THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN - Burns, William Chalmers

THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN

1840

“And when He is come He will reprove the world of sin.” – John 16:8.

MY DEAR FELLOW-SINNERS

The object I have at present in view is to guide you to a true and saving knowledge of THE NATURE AND
HEINOUSNESS OF SIN. This is a subject which lies at the very foundation of all true religion; and I know of
nothing which is more fearfully wanting, even among professing Christians, than a thorough acquaintance
with it. It is from the want of this that the ungodly world is lying fast asleep on the edge of the pit’s yawning
mouth; and it is from the same cause that many anxious sinners come short of a saving union to Jesus, and
that the true people of God, in general, feed with so little appetite from hour to hour upon Emmanuel, as the
righteousness and life of their souls. The knowledge of sin, and that alone, will make the Savior truly,
supremely, and permanently prized.

In a future letter, if the gracious Lord permits me, I mean to speak to you upon the work of the Holy
Ghost in convincing the soul of sin. At present, we are to consider the means which he employs, in
performing this blessed work. But, in the very outset, I would press upon you the great – and, alas! greatly
neglected – truth, that it is only through the almighty and direct operation of the Spirit of God, that true
views of sin can be attained by fallen man. The truths which we are now about to consider are indeed
momentous, and are fitted to awaken the whole world, were it not bound in chains of satanic darkness; but
they will not, and cannot possibly do you any good, unless the Holy Spirit graciously open your eyes, and
reveal them within your soul. I would therefore beseech and implore you, dear fellow-sinner, before you
process farther, to retire to a secret place, and plead with the God of Love to pour our his Spirit upon you.
By your doing so, these lines may be the humble, means of saving your soul – if it is not yet saved – or of
leading you on in the narrow way to Zion, if you are already upon it. But, O! remember that it is at your
peril that you read the truths of God as if they were the thoughts of a fellow-worm! Rather lay down this
tract, and read not another line, than do so in a prayer less, easy, carnal frame of mind; for it will be a savoir
of death unto death, if it is not rendered by the Spirit a savoir of life unto life. It must add drops of torment
to your cup of wrath, if it is not useful in prevailing with you to take the cup of salvation, and call upon the
name of the Lord.

We shall, first, very briefly, notice some of those false balances in which men weigh sin and weigh
themselves, and then bring ourselves to the Law of God – the balance of the sanctuary – which cries to every
sinner, like the handwriting on the wall to the King of Babylon, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art
found wanting.”

FALSE STANDARDS OF SIN

1 st , The Natural Conscience. — Multitudes remain at ease under the wrath of God, because they judge of
their state by the voice of the natural conscience. The conscience may be compared to a clock – the Law of
God to the sun. The clock is right only when it keeps time with the sun; and if a man should close his
windows, keep a taper burning in his room, and regulate his movements by a clock which is standing, or has

gone wrong, he might sleep at noon-day, and the night overtake him before his work was aright begun. So it
is with the conscience. It is a safe guide only when it is guided by the Law; it is to be followed only when it
follows God; if we follow it farther, we shall follow it to hell! The conscience was originally in perfect
harmony with the Law of God; but when man sinned, it fell, with all his other faculties, under the power of
sin and Satan. In all unregenerate men it is very blind, and very insensible to the true character and claims
of Jehovah; and in many it is so completely blindfolded by false religion, or seared by habitual and flagrant
sin, that they pass through life thinking that all is well with them, and at last drop suddenly into the flames!
Think of it, dear fellow-sinners, the conscience may give you no uneasiness, and yet you may be on the very
brink of hell! A dead conscience leads many of damnation without a warning! They dream that they are to escape until they awake under the scorching of the fire that is never quenched, and the gnawing of the worm
that never dies! Study the Divine Law, under the teaching of the Divine Spirit, and your conscience, when enlightened, will teach you that you deserve eternal death on account of many things in which you used to
see no evil. Learn to regulate your timepiece by the sun – to guide your conscience by Jehovah’s Law, and thus it will lead you to heaven, instead of leaving you, as alas! it leaves millions, to make shipwreck of your
soul on the rocks and quicksands of the kingdom of darkness.

