sures; had enjoyed all that the Father enjoyed, the fulness of joy that is in God's presence, and the pleasures that are at his right hand for evermore; and yet, when he stood in our nature, he delighted in the law of God after the inward man; yea, God's law was within his heart. The whole Book of Psalms bears witness to the inward holiness of his heart. He loved God with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength; he loved his neighbor as himself, yea, more than himself; for he gave up his own life for ours. He was subject to parents and governors. He loved the holy Sabbath. He magnified the law, and made it honorable. He gave it a new lustre in the sight of all worlds. He showed with a new clearness and brightness before unknown, that it is the chief happiness of the creature to keep the whole law.

Learn the true wisdom of those of you who are new creatures, and who love God's holy law. All of you who are really brought to Christ are changed into his image, so that you love God's holy law. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man ;""The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." Ps. xix. The world say, What a slave you are! you cannot take a little amusement on the Sabbath, a Sabbath walk or tea-party; you cannot go to a dance or theatre; you cannot enjoy the pleasures of sensual indulgence; you are a slave. I answer, Christ had none of these pleasures. He did not want them; nor do we. He knew what was truly wise, and good, and happy, and he chose God's holy law. He was the freest of all beings, and yet he knew no sin. Only make me free as Christ is free; this is all I ask. Great peace have they who love thy law, and nothing shall offend them."

IV. The effect: "God is well pleased."

1. With Christ. God is well pleased with Christ for many reasons. (1.) Because he is his image: "The brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person." (2.) Because he is lovely. (3.) For his dying: "Therefore doth my Father love me." John x., 17. He loves him with a full love; he pours out the love of his whole heart; an unclouded love; sunshine without a cloud; an everlasting love.

2. With all that are in Christ. Whoever of you is willing to forsake your own righteousness, and to take Christ as your surety, God not only pardons, but is well pleased with you for his righteousness' sake. The same love wherewith he loves Christ, he will pour out on you; and, O! who can wonder, when you really think of the law-magnifying righteousness of the Lord Jesus? It is an ocean of divine righteousness, and those who are plunged in it are, as it were, lost in divine righteousness. It is an atmosphere of light, ready to envelope the soul, so that the sinner may be covered entirely, and thus become divinely fair, and infinitely well pleasing to God.

Invitation. He that wrought out this righteousness invites you

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all to get the benefit of it. you who have no concern: "Hear, O ye deaf; and look, ye blind." "Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man." You that are weary, he invites still more tenderly: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden." Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." If you come this day to Christ, you do not need to fear that God's infinite majesty will be against you; for the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake, for he magnified the law, and made it honorable. Amen.

Dare, March 6, 1842.

SERMON LXXVII.

THE OBEDIENCE AND DISOBEDIENCE OF ONE.

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."-Rom. v., 19.

1. THERE is an exact parallel between the way in which we are made sinners, and the way in which we are made righteous. This is obvious at the first reading of the text; and the more our eyes are opened to see the wondrous truths that are hidden here, the more we shall discover this, that all who are justified, are justified in the very same way as they were made sinners. 2. Unconverted men know neither of these truths. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them." I am persuaded that if those of you who are carnal men, get a glimpse of the meaning of this verse to-day, you will think it consummate folly, although it be the whole counsel of God for the salvation of a sinner. If the Gospel pleased carnal men, it would not be the Gospel; it would prove itself to be false.

3. It is deeply important that you know both of these. They are life to the soul. You must know the first, how you were made sinners, in order that you may lie down as a dead, condemned soul at the feet of Christ. You must know the second, how a sinner is made righteous, in order that you may have all joy and peace in believing. O that God the Holy Spirit may open all your eyes to-day, and mine!

I. The way in which we were made sinners: "By the disobedience of one.'

1. The one man. Our first father, Adam—the root and spring of the human race, and also the head and representative of us all; perfect in body, perfect in soul, full of grace and truth, image of God, very good. It pleased God to deal with mankind from the

very first in this way. As you heard lately, he did not deal with men as a field of corn, where every stalk stands upon its own root; but he dealt with man as with a tree, all the branches of which have but one root and stem. He seems to have dealt with the angels in the other way, each angel standing on its own root; but he dealt with mankind like a tree and its branches. So that if Adam stood, all stood; if he fell, all fell. Some may say: It is not just to deal this way with man: we were not consulted in this matter whether we would have Adam for our head or no. I answer: "Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" God has made us thus the holy, wise, good, and gracious God. Whether you believe it or not, whether you like it or not, God has made man thus, and you cannot change it.

2. Disobedience: The eating the forbidden fruit. Only one sin. Some of you see little evil in one sin, or in a hundred sins; but here you see one sin cast Adam and all his children out of paradise. God did not wait till it was repeated. It appeared a small sin. The outward action was small; only stretching out the hand and taking an inviting fruit. Some of you think little of sins that make no great noise; such as breaking the Sabbath, drinking too much, speaking what is false, sitting down Christless at the Lord's table; but see here, one small sin brought a world under the curse of God. God would rather a world should perish than one small sin go unpunished.

