covenant which provides for the salvation of human sinners. Upon that only is the promised beatitude suspended by Jehovah that alone constitutes the title of believers to the everlasting inheritance. Good qualities, supernaturally communicated, do indeed belong to believers good works, by the grace of God and the influence of the Holy Spirit, are certainly performed by them: Without personal holiness, no man shall see the Lord in heaven: Our sanctification, even unto perfection, is our fitness for the company and the enjoyments of the celestial mansions; but the merits of Christ's obedience and death, is alone our right to the possession of eternal glory. Other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Had

It is a peculiar part of the evangelical message, to offer, upon the divine authority, this good title to miserable and condemned sinners. The reception of Christ's righteousness, is the reception of the title to happiness. Union with Jesus Christ is alone the means of communion with him in his per fect righteousness; and this union is effected by faith in his name. He that believeth shall be saved. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. our own superior improvement of means, been the ground of our acceptance with God, or the cause which made us to differ from our fellow-sinners, then indeed should we have cause to boast of that superiority. Then should we reverse the language of the saints, and say, Lord, unto us, Lord, unto us, be at least a share in the glory. Were our title, to repose among the blessed, founded upon our own intrinsic merit, in obedience to the divine law, then too doth righteousness come by that law, and Christ is dead in vain. We, however, have not so learned Christ. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord. He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; he made us kings and priests unto God; and unto him be the glory for ever and ever. AMEN!

CONCLUSION.

From this review, of the distinguishing excellences of evangelical religion, we may derive an argument for preaching the gospel of God with fidelity; and you may learn how to receive the glad tidings. Let us join these two together in the concluding remarks.

Seeing the gospel of the grace of God is good news to all people, it is an honourable office with which its preachers are invested; and it is worthy of all acceptation.

Angels are not unwilling to consecrate their time and their talents to the publication of this gracious message; and shall not we, who hope for the salvation of our own souls, take pleasure in delivering to you the truth as we have ourselves received it from the Lord? No time, no talents can be better or more agreeably occupied than in this employment.

To preach, is to publish as a herald, not merely an amnesty for the rebel; not that he may be introduced in oblivion of the past into a new probation: it is to publish permanent pardon and perfection of blessedness, procured for the chief of sinners by the Son of God, and freely offered in his name for ever and ever. In preaching the gospel we announce facts certified to us by the testimony of God; we declare the doctrine revealed for the instruction of men in righteousness; and we offer to sinners everlasting life. If these subjects are not worthy of our best exertions, when we stand forth on the Lord's day to address the assembled people, it is impossible to conceive of any thing that should command attention or inspire with persuasive zeal.

The FACTS, which it is our privilege to announce to our brethren, are of the most interesting kind. They are supported by evidence not to be questioned-the divine testimony. They respect God, and man, and the only Mediator between God and man, together with all that Jehovah has done for the salvation of his fallen, offending, and unworthy creatures. Come, hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. The existence and perfections of God; the existence, the fall, the guilt, the corruption, and the misery of man, are facts presupposed in the revelation of grace; but they are distinctly asserted in the sacred volume, and repeatedly set forth as articles of our faith. The appointment of a redeeming Head before the world began; the appearance of the Son of God in our nature; his birth, life, death, and resurrection; the perfection of his atonement; the efficacy of his intercession; the glory and power of his exaltation; his superintending providence; his miracles; his gracious influence on the souls of his sons and his daughters, all are facts, declared in his word, which we are employed to announce for your information, and which you are under obligation to receive with full assurance of faith in the veracity of God.

In announcing the peculiar facts, asserted in the revelation of divine grace, we are neither to forget nor to conceal, that many of them are mysterious and inexplicable by man. This

inexplicability is, however, no reason why we should not proclaim the fact, or why you should not believe it when proclaimed in the name of the Lord. It is no apology for infidelity. When we make a demand upon your faith in a matter of fact, it is not in the explanation, but in the reality of the fact, that we require you to believe. We call your attention only to the evidence that so it is; and we do not pretend in every case to understand or to explain how this comes to be the case. You see the sun. This is the fact. I understand the assertion. You, too, understand and believe it, on the testimony of your own senses. But the unlettered man knows nothing of the laws of vision; nor is the philosopher capable of explaining the nature of the solar ray and of the body from which it emanates: much less can he declare the manner in which the soul holds communion with matter in the perception of outward objects. We are surrounded with mysteries. Every phenomenon in the natural world, every event in the moral world, leads immediately or ultimately to something inexplicable. It must be so. We are finite creatures. However proud and aspiring, we have but limited capacities. The ministers of the gospel may not pervert this principle for the purpose of uttering absurdities, or demanding of their hearers faith in contradictory assertions.