2 nd , The Natural Understanding. – The understanding of fallen man, like the conscience, is naturally under the power of the prince of darkness, and is so completely blind to the things of God, that the very light which is in us by nature is darkness. In consequence of this fearful condition, the things of God appear to the natural man to be foolishness; he thinks them unreasonable, and is so puffed up by the flatteries of a vain and deceitful heart, that he cannot receive them. The natural understanding may admit the reasonableness of morality, and even of religion, however strict, provided only that it be not the pure gospel of Christ; but, when the testimony of God regarding holiness and sin is set before the mind, unless the almighty power of God accompany it, to beat down and strongholds of the prince of darkness, it finds no admittance – the eye is closed, and the heart is barred against it. How common is it to hear unregenerate men talk of the reasonableness of their religion! How generally do they look down with contempt upon the pure truth of
the Word of God as a religion only fit for enthusiastic and narrow-minded bigots! How many monstrous forms of impiety and blasphemy, which cry aloud to Heaven for the thunderbolts of Divine vengeance, are
the children of the devil setting forth in our own days under the injured names of reason and justice! All these are the fearful fruits of man’s natural blindness; and, if we desire to know truly the nature of sin, we
must not only escape from this blinded crowd, but must have the root of all their impieties and blasphemies destroyed with us. The root of all is the setting up of our own blinded views in opposition to the clear and
holy declarations of the God of Truth; and this is so common, that there are thousands everywhere among us, who profess to be Christians, and yet have their minds impregnably fortified by their proud
imaginations, against the entrance of the true and saving knowledge of God; and, therefore, my dear fellow- sinner, I would urge you to examine, at the Throne of Grace, how far the natural darkness of your understanding has been dispelled, and your natural thoughts of what is reasonable have given way before the humbling light of the Holy Ghost. O! think how fearful is the impiety of that puny worm, who dares to
call Jehovah to the bar of his blinded reason, and to sit in judgment upon the word and ways of the Holy One! Think what must be the peril of that sinner, who is setting up his own miserable views in opposition to
the unerring voice of the God of Truth, and whose only hope of being saved, really depends of his being
found to be wiser and more righteous than God! O! wonderful forbearance, which can suffer such creatures
to breathe a single moment out of hell! When the Holy Spirit visits any soul, he teaches it that, if any man is
wise in this world, he must become, in his own eyes, a fool, that he may be wise; he shows the sinner that all
his boasted thoughts of what is reasonable, are nothing but the essence of pride and impiety, and that, if he

had no other thing to answer for than these at the bar of God, they would be more than enough to make the
justice of his perdition plain. Dear fellow-sinner, examine yourself in regard to this matter, and seek that the
God of Truth would deliver you from the power of darkness, and bring out your soul into the marvelous
light of his own pure Word and Holy Spirit. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof is the way of death.” “Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.”

3 rd , The Opinion of the World. – This is the last, but not the least powerful and dangerous of those false
rules by which men in general form their views of right and wrong. There is hardly anything which tends so
much to keep the multitude at ease in their perishing condition, as their following the general opinion of
men around them; and even when a sinner is awakened by the Holy Spirit, he has often a fearful struggle
before he can fully deliver himself from the bondage of the world’s opinion, and can find strength to act
upon it as an undoubted truth, however awful, that the whole world lieth in the wicked one; that Satan
reigns in every unregenerate soul, and sways the scepter of the globe. It is indeed difficult to say with full
conviction, “Let God be true, and every man a liar;” to embrace God’s views regarding sin, and to give the
lie to all the darkness and pride of the soul within, and of the ungodly world around. This, however, we
must do, if we are ever to learn our true condition, and are to be saved from the perishing wreck of this
apostate world. And you must remember, dear friend, that though this is hard, nay impossible, for man
himself, through the power of sin and Satan, it is both possible and easy to the God of Salvation. When the
Spirit comes to anyone in his conscience-convincing power, he speedily destroys the power of the world’s
opinion, and brings the soul to take part with the blessed God of Truth, against all the enemies who oppose
him. The Spirit teaches a sinner that the things which are highly esteemed among men are an abomination
in the sight of God; that, under the covering of natural virtue, men are universally depraved; that the decent,
respectable, amiable, learned, accomplished, and honorable, in the unregenerate world, who, he used to
think, could hardly fail to be saved, are really nothing more and nothing less than decent rebels, respectable
enemies of God, learned fools, amiable slaves of Satan, accomplished children of wrath, honorable heirs of
hell; that the world is not one whit better in the nineteenth century than it was in the first, when Jews and
Gentiles, high and low, learned and ignorant, profligates and professors of religion, rose with one consent
against the Light of the World, and put Him to death, because they could not endure his holy doctrine, nor
these piercing beams of his Divine glory which shone through his human nature, concealing, like the veil in
the ancient temple, the Holiest of all! He teaches the soul that, however much men may think of themselves,
and of this world, with its nobles, parliaments, princes, and monarchs, the nations are before God as nothing;
that he can as easily punish a world as destroy a worm; and that his enemies, though they were multiplied a
million-fold, could not shield themselves one moment from the avenging stroke of his almighty arm! By
such discoveries as these, the power of the world’s opinion in regard to sin is effectually broken, — the sinner
feels that, if he is to be saved, he must take part with God against it, and that, if he should persist in
following the world, he must be condemned with the world, and be driven away with the world into
everlasting punishment.

