containing the glad tidings of salvation, is styled the gospel of the grace of God. Indeed, no doctrine is more clearly taught throughout both the gospels and epistles than this, that to the original goodness and mercy of God the Father, we owe both the appointment and acceptance of the sacrifice of CHRIST's death as an atonement for the sins of the whole world. GOD commendeth his love towards us, saith St. Paul, in that while we were yet sinners CHRIST died for us; and the same apostle sums up the whole in one short sentence-The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through JESUS CHRIST our LORD.

If saved at all, then, my friends-that is, if provision is made for our deliverance from the curse entailed upon sin, and means appointed to restore the image of GoD in our souls, and bring us back to that glorious and happy state from whence we are fallen and far distant-it must be altogether of mere grace on the part of God, nothing moving him thereto but the original inherent compassion of his nature, and pity for the work of his hands, betrayed and ruined by the malice of the devil. Herein is love, my brethren, even the love of God; and let us keep it steadily in view, ascribing to the glorious Trinity in our salvation, what is due to each and to all; for it is an unworthy and improper notion of Almighty God to conceive of him as so implacable and severe that he was only prevailed on by the interposition of CHRIST to have mercy on fallen man, as a passionate man is sometimes made to yield by the entreaties of his friend. It is the undoubted doctrine of the Scriptures, that while, as the righteous governor of the universe, he was bound to punish sin, yet as the LORD GOD merciful and gracious, he contrived, appointed, and accepted those wonderful means, by which, while sin should not go unpunished, a door of mercy and hope was opened to the sinner. Oh! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of GOD, how unsearchable are his judg ments, and his ways past finding out.

But our salvation, my brethren, is shown to be yet more strictly of mere grace, inasmuch as it was unsought and unprocurable by any means in our reach.

Here, my friends, we have an opportunity of viewing sin in

all its malignity, not only in exposing us to the loss of God's favour and the terrors of his wrath, but in hardening the heart against them, and deadening the spiritual sense to the desire to be delivered from them. The sinner never prays. Of this we have a memorable instance in the first transgressors; no symptom of contrition, no sorrow of heart for the offence they have committed against their Maker and Benefactor, is manifested by either of them; they knew and felt that they were guilty, and their guilt led them to hide themselves from Him whose voice had heretofore been music to their ears; no supplication for mercy, no prayer for pardon, no entreaty for a mitigation of their sentence is heard from them, any more than from their betrayer; nothing is seen in them but the hard and sullen temper which disdains acknowledgment and resents reproof. Oh! how near to the state and temper of devils does sin reduce its votaries; yet, at this very moment, did the infinite compassion of GoD meet them with the mercies of redemption, unsought, unprocurable. Freely, and of his unbounded goodness and love, did the Father of mercies, the GOD of all comfort and consolation, while denouncing the curse under which we all labour, present his only and well beloved Son, to shield them and us their progeny from the demands of the law, broken and dishonoured by their sin, and in due time to become that seed of the woman which should bruise the head of the serpent; and freely did the love of CHRIST move him to undertake the mighty ransom of them, and of the countless millions which fell in them. Thus is our salvation from first to last, my brethren, of the mere grace and unsought favour of a merciful God. Herein is love, dear brethren, not that we loved GOD, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. O that the hard hearts of the impenitent and ungodly may melt and soften under this wonderful display of GoD's hatred of their sins and love for their souls. O that the proud and lofty despisers of the cross of CHRIST, may in this see on what a sandy foundation their self-righteous hopes are built, and, renouncing their own righteousness, submit themselves to the righteousness of GOD, which is by faith of JESUS CHRIST, whom GOD hath set forth to

be a propitiation through faith in his blood, that he might be just and the justifier of all that believe in this Redeemer.

II. For the salvation thus wrought out and offered to sinners by the gospel, is no otherwise attainable than through the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

This is evident, not only from the express declarations of Scripture, but from the nature of the thing itself.

