And through this infinite sufficiency, that hindrance, which arose from the perfect holiness and righteousness of God, and the inconceivable demerit of sin, is once for all entirely removed so that it would be no impeachment of the purity of the divine character, no deduction from the honour of the law, and no abatement of the horror and hatred which we ought to conceive against sin; should God through Christ pardon all the sinners who now live, or who ever shall live, on earth.

In love that surpasseth knowledge, the Redeemer, having executed this part of his commission, arose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, there in glory at the Father's right hand to complete the grand design; and hath all power and authority in heaven and earth, and all the fulness of the spirit, at his disposal for that purpose: and this design consists in pardoning, sanctifying, defending, and bringing to perfect holiness and felicity, all without exception, who come to God through him. But this leads us to show:

II. That Christ's commission has a special reference to those whom the Father hath given to him.

Though no obstacle from divine justice to the salvation of any sinner, or of every sinner, now remains; yet a hindrance equally insuperable, except by omnipotent grace, is found in the depravity of our fallen nature. The sun is created, and placed in the open firmament, for the common benefit of mankind; there is in that luminary no defect of light, nor would there be any, were innumerable additional millions to share the benefit. Yet some men do not see; not from any defect in the sun, but from one in themselves. God, who is no debtor to his creatures, gives the blessing of sight to whom he unscriptural, and gives a degrading view of the glorious subject. An all-sufficient atonement was made at once, and an immeasurable fulness of mercy and grace is treasured up in Christ to be communicate:f, according to the eternal purpose and counsel of God. Every believer receives from this fulness: others remain under condemnation, not through defect of merit in Christ, but through their own impenitency and unbelief.

It would not have consisted with divine justice to have saved sinners without an atonement; as it appears from the apostle's reasoning; (Rom. iii, 25, 26 ;) otherwise perhaps we should have been rash in asserting it. But where is it written, that God cannot consistently with justice condemn any unbeliever? or that he is in justice bound to give faith to any man, because of the ransom Christ paid? Doubtless he will fulfil his whole counsel, and save all whom he intended to save. But previously to faith in Christ, no sinner hath any claim upon his offended Sovereign: afterwards the divine faithfulness and mercy are his sole and sufficient security; and it seems to be a deduction of human reasoning, not any doctrine of divine Revelation, to assert, that even a believer can in strict justice claim eternal salvation on the account of Christ's atonement.

12 )

will: but if he withhold or withdraw it, the man is benighted at noon-day.

Christ was lifted up upon the cross (like the brazen serpent on the pole), and is held forth in the preached Gospel, for "all the ends of the earth to look unto, and be saved." This may properly be called the common benefit of mankind: there is no defect of merit, of mercy, or of grace in him; nor would there be any, if millions, as numerous as the sand, should receive out of his fulness. But the want of a right disposition of heart, which fallen man has not, which God alone can give, but which he may justly withhold from a rebellious subject, effectually prevents the salvation of all who do not receive it. The case is parallel: except that bodily blindness is not generally in any sense a man's fault, or a defect in his moral character; whereas the want of humility, spirituality, and love of God, is sin, original sin, the fruitful parent of all other sins, in fallen men and fallen angels.

Let the blessings of the Gospel be fairly proposed, with solemn warnings and pressing invitations, to two men of exactly the same character and disposition: if they were left to themselves, in entirely similar circumstances, the effect must be precisely the same. But, behold! while one proudly scorns and resents the gracious offer; the other trembles, "Who maketh this man to weeps, prays, repents, believes ! "differ from the other? or what hath he that he hath not "received? The scriptural answer to this question, when properly understood, decides the whole controversy. Human depravity produces different effects in vast variety, and gathers strength by habit; but, in its root and nature, it is the same and equal in all men. This can be effectually overcome by nothing except a new creation, a "work wrought by the exceeding greatness of that mighty power, which raised "Christ from the dead." I do not now argue with such as oppose the doctrine of original sin.

66

In the case before stated, the man who proudly scorned and resented the offer of free salvation from merited perdition; had this work been wrought in his heart by the energy of the Holy Ghost, would certainly have embraced it: and had the other, who believed, been left to himself, he would as certainly have rejected it. This distinguishing grace is previously neither deserved, nor desired, by either of them: it might justly have been withheld from both; but it is graciously communicated to one, and not to the other, by a sovereign God," according to the counsel of his own will." He, and he alone, "hath made one to differ from another." Now, was this distinction intentionally made by the sovereign Dis

poser of all things, or was it not? If intentionally, was that intention first conceived at the moment of execution, or previously? If previously, why not from eternity? Indeed, if any of the works of God, when actually accomplished, be righteous, holy, wise, good, and faithful; the eternal purpose of performing them must have been equally righteous, holy, wise, good, and faithful: unless it can be wrong to determine to do right; because that determination was formed long before it was executed! If it consists with divine justice and goodness to leave one sinner to perish, and to save another equally guilty by an act of sovereign grace and power; it must have been equally consistent with justice and goodness to decree the destruction of the one, and the salvation of the other. In short, the two doctrines, that of man's entire depravity,' and that of a new creation unto holiness by the sole energy of the Holy Spirit, without any help, and notwithstanding every hindrance, from nature, can never consistently be separated from that of personal election: nor upon this ground can a satisfactory reason be given, why any are saved and sanctified, but this: that "God hath chosen us in "Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should "be holy, and without blame before him in love: having "predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus "Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his "will; to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he "hath made us accepted in the Beloved; in whom we have "redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of our "sins."

