140 MORAL LAW UNDER TIUE GOSPEL. preached it in my text to thisyoung man, viz. to convince of sin." So Rom. iii. 29. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Rom. iv. 1-5. The lawworked' wrath ; it sheweth to the consciences of men the wrath of God, which is clue to sin, and therefore saith the apostle, I by the law am dead to the law ; Gal. ii. 16, 19. By consideringand studying the purity, the extent, and perfection of the law of God, I am dead to all expectation of righte- ousness and life by it, for I see I cannot fulfil its pure and perfect demands, and therefore I fly to the gospel as my only refuge and hope. We must be made sensible of our guilt of sin, our liableness todeath and misery, and our incapacity to save ourselves by the law, that we may fly to the gospel ofgrace. We must be wound- ed by the law, that wemay seek and find healing by the gospel. The law impressed on the conscience is an excellent preparative for the gospel of forgiveness; for sinners that are not awaken- ed to a sense of sin and danger, will not hear the sweet invita- tions of the Saviour. Dare not charge and censure those as le- gal preachers, who frequently preach the law of God in its de- mands and in its curses: There is abundant use of preaching the law, for many excellent purposes under the dispensation of the gospel : Jesus himselfis our pattern. IV. " IIow happy are we who live under the clear and com- plete light of the gospel, as it is explained and illustrated by the inspired apostles, since the death and resurrection of our blessed Saviour." We are happier in several respects than those that lived even in the life-time of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are ready to say within ourselves, Surely if I had seen Christ in the flesh, I múst have lived him : If I had beheld his pure and perfect example of holiness, I could not help imitating : If I had heard him speak as never man spake, I must have embraced his doctrine, and submitted to Isis instructions : Butwe aremuchmis- taken in this thought, for we might have beencarried away from Christ by the common national prejudices against him, we might have been among the proud Pharisees, building up a righteous- ness of our own, and refusing the gospel, while we heard Jesus himself preach it. Multitudes who heard this glorious preacher rejected his divine counsels, and perished in their unbelief and disobedience, though they had as good an opinion of themselves as we have. Besidesmany other advantages that we have now, beyond what they had in the days of Christ ; besides the many predictions and promises that are since accomplished, which con- firm his mission ; besides the explication of a greater partof the Old Testament, by the apostles, than could have been done before the death of Christ ; besides themany proofs of the cihris- tian religion, which we derive from the resurrection and ascen- sion of Christ, and the arguments drawn from the miraculous gifts
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