establishing a righteousness of our oxmi by the works of the law.
If God required only an observance of the letter of his law, then indeed we might entertain a hope of this kind. Yet even then, when we reflected on the tenth commandment, we should see how vain and hopeless would be the attempt. But when we see that there is not so much as one commandment, either of the first or second table, which we have not violated, it seems a perfect infatuation to stand on the ground of our own righteousness. Persons, I know, have an idea that Christ has lowered the terms of the law, and brought down its demands to the standard of human infirmity. But where can they find any thing that sanctions such an idea as this ? Which of the commands has the Lord Jesus lowered ? The whole decalogue he has summed up in two com- mands, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength ; and thy neighbour as thyself." Which of these two has he set aside ? which has he dispensed with ? or what measure of abatement has he made in either of them ? If this law, before the coming of Christ, required too much, then was it not " holy, or just, or good :" if, on the contrary, it required only what was really due, then has Christ, if he has at all lowered its demands, robbed God of the obedience due to him, and become himself a minister and patron of sin.
I would speak with reverence on every subject wherein the Deity is concerned : but I must say, that God cannot reduce the demands of his own law : it would be to divest himself of his own glory, and to give liberty to man to violate the obligations which every rational creature must, of necessity, owe to his Creator. His law is as immutable as he himself is : it is a perfect transcript of his mind and will. With the exception of the Sabbath, which is a positive institution, and has no foundation but in the will of God, the law exists of necessity, and independent of any revelation of it whatever. It must, of necessity,
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