his soul, and yet not to have received that loathsome and polluted dwelling-places--if truth which is unto salvation—and it is pos- to get at his strayed children, he had thus sible for him to be actuated by a strong to find his way through all those elements general desire to be right, and yet to be of impiety and ungodliness, which are most walking among the elements of uncertain- abhorrent to the sanctity of his nature, think ty-and it is possible for him to be looking you, my brethren, think you that the God to that quarter whence the truths of the who made such an advancing movement Gospel are offered to his contemplation, and towards the men whose faces were utterly yet not to have attained the distinct or satis- away from him--is this a God who will fying perception of them-thoroughly en- turn his own face away from the man who gaged in the prosecution of his peace with is moving towards God, and earnestly seekGod, determinedly bent on this object as the ing after him, if haply he may find him? highest interest he can possibly aspire after, This argument obtains great additional labouring after a settlement, and, under all force, when we look to the state of matters the agonies of a fierce internal war, seeking, in heaven at the time that we upon earth and toiling, and praying for his deliverance. were enemies, and compare it with the state It is at the point of time when faith en- of matters in heaven, now that we are acters the heart, that reconciliation is entered tually reconciled, or are beginning to enterupon-nor can we say of this man, that he tain the offers of reconciliation. Before the is yet a believer, or, that he has passed from work of our redemption, Jesus Christ was the condition of an enemy to that of a friend. in primeval glory-and though a place of And yet upon him the argument of the text mystery to us, it was a place of secure and should not be without its efficacy. It is ineffable enjoyment-insomuch, that the such an argument as may be employed not fondest prayer he could utter in the depths merely to confirm the faith which already of his humiliation, was to be taken back exists, but to help on to its forination that again to the ancient of days, and there to be faith which is struggling for an establish- restored to the glory which he had with ment in the heart of an inquirer. It falls, him before the world was. It was from the no doubt, with fullest and most satisfying heights of celestial security and blessedness light upon the heart of a conscious be- that he looked with an eye of pity on our liever--and yet may it be addressed, and sinful habitation-it was from a scene where with pertinency too, to men under their first beings of a holy nature surrounded him, and earliest visitations of seriousness. For and the full homage of the Divinity was give me an acquaintance of whom I know rendered to him, and in the ecstacies of his nothing more than that his face is towards fellowship with God the Father, all was Zion-give me one arrested by a sense of peace, and purity, and excellence-it was guilt and of danger, and merely groping from this that he took his voluntary deparhis way to a place of enlargement-give ture, and went out on his errand to seek me a soul not in peace, but in perplexity, and to save us. And it was not the parade and in the midst of all those initial difficul- of an unreal suffering that he had to enties which beset the awakened sinner, ere counter; but a deep and a dreadful endurChrist shall give him light-give me a la- ance-it was not a triumphant promenade bouring and heavy laden sinner, haunted through this lower world, made easy over by the reflection, as if by an arrow sticking all its obstacles by the energies of his Godfast, that the mighty question of his eter-head; but a conflict of toil and of strenuousnity is yet unresolved. There are many I ness-it was not an egress from heaven on fear amongst you to whom this tremendous a journey brightened through all its stages uncertainty gives no concern-but give me by the hope of a smooth and gentle return; one who has newly taken it up, and who, but it was such an exile from heaven as in the minglings of doubt and despondency, made his ascent and his readmittance there has not found his way to any consolation the fruit of a hard won victory. We have and even with him may it be found, that nothing but the facts of revelation to guide the same reason which strengthens the hope or to inform us, and yet from these we most of an advanced Christian, may well inspire assuredly gather, that the Saviour, in stepthe hope of him who has still his Christian-ping down from the elevation of his past ity to find, and thus cast a cheering and a eternity, incurred a substantial degradation comforting influence on the very infancy of that when he wrapped himself in the huhis progress. For if it was in behalf of a manity of our nature, he put on the whole careless world that the costly apparatus of of its infirmities and its sorrows-that for redemption was reared-if it was in the the joy which he renounced, he became full front and audacity of their most deter- acquainted with grief, and a grief, too, mined rebellion, that God laid the plan of commensurate to the whole burden of our reconciliation-if it was for the sake of men world's atonement-that the hidings of his sunk in the very depths of ungodliness, that Father's countenance were terrifying to his he constructed his overtures of peace, and soul-and when the offended justice of the sent forth his Son with them amongst our Godhead was laid upon his person, it re

