It has properties which distinguish it from every other system; and these properties excel.

It is not the object of this discourse to explain the good things which evangelical religion holds in common with any other system; nor shall I undertake to show how far other systems may be indebted, either more immediately or remotely, to Christianity for every good thing which belongs to them. It is my design to distinguish the gospel of the grace of God from every other system, by specifying its own peculiar excellences.

Christianity, alone, establishes friendship between God and man in a Mediator-Provides perfect satisfaction to divine justice for the sinner's transgression-Secures a change of mind from sinfulness to holiness by supernatural power-and, Communicates a full title to a place in heaven on account of the merits of another.

These are its peculiarities. These are the excellences of evangelical religion. Judge ye whether the message, that announces them to fallen man, be justly denominated good tidings. 1. The Christian religion alone proposes to man friendship and communion with God in a Mediator, and effects reconciliation by providing a Mediator perfectly qualified for the purpose.

The most general, and at the same time, the most correct idea, which can be formed of religion, is a friendly connexion* between the reasonable creature and the Supreme being: and every system, ancient and modern, true or false, which bears the name of religion, proposes such a connexion between God and man, as shall secure to the children of men the favour and protection of the Deity.

Socrates, and I select his remarks in illustration, because he was the wisest of the heathen, declared, just before he swallowed the poison that produced his death, his conviction of the immortality of the soul, and of the future happiness of those who live in the practice of a divine life.

An idolatrous devotion constituted the religion of this distinguished man. " We may," said he, "say our prayers to the Gods as it is our duty; and implore them to make our exit from this world and our last stage happy: for I have al

* Religion, is from the Latin Religio, and that from Religare, to bind; because it is the bond of connexion with God. Lactantius ait religionem dici a religando. Sunt dicti religiosi ex relegendo; ut elegantes ex eligendo, tamquam a deligendo diligentes, ex intelligendo intelligentes. Cic. Nat. Deorum.

ways heard say, that we ought to die peaceably, and blessing the Gods." His last words were an injunction upon his special friend to sacrifice, on his account, a cock to Esculapius: and yet, idolater as he was, with all his reputation for philosophy, he gave utterance to sentiments which are not excelled by many professed ambassadors of Jesus Christ. "Athenians, I honour and love you; but I shall choose rather to obey God than you the divine providence will not be wanting-upon departing out of this life, two ways are open to us; the one leads to the place of eternal misery, the other conducts those to the happy mansions of the Gods who have retained their purity upon earth, and have led in human bodies a life almost divine."

A mediator, too, by whose aid God is rendered propitious, is admitted by other systems of religion than that which is evangelical. A Μεσίτης, as the Greeks call a mediator, an intercessor, or an umpire in case of controversy, was often employed by the ancients in settling strife. The idea is also familiar to men of our own age, both in public and in private life, in putting an end to contention between individuals and rival or belligerent commonwealths.

It is easy to transfer this idea to our relations with the Deity. The inferior divinities of Pagan mythology, the demons of Plato and Socrates, and other famous philosophers of the heathen school, the interceding angels and saints of the great Apostacy which, unhappily for the repose of the world, and the purity of the church, bears the Christian name, are so many mediators, employed by the disordered fancy of sinful mortals to restore them to, and preserve them in, the favour and friendship of their gods.

The gospel is distinguished, from those systems of religion, which admit not a mediator, and from those, which propose to effect reconciliation with God by such means, not only by revealing a Mediator of superior excellency, but also by securing the favour and friendship of God in him. There is one Mediator between God and man. In him God is reconciled to man. In him man is reconciled to God. In him God and man unite, agree, and have fellowship one with another. Both the parties are not merely influenced to friendship by a proposed arrangement of the causes of variance, but they are both in fact in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him are inseparably united to one another. As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.*

is the fact which alone essentially distinguishes the mediation of the gospel from every other kind of mediation whatsoever. It is a peculiar excellence of the evangelical faith.

Employ, my fellow-sinners, whatever other agents or instruments you please to procure the favour of Jehovah for your souls and bodies; multiply and exalt mediators indefinitely; and still you will find it labour in vain to propose a parallel to the man Christ Jesus. Assign, also, to this same personage, all the employment and dignity of which you can conceive, to the exclusion of the idea of union with God in him, and still you have denied the evangelical faith, and rejected an essential part of the good tidings of Christianity.

