LECTURE VII.

THE LAW A GUIDE TO CHRIST.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.-GALATIANS, III. 24.

THE subject presented by this text is of great importance, and peculiar interest. It displays the instrument by which a sinful man is directed to a Saviour's feet, and the vast benefit which he gains by following this direction. However severe and searching may be the method of guidance, the result to which it leads is most desirable and important; and the very severity which has led to this result, tends to enhance the comfort which is derived from it. The chill and darkness of the night which has passed, make the beams of the rising sun more welcome and more delightful. So the deep anguish and darkness, through which the law leads the convicted sinner in its awful denunciations, make the consolations which abound in Christ, who has met all these denunciations, the more sufficient, and the more precious.

The apostle speaks of the law in our text, as a guide to Christ. He has shewed its total inability to give life to a fallen man, and the absolute necessity of that gracious redemption which God has revealed in his own Son. He describes the condition of all, in whose hearts, these glad tidings of redemption have not been received, as one of necessary and entire ruin, from which there is no other way of escape, than that which is here laid open. The law bringing a curse upon transgressors, and offering no pardon for sin,

shuts them up, destitute of all hope, but the blessed one which is offered in this covenant of grace. It imprisons them under its curse. It demands a full satisfaction for their guilt. It rejects all their offers, and all their pleas. It allows no method of escape, but that which grace has thus opened in the accepted satisfaction of a Saviour. It becomes thus a guide to Christ. All men as sinners against God, are shut up in this imprisonment. Their eternal ruin in it becomes inevitable. They cannot live by any works of their own. They cannot endure the certain penalty of their transgressions. They cannot escape from it, by any power which they possess. In the midst of this darkness and despair, the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed as the great object of faith, offering freely as the gift of divine grace, that which man could never obtain by any worthiness of his own. When this door of grace is opened, and this messenger from God, proclaiming an entire satisfaction for sin, looses the chains of sinners, and bids them go in peace, they are no longer shut up under the law. If they hear the voice, and follow the guidance of the revealed Saviour, they are under grace, and can come no more into condemnation, but have passed from death unto life. If they refuse his offered mercy, then, "this is their condemnation, that light has come into the world, but they have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

The apostle speaks of this guiding power of the law, both as a dispensation, and as a personal instrument. As a dispensation, it held all mankind in bondage, until Christ was revealed among men, in the fulness of his grace, as its end and satisfaction. In him the righteousness of the law was perfectly fulfilled. The demands of its covenant were entirely answered and satisfied. The world which it had con demned, became a redeemed and purchased world, by t propitiation which he had made for the sins of men. W

this great object of promise and faith had come, and had completed his work, the dispensation of the law was satisfied, and honoured; and the world for whom he lived and died, came under the provisions of the covenant of grace. Each subject of the violated law, had liberty offered him in the completing Gospel; and whosoever would, might take of the water of life freely. As an instrument for personal guidance, the law still remains, in its record, and in its application, a schoolmaster to bring sinners unto Christ. The Holy Spirit uses it for this purpose, and by it, he leads the souls of sinners, to embrace the blessed and glorious hope, which is offered to them freely, in the obedience and death of the divine Redeemer. This personally guiding power of the law as a divine instrument, is the subject of the present discourse. We may consider first the method by which the law fulfils this office,-and secondly, the purpose for which it is done.

I. We will consider the method in which this guiding power of the law is exercised. "It is our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ."

1. By completely shutting us out, from every other hope. The demands of the law must be fully answered, before it can allow ar hope of life. They can never be set aside. They are as unalterable as the character of God himself. The law is holy, its commands cannot therefore be abated. It is just, its sanctions therefore cannot be mitigated. It is good, and it must remain eternally good, whatever may become of those who have transgressed, and therefore dislike it. Its direct purpose and tendency in all that it requires, is to promote the honour of God, and to advance the happiness of men. it becomes to any creature, an occasion of sorrow, it is only through his own perverseness in violating its commands. This is the actual character of the law. If therefore the sinner would have hope by it, he must come up to the measure of of its requirements. He must bear the curse which it has

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denounced, and obey the commands which it imposes. But when he looks at these demands; when he surveys this awful curse, and examines these holy precepts; when he is convinced of their unalterable character; he sees the utter impossibility of his ever meeting them in his own person. He

has therefore no hope. He has no alternative, but to lie down, and perish forever. The idea of a substitute to fulfil these obligations for him, and of the possible acceptance of this substitute in his behalf, would never come to man under the law. But grace having revealed such a substitute, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and declared that the Father is well pleased in him, the law drives man to find him. It shuts him out from all prospect of salvation in any other quarter. It speaks to him nothing but indignation and wrath. It thus forces his mind to think of some one who can fulfil all righteousness for him, and set him free from the curse which it impends over him. He hears it announcing to him if you can undergo the full punishment for sin, you shall be set free from the curse; and if you can offer a perfect obedience in holiness, you shall be justified and live. But these requisitions are as deep as hell, and high as heaven, what can he do? He hears the law again announcing, as the instrument of divine guidance to Christ, if you can find one who is able and willing to do these for you, you shall still not die, but live. It thus drives him from himself, and puts him upon the search for some such Redeemer and friend. While it absolutely shuts him out from all other hope, it hints to him, that hope may still be found, in the revelation from God, of this plan of grace; and thus it becomes a teacher to his soul to lead him to Christ. It has shut him up to this alternative; he must find a sufficient surety and Saviour, or he must lie in his prison, until he has paid the uttermost farthing. This is the first step in the personal guidance of a sinner to Christ. He is convinced that he must have a Saviour, because he cannot save himself; and

his awakened conscience cries out in anguish," Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

2. The Law shews him the character and qualifications which he must find in the Saviour upon whom he can securely rely. He must be one competent to fulfil all the requisitions which this holy law has made; able to bear the load of infinite wrath and punishment, and capable of accomplishing, and offering a spotless obedience. He must not only be capable of doing all this in fact, but must be under no obligations to do it, in his own nature and condition, and competent therefore to undertake it in behalf of others. But this can be no created Saviour. A creature, though the very highest intelligence which God hath formed, being still limited in his power, and infinitely beneath the Being who hath formed him, would sink forever under the wrath of God. There is no material difference in this adaptation, or rather, this total want of all adaptation, between the highest created being and man himself. They are both as nothing in the sight of God. The fire of God's anger would consume the one, as easily, and as certainly, as the other. Nothing is gained for man, by shifting the work of expiation from himself, upon any other creature. The law shuts him out therefore, from confidence for satisfaction for sin, in any being, who is like himself limit. ed in nature, however glorious and great. The highest conceivable creature can no more obey for him, than he can suffer.

Every created being is already in the circumstances of his own nature, under the law, and is required to obey it, in all its commands. All that the law enjoins, he is bound to fulfil. He can do nothing therefore, which is not already his absolute duty. He can never have any thing which can be called merit in the sight of God. However exalted and glorious he may be, his obedience is all due; and when he has rendered it all, he is but an unprofitable servant; "he hath