This is not an uncommon case, not a strange exception to the general rule. No, it is the unexaggerated history of the great bulk of our most respectable and orderly population. The harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it. Brethren beloved, let none of us be surprised in this carnal sleep it is called to day, and look upon the curse of the broken law: awake, and look upon God in Christ reconciling sinners unto himself, and fly, fly to that glorious city of refuge which hath salvation for walls and bulwarks: behold, the avenger of blood hangs upon your path with uplifted sword ready to cut you asunder, and appoint you your portion with the unbelievers.

awake now, while

This is the lawful use of the law as a ministration of condemnation, and when the Holy Spirit gives power to this voice of the law, it proves effectual, 1, to convince of sin. By the law is the knowledge of sin, for I had not known lust to be sin, saith the Apostle, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet.

nerally acknowledge that they are

Men very ge

sinners, but

the acknowledgment is superficial and inoperative, till a sense of the spirituality of the law of God is pressed upon them with close application, showing them that their chief sinfulness consists not in the commission of this or the other act, but in a fallen nature which renders their every act, thought and word nothing but sin. They that are in the flesh (that is, in an unconverted state,) cannot in any way please God. * Without faith

it is impossible to please God. As long as men imagine themselves capable of doing good, and pleasing God, they can easily bear to be told they have done evil: because they think, that by a little attention to do more good for the future, they may make amends for the evil done in time past, and thus their proud self-dependence finds a resting place. But when the law reaches their conscience with a sharp conviction that in them is no good thing, that they have no strength in themselves to help themselves, no power in themselves to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, that the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; then boasting is excluded, self-sufficiency is silenced, self-dependance is humbled: through the law as a

* "Of ourselves, we are very sinful, wretched, and damnable. We are not able either to think a good thought, or work a good deed, &c."-Hom. on the Misery of Man. Rom. viii. 8.

ministration of condemnation, they become dead to the law as a covenant of works: they were alive without the law once, alive in their own estimation without any adequate sense of what the law required, but when the commandment comes in close spiritual application, a lively sense of sin springs up in their hearts, and their vain self-dependance dies. Their language then is, Lord, I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but in vain, I never felt what it was to be really in thy presence; but now mine eye seeth Thee, and I am ashamed, behold, O Lord, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

This truth, however, is not easily admitted: nay, this conviction is usually most violently resisted, and then the law proves the occasion, 2, of irritating the corruptions of men. It stirs up the gall and venom of that inherent pride, which had lain as a thick sediment on the heart; but which now rises and works and foams over in all the bitterness of the old leaven of a fallen nature. This the apostle Paul describes as having been his own experience. Sin, (his sinful nature) taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Like a wayward child, that takes occasion from any prohibition whatever, to feel and to manifest a decided preference for the thing prohibited-like a fiery

horse, that takes occasion from the galling check of the bridle, to writhe and rear and fret himself to a fury-like a running stream which takes occasion from a barrier laid across its course, to rise and swell over its banks, and finally to burst the barrier, rushing headlong into its ancient channel: so the nature of man, galled, thwarted, prohibited from its sinful indulgence by the restrictions of the law of God, rises in stubborn rebellion, and frets with tenfold violence. "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

In this state of things, the law, as the sword of the spirit, proves effectual. 3. To terrify the sinner, by its awful denunciations of wrath and final misery. As though it should say to the rebel-" To what purpose is all this contention and opposition? You are only making matters worse; you cannot change either God or his law; your perverseness and obstinacy, and pride, may make you deny and reject the testimony of God against yourself; but your perverseness, and obstinacy, and pride, cannot quench the flames of hell or alleviate your torments therein. Whether you will hear, or whether you will forbear, you must die: fret and rage, and rebel as you will, you must stand before God, and you must enter into judgment, and you must be judged according to the en

actments of that very law against which you are now so impotently indignant. Woe to him that contendeth with his Maker: who hath ever hardened himself against God, and prospered? Lay aside your enmity, cast down the arms of your ruinous rebellion, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, behold, the sceptre of peace is as yet extended to you in the everlasting gospel of Christ Jesus the Lord, in Him is mercy, in Him is plenteous redemption. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so hath the Son of man been lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life, cast your burden upon Christ, and be thou saved.

Thus the law, as a ministration of condemnation proves, 4, an effectual schoolmaster to bring the sinner to Christ: closing every other door, cutting off every other hope, sweeping away every other refuge, undermining every other foundation, and sounding with penetrating clearness into his awakened soul, this unalterable truth, that he must be either in Christ or in hell.

This is the lawful use of the law as a ministration of condemnation.

III. In Jesus Christ the law is fulfilled; and to the true believer in Jesus Christ, there is no condemnation by the law. All his breaches of