Christ has there ascended on the wings of victory-and he is now sitting at God's right hand, amid all the purchased triumphs of his obedience-and the toil, and the conflict, and the agony, are now over-and from that throne of mediatorship to which he has been exalted, is it his present office to welcome the approaches of all who come, and to save to the uttermost all who put their trust in him. And is it possible, we would ask, my brethren, is it possible that he who died to atone, now that he lives, will not live to make intercession for us? Can the love for men which bore him through a mighty and a painful sacrifice, not be strong enough to carry him onwards in peace and in triumph to its final consummation? Will he now abandon that work which his own hands have so laboriously reared?---or leave the cause for which he has already sustained the weight of such an

quired the whole strength of the Godhead | then, and compare it with the state of matto sustain it. What mean the agonies of the ters now. garden? What mean the bitter cries and complainings of abandonment upon the cross? What meaneth the prayer that the cup might pass away from him, and the struggle of a lofty resolution with the agonies of a mighty and unknown distress, and the evident symptoms of a great and toilsome achievement throughout the whole progress of this undertaking, and angels looking down from their eminences, as on a field of contest where a great Captain had to put forth the travailing of his strength, and to spoil principalities and powers, and to make a show of them openly? Was there nothing in all this, do you think, but the mockery of a humiliation that was never felt-the mockery of a pain that was never suffered the mockery of a battle that was never fought? No, my brethren, be assured that there was, on that day, a real vindication of God's insulted majesty. On that day there was the real transference of an aveng-endurance, in the embryo and unfinished ing hand, from the heads of the guilty to the head of the innocent. On that day one man died for the people, and there was an actual laying on of the iniquities of us all. It was a war of strength and of suffering in highest possible aggravation because the war of elements which were infinite. The wrath which millions should have borne, was all of it discharged. Nor do we estimate aright what we owe of love and obligation to the Saviour, till we believe, that the whole of that fury, which if poured out upon the world, would have served its guilty generations through eternity-that all of it was poured into the cup of expiation.

state of an abortive undertaking? Will he cast away from him the spoils of that victory for which he bled; and how can it be imagined for a moment, but by such dark and misgiving hearts as ours, that he whose love for a thankless world carried him through the heat and the severity of a contest that is now ended, will ever, with the cold and forbidding glance of an altered countenance spurn an inquiring world away from him?

The death of a crucified Saviour, when beheld under such a view, is the firm stepping stone to confidence in a risen Saviour. You may learn from it that his desire and A more adequate sense of this might not your salvation are most thoroughly at one. only serve to awaken the gratitude which Of his good-will to have you into heaven, slumbers within us, and is dead--it might he has given the strongest pledge and dealso, through the aid of the argument in my monstration, by consecrating, with his own text, awaken and assure our confidence. If blood, a way of access, through which sinwhen we were enemies, Christ ventured on ners may draw nigh. And now, that as our an enterprise so painful--if, when loathsome forerunner, he is already there now that outcasts from the sacred territory of hea- he has gone up again to the place from ven, he left the abode of his Father, and which he arose-now that to the very place exchanged love, and adoration, and con- which he left to die, and that, that the bargenial felicity among angels, for the hatred rier to its entrance from our world may be and persecution of men-if, when the ago- moved away, he has ascended alive and in nies of the coming vengeance were still be- glory, without another death to endure, for fore him, and the dark and dreary vale of death has no more the dominion over him-suffering had yet to be entered upon, and he will ever he do any thing to close that enhad to pass under the inflictions of that trance which it has cost him so much to sword which the eternal God awakened open? Will he thus throw away the toil against his Fellow, and he had still to give and the travail of his own soul, and reduce himself up to a death equivalent in the to impotency that apparatus of reconciliaamount of its soreness to the devouring fire, tion which he himself has reared, and at an and the everlasting burnings, which but for expense, too, equal to the penance of many him believers would have borne-if, when millions through eternity? What he died to all this had yet to be travelled through, he begin, will he not now live to carry fornevertheless, in his compassionate longing ward; and will not the love which could for the souls of men, went forth upon the force a way through the grave to its acerrand of winning them to himself,-let us complishments-now that it has reached just look to the state of matters in heaven the summit of triumph and of elevation

is awaiting him; but the bitterness of which has passed away. He will not turn with indifference and distaste from that very fruit which he himself has fought for. But if for guilt in its full impenitency, he dyed his garments, and waded through the arena of contest and of blood-then should the most abandoned of her children begin a contrite movement towards him, it is not he who will either break the prop for which he feels, or quench his infant aspiration. He will look to him as the travail of his own soul, and in him he will be satisfied.