These, then, dear fellow-sinner, are some of the false standards by which the world at large, and all of us
by nature, judge of sin, and by which multitudes are kept bound under darkness here, until they are at last
sent down to the blackness of darkness forever. It is easy and common to disown these rules in words, but
few do so in very deed, and from the heart; and you may be assured, my dear friend, that if the power of these
principles has not been discovered to you, and destroyed within you, by the Holy Ghost, you still continue a
stranger to his saving work, and are ignorant of God, of your own heart, of sin, of your lost condition, and of

Emmanuel, the only Savior of the lost. Praying that the Holy Spirit may make us willing to judge ourselves
sincerely by that perfect Law which God has given to man, we shall now proceed to consider its nature.

THE TRUE STANDARD OF SIN

The only true standard of sin is THE LAW OF GOD, which is summed up in the Ten Commandments,
and is explained at large throughout the Word of God. The Law of God is the solemn declaration of his holy
will, as our Creator, Proprietor, and Moral Governor. It has proceeded forth from the inaccessible light of
Jehovah’s eternal throne, as the perfect and unalterable rule of man’s character and conduct, and the
foundation of all God’s dealings with him. It is only when we view the Law in connection with God as its
author, and when, by the Spirit, we discern somewhat of God’s infinite glory, that we see its excellence and
authority, and feel that infinite guilt is contracted by the violation of it. The world has mean and carnal
thoughts of God, — imagining him to be such an one as themselves, and, therefore, men in general trample
on the Law without remorse or fear; but when so much as a single beam of the Divine glory shines into the
guilty soul, the sinner discovers the infinite majesty of the Law, and the infinite demerit of the very least
offence against it. Let us therefore seek, as we are briefly considering the properties of the Law, to realize the
glorious presence of Jehovah who gave it; and thus, at every step, we shall be ashamed and confounded on
account of our iniquities, and shall fall low as undone sinners at the feet of Jesus.

1 st , The Law is Holy. — The moral law is a copy of God’s holy nature, a mirror in which all the Divine
perfections shine gloriously forth. When we say that God is holy, we mean two things; first, that he is
perfectly and unchangeable free from all iniquity himself; and, second, that his blessed nature recoils with an
essential and infinite abhorrence from the very sight of iniquity in any of his creatures. And thus it is with
the Law which he has given to man. That Law demands perfect and constant love to God, perfect obedience
to his will, perfect dedication to his glory, and perfect delight in his character and love. These glorious
requirements manifest the infinite holiness of the Law. And, on the other hand, it shows its holiness when it
forbids and condemns, with the fearful threatening of the second death, the very least degree of any form of
sin; searching out and pursuing with divine vengeance, ungodliness, pride, irreverence, rebellion, impurity,
malice, injustice, falsehood, envy, and every other form of sin. Man’s depraved nature is a hotbed for the
growth of all these iniquities, a fountain which is continually sending forth the black streams of impurity and
ungodliness; but the Law of God, is unchangeably opposed to the very least sin even in thought or desire.
Little do the multitude dream that they are under a Law so holy as this; and therefore they imagine that they
can do many good things, and that they are in little danger of God’s indignation; but when the Holy Ghost
reveals to the soul the Law of God, and the nature of God, as represented in it, the conscience is set on fire,
and the sinner is cast into depths of alarm and horror, wondering that the Almighty God, against whose
perfections and government he is every moment sinning, does not let loose his thunderbolts upon him, and
hurl him from the face of the earth into the bottomless pit! Dear fellow-sinner, have you ever felt in this way?
If you have not, it is not because you are safe, but because you are blind. O! plead, in the name of Jesus, that
the Spirit would reveal the holy Law to your conscience in its real nature, and then you shall be able to find
no rest, except in the precious blood of God’s own Son, which has been, as it were, sprinkled upon the Law,
that its holiness might be vindicated, and the unholy sinner saved.

