desertion of his justice, which is implied in bending his laws to our inability? the answer is, that all this is fully and gloriously attained in the redemption through Christ. If this be rightly understood, it furnishes no encouragement to sin, by a previous proffer of indulgence; while the guilt we contract through our incapacity for the fulfilment of a perfect righteousness, may still have an animating assurance of pardon, because it has proceeded from a degeneracy incurable by us, exposing us justly, and but for such a method of recovery, inevitably too, to final depravity and its hopeless miseries.

Now, if we ask for the privilege of repentance, it may be granted, without detracting from the perfection of God's justice, or placing his precepts at the caprice of the transgressor, or encouraging such of his creatures to a trial of disobedience, as have never failed in their truth to his will. In the Gospel alone, such a dispensation as this is unfolded to our view. These, fellow Christians, are not mere words of course, proceeding from profes. sional interests and prejudices. They invite and challenge your most serious, and scrutinizing, and experienced consideration. You see men rejecting them long, with the same sentiments of disregard, which you may possibly feel, and yet at last acknowledging them in all the force which this sacred volume ascribes to them, in the explication of our condition as sinful creatures, and as hoping for reconciliation and acceptance with God. God forbid, that such may not be the result with you. But why should I speak of future time? Is not the whole system of ideas which the Gospel combines and presents to us more free from difficulty than any elsewhere derived, respecting such abatements of the divine law, as shall proportion its demands to so indefinite a standard, as our ability and our affections, and the force which temptation may be supposed to exert upon us? If Christ in the

Gospel calls upon us to fulfil the law of God in its perfection, we do not understand him aright, if this appear to as a hard or unreasonable demand, or if it seem calculated to drive us to despair. He sets before us the perfect nature, and the immutable principles of the divine government, only to make us acquainted with our true condition, by the light of that perfection to which we must be brought, if we ever be qualified for the favour of God, and the happiness of Heaven. The law of God is thus displayed, that we may be prepared to understand and acknowledge the value of that unspeakable mercy which is unfolded, in the plan of redemption, through the Son of God. Can we not fulfil the righteousness of the law? What then shall be the result of this conviction? Shall it be to make us deny the reasonableness of that authority which imposes it, and thus to make us revolt even against God, or reject all the evidences of his revealed will? Or, shall not the result rather be such as accords with the conviction, the humility, and the repentance which he expressly declares to be essential to our salvation, and to which he encourages and urges us by the "Blessed are the blessing he pronounces upon them?

poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted." How, then, are the blessings here declared to be understood, except through the condemnation under which we lie, by the law of God, a deep sense of our moral guilt, and a conviction, that without the mercy of God extended to us, through Jesus Christ, we are without hope? The atonement which Christ was to make for sin upon the Cross, the obedience he was to pay in our stead, furnish the true solution of the mystery which appears in his pronouncing precepts, which imply no relinquishment in God, of the full perfection of his laws. Not indeed, that this relinquishment, could have been

consistently admitted by him, had no such method of satisfaction to his broken law been adopted by him; but that without this satisfaction, we must have been forever excluded from the hopes of restoration, from the effects of sin; must have continued forever under the righteous anger of God.

Consider then the true object for which the law is now revealed and enforced, both moral and ceremonial. It must, as the Apostle tells us, be now considered, not as a means of Salvation, as though we could, by our obedience, lay claim to its rewards; but as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

If the law cannot consistently abate its requirements; if we can have no pretensions to fulfil its conditions, what remains, but to admit the truth respecting our ruined and helpless state, to consider the vast distance at which we stand from the wisdom of the Gospel, from perfect rectitude, from fitness for Heaven? Is it not evident that if we be left to our own strength alone, this distance is as impassable, as the gulph which divides Heaven from Hell? What prospect is there, except through the mercy of God, combined with the resources of his wisdom, that we can be renewed to the capacities of obedience, or delivered from the condemnation necessarily connected with the inherent corruption of our na ture, and the practical depravity of our lives?

The pride of human nature objects to the Gospel, because it magnifies the wickedness of the human heart. This it appears to do by presenting to us a perfect law of righteousness, and shewing us the contrast of our degeneracy. It does this, by setting before our view, the holy character of God, and his justice in requiring the penalty due to the violation of every duty. It does this also in exhibiting the incarnation, the sufferings, the perfect obedience, and the great mysterious sacrifice of Jesus

Christ, the Son of God, which he offered in his own body for sin upon the Cross. If all this be true, who shall say that the evil of our transgressions is not great, and no longer to be palliated or denied? If in all this the Scriptures declare no more, than what has actually occurred, then indeed, without repentance, and faith, and renovation of heart, we can have no hope towards God; but we must resign all our pretensions to the virtues in which we fondly repose our confidence; and the complete hu miliation which the Gospel claims from us, under a sense of our unworthiness of any thing, but God's righteous anger, must be the first act by which we can look for pardon and acceptance.

If, my hearers, we claim the privilege of being imperfect, with a plea, that a blameless obedience is impracticable to us, consider, and say, might not I, or you, or any other mortal, like ourselves, venture to promise the ratification of the privilege, provided you will define, with a precision not to be mistaken, the limit at which the plea shall stop, and be no further urged? If God were to offer you this day, in explicit terms, to be fulfilled with the unfailing fidelity of his truth, the privilege of tracing out the extent of obedience, within which you should finally be an heir of Heaven, and without which you should be an heir of Misery, do you think, while you were thus choosing for yourself, you could possibly feel safe, while you retained one principle of moral rectitude, as prescribed by the law of God, to be a ground, on which you could with safety be finally judged? Were God to offer exemption from the consequences of all the sins you ever committed, upon the condition that you should be able to select one action unexceptionably good, from all the actions of your past life, consider and say, would you have any assured trust, that you would be saved from the final misery which should await your

failure to fulfil such terms, liberal as they would be? What, then, shall be the limit, I repeat, to which we, thankless, and inconsiderate, and presumptuous mortals shall confine our demands of indulgence in sin?

Were I to address a few words to the young upon this occasion, the subject is not without sentiments peculiarly appropriate to you. You, my young friends, are professedly, and conspicuously engaged in the pursuit of all that may give perfection to your character. To give you perfection? you may ask. Yes, it is the object of education to impart every qualification, which may fit you to act your part with the utmost efficacy, with a view to usefulness, and true honour, and dignity, and consistency among your fellow men. It is its object to present you to your friends, to society, to your country, and to the world, as good relations, good neighbours, good patriots; and every talent, and all knowledge, and all skill, are but little understood, if this be not considered their end. But how shall the endowments of the mind, and all personal qualifications, have the greatest assurance, and the most essential aids given them for the accomplishment of these purposes, but through the influence of an unfailing principle of rectitude? If you have not yet laid it down as a certain truth, you have yet to learn, and the world will practically teach it to you, that the only basis upon which you can efficiently build up a structure of merit, and excellence, and happiness, in personal qualities, that shall recommend you to God and man, is the reformation of the heart, with an understanding enlightened and directed by a moral system, that will never be the advocate of sin, in whatever captivating or imposing form it may offer itself. offer itself. Such a system is to be found, I know not where, if it be not exhibited to us in the life and the discourses of Jesus Christ, and in the doctrines and principles of his kingdom.