fied; believing his word, and trusting his love and power for salvation. Another point which it is important to note, is that the duty of repentance and new obedience which the law thus imposes upon transgressors, it enjoins entirely irrespective of any plan of salvation which God may in his grace devise. The fact that Satan has no escape from the chains of darkness, makes it none the less his duty to loathe and abhor his sins, and adore and serve his Creator and Judge. Had no Saviour ever been provided for our ruined world, sin would have been just as evil as now, and abhorrence of it and return to obedience as much the duty of every child of Adam. Because individuals severally have no pledge that they are predestinated to a place among the ransomed throng, no one is any the less required to abase himself in the dust, and adore the justice which will not let sin go unpunished. Although they do not know that Christ died with a purpose of salvation personally for them, it still becomes and is required of them, to admire and rejoice in the glorious grace which is revealed in the cross. The law is not less righteous, nor its precept less binding, because of transgressions already wrought, or the curse already realized. It not only enjoins on the angelic hosts perfect holiness and loftiest praise; on the ransomed throng in heaven, all the holy affections and joyful adoration which they exercise; and on believers here, every grace of the Spirit; but upon devils and wicked men, deep abasement and repentance; and upon all, universal obedience, as imperative and as perfect as though sin had never shed a stain on the fair creation of God. - Yet, whilst thus the law enjoins every duty, it provides no relief from the condemnation of past transgressions, even to the humble penitent who walks in new obedience. It knows nothing but precept and penalty; and the sinner who shall come to the tribunal of the law, clothed in every grace, though he have repentance, and faith, and love, and joy; if he have not some better way than these, will not find them all avail to purchase indemnity, or even to mitigate the punishment of one little sin. At the bar of rectitude his graces will all confess, “We are un profitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do." Hence the apostle declares that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin,"-Rom. iii. 20; and again, "If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."-Gal. ii. 21. 16. Offices of the written Law. The reduction of the requirements of the law to the form of a written code after the fall, was a singular act of grace to man. Prior to the fall, the law written on Adam's heart constituted an abundant revelation of moral excellence, for his imitation; and the one principle of love was sufficient for his guidance, thus enlightened, in the right performance of all his duties. By the apostasy, the clearness and truthfulness of Adam's spiritual vision was lost. He no longer sees holiness in its true beauty, nor sin in its real deformity. To man, thus involved in darkness, the written law was given as "a lamp to his feet and a light to his path." "It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come, to whom the promise was made."-Gal. iii. 19. The reannouncement of the law, in such circumstances, was a proclamation of mercy; even although every precept was arrayed in curses. It was a pledge that God's love still rested on man, since he provided thus for dispelling his moral darkness; and, in the fact that the precept was thus repeated, man had an assurance that the curse was not yet endowed with the sceptre. The offices of the law, thus given, are several. (1.) It constitutes a new revelation of the divine perfections, which had before shone immediately on the soul, in unveiled radiance and beauty. That revelation being lost, and its light extinguished, God gives it here anew, in a form and permanence which are independent of the blinded mind and perverse will of fallen man. As such, its instructions and provisions are paramount. They supersede any obscure traces which may still remain of the law written in the heart, in its office as a standard of reference by which to put a difference between the holy and unholy, the pure and the vile. (2.) It is a reassertion and enforcement of God's sovereignty, unimpaired by man's treason and rebellion. In this capacity it comes with precisely the same authority which was at first pos sessed by the law in the heart,-to wit, the absolute authority of God, the Creator. This, its supreme authority, is attested and sealed 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 |