inexorable justice; too scanty a reparation of God's injured honor. So flagrant is human guilt, that nothing but a vic tim of infinite dignity could constitute an adequate propitiation. He who said, "Let there be light, and there was light;" Let there be a firmament, and immediately the blue curtains floated in the sky; He must take flesh; He must feel the fierce torments of crucification; and pour out his sont in agonies, if ever such transgressors are pardoned.

How vast is that debt, which all the wealth of both the Indies cannot discharge! How vitiated that habit of body, which all the drugs produced by nature herself cannot rectify! But how much more ruined was thy condition, O my soul! how much more heinous were thy crimes! since nothing less than the sufferings and death of Messiah, the Son of GOD, and radiant image of his glory, could effect thy recovery, or cancel thy iniquity.Though, perhaps, thou art not sunk so very deep in pollution as some of the most abandoned profligates; yet remember the inestimable ransom paid to redeem thee from everlasting destruction. Remember this, and "never open thy mouth any more,' "* either to murmur at the divine chastisements, or to glory in thy own attainments. Remember this, and even "Loathe thyself for the multitude of thy provocations," and thy great

baseness.

Say, heav'nly powers, where shall we find such love?
Which of you will be mortal, to redeem

Man's mortal crime, and die the dead to save?

He ask'd; but all the heavenly choir stood mute,
And silence was in heav'n.

There is, to me at least, an inimitable spirit and beauty in the last circumstance.- That such an innumerable multitude of gene rous and compassionate beings should be struck dumb with surprise and terror at the very mention of the deadly forfeiture and ransom set! no langnage is so eloquent as this silence. Words could not possibly have expressed, in so emphatical a manner, the dreadful nature of the task; the absolute inability of any or all creatures to execute it; the super-eminent and matchless love of the eternal Son, in undertaking the tremendous work; not only without reluctance, but unsought, and unimplored, with readiness, alacrity and delight.

Ezek. xvi. 63.

Par. Lost, Book III. line 209.* † Ezek. xxxvi. 31.

B b

Once more: let me view this beautiful, this magnificent expanse, and conceive some juster apprehensions of the unknown richness of my Saviour's atonement.- -I am informed, by a writer who cannot mistake, that the High Priest of my profession, who was also the sacrifice for my sins, is higher than the heavens; more exalted in dignity, more bright with glory, than all the heavenly mansions, and all their illustrious inhabitants. If my heart was humbled at the consideration of its excessive guilt, how do all my drooping powers revive at this delightful thought! The poor crim inal that seemed to be tottering on the very brink of the infernal pit, is raised by such a belief, even to the Portals of Paradise. My self-abasement, I trust will always continue, but my fears, under the influence of such conviction, are quite gone. I do not, I cannot doubt the efficacy of this propitiation. While I see a glimpse of its matchless excellency, and verily believe myself interested in its merits: I know not what it is to feel any misgiving suspicions; but am steadfast in faith, and joyful through hope.

Be my iniquities, like debts of millions of talents, here is more than full payment for all that prodigious sum. Let the

Heb. vii. 26.

I am sorry to find, that some of my readers were a little disgusted at this expression, "my fears are quite gone," as thinking it discovered a tincture of arrogance in the writer, and tended to discourage the weak christian. But I hope a more mature consideration will acquit me from both these charges-For, what has the author said? Only that at some peculiarly happy moment, when the Holy Ghost bears witness of CHRIST in his heart, and he is favoured with a glimpse of the Redeemer's matchless excellency, that in these brighter intervals of life, his trembling fears with regard to the decisive sentence of the great tribunal, are turned into pleasing expectations. And what is there in such a declaration, offensive to the strictest modesty, or dispiriting to the weakest believer? Instead of creating discouragement, it points out the way to obtain a settled tranquillity. Its natural tendency is, to engage the serious mind in a more constant and attentive meditation on the unknown merits of the divine MEDIATOR. And were we more thoroughly acquainted, more deeply affected, with his unutterable dignity; I am persuaded our uneasy apprehensions would proportionably vanish : our faith be established, our hopes brightened, and our joys enlarged.

enemy of mankind, and accuser of the brethren, load me with invectives; this one plea, A divine Redeemer died, most throughly quashes every indictment. For, though there be much turpitude, and manifold transgressions, "there is no condemnation to those that are in CHRIST JESUS.". Nay, were I chargeable with all the vilest deeds which have been committed in every age of the world, by every nation of men; even in this most deplorable case, I need not sink into despair. Even such guilt, though grievous beyond all expression, is not to be compared with that abundance of grace and righteousness which dwell in the incarnate Divinity.How great, how transcendently glorious, are the perfections of the adored JEHOVAH! So great, so superlatively precious, is the expiation of the dying JESUS. Tis impossible for the human mind to exalt this atonement too highly ;* 'tis impossible for the HUMBLE PENITENT to confide in it too steadily. The scriptures of eternal truth have said it, (exult, my soul, in the belief of it!) that the blood on which we rely, is God's own blood;† and therefore all sufficient to expiate: omnipotent to save.

