deepest apathy towards GOD; and if not lifting up the cry of positive rebellion, yet losing all sense of his kindness in universal regardlessness? What do you think of man, that poor and dependant creature, walking through life so heedless and so independent of the Creator who gave him birth; receiving from his hands the inspiration of every breath he draws, but with no habitual aspiration of the soul to him back again; curiously fashioned by the skill of that master Architect who made him, yet bearing himself as stately as if all his parts and all his properties were his own; nourished from his cradle to his grave by the gifts of an all-sustaining Providence, and yet reckless all the while of the giver; still revelling in the midst of a thousand earthly gratifications, but without any rejoicing gratitude to Him who out of the treasury of his own fulness hath poured them forth in such luxuriance in the world; living every hour under the guardianship of a GOD, whose eye watches him continually, and yet with his own eye always averted from his GOD; looking abroad on the glorious panorama with heaven's illuminated concave above his head, and around him the scenery of smiling landscapes, but without the recognition of that unseen Benefactor who upholdeth it in all its beauties, and lighteth it up with innumerable splendours; inhaling fresh delight through every organ of his sentient economy, yet all his senses steeped, as it were, in utter oblivion of him who furnished with his various capacities, and so adapted him to the theatre that he occupies, that the air and the water, and the earth, and all the elements of surrounding nature are the ministers to his enjoyment: Yes, you know how to determine, and you know how to denounce the ingratitude of a child to its earthly parent; but is there no term in your vocabulary of abuse or reproach for ingratitude to Him. You know how to feel for the wounded feelings of the parent's bosom; and is there no reply to the complaining voice of him who saith to us from heaven, "behold I stretch out my hand but no man regardeth?" There is a moral le

thargy which has laid hold of our species, and we feel not the evil of that which in the upper sanctuary is felt to be so enormous---the guilt of creatures who have disowned their Creator-the deep criminality of a world which has departed from its GOD.

So much in justification of that severity, which the Bible every where sets forth as forming an integral part of the Divine character. But along with this severity there is a goodness that you are also called upon to behold; and if you view both aright, you will perceive that they do meet together in the fullest harmony. It is this, in fact, which constitutes the leading peculiarity of the Gospel dispensation, that the expression of the Divine character which is given forth by the severity of GOD, is retained and still given forth in all its entireness in the display and exercise of his goodness. When he is severe, it is never because of his delight in the sufferings of his creatures, but always because of his justice, and holiness, and truth. His delight is in the happiness of that sentient creation which he himself hath formed; and except it be to the injury of these high moral attributes he ever rejoices in scattering the fruits of his beneficence over the wide extent of a grateful and rejoicing family. When he is vindictive it is not because he desires a work of vengeance, but because the righteousness of his character, and the stability of a righteous government, demand it. Could he so manage as that these lofty perfections and the lofty interests connected therewith should not suffer by it-could this sacredness of the Godhead of which so direct a manifestation is given in his work of vengeance, be carried forward in as full and convincing manifestations of a work of mercy-could the justice, and the holiness, and the truth, all of which are set forth so evidently in the deed of retribution-could a way be devised by which these might be inscribed as legibly, and be made to shine forth in vindicative lustre in a deed of amnesty, then we may be assured that he who hath no pleasure in the death of his children, but who

hath sworn by himself that he would rather that they should all live, and rejoice in his presence for ever, that he, after such a way had been opened up and cleared of all its impediments, would prolong it of his grace and goodness, and cause it liberally to descend and richly to flow over even to the utmost limits of this sinful creation.

I think if this view were more tenaciously taken, and kept by, and constantly applied, it might reconcile all this. We are for preserving the jurisprudence of heaven: we are not for nullifying the jurisprudence; we are not for turning the law of GOD into a thing of nought. I say it is a constant regard for this principle which constitutes one of the most, I will not say, the most offensive doctrines, one of the most revolting peculiarities to mere worldly taste, I mean, the doctrine of the atonement. I say it is this, and this precisely, which distinguishes the evangelical mercy that is gratuitously held out for the acceptance of all, from that general mercy in which so many of you confide, but by which none can possibly be saved. Were we asked in the briefest possible definition to state what that is which impresses on the mercy of the Gospel its essential and specific characteristic, we should say that it is a mercy in full and visible conjuction with righteousness. With the pardon which it deals out for sin it makes most impressive demonstration of the evil of it, and magnifies, and adds honour to the law, by the very way in which it cancels the guilt that has been incurred by the laws' violation. All the exhibition that God would have given of his character by the wreaking of his severity on the rebellious, is still given un-marred and unmutilated, when under the peculiar economy of redemption, he lavished upon them of his loving kindness and tender mercy. And such is the policy (if I may so express it) such is the policy of the constitution of the Gospel-such is the exquisite wisdom of its contrivance, that the mercy of the Gospel meets with the truth of the law, and God can at once be a just GoD and a Saviour. You know how far this

