cularly, What is the ground upon which this offer has been made? What is the substance

of the promise or offer itself? And what is that faith which is the condition or indispensable requisite upon which it is suspended,—the means, channel, or instrument through which the free gift thus offered is received? Great, very great questions these! But I trust that God enables me to answer them faithfully and fully, according to the truth of Scripture, and the publicly declared sense of our reformed apostolical church.

I. We ask, in the first place, what is the ground upon which God, infinitely holy and true, makes an offer of peace and blessedness to man, the transgressor of his law? It is that upon which alone, with reverence be it spoken, such an offer could be made, the ground that his perfect, immutable law has been fulfilled,—fulfilled, at once in its requirements and in its penalty, by the Son of God, who submitted to be made subject to it, and to suffer its curse as man; and whose merits are sufficient, so far as the justice of God is concerned, to purchase or deserve salvation for all men. Such is the righteousness of God; the righteousness which God has provided for man, and which alone he will accept as a title to his favour; the righteousness of God with

out law; a righteousness, that is, not indeed without perfect obedience to the law, but yet, as to its origin, entirely independent of any obedience which guilty man may render. The new covenant, as well as the covenant of works, originates in the combined attributes of holiness, justice, and benevolence in Jehovah; his holiness and justice, as regards Christ, who rendered complete satisfaction to the demands of the divine law; his benevolence, in the form of mercy, as regards man. Hereby God may be "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (Rom. iii. 26.) Hereby, at the same time, " God commendeth his love toward us, in that, sinners, Christ died for us."

while we were yet (Rom. v. 8.)

And here is the ground of our justification, and of all gospel blessings; not any merit on the part of man,-not any act or course of obedience appointed for this end,—not faith,—not indeed any portion of that which, as we shall afterwards see, is the work of Christ within us; but only the work of Christ which has been wrought for us,THAT GLORIOUS WORK which was perfected for ever when the Redeemer bowed his head upon the cross, and uttered those blessed words, the signal of our triumphant and eternal thanksgivings in heaven, “IT IS FINISHED!"

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II. We ask, secondly, what is the promise or offer founded upon this complete satisfaction of Christ? It is the promise, first, of righteousness, that is, pardon of sin and a title to God's favour, or the being regarded and treated as though we had wrought perfect obedience to the divine law; secondly, of the renewal and sanctification of our nature by the power of the Holy Spirit sent by Christ into the heart; and thirdly, of eternal life, with all things needful and subordinate to that end. In short, the blessings of the gospel, procured for us by him "who of God is made unto us wisdom," are these, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. And be it observed, that while these blessings are numerous, the offer is but one. It must be embraced as a whole, or it is not embraced at all. As the law of God cannot be partially fulfilled, so neither can the promise or offer of God be partially accepted. A partial fulfilment of the law is, in fact, disobedience; and a partial acceptance of the promise is, in fact, rejection. Our Lord Jesus Christ is proposed to us as a Saviour from sin in the soul, and the giver of spiritual life, as well as a Saviour from guilt on the soul, and the giver of righteousness; and if we do not receive him, or look to him, in the one character as well as in the other, we do not accept the offer of God.

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III. It has already been stated that this offer is to be accepted, and the blessings which it proposes are to be made our own, by means of FAITH. "The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." The exercise of faith is uniformly represented in the gospel as the single condition of salvation. I can perceive no valid objection to the use of the words 'condition' and terms,' in this matter; it being fully understood that faith is not represented as that on account or by virtue of which we receive the blessing, but only as the means, the channel or instrument, or that through which alone, according to divine appointment, we obtain it just as, indeed, the acceptance of a thing freely given, must always be the condition upon which possession may depend. Faith is the hand, to use a well known figure, by which we put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, by which we receive the Holy Spirit as a guest into our hearts, and by which we lay hold of eternal life. But, what is this faith? or wherein does it consist? We mistake, on the one hand, if we suppose it to be no more than belief, or an assent to doctrinal truth; or if we suppose it to have respect only to a part of God's promise and of the Saviour's office and we err also, on the other hand, if we regard it as contributing to our justification, inas

much as it is a principle of holiness, or because it includes obedience. Faith is more than belief; but it is othing more than confidence, reliance, ex tation. Saving faith is a habit, or continually recurring act, of the soul, whereby we rely upon Christ as our only and all-sufficient Saviour; placin, from first to last, an entire trust in his death and righteousness for pardon of sin, acceptance with God, and A TITLE to all the blessings of adoption; and maintaining, at the same time, a believing dependence on him for THe actual conVEYANCE of those blessings, namely, sanctification by his word and Spirit, and the gift of eternal life.

May God grant unto us that abiding conviction of our sinful and helpless condition by nature, that humble and lowly spirit of self-renunciation, without which it is impossible that we can discover our need of this Saviour, and cast ourselves upon his mercy for a complete deliverance!

And now we come to inquire, what are the results of this faith, or, in other words, what is the state of a man who receives the blessings which it conveys from the God of his salvation?

I. First, through faith a man is justified ; that is, his sins are blotted out, and he is regarded and treated as perfectly righteous. His sins are not