effects which will result from the death of Christ we can only comprehend in a general way: that is, we can only comprehend from general expressions used in Scripture. These testify that such effects, and the benefit which the faithful in Christ shall draw from them, will be very great; if we consider that they relate to nothing less than the saving of our souls at the day of judgement, infinitely great in comparison they necessarily must be; because then nothing at all will be of any concern but what relates to that. By the efficacy of his death, surpassing in a great degree our present knowledge, and by his powerful and perpetual intercession for us, which we can in some degree comprehend, we may rest assured that he hath brought into the way to heaven millions who, without him, would not have attained it. If we regard the effects which religious love ought to produce upon us, the love of Christ, like the love of any great benefactor, if it be in our heart, will show itself some way or other. In different men it will show itself in different ways; but in all men it will show itself, if it exist. Such is the nature of the affection. It is never a dead principle. If the root be in the ground, it will irresistibly spring up into action.

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There is, however, a danger naturally adhering even to the very piety with which we cherish the memory of our Redeemer, and it is this: It leads sometimes to a frame of mind, and to a habit of thinking concerning religion, and concerning the object of all religion, the Supreme Being himself, which is not justified by reason, or by any thing delivered in the Christian revelation. The opinion which I have in view by this caution is, that whilst we contemplate with deserved admiration the exceeding great love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus

Christ, we slide into a way of considering God the Father as a being of a harsh and austere character, at enmity with mankind; which enmity was to be reconciled by the blood of his Son.

Now I do not so much say that this is irrational, because it may be allowed, perhaps, that human reason is a very imperfect judge of such matters; but it is unscriptural; it is not that representation of the subject which the scriptures exhibit, but the contrary.

For, in the first place I remark, that God is never said to be reconciled to us, but we to God. He is always ready to receive mankind returning to their duty. But the difficulty was to induce mankind to return. And in this strain run all the texts in which the term "reconcile" occurs." "We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God;" that is, we entreat you, as though Christ himself entreated you, that ye would return to your duty to God. Again, as to be reconciled is to return to their duty, so reconcile is to cause to return, or to bring back to duty and obedience those who had deserted; both which I apprehend to be the sense of the term in the following texts. "It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 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 sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, now hath he reconciled." Col. i. 20. Again, Eph. xi. 15, St. Paul, speaking of the Jews and Gentiles, declares "That Christ hath now by his death abolished all distinction between them; that having made of twain one new man, he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross;" so in other places, God is said to

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reconcile us to himself by Jesus Christ: to be recon. ciling the world unto himself. The preaching of the Gospel is called the word and the ministry of reconciliation. The same distinction holds concerning some other phrases which occur in the writing of the Apostles. God is never said to be at enmity with us, or an enemy to us, or alienated from us, but we are said to be at enmity with God, enemies to God, alienated from God; and all by the wickedness of our lives. "A friend of

the world," saith St. James, "is an enemy of God." "You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works;" so the Gentiles were said to be alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that was in them.

I proceed, in the second place, to prove, that the redemption of the world, instead of being undertaken by another, to appease the wrath of an incensed or austere God, was itself a thing provided by God; and was the effect of his care and goodness towards his human creatures. The texts I shall lay before you, in support of this proposition, are the following: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. Again, in the 6th chapter of the same Gospel, Christ speaks, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that, sent me; and this is the Father's will, who hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing." These are Christ's own words; and in what way does Christ describe his office and commission? Not as coming of himself to pacify God the Father, who was alienated from and averse to the race of mankind, but as sent by God the Father to reclaim and reform this degenerate race-to save them,

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by turning every one from his sins, and so to bring those back who were gone far astray from their duty, their happiness, and their God; in other words, Christ's coming was the appointment of God the Father, and that appointment was the effect of God the Father's love. These declarations of our Saviour's own are followed up by many passages in the writings of the Apostles, which speak of Christ's coming into the world, of his ministry, and more especially of his death, as concerted and determined of old in the councils of the Almighty Father. "Him being delivered," saith St. Peter," by the determinate councils and foreknowledge of God ye have taken." Against the holy child Jesus they were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy council determined to be done." But the mission of Christ was not only the counsel and design of God the Father, but it was a counsel of supreme love to mankind. "God commendeth his love towards us, in that whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also give 'us all things?" But the text the fullest and the plainest to our purpose is in the fourth chapter of the epistle to St. John. "In this was manifest the love of God towards 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 in these various texts you will remark the same thing, which is, that they do not describe the redemption of mankind, as if a milder and more benevolent being went about to propitiate the favour of another who was harsh and austere, who was before incensed at the human race, had cast them off, or was

averse to their welfare (that certainly was not the idea which dwelt in the mind of those who delivered such declarations as I have now read to you); but it was all along the design and the doing of that being-the effect of his love, the fruit and manifestation of his affection and good-will.

But it will be asked, if God the Father was always gracious, and merciful, and loving to his creatures; always ready to receive, and desirous to make them happy, what necessity was there for a redeemer, or for the redemption of the world at all? I answer that there was still the same necessity to reform and recover mankind from their sins, and there was likewise a necessity for a propitiation for sin. It was a law of God's moral government, that mankind could not be made happy in their future existence without holiness, at least without endeavours after holiness, without turning away from their sins, without a pardon obtained through Jesus Christ his Son. Perhaps the whole rational universe, angels as well as the spirits of departed men, may be interested in the maintenance and preservation of this law. Here God's love to his creatures interposednot to break through or suspend a rule universally salutary and necessary, but to provide expedients, and to endeavour (if we may so say) to bring the human race, lost in an almost total depravity, within the rule which he had appointed for the government of his moral creation. The expedient which his wisdom made choice of, and which it is for us to accept with all humility and all thankfulness, was to send into the world the person nearest and dearest to himself, his own and his only begotten Son, to instruct the ignorance of mankind, to collect a society of men out of all nations and countries of the world, united together by