assent to this as true, and his approbation of it as right and good : " Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them : and all the people shall say, Amene." But of the impossibility of coming to God by the law, we have a most striking illustration in the conduct of your forefathers at the very time that the law was given : they were so terrified by all that they saw and heard, that they repeatedly declared, that, if the same scenes should pass again, " they should die :" they entreated that God would no more speak to them himself, but give them a Mediator, through whom they might receive his law in a mitigated form, and divested of those terrors which they were not able to endure. And of this request God expressed the highest approbation, saying, " They have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in themf !" In this matter, dearly beloved, my heart responds to the wish of your Almighty Lawgiver, ' O that there were in you such an heart!' Could we but once see you thoroughly convinced of your guilt and condemnation by the law, we should have no fear of your speedily and thankfully embracing the salva- tion offered you in the Gospel. The great obstacle to your reception of the Gospel is, that instead of regarding the law as a ministration of death and of condemnation, you are looking for life from obedience to it. True it is that temporal blessings were pro- mised to obedience : and that eternal blessings also were promised to those who should " lay hold on God's covenant" and keep his commandments. But the covenant on which they were to lay hold, was that which had been made with their father Abraham ; and which never was, nor could be, disannulled by the law. The law, as published on Mount Sinai, was intended to shut them up to this covenant, by making known to them the impossibility of being saved in any other way than by the promised Seed. And, when once you understand and feel this, you will not be far from the kingdom of God.
e Deut. xxvii. 26. f Deut. v. 22—29.