which he at present occupies, burst forth | lity upon that contest, the triumph of which and around the field of that mighty enterprise, which was begun in deepest suffering, and will end in full and finished glory? This is a good argument in all the stages of a man's Christianity. Whether he has found, or is only seeking--whether he be in a state of faith, or in a state of inquiry-whether a believer like Paul and. many of the disciples that he was addressing, or an earnest and convinced sinner groping the way of deliverance, and labouring to be at rest, there may be made to emanate from the present circumstances of our Saviour, and the position that he now occupies, an argument either to perpetuate the confidence where it is, or to inspire it where it is not. If, when an enemy, I was reconciled, and that too by his death---if he laid down his life to remove an obstacle in the way of my salvation, how much more, now that he has taken it up, will he not accomplish that salvation? It is just fulfilling his own desire. It is just prospering forward the very cause that his heart is set upon. It is just following out the facilities which he himself has opened--and marching onward in glorious procession, to the consummation of those triumphs, for which he had to struggle his way through a season of difficulties that are now over. It is thus that the believer reasons himself into a steadier assurance than before--and peace may be made to flow through his heart like a mighty river-and resting on the foundation of Christ, he comes to feel himself in a sure and wealthy place--and the good-will of the Saviour rises into an undoubted axiom-so as to chase away all his distrust, and cause him to delight himself greatly in the riches of his present grace, and in the brightening certainty of his coming salvation.

We know not what the measure of the sinfulness is of any who now hear us. But we know, that however foul his depravity, and however deep the crimson dye of his manifold iniquities may be, the measure of the gospel warrant reaches even unto him. It was to make an inrcad on the territory of Satan, and reclaim from it a kingdom unto himself, that Christ died-and I speak to the farthest off in guilt and alienation amongst you-take the overture of peace that is now brought to your door, and you will add to that kingdom which he came to establish, and take away from that kingdom which he came to destroy. The freeness of this Gospel has the honour of him who liveth and was dead for its guarantee. The security of the sinner and the glory of the Saviour, are at one. And with the spirit of a monarch who had to fight his way to the dominion which was rightfully his own, will he hail the returning allegiance of every rebel, as a new accession to his triumphs, as another trophy to the might and the glory of his great undertaking.

But, amid all this latitude of call and of invitation, let me press upon you that alternative character of the Gospel, to which I And this view of the matter is not only have often adverted. I have tried to make fitted to heighten the confidence that is al-known to you, how its encouragements ready formed---but also to originate the con-rise the one above the other to him who fidence that needs to be inspired. It places moves towards it. But it has its correspondthe herald of salvation on a secure and lofty ing terrors and severities, which also rise vantage ground. It seals and authenticates the one above the other to him who moves the offer with which he is intrusted---and away from it. If the transgressor will not with which he may go round among the be recalled by the invitation which I have guiltiest of this world's population. It en- now made known to him, he will be rivetables him to say, that for guilt even in the ted thereby into deeper and more hopeless season of its most proud and unrepentant condemnation. If the offer of peace be not defiance, did Christ give himself up unto entertained by him, then, in the very prothe death--and that to guilt even in this portion of its largeness and generosity, will state of hardihood, Christ in prosecution of the provocation be of his insulting treathis own work has commissioned him to go ment in having rejected it. Out of the with the overtures of purchased mercy--mouth of the Son of man there cometh a and should the guilt which has stood its two-edged sword. There is pardon free as ground against the threatenings of power, the light of heaven to all who will. There feel softened and arrested by pity's prevent- is wrath, accumulated and irretrievable ing call, may the preacher of forgiveness affirm in his Master's name, that he, who for the chief of sinners, bowed himself down unto the sacrifice, will not now, that he has arisen a Prince and a Saviour, stamp a nul

wrath, to all who will not. "Kiss the Son, therefore, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way: when his wrath is kindled but a little, blessed only are they who put their trust in him."

