principles of impartial justice and goodness. Whatever mystery there may be therefore in the moral or intellectual constitution of man; or whatever objection may be urged against our position from the prescience of the Deity, there is no one truth, within the whole range of theological discussion, which is more clearly or strongly supported by reason and revelation, than the doctrine of man's moral agency.

These three things, then, are, according to our perceptions of the subject, necessary in order to a criminal offence: The law must be known,-its precepts must be practicable,-and the transgression of it must be voluntary.

II. We may now proceed to show, in the second place, how it is that he who offends in one point is guilty of all.

This has, no doubt, been considered by many as 'a hard saying;' and one that is scarcely susceptible of a reasonable explanation or satisfactory defence. A little consideration will, however, I am persuaded, satisfy us that the declaration accords with the reason and fitness of things, as well as the almost universally received principles of moral philosophy. To render this the more apparent, I would remark,

1. That he who transgresses any one of the commands of God, violates that code of which the given command is a part. For, let it be observed, the whole of God's law was issued in one code. Taken in its associated character, it is a perfect unit. Like its great Author, it is one and indivisible. Or, if we regard it as consisting of several parts, or as putting forth its claims in the form of individual precepts, these parts or precepts have such an intimate and vital connection with each other, that any violence done to the one extends, by a kind of moral or constitutional sympathy, to all of the rest. It is like the mysterious communication of an electric shock to a series of individuals, by one single application of the charged instrument. It is with God's law as with nature's chain-Whatever link you strike,

Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.'

This is especially the case with that particular precept which St. James has in view in the passage now under consideration. He is speaking of the love of our neighbor, which he denominates, 'The royal law.' It is such because of its supreme excellence and comprehensive import. The love here required either includes or implies every other Christian virtue. If we love one another,' says the beloved disciple, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us,' 1 John iv, 12. It is no doubt on this ground that St. Paul says in his Epistle to the Galatians, 'For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' chap. v, 14. 'Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ,' chap. vi, 2. But we have this thought more at large in that beautiful digest of our relative duties, with which this last-named apostle favors us in his Epistle to the Romans: 'Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love

worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.' If, then, love is the fulfilling of the whole law, the corollary is irresistible that the want of it is the breach of the whole law.

Let us try the principle here laid down in its bearings on certain individual sins; and we are inclined to think it will be very apparent that he who violates any one precept of the moral code is justly chargeable with a breach of the whole. For instance, the adulterer may, in his commercial intercourse, be a man of his word, and in the duelling world a man of honor; but he scatters in the community firebrands, arrows, and death, and sets on fire the course of nature, as if it were set on fire of hell. The blasphemer may not himself be a thief; but his blasphemy, so far as it produces its legitimate effects, breaks down the moral government of God, emancipates men from his fear, and lets them loose, urged on by furious passions, to prey upon society. The drunkard may not himself be dishonest; but by the neglect of his relative duties, and the contagion of bad example, he sows far and wide around him the seeds of irreligion and dishonesty. The sabbath-breaker may not be, in all respects, an immoral man; but by his example and influence he prostrates the defences of religion and virtue, and lets men loose to war upon their own souls and upon one another, as depravity, unrestrained by the fear of God and stimulated by temptation, may urge them on. Other examples might be adduced, but these are sufficient to show that the sentiment of St. James in the text is guarded and supported by the most weighty considerations.

2. He who offends in one point chooses which of the Divine commands he will transgress, and thereby not only sets up himself in opposition to God, in this particular instance, but assumes a hostile attitude with respect to his whole administration. We have already seen that, in order to criminal transgression, there must be freedom of will-freedom to obey or not to obey. This is true in every individual case of criminality. We may have a stronger constitutional propensity to violate some one precept of the Divine law than another; but we cannot commit crime, in the strict and proper sense of that word, without the consent of the will. There must be an evil agency concerned. We must do wrong, from choice and design. If, therefore, we break any one of the Divine commands, it must be because we choose to do it. And by willing to violate that particular precept, we clearly show that we would as soon violate any other part of the decalogue, provided only the violation of it were equally pleasing to us. A deliberate transgression in any one particular instance shows, therefore, a total disregard for the authority of the sovereign Lawgiver. The apparent insignificance of the act prohibited is no argument for disobedience, and no palliation of the crime committed by the transgressor. An injunction derives its importance, not so much from its nature and consequences, as from the dignity and authority of its author. If God should be obeyed in any one instance, he should be obeyed in all instances; as the authority and reason of obedience are the same in every case. This seems to be the drift of the apostle's reasoning. After making the declaration in the text, he adds, 'For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the

