sence of this indwelling law, thus continually testifying on behalf of that to which the nature is averse; and from which, in its apostasy, the whole being instinctively revolts. Without the presence of the law, sin is dead. But the coming of the commandment continually revives it; and, by occasion of that commandment, it deceives and slays the soul.

The results to which we come, in the present inquiry, may be summed in the following propositions. 1. As to its formal as87. Nature pect, sin is any want of conformity unto, or transand evil of sin. gression of, the law of God. It is dvopía, unlawfulness. 2. As to its essential nature, it is moral unlikeness to God; or, rather, the reverse of his likeness. 3. Its origin is, in every instance, traceable to the criminal apostasy of a nature, made in God's image, and clothed with freedom to continue in that likeness, or depart from it. 4. As to its habitual form, it is a depraved principle, in the nature; hostile to all good, and prone to all evil; enmity to God and his law; and delighting in whatever is hateful to him. 5. In action, it is transgression, actively assailing, alike, the authority of God, and the rights of fellow-creatures.

The following pages will exhibit some of the aspects which, in the history of man, sin has assumed. In them, we shall see abundant confirmation of the positions here taken.

The evil of sin is infinite. It is, in and of itself, thus evil, as being the contradictory of the infinite excellence which is essential in God. This essential evil is aggravated by the relation which sin sustains, as transgression of the law. Thus, it robs God, by a perversion of the creature which he made, from the office to which he assigned it; to wit, the exhibition, in the Creator's presence, of an image of his own essential holiness; and the reflection of that image upon the other creatures. It is atrocious ingratitude; as it tramples upon the honour which the Creator has conferred, in the destination of the creature to such an office, and despises the happiness which he has bestowed; both of which are the highest to which creature could aspire, or of which finite being could conceive. It is a disparagement of the beauty and glory of the divine character; the likeness of

which is by it rejected, and the opposite embraced. In one word, sin is atheism. It denies God's infinite excellence, by refusing conformity to it, and embracing that infinite evil which he hates; disowns his sovereignty, by apostasy from the attitude and office which he has assigned; and repudiates his proprietary right in the creation, by an appropriation of self and the creatures in a way contrary to his will and injurious to his honour. It assails his Godhead, and his very being, by assuming an attitude as though he were not rightful Lord, nor the creation his rightful dominion; by refusing him that love and worship which as God is his due, and withholding that service and obedience which as Creator is his right; by seizing upon such part of the creation as comes within reach, and appropriating it, to the exclusion of Him who made it, and in whom it exists; and by attempting to sustain an independent existence, and expecting happiness despite his frown. Such is the essential nature of sin, as it subsists in the nature of the soul, and in the attitude of the powers; and such is it seen by the intelligent creatures; as, seated at the fountain of activity, in the springs of the being, it stamps its atrocious impress upon the actions which flow from the causative energies of the moral nature. Thus, to witnessing intelligences, and to man's own conscience, is detected and condemned the apostasy within, which has been already seen and abhorred by the Searcher of hearts, and condemned by the infallible doom of his holy law with an infinite curse;-condemned and accursed, while yet hidden in the recesses of the nature, undeveloped in actings of sin, and undiscovered by blind creature vision.

When the preceding paragraph was written, we supposed that no one, professing to look to a divine Redeemer, or to adore a 28. Barnes' God of infinite holiness, would question the infinite doctrine. evil of sin. But, in a recent publication, devoted to a discussion of the doctrine of the atonement, the author says, "We cannot argue that because sin is an infinite evil, therefore an infinite atonement was necessary, or that it was necessary that he who should make the atonement should be infinite

in his nature." He then asks, in a marginal note, "In what sense is it true that sin is infinite? How is it ascertained that it is infinite? In what part of the Scriptures is it asserted or intimated that the necessity of an atonement rests on the fact that sin is an infinite evil? Where is it affirmed that sin has in any sense a character of infinity?"* It would have been as reasonable and as conclusive, had Mr. B. asked, where it is affirmed that God is infinitely holy. Sin not an infinite evil! It is not, then, an infinitely evil thing, for a creature of God to act in contempt of the expostulation of his infinitely good and holy Maker, entreating him, "Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!"-Jer. xliv. 4. Then are not God's perfections of boundless excellence, nor the contempt and rejection of them an act infinitely atrocious and vile. God's love is not an infinitely precious thing, its loss a measureless evil, nor his hatred and wrath an infinite calamity. That is not an infinite evil, which forfeits eternal life; nor that which at the infallible tribunal of God's justice will "be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;"-2 Thess. i. 9;-for which God has treasured up "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish;"-for which "the smoke of torment will ascend up for ever and ever." Sin not an infinite evil! Then may Mr. Barnes provide a soundingline which will fathom the bottomless pit,-a flood which will quench the unquenchable fire,-a weapon to slay the undying worm. Then are the pains of hell not intolerable; and the woe of perdition not infinitely fearful! Oh! is it possible that any child of clay can look upon the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and question the infinite evil of sin? Mr. Barnes' system is, indeed, proof against this appeal. His doctrine is, that every thing essential in Christ's atoning sacrifice, was the humiliation and corporeal suffering involved in a violent death. After showing, variously, that it is supposed by many, and was so by the Hebrews, that the life is in the blood, he says, "The plain doctrine of the New Testament, therefore is, that the blood of Christ

*Barnes on the Atonement, p. 161.

that is, that the giving of his life-was the means of making the atonement, or securing reconciliation between man and his Maker. In other words, his life was regarded as a sacrifice in the place of sinners, by means of which the penalty of the law, which man had incurred, might be averted from him. The voluntary death of the Redeemer, in the place of man, had such an efficacy, that man, on account of that, might be saved from the punishment which he had deserved, and treated as if he had not sinned. This is the doctrine of the atonement."* Even such merits as were thus acquired by the Mediator, are adequate, in Mr. Barnes' estimation, to the salvation of all the redeemed, besides admitting a large allowance for "waste;" since he supposes that many will perish for whom Christ died. That such a waste should take place, he thinks the analogies of nature would lead us to expect!†

* Barnes on the Atonement, p. 302.

† Ibid. p. 327.

CHAPTER VIII.

DEATH THE PENALTY OF THE LAW.

THE laws designed for the government of the lower creation, being enstamped on the very substance of the material elements, 1. Sanctions and incorporated in the organic structure of the necessary. creatures, possessed a self-enforcing efficiency,—the communicated power of the Creator himself; so that they needed no other sanction to maintain their authority. But man was endowed with an intellect to apprehend the nature of the relation between him and his Creator, and to perceive the propriety and justice of the authority which God asserted over him; and a liberty of will, qualifying him for rendering a spontaneous and reasonable service, infinitely more honourable to man, and more suited to glorify God, than the necessary subordination of the lower creation. A law which addresses itself to such intelligence and freedom, requires sanctions which may appeal to the same attributes. Those which God affixed to his law, as revealed to Adam, were two:-eternal life, the reward of obedience; and death, the punishment of transgression. The promise of eternal life, which accompanied the law to Adam, constituted the principal element in a gracious covenant, of which we shall speak hereafter. Our present business is with the penalty.

We have already seen, that the design of the law is the revelation of the nature of God; and its authority founded in the proprietary relation subsisting between him and his creatures; and that the practical form which the precept assumes, depends on the nature and condition of the creature, as angelic or human, innocent, fallen, reprobate, or redeemed. Analogous to this is the constitution of the penalty. A creature is admitted to communion with God, and dignified by the reception of a law ad