spirit of life, which is in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death :" that law which convinced me of sin, and doomed me to suffer death. Glad tidings indeed! But does not this procedure deprive the law of its due honor, and skreen the offender from his deserved punishment? By no means. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God (to whom nothing is impossible, has most wonderfully accomplished, by) sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, to live among sinners," to perform the perfect obedience due from them, "and for sin" condemned sin in the flesh, charged and punished it with the utmost severity in the very nature which was guilty, disabled, and ruined. By this amazingly grand expedient, he has provided for the honor, and accomplished the obedience due to the law. All this was done to lay the surest foundation, and make the completest provision for our justification: "That the righteousness of the law," both its righteous sentence and precept, whatever either of suffering or obedience it required, being fulfilled by Christ, "might be fulfilled in us." As it was all done in our name, and as He and believers are one in civil estimation, for he is their representative; and one in legal estimation, for he is their surety: theirs who walk not after the flesh, seeking justification before God by their own righteousness, but, in all humility and gratitude, receive eternal life, as the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. viii. 2-4

You have had now placed before you the scriptural account of the nature and design of the law. Nothing but pride, and the doctrines of men calculated to sooth that worst disease of our minds, can prevent your acknowledging, that the law is a divine contrivance, equally promoting the honor of God, and your own comfort in serving him. Since:

whilst it allows no palliating excuses to diminish the evil of sin, or flatter our self-love, it opens a way of salvation exactly suited to our very imperfect state; it endears Christ to the soul, and magnifies and exalts to the highest degree the imputation of his righteousness, a special mercy of the new covenant. I shali conclude, therefore, this chapter, with a full confutation of a popular mistake of great influence on many, keeping them in their prejudices against the law, and from acknowledging the impossibility of being saved from its curse, only by Christ Jesus.

It is objected, then, that to teach men they are accepted of God, solely on account of the obedience which our Lord paid to it in his life and death, will weaken the obligations we are under to lead a holy life. I answer, it may, no doubt, be thus abused, and from the beginning has been by many. But what is it men have not most basely perverted? In what light will you place the patience and mercy of God, to render them less liable to licentious abuse? But, on this account, will you be jealous of those perfections as prejudical to practical religion? Or will you deny them, because of their supposed bad tendency? The thought is dreadful, and the consequence universal destruction. It is just the same with the doctrine of the law, inferring the absolute necessity of being saved only by what the Redeemer has done, and suffered. Act in the same manner with respect to both; maintain the doctrines, detest and expose the abuse of them.

Besides, what will you gain in favor of practical religion, by giving up this scriptural account of the law? You will only set men at liberty to frame a law of their own, as in fact they do, subversive of all fear and love of God, or subjection to his authority. But that the scripture doctrine of the law as a ministration of death, compelling us to flee to the

Redeemer for pardon and spiritual life, has any bad tendency, is utterly denied by the apostles, and all who hold the truth as they did. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Do we then make void the law by faith? Yea, we establish the law. This is their constant reply to all who arraign the doctrine as licentious. Indeed it is chosen, and found by experience the only successful means of turning the heart to God in love. Its genuine operation is to bind us to him in everlasting bonds of gratitude, and willing obedience. It says, know your guilt and weakness, your desert and danger; think what you are bound to by the law, and what must be your end, if left under its power; then view the lovingkindness of God, in giving his own Son to fulfil all righteousness. Is it possible to sin against so much goodness? Granting it is, you must allow such a representation both of the justice and mercy of God (if any thing as a means can) will awake in men a thought of returning to God, bend their stubborn will, and make them hate iniquity.

Most unreasonable, therefore, is it to charge this doctrine with condemning all men to destruction, who will not confess their sinfulness, and seek to be saved through faith in Christ only, as a doctrine which relaxes the obligations to obedience, or in any degree favours licentiousness.

SUNDAY XIII.

CHAP. XIII.

The dangerous Mistakes, which, through Ignorance of the Law, govern our Minds.

IF you you know not the perfection, nature, and end of the law, you will fatally mistake your real character before God. For if you have fallen into no infamous transgressions, but been esteemed for your regular conduct, how can you confess yourself á condemned criminal, merely because you have come short in duty, or have offended in many points, of little moment in the opinion of the world? For as the knowledge that judgment is come upon all men to condemnation, is only by the law; of consequence, unless you allow sinless perfection your bounden duty, and, on failure, your doom, death, you cannot appear in your own eyes, what you are in the sight of God, a lost sinner. Far from it, especially if you have had some sense of duty towards God, and refrained from sins common at your age and condition of life, then ignorance of the law will leave you under a fatal conceit of being safe. You will think all calls to repentance, addressed to those who have given themselves up to vices, from which you have been always free-or to those who have never led the innocent life from their youth up, which, in your own opinion, you have done. This delicious self-flattery will excite bitter resentment against all attempts to make you know yourself, and bring you before God with true humiliation and faith in his Son. Every thing of this kind will kindle your indignation, as a cruel design to wound your

N

peace, and a very unjust charge of wickedness upon

you.

The force of so fatal an error will pervert also the advantages of a good education, the blessing of God's restraining grace, and make even that virtuous behaviour, which has gained you esteem, prove a greater obstacle in the way of our salvation than even gross wickedness proves to many; for gross wickedness carries its own condemnation with it. It has a tendency, on the first lucid interval to excite confession of guilt, and cries for mercy. Where as a behaviour more regulated by the commandments, when the law is not understood, does but minister fuel to self-sufficiency, and self applause. Hence we read continually of the Scribes and Pharisees justifying themselves. Many of them were very regular in their lives, decent, and formally religious. Therefore, being ignorant of the law, they could see no need they had either of repentance, or his grace who came to save that which was lost. Exactly in the same false estimate of your condition, you must continue through the same ignorance, and either audaciously contradict scripture declarations concerning the guilt and apostasy of the human race, or equivocate about them, till you have reduced them to a mere nothing.

On the contrary, when, in the apostle's emphatical language, "the commandment has slain you," you will confess, without hesitation, all your sinfulness. And whatever snares you may have escaped by good education, or restraints of grace, and whatever esteem you have gained amongst men, still you will know these advantages alter not your state respecting God. Though innocent of those iniquities which abound in the world, you are nevertheless a transgressor, justly liable to eternal punishment, if dealt with according to your deserts. Happy con