tion pictures a God all benignity and love. No regard is paid to his truth and his holiness as Rector of the world; nor is it remembered that it is in the nature of things absolutely impossible divine justice should, without satisfaction, remit punishment where transgressions are committed. If the deluded sinner become at all serious, and the thought of eternity obtrude on his reflection, and disturb his quiet; he purposes amend. ment of life as the most likely means of making God propitious.

'Remorse begets reform. His master lust

Falls first before his resolute rebuke,

And seems dethron'd and vanquish'd-'

This alteration of conduct, joined to the mercy of God, will, he thinks, completely save him, though it be at the last hour. If, however, conscience do her work faithfully, he is exceedingly alarmed! he begins to proportion his diligence to his danger, and proposes,' as Hawkesworth expresses it, 'more uniform virtue and more ardent devotion in order to secure himself from the worm that never dies, and the fire that is not quenched,' but until convinced by the Holy Spirit that all his righteousness is as filthy rags,' he is never brought, even at the last extremity, to reject his own supposed moral worth.

Such are the views, and such the principles on which the natural man reasons when guilt arrests the conscience, and the salvation of his soul becomes a matter of serious inquiry. The tear of sorrow is to purchase oblivion for the past, and future reformation to merit the felicity of heaven. He never considers, that the imperfection of his duties renders eternal blessedness in this way unattainable. But when the Spirit of God strips him of all his imaginary excellence, and shews him that the divine law is spiritual; that it re

quireth perfect purity of heart as well as of conduct, he then sees that he is indeed 'wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.' He cries in the anguish of his soul, What, will nothing that I can do entitle me to happiness! If so, 'How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?'

Such is the inquiry of an awakened soul: and such, Lavinia, I know is the language of your heart. While, therefore, I am endeavouring to answer the inexpressibly important question, pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.'

In attempting this, we must return to that once happy paradise, where our first parents forfeited their title to present and to future happiness. Here, while lamenting over their apostacy from God, we discover the interposing hand of divine mercy extended to administer reliefto point the way to 'a paradise,' as Witsius expresses it, 'far preferable to the earthly, and to a felicity more stable than that from which Adam fell.' Here a new hope shines upon ruined mortals, which ought to be the more acceptable, the more unexpected it comes. Here conditions are prescribed, to which eternal salvation is annexed; conditions, not to be performed again by us, which might throw the mind into despondency; but by him that would not part with his life before he had truly said-It is finished.' No sooner is the rebellion of our apostate ancestors acknowledged, than a Saviour is graciously promised-The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.'

The promulgation of this act of grace was the effect of everlasting love; and also a declaration of the future incarnation of the Son of God;

which incarnation was, in the first ages of the church, prefigured by various types and shadows, 'but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.' In the eternal cove nant of grace, all things were settled and provided for the redemption of man. 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' The divine Redeemer foresaw the wretchedness and the ruin to which the members of his mystical body would be exposed in consequence of sin; and in order to rescue them from this ruin and that wretchedness, he voluntarily sanctified himself-or in other words-gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savour.' He most cheerfully engaged as a substitute for the guilty, and undertook to redeem from death and all its consequences, the many sons he was appointed to bring to glory.

In a compact so characteristic of the Father of mercies, it appears from scriptural represen→ tation, to have been stipulated that the Son of his bosom should take the nature of man into union with his divine person; 'that he should in that nature, bear the sins of many-be numbered with transgressors-make his soul an offering for sin-finish transgression, make an end of sins-make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness:' and as a reward for the work he was to perform as Mediator, his eternal Father promised, 'That he should see his seed; should prolong his days; should see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; and that the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hands.' In consequence of his

own engagement and of this promise, the compassionate Saviour saith-' Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.'

To accomplish the astonishing work of re demption, the Son of God must become incarnate; assume the nature that had sinned, and in that nature make complete reparation to the law which his people had grossly violated: for, without reparation, no sinner could be saved. As a transgressor, he must inevitably have perished; or the divine law have relinquished its claim on him as a debtor; which, in the very nature of the case, was impossible. No law, human or divine, founded in justice and given as a rule of moral conduct, can dispense with a breach of its commands. Were a desperate assassin to plunge a dagger into the bosom of his most inveterate enemy, the law of his country would demand his life as an atonement for the crime: it could not do otherwise. It is allowed, indeed, that the murderous villain might escape the penalty of death by the intervention of a pardon; but for this pardon he would not be indebted to the benignity of the law, but to the unjust interposition of his prince. The law would remain invariably the same: it must ever view him as a notorious transgressor; and unless its requirements be granted, or its violated honours amply restored, oppose all his efforts to obtain liberty or to preserve life.

Now, thus it stands with sinful man, respecting the great Governor of heaven and of earth. The divine law, which was given as a rule of conduct, has been broken in a thousand instances; and its language to the candidate for eternal happiness on the ground of human worthiness, is,

Pay me that thou owest! Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.' This demand is founded in equity, and can neither be evaded nor complied with by the culprit: he lies under an arrest of justice; and unless the demands of the claimant be answered by the sinner or his substitute, he must remain perpetually a debtor, and feel the weight of his sentence for ever. 'Without an adequate atonement,' says the ingenious Blacklock, no sinner can possibly escape the hands, or elude the awards of justice. But such a compensation can by no means be given, if the delinquent's capacities of suffering be limited, or his station and character of no higher importance than those of his brethren; for the malignity of moral evil is too diffuse and permanent to be cured by any exemplary punishment, whose duration and extent are circumscribed. Even penitence itself cannot obliterate the evil which it deplores. Transgressions already past, and recorded in the books of heaven, are not to be reversed by resolutions of future reformation. The purest virtue of which human nature is capable, extends not to the sanctity of those laws which are prescribed for its obedience. Our best actions demand the exertions of mercy and forgiveness; how then can we atone for them that are bad?

Let it therefore be remembered, that on the ground of personal desert, no sinner can be saved. This is absolutely impossible: and the reason is obvious. He has violated the divine precept, and no future conduct, however exemplary and exact, can atone for crimes previously committed. As therefore a continuance of happiness was conditionally annexed to perfect and perpetual obedience only; that happiness cannot be enjoyed