God, the only Lawgiver of the universe, is offended at the intelligent creature who prostitutes his rational powers to oppose his equitable government. God is holy, and cannot behold moral evil without abhorrence. God is just, and will not clear the guilty: but he is also gracious, and has provided a Mediator-his own Son. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Redeemer is divine. Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Possessed of the divine nature, he assumed the nature of man. Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same. God was manifest in the flesh. Thus uniting in his own person the nature of both the parties at enmity, he is a fit Mediator between them: and both meet, willingly in fact, as well as by nature, in him. In him it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell. God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. We too are brought to him, come to him, and are found in him. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

These, then, brethren, are good tidings communicated to us from heaven: They alone reveal a Mediator, who is both God and man, and in whom we have secured to us, by covenant, the intimate and perpetual friendship of a reconciled God.

2. Christianity is the only religion which provides perfect satisfaction to divine justice for all the sins of them who are reconciled to God.

Satisfaction for transgression is, in all cases, necessary to the re-establishment of confidential friendship. It is indeed more magnanimous in the intercourse of man with man to pardon than to punish private injury. In this world of imperfection,

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it is more grateful to behold, amidst scenes of sin and wretchedness, instances of grace and mercy, than indications of severity and vengeance. Notwithstanding this benign feeling, which is no doubt occasioned by the constitution of mercy which heaven hath established, in subserviency to the covenant of grace, for the government of the present world, it is still remarkable that no confidence can be mutual between the offender and the offended unless the former has given, and the latter has received, satisfaction. The man who has committed an injury, and has not virtue enough to make reparation, acting upon this principle, is always the enemy of the once injured person, and he who has been aggrieved, although he may forgive, will not confide in the aggressor until, by apology, by compensation, by penitence, or general character, he becomes satisfied as to the friendship of his antagonist.

There are cases, too, occurring in the intercourse of man with man, and of nation with nation, when an evil once committed, or an injury inflicted, cannot be undone or repaired. The penitent may return property, and so repair the injury committed by robbery; but murder is without remedy, because life cannot be restored by created power. Punishment, due in all cases to transgression, must be remitted where satisfaction has taken place; but unexpiated guilt necessarily excludes the criminal from favour under a righteous jurisprudence.

Such ideas of moral order are always more or less familiar to those who have moral faculties; and they are applicable also to our relations with Deity. Men, in every age, feeling themselves transgressors of the law of God, have sought out for some means of expiation; and every species of religion proposes something, either in the character of man, or to be obtained without him, which shall serve as an atonement for his iniquities. While the fanatic proposes his own inward raptures as a covering for his imperfections, men of colder temperament hold up the supposed excellences of their character to shield them from the punishment invited by their misconduct. By far the greater part of mankind, however, look around them for some gift to present to their deities, in order to conciliate their favour. Sacrifices and offerings of this description constituted a great part of the devotional exercises of the heathen world. Voluntary abstinence, pilgrimages, prayers, and penance have also, as well as the slain victim, been severally employed by superstition in giving satisfaction for sin.

A review of the several systems of religion which have from time to time appeared among men, will sufficiently show the universality of some sense of moral evil, and of the necessity of having something to appease the divinity; but it will also show that the sentiments of men unenlightened by the gospel, have, always upon these subjects, been partial and inaccurate. All who do not embrace the evangelical doctrine, with the exception of those few friends of immorality who esteem no crime worthy of punishment, unite in the distinction, which our Reformers exposed in the Catholic Apostacy, of sins into venial and mortal. Christianity alone reveals the necessity of perfect satisfaction to divine justice for every act of transgression, and points out the sacrifice by which it is actually made. If there be any one principle more clearly revealed, more important, and more frequently inculcated than another, it is this: Without shedding of blood there is no remission. There is no venial sin: for every sin deserves the wrath of God, both in this life and in that which is to come; and, the Redeemer of Israel, in bearing our punishment, satisfied the demands of justice for every transgression. No other religion, but the gospel, provides such satisfaction. This is of course one of its peculiar excellences. It is good news to the poor awakened sinner, that the blood of the Covenant cleanses from all sin.

I use, my brethren, in this connection, in preference to the word atone, the expression "satisfy divine justice" for our sins, not merely out of deference to the excellent compilers of our acknowledged ecclesiastical standards, but chiefly because this phrase, although rarely used in modern pulpits, has not been as yet rendered indefinite or unintelligible. It is scarcely possible to live in the habit of saying, that Christ satisfied divine justice for our sins, and yet deny that they needed such satisfaction. It is scarcely possible to live in the habit of saying, that Christ satisfied divine justice for our sins, and yet affirm that justice also admits of their punishment after it is satisfied. It is not possible for the reasonable creature to believe, that the Surety satisfied divine justice for the sins of those who are suffering in the everlasting fire the punishment of those very sins. I readily admit, that the two expressions, "Satisfaction for sin," and "Atonement for sin," are, in their proper, if not in their modern use, perfectly synonymous; and that both exclude any subsequent punishment; that each implies the reconciliation of the parties at variance: and yet, somehow it has come to pass, that very discerning men have made