selves.. We reply, that we are poor judges of injury; what seems to be injury being capable of such overrulement for good, that it shall turn out to be blessing. Hence, without doing an eternal injury to those children, nay, rather designing to promote their eternal well-being, GoD may visit on them the misdoings of their ancestry, and thus at one and the same time give a vivid exhibition of his hatred of sin, and vindicate from aspersion the benevolence of his character.

the fire, and the hail, and the storm, and the vapour, he may effect his general purposes without real or final injury to the individual on whom he pours down calamity, surely, we can have no right to assert, that it surpasses even our finite intelligence to discern, how a GoD of truth, and of faithfulness, and of justice, and of mercy can nevertheless be “ a jealous GOD, visiting the iniquity of the fas thers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him?"

There would seem no more im

It were easy as we said to follow out at greater length these considera-portant and practical application of tions, and address others full as re- this subject, than the pressing home levant; we shall, however, only fur- on parents the duties which they ther observe, that in sending evil, on owe to their children. The fathers the posterity of evil men, there are of the present day will rise early and many ends of providence, some of late take rest; and they will ply wisdom, some of mercy, some of jus- without ceasing at a laborious occutice, which it is easy to prove, which pation; and the power of intellect GOD makes assume a union which it and the strength of muscle shall be is impossible to prove that GOD mis-devoted with a like prodigality in conducts. Short-sighted as we are, and prone always to rush from appearances to conclusions, we can still observe, that when GOD punishes a transient action with a lasting judgment, he expresses the highest indignation against sin, warns men most emphatically from its commission, and hedges up the way of the transgressor with thorns which must pierce to the quick if made of human stuff-we can still perceive, that in giving a kind of perpetuity to guilt, and entailing its dark consequences on a family, can be read the gravest allusion to a kingdom or a nation, even where all trace is lost entirely of the connection between the effect and its cause. So that when we see the misery without referring it to the producing iniquity, we may be satisfied of those claims of the retributive economy which could not well be omitted by a dispensation of the future; and when we add that Lord as he is of

the attempting things unknown; and every talent, and every moment in one engrossing pursuit shall be the upholding of families in sufficiency, and amassing the means of its future independence. And it may never occur to these fathers, that if they so indulge the passion of accumulation, as to become the slaves of covetousness; or if they should so engross themselves with the workshop and exchange, as to leave comparatively no time for the church and the closet; or, if they resolve to be rich, it induces them to depart from the high road of rectitude, to carry on trade with those shuffling and underhand tricks by which it is often deformed-it may never, I say, occur to them, that in their zeal to provide for their children, they may be storing up for them calamity; that in every penny they lie by, they may lie by a worm, which if it sleep till their own death, shall then struggle into life, and gnaw at

the root of the family's happiness. | consult most your own souls. The

AT THE CHAPEl of ease, holLOWAY, ISLINGTON, SUNDAY Evening, dec. 8, 1833.

James, i. 25.—“ But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

perly apply to none other." Whoso | it brings no glory to Christ; it is not looketh into the perfect law of liber- a genuine edition of “the perfect law ty." Only he who desires to be a of liberty." Now this the true chrisChristian indeed, rightly understands tian seeks and finds in the Bible; not the scriptures as containing for him that when he first heard or read the the perfect law of liberty. The Jew Bible he fully knew its character, the reads the Old Testament, and finds Word of God is itself the instrument in it nothing but a law, which, as St. with which the Holy Spirit usually Paul speaks, "gendereth to bond- convinces the world of sin: but, then, age:" it seems to him to put a yoke till convinced of sin, he is hardly upon his neck, which neither he nor worthy to be called a christian; for his fathers were able to bear. The a christian is a relative name, and the sinner, still loving sin, understands relation between Christ and a chrisnot what is meant by "the perfect tian is, properly, that of an anointed law of liberty;" if he tries, with the Saviour to a sinner. But when the Antinomian, to interpret "liberty" scripture begins to do its work of conas meaning licentiousness, the word vincing a man of sin-when it shews "perfect" must surely put a check him what sin is, namely, the transupon his audacity; and the whole gression of the law-and what the context in this practical epistle must law is, namely, to love God with all protest against his settled resistance the heart, soul, mind, and strength, of scripture, to his own destruction. and our neighbour as ourself—when it Men of this character are always found shews him sin in his affections, actions, to speak slightingly of this epistle of thoughts, words, and that the wages St. James; it is, in fact, too holy, too of sin is death; then the man, who plain, too faithful for their corrupt sees all this aright, sighs for Christ; minds. He, also, who is mixing hu- he is burthened and heavy laden; he man works and Christ's merits as his has innumerable sins to answer for; dependence before GOD, can hardly he sees the heavy displeasure of Alunderstand the expression "the per- mighty GoD rolling on to meet him. fect law of liberty; for there is no What shall he do-how shall be esliberty, no freedom of spirit, in his cape? Let him look into "the perreligion. He is very much like the fect law of liberty," and he will read Jew: though he has lost the old cere- with wonder and delight of Christ, as monial law, he invents another; he" the end of the law for righteousturns the means of grace into so many ceremonies; public worship, into a mere ritual; alms, into meritorious oblations; the sacrament, into a sacrifice he reads the Bible as a task to quiet conscience, just as the Jew may read the law, or a Papist may count his beads; he prays in private, and, it may be, in public, in a cold, formal way; but he never learns to worship GOD in spirit and in truth. Now all this, brethren, is not true christianity; it is judaism, pharisaism, popery, or what you please, under the name of christianity; it will not save the soul;

