the infinitely glorious perfections of the Deity are continually beheld. He speaks, and it is done; he commands, and his will stands fast.

This law was communicated immediately from God to man. It was written in his mind and heart at his creation, by the Spirit of God. When man first opened his eyes upon the beauties and benefits, with which his Divine Creator had been pleased to surround him, this spiritual law upon his heart, led him to lift up his immediate offering of pure and perfect love to the Lord of all, and to delight in every act of homage to his will. This same holy law has been written since by the same Spirit in the soul of every child of God among redeemed men, in the hour in which he was brought back from his death in sin, to a life of new obedience to God. And all the renewed servants of the most High, perceive and admire its perfections, and delight to fulfil its holy commandments. The purity and excellence of the law, which the Spirit of God thus teaches man, when he writes it upon his heart, is one of those things which the natural man discerneth not, and is not able to understand. In its origin within his soul, it is ever and wholly the work of the Spirit of God. By the same Spirit, it was revealed to holy men who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as the authors of those Scriptures which were given by inspiration of God, -and in the precepts of which, this holy law is recorded for the government of man. Whatever period or occasion of its revelation, we may particularly consider, the spiritual origin of the law is the same. It is written by the finger of God, and from himself proclaims his mind and will.

2. The law is spiritual in its demands. It is wholly a mistaken view, which limits these divine revelations to the letter of the precepts, or to the outward conduct of men. The external acts to which the divine precepts refer, whether they are of sins forbidden, or of duties commanded, are

surely included in their intended application. But they cannot be understood as the limits of this application. These precepts refer as certainly to the desires and purposes of the heart, and the thoughts of the mind, as they do to the open conduct of the life. They lay the hand of their authority upon the inner man. They distinctly reveal to man what God requires, and they demand the unqualified and uniform obedience to every precept, in the heart which he searches. If man were in a condition shut out from the possibility of outward breaches of divine commands; nay, if he were without the body, with which they are perpetrated, the law of God would still impose upon him, the same obligations, and make the same demands. The principle of obedience, is that to which the law directs its notice and its operation. It requires every where total and unbroken submission to the will of God. The changes of occasional relations to other created beings, cannot alter the obligation of this simple principle of entire subjection to the will of God. The demands of the law are in their extent, spiritual. The thoughts and purposes which lead to outward violations of these precepts, are as really violations of them also, as are the results to which they tend. When the law forbids a single transgression, it equally forbids every thought, and occupation, and feeling, which would naturally lead to its commission. And when it commands a duty, it equally enjoins every circumstance and habit which properly conduces to its performance. Even more extensively than this, in the very prohibition of a transgression, it requires the contrary duty; and in the injunction of a duty, it forbids the opposite sin. The commandment of God is thus exceeding broad, and like a two-edged sword, divides asunder, and discerns, the thoughts and intents of the heart. It goes thus directly to the hidden fountain of the character, and requires the inward cleansing of the soul in entire conformity to the purity of God. If it were possible, that any one had

been perfectly obedient to God, in every feeling, desire, and act of the whole life, and in but one single thought had rebelled against him, that sinful thought would annihilate the worth of the whole obedience, with which it was connected. The man has thus become a sinner, and having offended in one point, is guilty of all, or wholly guilty, in the judgment of the law. This was the case with the first transgressor, in whom a single sin destroyed the whole covenant of life, under which he had been placed. The character of man has changed, -but the law has not. It is still equally spiritual in its demands, requiring in every heart, a submission to God, uninterrupted by a single insurgent feeling, a purity of character, uncontaminated by a single stain, and a zeal of devotion unrelaxed by a single wandering purpose. The law of God has no partial operation for the earth. It requires the same character throughout the universe. That which angels have always been in heaven, it requires men to be, from their birth, and forever. Its searching precepts go directly to the heart, and are to be obeyed there, in a perfect exhibition of the mind of Christ, and a perfect exemplification of the holiness of God. This is the spiritual character of the law in its demands. Uniform love with all the heart, and that forever, constitutes the only fulfilment of its precepts.

3. The law is spiritual in its operations. It was originally ordained to be a covenant of life ;-its designed operation was, in an unceasingly holy and animating guidance of man, to lead him to a perfect conformity to the will of God. It was a pure and sacred friend and supporter of its subjects. It taught them, what their Creator required of them; and warned them of what he had forbidden. It checked them in every temptation to transgress; it encouraged them in every path of obedience. In the keeping of its precepts, it gave them great reward. But the disobedience of man changed the whole operation of the law towards him; and gave it a

new course and purpose. It can never be the friend of sinners. It comes now with no offer of life. It remains faithful to God, though man has been unfaithful, and stands forth as a swift witness against all who have rebelled against him. With the sinner, its whole operation is to convince him of his guilt; to judge him as thus guilty;-to condemn him to death; and then to leave him to perish. It comes to him in the majesty of divine authority, and with distinct and undeniable accusations, for this two-fold purpose of conviction and judgment. In this work of power, it lays out before his conscience, the extent of its own claims; and places by their side, the enormity of his transgressions. It shows him what God requires ;—and then it shows him what he has done. Thus laying open before him his aggravated guilt, it convinces him of the truth of its charges against him, and of the justice of his condemnation. It stops his mouth from all excuses. It compels him in deep humiliation to acknowledge himself unclean; and then stands forth in the name of the most High, to pass a final sentence upon his soul. It proclaims the eternal wages of sin. It announces the certainty of a coming wrath. It unveils before him, an unutterable and everlasting destruction. It strips off the covering from the devouring fire. And thus, laying judgment to the line of its holy and unrelaxing demands, it destroys the hope of the sinful soul, and compels the convicted transgressor to cry out in the bitternerness of his anguish, "O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This is the spiritual operation of the law. Here its work ceases. It cannot go beyond this limit ;-convincing the transgressor of his guilt; pronouncing his everlasting condemnation; and then leaving him to perish. This has been its actual operation upon every servant of God who has been redeemed from his iniquity, and reconciled to him. In his experience, the power of the commandment has slain and destroyed all self

confidence, all hope in any righteousness of his own; and condemned under its righteous sentence, he can say, “I know that the law is spiritual." In its origin, its demands, and its operation, this is the spirituality of the law, which perhaps these views of it sufficiently display.

III. There are certain practical purposes of great consequence, to which the consideration of this subject will properly lead us.

It is adapted to produce in us a deep humiliation. It casts out the pride and boasting of the very holiest among men, and brings down every soul in the deepest prostration before God. In regard to gross outward violations of the commands of God, you may be comparatively blameless. According to the judgment of men, you may have lived in strict conformity to the divine will. But who has rendered to God the honour which is due to him, and counted every thing else as worthless in comparison with him? When you consider that spotless line of life which the law imposes, in the different relations of man, who is not compelled to acknowledge, that his transgressions are multiplied, beyond his power to compute them? When you add to these, the unholy tempers and dispositions which you have exercised and indulged; the evil thoughts which you have allowed and harboured; the failures in duty, of which you are conscious; who does not blush to lift up his eyes unto heaven, ashamed and confounded in the holy presence of God who searcheth the hearts? And yet the mere calculation of what we have done, or left undone, would give a very inadequate view of the sinfulness of our characters. We must take the elevated and spotless standard of divine commandments, and see how infinitely short we have come of the spirit of their intention, in every act of our lives, and in every moment of our existence. We must trace the whole state of our souls from the beginning of our lives, and estimate it, by this unbending standard. And we shall see, that our