of a government that is unchangeable. We cannot come unto the throne of grace but through a mediatorship, where at once may be seen the manifested truth and vindicated justice of the Godhead-nor can we obtain the compassion of our offended Lawgiver, without knocking at the door of a sanctuary, where dwell, in still unviolated purity and greatness, all the wondrous attributes that belong to Him.

Now, this is what we hold to be the leading and the characteristic peculiarity of the dispensation under which we live. All that we receive is, doubtless, in the way of a gift-and yet it is a gift for which a price has been rendered, so as to make it legally and rightfully ours. The penalty is remitted to us, but not till it was paid down, as it were, by another's sufferings. Heaven has been granted to us, but not till it was purchased by another's services. So that the believer has not merely privileges simply and gratuitously conferred upon him; but he is invested with a right to these privileges. He can lay claim to them as a thing of obligation-not in virtue of any equivalent that has been rendered by himself, but in virtue of a full equivalent that has been rendered by another. When eternal life is bestowed upon us, it is not in the shape of a bare donative, the fruit of a movement of generosity alone. It is a reward granted to us on consideration of a righteousness, although that righteousness is not properly and personally ours. Still, it is the fulfilment of a stipulation-the implementing of a contract or a covenant between parties; and when man enters

upon his blissful eternity, he only takes possession of that which is his due, and which God hath bound Himself, as by the conditions of a treaty, to award unto him.

And here it is of importance to mark-how much more secure our hope of heaven is, when laid such a foundation. upon Had the sinner nothing else to build upon than the single attribute of 'mercy, well might he dread the outbreaking upon his person of the other attributes, and feel the perpetual disturbance of fears and of jealousies in his bosom, as he bethought him of the majesty of God, and the unchangeable recoil of a nature that could hold no fellowship with evil. Now, how it must overrule these terrors, when, with the righteousness of Christ as a plea put into his hand, he now finds even the most menacing attributes of the Divinity enlisted on the side of his salvation. Were his hopes suspended singly on the pity of God, while the question of all his other perfections was yet undisposed of, there would still be room. in the sinner's heart for many doubts and many disquietudes. But how it must allay all these, and what firmness it must give to his anticipations of heaven, when, instead of vaguely trusting for it to the indulgence of God, he in Christ hath acquired a distinct and a well-defined right to it. He is like the man who at first eyed some beautiful estate with fond and foolish expectation, because of the reported generosity of him who owned it— but who afterwards had the title-deed put into his hand, on which he might challenge the property as his own, and step into the secure and undisputed

possession of it. And thus may a Christian look forward to heaven. He can plead a right for it. He can argue in his behalf a purchase-money that is commensurate to the purchase. He can speak of a value that has been given, and which is adequate to the value that he expects. And he lives beneath his privileges-he is insensible to the whole worth and security of his condition, if his spirit do not rest and be at ease among the guarantees of a sure and a well-ordered covenant -and if, while he rejoices in the gift of his coming inheritance, he do not fortify his trust by thinking well of the soundness and the equity of his claim to it.

But while we like to say every thing to a believer that should minister to the stability of his confidence, we would say nothing that could minister to his pride, or excite a sense of haughty independence in his bosom. It is not as if he defied God, and entered with Him on a field of litigation. It is not as if he challenged, and with a tone of resolute assertion, that which he felt to be rightfully his own, and demanded it accordingly. What might disarm him of this spirit altogether is, that though now possessed of a right to the citizenship of heaven, the right was not won by himself, but conferred upon him by a Mediator. It is not an inherent, but a derived privilege, and for which he stands indebted to another's bounty. What, we ask, are the suitable feelings with which he ought to prosecute his claim upon God, when, in fact, God was the Being who furnished him with this claim against himself? God so loved the world, as to send His

Son into it, that He might legalize a place and a possession in heaven for all who believe on Him. Should the lordly proprietor make over to a tenant at will the privilege of a perpetual occupation, and give him secure and rightful possession of all the requisite title-deeds, and furnish him out of his own hand with the materials of such a plea or legal argument as might insure him against all opposition; all this goes to vest him with the power of challenging for his own, that which has been conferred upon him by another. But this, so far from impairing the character of what he has gotten as a gift, only serves to complete and to enhance it, and should humble him the more into the gratitude and admiration of so noble a benefactor. And so of all that we obtain by the gospel. It is a gift all over; and though it includes titles as well as benefits, let it ever be remembered, that they are not titles that we have earned, but titles that have

It

been bestowed upon us. It is the thought of this that should rectify our carriage towards God. It is true, that by the economy of the New Testament, they who believe have a right to the honours of immortality. But the right has been given. has generously and gratuitously descended from above; and they on whom it hath alighted, while they rejoice in the security thereof, still walk before God with the modesty of His gifted dependants. So far from being arrogant, because of the claim wherewith they have been invested, it only serves as another topic of humility and thankfulness. They appear before God in a robe of righteousness, but they know that it is a robe of His putting on.

In His presence they wear an order of merit, but what they wear another hath won--the meed of another's services-the fruit of the travail of another's soul. They feel the whole security of an unquestionable right without its arrogance, and are at once high in the conscious possession of their great prerogative, and humble under the feeling that they are debtors for it all. The reward is a gift; for the righteousness which hath earned the reward is a gift also. Heaven may at first be

thought of, not as a present but as a purchase ; but it is the more emphatically a present, that by another's purchase it has become justly and legally theirs. It is this which gives its specific character to the economy of the gospel. It is free in the distribution of its blessings; yet, ere the blessings are granted, there must be granted a right to the possession of them-and the sinner, having no such right in his own person, must derive it from abroad, and owe that to another, which in himself it is impossible to acquire. Heaven becomes his, not merely in love, but in law; and in consideration of Him who hath fulfilled the law, the bliss of eternity is as much awarded to him by a God of judgment, as it is made over to him by a God of mercy. Yet the law does not obliterate the love, but only makes it more prominent. For it was in love that God sent His Son into the world, and in love for the guilty did the Son, in their stead, obey all the precepts, and suffer all the penalties; and though without a righteousness none shall enter into paradise, yet was it love that provided the righteousness, and now presses it on the accep