ness to every one that believeth”—of Christ, as having fulfilled all righteousness, and even borne the law's curse, and endured the law's penalty, which is death, for sinners. Let him thus read. And in the law he will now find a schoolmaster to lead him to Christ; and thus coming to Christ with a sense of his own need as a sinner, and an apprehension of Christ's merit as a Saviour, he will find in Christ a glorious liberty from the yoke, the curse, and the oppressive burthen of sin. And will he go back to sin? Will the burnt child, as soon

the facts of the Gospel establish its doctrines; its doctrines enforce duties; its duties are sustained by promises; its promises are guarded by warnings: meanwhile, to the believer, grace animates the whole system; the charm of liberty makes all interesting, easy, and delightful.

as the burn is healed, again thrust | onward to Christ for their fulfilment; his hand to the heated bar? The Bible would not contain a “perfect law of liberty" if, offering, as it does, a full forgiveness of sin, it left men the willing servants and slaves of sin. The Gospel takes off the iron fetters of the law; but it binds anew with the silken cords of Christ's love. This, some would say, is bondage still. Nay, brethren, it is perfect freedom: they whom Christ freely forgives, they love Christ for having so loved them; they all begin to hate sin, which caused Him such an agony and death; they long to be holy, that they may please GOD who gave Christ to redeem them; they desire to glorify Him now, as they dishonoured him once by their sin. The Holy Spirit, meanwhile, is helping them: He mortifies the love of sin; He writes the law of God upon their hearts; He pleads with them by the eloquent motives of the cross of Christ; He has already regenerated, He is now gradually sanctifying them, and conforming them more and more to the perfect image of the holy Saviour.

Now this is liberty-to have sins all pardoned, and the soul justified by faith in the infinite merits of Christ: and to be freed from the ruling dominion of sin in the heart and life. If the Son of God thus makes you free, you shall be free indeed. This, brethren, is "the perfect law of liberty," offering a perfect justification at once, and a perfect sanctification by degrees; it is perfect, for it admits of no addition from human wisdom; philosophy may spoil it, it cannot mend it; it is the transcript of the mind and will of the all-perfect GOD. All the parts of scripture have their uses in this perfect system. The ceremonial law is the Gospel in shadows; the moral law serves to convince the sinner, and to furnish a rule of life to the believer; the Prophecies all look

Such is "the perfect law of liberty," into which the true Christian looks. And this word is also expressive of great earnestness, and deep attention on his part. In the original the word is more expressive than in our translation; it is the same word in the original with that used by St. Peter, speaking of the angels, desiring to look into the things of salvation, though in that place, also, the word could not be fully rendered-"angels stoop forward to look into,”—that is the idea; so here, "whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty”—the idea is, whoso looks, with bended attention, into "the perfect law of liberty." In fact, as you will remember, (for it was our second lesson of to-night,) the apostle contrasting the deep attention of the doer of the word, with the slight superficial regard paid to it by the careless hearer -You, surely, have not forgotten his illustration? you, surely, must often have occasion to think of it again— "If any," he told us, "be a hearer of the word, and not a doer; he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass or mirror; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." Just as a man of manly character-for the original word, it may be remarked, is not the word sometimes used for men in general, which would include man, woman, or child, as when we say, "Christ died for us men"-the word here intimates a man of manly character; such a one looks into a mir