3. The consequence : 66 Many were made sinners." I have said that it pleased God to deal with mankind as a tree. If you strike with the axe at the root of a tree, the whole tree falls, not only the stem, but the branches, and even the twigs upon the branches; and all the branches die and wither, and become fit for the burning. So it was when Adam fell. Satan laid the axe at the root of the tree; and when Adam fell, many fell along with him. All his branches fell that same day. One stroke brought all down. Even the branches most distant from Adam, even the tenderest twigs springing from these branches, fell, and withered, and died that day. (1.) Death passed upon all men. From that hour man became a dying thing, the seeds of dissolution were sown; the fair, blooming creature began to wither and dissolve; and every branch came dying into the world. (2.) Spiritual death. Just as in a tree when it is felled, the nourishment is immediately cut off from both the stem and branches; so it was with fallen man. In the day he ate he surely died; not a spark of spiritual life remained in him, or any of his. This explains how your children come into the world utterly dead to God and divine things. They are lively in other things. The new-born babe clings to its mother's breast, but not to Jesus. (3.) The curse of God. This is the proper meaning of " were made

sinners." It is a judicial term, "were held in God's sight as guilty, lost, undone sinners." In that day the frown of God came upon all men. The holy nature of God abhorred the apostate race. The curse of the broken law passed upon all men.

Ah, brethren! here is matter for humiliation that few of you think about. Not only are you covered over with an infinite load of actual sins; not only have you got a heart like the inside of a grave, full of dead men's bones and rotten flesh, and all uncleanness; or, like the cave of hell," a hold for every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird," but you belong to a cursed race; you are the wicked branch of a wicked tree, you are entirely and originally a sinner, spiritually dead, disinclined from all that is good. O pray to discover your connexion with the first Adam, to make you cleave to the second Adam! The world scoff and deride this truth, but that proves it to be divine; for if the Gospel appeared wise to the world, it would disprove itself.

II. The way in which we are made righteous: "By the obedience of ONE shall many be made righteous."

1. One. This second ONE is the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, and the Son of God. (1.) The first Adam was fair, exquisitely fair, as he came from the hand of God; but the second is altogether lovely, fairer than the children of men. (2.) The first Adam was made in the likeness of God; but the second is God himself, the Lord from heaven, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person. (3.) The first Adam was full of heavenly wisdom, so that he named all the creatures as they came; but in the second are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is the wisdom of God. He spake as never man spake. He calls all the stars by their names. (4.) The first was the head of the whole human race, the federal head; so that in him they stood, and in him they fell. Christ is offered as a head to every creature, and is actually the head of all the redeemed, and of myriads of holy angels, all gathered together in him, even in him.

O glorious ONE! Divine and human perfections meet in him! O that you were filled with sweet, admiring, adoring thoughts of him this day! O that he would rise upon you like the sun! He is the Light of the world, the Sun of righteousness, the bright and morning Star. It is that ONE who justifies the ungodly, who has power to forgive sins. He is precious to all that believe. 2. His obedience: Twofold.

(1.) He obeyed the holy law of God.-Satan thought he had got God's law for ever dishonored, when he got the whole human race to abhor it, to disown it, and not to obey it; but he was foiled in this very thing. The Son of God came and obeyed it. The obedience of that ONE was more glorifying to God, more amazing to

angels, than the obedience of a world would have been. He magnified the law, and made it honorable, made it shine brighter far than ever, as a holy, just, and good law.

Look through the life of Jesus, as related in the Gospel, and you will see what it is to obey the law of God. He had no other gods before his Father. He bowed to no idols. He took not his holy name in vain. He remembered the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. He came down to Nazareth, and was subject to Joseph and Mary. "Woman, behold thy son." He did not kill, he did not commit adultery, he did not steal, there was no guile found in his mouth, he coveted not. Or, if you sum the ten commandments, and make them into two, He loved God with all his heart,,and mind, and strength; and he loved his neighbor as himself. An unquenchable love to God burned in his bosom. He regarded God in all that he did. Even when God bruised him and put him to grief, when God cried, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones;" even then he cried," My God, my God!" He kissed the hand that smote him. He loved his neighbor more than himself: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," "For my love they are my adversaries," ," "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Even when they were nailing him to the cross, wagging their heads at him, railing on him, offering him vinegar, he cried, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Love is the fulfilling of the law! Now God is love, and Christ is God. This is part of the obedience of One, by which he makes many sinners righteous.

(2.) He laid down his life. In this he obeyed a special commandment of his Father. Adam was not only under the ten commandments, but he had a special commandment given him, to try his obedience to God's will, namely, that he should not eat the forbidden fruit. In like manner Christ was not only under the ten commandments, but under a special commandment, the most difficult that ever was given to any being, that he should die for sinners: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life. This commandment have I received of my Father."John x., 17. And a little after: "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?"—John xviii., 11.

Therefore does he say: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart."-Psal. xl. And, " Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."-Phil. ii., 8. was the most amazing trial of obedience that ever was.

This.

It was