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 perish. This conclusion appears to me indisputable.

The moral law, which is a transcript of the divine purity, is, we are told by one well acquainted with its perfection and extent, summarily comprehended in love to God and love to

man.

It enjoins nothing but what is absolutely good in itself-what is adapted as much for the creature's happiness, as for the glory of the beneficent Creator: nor does it prohibit any thing but what is positively evil-what is naturally ruinous to the soul and body, as well as derogatory to the supreme Governor of heaven and of earth.

Now in attending to this incomparable law, there is no fear of excess. In the love of God,') says one, there can be no possibility of exceeding, while there is no limitation in the command: nor are we in any danger of loving our neighbour better than ourselves; and let us remember, that we do not go beyond, but fall short of our duty, while we love him less."

The holy and blessed God will not, nay, he cannot absolve a rational creature from obligation to the precepts of the moral law: for this would be a practical declaration, That aversion from himself, and hatred of our neighbour, are no crimes. It is therefore a capital mistake to imagine that the righteous Legislator of the universe may, or may not punish sin. Punishment is, in this case, not an act of sovereignty, but necessarily results from the supreme perfection of God. Sin is the abominable thing that his soul hateth: it cannot exist but in opposition to the purity of his nature and the rectitude of his government. While, therefore, it is suffered to remain in his dominions, it must be the object of his abhorrence; and, as Ruler of the world, he cannot but punish it either in the person of the sinner or in his substitute.

It therefore follows, of course, that the divine law under which our first parents were, both as a covenant and as a rule of duty, must be perfectly fulfilled, previous to the bestowment of

heavenly blessedness on their apostate descendants: for without such fulfilment, this blessedness never could, consistently with the rights of holiness and of justice, be enjoyed. The law could never remit its claim to universal obedience, nor, as such, suffer the offender to escape with impunity.

It is however proper to remark, that mere obedience, were it absolutely perfect, could not, circumstanced as we now are, be viewed as an adequate reparation for the insult and injury done to the divine government. The penalty connected with disobedience must also be endured; and both in the nature by which it was at first dishonoured: because angelic obedience to the same commands, would not answer the requisitions of a statute given as the rule of human duty. As therefore we are all breakers of the divine law, and as no future conformity to its precepts, were it absolutely perfect, can compensate for this violation, we are all inevitably undone, if not interested in the righteousness and propitiation of Jesus Christ.

Of the need we stand in of this propitiation and of that righteousness there can be no doubt, if the remarks made on the divine law and the divine government be accurate. By the law, we are told, is the knowledge of sin. By this rule we discover what is duty; or, in other words, what is prohibited-what is commanded, and the penal sanction by which obedience is enforced. In the Scriptures of truth, the fatal con. sequences of our apostacy from God are affect. ingly described; and the plan formed by infinite wisdom and infinite goodness for our delivery from deserved misery and death graciously revealed. So that while we sorrow after a godly sort, we are not like those that have no hope: we

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have, it is true, destroyed ourselves, but in the Lord are our help and our deliverance found.

Cheering however as this delightful truth certainly is, yet it is too commonly neglected or despised. Men are unwilling to think themselves so degenerate as represented by the sacred writers, or to believe there is that intrinsic evil in sin which is constantly affirmed. Hence the objections against the spirituality, purity, and extent of the moral law-the substitution and the atonement of Christ; and also against other glorious truths inseparably connected with the redemption of man-But these objections must be considered in my next. Till then, believe me very sincerely, Yours, &c.

LETTER IV.

Man disobeying,

Disloyal breaks his fealty, and sins
Against the high supremacy of heav'n,
Affecting Godhead, and so losing all,
To expiate his treason hath nought left,
But to destruction, sacred and devote,
He with his whole posterity must die;
Die he or Justice must; unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay

The rigid satisfaction, death for death.-Milton.

THAT a condemned rebel should reject a pardon which exempts from sufferings and from death; that he should ungratefully treat with ridicule or with insult the herald who announced the merciful intelligence, and obstinately choose rather to run the risk of escaping deserved ruin by his own projects, than to accept deliverance by the merciful interposition of his prince, is a phenomenon in the criminal world that must excite astonishment and nonplus credibility.

But what less do those who disregard the righteousness and the atonement of Christ? who represent the Scriptures that inculcate the salutary doctrine as absurd, and who presumptuously seek to escape final perdition on the ground of personal worthiness? Few indeed will be found hardy enough to commend the conduct of such a contumacious wretch, though they manifestly act on the same principle. It can scarcely be imagined that those persons to whom Solomon (or rather Solomon's antitype) has reference, were so audacious as to declare in so many words -that they paid no regard either to the reproof or the counsel of God: and yet their conduct is interpretatively exhibited to shew that this was the genuine language of their tongues and of their hearts. Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto youBecause I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer: they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord : they would none of my counsel: they despised