ah to come, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. He is the substance of the ceremonial law, and the great subject of whom the prophets spake, to whom the pious Israelites were directed for a better righteousness than their own, and through whose atonement alone shadowed forth in their sacrifices, they could obtain acceptance with God here, and the enjoyment of everlasting blessedness hereafter.

Since the days of the prophets, Messiah has been born of a woman-has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself on the cross, and brought in everlasting righteousness. The ceremonial institutions of the Jewish economy, having received their fulfilment, have been abolished; like shadows they passed away, when the good thing to come, signified by them, had appeared. The Jewish polity has been annihilated in the ruin of their city and nation, for their rejection of Messiah. The law of God, then, as written to us, excludes the Jewish rites of worship, and their peculiar civil ordinances. All the moral duties enjoined on that people, are still in force, and, together with the doctrine of Christ's righteousness and atonement, are revealed in a more clear and perfect manner, in the scriptures of the New Testament. The whole system of religion, therefore, as contained in these scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, excepting those religious ceremonies, and political regulations, which are abolished, constitutes, at present, the law of God.'

The daily practice of christians, assigns to the expression the same comprehensive meaning. The Psalmist prayed, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." What is the import of this daily ejaculation, in the mouth of the christian suppliant?

certainly nothing less than, that God would illuminate his mind, and give him right perceptions of the whole of revealed truth. When we sincerely adopt the petition, we pray for a right understanding of the whole word of God.

That the whole of revealed truth is properly termed the law of God, or a system of divine laws, appears, further, from a consideration of the nature of law, compared with the contents of Revelation. We may define law to be a command, direction, or precept, whose requirements or prohibitions are enforced by the sanctions of reward and punishment. Now what considerable portion of Revelation does not include, in some form or other, these essential qualities of law? Some parts of it are direct, explicit and formal prescriptions, with the promise and threatening annexed. Others contain the same thing by just and unavoidable implication; and every part tends to illustrate the nature of God's moral government. In this remark we comprise the narratives, those portions which present us with the history of nations and individuals. They are admirable, and even necessary illustrations of the nature of divine law, inasmuch as they render the subject more intelligible than it could be without them. In these histories we see how a moral creature is governed. The law is applied to human actions; and hence we learn that it is something more than the names of abstract qualities framed together in a proposition. We learn, too, the certainty of its sanctions, by having exhibited before us instances of the just punishment that never fails to follow disobedience; and of the full and prompt reward which Almighty God bestows upon his dutiful subjects. The life of every individual, whose history is there related, contains something proposed either for our imitation, or for our warning. As we read, we

virtually hear the voice of God pressing it upon our consciences, to go and do likewise; or else to flee for our lives from that sinful path, which, having conducted others to ruin, will, if pursued, as certainly terminate in our destruction. What more is necessary to law? Here is precept, too plain to be misunderstood; and sanctions, too awful and impressive to be disregarded.

The gospel is, indeed, styled good news, yea, glad tidings of great joy; but it does not place rational creatures above law. It recognises and enforces the same rule of conduct as the Old Testament; and by new, and more commanding motives. Our Saviour, to render the moral law the more easy of application, that it might be written on the tablet of our hearts, engraven on our memories, impressed on our consciences, and remain the constantly abiding regulator of our affections and conduct, was careful to sum up the whole in two comprehensive precepts, enjoining love to God, and love to our neighbour. If the gospel does not contain any commands that are entirely new, yet, as a system of salvation, it has its leading precepts; for nothing is so frequently enjoined, as repentance of sin, and faith in Christ. These duties are enforced by promises of rewards the most glorious, and by threatenings of punishment the most dreadful. They are duties, which a rational being, a moral agent may no more hope to neglect or evade with impunity, than if mercy had no place in the bosom of Jehovah. "Thou shalt do no murder," is an article of the moral law, not a whit more binding, than under the gospel, is the command, to "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." And the same authority which has declared, that "no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him," has pronounced in a manner equally decisive and peremptory, that "he who believeth not the

Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

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The whole word of God, then, is the fountain, whence the preacher must draw; the store house, whence he must furnish himself; the mines at which he must labor; here he must dig for the pearl of great price. Hence he must supply his treasuries, from which he is to bring out things new and old." It is, too, a mine of infinite riches. Ages cannot exhaust it, "nor custom stale its infinite variety." Or, to speak without figure, in the Bible is embodied all that knowledge, which is of most intimate and permanent concern to man, respecting his Creator and Redeemer, his own origin, character, duty, destination. To the study of this volume the preacher should be devoted. It should be the subject of his daily reading and meditation, accompanied with prayer for divine illuminations. He should possess himself of its weighty truths, trace out their harmony, relations and influence.

First of all, his lips should keep knowledge of God, the author of divine law, the great and glorious Sovereign, who promulgated it, and once engraved a compendium of it upon tables of stone, hereby indicating to us its unchangeable nature, and the everlasting permanency of its obligations. This first article of religion he will impress on his hearers, not simply by maintaining that there is one God, but by just and affecting representations of the perfections of God, whose existence he asserts, and by enforcing the obligations that hence arise on the part of the creature. He should be able to make manifest the right of Jehovah to prescribe laws to his creatures, and require their obedience: a right, which results from the wisdom, power and goodness, which were exerted in giving them being; and from that ever watchful Prov

idence which every moment sustains them. To him the attributes of God should not be subjects of cold, unfeeling speculation. They should be so contemplated, as to excite corresponding emotions in the heart. His power and majesty should over-awe the soul, and make the creature feel that he is a worm. His eternity and wisdom should excite admiration; his justice, heart-felt approbation. His truth should command our trust, his immutability, our unchanging confidence, and all his perfections, our supreme love. Some of these attributes the preacher may see impressed on our globe, and engraven on the sky, and will gladly tell his hearers how, and where to trace them. But more interesting illustrations of all the divine perfections, may be drawn from that part, which he is permitted to scan, of the government, which God maintains over moral beings, and the fundamental laws of which are written in the Bible. Lost in wonder he will frequently be; and especially on perceiving that even the guilt, the criminality, the wretchedness of man, should furnish occasion to the Almighty for the display of an attribute, which otherwise we might never have known, as belonging to his character. Had there been no transgressors, we might never have heard of the mercy of God; that attribute alone, which now keeps us from despair; and in preparing to exercise which, there is the developement of a wisdom and goodness, which angels cannot fathom, how ardently soever they may desire to look into it.

Hence, principally, must he also derive his knowledge of man. Much of human nature he may learn by watchand mind, and by observing the phenomena exhibited by others. He may discern his intellectual faculties, and many of the purpos

ing the operations of his own heart