fatal if not repented of-that the apostle reasons in the text, the doctrine of which is, that The gospel, so far from affording safety to the obstinate sinner, ensures his greater condemnation and sorer punishment. This the apostle proves from The severity of divine justice under the law; and "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses." The apostle is reasoning with the Hebrews; and he speaks of the law given by Moses from God by the phrase with which they usually designated Moses' law. This law included, not only the ten commandments, but all that code which God, as the lawgiver and ruler of Israel, gave for their government. By that law certain offences were made capital crimes; as murder, adultery, blasphemy, kidnapping; and the language of God's statutes was, that they who committed such crimes should surely be put to death. It is true the accused was allowed a fair trial, unless when taken in the very act, and not condemned except upon testimony of two or three witnesses; yet when the crime was thus proved upon him, there was no escape. We do not find that the power of reprieve or pardon was vested anywhere. The law was the law of God, over which man had no control, and which the rulers of the people were bound to execute. "Thine eyes shall not spare him; he shall surely be put to death." And again; Thou shalt 66 the take him from mine altar that he die." In Numbers, xv. 31, the reason of this inevitable punishment is declared to be, not merely the act itself, but because the transgressor despised the word of the Lord, and broke his commandments." It was the law of the same God who said in the beginning," the soul that sinneth it shall die;" and its inexorableness but another expression of his hatred against sin, and his fixed determination " by no means to clear the guilty." Now, argues the apostle, the giver of Moses' law is the Author of the gospel-the unchangeably holy God. If, therefore, he certainly punished the despisers of his authority under that dispensation, how can he escape who despiseth his authority under this? It is true there is a way of salvation provided by the gospel which the law did not offer; but that very provision of mercy proves no diminution of the divine wrath against sin. On the contrary, the punishment of it in the person of his own Son as the substitute of the sinner, shews more clearly than anything else could the divine regard for the majesty of his own law; and the only terms upon which pardon, even by the blood of Jesus, will be extended is, our acceptance by faith of that satisfaction made for our guilt, and our return by sincere repentance to a willing obedience. The object of the gospel was, not to set men free from the law of God, but to win them back to their allegiance. Under the gospel, God requires men everywhere to repent, and to believe on his son Jesus Christ as the only Saviour from sin and its punishment. To pardon those, therefore, who refuse to do so would be to pardon rebels who obstinately persist in despising his authority. For the conviction of such transgressors there are three infallible witnesses;-the Son of God, who brought the gospel, and whom they tread insultingly under foot; the blood of the cross, by which God provides the method of return, and which they treat as unworthy of their regard; and the Holy Spirit of all grace, who pleads with them to accept the pardon and return to obedience, yet to whom they have done despite by resisting his influences. If, then, he who despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses, how can they escape who despise the same authority under the gospel, and whose guilt is established by such testimony; or, to use the words of the same apostle in another place, "if the law given by angels was steadfast, and every transgression received its just recompence of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" But the apostle goes further, and asserts, II. The increased guilt of the impenitent under the gospel. "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God; and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing; and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace ?" The extreme guilt of the impenitent under the gospel is seen in those three things. 1. He treads under foot the Son of God. The phrase "trodden under foot" is very expressive; it signifies more than contempt, which would be only spurning. It is the bitterness of hatred with which one insults over an enemy by trampling upon him; yet it fails of shewing fully the malicious hatred of the impenitent sinner against Christ. The messenger whom God sends with his gospel is no less than his Son, attested as such by the most convincing proofs. He comes, not only in the dignity of a messenger of God, worthy of honour for the sake of Him who sent him, but he is infinitely glorious in himself. Though in the form of God, and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God, he humbles himself to the form of a servant, and comes in our flesh to offer us pardon, if we will return to our allegiance. He comes, not to threaten condemnation, for we are condemned already, but to display more fully the riches of divine love, the glories of the divine law, and the realities of eternal existence, that we may be won to repentance. The gospel is his message; full of love, though full of holiness; full of mercy, yet full of justice. Yet this message the impenitent sinner rejects, and upon this Messenger he turns his back. Nay, he does more; the gospel excites his anger; he hates to have it pressed upon his conscience; and if done so in faithful zeal by any of Christ's messengers, his heart burns with rancour. What is this but treading under foot the Son of God? The Jews, to whom it