man,- Whoever says, that he abides in Christ, let him walk even as Christ has walked.' So the whole history of Paul is a continued proclamation,-‘Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ.' The preaching too of all the witnesses of the Gospel, those mentioned in the Scripture, and those out of it, are a continued exhortation,'Wherefore let us also, since we are surrounded with such a crowd of witnesses, lay aside the sin which retards our spiritual progress, and makes us always sluggish.' 'For,' says the same apostle, ' all Scripture, given by God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for reformation, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, made ready for every good work.' Ye who are sincere and earnest in your profession of religion, do ye daily hold before your eyes this mirror of God's claim upon us? Again, and yet again have I pointed you to the law; and has even one, here and there, actually reduced it to practice? I hope in God it is so ; and yet there have been very few seasons, when the preached Gospel has so easily found applause, but so hardly found obedience. Ah, after what do many preachers of the word themselves inquire and seek? Instead of inquiring, whether the preached word be obeyed, do they not seek after the miserable approbation of their fellow men?—The cause of this disobedience to the preached Gospel, is the fact, that we, the Christians of this time, give way too much to our evil propensities. And from the very fact, that we too freely surrender ourselves to sinful impulse, arises our need of the discipline of law.

Secondly, where the Spirit of God does not bear sway, we need the external discipline of the law as a barrier against the sins which importune us. As every deed of man is an efflux from his will, so the deed operates back again upon its source. As from the sinful thought, sinful words and sinful actions emanate, so the sinful words and actions have a reflex influence upon the thought. Vanity, anger, unchaste desire harass our spirits within, and are clamorous to break out in words. At last you speak the word,-the fiery dart flies back ignited into your heart. Therefore what the Lord said to Cain is always appropriate; If thou be not seriously inclined, sin lieth at the door; yet surrender thou not thy desire to it, but rule over it."

Gen. 4: 7. If thou doest not well, sin stands ready to be committed, lieth in wait for thee; but thy duty is, not to be overcome by it, not to comply with its solicitations however urgent, Rom. 6: 12, but to resist and subdue it. This is the interpretation of Rosenmüller and others.-TR.

Christians, we are permitted in no circumstances to surrender our wills to sin. If the spirit cannot repress it from its own impulses, we must place against it, from without, the barrier of the law. In the effeminacy of the present times, our Christianity fails in this respect, more than in any other. Our religion is one of feeling, but not of prayer and of law. If we feel ourselves piously excited, then we are pious; if the feeling be irreligious, then we yield to impulse and are irreligious. But have we not read, that through the Spirit we should die to the things of the flesh?' Christians, every instant of our life, must we obey the invisible King, whose we are? Can we not obey him as his children? Well then, we must obey him as his servants. Obey, we must. Accordingly, there must be, every instant, some ruling power in the life of a Christian, to control him; and if this be not the flame of the spirit from within, it must be the barrier of the law from without. Who has been a man of such spiritual excellence as Paul? And yet even with him the work of sanctification was not completed with perfect ease, and freedom from the law. Even he was obliged to set before himself a dike and barrier from without; for he says, 'I mortify my body and afflict it, that I may not preach the Gospel to others, and be myself cast away.' Wherefore, Christians, write it deeply upon your consciences, nothing is less seemly for a religious man, than for him at any time to give the rein to his evil passions. He only can give way to his impulses who has no Lord. But we, if we live, then let us live to the Lord; if we die, then let us die to Him. Whether therefore we live or die, we still are the Lord's. A Christian cannot surrender himself up to evil feelings; either he will be incited by the urgency of the Holy Spirit, or he will be held back by the barrier of the law of God. Beloved, think of a man, who has been permitted to dwell near his monarch, before the face of that monarch to pass his life, will he ever let himself depart from that monarch's will? No. He will never allow this departure. If he is not incited by the spirit of reverence and love from within, he will yet be held back from without by the restraints of the law. But we also, Christians, live continually before the face of a great King, the omnipresent God; wherefore woe to us, if we ever let ourselves depart from his will!

This is the place for learning the nature of those external laws, which are not properly moral laws, but are simply designed for the

discipline and regulation of the outer life. You may perhaps have often looked with astonishment upon that indefinite number of external ceremonies and statutes, with which Moses encompassed the children of the old dispensation. An Israelite could scarcely spend a single hour, without being reminded of some one of the many outward duties, which were prescribed for him. These outward disciplinary laws were the very barrier, which has been described for the sinful inclinations of such a heart as was not swayed by the Spirit. If, from the depth of the Israelite's consciousness, the feeling did not force itself upon him, that he was dependent, constantly, and in all his deeds upon the invisible King of all kings, still, by such a system of outward legal discipline, this feeling must have been ever freshly excited in his bosom. He was not permitted to resign himself to his impulses. Every one of these commands would be, as it were, a fact preaching to the heart that had forgotten its Creator,Man, thou art a servant of God. And since we, Christians, so far as the Spirit of the Lord does not dwell within us, stand in general, like the Israelites, under the outward discipline of the law, so we cannot dispense with such an outward disciplinary administration, such external ordinances. They are a barrier to the sins that harass our minds.

