it was instituted; affords an argument for purity of heart. On a field so immeasurable, we presume not to expatiate. We will confine ourselves to a single point; the mystery of the cross. Christians, when you contemplate this holy mystery, which most affects you, the atrocity of sin, that inflicted such unparalleled torments on the Son of God, or the compassion that induced him voluntarily to submit to them? which most excites your apprehensions, the horrours that envelop the divine victim suffering a vicarious punishment only, or the power of the everlasting judge when he shall arise to take vengeance on those who know him not, and obey not his gospel? Whether you are among the number of those who maintain that a satisfaction was necessary, in order that the claims of divine justice might allow the remission of sin; or whether you choose to adopt that other opinion, which, denying the necessity, supports, however, the expediency of such a satisfaction; the consequence, as to the argument before us, will be nearly the same. On the latter supposition, you believe that Almighty God is possessed of such an infinite love of holiness, and such an inconceivable detestation of sin, that, although not impelled by necessity to exact an atonement, he has, nevertheless, seen fit to exact it, rather than suffer vice to escape unpunished. You believe that he has decreed the sacrifice of the cross merely as an expedient by which to remove the suspicion that sin is not execrable in his sight. And under these impressions can you flatter yourselves with the hope of impunity when you transgress his holy law? Can you go on to perpetrate crimes, when God has made such an illustrious display both of his will and his power to be the avenger of his guilt? But if you support the necessity of the satisfaction, the argument assumes additional strength. You believe that the disposition to maintain the rights and order of his moral government is so essential to the Deity, that he cannot, without renouncing his perfections, pardon the sinner, and not punish the sin; and can you, notwithstanding this persuasion, neglect the cultivation of holiness? This would be to believe at one and the same time, that sin is infinitely abhorrent to the divine Being, and yet that he regards it with indifference. That the necessity of his holy nature impelled him to immolate his own eternal Son upon the altar of his justice, and yet that he is of a disposition so easy and indifferent, as to forgive those who despise the injunction; "Be ye holy, as I am holy;" and the admonition, "without holiness, no man shall see the Lord."* But if the cross, by representing the atrocity of moral evil, and the severity of the divine justice, mortifies the impurity of the heart; it addresses also the ingenuous feelings. It touches the hidden springs of love and gratitude, and awakens the sleeping powers of generous affection. "The love of Christ constraineth us," says the apostle; and you, Christians, if you contemplate in faith, this sublime mystery, you can testify that its irresistible, though secret influences, restrain from evil, and incite to the prosecution of a holy life. With this conviction, you would thus address the infatuated votary of sin. Call to mind as we have done the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth; the pains of his body and the anguish of his soul. Attend him in the various scenes of tribulation through which he passed. Follow him in imagination into the garden. See him nailed to the cross. Hear his departing groan--all nature sympathizing—and the dead and the living conspiring to celebrate the obsequies of a God. Recollect that every event of his sorrowful life was foreseen by him--that he saw the frailty of his friends, and the rage of his enemies—the garden which was to be consecrated by his tears and bloody agony-the tribunal of his judge-the scourge-the executioner-the cross; ignominy and death stood full in his view; he saw; he shrunk not from the awful undertaking; he closed his career of suffering in the grave, and gave himself a propitiation for us "Heb. xii. 14. for you--for the whole world; "that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."* In despite of all this love, which strikes the thrones of heaven with astonishment, go now and sin. Go, and pour contempt upon him who died to redeem you from contempt. Go, and assist the enraged populace to insult him in whose person all majesty centres. Go, trample on the grave where the angels of God worship, and the Son of God rests from his agonies. Impossible! if you are not devoid of every grateful sentiment-if you are not sold under impurity-from this moment the world will be crucified unto you, and you unto the world. From this moment, the idols you have served, shall flee from their falling shrines. From this moment, you shall die unto sin and live unto righteousness. "Talk they of morals? O! thou bleeding Love! This, then, is one topick by which