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great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth, if he will turn, and repent, and leave a blessing behind him?

3dly. It is evident from the observations, made in these discourses, that mankind are infinitely indebted to Christ for expiating their sins.

Christ by his atonement has redeemed mankind from under the curse of the law. The sufferings, to which they were doomed by this curse, were endless sufferings. Without an expiation, a deliverance from these sufferings was impossible. Equally impossible was it for any other person, beside Christ, to make an expiation. From mere compassion to our ruined world he undertook the arduous labour of delivering us from these stupendous sufferings; and accomplished it, at the expense of his own blood. Infinitely rich, for our sakes he became poor, that we through him might become rich. For him we had done nothing, and were disposed to do nothing. For us, influenced by his own overflowing goodness, he did all things. He taught us, as our prophet, all things pertaining to life and godliness. He lived before us, as our Example; he died for us, as our Propitiation ; he rose from the dead, as the Earnest of our resurrection to endless life. He entered heaven, as our Forerunner; he assumed the throne of the Universe, as our Ruler, Protector, and Benefac

At the end of the world he will appear, as our Judge and Rewarder; and will conduct to the mansions of eternal life all those, who have cordially accepted of his mediation; and will there throughout interminable ages feed them with living bread, and lead them to fountains of living waters. To the obligations, conferred by such a benefactor, what limits can be set? Our deliverance from sin and sorrow is a boundless good; our introduction to endless virtue and happiness is a boundless good. But of all this good the atonement of Christ is the foundation, the procuring cause, the commencement, and the security. Worthy is the Lamb, that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom. and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Such is the everlasting song, to which the four living creatures in the heavens subjoin their unceasing Amen.

With this glorious subject in our view, can we fail to be astonished at the manner in which the Saviour of the world is treat

ed by multitudes of those, whom he came to redeem? By what multitudes is he regarded with cold-hearted unbelief, and stupid indifference? By what multitudes, with open opposition and avowed hostility? By what multitudes, with shameless contempt, insolent sneers, and impudent ridicule? How often is his glorious name profaned, and blasphemed, by those, whom he died to save from endless perdition? How many miserable wretches, tottering on the brink of eternal ruin, while in the house of God, while in this house, and while his agonies, endured for them, are resounding in their ears, quietly compose themselves to sleep, or busily employ themselves in whispering, amusement, and mirth; forgetful, that they have souls to be saved, or lost; and destitute of a wish to be interested in the Saviour. Had Christ been as regardless of these miserable beings, as they are of him; nay, as they are of themselves; what would have become of them in the day of wrath? What will become of them in that dreadful day, if they continue to treat Christ, as they have treated him hitherto ?

4thly. It is evident from these observations, that the Gospel alone furnishes a consistent scheme of salvation to mankind.

The Gospel takes man, where it finds him, in a state of sin and ruin, condemned by the law of God to final perdition, and incapable of justification, by his own righteousness. In this situation, it announces to him a Saviour, divinely great and glorious, divinely excellent and lovely, assuming his nature, to become an expiation for his sins; revealing to him the way of reconciliation to God; and inviting him to enter it, and be saved. The acceptance of this expiation it announces from the mouth of God himself. The terms, on which we may be reconciled, it discloses with exact precision and perfect clearness; so that he who runs may read; so that beggars and children may understand, and accept them. Faith in the Redeemer, repentance towards God, and holiness of character, involve them all. They are terms, reasonable in themselves, easy to us, and productive of incomprehensible good to all who embrace them. To overcome the stubbornness of our hearts, Christ has commissioned the SPIRIT OF GRACE to sanctify us for himself; to draw us with the cords of his love; to guide us with his wisdom; to uphold us

with his power; and to conduct us under his kind providence to the heavens. In this scheme is contained all that we need, and all that we can rationally desire. The way of salvation is here become a high-way, and way-faring men, though fools, need not err therein.