How far even the most spiritual Christian is from being so much of a spirit, as to have no further need of the prescribed external observances, I am able to show by an example relating to the services of divine worship. You have heard of that sect of Christians, calling themselves by the simple name of Friends, who strenuously insist, that in the sacred assemblies of Christians the fire of devotion should enkindle itself simply and solely from within; and they therefore wish to hear of no call of the bell to devotion, no temples stretching up toward heaven, no sacred vestments for the Sabbath, and no holy seasons. They come together under no other sound of the bell than that of praying souls; and with no other sacred vesture, than the ornament of devotion. And in what other manner, they ask, can we properly explain the instructions of the Lord about worshipping in spirit and in truth? And it is a fact; did the sacred tide of spiritual influence diffuse itself through our whole internal system, what need should, we have of these solemn altars, and these sacerdotal vestments of the sound of the bell, and the organ-tone, and of such halls aspiring to heaven? Oh, at that Sabbath, when

Christians shall keep their everlasting rest, the time will have arrived, when we shall worship perfectly, in spirit and in truth; when the glorified company of the Lord shall no more need the organ, and the sound of the bell, to awaken their inward devotion! But who of us is not fully convinced, that in our present state, the Spirit of the Lord having manifested himself within us scarcely in his first fruits, we cannot dispense, not even the most spiritual among us, with these outward ordinances and disciplinary forms? If then, in the public worship of God, the external regulation must come to the aid of the spirit, the same is true in our whole religious life. We need an external regulation which may cooperate with the efforts of the spirit. The whole Christianity of our time too wants such an external system; for it is moving in uncertainty hither and thither upon the waves of feeling. There is no longer a solemn observance of Sundays and a regular attendance at church; there is but little regular secret prayer in the closet, or social prayer in the family. Spirit! Spirit! we cry out; but should the prophets of God come again, as they came of old, and should they look upon our works,— Flesh! Flesh! they would cry out in response. Of a truth, my friends, even the most spiritual among us cannot dispense with a rule, a prescribed form, in his morality and piety, without allowing the flesh to resume its predominance. You are all obliged to confess, that the sway of the Spirit of God within your minds is yet weak; carry, then, holy ordinances into your life. As the apostle commands you, take your food with the expression of thanks; by this means will you be reminded that your sustenance is the gift of unmerited mercy.-Observe your Sunday by attendance at church, and by prayer; so you may vividly call to mind, at least on that day, as you do not during the whole week, who your Lord is, and to what company you belong. Offer solitary prayer in your closet, and social prayer in your family. And should it seem to you that the yoke is too severe, reflect that you have already received the first fruits of the Spirit; love to your Saviour has commenced within you; and this principle of love, must unite with the principle of obedience, else it will be nearly as difficult for you as for any one to obey the law, simply because it is law. Think of the severest duties, the acutest sufferings of disease, the heaviest losses; is it not true, that love will here insinuate itself, and if it will not do every thing, will at least help to make the duty and the command easy to you?

But if the external discipline of the law were necessary neither as a representation of virtue, which we have not, nor as a barrier against the sins which harass us, still it would be beneficial as a seal of the method of salvation which we have chosen-of salvation by grace. Let us now, in the conclusion of our discourse, glance at this topic.

This outward discipline of the law, if we subject ourselves to it, is a perpetual seal, that the way to the Father, which we have chosen, a way opened by the grace that appears in Christ, is all that can make man happy. Whoever faithfully subjects himself to the discipline of the divine law, is confident, is without a doubt, that neither happiness in the world to come, nor peace in the present world, is ever obtained on the ground of mere desert. Such an one learns for the first time, by this legal discipline, how difficult it is to obey the law of God.-But you ask, can there be among us the false conceit, that any one has merit before God, when there is no word oftener sounded in our ears from the pulpit, than Love, and Grace? My friends, I tell you, this error does prevail among us, and perhaps in no less degree than in the church, from which ours originated. With the altered times, indeed, this error has assumed a new dress. It has put on the garb of moral improvement. The hand of eternal justice holds the two scales of the balance; into the left scale fall your wicked deeds, and into the right your virtues. Will the right be so heavy as to sink ?—Will the right sink ?—Oh, I would not depend upon it, that from the heart of any one present, there would come a negative answer to this question. I could not confidently anticipate such an answer, for-your eye is too dim to discern what falls into the left scale. You perceive the works of your hand, but the works of your mouth, of your heart, you see not. But look, Christians, at the unrighteous words, the unrighteous thoughts and wishes, which have been ever rising up from your hearts! Behold them-fallen down without number into the left scale. But I hear the words uttered eagerly, loudly, and without delay, from the hearts of most men,-" Ah no! the right hand scale will rise!" What then, my friends, will you place in it, so that it may sink? Will you place in it the unmerited mercy of God in Jesus Christ?-Oh I see, I see that some tears drop into the right hand scale; some tears of sadness and penitence; and the left scale seems to ascend before your eyes.-Yea, Christians, if the church