we illustrate and vindicate our position; "the objects of Christian faith." Another is drawn from the nature of faith; and more especially from that property which it possesses of uniting the believer with Christ. It is by this union that we become personally interested in the benefits of his redemption, and the gifts and graces which, as mediator of the new covenant, he effuses upon his people. In all those divine dispensations, which are denominated covenants, the Deity is revealed as transacting, not so much with a number of individuals severally considered, as with some one person who represents the rest. Thus, in the covenant of works, which was given to Adam, the whole of his numerous offspring were federally interested. And thus the new covenant is not, in strict propriety of speech, made with individual Christians, but with the head of the Church: "As in Adam all die; even so in Christ shall all be made * Tit. ii, 14. alive."* As in the transgression of Adam, all our race were reputed guilty; so, whoever are restored to heaven and immortality, owe it to their union with Christ, the source of saving influences. In the obedience, the sufferings, and the death, of the Son of God, he is to be regarded as the representative of his ransomed church. It is here that we recognize the condition of the covenant of grace; not in the imperfect works of the Christian; nor yet, to speak accurately, in his faith. Yes, if the gates of our Father's house shall ever open to receive his repentant children, we will not fail to ascribe it to you; bloody passion--agonizing death--infinite merits of our Redeemer! Nerveless be the tongue that would preach another gospel! "God forbid that we should glory, save in the cross!" But if we exclude faith from the honour of procuring our salvation, we neither diminish its necessity, nor weaken its efficacy. We assign to it, its peculiar province. We say that it is the mysterious tie by which God the Father has decreed to unite us with his Son. We say that the merits of the great sacrifice are, as it were, accumulated in an inexhaustible treasury, whence by the instrumentality of faith, we draw all those aids and supplies which are indispensable to the purification of the heart. These may be classed under two heads; justification, and the gift of the spirit. Justification.--In vain do we endeavour to wash our hands in innocency, or to cultivate purity of heart, while that formidable sentence forever meets our eye; "Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting." One sin unsatisfied, will frustrate all our attempts, and stamp disappointment upon all our efforts. The terrors of conscience are incompatible with the practice of holiness. The conviction that the displeasure of the offended Deity rests upon us, banishes every emotion that bears the impress of virtue. "If perfect love casteth out fear;"† perfect fear, also, casteth out love. But love is the distinguishing mark of Christian *1 Cor. xv. 22. † John, iv. 18. morality. Love is the end of the commandment. Love is the fulfilling of the law. The heart to which love is a stranger must be impure. Farther; in order that our services may meet the divine approbation, which is at once the test and the reward of virtue, it is previously necessary that our persons be accepted. "The Lord,” as one remarks, "had respect unto Abel first, and afterwards to his offering." But the acceptance of the person is what constitutes justification, and is only applied to those who are in union with the Son of God. The next benefit we mention which is derived from this union, is the gift of the holy spirit, in all his offices, and with his celestial train of graces. From the seat of his exaltation, at the right hand of the Everlasting Majesty, Jesus Christ regards in pity the imbecility of his people. “He knows their frame, he remembers that they are but dust.”* · "For we have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Taught by experience to sympathize with those who are called to withstand the assaults of earth and hell, he cannot leave them defenceless. He knows that, although to him, on whom the Almighty spirit was poured without measure, the issue of that contest was victory; to them, unassisted by the communication of his strength, it is certain defeat. He calls to mind the promise which he made to his disciples, when, like a dying father in the midst of his family, he was employed in mitigating their sorrows, and preparing them for the approaching separation. "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you."‡ Believers in Christ, has he not fulfilled this promise? Has he not come to you? Who is it that helpeth your infirmities— that teacheth you what to pray for, and how to pray as you ought? Who is it that pours light upon the darkness of your nature that gives you peace of conscience-that elevates your souls above the world, and inspires you with an equal * Psalms, ciii. 14. †Heb. iv. 15. John, xiv. 18. |