"Christ has become the end of the law for righteousness." Does sinful man believe this fact? Does he cease therefore, to look for acceptance before God, to any works of his own,and simply hope, in the righteousness which has been thus finished for him, by Jesus Christ the Lord? Does he in this faith, devote himself in newness of life, to this glorious Lord? Then Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to him. The righteousness which Christ has, is his. Every obstacle to his salvation has been removed. He is accepted, crowned with full redemption, and saved with an everlasting salvation, in that covenant Lord, to whom the Holy Spirit has thus brought him, and united him in confidence and love. When he thus believes the testimony of God, and receives the record, which God hath given of his Son,-he is made one with Christ; and all the merit of the work of Christ is counted to him, as his own. As Christ was clothed with his guilt, so is he completely clothed with the righteousness of Christ. For him, there is an end of the law, a perfection of its demands, and a conclusion of its dominion, in Christ, in whom he believes, and with whom he stands, by faith. This faith meets the requisitions of the law, by referring them all to Christ, in whom they have been fulfilled and completed, and pleading this fulfilment by him, as its own. And this plea is acknowledged, as wholly sufficient,-Christ is accepted, as the end of the law, and an everlasting righteousness, for the believer,—and he being justified by faith, has peace with God.

If man will not receive this offered grace, nor believe these blessed facts which God has thus announced, the simple consequence is, Christ is no righteousness for him, and there is no end of the law in his behalf. He remains under its dominion and its curse. He renounces an offered redemption, and sinks again in bondage. He refuses the merit which grace provides, and comes before God, upon the ground of his own merit and strength. He has loved darkness rather than light, and this

is his condemnation. He lives and dies under a curse. He is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him. He is without the possibility of hope; cast into a prison, from which he can in no wise come out, until he has paid the uttermost farthing. All this is the simple result of his refusal of that righteousness, which is offered to all who believe, and of his rejection of that redemption which is provided by the grace of God, and urged upon the acceptance of sinful man.

IV. In concluding this important subject, we may remark: How glorious and consistent is that scheme of salvation which is presented in the Gospel! It offers simply, JESUS CHRIST,―an Almighty Saviour,—all and in all, in himself. It takes us just where it finds us, in a state of entire guilt and ruin; condemned by the holy law of God, to eternal perdition; and utterly incapable, of procuring any justification, by our own obedience. In this condition, it announces to us, a Saviour divinely great and glorious, who has assumed our nature, to become a perfect substitute for us, and the atonement for our sins;-and who offers us in himself, everlasting reconciliation with God. God's acceptance of this amazing propitiation is solemnly proclaimed. The method in which we are to become interested in it, by a simple faith in Christ, and confidence of ourselves to him, it discloses with precision and clearness. The simple demand which it makes, is for thankful, humble, faith in Christ. The promise which it gives is, that then, he shall be our righteousness, and we shall be complete in him. The simple direction which it gives us, having thus believed,-is, to make confession with our mouth, of the Lord whom we have received, and to walk by the guidance of his Holy Spirit, in all his commandments and ordinances, blameless. What perfect consistency, unity, and efficiency, is there in such a system! How highly glorious it is to the blessed God! How unspeakably precious to guilty man! How important is that simple living faith, which it requires, and to

which all its promises are made! And while superstition, and self-righteousness, and unbelief, would reject this all-sufficient Lord, or mingle up with him, the merit of works, and the assumed, undue power of ordinances,-how vastly does the obligation increase upon us, to state this divine system of grace and truth, plainly, openly, and uniformly; and to urge upon all men, a free and thankful acceptance, of what God has so freely and fully provided! How awful is their condition, who cast away this hope, and thus despise the divine character, and affront the majesty of God! For them, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for, of judgment and fiery indignation. He that hath the Son of God, hath life; but he that hath not the Son, hath not life,cannot see life,-but the wrath of God abideth on him. This blessed hope in Christ, îs set before you,—make it the anchor of your souls, sure and steadfast; and you shall find an abundant entrance into the rest, whither your great Redeemer hath gone before you.

L*

LECTURE IX.

THE LAW, THE CHRISTIAN'S RULE OF LIFE.

Being not without law to God,-but under the law to Christ.-1. CORINTHIANS, IX. 21.

In this expression, St. Paul describes the exact condition of a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He introduces it, as a parenthesis, in the midst of a discourse upon the freedom which he claimed in his ministry of the Gospel. He declares his cheerful conformity to the various habits and prejudices, of those to whom he ministered, that he might be made the instrument of winning them to Christ,—so that though he was wholly free from the authority of men, yet he willingly submitted himself to their customs and desires, that he might gain the more. But he would not have this varying compliance with the feelings of others in things indifferent, construed into a neglect on his part, of the unvarying authority and law of God, as if he were without any abiding rule in this relation.

He felt himself entirely free from all those appointments and precepts which had been given to his nation, that had been fulfilled and ended in Christ. But to the permanent precepts of holiness, which God had proclaimed in connexion with these, he could not be indifferent. They were written in his heart, with a divine power. They governed his conduct with an unceasing constraint. His joyful acceptance, of the hopes and promises of the Gospel, had confirmed and increased the power of these precepts over his heart. He was

❝ not

without law to God," because he was "under the law to Christ." The Saviour whom he served, and in whom, he had his whole relation to God, had renewed for him, the same perfect standard of obedience, and had added new and more powerful motives to lead him to love and regard it. He thus describes the condition of every believer; entire and everlasting freedom from the law, as a dispensation of condemnation and death, but everlasting and delightful subjection to the law, as a rule of conformity to Christ; leading to entire love to God, and universal love to men for his sake. The great salvation of the Lord Jesus, though it is founded upon a perfect satisfaction of the law, in all its penalties and precepts, as a righteousness for man,-adopts all the holy commandments of the law, as the rule of life and conduct, for those who have accepted this righteousness, and been made partakers of this salvation.

This is the condition of every justified man. He has been delivered from the bondage of the law. He is made free from its denunciations. It has no penalties to demand of him, and no judgments to inflict upon him. It has no longer dominion over him. He is not under the law. He is in possession of a divine righteousness through the gift of grace, which meets all its claims, and sets him free from its power forever. But he is not without law in his relation to God. He has been placed under a new dispensation, which furnishes new obligations to a holy obedience to God, presents new motives to this obedience, and gives him new power to put them into actual effect. He is under the law to Christ, who has bought him with a price, and perpetuated and confirmed upon him, every divine commandment. The motives to obedience are changed, the influence and effects of this obedience are also changed, but the rule of holiness remains the same, and in the same conformity to it, he glorifies God in his body and his spirit which are his.