fathers thus, and did not our GOD to the nobles of Judah), "is this that bring all this evil upon us and upon ye do, to profane the Sabbath day? this city? yet ye bring more wrath Why, they did not sell. Yet they upon Israel by profaning the Sab- helped to sanction those who did. bath." Therefore, brethren, join in | Appeal to our country's history, and a public protest against Sabbath- the Church's history: when the Sabbreaking. Your public example is bath is respected do not countries and good, but it is not enough; you must individuals then flourish? When the confess Christ before men, and pro- Sabbath is abused and violated do test against sins which are prevalent not countries decay in prosperity, the around you. At this time you have church in goodness, and individuals a special opportunity of doing this. from GoD into the grossest sins? How A year ago, we and many other many have traced their ruin up to parishes petitioned the legislature on broken Sabbaths! Will you help to the subject; the petitions were kindly "bring more wrath upon our Israel?" listened to; a Committee of the House -yet more heavy judgments upon of Commons was appointed, and evi- our country by profaning the Sabdence, which I have referred to, was bath? I feel persuaded you will not. collected, which shews a desecration of the Sabbath amongst us to the most alarming extent. The subject is again to be brought before Parliament early in the next month; the friends of the Sabbath in Parliament require again to be supported; we have prepared petitions, which are ready for signature; all of you that please may sign them to-morrow. Therefore, I entreat you to give this public protest against Sabbath breaking, and to implore our legislature to protect the conscientious tradesman, and to stop the torrent of profanation by some efficient law. Last year we had seven hundred signatures; it will be no credit to us, if, after a year of such public warning, and instruction, and chastening, we have not as many or more signatures now. In many other ways you may give your protest against the evil; do it with meekness and firmness, and GOD will bless you. Apply to the conscience, "What evil thing is this that ye do;" for it is an evil thing to break this or any other of GOD's commandments. Shew men that what they encourage they in fact help to do. "What evil thing is this," said Nehemiah, "that ye (he is speaking Thirdly; promote active measures for the suppression of Sabbath profanation. I can only read what Nehemiah did:"And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath; and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should be no burden brought in on the Sabbath day. So the merchants and sellers of all kinds of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath.' Observe, brethren, the success which God gave to firm and active measures; "from that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath." So, brethren, let us first petition the legislature to get the law, which is at present inadequate, efficiently amended; and then let us co-operate in carrying this into execution. And though you might be a little inconvenienced at first,no doubt it was very inconvenient for the men of Tyre, to lodge outside of -as there is great and abundant mercy with Him. He gave his son Jesus Christ to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification. The Sa Jerusalem, once or twice-yet, in a short time, with the good hand of our GOD upon us, we may see the Sabbath restored to her throne, as the queen of days, instead of being tram-viour obeyed the law of the Sabbath, pled on for business, pleasure, sensuality, and sin, as to our disgrace is now the case. Lastly; we must begin and end with Nehemiah's spirit—confessing our sin, and casting ourselves on God's mercy, in Christ Jesus. How remarkable are the words with which Nehemiah closes this account; how different this from the spirit of the self-righteous. So, brethren, we should each pray, with Nehemiah. "Remember me, O my GOD, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy." We are unfruitful servants, even when we have done this, and all other things which are commanded us. While we petition parliament, we must also petition the King of kings for mercy. We have still need to cry and sigh, each for himself, "Spare me, O Lord," according to the greatness of thy mercy: for there is mercy blessed be GOD; and every other law, fully and perfectly: he died, at last, to atone for our many transgressions. Look, therefore, to Him; pray God for his strength to support you; and henceforth let His love, the love of Jesus Christ, constrain you, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, writing this law upon your hearts: henceforth, in the beautiful words of the prophet,— henceforth, "turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord: and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." AT PERCY CHAPEL, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, ON THURSDAY EVENING, FEB. 21, 1833. 1 John, iii. 4.—“ For sin is the transgression of the law.” If hatred of sin be a genuine branch of Christian experience, then it seems to require no further proof that the love of the law is equally a branch of that experience; for "sin is the transgression of the law." The law, my brethren, must be taken for the right understanding of the Word of GOD in a very enlarged sense; we must by no means confine our view to the ten commandments as delivered by Moses. Law is the expression of the will and character of GOD himself; the principles involved in the law are the essential characteristics of the Almighty; for what is the first and great commandment of the law? It is prefaced by such words as these: "I am the Lord thy GOD;" "thou shalt have no other gods but me ;" and "Thou shalt love the Lord thy GOD with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." The principles involved in this are, self-existence, absolute sovereignty, and holy love. "I am;" here is the self-existing one, the centre from whom all law emanates. "Thou VOL. V. shalt ;" here is the absolute sovereignty that belongs to him over all creation. And "thou shalt love;" here is the Father commanding the happiness of his creatures; for to love him is to be happy. Now what is the appropriate response to these things in intelligent creatures? The appropriate response consists in constant dependence, willing submission, and grateful love. As he is the self-dependent one, the self-sufficient and all-sufficient beginning of all things, so when the word "I am" proceeds from him, the appropriate response in every creature is, "And I by Thee-not unto me, O Lord, but unto Thee; in Thee I live and move and have my being." Conscious dependence is the first response: and when from the same seat of majesty proceeds the words "Thou shalt," the appropriate response in the creature is-" Even so, Lord;" submission-willing submission. And when the love of holy compassion proceeds from the throne, the appropriate