with all the honours of the Divinity, obtain the forgiveness of all your trespasses. Out of the way of this consecrated mediatorship, you will never meet the mercy of the Godhead-and in this way you will never miss it.

But such an economy is not only essential to the dignity of the Lawgiver. It serves to complete the security of the sinner. It makes known to him, how God can be just while the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. It enables him to meet without dismay the whole aspect and character of God, in the full expression of all the attributes which belong to Him. It harmonises the sterner with the gentler perfections of that Being, with whom we have to do; and the sinner can now delight himself in the abundance of his peace -when he thinks that the very equity and unchangeableness of the Godhead are now upon his side. It does add to his confidence in the grace of the gospel, when he views it as seated on a throne; and thus, in all its manifestations, holding forth the sovereignty of the Supreme Being. But it adds still more to his confidence, when he views it as grace through righteousness; and thus holding forth the sacredness of the Supreme Being. He then sees no obstruction in the way of its reaching even unto him. The terrors of his guilty conscience give way, when he perceives that the very attributes, which, without an atonement, would have stood leagued in hostility against him-with an atonement, form the best guarantees of his hope

and safety. God now is not only merciful to forgive-He is faithful and just to forgive. He will, not draw upon the surety, and upon the debtor both. He will have a full reckoning with guilt; but He will not have more than a full reckoning by exacting both a penalty and a propitiation : And the man who trusts to the propitiation, may be very sure that the penalty will never reach him. The destroying angel, on finding him. marked with the blood of Christ, will pass him by; and the agitated sinner who sought in vain for rest to the sole of his foot, so long as the great peace-offering stood unrevealed to his conscience, and the tidings of an accepted sacrifice fell upon his ear without conviction and without efficacy, may, on the moment of his believing in the word of the testimony, feel how firm the transition is which he maketh from death unto life-when, through Him who died the just for the unjust, he now draws near unto God.

It finishes, our exposition of this passage, when we point your eye to the great agent in the work of mediation. Grace reigns through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord, He by his death bore the punishment that you should have borne. He by his obedience won a righteousness, the reckoning and the reward of which are transferred unto you; and you, by giving credit to the good news, are deemed by God as having accepted of all these benefits and will be dealt with accordingly. You cannot trust

too simply to the Saviour. You cannot place too strong a reliance on His death as your discharge. You are making the very use of Him that was. intended, and do Him that honour wherewith He is most pleased, when you venture your all upon Him both for time and for eternity. We do not bid you

earn a place in heaven.
for
your forgiveness.
bid you hope for it.

We do not bid you work

We bid

We bid you receive it. We And eternal life will be the sure result of your thus receiving and thus hoping. Could we get you truly to rely, we are not afraid of licentiousness. Many see a lurking antinomianism in the doctrine of faith. But where there is a true faith there is no antinomianism. It has its fruit unto holiness here, and then everlasting life hereafter. But do try, ere you embark on that course of new obedience which leadeth to the final abode of holy and happy creatures-do try to have peace in your conscience with God. Do dwell on the simple affirmation which you meet with in the New Testament, of a Saviour who welcomes all sinners, and of a blood which cleanseth from all sin. Do let the terrors and the suspicion of guilt take their departure from your labouring bosom ; and then emptied of all that kept God at a distance from you, will there be room for those feelings and those principles which form the rudiments of the new creature in Jesus Christ our Lord. Love will cast out fear. Delight in God will take the place of dismay. The heart emancipated from bondage, will rise freely and gratefully to Him, in all the buoy

ancy of its new-felt enlargement. It will be found that the legal spirit, with its accompanying sensations of jealousy and disquietude and distrust, that this in fact is the mighty drag which keeps back the only obedience that is at all acceptable-the obedience of good will. And the faith which we now urge upon you in all its strength and in all its simplicity, is not more the harbinger of peace to a sinner's heart, than it is the sure and unfailing germ of his progressive holiness.

49

LECTURE XXIX.

ROMANS vi, 1, 2.

"What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?"

We have ever been in the habit of regarding this chapter as the passage of greatest interest in the Bible-as that in which the greatest quantity of scriptural light is thrown on what to the eye of the general world is a depth and a mystery-even on that path of transition which leads from the imputed righteousness that is by faith, to the personal righteousness that is by new and spiritual obedience. We know not a single theme in the whole compass of Christianity, on which there rests to the natural discernment a cloud of thicker obscurity, than that which relates to the origin and growth of a believer's holiness-nor is it seen how, after an immunity so ample for sin has been provided by an atonement of which the power is infinite as the Divinity Himself, there remaineth any inducement to obedience so distinct and palpable and certain of operation, as that which is offered by the law of 'Do this and live'—a law that we are given to understand is now superseded by the gospel terms of 'Believe and ye shall be saved.' It is of importance to know surely what were the