To accomplish the astonishing work of redemption, the Son of God must become incarnate; assume the nature that had sinned, and in that nature make complete reparation to the law which his people had grossly violated: for, without reparation, no sinner could be saved. As a transgressor, he must inevitably have perished; or the divine law have relinquished its claim on him as a debtor; which, in the very nature of the case, was impossible. No law, human or divine, founded in justice, and given as a rule of moral conduct, can dispense with a breach of its commands. Were a desperate assassin to plunge a dagger into the bosom of his most inveterate enemy, the law of his country would demand his life, as an atonement for the crime: it could not do otherwise. It is allowed, indeed, that the murderous villain might escape the penalty of death, by the intervention of a pardon; but for this pardon he would not be indebted to the benignity of the law, but to the unjust interposition of his prince. The law would remain invariably the same: it must ever view him as a notorious transgressor; and unless its require.

ments be granted, or its violated honours amply restored, oppose all his efforts to obtain liberty or to preserve life.

Now thus it stands with sinful man, respecting the great Governour of heaven and of earth. The divine law, which was given as a rule of conduct, has been broken in a thousand instances; and its language to the candidate for eternal happiness, on the ground of human worthiness is, Pay me that thou owest! -Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.' This demand is founded in equity, and can neither be evaded nor complied with by the culprit: he lies under an arrest of jus, tice; and unless the demands of the claimant be answered by the sinner, or his substitute, he must remain perpetually a debtor, and feel the weight of its sentence forever. Without an adequate atonement,' says the ingenious Blacklock, no sinner can possibly escape the hands, or elude the awards of justice. But such a compensation can by no means be given, if the delinquent's capacities of suffering be li

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mited, or his station and character of no higher importance than those of his brethren; for the malignity of moral evil is too diffuse and permanent to be cured by any exemplary punishment, whose duration and extent are circumscribed. Even penitence itself cannot obliterate the evils which it deplores. Transgressions already past, and recorded in the books of heaven, are not to be reversed by resolutions of future reformation. The purest virtue of which human nature is capable, extends not to the sanctity of those laws which are prescribed for its obedience. Our best actions demand the exertions of mercy and forgiveness: how then can we atone for them that are bad?'

Let it, therefore, be remembered, that on the ground of personal desert, no sinner can be saved. This is absolutely impossible: and the reason is obvious. He has violated the divine precept, and no future conduct, however exemplary and exact, can atone for crimes previously committed. The punishment of vice," says Mr. Jenyns, 'is a debt due to justice, which cannot be remitted without

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compensation: repentance can be no compensation: it may change a man's dispositions, and prevent his offending for the future; but can lay no claim to pardon for what is past. If any one, by profligacy and extravagance, contract a debt, repentance may make him wiser, and hinder him from running into further distresses; but can never pay off his old bonds; for which he must be ever ac'countable, unless they are discharged by himself, or some other in his stead.' As, therefore, a continuance of happiness was conditionally annexed to perfect and perpetual obedience only; that happiness cannot be enjoyed without entire conformity to the conditions on which it was promised. The scriptures positively assert, 'that the whole world is become guilty before God-that, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for, by the law is the knowledge of sin. If, therefore, righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain!'

But to make this matter, if possible, more plain. Let it be considered that man either is,

or is not dependent on God. If dependent, which is the fact, for independence is peculiar to Jehovah, he must be a subject of moral government; for no reasonable creature can exist without being subject to some law expressed or implied; nor can there be a law without a penal sanction. This is absolutely impossible because the law that requires supreme love to any object as a duty must, as 'it cannot be framed on principles of compassion to guilt,' necessarily condemn hatred or opposition to it as a crime. If, therefore, it was right, in the first instance, that man should love his Creator, and conform to the precepts given as the standard of obedience, it must be right to inflict the penalty annexed to transgression.

If, then, it be allowed that man is accountable to the Almighty for his conduct; that the rule of duty is founded in righteousness; and that he has violated this rule; it is, I think, demonstrable that, if salvation by Jesus Christ be rejected, he must suffer the penalty of the law-or, in other words, he must inevitably

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