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vour is this! Favour, in which is our life! What an admirable contrivance of rich and free grace! * A contrivance by which at once fin is expofed in all its hatefulness, condemned and punished, the justice of God is fully fatisfied, the violations of his law more than repaired, its precepts infinitely honoured,

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*There is nothing in the law's facred injunctions which Chrift, as our Surety, did not perform, nothing in its awful threatenings which he did not fuftain: He fulfilled all its precepts, by an unfpotted purity of heart, and the moft perfect integrity of life. He exhaufted its whole curfe when he hung upon the crofs, abandoned by the Father, and a bleeding victim for the fins of men. This obedience brings higher honour to the divine law, than it could have received from the uninterrupted duty of Adam, and all his pofterity, in all their generations.

May the bleffed Spirit enable you to believe, that your fins are expiated through the death of Jefus Chrift, that a righteoufnefs is given you, by which you may have free and welcome accefs to God, the merit of which you may plead, for obtaining all the bleffings of time and eternity! Will this alienate your affe&tions from your almighty Benefactor? Will this irritate evil concupifcence, or fend you to carnal gratifications in queft of happiness? Quite the reverse. When this faith is wrought in your heart, nothing will be so powerful to produce holy love, and willing obedience; to exalt your defires, and enable you to overcome the world.

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and the poor finner, guilty, condemned, and utterly helpless in himself, accepted as righteous before the divine throne, and as completely juftified as if he had never tranfgreffed. This is that wonderful

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Multitudes of poor finners are held faft in the fatal fnares of vice, by their ignorance of this fweet, confolatory truth. They find themfelves deeply obnoxious to divine juftice, and feel themselves ftrongly bound by the chains of fenfuality. They think it is impoffible to clear the enormous score of their guilt, impoffible to deliver themfelves from the confirmed dominion of fin. Therefore, like defperate debtors, they ftifle every ferious thought, left a confcioufnefs of their long arrears, and a profpcct of the dreadful reckoning, fhould torment them before the time.

But if they were informed, that the infinitely merciful Son of God has undertaken to redeem fuch undone and helplefs finners; that he has thoroughly expiated the moft horrid tranfgreffions, and procured, even for ungodly wretches, all the needful fupplics, of ftrengthening grace; that, inftead of being prohibited, they are invited to partake, freely to partake of these unspeakable bleffings ;—were they acquainted with thefe glad tidings of the gofpel, furely they would burft their chains, and fpring to liberty. These truths, if once revealed in their hearts, would, of all confiderations, be most effectual to make them free. The gracious Redeemer himfelf has faid, Ye fhall know the truth, and the truth fhall make you free. Hervey's Theron and Afpafio, Dial. xiv.

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expedient which excites the attention and admiration of angelic minds. They floop down to contemplate the mystery divine, and defire to look into it. This is that expedient in which grace reigns, in which it triumphs in all its fovereignty, and in all its glory, through the righteousness of Jefus Chrift, unto eternal life.

The fanctification of our natures, clofely connected with what we have just mentioned, by which we are enabled to live to God, is also the effect of divine favour. "I live, yet not I, but Chrift liveth in me." He lives in me by his Holy Spirit, forming me after his image, and producing in me those gracious habits, spiritual dispositions, and holy acts, which are pleasing in his fight. The iffue of these is new and evangelical obedience to his will.

Sanctification is the production of grace. Every christian, as such, is the workmanship of God, created in Chrift Jefus unto good works; he may therefore fay, in his measure, with the apoftle PAUL," By the grace of God I am what I am." And as it is God's grace which produces in us every holy difpofition, so it is the fame grace which quickens and excites these difpofitions from time to time, into spiritual action. It is in this light that we are to understand the words of our divine Saviour, when he fays, "Without me ye can do nothing."

thing." Perfectly conformable to this, his infpired apostle has told us, that it is God which worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. The holy principle in the heart, which is as a well of water springing up to everlafting life, is given by him, in whom it hath pleased the Father that all fulnefs fhould dwell.

It is the very God of peace who fanctifies his children wholly, and who fills them with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jefus Chrift, to hist own glory and praise. Progress in fanctification, power to perform religious duties aright, and fresh affistances for new encounters and undertakings, are from him. Let none fay that our system is unfriendly to holiness, because it excludes human works from having any place in a sinner's justifica tion; for holiness of heart and life is infeparable from the bleffing of free juftification by the rightcoufnefs of Jefus Chrift. We allow holinefs to have the place which God has affigned it in his word, though we dare not fubftitute it in the room of the Redeemer's obedience unto death.

It is a certain truth, that where Chrift is a Saviour he will be a Sovereign. He is the Author of eternal falvation to them that obey him. His benefits and his person cannot be divided; the virtue of his death is connected with its value.

Newness

of heart and of life is as neceffary in its place as freedom from wrath and condemnation. Chrift is

made of God unto us fan&tification as well as right. eousness, and every fincere believer is created in Chrift Jefus unto good works, which God hath be-. fore ordained that we fhould walk in them. The liberated foul, whom the Captain of falvation hath made free from the power of fin, is thankful for deliverance from his former fetters, as well as for the discharge of his enormous debts. An acquittal in open court would not render a prisoner happy. unless he were also released from bondage. In like manner, our falvation by Jefus would not be complete, unless we were delivered from the power, as well as from the guilt of fin. Strength to ferve God, and to do his will from the heart, is a de firable favour, as well as deliverance from condemnation and wrath. The believer enjoys both. Surely fhall one fay, In the Lord have I righteousnefs and strength.

The neceffary comforts and fupports of life, afforded to us in a new-covenant way, are bleffings flowing from God's favour. Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. He bleffeth our bread and our water, and makes our external enjoyments conducive to the fupport and the comfort

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