marvellous design and economy of grace has been formed, but knowing it though you do, there is not a believing soul that has experienced the power of its salvation, and felt its preciousness that does not love to be often told of it. That name, which is as ointment poured forth, will always bear to be repeated in the hearing of the believer; nor does it ever fail, in the spirit of him, who has been visited with a sense of his sinfulness, and laboured under the burthen of it, to learn him that a Saviour has been born, and on that Saviour did GoD lay the iniquities of us all, that the hand of vengeance which should have been lifted against us has awakened in all its brightness against his fellow; and in bowing himself down to the sacrifice, Jesus Christ had to bear the weight of the world's atonement. The severity of GOD because of sin was not relaxed, but only transferred from the head of the offenders to the head of their substitute; and in the depth of Christ's mysterious sufferings has he made as full display of the rigours of his own inviolable sanctity, as he would have done by a direct infliction of their doom on the millions for whom the Saviour died. The characters of truth, and justice, and holiness, instead of being uneffaced from his administration, stand as impressively blazoned forth in the new economy of the Gospel, as in the old economy of the law; and with the freeness aud exuberance of its mercy, there is preserved the undegraded majesty of a government that cannot be dishonoured, of perfection that cannot be violated. It is true that sinners are now permitted to draw nigh, but it must only be in the name of Him who hath made full requital for heaven's insulted authority; and ample as is the pardon which they receive, it is now without the compromise of heaven's high sacredness, seeing that it was produced by a perfect atonement, and sealed with the blood of the everlasting covenant. The Holy One of Israel now sitteth upon a throne of grace; but approached, as it can only be, by the august and guarded ceremonial of the priesthood, the consecrated mediatorship, not a

will, but if you will not, heavy is the vengeance that awaiteth you. The kindness of GOD is still unquenched by your multiplied provocation of his broken law, but quenched it most assurely will be, if you add the tenfold provocation of the rejection of his Gospel. The dispensation under which you sit may be termed an alternative dispensation; the word that cometh out from the Son of GOD, is likened to a two-edged sword-there is good will for all who turn towards him-there is wrath most intense-a jealous and unappeasable wrath for all who turn away. He is a saviour of life unto life, or he is a saviour of death unto death. He is a tried and precious stone, by leaning upon which you are upheld and comforted on the firm ground of acceptance with GOD; or he is a stone, stumbling on which you shall fall, or which falling on you shall grind you to powder. Kiss the Son, then, while he is in the way, lest his wrath should begin to burn; when blessed only shall they be who put their trust in him.

And, Finally, let me warn you all, that none truly embrace Christ as their Saviour who do not submit to him as their Master and Lord. No one has a true faith in his promises who is not faithful in the observation of his precepts. No one has a right to be taking refuge in him from the punishment of a broken law who still heedlessly and presumptuously gives | himself up to the violation of that law, for then shall he be judged worthy of a sorer punishment seeing that he has trodden under foot the Son of GOD, and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing. Whatever they may be now, in the days of Paul there were men who turned the grace of GoD into licentiousness, and who ranked among the privileges of the Gospel an immunity from sin; and it is striking to observe the effect of this corruption on the mind of the Apostle-that he who braved all the terrors of per

secuting violence-that he who stood undismayed before kings and governors, and could lift up his uncorrupted testimony in the hearing of an enraged multitude-that he who when bound by a chain between two soldiers still sustained his spirit in invincible constancy, and could look with triumph on the dark imagery of his approaching end-that he who counted not his life dear to him, and whose manly heart bore him up amid all the threats of inhuman tyranny and the grim apparatus of death— this man so firm and undaunted, wept like a child when he heard of those disciples who turned the pardon of the cross into an encouragement to sin. The fiercest hostilities to the Gospel from enemies he could bear; but when he heard of the foul dishonour done in the name of his Master by those who were virtually the Gospel's professing friends, this he could not bear. All that firmness which held him unfaltering and unappalled in the battles of the day forsook him now, and this noblest of champions in the field of conflict and controversy. when he heard of the profligacy of his own converts was wholly overcome by it, and gave way to all the softness of womanhood. When every other argument fails them, for keeping you in the path of integrity and holiness will you only think of the argument of Paul; and truly it may be termed a picturesque argument; nor are we aware of a more impressive testimony in the whole compass of Scripture to the indispensable need of virtue and moral goodness in the believer, than is to be found in that passage where Paul says of those unworthy professors of his day, “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." I add no more; may GOD grant his blessing.