of faith, replenishing our souls from the overflowing fountain of life.

Mr. Cecil however gives the sum of all that need be said upon this subject. I have been cured' (he remarks) 'of expecting the Holy Spirit's influence without due preparation on our part, by ob serving how men preach, who take up that error. We must combine Luther with St. Paul.-'Bene orasse est bene studuisse’must be united with St. Paul's-' Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear unto all' One errs who says 'I will preach a reputable sermon;' and another errs who says 'I will leave all to the assistance of the Holy Spirit,' while he has neglected a diligent preparation.'1

CHAPTER III.

THE SCRIPTURAL MODE OF PREACHING THE LAW.

THE mark of a minister "approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed," is, that he "rightly divides the word of truth." This implies a full and direct application of the Gospel to the mass of his unconverted hearers, combined with a body of spiritual instruction to the several classes of Christians. His system will be marked by Scriptural symmetry and comprehensiveness. It will embrace the whole revelation of God, in its doctrinal instructions, experimental privileges, and practical results. This revelation is divided into two parts-the Law and the Gospel-essentially distinct from each other; though so intimately connected, that an accurate knowledge of neither can be obtained without the other. The preaching of the Law is therefore a main part of our subject. We shall consider it separately; and in its connexion with the Gospel.2

1 Cecil's Remains. Most of us will subscribe to the following humbling confessions—— 'In the preparation of our sermons, alas! how cold, how formal have we often been! Prayer has been the last thing we have thought of, instead of the first. We have made dissertations, not sermons; we have consulted commentators, not our Bibles; we have been led by science, and not by the heart: and therefore our discoveries have been so tame, so lifeless, so uninteresting to the mass of our hearers, so little savouring of Christ, so little like the inspired example of St. Paul.' Bishop of Calcutta's Essay to Baxter's Reformed Pastor, p. xiii.

2 See Mr. Simeon's Sermons on Gal. iii. 19, in his Hora Homileticæ, for a most luminous exhibition of the Scriptural preaching of the law. Comp. Daven. on Col. i. 28. on the duty and importance of preaching the law.

THE PREACHING OF THE LAW-ITS CHARACTER-USES-AND
OBLIGATIONS.

THERE can be no question, that the preaching of the law in its true charater and connection forms a constituent part of the Ministry of the Gospel. Some indeed, most inaccurately identify the preaching of the law with legal preaching. Others preach the law independently of the Gospel. Others again narrow its exceeding breadth, by bringing character and conduct to the criterion of some lower rules and inferior standard-such as expediency, the opinion of the world, prudence, and consequences. But, as there is a legal mode of preaching the Gospel, so there is an evangelical mode of preaching the Law. Luther's indignation was roused by propositions brought to him, against the preaching of the law, because it could not justify. Such seducers' (said he) 'do come already among our people, while we yet live; what will be done when we are gone? Never' (observes he) 'was a more bold and harsh sermon preached in the world, than that which St. Paul preached, wherein he quite abolisheth and taketh away Moses, together with his law, as insufficient for a sinner's salvation. Nevertheless, we must drive on with the ten commandments in due time and place. When we are not in hand with justification, we ought greatly and highly to esteem the law. We must extol and applaud it in the highest degree, and (with St. Paul) we must count it good, true, spiritual, and Divine, as in truth it is.”

The Apostle combines his view of the character and obligations of the law with his most expanded views of evangelical truth. He defines its character to be "holy, just, and good." He informs us that its lawful use is "good" for us. The exposition of this character, and the enforcement of this use, must therefore be involved in the terms of the Ministerial commission.

The character of the law of God, as the transcript of the mind and image of God, is "holy," as presenting to man the love of God, and at the same time exhibiting that most glorious proof of God's love to man, which is the essence of his holiness;-"just," as being conformable to, and deduced from, the first, most simple and clear principles of justice between God and his creature ;-"good," such a law as conscience tells us is suitable to the character of God, is most useful for the accomplishment of the Divine purpose, of uniting man to God by a happy discipline of obedience; and the 1 Luther's Table Talk, ch. xii.

2 Rom. vii. 12.

3 1 Tim. i. 8.

constant obedience to which will bring him to that consummation of bliss, which is ordained as the end and recompense of his work." Thus in its Author-in its matter-and in its end, it demands our highest regard.

The uses of the law are various and important. The world are indebted to it for many wholesome results. It discovers to them the holy nature and character of God; it informs them of their duty, and binds them to the performance of it. But for the bridling restraint of the law, the world would become "a field of blood." It condemns also those who cast off its yoke. Even the heathen are brought in guilty by "the work of the law, written in their hearts.”3 It is also the medium of conviction of sin. Those indeed, who dispense with the law from their Ministry, acknowledge no medium of conviction but the cross. But did not our Lord employ the moral law with the young Ruler, for this express purpose? Was it not also the appointed means of bringing the Apostle to the spiritual apprehension of his sin 25 Its cognizance of every thought, imagination, desire, word, and work, and its uncompromising demand of absolute and uninterrupted obedience, upon pain of its everlasting penalty-convince the heart of its guilt, defilement, and wretchedness, and leave the sinner without excuse and without help; under the frown of an holy and angry God; prepared to welcome a Saviour, and lost for ever without him. Thus is the prayer-"God be merciful to me a sinner"-forced even from him, whose external deportment had been, "touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." He now sees in himself the very character of sinfulness and misery to which the Gospel addresses itself; and, stretching out the hand of desire and faith, he receives the free gift of Christ. And now he feels the advantage of the law too well, to be willing, with the Antinomian, to cast it off, because it has lost its justifying power. For its covenant form enlarges his apprehension of the necessity, character, and excellency of the gospel! The en