We are not to explain what we do not understand, nor to utter any proposition which is not intelligible. It is impossible to believe any assertion further than its meaning is comprehended. Facts inexplicable are nevertheless daily admitted; and the admission is reasonable. The evidence is one thing, and the explanation another.

There are three great facts, to be announced by evangelical ministers, against which, on account of their importance, almost all heresy militates. The union of three persons in the Godhead, the union of two distinct natures in the person of Jesus Christ, the union of all believers with their Head and Lord. They are great mysteries, inexplicable indeed in many respects, but asserted in language perfectly intelligible. The evidence of these facts, is the testimony of God that cannot lie.

"There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God." "The Redeemer of God's elect, is both God and man in two distinct natures and one person." "All believers are spiritually and mystically, really and inseparably united to Christ.' These are the great mysteries of our religion. There is

no error of importance in relation to personal piety, which does not militate against some one of those scriptural facts. They are, however, all asserted in the word of God. The terms of the assertion, are as easily understood, as the following familiar expressions: the grass grows, the tide flows, and the wind blows. The assertion in all these cases meets with full credit, although we should never be able to explain or comprehend the whole doctrine of vegetation, or of the currents of the air and the ocean, in all its parts and principles. And it is as reasonable to believe what God declares in his holy word, as it is to credit what he reveals to our senses in the constitution of the world. With confidence and with delight, we preach these facts in the congregation; and with. faith you embrace them. So did the apostles. We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

2. Preaching the gospel also includes a DECLARATION of THE DOCTRINES OF INSPIRATION for your instruction in righteousness. Every fact asserted, is itself a doctrine to be taught; and all the facts upon record in the Bible are designed to establish and illustrate principles to be expounded and applied. All scripture is profitable for doctrine. The lights of revelation, kindled by the grace of God in the church which he hath redeemed, are committed to the ministers of religion, that, as lamp-bearers, they may hold them up constantly burning in the sanctuary. To us it is pleasant, brethren, and for you it is safe, that this light be kept pure, and constant; that it be made to shine on the heart and the path of every pilgrim; and that it be diffused over all lands. Vain is their worship who teach or observe, for their doctrines, the commandments of men: But the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The manifestation, the defence, and the application of truth; of religious truth; of revealed truth -this is the great work to which the ministers of Christ consecrate their time and their talents, their studies and their discourses. It is both their business and their joy. If the truth should be obscured, or concealed, or perverted, although the forms of religion should continue, religion itself would become dark, and cold, and deadly. If the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. It is in the light of the Sun of Righteousness that believers grow up as the calves of the stall. The doctrines of true religion, coming on the renewed intellect in the Holy Ghost and with much assurance, the

saints advance in holiness and in comfort through faith unto salvation.

3. Preaching the gospel of God with fidelity implies THE OFFER OF LIFE AND IMMORTALITY, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to every sinner.

The assertion of matter of fact, and the exposition of doctrine, both lead to this application. Hereby, the door of faith is set open to the Jew and the Gentile, the bond and the free. Every gospel hearer is invited, commanded, entreated, to come to the Lord our Redeemer for eternal life. Christ is the gift of God. In him alone is salvation. He is the Covenant, and in him are all the promises of God. He himself, with all his grace and his blessings, is freely offered to sinners of the human family. In making this offer the gospel offer, we require of you no previous qualification. We offer him unconditionally to sinners. We preach the gospel to every creature. We wait not for your previous reformation; for your previous conversion; for your previous repentance or conviction. In him alone are life, and righteousness, and holiness. You are sinners. You have need of a Saviour, whether you are sensible of it or not. The greater your insensibility, the greater your need. "Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and turn unto the Lord. He that believeth shall be saved." We offer Christ and salvation to you upon the authority of God, because you have need of him: for no other reason derived from your own character, but that you are by nature in an estate of sin and misery. Evangelical preaching, by making such an offer, sets open the door of faith to the sinner, more clearly, more freely, and to a greater extent, than any system of heresy ever can consistently do. We make this unconditional offer upon solid grounds, and without coupling it with false doctrines. We offer salvation in Jesus Christ to the chief of sinners, as a matter entirely and exclusively of the grace of God; not upon the ground of God's ignorance of those who shall accept and be saved: for the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. Not upon the ground of man's innate ability to receive the offer for no man can come except the Father draw him. Not upon the ground of the undeterminateness of the number that shall be saved: for as many as are ordained to eternal life, shall believe. Not upon the ground of an indefinite, unsatisfactory, uncertain atonement irrespective of God's