response is, love and holy gratitude. This is law-this T is the harmony of the creation. If I the bird to shield himself from the sight might enlarge upon that figure I of the heavens; that he retires withwould say, that the key notes and in visible things-the visible creation; chords of this law do strike all the endeavours to satisfy his soul with main and leading duties of creatures, things visible; endeavours to forget and that the variations, the harmo- his high, endeavours to forget his nious variations, of these principles, spiritual nature; the description of extend to all the details and ramifi-him is, that he is "without God in cations of the duty of creatures; any the world." He is so stupified, so deviation, in the slightest details, by so stunned by the fall, that he has, to much detracts from the harmony; and renew the figure, lost all ear for an open flagrant transgression jars music, and although he is living in against the key-note itself" for sin discord, he is not conscious of his is the transgression of the law." In contrariety to the harmony. He is this state the holy angels live; the dead in trespasses and sins, and "sin very element of their beings are, is the transgression of God's law," conscious dependence, willing sub- yet, though living in transgression, he mission, and grateful admiring love. is not conscious of the transgression, I need not enlarge to prove this; and, therefore, he is said to be dead from this state the fallen angels have in trespasses-"dead in trespasses departed, and they live in a conscious and sins." Whatever little glimmer, opposition to this state of law,- whatever little movement of life they live in a continual sensitiveness natural conscience may give, they to their departure from the harmony, do not rise up into consciousness of conscious of discord, and finding it the harmony that is about the throne eternal they have no refuge to fly of GoD, they do not make man feel behind, no screen of the flesh, no how far he has fallen from the law; screen of matter by which they can they do not make him feel the desscreen themselves from the immediate perate iniquity of sin. view of the Father of spirits; they are at every moment conscious of the contrariety of their being against His being; rebellion is in their hearts, and sovereignty is in His hands, and they are miserable, and cannot but be consciously and eternally miserable. Man in his creation lived in this law; the elements of Adam's being were, an appropriate response to GOD's law; there was no sin, there was no transgression of the law; there was no discord, all was harmony. But fallen man (now observe), having departed from the harmony of the law, has this difference between his condition and the condition of the fallen angels,-that he has a screen to hide himself behind; that being partly composed of matter, he has a cage, as it were, which enables Now, my brethren, how is man to be recovered from this? This is the grand question answered in the gospel of the grace of God. It is the work unto which God has set himself in his Son; it is the work to which the Apostle addresses himself in the very next words "For sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." What must be done? Yea, rather, I should ask, what has been done for the recovery of fallen man out of this condition? First of all there must be a discovery made to him of the state of sin into which he has fallen the state of opposition to God's mind, to God's character; the state of transgression against God's law. There must be a discovery of this made to the man, for they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick; man esteems himself whole in his madness. He must be made to feel his sickness, he must be made to perceive the departure that he has taken from the condition in which God created him. He must be brought to himself; this is the language used by Christ in the parable of the prodigal—“when he came to himself:" and man must be brought to himself. But the first thing, I say, is to make a discovery to him of the sin in which he is dwelling-of the contrariety of his present state of being to the being and character, and also the harmony and law, of the living God. And how is this to be done? The letter of the law will not do it; the statute-book will not recal the rebel; he has learned to call the law unjust, he has lost all reverence for the law-giver, and the letter of the statute does not reach his conscience; and, in point of fact, how is it? Do not natural men pronounce the law unjust? Do they not make their iniquity, into which they have fallen, an excuse against being commanded to obey the living GOD, and say it is unjust to demand so much from us, since we are so weak; making their weakness, which is their fault, to be their excuse? The statutebook, then, will not do, something must be manifested of the glory of the law-giver; that respect for Him, mingling with the letter of the statute, men may be made to feel how lovely, holy, just, and good, the law is, and how vile their departure from it is. But how is the glory of the lawgiver to be manifested to fallen man? He could not bear the sight; who can see GoD and live? In this is manifested Gop unto man, in the face of his dear Son. "GOD, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of GoD in the face of Jesus Christ." Jesus Christ is the manifestor of the invisible GOD-the image of GOD. In Jesus Christ the uncreated glories of the invisible GOD come forth in the visible creation. When we speak of the Son of GOD coming-when we speak of GoD sending his Son, what mean we? It is no geographical mission on which he has come: GOD is omnipresent, and the eternal Son is equal with the Father in the essence of his Godhead,-is equally omnipresent: what, then, do we mean by coming, or by being sent, unless manifestation ? that he who is everywhere, but invisible, becomes man, visible at some point of space; at some point in the immensity that he fills in his invisible essence, he becomes visible. It is in the incarnation of Jesus Christ: this is the first point; when the invisible GOD comes forth into the visible creation, that he may be seen of the creature, that the glory of the uncreated Godhead may be so soft in its radiance as to fall on the eyes of every fallen man, that men may look on the glory of GoD and live, It is not that any part of God's character is compromised in Christ; it is not that any of the awful attributes are kept back and the mild ones put forward; it is not an indistinct revelation of God's character that is presented to us in his Son; they are not compromised, but they are harmonized in kindness towards man. Justice and truth are there; righteousness is there-righteousness that would not spare the well-beloved when he was found in the region of transgression, and with the transgression of others upon him; for there was none of his own on him, he was manifested to take away our sin, and in him is no sin; but being found with the sins of |