law.' That is, the authority that gave one commandment gave also the rest; so that the breach of any one commandment may be justly considered a breach of the whole law. The conclusion then is, that, in whatever form sin appears, it is high treason against the Sovereign of the universe, and contains in itself the very elements of all sin. It may exist only in purpose, but still it is sin. Human laws can take cognizance only of the overt act; but this is not the case with the Divine law. This pure and perfect rule of moral action extends to all the thoughts and intents of the heart; so that, in God's account, rebellion in principle is rebellion in action; resistance in purpose is resistance in deed; crime in design is crime in fact; and the disposition that would incline us to transgress in one case, would, under the appropriate circumstances of moral action, incline us to do so in all others.

3. That he who offends in one point is guilty of all appears from the intimate connection existing between sins. Vices seldom go alone. They are almost invariably exhibited in unholy association. One sin very naturally gives birth to another. When once a breach has been made in the law of God, the whole sacred code appears to lose a measure of its influence over the heart and life of the sinner, so that the whole nameless catalogue of rebellious passions begins to look out of the hallowed enclosure, and to throw off restraint. One sinful gratification gives license to another. Even the smallest wilful deviation weakens the sense of moral obligation, and correspondingly facilitates the work of transgression. Those daring transgressors who now appear to commit, with a kind of remorseless hardihood, almost every species of depredation on religion and morals, were not always such adepts in wickedness. When they first entered the way of disobedience, they proceeded with slow and hesitating steps. They could not be guilty of even a 'trivial sin,' without being made to feel the keen rebukes and cutting lashes of conscience that vicegerent of God in the soul. This sentinel upon the walls of the sacred enclosure, this faithful guard of the Divine rights, so long as he remained unstifled, was loud and peremptory in his remonstrances. But the very first act of transgression weakened the power of conscience. If he spake afterwards, it was in diminished tones. He did not as formerly lift up his voice. Besides, the first act, as well as all the subsequent instances of transgression, makes a direct assault upon our spiritual sensibilities, and greatly diminishes their force. The soul, by coming in contact with sin, experiences a kind of moral paralysis. Vice always has a blinding and hardening influence upon the mind and heart, so that the first aberration may be regarded as the parent of all that prodigality and crime that subsequently beggar and ruin the deathless spirit! For instance: the young man who indulges in the sin of idleness will seldom or never stop with that sin. Idleness opens the door for other sins to enter: it leads to drinking, gambling, profane swearing, Sabbath-breaking, theft, murder, and, in a word, to almost every species of abomination.

He who sins wilfully opens the floodgates of wickedness upon his soul. It matters not though the offence be, according to man's false estimate, a mere venial sin: if it be wilfully perpetrated, there is no such thing as calculating the extent of its influence upon the moral VOL. VII-April, 1836.

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character. Let it be remembered that the first sin ever committed by Heaven's terrestrial offspring was not, strictly speaking, a violation of eternal right; but only of a prohibition made as the test of man's allegiance to his Maker. Abstractly considered, it did violence to no great moral principle. It was sin in its mildest form; and yet it opened the door to all other sins. It not only brought death into the world, and all our wo,' but so weakened the moral principle in man that sin reigns like a cruel task-master over our entire nature. It was indeed the opening of the fabled Pandora's box; letting out the long train of vices and miseries which are the scourge of our species!

