law-when the penalty is just in proportion to the precept.

But God's law, in beauty and perfection, must equal the laws of finite man. The infinite God then must have an infinite law-a law adapted to his own perfections-to his own infinite capacity -a law which shall extend from the throne of the universe round the universe. But this law must have a penalty, or it would be no law. Who ever heard of a law without a penalty? And this law must have a penalty equal in magnitude to the interests which it is intended to defend. But it is intended to defend the interests of God, angels, and men. And are not these infinite, and consequently must there not be an infinite penalty? If the interests which the law aims to protect are infinite, then the penalty must be infinite. An infinite law must have an infinite penalty. But how, asks one, can finite man break an infinite law? How can finite man refuse to love God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself? This is the real question. But man does refuse to do this-therefore he can break an infinite law-therefore he must fall under the curse of an infinite penalty, Man tramples upon a principle which God is governed by, and which he desires all his creatures to be governed by, viz. that every moral agent should do all the good he can, This man refuses to do. As far as his agency and influence goes, he violates a principle upon which the throne of the Eternal is based, and which fills the empire of God with holiness and bliss. He invades the inte

rests of Almighty God, and he must suffer the consequences. This is the sin of the world. This is man's sin. This is total depravity. This is that total depravity which some deny. This is that total depravity which some who profess to heal the moral distemper of man say they know nothing about-which they declare in the presence of God and many witnesses is not to be found in the Bible! They can behold man violating the laws of God, and yet deny the total depravity of man's heart. They can look around them upon the melancholy evidences of man's depravity, and yet deny that man is depraved totally. They can bolt their own doors to exclude the thief and the assassin, and yet proclaim that man is not totally depraved. They can see men plundering the universe of its rights, and robbing God of his glory, and yet declare that man is not totally depraved. They can listen to the testimony of God himself, when he says, "there is none that doeth good, no not one," and yet give even God the lie, and declare that man is not totally depraved. Is it a wonder, if a man can be blind to this truth, he can be blind to any other truth? Is it a wonder, that if a man can preach that men are not totally depraved, he can preach any other error, till he denies all truth and rushes into the bottomless hell of atheism?

Man violates law, and violates a law adapted to his moral nature-a law claiming all his affections -all his affections-all his powers. If he transgresses such a law he is totally depraved. It is man's firm, fixed, voluntary choice to violate God's

law. This is total depravity. This is the sin of the world alluded to in our text, which the Lamb of God came to take away. This leads us to our second question, viz:

II. How was the sin of the world taken awayor in what sense was it taken away?

"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

There are but two senses in which the Lamb of God could take away the sin of the world; and there must be two to harmonize with the facts in the case.

1. The Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world by making an atonement for it. He became the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. By his incarnation, sufferings and death, he magnified the law and made it honourable. He came to defend the interests of a prostrated law, and to render such a voluntary satisfaction to its claims as would open the way for God to forgive and save the believing sinner. The curse of a violated law was resting upon man. A sacrifice was called for of sufficient dignity and worth, which would make the same impression upon the universe, of God's abhorrence of sin, as the death of the sinner would. This sacrifice the Lamb of God rendered, and thus took away the sin of the world, or in other words, the curse of the law. He stooped from heaven to earth, and by his obedience and death atoned for sin-elevated the law, and sent forth a commanding and

binding influence upon the government of God. When he hung upon the cross, then a display of God's justice was made, which the entombment of the universe in hell would have failed to make.

In as far as he atoned in his death for sin he took away the sin of the world. So far as he rendered it possible for God, consistently with his justice, to forgive one sinner on certain conditions, he rendered it possible for him to forgive all on the same conditions. So that an atonement has been made for the whole world. Not for the elect simply, but for all mankind. God can now, in view of the atonement, be just, and yet the justifier of every one who believeth in Jesus. This is one way in which the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world. In this man had, it is true, no choice. It did not depend upon his repentance or faith whether the atonement should be made. God did not consult man. The only time a created being was ever consulted on this branch of the subject, was when that memorable question was asked in heaven

"Who will go for us and whom shall we send?" But there was no created being that could answer the question. Neither before nor since have men or angels been consulted. The plan was laid from before the foundations of the world-before a single star had moved upon its orbit, or sun shone upon creation, this plan of man's salvation was formed.

2. But the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world in one other sense, viz: by securing the subjugation of sin in the heart, and the commence

ment of repentance, faith, and holiness. It is one thing to secure a pardon by a proper and an adequate influence-but it is another thing to make the criminal consent to accept of it, and consent to become a better man. The criminal may love his chains and his dungeon-he may be set upon crime, past recovery-what is to be done then? Let the Universalist answer.

The sinner's pardon has been secured; and offered, written in blood, upon condition of repentance and faith-but he will neither repent nor believe. What then is to be done? Is he to be crushed to atoms? Is this the way God deals with moral agents? No, they must accept of salvation. They must repent and believe, or the atonement can do them no good. The sin of the world, so far as man is concerned, must be taken away conditionally. Man's rejection of salvation does not invalidate the worth of the atonement in the government of God, but it places him in such a relation to the atonement as renders it a moral impossibility to save him. God cannot save the sinner without an atonement, and he cannot save him with one, if he reject it. If he refuse to repent and believe, though God might take him to heaven, yet he would still have a hell in his own bosom. It would be no heaven to him, though the atonement were perfect.

But, says one, he taketh away the sin of the world. But we are not to wrest the Scriptures to our own destruction. We are not to stake our