God clearly and positively calls for both and such is.the inconsistency often witnessed, that both will embark in questions and practices on which the word of God has laid a positive interdict. The language of the Scripture, however, were we humbly disposed to inquire, would never fail to assure us, that the law of the Lord is perfect; that it demands our obedience, both in thought and in deed: reason too, were we disposed calmly to consult it, would assure us, that this is nothing more than what a revelation from above ought to require.

SERMON VI.

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.-John, viii. 58.

As these words convey no precise idea to an English ear, I may perhaps be excused if I offer an explanation of them, before I proceed to consider the doctrine which they contain.

It is customary with the Oriental nations, and, after them, with the Hellenistic Greek writers, particularly when treating of historical questions, to introduce past events or incidents to the attention of the reader, and then to speak of other circumstances (past indeed with reference to him), as present with regard to such events. This custom is also recognised by writers purely classical, as indeed it is by our own, to some extent; and, in these cases, it has usually been termed the historical tense. The words of our text are of this character. Our Lord here affirms, that, before the times in which Abraham lived, he exists; or, in our phraseology, he existed; or, more conformably with the Oriental idiom, Imagine yourselves living in times prior to those of Abraham in those I am in being; or, as we should word it, Before Abraham was, I was. In this sense, indeed, the passage has usually been taken; although no solution of the phraseology has been offered.

We may now proceed to consider the doctrine here intended to be inculcated. It was shewn in the preceding discourse, that, according to the declarations of the Scriptures, both the Law and the Gospel must necessarily stand together; the one to form a rule of right and wrong, without which there could be no fixed standard of virtue or vice; the other to propose and secure pardon for those misdeeds to

*See, on this do ctrine, my Hebrew Grammar, p. 343, &c.

which our nature is so liable. It shall be our business now to inquire, whether this has not been the case from the very beginning of things; and whether it shall not, according to the Scriptures, continue to be so to the end of time; and lastly, to offer some remarks on the value of this consideration, and on the suitableness of the system thus originated and perpetuated for our instruction and advantage.

:

The first of these, then, or what is usually termed the Moral Law, stands thus in the pages of the first revelation : Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."* Again, at a period somewhat later, it is said But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man." Here, then, we have laws formally promulgated, and the consequences of transgression expressly stated; these partake of the character of all other laws, and like them admit of no relaxation, and make no provision for pardon. Of this character too are all the other statutes and commandments published in the Bible, whether they originate with the Patriarchs, Moses, the Prophets, our Lord, or his Apostles. They are laws, from the observance of which there is no appeal, and from the permanency of which nothing can in the least degree derogate. Heaven and earth we are told shall pass away, but not so much as a jot or a tittle of the law shall, until all shall have been fulfilled.‡

Another consideration, tending to shew the perpetuity of the Moral Law, may be deduced from the fact, that a very large proportion of the morality taught in the New Testament is

On this subject, see Diss. I. Sect. x. of the following sheets.

cited from the Old, and urged purely on its prior authority : the only difference discernible in the two cases is, that in the New Testament the reader is more particularly guarded against mistaking the letter for the spirit of the precept. St. John tells us, for example, that the man who hates his brother is a murderer; and our Lord, that he who looks upon a woman lustfully, is already guilty in spirit of the act of adultery. Whence it should seem, that to abolish the Moral Law, could never have entered into the mind of any of the writers or teachers under either dispensation.

The nature of the case, moreover, makes it impossible that the Moral Law can ever be abrogated. For, first, the declarations of the Gospel, as such, however excellent and necessary they may be, were not given either to teach, or immediately to enforce, morality. Constituted as we are, it must ever be necessary, that the distinctions between good and bad, virtue and vice, be distinctly and authoritatively kept up; but this it is not the province of the Gospel to do. Its declarations go to the questions, as to how the grace of God has been made known, how it may be secured in order to insure pardon, and how the blessings thus had in view ought to be sought, applied, and appreciated. ‡ And the consequence almost universally witnessed is, that those who lose sight of the Moral Law, and endeavour to live in the enjoyment of the Gospel only, gradually relax in watchfulness and selfexamination, and imperceptibly become sullen, morose, conceited, and overbearing; believing too, at the same time, that they are enjoying nothing but heaven within, and exhibiting nothing but heavenly-mindedness without. And thus, while they have no doubt they are making their calling and election sure, they are neglecting both in theory and in practice to

* 1 John, iii. 15.

+ Matt. v. 28.

This, according to my notions, is the peculiar province of the Gospel. That moral precepts are found in the New Testament there can be no doubt; but these, I argue, form no part of the Gospel, strictly speaking; they are, on the contrary, a part of the Moral Law.

cultivate the spirit of Christ, without which, we are positively taught, all must be reprobates.

But further, it is the Moral Law and that alone, which must first reduce, and then keep in subjection, the fallen mind of man. To its hard and stony surface, the voice of reason, and indeed of grace,* will be applied in vain; and to nothing short of that sword of the Spirit which is quick and powerful, will its labyrinths of error and deception give way, and stand revealed in all their hideousness of deformity, and turpitude of character; or bring the sinner to exclaim, "Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The truth is, every thing else has hitherto failed; and, if we may judge of the future from the past, every thing else for ever must fail. But this is not all the subjugation must continually be carried on; the heart must not only be prostrated for once, but it must be kept down for ever and this the Moral Law alone can do. Precept must here, as the Prophet has truly said, be laid upon precept, and line upon line: and this must be incessantly repeated, where we have to deal with an agent, above all things deceitful and desperately wicked.§ The wily monster will rise again and again, and in every new effort to resume its primitive ascendency, will take a shape and a colour more alluring and deceptive than the last. These the law of God alone can detect and expose; and, when detected, the Spirit of God as afforded only by the Gospel, can cope with and overcome so that he alone who is furnished and complete in all the panoply of heaven, can ever hope to be more than a conqueror in this warfare.

Let us now consider, in what the system of the Gospel

*It is no uncommon thing to hear grace spoken of as being omnipotent in its character and effects. Facts, however, speak a different language; it is, in a large portion of society, constantly and effectually resisted: besides, the Scriptures speak of it only as the result of mercy, not of power.