Nebuchadnezzar's vision; the parts of which could never cohere, nor form any permanent basis for the superincumbent weight. Others rather think to enter into a composition with the Lord, and agree to render him service, if he will impart to them salvation. Thus, though they do not expressly unite their merits with his, they make their obedience the ground on which they hope for an interest in him; and, to a certain degree, a price, which they propose to pay for it. It never occurs to them, that they have nothing but sin and misery to present to him; and that therefore their entire hope must be in his sovereign grace and mercy. They forget that they are to receive all "without money and without price." Others refine yet more; and, conceiving themselves willing to give to the Lord Jesus all the glory of their salvation, they only look to themselves for their warrant to believe in him: either they dare not go to him, because they are so vile, and therefore they will endeavour to make themselves better, in order that they may venture into his presence, and indulge a hope of acceptance with him; or, they have a good hope that he will apply to them all the benefits of his passion, because they have not transgressed beyond the common bounds of human frailty. But the plain answer to all these delusions is this: Salvation must be wholly of works, or wholly of grace: as the Apostle has said, "If it be of grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work." You perceive, therefore, that you must not attempt to blend the two covenants in any respect: if you cleave in any degree to the covenant of works, you can have nothing to do with the covenant of grace: if you come not solely, and with your whole hearts, to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be saved by his blood and righteousness, laying aside and renouncing every other hope, you must go back to the covenant of works, and seek for acceptance through it. But do you not hear the law? Do

k Rom. xi. 6.

you not hear how inflexible it is in its demands, and how inexorable in its denunciations? Alter it you cannot, in any respect; obey it you must, if you will still found your hopes on it in any measure or degree: and therefore it is your wisdom to adopt the determination of St. Paul, and to seek henceforth to "be found in Christ; not having your own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith in Christ'."

What now becomes us in this view of the law? what, indeed, but humiliation and contrition in the deepest degree? We must see how many curses hang over our devoted heads. We must not merely look at our grosser violations of the law, but at our defects: for "the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men;" and every transgression, whether by commission or omission, whether by excess or defect, will receive its just recompence of reward. Let it be granted, then, that our lives have been blameless, as far as respects outward sin still, if we judge ourselves by the perfect law of God, our sins will be found more than can be numbered, and greater than can be conceived. When we compare ourselves with some of our fellowcreatures, who trample under foot all the laws of God and man, we appear to be very worthy characters: and such we are in the sight of man; but in the sight of God there is by no means so great a difference between us as we are apt to imagine. In estimating our character, and weighing our comparative worth, God may see less indeed of gross iniquity, but a far more abundant measure of spiritual sins, which are not a whit less hateful in his eyes. Suppose it all true which the self-applauding Pharisee affirmed, that he had been no extortioner, not unjust, and no adulterer; did he not make ample compensation for this, by his pride, his self-complacency, his uncharitableness? Yes, in truth; these weighed as much in the scales of heaven, as the grosser evils from which he was exempt. Had he tried himself by a just standard,

1 Phil. iii. 9.

he would have found but little reason for his selfpreference and self-applause: he would have seen that his boasted righteousness was as defective as that of the poor Publican: and the only difference between the two, supposing the one to have been as good as he imagined, and the other as evil as was supposed, was, that the one was a painted sepulchre, and the other a sepulchre without paint. I must not, indeed, be understood to say, that gross carnal sins do not add to the criminality of the person in whom they are found; but only, that, supposing one person to abound more in carnal filthiness, and another in spiritual, the latter, to say the least, has as little reason to glory in himself, or to trust in his own righteousness, as the former. The point to which we must all look for real humiliation is, the defectiveness of our obedience. Let this be seen, and seen too in all its aggravated character, as against a God of infinite love and mercy; against a Saviour who has assumed our nature, and laid down his life for us; against the Holy Spirit, who, by his gracious influences, has striven with us all our days, to guide us aright, and to bring us to repentance: let it be seen, also, as against light and knowledge, against vows and resolutions, against judgments and mercies; and, further, as continued in, for years, without any shame or remorse: let our impenitence also be marked, and our proud rejection of God's proffered mercy in Christ Jesus: let all this be viewed; and we shall see little reason to value ourselves on not having committed some of the grossest sins: we shall see that our iniquities have grown up unto heaven; and that they must sink us into everlasting perdition, if God do not, in the multitude of his tender mercies, interpose for our deliverance, and make "his grace to superabound, where our sins have so greatly abounded." We shall see, that to call ourselves the chief of sinners, is not merely a kind of modest and becoming saying, which, whilst it sounds well from the lips, needs not be felt in the heart; but that it is a charac ter which belongs to the very best amongst us; since

the best man in the universe knows more evil in himself than he can know of others, except where the evils have been made notorious by overt acts. If the law be properly used, the person who thus tries himself by it will see himself exposed to God's heaviest judgments, no less than the most flagrant transgressor in the world: and he will cry for mercy, precisely in the same manner as Peter did, when sinking in the waves, "Save, Lord, or I perish!" Others, who have not such views of the law, will wonder at him, and say, 'What can you have done, to call for such remorse and fear?' But he knows his own desert before God, and will therefore lie low before him, in the deepest self-abasement.

This, then, is what I would wish you to do: it is for this end that I bring the subject before you: it is for this end that I hold up thus the glass of the law before your eyes, that you may know your true character before God. I would not that it should be said of us, as of the Jews of old, that "we seek righteousness, and cannot attain to it, because we seek it not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law"." I would that it should be a settled principle in all our minds, that "by the works of the law shall no flesh living be justified"." O, if we could but listen to this monitor! If the warnings which he gives us be alarming, they still are salutary and it were surely better be warned that our house is built on sand, than that we should be left to perish under its ruins. And were a person who perceived our danger to withhold the warning, he would be justly considered by all as accessary to our destruction.

I am aware that there has been an aspect of severity about this part of my subject; of severity, which I would gladly have avoided, if it had been com patible with that fidelity which became me. But I speak to an audience who can distinguish between the harsh anathemas of man, and the authoritative declarations of Almighty God. If, indeed, I have put m Rom. ix. 31, 32.

n Rom. iii. 20.

a harsher sense upon God's word than it manifestly imports, I will be contented that all the blame, which such an inconsiderate proceeding would deserve, shall attach to me. But, if I have spoken only what God himself has authorized and enjoined, and what will assuredly be found true at the last, then let me hope, that the salutary warning will be kindly received; and that you will be the better prepared for ur next subject, wherein a balm will be applied to every wound, and a refuge opened for every one that would flee from the wrath to come. To that I look forward, as to a subject far more congenial with my feelings than the terrors of the law. To bring forward the glad tidings of salvation, and to proclaim mercy through the sufferings of our incarnate God, is, I trust, the joy and delight of my soul. From the first moment that ever a dispensation was committed to me to preach the Gospel, "I have determined to know nothing in my ministrations but Jesus Christ, and him crucified." O that in my next I may be enabled to commend Him to you, as a suitable and all-sufficient Saviour! And if, through what has been already spoken, any of you be pricked in your hearts, and be stirred up to cry, "What shall we do to be saved?" may the answer, that shall be given you in my next, be accompanied with a blessing from on high, and prove "the power of God unto salvation to every one that hears it°!"

• Rom. i. 16.

MMLXVI.

THE LAW, A SCHOOLMASTER, TO BRING US TO CHRIST.

Gal. iii. 19. Wherefore then serveth the law?

WE are now arrived at the second use of the law, which is very strongly pointed out in the passage before us. The law itself has been explained as spiritual; and as extending to the whole of man's duty, whether to God or man. This, as you have heard,