"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning "of the world." In his unsearchable judgments; (Oh, how deep are they!) doubtless for wise and righteous purposes, though not clearly discernible by us purblind mortals, he was pleased to permit the first entrance of sin, the fall of Adam, and the depravation of the human race. It suits not my present limits to descant on this subject: I may scarcely pause to drop a tear for the awful catastrophe. But that man is fallen and depraved, that "the whole world lieth in wickedness," all we see, hear, read, or experience demonstrates, and all confirms the testimony of God, in Scripture, to this humbling doctrine. Utterly destitute of love to the holy character of God, desire of his favour, delight in his service, gratitude for his benefits, or regard to his glory, man is universally disposed to inordinate idolatrous self-love, and love of worldly objects. His own honour and glory he seeks, his own imagined excellencies he admires, his crimes he vindicates or excuses; he affects to be at his own disposal, wishes Ephesians, i, 4-7,

to be independently his own master, and would have all others admire and honour him, as much as he does himself. At the same time he also idolizes worldly objects: "The lust of the "flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," he chooses as his portion. These are his good things for which he most ardently thirsts, on which he chiefly depends, and in which he places his highest felicity. Hence eventually proceed all unrighteousness, licentiousness, and ungodliness, according to the different constitutional propensities, educations, and habits of different men. "The law of God is weak through "the flesh," and cannot restrain their impetuous desires. In the pursuit of their self-exalting or carnal projects, the will and worship of God are neglected, the rules of justice, truth, and benevolence violated, and every excess committed. But "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungod"liness and unrighteousness of men; and eternal punishment is annexed to the transgression of this holy law, by him "to whom vengeance belongs: and when this is made known to the proud rebel, his neglect and contempt break forth in enmity against the holy character, perfect law, and righteous judgment of God; "because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of "God, neither indeed can be; so then, they that are in the "flesh cannot please God."

This state of the human race God foresaw; and he, who alone is competent to estimate the tendency of such a temper of heart, and the malignity of such a conduct, evidently considered all men both as meriting eternal misery, and as ves"sels of wrath fitted for destruction."

Redemption by the blood of Christ was a most distinguished part of his original plan. He was "the Lamb slain from "the foundation of the world." Whatever other method God in his infinite wisdom could have devised, for his own glory in the salvation of sinners, this was doubtless the best; for it was actually chosen. But this plan can have no foundation except in the humiliating truth; that all men were so exceedingly guilty and deserving of everlasting misery, that it would have been derogatory to the justice and holiness of God, to have been reconciled to any of them, or to have rescued any of them from destruction, except through the interposition of such a sacrifice, as that of "his well beloved Son, "in whom he was well pleased." If man does not deserve damnation, deliverance from it is "not of grace but of debt."

If we could not by other arguments prove the justice of God in the damnation of sinners, the method of Redemption would alone demonstrate it. And it is more our interest, and more becoming us, to submit to his righteousness, and apply for his mercy; than in the midst of

And though eternal life must in strict propriety of language be an unmerited gift of God to any of his creatures; yet, as far as we know, it might have been honourably given to us; had not man been so guilty and God so holy, that without the atonement made by the death of the divine Saviour, it would not have consisted with his holiness to save so vile a rebel. If this be not so, "then Christ is dead in vain."

دو

But if the proud, carnal, ungodly heart of sinful man is enmity to a holy God, and disdains the authority, dislikes the precept, and abhors the sentence of that holy law which condemns him to eternal punishment for his crimes; if the Gospel shows the malignity of sin, and the desert of every sinner, in the most conspicuous light; if it maintains the authority, magnifies the precept, and vindicates the justice of the sentence of the law; and if it gives no quarter to any sin, saves no man in his sins but from all sin, and to all that very holiness which the law demands, "writing the law in the heart; could it be reasonably supposed, that man would not also hate and quarrel with the affronting, though most merciful, message of free salvation? It might have been previously expected, and matter of fact indisputably proves, that the unadulterated Gospel, notwithstanding its surprising largeness and freeness of grace and love is more offensive to the proud rebel, than the very law itself, and excites more enmity and blasphemy. Nor need we hesitate to assert, that every individual, left to himself, would as infallibly have either neglected and opposed, or perverted and abused, the Gospel, as he has broken and quarrelled with the law. From this source especially have arisen all the persecutions of Christianity, which in many ages and places have raged; all the indifference and contempt which have prevailed; and all the innumerable corruptions of Christianity which have been devised, to render it more palatable, or tolerable, to the pride or to the lusts of men.

Forseeing this as the inevitable consequence of leaving t Gospel to take its own course in the world; knowing that would reject it, or pervert it to their deeper condemnation; the Lord did not consider himself bound in justice to afford such obstinate enemies any further grace, but judged that he might righteously have left them all to the consequences of their perverseness. He is no man's debtor, he doeth no man injustice, he punisheth no man who hath not deserved it, nor any one above his deservings: and, however men may now dare to find fault, all his dealings will be shown most glorious

our ignorance and blindness, to spend our time in vain reasonings upon a subject, for which we are incompetent; and in making objections to those appointments, which are unalterably determined, whe ther we submit to them or no.