But the life of a dissipated, or rather a nominal Christian, seems to be a perpetual struggle to reconcile impossibilities; it is an endeavour to unite what God has for ever separated, peace and sin; unchristian practices with Christian observances; a quiet conscience and a disorderly life; a heart full of this world and an unfounded dependence on the happiness of the next.'

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That all attempts to separate what God has joined together are as impious as they are vain, you need not be told. Christianity must be embraced entirely, if it be received at all. It must be taken without mutilation, as a perfect scheme, in the way in which God has been pleased to reveal it. It must be accepted, not as exhibiting beautiful parts, but as presenting one consummate whole, of which the perfection arises from coherence and dependence, from relation and consistency. Its power will be weakened and its energy destroyed, if every caviller pulls out a pin, or obstructs a spring, with the presumptuous view of new modelling the divine work, and making it go to his own mind. There is no breaking this system into portions of which we are at liberty to choose one, and reject another. There is no separating the evidence from the doctrine, the doctrines from the precepts, belief from obedience, morality from piety, the love of our neighbour from the love of God. If we profess Christianity at all, if we allow the divine Author to be indeed unto us wisdom and righteousness, he must be also sanctification and redemption.'

That all appeals to the absolute mercy of God, unconnected with his holiness and his justice, are not only fallacious, but impious in the extreme, and as inconsistent with the first principles of justice as they are repugnant to the oracles of truth, is demonstrable. If sin be really hate

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ful to God, and incompatible with the perfect purity of his nature; if it be inimical to the hap piness of the universe, the source of all the misery felt on earth or experienced in hell, and a transgression of a law that is denominated holy, and just, and good; surely it cannot be unjust to punish it! The penal sanction of the law, as recorded by an apostle, runs thus: Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. Now this awful sanction is just, or it is not: if it be just, it cannot be unrighteous to enforce; if it be not perfectly equitable, it was an act of injustice to appoint it. One of these consequences must follow.

Was the divine Lawgiver sincere, I ask; did he or did he not mean what he said when he prohibited sin, and annexed a penalty to the precept? If sincere, if really in earnest, his truth, in case of transgression, stands engaged to inflict the punishment incurred.

If God, like man, his purpose could renew,
His laws could vary, or his plans undo;

Desponding faith would droop its cheerless wing,
Religion deaden to a lifeless thing:

Where could we, rational, repose our trust,
But in a power immutable as just?'

To suppose that he who is emphatically styled the true and faithful witness, should bear testimony to a falsehood-should be guilty of such duplicity as would stamp infamy on the character of man, is shocking-is blasphemy. God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?-Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne: he will judge the world in righteousness, and the people with his truth.'

That the mercy of God is great; even from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, is a delightful truth. But this mercy is not manifested in a way that has the least tendency either to countenance or to extenuate the malignant nature of sin, but in a way that exhibits the infinite wisdom and benevolence of God that evinces the purity of his nature and the rectitude of his government, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.' The saints are said to be blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ; in whom they have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, and are made accepted in him the beloved." In the cross of Christ, mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Here we behold with astonishment and with gratitude, the just God and the Saviour! and he that shall hope for mercy in any other way, will find that he has deceived his own soul; for there is salvation in no other, nor any other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.'

This, however, is a way of saving sinners that mortifies the pride of man. It implicates him in extreme depravity and abominable guilt: it strips him of all his supposed excellency, and in the grand article of justification before God, places him on a level with harlots, publicans, and profligates. It attributes nothing to great natural abilities, shining talents, eminence in science, philosophy, or literature-to the possession of immense riches, extensive influence, or the pomp of princely magnificence: these are adventitious circumstances that have no influence in the momentous transaction. Though charity have founded a thousand hospitals, erected a thousand edi

fices for benevolent purposes, and supplied the wants of millions, she cannot commute for one sin, nor by these acts of splendid munificence contribute any thing to facilitate acceptance with God. Nay, even moral worth, which alone stamps intrinsic value on any character, and one grain of which is ten thousand times more esti mable than all the elegant accomplishments or the useful acquisitions ascribed to man, can claim no right to share the inestimable blessing. These are not actions, or qualities, for which apostate men are raised to the dignity of sons of God, and made heirs of an everlasting kingdom. Honours and privileges like these, claim a divine origin, nor will he that shall happily experience the unutterable felicity, either here or hereafter, hesitate to sing with the church triumphant-- Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.'

Salvation is a gift freely bestowed on man, not as deserving it-not as being merited by the performance of certain duties, but as a grant of absolute grace through Christ. The praise, the honour, and the glory belong to him—not to the sinner: and the invaluable blessing must be received, if received at all, as that for which the recipient has paid no equivalent, performed no stipulations as a gift gratuitously conferred on a wretch that deserves to perish.

This is a way of deliverance from eternal ruin that is honourable to all the perfections of God, exactly suited to the abject condition of man, and without which he must inevitably perish. But though it be so completely fitted to relieve his wretchedness, to expiate his guilt, and restore him to purity and to happiness; yet the

methods that infinite wisdom has adopted to effect it are so degrading to human pride, so diametrically opposite to the ideas men entertain of their own dignity and virtue, that it is frequently either wholly neglected or treated with

scorn.

It may perhaps be asked, Is it not unwarrantably censorious to ascribe dislike to this way of salvation to the pride of man? But to what else can it be attributed! I appeal to the candour of those who oppose the salutary truth, and ask Whether they do not really think that there is something in their virtue and their piety which God must regard, and for which he will be finally propitious? Now if this be the case, the doctrine of mere grace must of course be viewed with a frowning aspect, because it indicates total depravity entire helplessness: it resists all claims to merit, and excludes every degree of human excellence it proceeds on a supposition that there is nothing good in man, which is a degrading fact and not credited. It is therefore quite natural for men with such sentiments to explode the doctrine altogether; and it would be consistent and honourable frankly to acknowledge that, in opposing it, the principles of self-importance did imperceptibly operate, and that it is no breach of Christian charity to attribute aversion to the cause which produced it.

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The doctrine of the cross has ever been to them that perish, foolishness. The ancient Jews required a sign, and the learned Greeks sought after wisdom: Christ became to both, a stumbling stone and rock of offence. He was beheld as a root out of dry ground; as having no form nor comeliness; no beauty to render him desirable. The mean, when compared with the end, appeared hateful to the Jew, and absurd to the