itself, then, he cannot redeem himself from the suffering which he still deserves.

If, therefore, a sinner be ever redeemed from his vain conversation, it must be by one, whose conversation is not vain: his moral character must be spotless and pure. A criminal can be redeemed, only, by one who is perfectly free from criminality himself. None but the innocent can redeem the guilty. Hence a mediator cannot be perfectly qualified for that office unless he be perfectly free from transgression himself. If he be guilty himself, he is liable to prejudice, and therefore may justify the wicked to the great injury of the upright and innocent. To redeem the guilty, or, to plead the cause of the innocent, it is necessary that the person himself be innocent.

Adam was once in a situation in which he might have saved himself, and all his posterity from death. God made him upright, and placed him in the garden of Eden, allowing him to eat of every tree of it, except one. Of that tree he might not eat; he might not touch it, lest he die. Hence God said to him, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. This was spoken to Adam as a covenant head of his posterity. Therefore on his dying, death was entail. ed to all mankind. On the other hand, if he had obeyed God, and refrained from eating, he would have saved himself; and his whole posterity would have had life forevermore. They would not have known spiritual death; and therefore, the second death could have had no power over them. Being innocent, they would have been free from suffering, and, being obedient, God would have made them happy. "The law worketh wrath," but not to the innocent: it demands suffering, but of the transgressor only.

Adam disobeyed the law of his Maker; he became a transgressor of a reasonable requirement, therefore he lost the character not only of a good man, but he lost the office and honour of being the saviour of man. And to recover that character, to regain the station

from which he fell, was utterly impossible. To savè himself and his posterity was now infinitely beyond his power. He could destroy mankind; he could involve them in the horrors of death; but he could not restore them. He had power to kill, but he had no power to make alive. Sin therefore will have dominion over mankind, unless one appear who is able to speak in righteousness, and is mighty to save. Sufferings will not redeem from sin, nor from the wages of sin. Neither can man redeem himself from his vain conversation, by any obedience which he can perform.

If a sinner should live in perfect holiness all the residue of his existence, this would by no means be a sufficient price for his redemption; it would not be an atonement for sin. If we become subjects of holiness through the atonement of Christ, then, it is most evident, that our holiness cannot take the place of atonement itself. However precious in the sight of God holiness is, he never intended that the holiness of man should be the price of man's redemption.

Let us therefore proceed and prove that the carnal mind is taken away, and the divine image restored, and all the Christian graces given to man through the redemption there is in Christ Jesus.

Some think that God might consistently make sinners holy without the atonement of Christ. But in order to the remission of sin and the salvation of the sinner, they say it is necessary that there should be an infinite atonement.

But the blood of Christ is as necessary in order to the taking away of sin, as to the remission of sin: For no sinner can obtain the pardon of sin without repentance, and no sinner can repent except it be given him of God. "No man," says Jesus, "can come to me except the Father who sent me draw him." And no sinner will ever be drawn of the Father, in any other way than through the redemption there is in Jesus Christ. We can no more be regenerated without the

blood of Christ, than we can be justified without his

blood.

That the restoration of the divine image, the giving of repentance, and all Christian graces, take place, in consequence of the precious blood of Christ, I shall endeavour to prove from Scripture.

It will be granted that every Christian grace is an effect of the Spirit of God; because," says Paul, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." We are raised from moral death, and our feet established on the Rock of ages, "through the blood of the everlasting covenant." It was promised Christ that he should see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. But the soul of Christ could not be satisfied without the conversion of sinners for whom he died. It was promised Christ that the Heathen should be given him for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. And this promise implies the conversion of the Heathen. Consequently, not only the remission of sir, not only the salvation of the soul, not only the sure mercies of David, shall be given to the saints of the most high God, through the blood of the covenant; but sinners are made saints, the enemies of God are converted into friends; Satan also is cast out, and all the saints perfected in holiness, equally, through the blood of the Son of God.

To say that the happiness of heaven is through Christ; and yet to say that a heart to relish the pure joys of that blessed world, are not through Christ, is, as it appears to me, very inconsistent indeed. For the saints in glory will not only praise him through whose blood, their pardon and salvation is purchased; but they will also say, "Unto him that loved us, and rushed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and the Father: to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Hence, it is evident, that sinners are not only brought to heaven through Christ, but they are also qualified to

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participate in the joys of that world, and for the society of angels, "through the redemption there is in Christ Jesus "

The Redeemer's triumph over the hard and stubborn heart of the sinner, is more glorious, than was the triumph of JEHOVAH Over Pharaoh and his host, when he overthrew the horse and his rider. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him." The song of Moses at the salvation of Israel, and the overthrow of God's enemies is a glorious song: but what is this compared with the triumphing of God in subduing the hearts of men! in making his people willing in the day of his power! Every song which was ever sung by men or angels, falls infinitely short of the song of redeeming love. The song of the multitude of the heavenly hosts at the birth of our Saviour, saying, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good will to men,” was a most glorious song; and the reason is, because it was expressive of redeeming love: All the notes of it were taken from the song of redemption. The foundation of all these mighty works, and of these songs of praise and triumph, is the atonement of Christ. That all God's mighty works of grace and mercy are founded in the work of redemption, is evident from what is intimated in that early promise, The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. And, if Christ by his death has bruised the serpent's head, then the destruction of Satan is a fruit of atonement. And how is Satan destroyed? how is the serpent's head bruised, if he always hold the empire of the human heart, and rule in the children of disobedience?" Death came to man through Adam, and life through Christ. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sin

ners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."

Paul's charge to the elders of Ephesus proves that the conversion of sinners is effected in consequence of the atonement of Christ. "For I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." Now, it would not be proper to say, that Christ purchased the church with his own blood, if sinners were not converted through the blood of Christ. The church is a purchased possession. "Believers," says Paul, “are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory." The saints, he says, were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And being chosen in Christ before the world was, supposes that the blood of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, was the ground of this choice. None could be chosen in Christ, only, on the supposition that the atonement of Christ was, in the order of nature prior to the choice.

Christ came into the world not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance: and "Him," says Peter, "hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins." Here we are expressly taught that the gift of repentance, as well as the remission of sins, is conferred on men through the blood of Christ.

It is evident that men are sanctified, as well as pardoned through Christ, by the comparison which Paul makes, in his address to the Hebrews, between the blood of Christ, and the blood of bulls and of goats. "If the blood of bulls and of goats, &c. sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered