writes his law upon their hearts, does he, as regards them, erase it from the external code? Does he teach them to cry out with great earnestness, "O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes," while he has left them no statutes to keep? And when they "hunger and thirst after rightcousness," do they pursue a mere phantom, labouring to maintain and cultivate a character which they are not required to possess?

19. If the law were repealed as regards believers, it would be necessary, in order to prevent this contradiction and inconsistency, that the constitution of their nature should be so changed that they should not deem it their duty to walk in the ways of righteousness, or to avoid the ways of sin, and should not experience any feelings of self-approbation or any beneficial result when they walked in the former, or any feeling of self-reproach or any disadvantageous result when they walked in the latter. But such a change, it is very evident, would strip them of the character and depose them from the rank of moral beings.

20. It thus follows indubitably from the character of God, from the constitution of our nature, from the moral judgments which it leads us to form and pronounce, and from the results in our inward consciousness, in our outward experience, and in the state of our character, with which righteous and sinful actions are respectively attended, that the law neither has been nor could be abrogated. Accordingly, in the New Testament we find throughout, to its very close, no less than in the Old, a distinct recognition, implication, and assertion of the authority of the law, and the constant recurrence of its requirements, and of kindred exhortations, directions, warnings, reproofs, and threatenings.

21. In the portion of the New Testament which now engages our attention-the sermon on the mount-it is Christ's special object to place it beyond doubt, that in his

kingdom, whatever opposite or different view might be groundlessly taken, the law, with unimpaired authority, and without curtailment, as taking cognisance not only of the outward actions, to which the prevalent glosses restricted its requirements, but also of the thoughts and intents of the heart, should be the rule of conduct to his subjects, and the rule of government to himself. His subjects would hunger and thirst after the righteousness which the law enjoins, nor would even persecution repel or divert them from the zealous practice and cultivation of it; and he would dispense to them the blessedness which the law attaches to righteousness-he would dispense it to them even in this life in some measure, but after this life in all its fulness as a great reward in heaven.

The view given in the parable of the talents of the administration of Christ's kingdom, clearly implies the authority and enforcement of the law. It represents his subjects as divided into good and faithful servants, and wicked and slothful servants; and, of course, there would be no ground for such a distinction if they were without law. If they were without law, they could not, indeed, be servants of any kind. And, further, it represents the good and faithful servants as richly rewarded, and the wicked and slothful servants as visited with merited punishment; that is, it represents the one class and the other as dealt with according to the law.

22. If the community formed by Christ were without law, how could it be called a kingdom, as it is continually in the gospels? The injunctions and enforcement of law are essential to the idea of a kingdom. And how could Christ himself be called Lord if he claimed no service from his people, and if his people, therefore, owed him none? Indeed, the entire phraseology of Scripture, and the conceptions which its phraseology conveys, are altogether inconsistent with the view that the law has been abrogated.

23. But, in addition to the arguments of a somewhat inferential character, but none the less conclusive on that account, which have now been adduced, we have direct proof that the law has not been abrogated. It is in the case of believers that it is contended it has been abrogated; but, in direct contradiction to this doctrine, we find that believers are required and exhorted to obey it, that promises suspended on obedience are made to them, and that they are threatened with penal evil if they disobey.

24. "If ye love me," says Christ himself, "keep my commandments." And if any suspicion could for a moment be entertained, that Christ's commandments are any other than those of the law, it will soon be dissipated by a reference to the detailed precepts of the epistles, all of them addressed to believers. Let us take a brief survey of those precepts. "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." What occasion could persons without law have to prove and ascertain what the will of God is? With respect to such persons the will of God could not at all be spoken of; for by the will of God in this case is meant his will as declared in the law. "Let love be without dissimulation." "Love is the fulfilling of the law," and could not, therefore, be required in the case of persons without law. “Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." If the law were abrogated, the distinction between good and evil would of course be wholly disregarded. "Be not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”—(Rom.

"Putting away lying, speak

xii. 2, 9, 11-14, 17, 18.) every man truth with his neighbour; for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.”—(Eph. iv. 25–32 ; v. 3, 4.) "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another."-(Rom. xiii. 1, 7, 8.) "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them." (Eph. v. 22, 25; vi. 1–5, 9.) All these precepts occur in the New Testament, and are addressed specially

to believers (see Rom. i. 7, xii. 1; and Eph. i. 1, ii. 13–22, iv. 1); and if, notwithstanding, believers are "without law," the whole human family is without law, and has always been so. 25. And to the precepts of the law, thus addressed to believers, the sanction of the law is attached. Life, promised to obedience as the gift of God, and death, threatened as the punishment of sin, constitute this sanction. And life is promised to obedience in the context: "Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." To the same purpose the Apostle Peter says, "If ye do these things, ye shall never fall for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."-(2 Pet. i. 10, 11.) As regards the other branch of the sanction of the law, it is expressly declared that "the wages of sin is death."—(Rom. vi. 23.) "Let no man," says the Apostle Paul, "deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience."—(Eph. v. 6.) And elsewhere, after recounting the works of the flesh, namely, “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like," he emphatically testifies that "they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."-(Gal. v. 19-21.) Thus, it is only "to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and immortality," that God will render "eternal life;" and "unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness," he will render "indignation and wrath; tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." -(Rom. ii. 6-10.)