grace and mercy, that sinners through him might obtain pardon and life. Christ appeared on earth to announce to a guilty world the terms of pardon and favour; to instruct men in all truth pertaining to life eternal; to teach them every moral duty; to propose the remission of sin on repentance, and to promise eternal life on the condition of faith and obedience.

Christ has cast light through the valley of death, and made the path to heaven plain for all who are disposed to walk in it. In his own life he has giv. en the brightest exemplification of the virtues and graces of his religion. His requisitions are adapted to our present powers and condition of being. He has established institutions fitted to inspire us with zeal, and to animate our diligence and fortify our resolution in the maintenance of the character of his disciple; he has promised us all necessary assistance to enable us to comply with the part assigned us in the business pertaining to immortal life and immortal glory. These benefits and advantages of Christianity apply to all men indiscriminately. Men have one Father, even God: Christians have one Master, even Christ. Christianity is addressed to all the nations and all the generations of men. All men are invited to attend to the manifestation of divine power, wisdom and goodness in the establishment of our religion, that they may profess their faith in its divine origin; and to all true professors equal assistance, support, and favour are promised. The New Testament contains not the least intimation that the benefits and privileges of Christianity were designed only for a particular description of

people, and that others are necessarily excluded from them. The commission which Christ gave to his apostles was delivered in the most general language, and nothing appears to limit its signification. The conduct of the apostles proves that they understood the order of their Master literally, when he directed them and their successors to preach the gospel to every man. All the above benefits and privileges flow from the free grace and mercy of God.

The world of mankind, having subjected themselves to the dominion of sin, could lay no claim to the rewards of virtue in a future state. In the serIvice of the best of men there is not merit which God in justice must reward. God was under no moral obligation to instruct men, who had perverted their reason and abused their liberty, by revelation, in the nature of true religion; to propose to them pardon and salvation through the medium of a new covenant, and to favour them with distinguished advantages as the means of a moral preparation for endless happiness in the kingdom of heaven. But God, in his benevolence and mercy, was pleased to confer these inestimable blessings on the family of man. It pleased him to make his own Son the mediator of them. For these glorious manifestations of divine grace and mercy, we are under the most sacred obligations of love and gratitude to God.

But these benefits and privileges do not include the salvation of all men. All men are interested in them. By Jesus Christ, all men are redeemed from

the dominion of death, and are placed in a state of probation, candidates for immortal life, on the most gracious conditions. The privileges of the gospel are common to the whole human family. By the Christian dispensation, Jew and Gentile, bond and free are made one. In this respect no difference is made between nominal and real disciples. All are entitled to equal benefits, and are put in possession of equal external advantages. But the sacred writers make a great difference between sincere Christians and hypocritical professors. The kingdom of heaven, said our Saviour, is like a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat 'down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

This passage of scripture, will, I should suppose, bear only the following comment. The Christian dispensation is designed for the whole human race, and all men are favoured with its privileges and assistance. In these respects God appears as a common parent, and bestows his favours alike on all. But in the issue of the divine administrations, when the works of men shall be brought into judgment, then will God their judge, make a difference between hypocritical and sincere professors,-between those who hold the truth in unrighteousness, and they who maintain faith and a good conscience. The obedient Christian will be admitted to those heavenly mansions, which Christ has gone to pre

pare in his Father's house for his real disciples; the disobedient professor will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.

In the allusion to the marriage feast, there is also the clearest representation made of the moral pur poses of God towards the children of men. The Jews, who were first favoured with divine revelation, for their abuse of it, were rejected; and the privileges of the Christian institution were extended to all nations of the earth, and to the individuals of every nation. These are all the free gifts of God: they flow from divine goodness and mercy. But among the invited guests, there was one who had not on the wedding garment: he was destitute of the necessary qualifications for the enjoyment of heaven. When charged with a want of these qualifications, he was speechless : conscious that his deficiency was criminal, he was unable to make any justification: convicted in his own mind, he answer. ed not, but silently submitted to the sentence of expulsion. These representations to me fully prove that the blessings of the gospel which are granted to mankind through the mediation and ministry of Jesus Christ, and which flow wholly from the grace and mercy of God, without any consideration of works of righteousness performed by men, consist in religious and moral instruction-in the promise of the pardon of the penitent sinner-in the assistance provided for those of an honest mind and teachable temper; and in the assurance of future happiness to all, who under these means acquire habits of piety and virtue. In a word, these consist in the privileges and benefits which have been enumerat

ed; but to render these Christian means of salvation effectual, they must be improved. All those passages of the New Testament, which speak of Christ as bearing our transgression, being a propitiation for our sins, being our righteousness, &c. are descriptive of the methods which God has adopted, through the ministrations of Christ Jesus to deliver us from the habit and the guilt of sin.