so often and so long presumed upon the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering?

Only confess then, reader, these the leading proofs of your guilt, and suffer me to proceed: for an immediate use is to be made of these, and the knowledge, the conviction of these will be of essential service to your latest day. And how, you say, is this? of what use are they now? With these alone can I proceed as the leading evidence of your personal guilt, and the necessity of confession, and the ground of God's especial call to you in particular. These sins you may slight, but they are the proof of the state in which you now stand before God. Though by no means containing a full view of your case, these are the dangerous prognostics of your disease, and these may not only sink you to the grave, but lower still. To you also, even now, these sins especially stand in the same relation which the warrant for apprehension does to the man, who has been not only a frequent offender, but the very person charged with the crimes contained in that warrant. Nay, more, these sins, so often repeated, are to you the strongest proofs that you are already condemned. Perhaps you know the change which takes place in the condition of a prisoner committed for trial, if that man should be left for execution? Now, whatever you may suppose as to yourself, and whatever is to become of you hereafter, on you, my friend, that change, in the divine government, has already passed. "He that believeth not," said the Saviour, "is condemned already,"-he was condemned before-before Christ came, and so are you, though he has come! With the book of God in your hand, look steadily at these sins, whether of

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thought, of word, or of action, and you will find, alas! but one solitary point of difference between your own state, and that of those who are now in endless woe! On them the sentence has been executed-on you, only not as yet! Surely then " it is meet to be said unto God, I have offended, and wherein I have done wickedly I will do so no more: for he looketh upon men, and if any shall say, I have sinned, and have perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going down to the pit, and his life shall see the light.” Apply even yourself to conscience, and hear what the Scriptures have said so long. "God now commandeth all men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained," and to you, my friend, he hath given abundant assurance of this, by raising him from the dead.

Yes, if it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, it was that " repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed in his name among all nations." Yes, in his name, by his authority, and with his approbation, you are at this moment addressed. Repentance, however unwelcome to you naturally, which the law of innocence knew nothing of, and for which the law of God makes no provision, constitutes one-half of the Saviour's mandate or commission, or last and parting charge. Onehalf, too, and that the first-mentioned, of the doctrine which Paul, his servant, preached, not only in public, but, observe, from house to house.

It is however observable, that, though the law speaks not of repentance, it is the appointed instru

ment for producing that persuasion and conviction which lead to repentance: and as an instrument for this end, the law is invaluable. Once read with enlightened eyes, its dooms-day sentence cannot be erased from the heart by any means, save one. And for what end is the weight and pressure of such conviction but this, that since as much justice or equity as there is in the law which condemns, so much of divine favour is there in the glorious remedy by which I am relieved? For you, therefore, my friend, to see the grace or favour in the one case, you must see the justice in the other.

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Besides, repentance has an immediate reference to your specific character,-to your way,-to your thoughts and as no radical change can take place without a distinct reference to the evil and enmity of the heart as thus displayed, so the truth of the divine law is invaluable as an instrument of conviction. For this end, among many others, it is holy in its own nature, just in its operation, and good in its effects.

The adaptation of this law for conviction is equally to be admired with the adaptation of the atonement to relieve. Nay, it is the burden of guilt, thus ascertained by such conviction, from which the atonement in every case delivers. Oh yes, the spirit of bondage, however it is deprecated by some and denounced by others, is, after all, my friend, a "received" spi

means.

rit, as well as the spirit of adoption. There is great moral beauty in the perfect harmony of these two "The righteousness of God," his one method of justifying you or any," without the law is manifested; but the law itself and the prophets bear witness to it:" and while this obedience and sacrifice of Jesus relieves, according to law, from the burden and

curse of a neglected, and abused, and despised authority, instead of blunting the edge of any man's keen persuasion of his own personal guilt, the cross exhibits at once a Saviour to preserve from despair, and that view of sin which in the divine mind had been hitherto revealed in threatenings to be fulfilled, or shadowed forth in types and sacrifices which had not perfected as relating to the conscience. Yes, in Him who bled, and groaned, and died, however mysteriously, yet truly

There Vengeance and Compassion join

In their divinest forms.

But that vengeance which was there unfolded belongs still unto God: and you would do well to consider it, as it is, the prerogative of Him who thus bowed his head on Calvary. He is coming-and coming, too, as the Judge both of quick and dead, to take vengeance on them who, after all this, know not God, and obey not his gospel. You will be judged at last by Him who has been sometimes profanely called "the Carpenter's Son," though in this there was no disgrace and rely upon it in time, He is too strong for you. Hence it is, that faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ is thus urged upon you and me in the Sacred Scripture.

Yes, in immediate connexion with repentance towards God-the evidence of acquiescence in his character and claims, must ever be enforced,-faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ-our acceptance of his obedience and death, and our exclusive trust in these for acceptance with God.

Once separate these, and the glory of his incarnation and death cannot be seen. Even then, indeed,

you may hear some speak of them as glorious, but it is not because of his having then met all the demands of God's most righteous law, but merely because the atonement is suitable to our condition, and as containing good news, which, they tell us, must first be enforced, in order to conciliate the heart of man to God. But is this indeed an interpreter, one among a thousand? or does he shew unto man God's uprightness, that God may be gracious unto him? Certainly not. The basis of reception into the divine favour must surely be explained, ay, and received, otherwise the conciliation, so called, will be feigned and hollow. Can the heart be healed before it is broken?-Can conciliation possibly take place, before the loftiness of man is brought low? No, no, gratitude is neither the beginning nor the end of genuine Christianity, nor can the gift be received until the character and claims of the giver be admitted. Indeed, until the heart is touched with the evil of the sins to which the party has been most addicted, the core of the disease must ever remain. Though help and cure are just at hand, it is pitiful and distressing, in the extreme, to see the wound healed slightly; nor, alas! will that heart, can that heart, turn unto God.

Nay, what is still more affecting, if it is possible for a man thus addressed, to abuse and insult one perfection of the Divine Name more than another, that perfection will be his mercy and his good-will, poured forth to us in the gift and sufferings of his own Son. Lean upon the cross, indeed, professedly he may, to save him from falling into endless misery; but one lust, his ruling passion, by that cross will he not cru