of all; for all are equally under condemnation by the law. There are, indeed, different degrees of guilt, and there will be different degrees of punishment; but all are worthy of death, all are under one and the same sentence, and all must eternally perish, unless deliverance be obtained in God's appointed way.

3. The nature and character of the law is such, as to render justification by it an impossibility.

The apostle, in the Epistle to the Romans (viii. 3), has informed us that God has effected, by sending his Son, "what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh." The words, "what the law could not do," may be literally translated, "the impossibility of the law." But what occasions this impossibility? the nature and obligations of the law, considered in relation to the present condition of man. We have before seen what the substance of the law is; namely, the perfect love of God and man. And if we would understand its perfection, holiness, severity, and obligations, we must look into our Lord's sermon on the mount. In that divine expo

sition of the law, an unchaste look is denominated adultery in the heart; an angry word is considered as a degree of murder; and in regard to the love of our neighbour, we are required to be perfect, even as God himself is perfect. In fact, the law is not satisfied with less than complete, perpetual, and unerring obedience. Do you ask, Does the law require this perfection of sinful dust and ashes? The answer is, It does require it: it demands it. The law forbids every sin, in every form and degree: in

thought, word, and deed. It enjoins every duty to God and man, which can be branched out from its summary in the ten commandments. The law, therefore, not only cannot save, but, on the contrary, it condemns, and denounces its curse upon every transgressor. "For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." Attend, my brethren, to this declaration. Observe the following plain paraphrase of the words: “Cursed is every one," every individual, high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, young and old, male and female, -"that continueth not,"-from the commencement to the termination of life, -"in all things which are written in the book of the law,"— in fulfilling every precept which God has enjoined, and in avoiding every offence which He has prohibited,-"to do them,"-to perform every command, completely and perfectly, without any defect either in the matter or manner. The same doctrine is taught us by St. James. "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." That is, if a man violate one of the precepts of the law, he is guilty of a breach, not indeed of the whole of the law, but of the whole law. The whole system of the law is broken, as a chain is severed by the failure of one of its links. By one act of transgression, the authority of the lawgiver, who has established every precept, is impugned, and the offender has rendered himself liable to the curse. In like manner as a man who had committed one

capital crime, would be as surely put to death, as if he had committed all that ever were prohibited. In fact, the law requires perfect obedience. Its lan

guage is," Do this, and thou shalt live; transgress it, and thou shalt die." The law makes no distinction between venial and mortal sins. This is another of the vain imaginations of popery. It knows nothing of repentance of past errors, or of sincere obedience for the time to come. It is inflexible in its demands, and inexorable in its denunciations. It is evident, therefore, that to expect justification by the law, is to expect an impossibility. And hence you see the ground of the apostle's argument in the text:-"We who are Jews by nature, we who have been favoured with the most perfect dispensation of the law that God ever gave to man, we know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, either ceremonial or moral; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Hence, also, you see why the law is called "the ministration of death," and "the strength of sin." It is "the ministration of death," because it delivers over to death, temporal and eternal, every transgressor. It is "the strength of sin," because it gives sin its power to condemn to death and misery all who have sinned; that is, all mankind. Such is the nature and character of the moral law, the eternal and unchangeable rule and standard of good and evil, for the breach of which all are accountable to God. "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth may be

stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." Men may cavil against the sentence of condemnation by the law. They may ask, with some appearance of argument, Shall God condemn and consign men to eternal misery, for breaches of the ław, committed in time, by those who are born in sin and shapen in iniquity? "But who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?" Who is the best judge of the evil and demerit of sin?_God or man? Would the Almighty condemn men to everlasting woe, if their sin did not merit such a punishment? "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” There are many things in the scripture, which are objects of faith, and not of reasoning? Is the scripture the word of God? Yes; as surely as you exist, or as that God himself exists. And if so, "Thus saith the Lord," must silence all our objections, and it becomes us to be content to believe what we cannot comprehend. The scripture of God's truth will not bend to the metaphysical subtlety of human reasoning. Do you think that the God of mercy would have denounced the tremendous curses contained in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth chapters of Deuteronomy, and in other passages of scripture, unless sin had merited them? "God is love"-but would he who bears this name have pronounced the sentence of eternal condemnation against sinners, unless they had been enemies to his character, his throne, and his government?-unless their sin had deserved this condemnation? "Do not err, my beloved brethren." Believe the declarations of the God of truth.

I remark once more under this head;

4. The law cannot justify, because God has appointed another method of justification.

"That no

St. Paul, in this same epistle, says, man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident for, the just shall live by faith." The apostle here cites a passage from the prophecy of Habakkuk, which shews that those who are accounted righteous before God, shall be delivered from the condemnation of the law, and obtain eternal life by or through faith in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ or according to the more exact translation of these words, "The just by faith, shall live." That is those who are justified or accounted righteous through faith in the Saviour, shall be freed from the curse, and be crowned with everlasting life. As the righteousness of faith does not deliver us from temporal death, it is evident that the life which the just will live by faith, or which the just by faith will live, must imply deliverance from the eternal condemnation of the law, and the possession of everlasting life. In fact, this life by faith, includes all the blessings of justification, whatever they are. But the apostle's argument goes to shew that God would never appoint more than one way of justification; and therefore as he establishes from the scripture the fact that "the just shall live by faith," he draws the conclusion that "no man is justified by the law in the sight of God." If man could have been justified by the law, or in other any than that which the lawgiver way has appointed, can it be imagined that Christ would