2 nd , The Law is Spiritual. – This is a property of the Law which is little attended to; but there is none
which more fully sets forth its glory, nor the extent and heinousness of sin. When it is called “spiritual,” the
meaning seems to be, not only that it is a law which reaches to the heart of man, but that it is a law which is
fitted for a spiritual nature, or, in other words, a nature communicated to man by the power of the Holy

Spirit. When man was created at first in the Divine image, the Spirit of God dwelt in his soul, as in a temple,
and made him capable of discerning, and admiring, and obeying the spiritual Law which the Lord inscribed
upon his holy conscience. In consequence of sin, however, the Spirit of God deserted the soul of man, and he
forthwith became, as the Scripture says, “carnal,” or “sensual, not having the Spirit.” That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Thus, the nature of man has become entirely
contrary to the Law. I know,” says Paul, “that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.” “The
carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the Law of God, neither, indeed, can be; and they that
are in the flesh cannot please God.” There is no view of the Law of God which so utterly destroys the hopes
of an unregenerate man as this. The natural man thinks that he can do many things which the Law requires,
and that he has at least some good works to recommend him to the mercy of God, as men speak. But what
does the spirituality of the Law teach us? It is, indeed, a different doctrine. It shows a man that he is wholly
“carnal;” that he cannot even discern the Law aright; that his heart is unmixed hatred to it, when truly
known; that he cannot please God in anyone particular; and that his best dispositions, and most
commendable actions, are wholly destitute of spiritual life and glory, and are as different from those which
the Law demands as a dead waxen image is different from a living man. An unrenewed man neither has
done, nor can do, anyone thing which will meet the requirements of the Law. His works are dead works,
proceeding from selfish, carnal principles, and being destitute of that holy love to God, and dedication to his
glory, which constitute the value of actions in the judgment of the Law; and thus, instead of deserving a
reward, they are fitted to draw down the consuming wrath of the Holy One! Poor carnal sinner, you must
betake yourself, with grief and shame, to the glorious spiritual obedience of the Lamb of God, as your only
refuge from the curse of a spiritual Law, and in him you will find the promise of the Holy Ghost to restore to
you a spiritual nature, that, being accepted in the Beloved, you may be again conformed to God’s image.

3 rd , The Law is Bread. – This is another view of the Law which exalts the character of God, and strikes at
the root of all man’s pride and self-confidence. By nature we imagine that the Law is narrow in its
requirements, and, in our blindness and pride, we are disposed to stretch out our own righteousness, as it
were, to correspond with it, and cover it; but when the Spirit opens our eyes, we are led to say with David, “I
have seen an end of all perfection; but thy commandment is exceeding broad.” We now see that the Law is
wide as the perfections of the Divine character, and that it is broad as the nature of man, reaching to
everyone of his powers and faculties, fathoming the mighty depths of his heart, penetrating into the most
concealed recesses of his being, following him into the darkest mazes of his thoughts and imaginations,
attending him wherever he goes, observing him whatever he does, unveiling his hidden depravity, searching
to the bottom of his soul, examining and judging every thought, every desire, every imagination, every look,
every feature, every word, every motion, every passing expression of the countenance. Ah! when the Law of
God is thus seen in its exceeding breadth, the enmity of the sinner to it is fearfully exasperated – the
commandment comes home to him, as it came to Paul; sin, which was asleep, revives, and the sinner dies!
He is made to feel that, though his fancied good works were really good, they could no more meet the
breadth of the commandment, than the point of a needle can cover the surface of the globe, or than the puny
insect can veil with its wing the face of the vast immeasurable skies! This conviction strikes him to the dust,
and he would lie there and perish in despair, did not the blessed Spirit direct his eye to the surety of sinners,
and discover to the conscience the Law-magnifying righteousness of Jesus, which, through the infinite glory
of his Godhead, not only meets, but overpasses the Law in all the exceeding breadth of its demands.

