holy, and the object of unmingled approbation and love, thrice prayed in agony of spirit, that if it were possible the cup might pass from him ;—he would never have been permitted to drink it-to drink it even to its bitterest dregs, had not his drinking it been indispensable ;-had it not been necessary to the reconciliation of justice and mercy, in their exercise towards guilty

men.

Reason, to say the least of it, can arrive at no certain conclusion on this subject; and it becomes us to submit with grateful, humility to the way of acceptance made known in the Gospel. Repentance is inseparably connected with forgiveness; but it is not the procuring cause, the meritorious ground. This is to be found only in the perfect obedience, and atoning death of the Son of God; and apart from faith in him, and dependance upon his righteousness and sacrifice, as the foundation of acceptance, there exists no repentance that is genuine and scriptural.

I must now hasten forward to the remaining observations; which must be illustrated with great brevity.

III. THE GROUND ON WHICH THE PARDON OF SIN HAS BEEN BESTOWED, HAS, IN EVERY AGE, AND UNDER EVERY DISPENSATION, BEEN THE SAME.

This observation is founded on the expression used in verse 25th-"for the remission of sins that are past (that is, which were formerly committed) through (or in) the forbearance of God."

These words evidently express the retrospective efficacy of the blood of Christ; its efficacy, as the procuring cause of forgiveness to believers who lived before his coming in the flesh. God had before that time remitted sin: and the words in question might perhaps be more strictly rendered, "because of the remission (or passing by) of sins formerly committed in the forbearance of God"-the sentiment expressed being apparently this;—" that the passing of sins at that time, when no adequate atonement had been made, might have given occasion for the impeachment of the Divine righteousness; and therefore this display of the righteousness of God was in due time made, as that to which there had all along been a prospective regard (as to a predetermined event) in the previous exercise of pardoning mercy." This view seems to be confirmed by the emphatical expression, "at this time," in the 25th verse, which seems to

refer to something which required to be done now, as having been acted upon in the time preceding.

The truth then, which is contained in these words, is a highly important, and deeply interesting one :-that throughout the whole period of time, from Adam to Christ, the forgiveness of sins was granted "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;"—that God never was " the justifier" of any but such as "believed in Jesus," or, as the original words literally mean were of the faith of Jesus." This faith, it is true, must of necessity have corresponded, in clearness of vision, and in strength of conviction, to the degree of light vouchsafed at the time but it was not the less, on account of the comparative obscurity of the revelation; for, in the nature of things, it could not regard its object, further than that object was revealed. In passing by sin, therefore, in the ages preceding the fulness of time, it appears that God (to whom the future is as certain as the past; a purpose yet to be executed, as sure as what has already been done, one day" in this respect "as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day;") it appears, I say, that God then granted the remission of sins "in his forbearance," that is, while he was, as it were, waiting for the fulness of his time, and was regarding as the ground of his merciful procedure, the work which was then to be done, the atonement which was then to be made. "At this time," the time, for wise reasons, chosen and appointed by himself,—he declared his righteousness," by the advent and atonement of Christ, that he might be just in having formerly justified, and just in now continuing to justify "those who are of the faith of Jesus."

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What an interesting and impressive view does this give us, my brethren, of the efficacy of the Redeemer's sacrifice. "What is a man profited," said he himself, "if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? If the salvation of one individual is thus unspeakably valuable, how great must be the preciousness of that offering by which there are redeemed unto God—redeemed from everlasting destruction, and raised to the enjoyment of everlasting life and glory,—" a multitude which no man can number!" That countless multitude which John saw in vision, was not only composed of men " of every people, and kindred, and tongue, and nation," but of men of every successive period of time, from the day when man was doomed to return to dust,

'till the day when "death shall be swallowed up in victory."Then "Adam shall salute his youngest born." Yet the song of this redeemed company is one. "The righteous Abel," the earliest victim of mortality shall join in the same song with the last of the children of God that falls asleep in Jesus. All having "washed their robes, and made them white, in the same blood," shall sing together without a feeling or tone of discord, 'Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb!"

IV. My fourth proposition was, that "AN INTEREST IN THE

PARDONING

FAITH."

MERCY OF GOD THROUGH CHRIST, IS OBTAINED BY

"Whom God hath set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." This is the unvarying language o the Bible." And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wil derness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoso ever believed in him, should not perish but have eternal life For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotter Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life :"-He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life, bu the wrath of God abideth on him." To multiply passages to the same effect would be endless. To ALL, of every descrip. tion, who are interested in the virtue of this atonement, faith is alike the medium of their interest.

