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they may be finally saved, and for ever happy— SO we would persuade them by the terrors of the Lord"-beseeching them to remember that he who is "exalted as a Prince and a Saviour, to give them repentance and the forgiveness of sins," will punish them at length "with everlasting destruction, if they know not God," in this the time of their merciful visitation, "and obey not the Gospel of his Son."

And let believers rejoice and be comforted that they have such an all-sufficient Saviour to rely upon-that he has wherewithal to minister to every necessity, and to fulfil every desire-that they are "complete in him," seeing he is "made of God unto them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption "-and that as he will wash them from all their guilt in his atoning blood, and deliver them from the power of all their iniquities by his grace and spirit, so from the throne where he now sits and reigns to dispense these blessings he will come at last, to introduce them into that region of purity and peace, which he has secured for them, and in which it will be their purchased privilege to abide eternally.

WERE this exhortation addressed to beings in a state of innocence, it would have a meaning very different fron what it must bear as addressed to beings, such as we are, who have fallen from that state. In the former case it would not only be taken in its strictest sense, but in that sense it would intimate an obligation which there was a complete ability to fulfil. And the beings to whom it referred would be expected to give an imme diate response to it in the continued, and unlimited, and cheerful devotedness both of their affec tions and their doings to the holy will of God, and in the unhesitating confidence that these, by reason of their own intrinsic excellence, would expe rience his favourable notice and be followed by his just reward. But in the latter case it can neither have such an import nor such an effect. We feel it to be utterly impossible for us to com

ply with its full demands. Though bound, as the subjects of God's moral government, to do and to be every thing which his law requires, yet in point of fact, we have no power to render such a perfect obedience. Our righteousness, in its best form and in its highest degree, comes far short of what our Almighty Ruler has prescribed to us as the subjects of his moral government. All the purest and most unexceptionable sacrifices of it that we can offer to him are mixed with failings and polluted by sin. And therefore, any trust that we could repose in him, in consequence of these, and on account of them, would be entirely groundless, and would necessarily end in bitter disappointment. We deny not that the burden of the law still lies upon us; and that if we cannot bear this burden by conforming to the precepts which the law enjoins, we must bear it by suffering the punishment which the law denounces. We only affirm that, taking the language of the text in its most rigid meaning-estimating our sacrifices of righteousness by the perfect rule originally given to us— and remembering that God cannot receive any thing less valuable, without violating the faithfulness, and compromising the purity of his character,—we have no sacrifices of righteousness to offer to him which will justify us in expecting that, for the sake of these, we shall regain and enjoy any of those blessings which his goodness ever

prompts him to bestow upon his rational offspring, as constituting at once their honour and their happiness.

Still, however, we are commanded to offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and in connection with our observance of this command, we are encouraged to trust in the Lord. The two

things must, of course, be perfectly consistent ; and it must be quite practicable for us, fallen though we be, to do both the one and the other. This consistency and this practicability are brought about by the dispensation of the Gospel, which places us, not under the law, but under grace-which makes ample provision at once for the authority of the former and the manifestation of the latter which renders it competent for us to do homage to the divine will, in such a manner as, without detracting from the divine glory, to become partakers of the divine mercy. And in this view, I shall now endeavour to illustrate the counsel given in my text, which says, "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord."

I. In the first place, offer the sacrifices of righteousness, by cherishing those sentiments of humility and sorrow which become creatures who have lost their righteousness; and trust in the Lord, that if you do so, he will comfort you, and lift you up.

Humility and sorrow, it is true, cannot compensate for the want of righteousness. They amount to a recognition of that want. And are,

therefore, in every case in which they truly exist, accompanied with the conviction and acknowledgment that condemnation is not only deserved, but unavoidable, if the sinner is abandoned to his own resources. The man who perceives, in his humility and sorrow, any thing like a substitute for positive or for perfect holiness, and who would rest upon such feelings as the foundation of hope, either sadly mistakes the nature of holiness, or presumptuously and absurdly arrogates to his confession of sin the merit of cancelling the sin which is confessed. On both suppositions, so far from offering a sacrifice of righteousness to the God whom he has offended, he is acting as if he thought "that God was altogether such a one as himself," and his law more flexible and accommodating than the laws of

men.

But humility and sorrow answer the purpose which we assign them, as being a heartfelt testimony on the part of the transgressor to the infinite excellence of God's law, and to the fitness, the importance, and the necessity of that obedience which it demands. Supposing these sentiments to be spiritual and genuine, then you are humble and sorrowful on account of sin-not because sin exposes you to disgrace, or subjects