upon the sea-shore; when we are convinced that each of them deserves the eternal wrath and vengeance of God, and that we are lying under this just wrath, as an everlasting load; we shall be able in some degree, to appreciate the mercy, which has provided, unsought by us, the means of full forgiveness; we shall adore with wondering gratitude, the compassion of that offended Being, who, instead of executing upon us the vengeance which he had threatened, has himself originated a remedy for our souls condemned, entirely suited to our wants and adequate to our necessities; by which he may restore the guilty to his favour, and to life eternal, without compromising the honour of his law, or the truth of his character, but with the everlasting and increased glory of both. With such a view of the law, we shall appreciate the boundless extent of the love, which can pardon so much guilt, relieve from so much misery, and exalt and justify creatures so unworthy and so polluted. But any inferior conception of the demands of the law, reducing our estimate of the guilt and danger of transgression, will just so much reduce our estimate of a mercy which will appear to be in the same degree less needed, and to have accomplished a less important and less considerable deliverance. A ruined sinner, conscious that he has been ransomed by amazing grace, from eternal death, and rescued like a brand plucked out of the fire, will feel abundant cause to magnify the love and mercy of God forever. He has had much forgiven, and he will love much in return. But one who thinks he has had less to be forgiven, will necessarily love less also;-and in the very proportion in which he limits his view of the penalties he had incurred, and the dangers to which he was exposed, will he also diminish his conceptions of the mercy of which he has been made the less unworthy object.

All our apprehensions of the moral attributes of God will be thus regulated by our knowledge of his law, and our views

of its demands. And in reference to them all, it will be found indubitably true, that loose and superficial conceptions of the one, will produce low and ineffectual ideas of the other. "God is known by the judgments which he executeth," and our estimate of the character of them, will be the standard by which we shall judge of his attributes, and government and claims.

II. In an accurate knowledge of the divine law alone, do we gain just views of the character and work of the Saviour of mankind:—And our conceptions of the demands of the law, and our estimate and apprehension of the wonderful mediation by which the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled it, will always be found in exact proportion to each other.

1. We shall here see, that our necessity for such a Saviour, arises from our condition under the judgment and condemnation of the law. We shall behold ourselves as transgressors of the divine commandments; as shut up under a just sentence of condemnation for sin, to eternal death; as utterly incompetent to make the satisfaction, which must be made, before we can be released, from the bondage under guilt, and the exposure to righteous anger, in which we are held. This condition makes our need for some "daysman," who can take our burden upon himself, and can speak in righteousness, mighty to save. The breach between us and God which our guilt has caused, must be made up, and we cannot do it. We can neither restore to God, the honour we have taken from him; nor regain for ourselves, the image of his holiness, which we have lost in sin. We must therefore have a Saviour who shall be able to bear the curse and condemnation under which we are lying, and to restore the union of our souls with God, which we have broken and cast away. The violated law holds us in bondage;-our lost condition under it, demands a Redeemer who is mighty;-and it is only as we understand the extent of our need, that we can appre

ciate the indispensable necessity to us, of such a Saviour as God has revealed.

2. Then our estimate of the nature and worth of the atonement which the Lord Jesus has made, will be regulated by our knowledge of the law, which has required it. Whatever is our view of the extent of the necessity, will be also our measure of the nature of the offering by which it has been met. A knowledge of the claims of the divine law will convince us, that our sins are wholly innumerable, and our guilt, inconceivably great. Every deviation from the line of perfect obedience has brought upon us a curse, an everlasting curse, under the righteous judgment of God. This judgment which is according to truth, can never be satisfied, with anything but the full punishment denounced upon the offender, either in his own person, or in that of an adequate surety. The death which the law has threatened, must be endured, before a satisfaction can be made. And the knowledge of the law which displays to us, this death, as the wages of sin, will also show to us, the really satisfying nature of that offering, by which our Blessed Lord "has redeemed us from the curse of the law, by being made a curse in our stead." As our convictions of our own guilt are extended and accurate, we shall exalt and value the work of that glorious Saviour, who hath borne our iniquities, and put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. And in the same degree, in which we reduce our apprehensions of our necessity, and of the condemnation which our sin deserves, shall we also depreciate the worth, and destroy the character, of that gracious atonement which has been made and accepted in our behalf. A clear view of what unpardoned sinners would be compelled to do and bear, will alone accurately teach, what the Lord Jesus has mercifully done and borne, for them whom he has redeemed and pardoned.

3. Our understanding of the justification which has been

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accomplished for us by the Lord Jesus, will also depend upon our accurate knowledge of the demands of the divine law. We shall see that this law is never to be satisfied, but by a perfect and distinct obedience to its commands; that it requires every soul to possess, and to present to God, a righteousness which shall meet its highest claims; that it refuses to relax these requisitions in the least degree; that it insists upon their fulfilment in every point, and to the utmost extent. With this conviction, we shall honour and exalt the great Redeemer, who has accomplished in his own personal obedience for us, this required righteousness; and has opened, through the offering of this spotless righteousness, first to God, in man's behalf, and then to man, as his title to acceptance with God, a full and everlasting justification for every believing soul. We shall see and understand "the blessedness of the man, to whom God imputeth righteousness without works." But if our acknowledgment of these demands of the law, and of the righteousness which they require, be reduced to any inferior or partial standard; so that our own alleged sincere, but imperfect obedience may be accepted; in this false conception of the character of the law, we undermine the whole system of grace, as offered in the Gospel; we make the revealed obedience of Jesus a mere shadow of the imagination; we reduce our need of a perfect righteousness to nothing; we cancel all our obligations to him, for special mercy and abounding merit; and make him in fact, so far as the actual necessity for such a Saviour is concerned, to have lived, obeyed, and died for men, in vain. In no method can we understand, or appreciate, the glorious privilege, of having the "only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," as the "Lord our righteousness," but by gaining this knowledge, in a proper knowledge of the law, which he fulfilled.

4. The same course of remark would equally apply to all the offices of our Divine Redeemer. Our adequate concep

tions of them all, will depend upon our accurate knowledge of the law of God. We shall not seek him as the great Prophet who alone can instruct us in the ways of God, if we do not feel our entire helplessness under the violated law; and are not convinced that our darkness and ignorance are such, as to render divine illumination and guidance absolutely indispensable. We shall not depend upon him as our High Priest, who alone can make an offering for us, and open our way into the holiest, through the veil of his flesh, if we imagine that any repentance or reformation of ours, can be availing or acceptable in the sight of God. We shall never look to him as our only prevailing intercessor and advocate with the Father, if we do not realize the utter worthlessness of the best that we can do in the service of God. We shall not trust in him as the King in Zion, who alone can give us the victory, if we have but partial apprehensions of our own weakness, and rebellion, and dangers, and see no necessity for Almighty power to rescue, or to renew us. And whatever aspect of the Saviour's work we consider, the same remark applies, the less that seems to us to be required of man for himself, the less will also appear to be demanded of his divine surety interposing in his behalf, and standing in his stead; and the less we consider the guilt and danger of man with out a Saviour, the less obligation shall we necessarily feel, to him who willingly assumed and endured his condemnation. In the degree in which we are ignorant of the demands of the law, we form false conceptions of the necessities of the sinner who has broken it; and reduce our estimate of the whole work of the Son of God, who undertook to redeem him from its curse, and to magnify it and make it honourable. And if we would form correct apprehensions of the Father's love, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us, and of the amazing mercy of the Son, who came to do his will in this redemption of the ungodly, we are to acquire them, in