was first delivered, were so excited with rage against the divine Ambassador that they heaped every insult upon him, and crying, "Away with him, away with him! Crucify him, crucify him!" they nailed him to the accursed cross-the punishment of the slave and the felon. Their rage was but the rage of every impenitent despiser of the gospel of Christ. Yes, my hearers, you who sit in supercilious indifference, or listen with secret anger while the gospel is proclaimed in your hearing, would have swelled that insulting cry, and mingled with that cruel mob who crucified the Lord of life. You consent unto his death, and crucify him afresh, when you say, "I will not have him to reign over me!" If, therefore, God visited with certain death those who despised the law of his messenger Moses, of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, (I put it to your own consciences,) shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God? 2. The impenitent sinner under the gospel counts the blood of the covenant, wherewith Christ was sanctified, an unholy thing. By the blood of the covenant is here intended the atonement of Christ. The law had declared, that without the shedding of blood (or the sacrifice of life) there was no remission. Christ graciously undertook to offer his own life for the sinner, and God to accept it at his hands as a ransom for his people. This was the gracious covenant between the Mediator and the godhead represented in the Father. When that blood was shed and accepted, Christ was formally sanctified and set apart as the Saviour of sinners. The blood of the covenant is, therefore, the rich provision of mercy made by God for lost sinners, by which whosoever cometh unto him shall be saved. Yet this blessed atonement, this costly sacrifice, this death of Jesus, in sympathy with which universal nature shuddered; this infinite mercy, whose depths the angels of God cannot fathom; this offer of pardon made by the almighty God, at such an expense, to rebel man, whom he might have crushed like a moth into instant hell, the impenitent sinner refuses to accept. It is continually placed before him; the story of Christ's love is continually told him, yet it receives not his attention. He treats it as a common thing. When gold, or pleasure, or ambition, calls, he hears and obeys; but the blood of the Saviour appeals to him in vain. Once its voice may have made some impression, but he has now become used to its sound, and attends no more, or it is as tedious as an oft-told tale. If we may judge from his conduct, there is nothing he considers so little worthy of reverence and love. It is to him an unholy thing. Oh what a guilt is here! It is sin to despise the authority of Him who made us, and preserves us, and whose right alone it is to reign; that were sin against the clearest right and the most obvious justice; but this is to despise a God of mercy, who offers us pardon while he invites us to duty,-a bleeding, weeping, dying, pleading Saviour, who bled, and wept, and died, for us. Was there ever such love as the love of Christ? Was there ever such ingratitude as the hate of the sinner? Oh! my impenitent hearers, such ingratitude is yours; for you by your careless indifference, your preference of every worldly trifle to his grace, your continued deafness to his calls, prove that you count that blood wherewith he was consecrated the Saviour of sinners an unholy thing, a common, useless matter, unworthy your thought or your time. If he who despised Moses' law died without mercy, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall you be thought worthy, who have thus despised and neglected the merciful entreaties of God in the bleeding person of the crucified Saviour? 3. The impenitent sinner under the gospel does despite unto the Spirit of grace. God hath not only sent his Son as a messenger of mercy, and provided by him a way of pardon, but he has also sent his Holy Spirit to plead with our spirits. It is the voice of that Spirit we hear in his word, in the preaching of truth by his messengers, in every sacrament we witness, in every blessing and every affliction of Providence, in everything which brings the truth of God to our notice, and should impress it upon our hearts. But especially is his voice heard, when, by that mysterious method in which spirit addresses spirit, we feel that truth borne home upon our conscience, forcing our attention, and, as it were against our wills, compelling us to melt beneath the love, or tremble beneath the wrath, of God. It is the voice of the Spirit of grace; for that blessed agent of the gospel thus pleads with us to induce our repentance and win us to salvation. Like the Father's in giving his Son, and the Son's in giving his life, the Spirit's purpose is love, and grace, and mercy. Yet how have you, my impenitent friend, regarded Him? Have you listened to his voice? Have you obeyed his call? How long has that neglected Bible of yours been permitted to lie unopened and unread, the very dust upon its covers a witness against you? Or if read, how carelessly, and how soon forgotten? How often has the gospel been preached, and the warnings of divine vengeance been sounded in your ears from this pulpit, and you have gone away unmoved, or, if moved for a moment, soon to lose all remembrance of it in the pleasures and cares of life? How often have you seen the sacred emblems of divine love pass before you in the sacraments, yet seen them without the slightest emotion or care? How often by prosperity has the Spirit of God moved you to repentance by goodness, and how often by affliction warned you of the uncertainty of all created good, yet blessing and affliction only hardened your heart the more? Nay, how often in those seats, or in your |