It is the most delusive of all calculations sadly and sullenly put away. The free to put off the acceptance of the Gospel, be- proclamation is heard without one accomcause of its freeness-and because it is free panying charm-and the man who refused at all times-and because the present you to lay hold of it through life, finds, that in think may be the time of your unconcern the impotency of his expiring grasp, he and liberty, and some distant future be the cannot apprehend it. And O, if you but time of your return through that door knew how often the word of faith may fall which will still be open for you. The door from the minister, and the work of faith be of Christ's Mediatorship is ever open, till left undone upon the dying man, never death puts its unchangeable seal upon your would you so postpone the purposes of seeternity. But the door of your own heart, riousness, or look forward to the last week if you are not receiving him, is shut at of your abode upon earth as to the convethis moment, and every day is it fixing nient season for winding up the concerns and fastening more closely-and long ere of a neglected eternity. death summon you away, may it at length If you look attentively to the text, you settle immoveably upon its hinges, and the will find that there is something more than voice of him who standeth without, and a shade of difference between being reconknocketh, may be unheard by the spiritual ciled and being saved. Reconciliation is ear-and, therefore, you are not made to spoken of as an event that has already feel too much, though you feel as earnestly happened-salvation as an event that is to as if now or never was the alternative on come. The one event may lead to the which you were suspended. It is not other; but there is a real distinction beenough, that the Word of God, compared tween them. It is true, that the salvation to a hammer, be weighty and powerful. instanced in the preceding verse, is salvaThe material on which it works must be vation from wrath. But it is the wrath capable of an impression. It is not enough, which is incurred by those who have sinthat there be a free and forcible applica-ned wilfully, after they had come to the tion. There must be a willing subject. knowledge of the truth-"when there reYou are unwilling now, and therefore it is that conversion does not follow. To-morrow the probability is, that you will be still more unwilling and, therefore, though the application be the same, the conversion is still at a greater distance away from you. And thus, while the application continues the same, the subject hardens, and a good result is ever becoming more and more unlikely and thus may it go on till you arrive upon the bed of your last sickness, at the confines of eternity-and what, I would ask, is the kind of willingness that comes upon you then? Willing to escape the pain of hell-this you are now, but yet not willing to be a Christian. Willing that the fire and your bodily sensations be kept at a distance from each other-this you are now, for who of you at present, would thrust his hand among the flames? Willing that the frame of your animal sensibilities shall meet with nothing to wound or torture it-this is willingness of which the lower animals, incapable of religion, are yet as capable as yourself. You will be as willing then for deliverance from material torments as you can be now-but there is a willingness which you want now, and which, in all likelihood, will then be still more beyond the reach of your attainment. If the free Gospel do not meet with your willingness now to accept and submit to it, neither may it then. And I know not, my brethren, what has been your experience in death-beds, but sure I am, that both among the agonies of mortal disease, and the terrors of the malefactor's cell, Christ may be offered, and the offer be

maineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Jesus Christ will save us from this by saving us from sin. He who hath reconciled us by his death, will, by his life, accomplish for us this salvation. Reconciliation is not salvation. It is only the portal to it. Justification is not the end of Christ's coming-it is only the means to an ultimate attainment. By his death he pacified the lawgiver. By his life he purifies the sinner. The one work is finished. The other is not so, but it is only going on unto perfection. And this is the secret of that unwillingness which I have already touched upon. There is a willingness that God would lift off from their persons the hand of an avenger. But there is not a willingness that Christ would lay upon their persons the hand of a sanctifier. The motive for him to apprehend them is to make them holy. But they care not to apprehend that for which they are apprehended. They see not that the use of the new dispensation, is for them to be restored to the image they have lost, and, for this purpose to be purged from their old sins. This is the point on which they are in darkness-"and they love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil." They are at all times willing for the reward without the service. But they are not willing for the reward and the service together. The willingness for the one they always have. But the willingness for both they never have. They have it not to-day-and it is not the operation of time

that will put it in them to-morrow. Nor reigning and paramount principle of his will disease put it in. Nor will age put it life, so may it be the reigning and parain. Nor will the tokens of death put it in. mount principle of his death-bed. As it Nor will the near and terrific view of eter- envenomed every breath which he drew, nity put it in. It may call out into a livelier so may it envenom his last-and the spirit sensation than before, a willingness for the going forth to the God who gave it, with reward. But it will neither inspire a taste all the enmity that it ever had, God will nor a willingness for the service. A dis- deal with it as with an enemy. taste for God and godliness, as it was the

SERMON IV.

The Restlessness of human Ambition.

"How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain ?-O that I had the wings of a dove, that I may fly away, and be at rest.”—Psalm xi. 1. and lv. 6.