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"The sting of death," he says, "is sin." Death has indeed many stings; many things to make it dreadful and afflicting. The pains; and sickness, and agonies which usually attend it; the violent ter mination it puts to all our prospects, schemes, and employments; the forcible dissolution it causes of the strongest bonds of affection; the heart-rending separation from the objects dearest to us; the pangs of grief with which their breasts are torn; the uncertainty as to what awaits us beyond the grave :-these are all stings of death. But the sting of death, emphatically so called, is sin. It is not merely the quilting of this world, and entering on an unknown state, which is dread ful, but the appearing before God, conscious that we are sinners. Death is the wages of sin. It is the curse pronounced by our Creator upon us, for our disobedience. Death is dreadful, therefore, as a punish ment; but it is still more dreadful as it ushers us as criminals, to the tribunal of the Judge; a Judge who cannot be deceived or bribed; a Judge inflexibly just and holy; be fore whom, our consciences tell us, we must be found guilty. Oh, had we been innocent through life, death would have been considered only as a change into some better state, which would have been effected without fear or pain! But now, to die, is to be summoned to trial.

"The strength of sin is the law." What is it, it may be asked, which makes sin so formidable, and gives it such power to appal and to condemn us? It is the law. The law is the will and ordinance of the Supreme Ruler of the world. The law, therefore, cannot be resisted, because it is maintained by Almighty Power. It cannot be gainsayed, for it is the result of Infinite Wisdom, It is the eternal rule of right and wrong, rather required by the welfare and happiness of the universe, than imposed arbitrarily by its Governor. Now, the law condemns all sin. It is too pure and holy to spare

it, or to connive at it; and too merciful, too regardful of the general good, to tolerate it. The law, therefore, condemns all sin, under the severest penalties. It has annexed death, as the punishment of it; and death, in the meaning it here bears, is far more dreadful than destruction. It is, the being deprived of all good; banishment from God; the loss of spiritual life and happiness. The death of the body, then, is but the beginning of the awful punishment. Hitherto, justice has slept. The criminal has been spared. Now the executioner overtakes him: his sin finds him out: the law arms sin with power to condemn him, and death with power to punish him, This, then, is what makes death dreadful, its being the punishment of sin; and this is what makes sin so awful, its condemnation by the holy law of God.

How, then, are we to be delivered. from the sting of death, from the strength of sin, and from the mighty condemning power of the law?

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Here let us remark, the insufficiency of the hope which is too commonly substituted for that which the Gospel sets before us. Men uşually trust to their goodness and integrity, at least to some valuable quality they fancy they possess. They shelter themselves under the garb of virtue, and hope, because they have not grossly defrauded their neighbour, or because they have been kind and charitable, therefore they need not fear death, But is this the language of the Apostle? Does it warrant such a bope? Does it inform us that only the most corrupt men have reason to fear the judgment of God? Does it acquaint us that the law has denounced no curse but against the openly profli gate? On the contrary, the Scripture hath concluded all under sin. The law hath condemned every transgression, and denounced the judgment of God upon every one that doeth evil. The Gospel does not suppose that only gross and notorious sinners are in danger of

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perishing; but it concludes all to be in a ruined state." All have sinned and come short of the law of God." Every mouth must be stop ped, and the whole world become guilty before God." It, therefore, puts all upon a level. It shews the holy nature of God, and of his law, to be such, that all without excep, tion have in themselves cause to fear, just reason to be treated as transgressors, and no right to demand, or ground in themselves to expect, any thing from the hands of God but indignation and wrath; and to those only who are humbled under the view and acknowledgment of this, does it hold out mercy in another way.

Oh, let none of us, then, flatter himself with the vain and false idea of his being righteous before God. It is the grossest ignorance of the law, of its purity, its nature, its design, its threatenings, to suppose so. The law worketh wrath. The law was not given to grant life by our observance of it. If we seek for life by the observance of it, we renounce the hope of the Gospel: we are fallen from grace, as many of us as seek to be justified by the law. "But what the law could not do, through the weakness of the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," Be hold here, the just view given to us by an inspired Apostle, to point out the insufficiency of trusting to our own righteousness, and the true foundation on which the hope of men may be built.

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The Gospel supposes man to be a fallen, guilty, condemned creature. It supposes bim irretrievably ruined as to his own power of extricating himself. And on this very ground is founded the necessity of a Saviour's redemption. He came down from heaven to rescue from destruction those that should believe on his name. And for this purpose, his efforts were directed against sin," which is the sting of death; and the law, which is the strength of sin.

Against sin which is the sting of death. He came into the world for sin, and condemned sin in the flesh. In our nature, and for our sakes, he fulfilled the law. In our nature, ha offered up a costly sacrifice, to make expiation for our sins. He gave his own most precious life as a ransom for us, and as a sacrifice of a sweet savour before God. It pleased God to accept his offering as a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, obla tion, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. It pleased him who gave the law, to accept the atonement made to the law, as a sufficient satisfaction to its injured honour; and Christ was raised from death after the sacrifice was made, and ascended into heaven, that he might minister, like the high priest, before God in the salvation of his people; that he might present their prayers, intercede in their behalf, and impart to them mercy to pardon, and grace to help in every time of needs.

