summed it up in two short and weighty sentences: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself." Thou shalt "walk righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world."

Such are the commands of God our King. And to transgress them, is not to render unto God his due. Adam refused this, when he took of the fruit which God had forbidden him to use. The Jewish people refused it, when they joined themselves unto the idols of the nations around them. The heathens refused this, when they did not live according to the light of their reason: when, though "they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator."" And we Christians refuse it, if in anything we fall short of that excellent pattern of holiness set before us in the gospel. "The law is holy, just, and good." In proportion as men keep it, they approach the image of God in which they were made, and become fitted for that better state to which this world is designed to lead them. And in proportion as men violate the law, they become guilty before God. "The transgression of the law is sin." Whoever has a right to enact the law, is offended when the law is broken.

Yet who, that knows how lightly sin is treated in the world, would suppose that he against whom it is committed were the everlasting God, and that death, eternal death, were the penalty of transgression? Do thou, Lord, soften our hearts,

2 Rom. i. 21.

and enlighten our understandings, that we may perceive and feel "the exceeding sinfulness of sin!" 3

Consider the justice of this; consider, for a moment, what it is to break a law, which one who has a right to govern us prescribes. It is to say My ruler has told me his will; but I will follow my own. It is to say, for instance: God has commanded me to "remember the sabbathday, to keep it holy." But I will not keep it holy : I will do my own pleasure, and follow my own ways. God has commanded me to do unto all men, as I would they should do unto me: not to steal from their property; not to injure their person; not to slander their good name. But I will not obey him. I will defraud, when I can do it with impunity: I will revenge myself, when wrong is offered me: I will speak evil of my neighbour when I please. God has commanded me to keep my body in subjection, and to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. But I will indulge my passions, and yield to my appetites whatever they desire. "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" I will not have him to reign over me.

Such is the real nature of sin of refusing unto God the honour and the fear which he justly claims. Men, indeed, will argue, that in serving mammon, in yielding to their appetites, in indulging covetousness, or malice, or envy,-they had no intention of rebelling against God. They pleased themselves: God had no place in their mind. Here, 3 Rom. vii. 13.

however, is the very thing which makes sin heinous. God ought to be in our mind, to be uppermost in our mind: and the offence is, that he is

not kept so. "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master," and a soldier his general; and it would be no excuse for them to urge, that they had forgotten the duty or the post assigned them. And yet the excuse which an earthly parent or commander would disdain to receive, is thought sufficient for the God who is above, "in whom we live, and move, and have our being." Those who have lived, literally, "without God in the world ; lived very much as they would, if there had been no God are satisfied, perhaps, in their minds, and their conscience is at ease, because they may not have grievously wronged their neighbour;-have not stolen-have not killed-have not committed adultery.

How will these answer, when tried by the precept, Render unto God the things which are God's?

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Such is the justice of that sentence," the Scripture hath concluded all under sin." It is a truth which must not be once owned, and then lost sight of: it must be constantly brought home to the mind. It is a truth which we are learning all our days and which the most advanced saint often feels more strongly than the newly convinced sinner. It is the truth which corrects and instructs us, that it may lead us to Christ: that feeling the justice of our condemnation, we may feel the value of the atonement: that a sense of guilt may en5 Gal. iii. 22.

4 Mal. i. 6.

"He

hance our sense of the Redeemer's mercy. once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God:" bring us from that neglect and forgetfulness of God by which we stand condemned before him, to render unto God the things which be God's: which are love, and fear, and honour, and reverence, and obedience:that "blessing and honour, glory and power, may be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." 7

JESUS, IN

LECTURE LXXVII.

ANSWER TO THE SADDUCEES, DESCRIBES THE NATURE OF THE WORLD TO COME, AND THE CHARACTER OF THE CHILDREN OF THE RESURRECTION.

LUKE XX. 27-36.

(Matt xxii. 23-32. Mark xii. 18-27.)

27. Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him, 28. Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

29. There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children.

61 Pet. iii. 18.

7 Rev. v. 13.

30. And the second took her to wife, and he died childless.

31. And the third took her ; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died.

32. Last of all the woman died also.

33. Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife.

34. And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:

35. But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:

36. Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

The Sadducees, by their question, thought to cast a ridicule upon the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. But their weapons recoiled upon themselves. They furnished to our Lord an opportunity of leaving a truth on record, which is beyond others suited to inspire us living for the world to come. be accounted worthy to obtain that unto the angels for they are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

with a desire of

They which shall world, are equal

In contemplating this, we recognize the expectation which had so sublime an effect upon the apostles and other followers of Christ, who, for the hope set before them, "suffered the loss of all things, and even of life itself," not accepting deliverance: "for they had respect unto the recompense of reward." Such an encouragement is often needed among the trials and difficulties, the privations and loayyedo" as the angels which are in heaven."—Mark.

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