4. It is however important that we add, that, though he who offends in one point is guilty of all, he is not equally guilty. The degree of guilt is augmented by every new transgression. The moral stain becomes deeper, and darker, and broader by every additional touch of the pencil dipped in the infernal dye! The burden of criminality is enhanced by every new act of disobedience, by every fresh instance of sinful indulgence, by every additional departure from the way of righteousness. Though all men are naturally depraved, and practically criminal in the sight of God, it is obvious all do not run to the same excess in wickedness. Hence, the character of the violators of God's law exhibits various shades, and presents to the eye various degrees of moral deformity. The sinner may indeed go on, adding omission to omission, and transgression to transgression, till he becomes what the Scripture emphatically calls a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction.' He may, by a persevering course of infidelity, and by an accumulation of crime, TREASURE UP,' in the strong language of the Epistle to the Romans, wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.' In fact, this is the usual course of the incorrigible transgressor. So that, when the evil principle has corrupted the whole capacity of the mind,-when sin, by its frequency and duration, is woven into the texture of the soul, and incorporated with its very existence,-when the sense of moral good and evil is almost totally extinct,-when conscience is 'seared as with a hot iron,'—and when the heart becomes so hard that even the arrows of the Almighty cannot pierce it-then the sinner has filled up the MEASURE of his iniquity;' then his sovereign Judge 'swears in his wrath that he shall not enter into his rest;' then 'there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries!!

1. We perceive, from the preceding exposition, how impossible it is to obtain salvation on the ground of justice. Under the reign of that impartial, unbending, unyielding, tremendous attribute of the Godhead, we must all perish. In vain do we plead the general morality of our lives. One sin will ruin us. The record is, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in ALL things which are written in the book of the law to do them,' Gal. iii, 10.

There is a somewhat prevalent notion, with regard to the final destiny of God's intelligent offspring, which we can hardly specify without bordering on the ludicrous. It is, in substance, that that destiny is to be fixed by the sheer operation of justice, without any

Our works, apart from

regard to the mercy of God in Christ. every other consideration, are to decide the question of salvation or damnation. These are to be placed by our final Judge in the scales of equity if the good preponderate, we shall be saved; if the bad, we shall be lost. Now, if this were the true view of the subject, then alas for the fallen progeny of Adam! We see not how any one of them can, by any possibility, escape the wailings of despair. For, if by one offence we render ourselves guilty of a breach of the whole law, there seems to be no ground of hope; and we may as well give ourselves up to despair at once. The notion however to which we have adverted is not only contrary to reason and Scripture, but appears to be grounded on a total misconceptian of the character of God's moral government. The law barely says, ' Do this, and live.' It makes no allowance for the weakness of human nature, the power of habit, or the force of temptation. And it is 'exceedingly broad;' so broad that it extends to the very thoughts and intents of the heart. It requires perfect, uniform, and undeviating obedience. It demands for its supreme Author the supreme homage of our hearts, and the best possible service of our lives. And while it makes no provision for pardon, it holds out no hope of mercy. Now, under the unobstructed, unmitigated operations of such a law, one offence would be sufficient to ruin us for ever—to exclude us from heaven, and the blissful presence of its God.

Again, God demands, and, so long as he maintains the rights of his throne, must demand the complete and constant devotion of all our powers; mental, moral, and physical. Consequently, we are incapable of performing works of supererogation, of doing more than God requires; for God requires all we are capable of rendering. After the utmost exertion of our powers in obedience to the Divine requirements, we are directed to acknowledge ourselves unprofitable servants; having done only what it was our duty to do. Under these circumstances, therefore, we can have no extra good work, no excess of merit, to throw into the scale as a counterbalance to the one offence of which we have supposed ourselves to be guilty. The conclusion, then, is inevitable that the most trifling deviation would expose us to the eternal displeasure of our God.

2. There is one way, and only one way, of escaping the searching operations and destroying curse of this law: it is the way of the cross-the way of salvation through a crucified Redeemer. 'God hath made him to be sin' (or rather a sin-offering) for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.' And if 'the Scripture hath concluded all under sin,' it is that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.' This is the glory that excelleth-the Gospel of the grace of God. And as there is no sin too small to be noticed by the law, so there is none so great but it may be pardoned by this Gospel, provided only its provisions are properly received. Whatever difficulties the law may throw in the way of our salvation, before the glory of the new and better covenant the clouds disperse, the thunders of Sinai are hushed, the lurid lightnings cease to blaze, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land. It was at the intro