66 6 "for I am conscious now of a law in my mem"bers, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin; "so that the good that I would, that I do not: "but the evil that I would not, that I do.' But why do I talk of forgiveness? In the sacrifices "which my God hath appointed for sin on the "one hand, and in the ceremonies of purification "which He hath required on the other, I discern 66 66 only a significant warning, that justice will not “remit her penalty without an adequate satis"faction; and only a significant emblem of that "inward purity, which I am conscious I neither "have acquired, nor can. Me miserable! which 66 way shall I fly? Whichever way I turn, the "Law menaces me with its curse, and even alarms me by its ceremonies." 66 Moreover, among the Gentile world, the law of conscience, in other words the law of nature, may be conceived to have produced (or at least as having had a tendency to produce) the same effect. From this inward light men could discern, that in respect of moral attainments they were not such as they ought to be; and, what is worse, that they had no power of their own to become so. In vain did victims bleed upon the altars; in vain did superstition adopt every method of administering peace to the now awakened conscience; in vain too did philosophy prescribe rules for at prand in the charact .. who it were of God's ennatog of Jews or Ge... 2 a pain under t.. my claw; willing, a er wenn es far the ad ption: ther was and botage under v 11-14 £iras Christ, they The precinded u performed his off *e, vietter dew or ( Cars: 2 not one. T.. •-• te law istused in custody, be the fure doom, till He. 2. 1. tr. Deste fanti ns. the expected) Dey as the captives, and tem fre. He came precisely PAM as purpose in the couns taining unto moral perfection. Neither Socrates, nor Plato, nor Aristotle, nor any other of the heathen sages, however highly gifted with the powers of reason, could effect the necessary change in human nature. In spite of every thing which they had said or written to enlighten and to improve the morals of the age, there still appeared in the characters and actions of men the same infirmity of purpose, and the same tendency to evil. Accordingly, the Apostle represents the whole as it were of God's rational creation, whether consisting of Jews or Gentiles, as groaning and travailing in pain under the discipline of their respective Law; waiting, as he observes, in earnest expectation for the adoption; in other words the redemption of their souls and bodies from that state of spiritual bondage under which, previously to the coming of Jesus Christ, they lay1. Thus had all been concluded under sin. The schoolmaster had performed his office well. Not one under heaven, whether Jew or Gentile, could say, I am righteous; no, not one. These its prisoners the Law detained in custody, uncertain what might be their future doom, till He at length came, the Desire of nations, the expected Deliverer, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to bid the oppressed go free. He came precisely at the period fixed for this purpose in the counsels of 1 Rom. viii. 19-23. heaven, to disannul by his vicarious sufferings the authority of this task-master, and to break the rod of this oppressor. He came to abolish by his own death him who had the power of death, viz. the Devil, and to deliver them who through fear of death had all their lifetime been subject to bondage. He came, and the clouds, which had hitherto obscured the spiritual horizon of mankind, rolled away. God again said, God again said, "Let there "be light and there was light." How is the imagination affected by the idea of the deliverance which then took place! What a gaol delivery, as it were, of imprisoned offenders! What an emancipation of fettered captives! Not one is there of those who have ever lived, of millions yet unborn, and who till time shall be no more, shall continue from generation to generation to breathe the breath of life, but may be said to have been concerned in the message of redemption that was then proclaimed. Where, I ask, is the act of human clemency that can compare with this? And where is the earthly monarch, who, desirous of distinguishing his accession to a throne, or any other conspicuous event of his reign, by a deed of amnesty for past offences, hath ever commanded so many of the children of misery to leave the dark prison-houses of confinement?-But this is now neither the time nor the place to expatiate on the blessed consequences resulting from our |