4 th , The Law is Righteous. — When the holiness, spirituality, and exceeding breadth of the Law are set
before us, we are ready to complain of it as unreasonably strict and severe; but, if we view the matter in the

light of God, we shall see that this charge is unreasonable, unjust, and impious. Justice consists in giving to
everyone his due. Now, let us apply this to the Law. It demands for God supreme and constant love to his
blessed nature, complete obedience to his holy will, entire devoutness to his glory, and perfect delight in his
presence and love. These demands we have, alas! withstood; but are they therefore unjust? No. They are
the natural and the unalienable rights of Jehovah, which he cannot but insist on, and to surrender which
would be to surrender his glory as God. That Law which declares these rights of God, and guards them with
its fearful threatening, is a righteous Law. Its demands are righteous, — its curse it righteous. If its demands
were less strict, or its threatening less severe, it would be an unjust law – the enemy of God’s glory, and of
God’s creation. It is sin – it is not the Law – which is unjust, robbing God of his glory, and man of his dignity
and his blessedness; and though sin has obtained so complete dominion in the human heart, that man has no
disposition to keep the Law, it is righteous in continuing to maintain the claims of God, and in condemning
all who oppose them. Poor sinner, you may think to spring backward and escape from the grasp of the
Divine Law, by charging it with too great severity; but it is impossible – you cannot escape. It holds you in
the awful bonds of justice, and never can you be delivered from its iron bars and its gates of brass, until you
see yourself righteously condemned, and throw yourself into the arms of Jesus, who, as the sinner’s surety,
met the law in all its just demands, and fully satisfied it on the cross! You have robbed God of his rights and
glory; you have been guilty of high treason against the King of kings; you have exposed yourself to the
consuming stroke of God’s avenging justice; but behold! the blessed Jesus stands in the breach to turn away
God’s wrath, he stores that glory to God which you have taken away, and, by his precious sufferings,
renders your salvation possible, in harmony with the rights of God, and the honor of his Law.

5 th , The Law is Good. – This is the crowning feature in the character of the Law, and it is the one which
gives the finishing stroke of infamy to the character of sin. The natural man thinks that the Law, at least
when explained in its spiritual nature, is the enemy of human happiness; and that, though a man may
increase his happiness by decent moral conduct, holiness is opposed to it. This is an unfounded, but a deep
and fearful delusion, under which sin and Satan have bound an apostate world. It is indeed true that the
un-renewed sinner can find no enjoyment in the holy Law, but is pained and tormented when it comes near
his guilty conscience and carnal heart; and it is certain, that, if the carnal man were transplanted to heaven,
where all is perfect holiness, it would prove to him a place of restraint and of torment. But this only proves
that man’s taste is depraved, and not that holiness has anything in its own nature that is evil or unpleasant.
In what does the infinite and ineffable blessedness of God himself consist? It is little that we can conceive of
this, but yet we are warranted to say that it arises chiefly from his reflecting, with infinite and unchangeable
complacency, on the perfections of his own holy nature. Now, if this be the case, must not the Law be
essentially and infinitely good and gracious, which commands man to be in the contemplation of Jehovah’s
un-created glory? We may, through the power of sin and Satan, think little of this; but, in reality, it is the
perfection of dignity and of blessedness; and God, in giving man such a law, designed to make him a
partaker of his own glory and felicity. And, although the Law be armed with a fearful curse against all who
transgress it, this does not alter its essential goodness. Nay, this very curse is placed as the guardian and
defender of goodness, to take vengeance on those who would injure and destroy it. The Law which was
ordained unto life, we find to be unto death; but does this show that the Law is evil? No; it only proves the
infinite evil of sin, which can change the sweetest food into the most deadly poison. “Was then that which is
good made death unto me?” says Paul. He answers, “God forbid;” it was not so, but it was sin that wrought
death in him by that Law which is good, in order that sin, by the good commandment, might become
exceeding sinful.” Indeed, my dear fellow-sinners, the Law of God is so essentially and perfectly good,
that, constituted as man has been, it is impossible for Almighty power to make him truly and eternally

blessed, except by restoring his nature to harmony with its demands; and when man is again perfectly
restored to agreement with the Law, and its righteousness has been fulfilled in him, through the power of
the Holy Spirit, his blessedness with be complete. The reason why the blessedness of the children of God is
not perfect on earth is simply this, that their holiness is still imperfect; but when they leave the world, and
become free from the power of sin, their joy will be full. Even here they can say with Paul, “I delight in the
Law of God after the inward man,” and with David, “Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it;
but when they enter into glory, and are conformed to the image of God’s dear Son, their delight in the Law
will be ineffable, and they will feel that, in departing from it, they had not only trampled on the principles of
justice, but had sinned against the very essence of goodness. How infinite, then, is the evil of sin! How fully
deserving to be pursued with God’s everlasting vengeance! How mad and infatuated is that world, which
seeks for happiness by forsaking the holy Law, and entering those regions of ungodliness which are walled
off by Divine justice – nay, by the Divine goodness itself – as the habitation of wrath and vengeance!

