voluntarily to assume our frail nature, and was contented to be clothed with misery and mortality, for the redemption of rebellious and apos

tate man.

This was the one, the only, sacrifice available to the expiation of sin, even the death of Christ. As all other propitiations and satisfactions which ever have been, or can be devised by man, are weak and ineffectual; so all the hopes of mercy and forgiveness, which rest not on this sacrifice and propitiation, are vain and nugatory. All general assurances of pardon and forgiveness, are the result of idle and useless speculation; they are neither founded in reason, nor sanctioned by revelation. Mercy through Christ, is the only mercy to which we can fly for a safe and a sure refuge, because it is the only scheme which reconciles at once the just vengeance and the compassion of God. This is the mercy that rejoices against judgment, because it satisfies jus

tice.

The same course of reasoning which teaches us to look to revelation for its nature, will direct us there, also, to examine its conditions. No labour or toil, no merit of sinful man, can purchase, or even deserve, the pardon of the Almighty. It is his free and voluntary gift: it proceeds not from necessity, but it is an act of his omnipotent care. The fountain of mercy

flows spontaneously from the throne of grace; but let man examine himself before he presumes to draw from this pure and inexhaustible stream. To this as to every other free gift of God, there are terms annexed: there must be a capacity in the recipient, as well as beneficence in the giver.

and

As without the satisfaction of justice, mercy could never have been proclaimed; so without that imperfect purity of which our mortal nature is capable, its blessings cannot be received. To the assurance of pardon and peace through the blood of Christ, God hath annexed the indispensable condition of repentance, and reformation. "Without holiness no man shall see God," with reason for if God, when he was about to display the infinite abundance of his mercy in the forgiveness of sin, would accept no smaller ransom than the blood of his Son; what ray of hope can remain to that man who continues in sin, that he shall escape the vengeance of God? The same Saviour who died for us, has expressly declared the terms on which his death shall atone for our sins, and open to us the bright prospect of life and immortality. If it is, as I have shown, vain and nugatory to trust to the general and abstract notions of mercy, unconnected with, and unfounded on the particular promises of God; how much more presumptuous is it in man to derive his hope of pardon from that revelation,

the terms of which he despises, the covenant of which he disannuls !

There is no honour done to God, by ascribing to him a blind and fatuous mercy, which knows no distinction between the evil, and the good. There is no honour done to the Redeemer, by so trusting in his sacrifice, as to make the Son of God, the minister of sin, and to establish the kingdom of darkness upon the meritorious death of Christ.

I have thus endeavoured to show the necessity of that universal persuasion of mercy, to recall those to the paths of virtue, who have been led by the blind impetuosity of their passions to the brink of despair: that in Revelation alone could its nature be discovered, and its conditions be known.

The important consideration, of the extent of its influence and application, must be reserved as the subject of my ensuing discourse.

For there is mercy with thee, therefore shalt thou be feared.

IN considering the nature and conditions of the divine mercy, it was my endeavour to show, first, that all general notions of future pardon are vain and nugatory, that it was discoverable. alone in the revelation of the Almighty Will;. consequently that all hopes of mercy, except through the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, were devoid of foundation. And, secondly, that although the free gift of God, it is promised upon certain conditions to be performed on our part, namely, repentance from our sins, and faith in the blood of our Redeemer.

Such then being the nature and such the terms of forgiveness, our attention is now called to the extent of its influence and application. The final doom of mankind, at the great day of retribution cannot but open a source of awful

contemplation to the reflecting mind. The destiny of our fellow creatures is a point arising naturally from the consideration of our own. Man is not an insulated being, either in his ideas, or his contemplations; he lives by comparison, by a comparison of himself with the world around him. Partakers as we are of the same natural and moral frame, subjects of the same passions, and swayed by the same interests, raised by the same hopes, depressed by the same fears, victims of one common grave, we feel the connection extending beyond the short limits of this perishable world, even into the regions of eternity. The contemplation of that tremendous day, will suggest to our minds the enquiring and anxious thought, who then shall be partakers of the promised mercy? a question in which every man feels a deep interest, not so much for those around him as for himself; his own salvation is concerned in the answer. fears of some, the fancies of others, have opened a wide field for the speculations of idle curiosity, and the rashness of presumptuous ignorance. The imagination of man, uncontrouled by the word of God, is always dangerous, often fatal. On these great and important points, Scripture alone can be our guide; and where Scripture is silent, reason will direct us to acquiesce in our ignorance. The presumption of man cannot

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