fied,) with the works of the moral and of the Christian law, are guilty of an ignorant, and in too many cases, of a wilful misinterpretation of the Apostle's words, and a palpable misconception of his whole train of argument. "Brethren," says he, in this very epistle, "ye have been called into liberty," and only use "not liberty for an occasion to the flesh," or in other words, think not that an emancipation from the burthensome ritual of the ceremonial law, delivers you also from the obligations of the moral law, or law of right and wrong. This law is as binding upon us, as it was upon them. The offences against this law he has enumerated under the name of the works of the flesh-" wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness," the perpetrators of which he assures us, "shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Thus then he declares the existence, and sanctions the obligations, of the moral law-inasmuch as he affixes the most dreadful penalties to its breach and neglect.

Acknowledging then the existence and obligations of this moral law, can we be justified by its works? by no means. The moral law is at last but the strength of sin; it condemns the transgression, but it rewards not the observation of it. We are justified only by faith. By that faith, which gives us a participation in the

inheritance purchased by the sacrifice of the Redeemer-by that blood, which shall purify us from our natural corruption-by that Mediator, who, by adding his own infinite perfection to our imperfect services, shall present us at the throne of grace, as heirs of immortality.

Let the question then proposed by the Apostle, with respect to the ceremonial law, be applied by the Christian to those moral laws, which both declare what is sin, and denounce a penalty against it. Wherefore serveth the law? To the same enquiry, the same answer shall be returned-" it was added because of transgression.” In the midst of all those dangers and temptations, which are essentially attached to a state of probation, there is a law afforded to mark the boundaries of right and wrong, to declare the will of God; and to that law a penalty is affixed to enforce its observance. Were there no evil in the world, there would be no law-it is therefore with justice termed the strength of sin, and to the Christian now, as to the Jew of old, it is added because of transgression.

Let those who in the ignorance of mistaken piety, or the perversions of delirious fanaticism, deny the existence, and disannul the obligations of this moral law, remember the plain, emphatic, and most awful declaration of the Redeemer himself, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,

Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heavenbut he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

To us, therefore, as to the Jews of old, because of transgression was the law added; and as to them the ceremonial law of the covenant of works ceased, when the seed came to whom the promise was made, so also, to us, shall the moral law of the covenant of grace be abrogated and cease, at that blessed time when sin and sorrow, temptation, and danger, shall be no morewhen the existence of evil, being annihilated, the law which is its strength, shall also be dissolved, and perfect righteousness shall be consummated in perfect glory.

SERMON XV.

PSALM XCIV. 7.

Yet they say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

In directing our thoughts to the moral government of God, as displayed in the world around us, it is to be remembered that we are not entering upon a field of barren theory, but upon the consideration of those laws under which we necessarily live, and by which our final doom must irreversibly be determined. The throne of the Almighty is not to be approached with languid indifference, but with that reverential awe, which is the tribute of allegiance from a creature thus entering into the presence of his Creator, and with that cautious reserve which arises from a sense of our infinite distance from the object of our contemplations. He who vainly attempts to rise on the wings of a presumptuous imagination into the counsels of his Maker, will find himself soon plunged into an abyss which the powers

The Al

of his contracted soul cannot fathom. mighty can be known to us only according to the measure of that knowledge which he has revealed to us, and of our capacities to receive it, All other speculations of a finite mind, on an infinite Being, must inevitably end in empty paradox, or unintelligible obscurity. But as there is a barrier fixed beyond which the mind cannot pass, so is there a limit determined within which it is commanded to call forth the exercise of its powers, and to view the Almighty, in all his dispensations to man, as the great moral Governor of the universe. Light has been vouchsafed us from above to discover, and reason given us to comprehend, the laws of that government as far as they concern our obedience here, or our expectations hereafter. After such a revelation of himself to mankind, ignorance is so far from a palliation of error, that it is itself a crime. The perversity of human pride, passes too hastily from hardy and adventurous presumption, to cold and sullen neglect. With what show of reason can we shelter ourselves in the darkness of voluntary ignorance, when light has been given us from on high, sufficient for every purpose of our being, and proportionate to the measures of our comprehensions? It is a crime not only as considered in itself, but as it is the parent of that long train of criminal consequences