The whole of our salvation being founded on the gratuitous appointment of Almighty GoD, the means to be used by us in the attainment of it must be ordered and directed by the same all-wise and gracious Being. Inventions and contrivances of men can have no place in this great work, and can only tend to defeat its efficacy on those who in this manner add to or take away from the more sure word of prophecy. The object in view being two-fold, not merely the deliverance of the sinner from punishment by the substitution of an atonement sufficient for the expiation of his guilt, but, furthermore, the renewal and sanctification of his corrupt and sinful nature, without which there can be no salvation, it must follow that He who made us, who saw the full extent of our undoing, and knew the fittest means to counteract the apostacy of accountable creatures, alone could judge and appoint what was most effectual to this end, and at the same time most consonant with his own perfections.

Again, as GoD was the party offended by human sin, it rested solely with himself whether to accept any, or what kind of atonement for it, as also what application to make of the altered condition of his creature. It was not for the sinner at the time, neither is it for him now, to say by whom or on what conditions he will be saved. His part is the deepest thankfulness for such an unspeakable gift, with the most earnest and devoted diligence to walk worthy of it. Thus we judge in things of a temporal nature, my hearers, and the same rule will equally apply to those eternal things now under consideration. But when to this reasoning we add the clear and unequivocal declarations of God's revealed word, as respects both our ruin and our remedy, there can be no refuge but in unbelief. All have sinned and come short of the glory of GOD. There is none righteous, no not

one.

Cursed is every one that continueth not, in all things written

in the book of the law, to do them. As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin-so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For when we were yet without strength, in due time CHRIST died for the ungodly. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, GOD sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of GOD in him. For we see JESUS, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved only the name of JESUS CHRIST of Nazareth. Many more passages of Scripture of a similar import might be brought forward, my brethren and hearers, but these I think quite sufficient, because whoever can withstand them would just as readily resist the whole artillery of the word of GOD. Thus is it shown you, my friends, that our whole salvation is of the mere grace of Almighty God, undeserved, unsought, and unprocurable by us, and that no otherwise is it attainable by us than through the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Many and various are the reflections, my brethren, which rise in the mind on a near view like this of the state and condition of accountable creatures, whom a few short years, perhaps days, perhaps hours-who can tell-must consign to all the realities of an eternal world, to the righteous judgment of GOD, to heaven or to hell. There is something deeply affecting in such a thought, and the more so, when it applies to relations and friends, to neighbours and acquaintances, persons whom we know, for whom we entertain a regard, but of whom we are obliged to know that religious considerations form none, or but a very small part in their estimate of happiness. Can it be

because they do not believe there is such a thing as a future state? This is next to impossible; and if you ask them they will tell you they have no doubt of it. Is it because they reject the revelation God hath made to us? They say no-both by speech and otherwise, for not one of them but what hopes for the mercy of God upon his soul; and otherwise than by revelation we can none of us know any thing of mercy with God. To what, then, must we attribute this almost universal disregard of the things that are most surely believed among us? Alas! my brethren, to what but that love of sin, in some of its deceitful shapes, which is stronger than all those cords of love wherewith God daily and hourly draws them to himself-more powerful than the compassionate intreaties of CHRIST, the lively admonitions of the HOLY GHOST, the reason and conviction of their own minds yea, more alluring than the joys of heaven, and hardly restrained by the torments of hell. This is the cause why such multitudes of old and young, of high and low, of rich and poor, of bond and free, even with the gospel of salvation in their hands, prefer a portion in this life, and live without GoD in the world. The aged, too often, it is to be feared, have trifled with their day of grace until it has passed away from them, never to return. In the middle stage of life, when all the faculties are in perfection, and accountability at its height, when experience might teach some wisdom, yet then it is that the GOD of this world is most devoutly worshipped. One goes to his farm and another to his merchandise, one chases ambition and another pursues pleasure, regardless of the steady though silent approach of that hour when it shall be said unto each, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided.

In early life, when this fleeting scene spreads all its enchantments, when passion warms and hope flatters, when reason yields, and prudence is yet remote, it is but an unwelcome office to hint at the then far off things of eternity, indeed it is too commonly an useless one. Yet then is the time: ere the heart is hardened, and shame deadened, and the conscience seared in the crooked and cruel paths of dissipated, sinful pleasure. O for a warning voice to reach the hearts of the thousands of