothing in extenuation of the sinner's criminality. But while it gives full credit to the demands

of the law, it spreads open its own appropriate provisions, to meet these demands. It points the sinner, first to his poverty, and then to the "riches of grace, in Christ Jesus;" first to his moral defilement, and then to the blood that "cleanseth from all sin." Both, therefore, have the same object in view, namely, holiness of heart and life. The difference is in the manner of accomplishing this object. And this grows out of the different conditions of man. The law is suited, not only as a rule of conduct, but as a condition of life, for the holy; but the gospel is designed, as we have seen, as a provision of life for the unholy. While the law, therefore, curses sinners, the gospel blesses them. If the law could bless sinners, there would be no need of the gospel; and if the gospel could curse sinners, then indeed we might dispense with the law. But as the law preceded the gospel, and contains in itself all, that was necessary as a rule of life, and all the penalty necessary to punish the transgressor, and, as has been shown, is unrepealed and unrepealable, there was no need of additional penalties and new moral codes, in the gospel. Therefore the gospel, strictly speaking, is not law. It may, indeed, be objected to this, that the gospel is sometimes called law in the scriptures. Our text calls it "the law of the spirit of life." St. James speaks of "the perfect law of liberty." St. Paul calls it "the law of faith"-and declares, Rom. ii. 12, 16, that "as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel," and that "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess. i. 8. In reference to these and similar passages, it may be remarked, that so far as the gospel is used as a term to convey the idea of the whole divine administration, under the new covenant, it may very properly be said to include both the precepts and sanctions of law. And so the Scriptures sometimes use the term. But this is a mode of speech in which a part is put for the whole: the whole system is spoken of under the name of one of its prominent features. So the biography of Christ, and all the incidents recorded by the evangelists, go under the general name of gospel, because their leading object is to proclaim the "good news of great joy, which shall be unto all people," namely, that "unto them is born a SAVIOUR, who is Christ the Lord." It should also be recollected, that the gospel, as has been already shown, implies the law; and to preach it, therefore, with effect, it is necessary to proclaim the law, in all its terrors, and describe it in all its claims. Hence the apostolic commission runs thus-" Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned." The gospel is as active in pressing the sinner's danger upon him, as it is in holding up its own provisions. Because by this the sinner is convinced of the nature