6 Th , The Law is Un-changeble. – It is a common delusion, that because man is now utterly depraved, and
unable to keep the Law, according to its holy and spiritual character, the Law must be brought down to suit
his fallen nature. No error is more common than this, and there is none which more completely saps the
foundation of the gospel. It is beyond all doubt true that man is totally depraved, and that, until he is born
again, he cannot command so much as one holy thought; yet it is equally certain that he is bound, absolutely
bound, by Divine justice, to keep the Law as strictly and perfectly as Adam was in the day of his creation.
God did not deal with Adam as a private person, but as the head and representative of the human family; and when he
gave him the Law, he gave him with it a holy nature to be preserved and conveyed to all his posterity. We
are ready to object to this arrangement because the covenant is broken, and we are involved in Adam’s guilt
and ruin; but would anyone have done so, had Adam stood? Would we not have had infinite reason to
admire God’s boundless grace in giving eternal glory to us so freely? And, had we been present on the day
when God humbled himself so infinitely us to make a covenant with man, must we not have joyfully and
thankfully approved of that covenant? And was it not then most righteous and gracious in the Lord to make
that choice for us in our absence, which we must have joyfully welcomed if present? It is not the choice of God,
but the choice of Adam, that we ought to condemn; and yet the very individuals who find fault with the first
covenant, madly reject the second, and follow their first father in the paths of rebellion and apostasy from
day to day and hour to hour!

And then consider, again, the nature of that inability which man is under the keep the Law of God. Were men
willing and anxious to keep it, and yet prevented by some outward hindrance, such as the want of faculties
or opportunities, it might with some reason be said, that the Law demanded too much. But is this the case?
No! The reason of our inability is simply the greatness of our depravity – that we are desperately wicked
and full of pride, enmity to God, rebellion, impurity, and injustice. And shall the Law of God give
countenance to principles so base and fiendish as these? Shall it consent to man’s rebellion? Shall it legalize
iniquity and ungodliness? Fearful thought! What! shall the fall of a guilty worm shake the principles of
eternal righteousness! Shall man’s willful enmity against the blessed God rob God of this right to perfect
and constant love! Ah, no! Man may fall, but God’s Law and justice cannot be shaken. Man may become so
depraved that he cannot love God, and cannot hate sin, but God cannot cease to demand that sin should be
abhorred, and that his own character – the perfection of beauty – should be admired. Were he to retreat
from these demands, and to wink at sin at any form, he would cease to be God – the glory of him who
dweller in the light that is inaccessible would set in an eternal night! Ah! praise to the Lord, this cannot be.
There is One in the universe who cannot do iniquity, and who, infinitely rather than that his Law should be

violated, his justice injured, his glory tarnished, would case with indignation a whole world of rebels into the
abyss of wrath! heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or tittle can in nowise pass from the Law till all
be fulfilled. We may break a way to hell through the Ten Commandments, which are set as a fence sound
the pit to keep man out of it; but who shall break up a door through them into heaven? The world may
dream that God’s Law is relaxed, and may not be violated with impunity, because men have agreed to
trample it under impious feet. We may dream that God can now bear our sins, because he has been so long
accustomed to have his majesty insulted, his glory despised, his name dishonoured. But ah! sinners will one
day learn that they are mistaken. They will learn this at the bar of judgment, if they refuse to learn it at the
throne of mercy: they will be taught it by the devils in hell, if they are not taught it by the gracious Spirit
upon earth!

