points in divinity; in short, who would take it kindly, if, dropping the common topics which have been long and much worn in the service of religion, we provided some fresh ones always for their entertainment. This may be very proper in its season, and, so far as it is fit, a faithful minister of Christ will not be wanting to their expectation; for he has gathered nothing in all the stores of divine knowledge of which he is not willing that they should partake. But in common, this indulgence is entirely out of place. The plainest and most practical truths are first of all to be inculcated. Many more stand in need of these than of novelties in speculation; and even of those who call out for such, many make the demand with a very bad grace. They might be amused, perhaps, with a curious discussion; but what if their sense of divine things be dead? What if they need to have their minds stimulated, and their consciences alarmed with the terrors of God's word? When our Lord was asked by a curious inquirer, if there were few that should be saved? instead of answering directly to the question, he addressed the person with a practical exhortation, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able." If any of a similar character should attend our assemblies, let them not think it strange if we imitate so high an example, by preferring to impart to them the plainest and simplest, because the most necessary truths; especially as it cannot be doubted that the Apostle's reproof in the text is still applicable to many hearers of the gospel:-"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." Amen.

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SERMON LXXII.

2 Cor. vi. 1.

We then, as workers together with him, beseech you al80, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

NOTHING can be conceived more encouraging to creatures, in our feeble and depraved situation, than those views of the Supreme Being disclosed by the Apostle in the concluding part of the former chapter. There God is represented in the characters of condescension and grace, so perfectly suited to our necessitous and guilty condition, as must render him the object of our supreme love and unreserved confidence.

The first question that will always occur to an awakened sinner, hath been expressed by the prophet Micah in these words: "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God?" And the only answer to this question, which an unenlightened mind can suggest, hath also been expressed by the same prophet, in the form of another question: "Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of an year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" A conscience alarmed with a sense of guilt, naturally represents the Most High as clothed with terrible majesty, as a God of vengeance, a stern unrelenting creditor, demanding payment even to the uttermost farthing. And however the advocates for

the light of nature may boast of their discoveries, it may be pronounced impossible for unassisted reason, proceeding on sound principles, to discover any means whereby guilty creatures can hope to satisfy the justice, or regain the friendship of their Maker. All our knowledge, with regard to this subject, must flow from revelation alone. The sanctions of justice may indeed be comprehended by human reason; but justice demands inexorably the punishment of transgressors. Justice admits no claim for the exercise of mercy. Nay, more, merey does not even come within the strict conception of legal administration, but is an act of pure prerogative, having no other measure than the will of the sovereign. "And who knoweth the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor ?" None else but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and hath declared him unto us: and this is the name whereby he hath made him known, God is love.

What the Apostle says, (chapter v. verse 18.) has a stronger signification than is commonly attended to. "All things are of God." It not only imports, that all things owe their existence to God, and are the effects of his creating power; but farther, that all the motives to exercise that power are of himself likewise. He finds them in his own perfect nature; and every exertion of power, whether for producing being or happiness to any of his creatures, is the spontaneous act of his essential goodness and benignity. Why did God create a world? No other answer can be given to this question, but that it was his sovereign pleasure so to do. No other reason, but the same sovereign pleasure can be assigned for man's existence on earth, with all the honours conferred on him at his first creation. And now that man hath forfeited these honours, and incurred the penalty

annexed to his disobedience, whither shall he resort to find an inducement for his Creator shewing him mercy? Can rebellion, outrageous unprovoked rebellion, furnish a motive to pity? Can deformity and pollution present any attractions of love? No; it is manifest, that after all our researches, we must finally have recourse to what God himself said to Moses of old, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." Upon this principle the Apostle proceeds in the passage I have quoted : “All things are of God," saith he, "who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." He it was who graciously spared those rebels whom his righteous vengeance might have crushed; and who, instead of requiring the fruit of our body for the sin of our soul, withheld not his own Son as the ransom of our transgressions, but gave him up to the death for us, that we might live through him. Having thus by his infinite wisdom, and self-moving goodness, opened a way for extending mercy to offenders, consistent with the honour of his perfections, he proceeds to complete the gracious plan, by sending forth some of the apostate race, as ambassadors for Christ, to beseech sinners in bis own name, and in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God. Paul was one of these chosen instruments; and accordingly he styles himself, in the text, "a worker together with God," and in this character beseecheth the Corinthians, in the most earnest manner, "not to receive the grace of God in vain."

The same exhortation I now address to you, deeming it peculiarly seasonable, in the near view we have of celebrating that solemn ordinance of our religion, in

which the grace of God appears in all its lustre and glory. It seems unnecessary to employ many words in explaining the exhortation, its meaning being so clearly ascertained by the connexion in which it stands, as to be obvious to every intelligent reader. All that is needful to be observed, is, that we are to look for the true import of the grace of God, which the Apostle beseecheth the Corinthians not to receive in vain, in that ministry or word of reconciliation, which he had already said was committed to himself, and to his brethren in the apostleship. This plainly appears to consist of two parts.

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1st. The declaration of an important fact, " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." And,

2dly, An exhortation founded on this fact, "We pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God." Hence it is evident, that receiving the grace of God imports neither more nor less than believing the fact, and complying with the exhortation; and consequently every thing short of this is receiving the grace of God in vain. Without any further explanation, therefore, I shall now proceed to press the exhortation, by the most powerful arguments that I am able to present to your minds.

Let me beseech you, then, not to receive the grace of God in vain, by the consideration of the misery and abject bondage of your condition, while you continue thus perverse and ungrateful. I will not enter into any specu lative disquisition with regard to the pretensions of natural religion. Whether those who never heard of the grace of God revealed in the gospel may yet be saved, by the efficacy of an unknown atonement, is a question with which we have little concern. I speak at present to those whose fate has nothing to do with the determination of this question. What say the Scriptures of truth with respect to them?" He that believeth on the Son