Who ever

together with a perfect exactness. dreams that the lungs of a man produce the air he breathes, or the air the lungs which breathe it? Yet the structure of the lungs is exactly such as enables us to inhale a gaseous fluid; and the air is just of the consistency which suits it to this structure. What anatomist is not aware, that the blood is so conducted through the lungs, as there to imbibe from the atmosphere its vivifying principle? What chemist does not know that the atmosphere is precisely so composed, as to serve this purpose; that if either oxygen or azote was omitted, life would be destroyedthat even if they were mingled in different proportions, both air and lungs would immediately become useless?

Now in the moral and spiritual world, correspondences of a similar kind are easily perceptible. The light is not more suited to the eye, or the soil of the earth to the vegetable, or the water to the frame work of the fish, or the air to the lungs which inhale it, than is each particular of the scheme of redemption to that part of our mental system, with which it corresponds. And considered as a whole, revealed religion answers its end in supplying our spiritual wants, just as completely as nature serves her purpose, in providing for our present life, and in satisfying the demands of the body.

No fair reasoner, therefore, who is accustomed to trace the contrivances of this visible world to an all-wise Contriver, can refuse to

allow that Christianity, like nature, is the work and ordinance of Him who pairs, adapts, and balances all things according to their need. If the production of material things, which" perish with the using," displays (as it unquestionably does) the wisdom and power of God-how much more that new creation, which acts on the hidden springs of man's heart, opens the blind understanding, imparts the spiritual life, applies every motive to its proper function, redeems and purifies the guilty soul, and converts the very child of hell, into an heir of glory! 1

The general argument which has now been stated, is confirmed and elucidated by some particular reflections.

In the first place, the great system of truth unfolded to us in the Bible, although admirably compacted, is in its nature complex. It is composed of many parts, and these are distinguished, one from another, by different, and sometimes even by opposite characteristics. On the one hand are revealed to us the terrors of the Lord-on the other hand, his spontaneous mercies; on the one hand, election and sovereign grace-on the other, the unfettered and responsible agency of man. Above all, while the doctrine of justification declares the pardoning love of God towards a

1 Vid. Grotii Com. in Eph. iii, 9. "Omnia Christus fecit nova; et divinior hæc creatio quam prior illa."

guilty world, that of sanctification proclaims with a voice equally strong and clear, the indispensable necessity of personal holiness.

But while these various parts of the system are distinct from each other, and may never be confounded, and while the mode in which they consist is in some instances concealed from our view, they are inseparably joined; and being arranged with a perfect precision, they unite in producing a single effect. That effect is the moral renovation of fallen man.

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Now as the wisdom and power of God are often displayed in the multiplicity of ends which a single means answers, so they are no less illustriously manifested by the combined application of diversified means, and even of opposite principles, to the production of one broad, simple, and glorious, result. This is one of the characteristics by which the counsels of the Supreme Being are pre-eminently distinguished by which he turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish." 2 Nor is it beside our mark to observe, that when Christianity fails to produce its full and genial effect in sincere believers, this circumstance mostly arises from their taking too limited a view of a system, of which the very nature is, to comprehend in one vast machinery whatsoever can affect the heart of man, and form the character of the servant of God.

This remark naturally leads us to our second point-namely, that Christianity is neither

2 Isa. xliv, 25.

deficient nor redundant; it equally rejects augmentation and diminution. The history of the professing church of Christ, now continued through more than eighteen centuries, affords many humbling proofs, that the moment we add anything to the religion of the New Testament, or take anything away from it, that moment we injure its structure and weaken its effect. The doctrines of revealed religion came forth from the hands of their Author and his immediate followers, in a state of perfection, and the concentrated wisdom of ten thousand philosophers and theologians can change them, only for the worse.

The man who has a just apprehension of his own spiritual need, and of the fulness which is in Christ, will readily acknowledge that the scheme of the gospel is exactly suited to its purpose. But he will go further. He will confess that in whatsoever flights he may indulge his imagination, to whatsoever extent he may employ his speculative powers—it is utterly impossible for him to conceive any other scheme, or a scheme in any respect different, which would be equally well adapted to the salvation of sinners. Well might the apostle Paul exclaim, “Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed!"3

As it is impossible for us to devise any new plan for the salvation of sinners, which would bear the least comparison with that of the 3 Gal. i, 8.

gospel, so, in the third place, the scheme of redemption revealed to us in Scripture, is itself distinguished by many peculiar features which no man, in his own wisdom, could either have invented or imagined. The infinite mercy of God, the fall and corruption of man, the influence of the Holy Ghost, and the spiritual glories of a future state, are all of them points which lie deeply hidden from the natural man, and to which there is no probability that his thoughts would ever have been directed. But our observation applies with still greater force to the incarnation and sacrifice of the Only-begotten Son of God--a doctrine not only original and absolutely singular, but far beyond the boundaries of man's conception. Yet this is the turning point of the whole system, on which its restoring and saving efficacy mainly depends. Under the love of God the Father, it is the moving cause of our salvation -the very spring of our hopes, our reformation, and our happiness.

Fourthly, although extrinsic causes have hitherto prevented the universal diffusion of Christianity, our religion itself has no exclusive tendencies; "in its scope, purpose, and practical operation, it is entirely and equally adapted to the whole human race.'

"4

All men are guilty-all condemned by the law-all diseased with sin-all under the yoke of Satan. To all alike therefore is that religion suited, which provides for our pardon, our deliverance, and our cure. But another