vestigation. How necessary then it is, especially when we consider how we are affected by it, that every person should believe what the Scriptures assert concerning the fallen and depraved state of mankind.

Let every person bring the case home to himself. Have you never felt the quickening influence of Divine grace upon your own hearts ?Were you never renewed in the spirit of your mind? If not, then you are yet dead in sin, and the uncircumcision of the flesh. Sin, that lordly tyrant, has the dominion in your soul, and you obey it in the lusts thereof. And the heritage appointed you, by the Judge of all, if you die in your present condition, will be wrath and everlasting misery. Did you ever consider what the wrath of an almighty, angry God, is? You cannot extend your fear so far, but his wrath can reach, yea, infinitely surpass it. Can you contend with a devouring flame, or dwell with everlasting burnings? O, consider before it be too late, the necessity there is of your being renewed, before you can be fit to hold fellowship with God, and enjoy the blissful fruition of heaven! Old things must be done away, and all things must become new.

You

must be born again, born after the Spirit, born from above, before you can have any well grounded hope of being admitted into the heavenly kingdom.

Therefore, whatever your present condition is, remember, that He who caused light to shine out of darkness, and, out of a confused mass of

matter, formed a regular and beautiful world, can easily change your state. He who created you at the first, can easily create you again in Christ Jesus, fit for your Master's use and service. Tell him, that no one ever more needed his help and saving power, and that his mercy will be greatly glorified in your salvation. Adopt the language of David, and thus pour out your whole soul before him; Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise."

Let such as have been regenerated by Divine grace, have "passed from death unto life," and are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life, be suitably affected with the great change that has been produced in them. You can remember the time when you walked in the paths of nature, but now you can say, "This was in time past," now it is otherwise with us. God, in his infinite mercy and boundless goodness has brought ns out of darkness into his marvellous light; has raised us, who " dead in tresspasses and sins," to a new, a spiritual and a Divine life. How thankful you ought to be! admire this amazing display of compassion and goodness! It was only his almighty power that could effect this happy change in you. There was nothing in you to deserve this favour; rich and free mercy was the source from whence it flowed. Manifest therefore your

were

gratitude by your future obedience: walk worthy of this abundant grace. Live as becomes a redeemed and holy people, zealous of good works. Show that you are risen with Christ, by seeking the things that are above. Pursue glory, honour, and immortality, by a patient continuance in well doing. Constantly live above this world, by having your hearts and your conversation in heaven. And then, when you are removed from this transitory state, you shall dwell in the heavenly world, and celebrate the riches of Divine grace for ever and ever, Amen!

THE PROPITIATORY SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.

"By accepting the death of Christ instead of ours, by laying on him the iniquity of us all, God certainly gave us the most astonishing proof of his mercy; and yet, by accepting no less a sacrifice than that of his own Son, he has, by this most expressive and tremendous act signified to the whole world such extreme indignation at sin, as may well alarm, even while he saves us, and make us tremble at his severity, even while we are within the arms of his mercy."-Porteus's Sermons, vol. ii, p. 56.

In the great work of our redemption by Jesus Christ, the harmony and glory of the Divine perfections are manifested; God's manifold wisdom, tremendous justice, almighty power, unchangeable faithfulness, and inviolable truth, are wonderfully displayed: but his love to fallen man shines with the brightest and most resplendent rays. So that the apostle might well

say, "God is love." That this character justly belongs to him, he appeals to that amazing manifestation which he has made of it, in "sending his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And so warm a sense of the love of God had this holy apostle in his own heart, that he repeats and further illustrates this admirable instance of it, saying, "Herein is love," the most amiable discovery, the most eminent display, the most unparalleled example, and the most convincing proof of the love of God to fallen men; "not that we loved him," no, so very far from it, that "the carnal mind is enmity against God;" and such is the mind of every men while unregenerate; "but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." This is the constant doctrine of the Gospel. "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." In these and many other places of the sacred writings, we meet with passages to the same purpose, which suggest, that by nature we are in very guilty and alarming circumstances; yet, while in this awful condition, God loved us, and from that benevolent principle, the source of every new-covenant blessing, sent his Son, not

to condemn us for our sins, but that through him we might be saved from them.

Though in the dignity of his person, he was no other than the eternal, only begotten, and infinitely beloved Son of God, the image of the invisible God, the brightness of his Father's glory, the express image of his person, in whom all the rays of glory centre, as the beams of light centre in the sun; yet he assumed human nature, and brought it into a personal union with his pre-existent Divine nature-the human nature has its subsistence in the person of the Son of God. These two natures are united in his person; he is the man Christ Jesus, and God blessed for ever; and these continue distinct, and will remain so, without transmutation or confusion, without the one being changed into the other, or both being mingled together; neither is the Deity changed into the flesh, nor the flesh transformed into God; either of these is simply impossible.

Though the human nature in Christ, and in men, is the same as to substance or essence; yet between his human nature and ours, there is in several respects a disparity. The human nature is solely and singly in us; in Christ it is in union with the Divine nature. We have it in the way of ordinary generation, Christ had it in a miraculous and peculiar way. In us it is radically depraved and defiled; in Christ it is perfectly innocent and holy. In us it has its proper subsistence; in Christ it subsists without any personality of its own. And therefore,