servances;

than the Jews, are placed as subjects of the moral government of God. This law does not employ itself in prescribing outward obbut demands, under numerous precepts, universal holiness of heart and life. Did our Lord, who came to fulfil the Ceremonial Law, come to destroy the Moral Law? He came to fulfil it in every particular; to satisfy, in the largest extent, every one of its demands. Did it require sinless obedience ? The Son of God in human nature obeyed it, in all points, unto perfection. In all points, tempted as we are, he was without sin. Did it require that the spirituality of its nature, the vastness of its claims, the universality of its jurisdiction, circumstances which were grossly misunderstood, or shamefully disregarded, should be publicly displayed and recognised? The Son of God, as man, acknowledged, proclaimed, and established them. In his sermon from the Mount, and in every other part of his instructions, he shewed that not only every outward action, but that every desire, every thought of the heart, must, in every particular, be subject and conformed to the Moral Law. Did it require to be magnified before men and angels, by some memorable proof, that for the breach of any one of its injunctions complete satisfaction must

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be made, before pardon could be extended to the transgressor? In the presence of men and angels the Son of God, as man, glorified it by giving up himself on Calvary, a spectacle to the whole creation, an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It was to honour, to exalt, and to sanction the Moral Law in all its bearings, in all its demands, that Jesus Christ though, by nature, in the form of God, and thinking it not robbery to be equal with God; yet made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself and became obedient into death, even the death of the cross.

Has there then been no change wrought by our blessed Lord in our situation, with respect to the Moral Law? Undoubtedly there has; and a change of inexpressible importance. Christ has delivered us from the curse, from the condemning power of the law. He has purchased for us those blessings which the law did not provide; which the law from its very nature could not provide, but for which it was intended, no less than the Ceremonial Law, to be a schoolmaster to bring us to Him; pardon and reconciliation with God. A law knows nothing of forgiveness. How is it possible that a law

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a law should forgive? If a human law were to hold out pardon to those who should break it; would it be obeyed? If a statute, made by our own Legislature, commanding certain duties to be performed, were to provide that persons who should disobey the command should not incur any penalty; would it be regarded? How is a law, to constrain obedience, but by inflicting punishment on all who break it? How is a sinful creature to be awed into obedience to a law, but by the consciousness that, if he disobeys it, he shall be punished? If forgiveness is sought, it must be sought from the free mercy of the lawgiver. In the law it is never to be found. The divine law, therefore, while it promises reward to those who should obey it in every point, proclaiming, the man who doeth these things shall live by them (d); subjects to the penalty of eternal death, every person, who, in a single particular, should transgress. Cursed is the man who continueth not in all things, even in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do them (e). To this penalty each of us has become obnoxious by numberless transgressions. The law knows not forgiveness. Even by a single transgression, salvation, so far as the law is concerned, (d) Rom. x. 5. Gal. iii. 12. (e) Gal. iii. 10.

is irrecoverably forfeited and lost. What hope of heaven could we retain, after our accumulated offences? It is here that the Lord

Jesus Christ of his free mercy interposes. Voluntarily undertaking, to satisfy the demands of the law upon us; bearing in his own body the punishment of our iniquities; he disarms the law of its condemning power; he sets us free from its grasp; he gives us repentance, and makes it availing; he saves us by his own merits; he makes us partakers of the recompense earned by his own righteous

ness.

But though our Lord has thus taken away the condemning power of the Moral Law, has thus redeemed us from its curse, by becoming a curse, by submitting to an accursed death on the cross for us: has he deprived the law of its authority, has he lessened its jurisdiction, as a rule of life? God forbid! Most ignorant is that man of the purpose of his Redeemer's death, of the divine plan of redemption, who imagines that he is in any respect, or in the slightest degree, set loose from the obligation of obedience to the Moral Law. The exhortations delivered in the New Testament teaching us, that we must labour to be holy, as God is holy, perfect as he is perfect; the solemn warnings, that to persist in any one known sin is to set the

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the whole law at defiance, and will assuredly exclude us from the kingdom of God; all the discourses of our Saviour, and all the writings of his apostles, universally concur in proclaiming, that if there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, it is to them who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (f). To them all past sins are forgiven. For their daily infirmities, for their unallowed transgressions, for their sins of surprise, for the corruptions, over which they mourn, and against which they maintain an habitual conflict, the merits of their Redeemer shall atone. But are there But are there persons who call themselves Christians, and yet will not receive the law as an universal rule of life? Towards them its condemning power is undiminished. On them the wrath of God abideth. Against them justice shall take its course. To those who continue in sin Christ will be no Saviour. Their penalty he discharges not. The law shall exact it to the uttermost in that everlasting prison, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

We are now, I trust, prepared to understand the meaning and to perceive the complete consistency, of the various passages in Scripture, which speak of the nature of our obligation to the law. The passages which () Rom. viii. 1.

rep resent