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Thus Christ removes from us the curse of the law, for he was made a curse for usb Thus, he takes away our sins, by bearing them in his body on the tree Thus, he gives sus the victory over death, by rea Whence, then, may we gain the moving that sin, and that curse of victory over death? I answer, We the law, which united to make death must first remove that consciousness formidable to us. There is there" of guilt which is the sting of death, fore no condemnation to them that and disarm that law which is the are in Christ Jesus! Who is he strength of sin, and which gives it that condemneth Itis Christ that power to condemn us. Now, died, year rather that in on the thanks be to God which giveth, us right hand of God, who also liveth C the victory, says the Apostle, to make intercession for us,woj“ through our Lord Jesus Christofor Such is the hope which the G

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In conclusion, let us impress it upon our minds, that, if we would have the satisfaction of being able to look with joy on the approachi of death, in sure and certain bepe of a blissful immortality, we must see to it, that we lay a just foundation. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, even Jesus Christ. And if we place a dar trust in him, we shall find it the most powerful principle to influ ence us through life. It will fill us with love to that Redeemer, to whom we shall see ourselves to be so infnitely indebted. It will inspire us with regard to his will from a better principle than that of the fear of punishment. It will shew us the amiableness of all God's commandments. Finally, it will prepare us for, the inheritance of the saints above; it will give us the blessed earnest of peace in our souls now, and will, in the hour of death, cheer those whom we leave behind us with the joyful declaration of z hope full of immortality.

spel sets before a sinner, Now, if
We would gain the victory over
death, we see the ground on which
we must do it. It must be by faith
in Christ alone; by a lively trust
in him who is the only Saviour of
sinners. Instead, therefore, of fancy
ing that the law will not reach us as
not being sinners of sufficient notori
ety, we must see that we are already
condemned by it; we must acknow.
ledge ourselves guilty, and apply
elsewhere for a ground of hope.
Here also we learn how incompatible
the plea of our own goodness and
virtue is with the Christian hope.
The one is founded upon a persua-
sion of our virtue and merits; the
other upon the renunciation of
them. The difference between
them is an essential difference.
The plan of salvation by Christ, is
one which is fundamentally opposed
to that of human merit.
quires tempers and dispositions to-
tally different from those which the
idea of our own virtue would in-
spire;-poverty of spirit; deep hu-
mility; lowliness of heart; contrition.
for sin; trust in the great Expia-
tion; heartfelt gratitude to the Sa-
viour; sweet meditation on his
work and offices; love to his Name;
and the exaltation of it above every
other name that is named, whether
in earth or heaven. The Gospel
requires us to abase ourselves, and
thankfully to receive and humbly
to trust in Divine grace. Hence
Paul could say, I am the chief of
sinners, and yet could triumph in
the prospect of salvation and eters
nal glorye The cause of his glory
ing was not his own righteousness.
What things were naturally gain to
him, such as his strict adherence to
all the rites of the law, these he
counted loss for Christ." Yea,
doubtless," he says," and I count
all things but loss for the sake of
Christ, and that I may win him,
and be found in him; not having
my own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is by the
faith of Christ, even the righteous
ness which is of God by faith"

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To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I BEG leave to express the obliga tions which I feel, in common with many of your readers, to D. W. for his remarks on what he terms the "crude Calvinistic Theology" of our day. I can hope to do little more than give an example which may serve to illustrate those remarks, and perhaps help to set in a clearer light the danger which he points out.

It has been my fortune for two or three successive years to visit the malefactors of our great metropolitan prison, but more particu larly in the week which intervenes between the order for their execution and the execution itself. In the course of these visits, I have also found other persons, both clergy and laymer, humanely assisting in the same painful office. On these occasions, I have been particularly struck by the mode in which many

of such persons appear to have considered it their duty to proceed with reference to the unhappy men for whom we felt, I believe, an equal concern. Their great object, from the beginning to the end of their intercourse with the prisoner, ap peared to be to impress upon his mind the fulness and freeness of the atonement of the Saviour, rather than the necessity of that compunction for sin which I apprehend can alone shew the value of a Saviour; to preach the promises of mercy, rather than the terrors of judgment; to exalt the Gospel at the expense of the Law, and to magnify the say Sng qualities of faith in Christ in such a loose and unguarded manner as to lead the criminal to mistake the nature of true faith, and to imagine that the mere declaration of his belief in the Saviour was at once equivalent to that belief itself, and evidential of it.

