by absolute grace, our brethren do not mean that salvation is bestowed on them without respect to the atonement of Christ; for they affirm an atonement to have been so necessary, that none of our sinful race could, without the death of Christ, have been saved consistently with the glory of the Supreme Ruler of the universe. Where then, we again ask, is the grace of God, in salvation procured by so costly a sacrifice?

A writer, I know not where to place him, says, if I understand him, that the sufferings of Christ were not a full equivalent for the execution of the penalty of the law on those who are saved; because this would be destructive to the grace of God in our salvation. Now, if this objection have any weight, it must depend on the assumption, that so far as the sufferings of Christ were necessary to our salvation, the grace of God is diminished: because if a full equivalent for our sufferings, or a complete substitution for them, be wholly inconsistent with the freeness and sovereignty

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of divine grace, then, for the same reason, a partial equivalent, or a partial substitution for them must be, in its degree, inconsistent with the freeness and sovereignty of divine grace. What consequence follows? Clearly this if we had been saved, without the intervention of the death of Christ, by a sovereign act of Jehovah in remitting our sins, there would have been a more glorious display of free and sovereign grace. But who that has read the scriptures attentively, does not know that such a conclusion would be at war with the strains in which they celebrate redeeming love? Do they not teach us to consider the method of saving sinners, through the humiliation and death of the Son of God, as affording the highest display of divine love and mercy? Hear our Lord himself: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Hear his Apostle John: Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us."

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this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Now, these declarations are manifestly based on the fact, that a richer and more glorious display of divine love has been made in our salvation, through the incarnation, sufferings and death of Christ, than could have been made in saving sinners without so costly a sacrifice; and that grace is magnified, not in proportion as the Saviour's sufferings are diminished, but rather in proportion as they are increased. The exhibition of the Father's love brightens at every step in his Son's humiliation; and shines with the greatest splendour, when the Lord of glory, in the midst of the preternatural darkness, suffering under the hidings of his Father's face, is heard to exclaim, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and then bows his head and gives up the ghost.

This objection, then, militates against the plain language of holy scripture, which teaches us, that, if we would form exalted views of Jehovah's infinite love and sovereign grace, we are not to diminish the Redeemer's sufferings, but look at them in all the extent of agony, terror and dismay to which they were carried by divine justice. "He that SPARED not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

We believe, my dear sir, you well know, all the benefits of salvation to be the fruits of Christ's death, and purchased by him for all who will accept them; and yet, in perfect consistency, we believe that they all flow from unmerited grace and infinite love. Both these propositions are plainly taught in holy scripture.

1. The inspired writers represent every blessing of salvation as the fruit of Christ's death.

Forgiveness is the fruit of his death. "In whom we have redemption through

his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Ephes. i. 4. "And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Ephes. iv. 3. Reconciliation is the fruit of his death; "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit; that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight." Col. i. 20-22. Justification is the fruit of his death. "Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is