sessed by the law in the heart,—to wit, the absolute authority of God, the Creator. This, its supreme authority, is attested and scaled by conscience, God's minister sitting in the heart. (3.) It is given to make sin inexcusable,-to discover and convict in its true enormity the depravity, which, in the ungodly, otherwise lies undiscovered. This it does in two ways. It exposes the evil of the deeds of men, by comparison with its requirements; and it arouses the depravity of the heart into action, by presenting before it the image of that Holy One whom the carnal nature instinctively hates. By the hostility thus aroused, it is detected and exposed, in its true character, as enmity against God. "The law entered that the offence might abound." "Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me."-Rom. v. 20, vii. 11. This it does, not by efficiently causing, but by drawing out, and condemning, sin. (4.) It serves as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; and this, alike as its terrors constitute a scourge of conviction, attesting to us our need of a mediator; and as its instructions testify of Him, by whom all its precepts are fulfilled, and its curse satisfied. (5.) It, further, is a sanctifying agent to the people of Christ. It serves as a guide to lead their feet through the darkness of this world to the light of heaven. This it does, not by its scourge of terrors, but by detecting and exposing to their abhorrence, the corruptions which remain in them; and by the exhibition to their faith of the beauty of God's holiness. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."-2 Cor. iii. 17, 18.

We have said that the very reannouncement of the law to fallen man, was a pledge of grace. Nor is it a ground of delusive confidence. It is true, that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified. It is faith that justifies. And yet, not faith, but that perfect obedience which it pleads;-that spotless righteousness of One, behind whom faith hides alike itself and the sinner. As Immanuel appears at the tribunal of justice, and bows to the stroke of the curse, the law shines forth in new

honour by his obedience until death; and justice smiles in perfect satisfaction, and adorns the ungodly in robes of attested innocence, and garlands of paradise. Thus is the believer justified, -not by a legal righteousness, as of his own performing; and yet, by a righteousness the merit of which is in its conformity to the law; and whose acceptance is at its bar, on the ground of a complete satisfaction to all its claims; the righteousness of another, even of Jesus Christ, who was "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."-Gal. iv. 4, 5. Thus the holiness of God is illustrated, and his justice maintained; the eternal authority of the royal law is vindicated, and its honour restored; whilst, by its award, the ungodly are justified, and sinners enthroned as sons of God. "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" -Rom. xi. 33.

21. God's moral attributes.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PRINCIPLE OF THE LAW.

WHILST the eternal power and Godhead of the Most High are clearly seen in the things that are made, the Scriptures announce to us another class of divine attributes, of which the mere works of creation, as such, contain no trace; and which no amount of merely intellectual capacity and research could either discover or apprehend. They are enumerated and described in the Scriptures under various designations, such as, wisdom, righteousness, justice, truth, goodness, love and mercy. The consummate designation in which these all are comprehended is, holiness; and God, as possessed of these attributes, announces himself as he "whose name is, Holy." These various titles are not intended to designate characteristics peculiar to the creative and providential working of God; nor accidents merely of the divine subsistence; but ineffable harmonies, which are essential, eternal and unchangeable in the very being and essence of the Triune God. These attributes, as they are essential in the nature of the I AM, must of necessity have their proper relation to, and termination in, God himself. If love, for example, be so essential in God, that the Scriptures declare that "God is love," it follows that there is a sphere in the divine nature appropriate to the exercise of love, even though the creation had never been formed, nor man experienced the riches of redeeming grace. Further, these attributes are all characteristic of relations of community. Righteousness, truth, justice, goodness, love,-all these are indicative of moral relations between parties; and, since they are essential in the divine nature, they attest the essential and necessary plurality of the divine subsistence. Having their fundamental

basis in the unity of the divine essence, their essential position is in the sphere of the relations which subsist between the Persons of the Godhead. Of the inscrutable and adorable moral relations thus indicated, the Scriptures give many intimations. The most signal and interesting of these consist in the covenant provisions, which were eternally made by the Godhead, for the revelation of the divine glories, in creation and providence, and especially in the salvation of man. Of that eternal covenant, we shall hereafter speak particularly. It is sufficient, here, to remark, that its formation is only explicable upon the admission that the Persons of the Godhead do sustain toward each other relations such as we have attributed to them;-that the announcement to us of such a covenant is manifestly designed to make known to us these relations;-that the infallible fulfilment of its terms we are taught to expect, upon the ground of the faithfulness of the several Persons, as pledged in it to the relations thus revealed; and that every element in the covenant, and step in its fulfilment, tends to the unfolding and illustration of them.

The student of the nature of God, who should pause with the doctrine of the unity of the divine essence, would deprive himself of access to any but the natural attributes of the infinite Spirit. Viewing God in the single light of his indivisible essence, there is no basis upon which we can arrive at the discovery of any other characteristics than such as belong to boundless power and intelligence, such as self-existence, immensity, omnipotence, eternity, omniscience, mechanical ingenuity and skill, the attributes of an infinite artificer. It is not until the doctrine of the Trinity is recognised that we discover any ground upon which we can ascribe moral attributes to God, as essential in him; or attach any meaning to the phraseology in which such ascriptions are made. He who denies the doctrine of the Trinity may, notwithstanding, attribute a moral nature to the Almighty. But what idea can we attach to the title, righteous, as applied to One who, a simple unit, fills an eternal solitude? What is meant by calling him, true, who has no communion with any; as there is no existence beside him? It may be said that God

is righteous and true in his dealings with his creatures. But the recognition of any attribute in God, the termination of which is necessarily in the creatures, forces us to the conclusion that the creation is necessary to him; so, denying his independence, and, therefore, his infinitude and Godhead; or else compels us to admit the supposed attribute to be a mere accident of the Creator's voluntary relation to his works; and, therefore, not predicable of the divine essence. The stoical doctrine of the relation of Jove to Fate, is a common resource, to escape from the difficulty here suggested. The theory of "the nature of things," which we have before considered, is only pagan stoicism modernized, and assuming a more specious name. The doctrine, however false, and deistical in its elements and tendencies, is so far valuable, as it attests the necessity which the soul of man realizes, for a plurality, in order to a moral nature in God;-a necessity which induces the ascription of divine attributes to something else than God himself; be it known as Fate, or the Nature of Things, the Eternal Principles, or whatever else. If the theory is sometimes held by those who in terms recognise the Trinity, its logical relations are none the less certain; and it will be found ordinarily associated, in such cases, with exceedingly inadequate conceptions of the true doctrine of the Triune God. The ascription of moral attributes to God, implies relations,-implies community. And if the attributes belong to his essence, so must the relations and community which they imply. Thus, the doctrine of the divine unity, comprehending with it the natural attributes, constitutes the vestibule of the temple of divine truth, in which the revelation goes no further than is sufficient to attest of God, that He is. The doctrine of the Trinity is the door, through which entering, we see unfolding the inner mysteries of God, the moral glories of the divine nature; in which is contained the full response to the question, what He is, -to wit, a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

The moral attributes of the divine nature, as essential in it, and exercised between the divine Persons, constitute the ground of the infinite blessedness of God. Of this we have intimation