ings which might otherwise have been derived under the law! The fact with which you are diffatisfied is unquestionable: a fingle tranfgreffion entails a complete forfeiture. And how ftands the fact in the cafe of human laws? He who tranfgreffes against a fingle claufe of a fingle act of parliament; is he not punished, and justly punished, for disobeying that claufe, even though he may have punctually regarded every other clause of that particular statute, and every clause of every other statute? If death itself be the penalty denounced against all, who fhould violate that ftatute; is he not justly punished with death? Do you complain then, because God, in delivering for your obfervance his holy law, has adopted a principle, the equity of which, when adopted by the law of your country, you recognise every day? Do you complain, becaufe God has established the divine law on that foundation, which the univerfal confent of mankind acknowledges as the only bafis, on which any human law can efficaciously be refted? Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, be is guilty of all (p). Whofoever offends against any one precept of the divine law, offends against the whole law, of which that (p) James, ii. 10, II.

precept

precept is a constituent part; and against the fovereignty of the Legiflator, who has enjoined the uniform obfervance of every part of his law and defervedly forfeits all the bleffings which were annexed only to the faithful obfervance of the whole. He who fins against any one branch of any one statute, fins against the whole legislative authority of his country, from which every ftatute derives its obligatory power. By defpifing that authority in any one of its injunctions, he proves himself devoid of the difpofitions of a good fubject: he lofes all title to the protection of his country, and falls under the severity of her juftice. And he who wilfully violates in any one inftance the law of that Legiflator, who, when he faid, "Do not "commit adultery," faid alfo, "Do not kill;" who, when he commanded the obfervance of his law in one point, equally commanded. the obfervance of it in all: fins against the fupreme Majefty of Heaven; fhews himself deftitute of the temper of a true Christian ; justly forfeits the favour, and incurs the vengeance of his God.

But you reply that, in fome cafes, if the unhappy man who, by offending against one human law, has rendered himself obnoxious to punishment, fhall have been affiduous in

his obfervance of the reft of the laws of the land, he is difcharged from punishment. Difcharged from punishment! How is he discharged from it? He receives pardon by an act of grace. Does he prefume to claim pardon as a debt? Does he demand it as his right, because, though he has broken one ftatute, he has obeyed many? He fues for it as an emanation of free mercy and as an emanation of free mercy his fovereign beflows it. Now contemplate the divine administration; and behold the resistless force with which your argument turns against yourself. God is willing to pardon not in few and extraordinary inftances, but in every inftance. He does not wait to be entreated; but fpontaneoufly offers to every offender forgiveness and life eternal. When he offers unmerited bleffings; fhall he not offer them in his own method, on his own terms? If you feek for pardon; feek it not in the law, from which it is impoffible that you fhould obtain it. Seek it from the free mercy of God and feek it in that channel, through which alone he has decreed that his mercy fhall be difpenfed.

III. But previously confider farther, what ftrong reasons there might naturally have been

for

He hateth all the

for apprehenfion, that the punishment which our fins deferved would be inflicted in its largest extent. Recollect the holiness of God. Recollect that a holy God muft abhor fin and finners. Evil, faith the fcripture, fhall not dwell with God. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. workers of iniquity. The way of the wicked, the thoughts of the wicked, the facrifice and prayer of the wicked, are an abomination unto the Lord (g). What then could the wicked have naturally expected but death and mifery? Remember too the juftice of God. To me, faith the Lord, belongeth vengeance and recompence, I will render vengeance to mine enemies (r). By fin all mankind were become the enemies of God; and had no claim to escape the extremity of his juftice. Remember likewife the fovereignty of God. over all his creatures. Was it to be expected. that the Sovereign of the Universe would permit fin, which is rebellion against himself, to pafs unpunished? Would he permit his righteous laws to be broken, without pouring forth his indignation on the tranfgreffors? Would he pass over the crimes of the guilty race of man, and thus hold forth an en

(9) Pl. v. 4, 5. Habb. i. 13. Prov, xv. 8, 9. 26. xxviii. (†) Deut. xxxii. 35. 41. Heb. x. 30.

9.

D 4

courage

couragement to prefumptuous guilt in all the other worlds which he has made? Might it not rather have been apprehended, that both for the purpose of punishing human fin in proportion to its demerits, and of exhibiting an aweful warning to the whole creation, He would have exacted the full penalty which we had incurred? Thefe are the dreadful forebodings, with which our breast might naturally have been filled. And if we had endeavoured to confole ourselves with the reflection that God delighteth in mercy, and had ventured on that ground to hope for forgiveness; how reasonably might we have feared, that no method was to be devised, in which the Judge of the Universe could exercife mercy towards man confiftently with his holiness and his juftice! After all our inquiries, our pleadings, and our hopes, there ftill lay open before us the gulf of eternal death.

IV. Such was by nature the miserable ftate of man. So truly did the law work wrath. So truly was the commandment, which was ordained to be unto life, found to be unto death. So plainly by the law was the knowledge of fin rendered manifeft; the knowledge of its heinous guilt, of its univerfal and

deadly.