to promulgate, and which he hath commissioned his servants to proclaim to the guilty and apostate sons of men. Its blessings are of unspeakable importance; and its doctrines highly worthy of all acceptation.

Second, Because by his sufferings and death he hath purchased salvation for his people.

When man apostatized from God, he became a transgressor of the divine law, and liable to all the punishment which it threatened to inflict. The honour and obligation of the law, and the infinite justice of God, rendered it absolutely necessary that the threatenings of the law should actually be inflicted, and its precepts perfectly obeyed. But the weakness which the fall introduced into the nature of man rendered him incapable of either bearing the one or performing the other. A surety, however, equal to the mighty undertaking, was provided from eternity. "I will deliver from go

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ing down to the pit; I have found out "a ransom." Our help was laid upon one

mighty and willing to save, on one who

was fully able to endure the punishment due to transgressors, and to perform a perfect obedience to the precepts of the divine law.

In both these respects, our Almighty Saviour may well be styled the Author and Finisher of our faith. He endured the full penalty due to our offences :he was wounded for our transgressions: -he was bruised for our iniquities, and by his stripes we were healed:-" He "bore our sins in his own body on the "tree; and to redeem us from the curse "of the law, he was made a curse for us,

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becoming obedient unto death, even "the death of the Cross." And with respect to the obedience which the law required, he is said to have fulfilled all righteousness," and to have become the "end of the law for righteousness to

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every one that believeth.”—In a word, the humiliation of Christ in all its parts;

-his taking upon him the human nature; his obeying, in that nature, the utmost demands of the law;-his submitting to unexampled sufferings,—and his continuing in that course of obedience till he could say, on the Cross,

"It is finished ;"-this, and no less, was the price he paid for our redemption.

"The redemption of the soul indeed " is precious," and, but for him, "must "have ceased for ever." The demerit of sin, as well as the justice of God, is infinite; and, therefore, nothing less than an atonement of infinite value could be sufficient, or could be accepted. But when he who was God as well as man is revealed as undertaking our cause; when he is substituted in our room, and we behold him pouring out his soul an offering for sin, we may be fully assured that our salvation is completely accomplished in virtue of his obedience unto death. In his resurrection from the grave, we behold the most convincing proof that the price was accepted, and that all the demands of the law were fully satisfied. We now, therefore, no more see divine justice armed against us: Nay, we behold divine mercy and love held out to us, in a way perfectly consistent with the other perfections of God, and the most opposite attributes of his nature,-entirely glorious in themselves, yet acting and exercised together

in perfect harmony and concert :-Infinite justice and infinite love thoroughly reconciled :-" Mercy and truth met to་ gether; righteousness and peace kissed "each other :"-God, glorious in his holiness, yet no less glorious in mercy;

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forgiving iniquity, transgression, and "sin, yet by no means clearing the "guilty:"-A just God, and yet a Saviour:-Just, and " yet the Justifier of "him who believeth in Jesus." What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, "but "delivered him up for us all; how shall "he not with him also freely give us "all things?" "Who shall lay any thing "to the charge of God's elect? It is "God that justifieth; who is he that "condemneth? It is Christ that died,

yea rather, that is risen again; who is

even at the right hand of God making "intercession for us." Thus has Christ, by the blood of his Cross, made our peace with heaven; opened a new and living way to the kingdom of the Father; and restored a great multitude, that no man can number, of fallen apos

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tate creatures, to the service and everlasting enjoyment of their Maker. And,

Third, The title in our text may well be applied to Christ, because he vanquishes all the enemies of our salvation, and at last puts us in possession of its fulness in heaven.

Many and formidable are the enemies with whom the Christian warrior is called to contend; yet how comfortable, O believer is it to think, that you fight against subdued and vanquished foes? "In the world," says our Saviour," you "shall have tribulation; but be of good "cheer, I have overcome the world." The corruptions, however, that still remain in the best, powerfully solicit and entice. They see a law in their mem"bers warring against the law of their "minds, and bringing them into capti

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vity to the law of sin that is in their "members." But hath not Christ, by his precious blood shed for us, procured the gift and aid of the Holy Spirit; and is he not given to them that ask him, to mortify the deeds of the body, to subdue evil habits,-to regulate every dis