ground of hope, in all the book of God, that any one part thereof will ever be altered or repealed; consequently there is no mercy for them that die under its curse. Go, ye cursed, into everlasting punishment.

The immutability of God appears in the law; God is of one mind, and none can turn him, Job xxiii. 13. This appears if we consider the law as a revelation of wrath. "The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," Rom. i. 18. And this wrath is said to be the cup of unmixed wine, poured out into the cup of his indignation, which will be the portion of the wicked for ever, Mal. i. 4.

When Justice put that cup into the hands of our blessed Surety, the human nature shuddered at it, and the Saviour, with a threefold petition, cried, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." But the removal of it could not be complied with. God spared not his own Son. And, if he spared not his own Son, will he spare the sinner that dies under the law? Here Justice appeared in all her inflexibility, the lawgiver and the law in their immutability, and the weight of wrath in all its dreadful appearance; sin in its just demerit, the malice of sinners in all its insensibility and cruelty, and the dear Redeemer in the highest act of unparalleled obedience.

The eternity of God appears in the law; the transgressors of it shall go away into everlasting punishment, Matt. xxv. 46.

I know that some of our troublers of Israel, who pretend to be famous Hebraists and Grecians, in order to support the new doctrine of a gaoldelivery for the damned in hell, tell us that eternal and everlasting in the original languages have a limited sense; but I have found none so daring as to affirm that it admits of a limited sense when applied to the eternity of Jehovah, or to the eternal happiness of the saints. Let this be granted, and the eternity of God will appear in the law. It is proved that the law is expressive of many of the glorious perfections of God, which shine conspicuously in it. Hence it is said to be glorious. And let such gentlemen hope for a gaoldelivery for the damned, and try when they come there if the abuse of goodness, the contempt of glory, the displeasure of a slighted God, scorned justice, immutability derided by a false hope in a mutable law and lawgiver, do not to all eternity flash in the faces, and recoil on the consciences, of all who die under the curse of that dreadful law. In that sense God, as an injured and offended Being, will ever visit unpardonable transgressors with the dreadful stripes of his iron rod. "If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there." And the damned shall surely come out when the immutable Jehovah admits of a change, but not till then.

If God can fail in his law he must fail in himself; and, if one perfection can be changed, so may all. But "let God be true," says the Holy

Ghost, and then we shall be able to agree with the same Spirit with respect to the law. "Thy law is the truth." Having given a brief description of the law, I now pass on to treat of the second branch of this head, namely, of the lawful use of it.

"The law is good if a man use it lawfully." It is lawful to sound God's dreadful alarm from it, in order to batter down the daubed wall of self-righteousness, and the false peace that attends it. This was prefigured by throwing down the wall of Jericho by the sound of rams' horns.

The spirituality of the law is to be insisted on; the law is of the same divine nature as the lawgiver. The law is spiritual, but the sinner is carnal, sold under sin. When the law is enforced in its spiritual meaning, and its spiritual demands discovered, the conscience of the sinner is laid open, his sin exposed, and he appears under an awful arrest. When the commandment came sin revived, and all manner of concupiscence appeared. By the law is the knowledge of sin." "For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet."

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The goodness of the law, its immutability, eternity, and unlimited demands, ought to be insisted on, in order to execute all legal hopes in a killing covenant; and to drive the sinner out of all his false holds and refuges of lies, by proving that as many as are of the works of it are under

the curse of it, Gal. iii. 10; and, dying under it, they must rise under it, and be condemned by it; for heaven and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of the law shall fail, Matt. v. 18. The law will deliver up to the judge every transgressor that is found under it, and bring him to an account for every idle word; and the judge is bound, by the immutable ties of truth and righteousness, to deliver the criminal up to vindictive justice; and eternal justice will see the eternal sentence of the law eternally executed. The law, therefore, is lawfully used when it is faithfully preached in its spiritual meaning to them that are under it; that the mouth of boasting may be stopped, and the sinner brought in guilty before God; for the language of the law is directed to all self-righteous souls that seek to be justified by it; for “we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law." A gospel minister may gospelize any part of the law, and set it, disarmed of its curse and condemning power, in a beautiful light before the eyes of a real Christian, and yet do the work of an evangelist: for instance, the law says, "And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us," Deut. vi. 25. I may warrantably declare that the law of God allows of a surety, and that Christ, as a surety, has magnified that law, and made it honourable, Isa. xlii. 21; which law has been broken by all the

human race, infants not excepted, as appears by comparing these scriptures together: "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul," Psalm

xix. 7.

"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and

"Who can

in sin did my mother conceive me." bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one,' Job xiv. 4. Hence Death reigned from Adam to Moses over them, infants included, who had never sinned after the similitude, or in the practical manner, of Adam's transgression. Wherever Death reigns Sin enthrones him, either by imputation, original guilt, or actual transgression. "Sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," Rom. v. 12.

"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God [the Father's providing; of God the Son's preparing; and of God the Holy Ghost's revealing and applying;] which is by faith of Jesus Christ 'unto all and upon all them that believe," Rom. iii. 21, 22.

; I may further add, that the promised Spirit, as a covenant blessing, which is promised to all the elect, Isa. lix. 21, is Christ Jesus, and is called the spirit of love and of a sound mind, 2 Tim. i. 7. And God's love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost is of the same spiritual nature as the law; for the law is fulfilled by real love, Rom. xiii. 8. Thus a Christian, who has an imputed