follow the omission of it; but how can this fear act upon him who knows that his condition can never be worse?

In the weakness and infirmity of human nature, we trace the cause of those consolatory assurances of divine mercy, which beam forth in every page of the Scriptures, mitigating the chill of sullen melancholy, and cheering the darkness of despair. In the revelation of itself, is the mercy of God most clearly shown. As an attribute only of the Almighty it might have been hid from our view; by its declaration, is its power known. Reason could never have fathomed its depth, nor even ascertained its existence. To temper infinite justice with infinite mercy, is above the comprehension and the invention of man. As God alone could effect a reconciliation between these two seemingly opposite perfections, so he could alone declare the reconciliation to men. Thy mercy reacheth unto the heavens, and thy faithfulness unto the clouds."

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Since then these assurances of pardon and forgiveness, have in every age been revealed from above, to alleviate the burden of human iniquity, and to animate the obedience of repenting sinners, it will be a matter of the deepest importance to consider the nature and extent of this heavenly mercy.

When the Almighty is pleased to proclaim even from the throne of his justice, pardon and forgiveness,-when he so far condescends to the weakness and infirmity of this creature state, as to rouse us from the lethargy of sin, not by the terrors of his Majesty, but by the promises of his mercy;-it will be more than ingratitude to renounce the free and spontaneous offer of salvation, it will be more than fatuity to pass over with hardy neglect, these repeated calls, these parental summons to partake of the kingdom of grace! In tracing the nature of this awful dispensation, to revelation alone can we direct our enquiries; there, and there only, is developed the stupendous scheme of Divine mercy there, its nature stands unveiled; there, its terms are declared; there, its conditions known. All else is vain and empty generality. It is not on the abstract notions of mercy that even reason can rest a hope. Reason will inform us, that there is another perfection of the Almighty to be taken into consideration, that there is another attribute to be satisfied, namely, his justice. To vindicate the authority of the law, even in the remission of punishment, is beyond the reach of human reason. The wisdom of God alone can reconcile the difficulty: it has been reconciled in the death of his Son, even of that Lord, the co-eternal and co-equal God, who condescended

voluntarily to assume our frail nature, and was contented to be clothed with misery and mortality, for the redemption of rebellious and apos

tate man.

This was the one, the only, sacrifice available to the expiation of sin, even the death of Christ. As all other propitiations and satisfactions which ever have been, or can be devised by man, are weak and ineffectual; so all the hopes of mercy and forgiveness, which rest not on this sacrifice and propitiation, are vain and nugatory. All general assurances of pardon and forgiveness, are the result of idle and useless speculation; they are neither founded in reason, nor sanctioned by revelation. Mercy through Christ, is the only mercy to which we can fly for a safe and a sure refuge, because it is the only scheme which reconciles at once the just vengeance and the compassion of God. This is the mercy that rejoices against judgment, because it satisfies justice.

The same course of reasoning which teaches us to look to revelation for its nature, will direct us there, also, to examine its conditions. No labour or toil, no merit of sinful man, can purchase, or even deserve, the pardon of the Almighty. It is his free and voluntary gift: it proceeds not from necessity, but it is an act of his omnipotent care. The fountain of mercy

flows spontaneously from the throne of grace; but let man examine himself before he presumes to draw from this pure and inexhaustible stream. To this as to every other free gift of God, there are terms annexed: there must be a capacity in the recipient, as well as beneficence in the giver.

As without the satisfaction of justice, mercy could never have been proclaimed; so without that imperfect purity of which our mortal nature is capable, its blessings cannot be received. To the assurance of pardon and peace through the blood of Christ, God hath annexed the indispensable condition of repentance, and reformation. "Without holiness no man shall see God,"-and with reason for if God, when he was about to display the infinite abundance of his mercy in the forgiveness of sin, would accept no smaller ransom than the blood of his Son; what ray of hope can remain to that man who continues in sin, that he shall escape the vengeance of God? The same Saviour who died for us, has expressly declared the terms on which his death shall atone for our sins, and open to us the bright prospect of life and immortality. If it is, as I have shown, vain and nugatory to trust to the general and abstract notions of mercy, unconnected with, and unfounded on the particular promises of God; how much more presumptuous is it in man to derive his hope of pardon from that revelation,

the terms of which he despises, the covenant of which he disannuls!

There is no honour done to God, by ascribing to him a blind and fatuous mercy, which knows no distinction between the evil, and the good. There is no honour done to the Redeemer, by so trusting in his sacrifice, as to make the Son of God, the minister of sin, and to establish the kingdom of darkness upon the meritorious death of Christ.

I have thus endeavoured to show the necessity of that universal persuasion of mercy, to recall those to the paths of virtue, who have been led by the blind impetuosity of their passions to the brink of despair: that in Revelation alone could its nature be discovered, and its conditions be known.

The important consideration, of the extent of its influence and application, must be reserved as the subject of my ensuing discourse.