David, that egregious sinner, but more exemplary saint, seems to have been well acquainted with this comfortable truth.- What else can be the import of that very remarkable, but most devout declaration? Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; thou shall wash me, and I

* This doctrine, though rich with consolation to the ruined sinner; yet, is it not likely to open a door for licentiousness, and embolden transgressors to prosecute their VICES?No it is the most powerful motive to that genuine repentance, which flows from an unfeigned love of GOD: and operates in a hearty detestation of all sin. One, who knew the unmeasurable goodness of the LORD, and was no stranger to the sinful perverseness of our nature, says, There is mercy with thee; THERE. FORE shalt thou be feared, Psalm cxxx. 4.--Words full to my purpose; which at once add the highest authority to this sentiment, and direct our minds to its proper influence, and due improvement.

† Acts. xx. 28. Psalm li. 7. Thou shalt purge. I prefer this translation before the new one. Because this speaks the language of a more steadfast belief, and gives the highest honour to the divine goodness. Were the words intended to bear no more than

shall be wher than snow." I have been guilty, I must confess, of the most complicated and shocking crimes; crimes, inflamed by every aggravated circumstance, with regard to myself, my neighbour, and my GoD. Myself, who have been blessed above men, and the distinguished favorite of Providence; my neighbour, who in the most dear and tender interests, has been irreparably injured; my Gop, who might justly expect the most grateful returns of duty, instead of such enormous violations of his law. Yet, all horcid and execrable as my offence is, it is nothing to the superabundant merit of that great Redeemer, who was promised from the foundations of the world; in whom all my fathers trusted; who is the hope of all the ends of the earth. Though my conscience be more loathsome, with adulterous impurity than the dunghill; though treachery and murder have rendered it even black as the gloom of hell; yet, washed in the fountain opened for sin, and for uncleanness, I shall be 1 say not pure only, this were a disparagement to the efficacy of my Saviour's death; but I shall be fair as the lily, and white as the snow. Nay, let me not derogate from the glo

us object of my confidence; cleansed by this sovereign sanctifying stream, I shall be fairer than the full blown lily, whiter than the new-fallen snows."

Power, saith the scripture, belongeth unto GOD.+And in what Majestic lines is this attribute of JEHOVAH written throughout the whole volume of the creation? Especially through those magnificent pages, unfolded in yonder starry regions; which are therefore styled, by the sweet and seraphic singer of Israel, "The firmament of his power."+ Because the grand exploits of Omnipotence are there displayed with the utmost poinp, and recorded in the most legible

characters.

Who that looks upward to the midnight sky, and with an eye of reason, beholds its rolling wonders; who can forbear inquiring, of what were those mighty orbs formed ?-.. Amazing to relate! they were produced without materials. They sprung from emptiness itself. The stately fabric of

the common petitionary sense, and not to be expressive of a noble plerophory of faith; they would rather have been impera. tives, not futures.

Zech. xiin 1.

† Psalm lxii. 11.

Psalm cl. 1.

universal nature emerged out of nothing.What instruments were used by the supreme architect, to fashion the parts with such exquisite niceness, and give so beautiful a polish to the whole? How was all connected into one finely proportioned, and nobly-finished structure?. -A bare fiat accomplished all. LET THEM BE, saith GOD. He added no more; and immediately the marvellous edifice arose, adorned with every beauty, displaying innumerable perfections, and declaring, amidst enraptured seraphs, its great Creator's praise. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth."*. -What forceful machinery fixed some of those ponderous globes on an immoveable basis? What irresistible impulse bowled others through the circuit of the heavens ? What coercive energy confined their impetuous courses, within limits astonishingly large, yet most minutely true?

66

-Nothing but his sovereign will. For all things were at first constituted, and all to this day abide," according to his ordinance."

spaces

Without any toilsome assiduity, or laborious process, to raise---to touch--to speak such a multitude of immense bodies into being, to launch them through the of the sky, as an arrow from the hand of a giant ;- to impress on such unwieldly masses, a motion far outstripping the swiftness of the winged creation ;†—and to continue them in the same

If this thought is admitted a second time and suffered to ennoble the next paragraph: it is partly, because of its unequalled sublimity; partly because it awakens the most grand idea of creating power; and partly, because the practice of the Psalmist, an authority too great to be controverted, is my precedent. The beautiful stanza quoted from Psalm xxxiii. 6. is a proof how thoroughly the royal poet entered into the majesty of the Mosaic narration. The repetition of the sentiment, verse 9. intimates how peculiarly he was charmed with that noble manner of describing the divine operations; while the turn of his own com. position shews how perfectly he possessed the same elevated way of thinking And this, long before Longinus wrote the celebrated treatise, which has taught the Heathen, as well as the Christian world, to admire the dignity of the Jewish legislator's style. Vide Longin. de Sublim. Sect. IX.

To give one instance of this remark.

-The earth, in the diurnal revolution which it performs on its own.axis, whirla