tion, and it will be one of the bitterest recollections in the place of punishment, that you neglected, and despised, and put away from you, the mercy that was manifested for the salvation of ruined souls.

I call upon the "prisoners of hope" to take refuge in this divine mercy which we have been holding forth. You are sensible of your spiritual bondage, and you not only long, but in some measure expect and wait for deliverance from its chains, and for a return to freedom, and purity, and blessedness. Let your desires grow stronger -let your expectations be encouraged; for the mercy on which you rely, and which has already taught you to hope, is ready to do for you all that you need, and to receive you into its generous embrace, and to bless you with "the glorious liberty of the children of God." "Turn ye then to the stronghold;" lose no time in casting yourselves upon Christ; commit all your interests into his hands; and you will find in your immediate, in your continued, in your everlasting experience, that the divine mercy, as manifested in him, is a fountain of blessedness-full, and overflowing, and inexhaustible.

And, finally, I call upon the Israel—the people of God, to continue stedfast and immovable in their dependance upon his mercy, and free and

fearless in their applications for its promised exercise and its needed blessings. You already know its inestimable value-its ample and ever-during sufficiency; and you have experienced the happiness of a habitual recourse to it for supplies of spiritual and temporal comforts;—and it is too much endeared to you, to be ever forgotten, or to be ever disregarded. This day it is again announced in your hearing-it is presented to your faith-it is ready to sustain all your hopes-it bids you welcome to whatever can contribute to your safety and your consolation, to your peace and your joy. It is embodied, and most affectingly represented, and most liberally urged upon you, in the holy ordinance of which you are invited to partake. Come, then, to God, with the confidence that is warranted and emboldened by the manifestation of his mercy here brought nigh to you. Come with your prayers and supplications, that they may be preferred and answered. Come with your sins, that they may be forgiven-with your corruptions, that they may be subdued,-with your fears, that they may be dissipated,—with your wants, that they may be supplied,―with your miseries, that they may be exchanged for joy. Come as you are, that the God of mercy may shower down upon you, and send into your very hearts, all the rich benefits

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of Christ's purchase, and give you such renewed tokens of his loving kindness as will comfort and gladden you in time, and be a pledge and prelude of the felicities of the eternal world.

SERMON II.

PSALM CXXX. 7, 8.

"Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy; and with him is plenteous redemption; and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."

IN discoursing on these words, we proposed to consider the three grounds on which David here invokes Israel to hope in the Lord. The first, that "with the Lord there is mercy," we have already illustrated.

II. We are now to consider the second reason mentioned by the Psalmist for hoping in the Lord. "Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with him is plenteous redemption."

God is not only merciful, but he has actually exercised his mercy for the benefit of sinners, and he has done so by forming and executing a plan for securing to those who are the objects of it, whatever is necessary for their deliverance and

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their happiness. This plan is neither more nor less than the gospel-which is just a revelation of God's mercy to guilty men; for though God appears in it as possessing all the perfections which can be supposed to distinguish an infinite Being, and though all these perfections are exhibited, not in accidental connexion with it, but as essentially conducing to its excellence and its efficiency, yet mercy is its characteristic feature, and pervades its purposes, its arrangements, and its fulfilment, as that which makes it at once suitable and acceptable to the creatures for whose advantage it was originally contrived. In looking to the character of God, as adorned with the attribute of mercy, we see that mercy put forth, practically realized, substantially embodied, irrevocably pledged, in a well ordered scheme, and finished work of redemption. Provision is made in it for our rescue and our restoration. It is adapted to our peculiar character, and to our peculiar circumstances, as transgressors. And all that it intends to bestow upon us is so insured, that none of the perfections of the Deity will be infringed or tarnished by that bestowal. Nay, these perfections are so demonstrated, and so honoured by it, as not merely to allow God's redeeming mercy to expatiate upon our condition as a condition of sin and misery, but even to contribute to its manifestation in all the freeness and fulness which our necessities demand!