hatred of sin, then can we no longer hesitate for a moment to pronounce this doctrine, so far as our judgment can guide us, to be dishonourable at once to the character of the God who sent, and of the Saviour who suffered, impeaching the innocence of the one, and compromising the justice of the other; a doctrine not merely unauthorised by scripture, but contradictory to it; not merely unsupported by reason, but revolting to it; a doctrine, in fine, which bears upon its aspect evident marks of being the offspring of a barbarous and scholastic age, when cruelty and subtlety, by an unhallowed union, seem to have given birth to an opinion the most shocking by which Christianity has been deformed.

But it is not merely to the theoretical deformity of this doctrine that we are disposed to object. Its practical consequences would appear to be highly injurious. It tends to cloud the lustre of the divine perfections, and to exhibit God to his creatures in a character very different, indeed, from a parental one. The character of our feelings towards him must be proportionably affected, and the relation in which we stand to him would seem to lose much of what makes it most interesting and endearing. The doctrine of the vicarious atonement seems to have a further tendency to inspire those who

believe in it with a presumptuous confidence, since it leads them to claim as a right, upon the merits of another, what they would be contented to receive as an act of grace and mercy, were they dependent entirely upon their own. To the sinner, however, it seems peculiarly dangerous. He may have neglected the fairest opportunities; abused the choicest gifts of providence; set at defiance the most sacred laws of God and man; and possibly he may be preparing, in a few moments, to expiate his crimes upon the scaffold. Yet if he can but, upon the spur of the moment, muster up a sufficient quantity of faith to believe, or think he believes, in the efficacy of the cross of Christ, he will probably be encouraged to put forth his claims to a share in the redemption which he has purchased with a confidence no less assured than if he had passed the whole course of his life in devotion as ardent, and obedience as constant, as ever falls to the lot of frail and imperfect humanity. God forbid, my brethren, that we should insinuate by anything that we have now said, that the mercy of God is limited. God forbid that we should venture, for a single moment, presumptuously to interpose an impassable barrier between the most obdurate of sinners and that Great Being, with whom there is plenteous redemption. Surely, however, at such an awful moment the

language of confession would suit the lips of the criminal much better than that of exultation; and the words best entitled to employ his latest breath would be those of the penitent publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner."

It only remains for us to consider how far our own individual conduct should be influenced by these considerations.

The conclusion, my fellow Christians, to which the preceding observations are calculated to lead, is plainly this, that we ought to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We do not feel ourselves, by any means, warranted to hold out, either to you or to ourselves, the most distant prospect of being permitted, should we fail in the performance of our duty, to avail ourselves of the merits of another, as a fund from which to supply the deficiency. The mercy of God, indeed, is ever open to us, but we must beware of trespassing on it too far. We live in the enjoyment of many and great advantages. Let us not forget that we are accountable for the improvement of them. The slothful servant, who hid his lord's talent in a napkin, was not permitted to plead the merits of another as an apology for his neglect. The five foolish virgins, who had neglected to provide themselves with oil,

when the bridegroom came, and they were called out to meet him, found no such ready method of supplying the deficiency. He who came to the feast without a wedding garment, could lay hands on no such convenient robe, with which to invest himself. We solemnly recommend it to you, my brethren, to lay no such flattering unction to your souls. If you faithfully endeavour to discharge your several duties, to obey the commandments of God, and to imitate the example of Christ, the Lord God of your fathers will regard you with an eye of mercy, forgive the sins of which you shall have repented, cherish the growing virtues of your bosoms, pour upon you the continual dew of his blessing, and, in his own good time, admit you into his eternal kingdom. If, on the other hand, you madly suffer yourselves to persist in a course of vicious indulgence; if by your follies and vices you bring dishonour upon your religion, and disgrace the worthy name by which you are called; if your whole souls are wrapt up in the acquisition of worldly possessions, to the neglect of those heavenly treasures which you can never lose; if, in a word, with all your advantages you shall be found at last to have been disciples of the Lord Jesus in name only, we can furnish you with no extrinsic merits. Divine justice must have its course; "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."

SERMON XXIII.

THE RESIGNATION OF JESUS CHRIST.

MATTHEW XXvi., 39.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.

THE character of Jesus Christ, always amiable, acquires a still deeper interest as we draw towards the close of his ministry. He seems, like the sun, to set in beauty, as he was destined, also, like that great luminary, to rise again in splendour and in glory. Never does it present us with a spectacle more sublime and edifying, than during the scene which took place in the garden of Gethsemane, and of the narrative of which the text forms a part. Here we behold a faithful and affecting exhibition of the painful struggle which he had to make against the feelings of our common nature, and the signal triumph which his devotedness to his father's will enabled him to obtain. We must be careful, however, in justice to his character, not to contemplate the issue of this struggle as having been for a moment