sinner--no influence by which love and holiness could be produced in the heart). But the Scripture (that is, the revelation of law in the Scriptures) hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed; wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.' Now, from the above Scriptures it is evident that the apostle understood the law not only to be adapted, but designed by its Author, to show the soul its guilty and lost condition, its inability to free itself from the condemnation to which it was liable, and to prepare it, at the proper time, to love and trust in Christ for salvation from sin, and spiritual death, the consequence of sin. How, then, could God manifest that mercy to sinners by which love to himself and to his law would be produced, while his infinite holiness and justice would be maintained? We answer, in no way possible, but by some expedient by which his justice and mercy would both be exalted. If, in the wisdom of the Godhead, such a way could be devised, by which God himself could save the soul from the consequences of its guilt--by which he himself could in some way suffer and make self-denials for its good; and, by his own interposition, open a way for the soul to recover from its lost and condemned condition, then the result would follow inevitably, that every one of the human family who had been led to see and feel his guilty condition before God, and who believed in God thus manifesting himself to rescue his soul from spiritual death--everyone, thus believing, would, from the necessities of his nature, be led to love God his Saviour; and mark, the greater the self-denial and the suffering on the part of the Saviour, in ransoming the soul, the stronger would be the affection felt for him. This is the central and vital doctrine of the plan of salvation. We will now, by throwing light and accumulating strength upon this doctrine from different points, illustrate and establish it beyond the possibility of rational doubt. _1. The testimony of Jesus that it was necessary man should feel the want, in order to exercise the love._