critical or sincere, I conceive, is not owing to the dif ferent representations of God and sin, in law and gospel; but to the different dispositions of the men to whose minds these representations are made. The man who has the pious feeling heart of the psalmist David, will repent truly, when he sees his sins in the light of God's holy law. The man who has the hard selfish heart of the traitor Judas, will not repent truly, when he sees his sins in all the additional light reflected on them by the cross of Christ, and the grace of the gospel. Before genuine repentance can be produced, by any means, the heart must be changed by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. When the law finds a soul thus prepared, it will work in it godly sorrow, and repentance not to be repented of. When the commandment comes, and is seen to be perfectly good, holy, and just, unless we have perfect hearts of stone, we shall abhor ourselves, and repent in dust and ashes. When we think on our ways, and see how contrary they have been to the reasonable requisitions of our most rightful sovereign, if we have the least spark of godly sensibility, we shall mourn and be in bitterness for the dishonour we have done to Him; and not merely on account of the evils to which we have exposed ourselves. Apprehensions of the mercy of God in Christ, will quicken and increase true repentance; but can never begin it, without a previous true discovery and cordial approbation of the divine law.

The other part of a sound and saving conversion, namely, faith towards Jesus Christ, is also in consequence of right views of the divine law; and cannot take place without them. The law was our schoolmaster, says the Apostle, to bring us unt‹ Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The humiliating lessons. concerning God's righteousness, and our own unrighte

ousness, which are taught in the school of the law, must be thoroughly learned and have their effect on the heart, in the first place; and then a sinner will be easily reconciled to the way of life and peace. To think of persuading men to embrace the gospel, before ever they have understood and submitted to the law, is absurd and impossible. It is reading the book wrong end upward. It is beginning at the last end of the line.

Lastly; it is by the law of perfection that good men are made better. They are hereby turned still more and more from darkness to light, and from sin to holiness by being converted, is not always meant in scripture, the first conversion of a sinner. Our Saviour said to Peter, When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. The godly, when they have fallen into great sins, are recovered again by repentance; and in order to this, a new law-work is necessary.Such a law-work David repeatedly experienced, long after he had been eminently pious, as appears by many passages in his psalms. In the xxxii. he says, When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. And in the xxxviii. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger: neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin. Nor is it only after grievous back-slidings that good men feel the powerful influence of the holy law, converting their souls. They experience its humbling and sanctifying efficacy, turning them from the errors of their ways, in a gradual progression, all their lives. Through God's precepts they get understanding; therefore they hate every false way. The commandment is a lamp,

and the law is light.-Hence, The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

All that remains is the improvement, and in this there is time only for one or two particulars. We may hence infer,

First. The exceeding unreasonableness of imagining that the divine law is abated; or that Christ hath redeemed us, in any measure, from the moral law, as a rule of duty. What has been said, both of the perfection, and of the salutary use of this law, shows the extreme absurdity of such an imagination.

Can it be supposed that an all-perfect Being should, on any consideration, disannul a law which was and always will be, holy, just, and good, in perfection; and enact another, not so holy, not so just, nor se good? Can it be supposed that the Son of God, the brightness of the Father's glory, and express image of his person, should come down from heaven, and bleed and die, to procure an alteration in an all-perfect, law? an alteration which could not be for the better, but must be for the worse! It is true, Christ hath opened a glorious way for the gracious pardon and acceptance of penitent believers, though very imperfect.→ But certainly he hath not liberated, either believers or unbelievers, from the obligation they were under to observe and obey the original perfect law of his heavenly Father. At his first entrance on the execution of his prophetic mission, he gave a solemn caveat to the great congregation in which he preached righteousness, not to think that inculcating such licentious doc trine, or opening a door for it, was any part of his design. He assured the multitude, in his sermon on the mount, that to alter one tittle of the moral law, was

as far from his intention, as it was a thing in itself utterly impossible.

Nor would sullying the lustre, or lessening the purity and perfection of the divine law, at all have comported with the benevolent office he came to perform in favour of mankind. He came to convert souls.He came to save his people from their sins. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. He loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it might be holy and without blemish.But in order to all this, it was surely necessary that the law of perfect holiness, should remain stedfast and unaltered. How could sinners be converted by a flexible law? a law which was itself converted to their depraved hearts and crooked ways! How could men be saved from their sins, or even have the knowledge of sin, by such a law? What end could be answered by giving to imperfect creatures an imperfect law, unless to keep them imperfect and to justify their imperfections? The notion of a fallen law for fallen men, must certainly be, not from the Saviour, but from the adversary of souls. It is one of the most capital devices of the god of this world, who was a murderer from the beginning. As long as he can blind the minds of them that believe not, with the imagination of such a divine law, he is sure of their souls. They will never be converted. The light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, cannot shine unto them.

Secondly. We hence infer, that legal preaching, truly so called, ought not to be censured, and must by

no means be omitted. Some would have the constant strain of the preacher what they call purely evangelical. All faith, and no works. To hear moral duties explained and inculcated, they do not like. It is not experimental. They are not fed. But such are as ill affected to the real gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as to the holy law of God. Ministers may keep back nothing that is profitable; they must not shun to declare all the divine counsel, and surely they must not shun to declare the divine law, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. This is a faithful saying, says the Apostle to Titus, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works: these things are good and profitable unto men. They are profitable to the doers of them, as well as to their neighbours. They are profitable not only in regard to the life that now is, but likewise in relation to that which is to come. The more good works men do on earth, the greater will be their reward in heaven: nor can they get to heaven at all without good works. Know ye not, says St. Paul, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Preaching the law is certainly necessary, for the perfecting of the Saints, and for the detection of false professors. But it is also necessary for the conviction and conversion of sinners. Accordingly we find, that the inspired preachers and writers of the New Testament, insisted much on the law, in order to awaken attention to the gospel. John the Baptist did so, we may be sure; and he had wonderful success. Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, went out to him to be baptized, confessing their sins. James and John, who were sir-named Boanerges, that is, the sons of thunder, were doubtless, great preachers of the law;