pressed in the Law of Moses. That promise is there veiled so that the faithful might see it, but men in general would not. One whose eyes were enlightened by looking on the Law of God, and striving to fulfil it, and so receiving inward strength and wisdom from God, would see something beyond this life in the promise of God's favour, and of His being their God. But we know that the Sadducees could deny the Resurrection while they acknowledged the Law, and it was in one of these points that our Lord shewed that they ought to have seen it. The doctrine was not made plain to sense, but only to faith. As the Law could not give life of itself, so it was not allowed to promise life of itself. It was only when the Law was taken as a direction for the soul to exercise its love to God by, only when it was used as a help for finding out God, and for framing the whole man to obedience to His will, that it was seen to point to life eternal, and to fulness of joy in His presence for ever. Such was the blessing always intended for faith working by love, whether under the Law or without the Law. And to those who used it in faith, the Law was a help towards this blessing, but the blessing was to come not by the Law itself, but by

Him Who gave the Law; not by the carnal sense of the Law, in which the Galatians were wishing to return to it, but by that which the Law exhibited in its spiritual meaning, the Incarnation, Obedience, and Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Resurrection, Ascension, and Kingdom, and our partaking of Him and union with Him.

Thus the Law is not against the promises of God", but has served to prepare men for their fulfilment, to express them in types, and to aid in the very acts of our redemption. By means of it our Lord made manifest His condemning of sin in the flesh*. The Law could not do this by means of sinful flesh, but it could shew forth His doing what itself could not do. And since He has fulfilled it, the Law itself is glorified, and is as the robe with which He is clothed. These foolish men, instead of being satisfied with the spiritual truths, and the substantial grace of the Holy Sacraments in the Gospel, were for taking the Law in the bare threads of the letter, and saw not how it must be interwoven with the Spirit to be a garment fit for God's presence. They thought by Circumcision, and a few other rites, to place

u Gal. iii. 21.

* Rom. viii. 3.

themselves in favour with God, whereas Circumcision was but one of unnumbered precepts of the Law, and that very one which bound a man to fulfil all the rest, ceremonial as well as moral and spiritual, but the entrance on a covenant whose bond they could not fulfil. Instead of this, He assures them that the Law of itself condemns all, the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, and they must seek pardon and strength to obey from Christ and His Spirit. They must be united to Him by faith and love, and must live by His Spirit in the pursuit of heavenly things, and in the acts of a spiritual life, even the exercise of all the virtues which shone forth in Him. They must aim at no less than following the living Law of His example, for what else can be the aim of those who would abide in Him as members of Christ?

Let us, who are living under the new Covenant, think seriously what it is to do this, and what is the blessedness of those who do it. The Father Himself loveth them, because they love and believe in His only-begotten Son. If you believe in Him, let your faith work by love. If you love Him, keep His commandments. For it is by so

y Gal. v. 3.

doing, as He has taught us, that you shall abide in His love, even as He hath kept His Father's commandments and abideth in His love.

"John xv. 10.

SERMON XXVIII.

PREACHED AT ST. PETER'S IN THE EAST,
OCTOBER 9, 1842.

MATT. xxii. 11.

And when the king came in to see the guests, He saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.

WITHOUT entering fully into the explanation of this parable, which probably most persons here present have more than once heard at length, it may be right to remark that the word rendered guests is literally them that were sat down, and that therefore we may be said to sit down to the marriage supper even in this life, before the King comes to see the guests. The like manner of speaking is used in the Epistle to the Ephesians, where it is said that God hath made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christa. But there is a difference between this, and the final sitting down to the Eph. ii. 6.

a