1 Vitr. Obs. Sacr. Lib. vi. cap. xvii. 11.

3 Rom. ii. 14, 15.

2 See 1 Tim. i. 9.

4 Matt. xix. 16-21. 5 Rom. vii. 7-9. Comp. his general assertion, iii. 20. Again-he informs us (v. 20.) that "the law entered, that the offence might abound"-not in the transgression of the heart (as the direct fruit of the law) but in the conviction of the conscience, awakened by a strong display of the spirituality of the law, and of the denunciations of its righteous curse. If "sin be the transgression of the law" (1 John iii. 4. Comp. iv. 15.) a just apprehension of the law must be the medium of conviction of sin. Nor indeed can we conceive of conviction without it; since obliquity is only discovered by a reference to a given standard. Even the cross of Christ, as a means of conviction, ultimately resolves itself into the law, the breach of which constituted the sin--the cause of his death. The law therefore is of standing and indispensable use, bringing us to Christ—not always with terror, but always with conviction.

6 Phil. iii. 6.

7 Comp. Rom. viii. 3.

tervention of a Surety, a Redeemer, and an atonement, was the effect of the Divine determination to magnify the law, and make it honourable;" that God might honourably pardon, justify, and save, the transgressors. The precept and penalty of the law explain therefore the necessity for the sufferings and death of Immanuel. Thus "the glory of the Ministration of condemnation" commends the "exceeding glory of the Ministration of life and righteousness.”2 This glass exhibits to us indirectly, what the Gospel shows us in direct terms-our infinite obligation to the love of Christ for what he has become, done, and suffered in our place. This is our constraining bond to his service, whose obedience has answered all the demands, suffered all the penalties standing against us, and "brought in everlasting righteousness" as our ground of acceptance before God.

As a rule of life also, the Law is of the utmost importance to the Christian. It comes to him as the chief perfection of righteousness,' with the authority of God, as his Creator, his Sovereign, and his Judge. It is doubly enforced, as the law of his Redeemer; for though he is "not without law to God," yet he is especially "under the law to Christ."4 This is his course of cheerful obedience in his Master's yoke of love; which is his highest earthly privilege, as it will be the consummation of his heavenly enjoyment."

The uses of the law as a rule of life are most efficient means of promoting stedfastness and consistency. Being "written in the heart," it affords to the Christian a continual touchstone of sincerity. He has "the testimony of his conscience," that he " consents to the law that it is good;" that he "delights in it after the inward man;" that he "esteems all God's commandments concerning all things to be right;" that he counts his want of perfect conformity to it the sin of every moment; that he is satisfied with no attainment short of being "holy, as he that hath called him is holy," and "perfect, as his Father which is in heaven is perfect."

The rule of the law also furnishes a daily standard of selfexamination. The servant of God laments his natural, and often unconscious, spring of self-exaltation; to which, however, the law, as the standard of perfection, operates as a constant and timely check. It lays him low in the dust; it confounds him for the sins of his services, as well as for his open transgressions; that he may "count all but dung and dross" in comparison of Christ; that he may be

1 Isaiah xlii. 21. 2 2 Cor. iii. 7—9. 3 Calv. on Luke x. 26. 5 Comp. Matt. xi. 29, 30. with Rev. vii. 15, xxii. 3.

7 See Rom. vii. 16, 22. Psalm cxix. 128. 1 Pet. i. 15. Matt. v, 48.

4 1 Cor. ix. 21.

6 See 2 Cor. i. 12.

simple in his dependence on His cross, and quickened to renewed applications for pardon, acceptance, and supplies of grace.

The obligation of this law upon the Christian is immutable as the throne of God. What can annul the necessary relation of a creature to his Creator? The additional bond of redemption strengthens-not annihilates, the original obligation. Do we cease to be creatures by becoming new creatures? And are we not therefore still bound to personal obedience by the sovereign authority of God? Or does the obligation of the law lose its force by being conveyed to us through the hands of Christ-himself Lord of all, and standing to us in the most endearing and authoritative relation? Why, we may ask, do men wish to be rid of this rule? But for some latent enemy to the holiness of the Divine character, the thought of escaping from the directive force of the law would be intolerable. So far from "gendering unto bondage," it is "the perfect freedom" of evangelical service; so that it is hard to say, whether we are more indebted for deliverance from the law as a covenant, or for subjection to the law as a rule. The proof of our love to the Saviour is the "keeping of his commandments;" which are none others than the precepts of the moral law, bound upon the Christian's heart with chains of the most powerful and attractive obligation. The first desire of the awakened sinner is—"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" His constant prayer is "that his love may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment;" that he may "not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." It cannot therefore, be legal bondage, or indeed otherwise than evangelical privilege, thus to receive the law from the Saviour's hands, stripped of its condemning power, and regulating our affections, temper, and conversation to his glory.

Some of our people, however, are so excited and enlivened by the promises of the Gospel, that the inculcation of the Law is depressing to them. But, in cases of sincerity, this arises from a narrow misconception of the design and uses of the Law: while looseness of conduct in many other cases too plainly proves their unconscious need of its wholesome restraints and directions. Some also of our brethren seem afraid of enforcing the obligations of the law, lest they should be thought to be teachers of Moses rather than of Christ. But our Lord had no hesitation in establishing the obligations of the old dispensation, or in leading his disciples to confess them as their bounden duty. Following, therefore, his example,

4

5

2 Acts ix. 6.

'1 John xiv. 15.

4 See Matt. v. 17. and Calvin in loco.

3 Phil. i. 9. Eph. v. 17.

5 Luke xvii. 10.