The Religion of the Gospel is a religion designed for sinners. By the expiation of Christ it opens the brazen door, which was for ever barred against their return. Here the supreme, and otherwise immoveable, obstacle to the acceptance of sinners, is taken away. If sinners were to be accepted, it was not possible that this cup should pass from Christ. The next great obstacle in the way of their acceptance is found in their unholy, disobedient hearts, propense to evil only, and continually; and the next, their perpetual exposure to backsliding, and to falling finally away. These obstacles, immoveable, also, by any means on this side of heaven, the Spirit of grace by his most merciful interference in our behalf entirely removes. Man, therefore, in the Gospel finds his return from apostasy made possible; made ea sy; made certain; actually begun; steadily carried on in the present world; and finally completed in the world to come.

But no other scheme of religion presents to us even plausible means of removing these difficulties. Natural religion, to which Infidels persuade us to betake ourselves for safety, does not even promise us a return to God. Natural religion is the religion of law; of that law, which in the only legal language declares to us, Do these things, and thou shalt live: but the soul, that sinneth, shall die. These things, the things specified in the requisitions of the law, we have not done; and therefore cannot live. We have sinned, and therefore must die. It has been formerly shown, that the law knows no condition of acceptance, or justification, but obedience. Concerning repentance, faith, forgiveness, and reconciliation, concerning the sinner's return to God, and his admission to immortal life, the law is silent. Its only sentence, pronounced on those who disobey, is a sentence of final condemnation.

Whatever we may suppose the law to be, we have disobeyed its precepts. Nothing has been ever devised, or received, by man as a law of God, which all men have not disobeyed. Infi

dels cannot devise such a law, as they will dare to call a law of God, and publish to men under this title, which they themselves, and all other men, have not often disobeyed. From the very nature of law, a nature inseparable from its existence as a law, disobedience to its precepts must be condemned: and, if nothing interfere to preserve the offender from punishment, he must of necessity suffer. To what degree, in what modes, through what extent, these sufferings will reach, the Infidel cannot conjecture. To his anguish no end appears. Of such an end no arguments can be furnished by his mind; no tidings have reached his ear; and no hopes can rationally arise in his heart. Death, with all the gloomy scenes attendant upon a dying bed, is to him merely the commencement of doubt, fear, and sorrow. The grave, to him, is the entrance into a world, of absolute and eternal darkness. That world, hung round with fear, amazement, and despair, overcast with midnight, melancholy with solitude, desolate of every hope of real good, opens to him through the dreary passage of the grave. Beyond this entrance he sees nothing, he knows nothing, he can conjecture nothing, but what must fill his heart with alarm, and make his death-bed a couch of thorns. With a suspense, scarcely less terrible than the miseries of damnation itself, his soul lingers over the vast and desolate abyss; when, compelled by an unseen, and irresistible hand it plunges into this uncertain and irreversible doom, to learn by experience what is the measure of woe, destined to reward those, who obey not God, and reject the salvation proffered by his Son.

In such a situation what man, not yet lost to sense and thought, not yet convinced, that he has committed the sin which cannot be forgiven, would not hail with transport the dawn of the Gospel; the clear rising of the Sun of righteousness; to illumine his path through this melancholy world; to dispel the darkness of the grave; to shed a benevolent light upon the entrance into eternity, and brighten his passage to the heavens?

SERMON LVIII.

THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST.

HIS INTERCESSION.

HEBREWS vii. 24, 25.

But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able, also, to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

HAVING in a series of discourses examined, as far as I thought it necessary, the personal holiness of Christ; and his atonement for sin; I shall now proceed in the order, originally proposed, to consider his Intercession.

In the first verse of the text, St. Paul declares, that Christ, in contradistinction to earthly high priests, has an unchangeable priesthood; or, as the original more exactly signifies, a priesthood which passeth not from one hand to another. In the last verse, he infers from this fact, that he is able to save his followers to the uttermost, because he ever lives to make intercession for them. The Intercession of Christ, therefore, is here declared to be real; to be made for his followers; and to be effectual to their salvation. Of course, it claims, in a high degree, our serious attention. To intercede denotes, originally, to go between one person

and

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