The chief reason why faith is made the medium of justification is stated in the 16th verse of the following chapter; "wherefore, it is of faith, that it might be by grace:" and the simpler, consequently, our views are, of the nature of justifying faith, the clearer will our perception be of the reign of GRACE in our salvation. For the Apostle in these words, represents it as appointed by God to be the medium of a saving interest in the atonement, for the expess reason, that it is a medium which from its very nature, sets aside all works from forming any part of the ground of acceptance, precludes all selfcomplacent boasting, and secures the entire glory to his own

FREE GRACE.

The reasonableness of making faith, or the belief of the testimony of God concerning his Son, the medium of interest in the salvation which that testimony reveals, must at once be ap

parent to every reflecting mind. No one, surely, can conceive it to be right, that the man who rejects the Gospel, refusing to own it as a message from heaven, should nevertheless partake, equally with those who gladly embrace it as such, the precious blessings which it reveals :-that he who persists in despising the atonement, and in slighting and vilifying the great salvation wrought by the Son of God, should yet experience the saving efficacy of his blood. It is the sovereign and irreversible appointment of that God with whom we have to do, that “he that believeth not shall be condemned." The sinner who esteems the blood of Jesus an all-sufficient atonement for sin, and who, as ruined and hopeless, seeks forgiveness and acceptance on the ground of that atonement, "shall in no wise be cast out,” for God is "the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." But the sacrifice can have no saving virtue to any who refuse to acknowledge its necessity, or to confide in its merits.

This position Iadvance, not with inconsiderate levity; not with scornful indifference about the safety of my fellow-sinners; not for the sake of maintaining the consistency of a human system :—but from a deep conviction of its truth, and a solemn, heartfelt impression of its unutterable importance. To every imputation of uncharitable harshness, my answer is, "to the law and to the testimony." By this let the sentiment be impartially tried.

V. My last observation was, that in RESTING our hopes of FORGIVENESS ON THE ATONING SACRIFICE OF CHRIST, WE BUILD ON A SURE FOUNDATION.

This observation is founded on two circumstances :-the dignity of the person who is set forth in the Gospel as the true propitiator; and the supreme authority of Him by whom he is set forth, as the object of faith and the ground of acceptance:- -“ Christ Jesus,—whom God hath set forth.” When we consider the Divine dignity of the Mediator between God and man, the "great high-priest of our profession ;"—when we are assured that our hope is founded on a work that has been finished, and on a sacrifice that has been offered by him whose name is Emmanuel; we possess a feeling of security which nothing else whatever can impart. "It is CHRIST that died"— "he offered up himself." It is true that the human nature alone could obey, and could suffer. But if it be also true, that the human nature of him who obeyed and suffered, was associated

in his one person with the Divine, that man's mind must be singularly constituted, who does not perceive the difference between what is done and suffered by an ordinary mortal, and what is done and suffered by man in union with Deity; and who triumphs in the discovery, that this can be no more after all than human sufferings. Upon such a principle as this, were a mighty monarch to perfom an act of singular condescension and mercy, by voluntarily submitting to various sufferings, for the deliverance of the meanest of his subjects from existing or apprehended misery-it might be said, “Royalty cannot act; Royalty cannot suffer:-it is the man only, and not the King, who acts and suffers:-so that the actions and sufferings of the King should be considered in no other light than as the actions and sufferings of the meanest beggar." I am aware that all comparisons of this kind fall infinitely below the one which they are intended to illustrate. I have adduced this one, merely to show the futility of the principle upon which such objectors proceed.

The doctrine of the Divinity of Christ, then, which I have, in former discourses, been endeavouring to establish, is not, by any means, a useless, isolated truth;-a truth on which no other truths depend. Viewed in connection with the atonement, which it has been the object of this discourse to illustrate, and to prove, it is that which imparted to all Jesus did and suffered for the salvation of a lost world, its peculiar value, and its saving efficacy:-it is that which communicates their sublime grandeur to the doctrines of the cross, elevating them above all that " eye had seen, or ear heard, or that it had entered into the heart of man to conceive;" investing the whole Christian system with a radiant and heavenly glory, like that which beamed round the transfigured Saviour on the holy

mount.

The second source of our security, in resting our hopes on this foundation, is, the authority by which it is here represented as revealed and sanctioned :—" whom God hath set forth.”

God hath set him forth partially, and with comparative obscurity, by the law and the prophets; and he now exhibits him in the Gospel, with all the clearness of explicit testimony, as "a propitiatory through faith in his blood." God was the Sovereign whom our sins had offender, and at whose mercy we consequently lay. He alone, when his creatures had “fallen