I admit, sir, that the handling of this subject is full of delicacy; and I must be content to admire, rather than hope to imitate, the manner in which D. W. has treated it. The distinction which he takes between the necessity for the most full and plain exhibition of Divine grace, and the danger of abusing such a doctrine by human presumption, has my hearty approbation. While I tremble at the Antinomianism of one extreme, I desire to deprecate and avoid the legality and self-righteousness of the other:-while, on the one hand, I feel deeply convinced, that if ever I am myself saved, it will be upon the footing of infinite mercy and sovereign grace alone, I yet apprehend, that before I can become a partaker of the mercy of the Gospel, I must feel something of the terrors of the Law, and know practically something of the evil of sin, and the danger of departing from the living God." I find it declared in the Scriptures, that a hatred of sin, as infinitely offensive in the sight of God, is the first step Towards its renunciation; that the Holy Spirit convinces of sin, before CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 156.

he comforts the sinner; and that man being born in sin, and the child of wrath, he must be born again of the Spirit, or he cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven. I find that while faith is laid down as the great instrument by which we are to appropriate the Saviour, yet that faith must be accompanied by repentance, or a hearty turning from sin and I observe that both repentance and faith were united in the case of the thief upon the cross; or in other words that his heart was touched with compunction for sin, as well as his judgment convinced that Christ was the Saviour.

Now, to apply this consideration to the subject in hand-It has appeared to me the duty of any person, when called to address an unfortunate criminal, to excite, in the first instance, in his mind, some sense of the requisitions and extent, the sanctions and penalties, of a violated law, and to employ it as "a schoolmaster, to bring him to Christ." In opposition to this mode, I have found some persons hardly employing this topic at all, or in so slight a degree, as apparently to leave but few and transient impres sions; while the satisfaction offered by the Saviour (of which, in its place, none can think too worthily) has formed the great, and indeed exclusive, theme of exultation.

Again; I have thought, that it should be a principal object with any one to ascertain whether the individual appeared to apply to him self the denunciations of wrath which are found in the word of God, or was only satisfied with a general assent to the doctrines proposed to his notice, because I have found that most persons under these circumstances will readily admit certain propositions, as that they are sinners--that Christ is a Saviour

that there is a judgment to come; and so on, of whom I have afterwards had reason to fear that they possessed no more than the notions of these things, and not the truths themselves to any saving purpose. On the con

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trary, many of the instructors to whom I allude have appeared to be satisfied with such a general admission of the nature and consequences of sin, as might, notwithstanding, well consist with an unchanged and unsanctified state of heart. They have been content to enlarge on the main doctrines of the Gospel, rather than to satisfy themselves, as they advanced, whether the party addressed really received these truths, or only assented to them. From which consideration may be noticed (by the way) the peculiar advantage of a catechetical mode of instruction founded upon, and varying with, the actual state of the criminal's mind (who is perhaps hearing of such things for the first time in his life), Many persons appear to be perfectlysatisfied if they can only obtain a hearing upon the great truths of Scripture, and doubtless there is much in this. To preach the Gospel of Christ even in the press-yards of Newgate, surrounded as one is by guilt and wretchedness in all their affecting varieties, is certainly an honour of no mean consideration; and it would be limiting the grace of God to suppose that even where no particular advantage may appear at the moment, therefore none will appear hereafter. But still the statement of the truth is not all; and the more experience any one has in this painful duty, he more, I am convinced, will he feel that external assent and internal conviction are two very distinct things, and that self-deception is sometimes quite as easy under the most plain and pressing exhibition of the Gospel as in its absence.

Further in a case where a mistake is a mistake for eternity, it has always appeared to me that the language of confidence and the expression of joy on the part of the criminal cannot be too carefully watched, nor too scrupulously examined. Far be it from me to discourage either the one or the other, much less to insinuate that they may not be found in as high perfec

tion and of as pure a quality in the lonelydungeon as the lofty palace;it is only against a false peace that I would protest against a hope which, after all, may have no solid foundation, and a joy which (unlike the more sober, yet safer, com. fort of the true Christian) resembles rather the exhilarating effect produced by a cordial, than the salu tary result of nutritious food. Without by any means intending to state, that assurance is unattainable or triumph unseasonable in such cases, I yet cannot but regard the rapture which follows recent instances of conversion, especially after a long course of ignorance and sin, as at best a very questionable thing.

Again-the persons to whom I allude, having themselves adopted the higher doctrines of Calvinism, appear to think that first principles and elementary truths may be the more safely passed over; that a belief, for instance, in the doctrines of electing love and final perseverance are essentials; and that it is of indispensable importance that these points should be pressed upon the attention of the culprit, to the exclusion, but too often as I appre hend, of the "weightier matters of the law." This habit of admini stering strong meat where milk was rather needed has, I confess, appeared to me a great mistake, and by no means like the conduct of our blessed Lord, who would not encumber his disciples unseasonably with what was less important in itself, and who, although he had many such things to say unto them, knew that they could not bear them then. I have myself witnessed instances in which an acquiescence on the part of the criminal in the higher doctrinal views of his instructors, together with some general admissions as to the more essential truths of the Gospel, have been regarded as unequivocal evidence of a state of grace; and (would I could withhold the fact consistently with a regard to truth!) I can never forget one case in particular, where

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