to" you. And whether it comes in the power of the precept, or in the terror of the denunciation, it fastens its iron grasp upon your souls, and will hold you to eternity, unless there come to your rescue, a power of grace stronger than the power of its wrath. It speaks to the very best, and least offending of you all,—and it must be heard. It would convince you of sin. It would shew you your entire need of a Saviour. It would compel you to throw away all deluding and destructive pleas of comparative innocence in yourselves. It would bring you in the acknowledgment of a bitter sense of guilt, to cry aloud for mercy. It would send you to the blood of an Almighty Redeemer, as the only fountain which can be opened for sin, and for uncleanness. There would it lead you and leave you, as the instrument of the divine Spirit for conviction of sin. But if this gracious operation of the law be by any of you, foolishly resisted and denied, it will operate yet farther, to convict you before the bar of God; to compel you there to see your exposure to divine wrath, and eternal woe; and to draw from your own mouths, speechless in your defence, an overwhelming confession, that your damnation is just. For one or the other of these purposes, either for mercy in a day of grace, or for condemnation in a day of wrath, the convincing power of the law must be felt and understood by every soul of man.

III. We may lastly consider this convincing power of the law, under the aspect of the result to which it leads. This the apostle declares," that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world become guilty before God." The mouths of unconvinced sinners are not stopped. Their complaints against the unreasonable strictness and severity of the divine commandments are frequent and vehement. The natural minds of men constantly rebel against the authority and declarations of the Most High God. They do not and cannot acknowledge, that they are bound to such devotion as his de

mands appear to require-or that they are justly chargeable with guilt, for failing in that, which is so repugnant to their dispositions, that its fulfilment amounts to an impossibility. They are found inventing a thousand excuses and pleas, for their security from punishment. Temptation, ignorance, heedlessness, weakness, are all urged as reasons by them, why they should not be dealt with upon a system of such severity, but should have some milder government, and receive a more extensive toleration. But all these excuses and complaints arise from a want of that conviction which it is the province of the law to impress. When by the power of the Holy Spirit with this ministration of the law, they are convinced of sin, their mouths are sealed against all excuses forever. The justice and holiness of God become so apparent, that they feel no right to complain, although they are condemned. The aggravations of their guilt are so clearly manifested, that no excuse occurs to their remembrance. They are cast down before a God of immaculate purity, with a spirit torn and bruised, acknowledging the truth of every accusation, and proclaiming the entire justice of every woe which he has denounced. Whatever may be the character of others, each individual will feel, that for himself, shame and confusion of face belong to him, and that God is righteous, though he taketh vengeance.

If this conviction be not awakened in the souls of men in their day of grace, while it may be salutary and effectual, it will certainly come upon them, like a giant aroused from his sleep, in the day of judgment. Confusion will cover them in that awful day, when God ariseth to shake terribly the earth, and to repay vengeance and recompense to all his enemies. Then will every impenitent and unprofitable servant be speechless, though he be bound hand and foot, and cast into outer and final darkness; while the universe will

unite to proclaim the abiding and unchangeable spotlessness of the Judge who thus solemnly condemns the guilty.

But not only will the law thus stop every mouth, it will also bring "the whole world guilty before God,"-or under the condemning judgment of God, convicted of sin, and destitute of all claim for the exercise of mercy. This holy law now announces its requisitions and proclaims its sanctions, that in this bringing of a guilty world under the judgment of God, it may make room for the exercise of abundant grace, and make ready the souls of sinners, for the pardoning love of God. But when this mercy is rejected, its purpose in the same annunciations, is to open the way for the future display of the spotless justice of God in the exercise of his power of condemnation and punishment. It brings the whole world, and every individual transgressor of the world, under the divine judgment. Nothing can be demanded by any but the wages of sin which is death. In passing by every sinner, and leaving them all to perish, God would not be unjust. In pardoning and saving the remnant he hath chosen, he is infinitely gracious and merciful. When the sinner is truly convinced, he has this view solemnly and deeply impressed upon his mind. He feels that he is under a righteous condemnation, and that there can be no reason found for the exercise of any pardon or compassion towards him, but in the unsearchable riches of the love of God. He looks in this condition to no other source, for the rescue he needs, but the free and unmerited grace of God the Saviour. Oppressed and condemned, he begs him to undertake for him. He throws himself upon the sufficiency and kindness of that wonderful counsellor, who has himself become the end of the law, that he might bring in an everlasting righteousness for guilty man,—and in the acceptance of whose work of merit, God can be just, and the justifier of all who believe in him. When the law works

the same conviction in the conscience of the sinner, in the dreadful day of retribution, the same result of conscious desert of condemnation will be produced. The whole world will come under the condemnation of God. He will be exhibited undeniably righteous while he judgeth the earth. And while not a sinful being has any claim to mercy, and the hardened and impenitent are justly condemned, the freeness and fulness of his divine redemption will be gloriously displayed. For every convicted soul that in a day of grace, has fled from the law to Christ, mercy will rejoice against judgment. The pardoning love of God, and the condemning righteousness of God will meet together. And he will rejoice forever over a people who under this condemnation, have looked unto him from the ends of the earth, and found in him, a complete salvation.

LECTURE VI.

THE CONDEMNING POWER OF THE LAW.

The Law worketh wrath,-ROMANS IV. 15.

This single sentence presents the whole subject of the present discourse. It exhibits the condemning power of the divine law, as exercised upon transgressors of its precepts. The Apostle announces it as a fundamental principle, from the acknowledged certainty of which, he derives and establishes other conclusions. The blessings which the heirs of the divine promise receive, he says, can never be from the law, because "the law worketh wrath." To give life to sinners, as their inheritance, is in direct opposition to its very nature, and a thing impossible for it to do. It is as if he should say to the man famishing with thirst, fire cannot relieve your necessity, for fire produceth heat, it can never quench thirst, it will make the evil which you suffer, still the worse. It is but the amazing ignorance and blindness of guilty man which makes this assertion necessary.-Yet it is necessary. We have still to warn multitudes of self-justifying men, who persist in looking to their own obedience, as their ground of hope before God, that life cannot come to them by the law, for it is no property of the law to give life to sinners, "the law worketh wrath." This is its nature; and this is its whole operation upon guilty men.

My present purpose, is to exhibit this peculiar power and property of the law. It stands forth in faithful solemnity, to warn blinded men against itself. And we are to listen to its