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brought the Son of God to hang upon the cross? If you flee not to that cross for refuge, how will you escape the vengeance, which your sin has provoked? God will not lose his glory. Those infinite perfections, which you refuse to glorify by faith in Christ, will be glorified in your everlasting destruction. Lay hold then of the hope set before you. In an aweful conviction of the glorious majesty, in an humble submission to the will of God, resign yourselves, both body and soul, into the hands of Christ. Let the language of your hearts be, Father, glorify thy Name.

To every sinner, who thus feels his need of the mercy of the Gospel, the subject which we have been contemplating, speaks consolation and encouragement. You are sensible that you are an offender. You are filled with doubts and fears as to your acceptance with God. The divine perfections seem armed against you. The glory of God demands the punishment of so heinous a transgressor. Look at the cross of Christ. Behold God more glorified in the sufferings of Emanuel, than he can be glorified in your everlasting sufferings. See sin laid upon the surety; the wrath of God appeased; his justice satisfied; his law magnified; his holiness proclaimed; his mercy offered to the chief of sinners, in perfect unison with all his other glorious attributes. Dismiss your unreasonable fears. Be not faithless but

believing. Believe in Christ for salvation, and doubt not your pardon and acceptance. Your faith in Christ will reflect a greater glory on God than the most exemplary punishment, which you can undergo. The very perfections at which you tremble, will be engaged to ensure your pardon. God will not punish sin in you, and in your surety also. He will be just to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness*. Every penitent sinner, who puts his trust in Christ alone for peace and pardon, furnishes matter for renewed acclamations of praise and joy to the angels which surround the throne of God. He is another jewel added to the Redeemer's crown; another monument of the riches of his grace; another instrument to the glory of God's Name throughout eternity. Let these reflections inspire you with confidence. Be your sins as scarlet, be they red like crimson, through the merits of Christ, they shall become as white as snow. The blood of Jesus is an all-sufficient atonement, for it is the blood of God himself. Wash then in this fountain which he has opened for sin, and for uncleanness. And thus prepare yourself for joining that glorious multitude, which no man can number, can number, who, having

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washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, stand before the throne and before the Lamb, crying with a loud voice and saying, Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.-For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, and hast made us unto God kings and priests for ever and ever.

Lastly, Are you built on this one foundation? Have you fled for refuge to this hope set before you? Are you trusting to the sacrifice of Christ for acceptance with God? Are these your professions? Live suitably to the character which you assume. Prove the sincerity of your professions, by the holiness of your conduct. The spectacle exhibited on the cross imperiously enforces the apostle's exhortation, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity*. Did the Son of God make his soul an offering for sin, that you might indulge in sin? Did he die for the ungodly, that you might continue ungodly? Did he glorify the divine perfections by his sufferings, that you might dishonour them in your lives? You cannot for a moment entertain such presumptuous notions. Why are you depending for salvation on a crucified Saviour? Because God is an Holy

* 2 Tim. ii. 19.

God. If he were not an Holy God, who will not behold iniquity, you would stand in need of no atonement. Will he, then, countenance, will he tolerate wilful unholiness in you? On sinners penitent and humbled, he will multiply pardons; but against sinners obstinately impenitent, his wrath will burn like fire for ever. Be not deceived. If unmortified lusts, if unsanctified tempers reign in you, you are not a true believer in Christ. You have no well-grounded hope of eternal life. For every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as Christ is pure*. —Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump. As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I um holy.

* 1 John, iii. 3.

SERMON II.

SCRIPTURAL STATEMENT OF THE DOC

TRINE OF JUSTIFICATION.

ROMANS III. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

OF all the objects which can engage our attention, salvation is confessedly the most important. Nay, it is our only concern of real importance; for a failure here will be at

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