matchless the grace! Had the Father refused to offer his Son, that he might become a sacrifice for sin, the case of man must have been as hopeless as that of the sinning angels. Every one of the human family must inevitably have had their portion in endless perdition.

And when the Father had devised the plan, and proposed the terms to the Son, that redemption should be purchased by his blood, had the Son been unwilling and rejected the proposal, none of the guilty sons and daughters of Adam could have escaped hell and obtained heaven. All must have sunk down to the regions of sorrow and everlasting despair. But the Son, for the honour and glory of his Father, and in the most tender compassion for a world of sinners in a desperate condition, says, Lo! I come: I delight to do thy will, O my God. Hence, in the fulness of time, He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And are the atoning sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ the sole ground of pardon, or that on the account of which God the Father justifies any of this rebellious world? Then how unspeakable are the obligations of gratitude to the Son!

And as believers are justified by a living faith which is productive of works, equal praise is due to the Holy Spirit. All mankind are so dead in trespasses and sins, as to stand in perishing need of his divine renewing influence to work in their hearts evangelical faith, which alone embraces a Saviour, and is connected with a godly life. Unless the Divine Spirit enable them to work out their salvation, they would draw back unto perdition. Through his agency the blood of Christ is applied, the work of grace perfected, and the soul prepared

for immortal glory. In the economy of redemption, and in the view of the different senses of justification, each of the divine persons has claims for the most lively gratitude for interminable ages.

Then let us give to the Father praise,

Give glory to the Son;

And to the Spirit of his grace,

Be equal honours done.

Let all the redeemed shout aloud for joy; and whilst for ever exulting in the Author of their salvation, give glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

3rd. This subject renders it evident, that they who reject the atonement of Christ, can have no wellgrounded hope of obtaining the divine favour.

Without a vital, operative faith, no saving benefit can result to mankind from the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. A mere ground for pardon, though ever so complete, cannot profit those who refuse compliance with the proposed condition. And, indeed, a mere speculative, dead faith, and a rejected Saviour, will serve to sink the soul down to the lowest abodes of perdition. How peculiar the guilt of setting at nought the singular, the eminently divine goodness of God, manifested in the wonderful provision for the recovery of lost man! It is beyond the power of man to conceive in what manner they could more contemptuously despise the divine character, or in what manner they could more insolently affront the divine grace and mercy. Shall rebel man sit in impenitence from the cradle to the grave, under the noon-day light of the gospel? Shall he in unbelief, bask through life, in the beams of the Sun of righteousness? Such ingratitude is wonderful; such insolence, amazing; such guilt, incomprehensible. Still by what multitudes is the Redeemer of sinners, regarded with cold-hearted unbelief and stupid indifference! How often is his glorious name profaned and blasphemed by those to whom he is offered as a

Saviour from sin and death. By how many is he treated with open opposition and avowed contempt, till they launch hopeless into eternity!

4th. We may see that the promised rewards of the gospel to believers for all their good works, are rewards of grace.

All will grant that the rewards of the gospel must be of grace, and not of debt; since the salvation of believers has its origin and completion wholly founded in the grace of God, and through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul, speaking of future retribution in his epistle to the Romans, teaches that God will render to every man according to his deeds. To them who by patient continuing in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life. Hence, they who shall have done but little for the honour and glory of God, will not receive so great a reward as those that shall have been more faithful, having suffered all manner of persecution for Christ's sake. The same apostle encourages the Hebrews to good works, in the following strain: God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed towards his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. Again: He which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly and he which soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully. Love ye your enemies, and do good; and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great.

Various remarks might be made which would show that the rewards of the gospel, promised according to works and for works, are rewards of grace. This is evidently true; for sinners who cannot be justified by the deeds of the law, could not be the subjects of reward in any other way. If their obedience, faithfulness, or sufferings, should ever be rewarded, it must, for various reasons, be wholly of grace.

It was the grace of God that proposed a new and living way of salvation by a Redeemer. And without

an atonement, mankind could not have been placed on probationary ground; consequently they could never have been in a state whereby it would be consistent for rewards to be bestowed or promised. That they are in a state of probation, called upon to repent and work righteousness; and encouraged to faithfulness from promises of everlasting rewards, is to be ascribed to the free grace of God, through the redemption of his Son. Hence, all the rewards promised for works, must be rewards of grace.

Moreover, it is the grace of God that calls upon mankind, awakens, renews, sanctifies, and enables them to bring forth the fruits of righteousness. Even while they work out their salvation with fear and trembling, it is God, by his holy and gracious Spirit, that worketh in them to will and to do of his good pleasure. And since their obedience is not that of sinless perfection by the deeds of the law, but of faith in the Redeemer, and that by grace, their salvation and consequent glorious eternal rewards, are the effect of grace from the foundation to the top stone.

5th. This subject should serve to prevent injurious disputes among professed Christians, concerning their justification. Unprofitable contentions do sometimes arise, concerning this subject; because the term justification, is not understood in the same sense. The question of dispute, is generally this: Whether believers be justi ed wholly and absolutely on the account of the atonement of Christ? in the light of this subject we see that they are, in one of the senses in which the term justification is used. The sacred scriptures no where teach us that they are justified partly on account of their own righteousness, and partly on the account of the righteousness of Christ.

When a man is said to be justified by grace, in this view his justification must be attributed wholly to the grace of God as the originating first cause. His works can claim no merit, nor form any part.

When justification is mentioned through the re

demption of Christ Jesus, his atoning sufferings are the sole and absolute ground; as believers obtain the pardon of their sins, wholly on Christ's account.

If a man be said to be justified by faith, that vital union by which he becomes united to Christ, is to be understood as the sole means of his justification. A living, operative faith is the great stipulated term by which he receives the glorious benefits of redemption. Faith, which worketh by love, is an essential qualification on the part of man, before he can be justified.

As it respects the way of salvation and the ground of pardon for sin, Christ is indeed all in all for justification in the sight of God. There can be no part, no claim, no merit whatever from any other quarter, in this view of the present subject.

Still, without evangelical faith, a man cannot become interested in the redemption of Christ Jesus. He must have the qualifications prescribed in the gospel, as a pre-requisite on his part, or he can never be admitted into the kingdom of heaven. Unless a man, in a moral sense become a new creature, all that Christ has done and suffered, cannot avail, cannot profit him. He must have the terms, specified in the gospel, in his own person; must have Christ formed in the soul, the hope of glory, by the renewing of the Holy Spirit, or he cannot be justified by Christ, by faith, nor by works. Except the soul be renewed and sanctified by the Divine Spirit, while in the body, and rendered perfectly holy before it be ushered into the immediate presence of its Judge, there will be no atonement and no intercessions of the Son of God, to deliver or prevent it from departing into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Thus we may see, that the atonement of Christ, and the obedience of believers, have no intermixture in justification. The one forms no part of the other. Both the nature and end of each are en