If it had been possible that the Law could be relaxed, where would it have been so but in the Garden of
Gethsemane? to whom but to the only-begotten Son of God? If ever Jehovah could have sacrificed the claims
of justice to the cry of mercy, it would surely have been in that mysterious hour of Emmanuel’s sufferings,
when he fell on his face, and three times prayed, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” and his
sweat was great drops of blood falling down to the ground. It was not possible. There was, indeed, an
answer granted to his prayer, — an angel appeared unto him from heaven to strengthen him; but it was to
strengthen him that he might reach the cross, and might not die before he had there drunk to its very dregs
that awful cup of trembling which Divine justice had measured out to sinners, and which was put into his
holy hands as their redeeming surety! There was one way, indeed, in which he might have escaped, and
there was only one. Could he have broken his covenant engagement to the Father as the surety of his elect, —
could he have given up his mighty and unparalleled undertaking, by which he was about to magnify the
Law, and redeem from its curse sinners who had dishonored it, — could he have retreated from that scene
of conflict, where he was about to make an end of sin, and overcome the devil, and death, and hell, — could
he have returned dishonored to the Father’s bosom, — then, indeed, his agonies might have been avoided.
But this he could not do. His love to God and to his people, his truth, his oath, his glory, all engaged him to
carry through the work which the Father had laid upon him. He could not, and he would not, retreat until
he had spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly. And if he must go forward,
Justice was inflexible, — the Law was unchangeable, — God was inexorable! The sins of his people had been
laid upon him, and though he was the man who is God’s fellow, he lay bound under the adamant chains
of Divine everlasting justice, and he could not be set free until he had magnified the Law in all its
unchangeable breadth and holiness, and had fully paid the penalty of his people’s sins! And can we imagine
for a moment, that, if the Law could not be relaxed to the man who is God’s fellow, it can be relaxed to poor
guilty worms of the dust, such as we are – that God will punish his own Son and yet spare us? This is
impossible; and the hopes that are founded on such a ground are desperate and impious.

But how, then, how will say, can anyone be saved? If the Law is thus holy and unchangeable, who can
keep it? and if it must be kept, who can have hope? It is indeed true, that it must be perfectly fulfilled; and
yet, mystery of mysteries! it is equally true that the guiltiest sinner out of hell may be saved! How can this
be? Not by the Law being brought down to meet the sinner, but by the sinner being brought up to meet and
magnify the Law, as clothed and covered with the righteousness of Christ. The sins of men were laid on
Christ, and the unchangeable Law condemned him, and humbled him even to the death of the cross; and so,
when the righteousness of Christ is put upon the sinner, the unchangeable Law justifies him, and exalts him
to everlasting life in heaven! It was no sin of Christ’s for which he wore a crown of thorns, and in like
manner it is no righteousness of ours for which we may wear a crown of glory. Thus it is that mercy and

truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. The Law remains unchanged and
unchangeable; and yet, mystery of mysteries! the sinner who has broken it is saved.

Beloved fellow-sinner, the subject is so large, and has occupied us so long, that I can add nothing in the
way of exhortation. But, let me ask you these solemn questions in the presence of God: Have you seen the
Law to be holy, spiritual, exceeding broad, righteous, good, and unchangeable? Have you felt and
acknowledged that you are under it, and that you are utterly undone? Have you confessed to God that you
deserve to bear his holy curse in hell? Have you fled from your own works, and embraced with all your
heart the Law-magnifying work of Christ as your only ground of hope? If you have done these things, or if
you do them now, through the Spirit, you are saved, and cannot come into condemnation. But if you have
not this experience, and if you should never have it, it is impossible, infinitely impossible, that you can be
saved. Beware, dear fellow-sinner, of begging at the door of justice for mercy, or of bargaining with the Law
by doing what you can to fulfil it. The Law cannot speak a syllable of mercy; it will have nothing to do with
prayers, and tears, and reformation: it has a promise for those who keep it perfectly; but it has a curse for all
who do not. It will enter into no compromise; it will not meet sin half-way with a reduction of its righteous
demands; it must have a perfect obedience, or it will inflict an everlasting curse. Thus, dear fellow -sinner,
you are shut up to faith in the righteousness of Christ. Behold the Lamb of God who take away the sin of
the world. Look unto him as your surety, and you will be saved; despise him, neglect him, and you must
eternally perish!

Praying that the Holy Ghost may savings enlighten all who read these lines in the knowledge of
Emmanuel, and entreating the prayers of the Lord’s children, that, in the next Letter, I may be enabled to
speak aright of the work of Jesus, the glorious foundation of a sinner’s hope, which God hath laid in Zion, I
am, dear fellow-sinners, a lover of your souls, for the sake of Jesus.