seated conviction of the infinite love of God in the gift of a Saviour for the redemption of man? I ask whether the divine character from which all the doctrines of Revelation emanate-the simplicity and yet grandeur of those discoveries-their harmony-their illustration of the glories of God's moral government-their hu miliating as well as consolatory tendency, do not pour a flood of light upon his mind; do not fall in with all his conceptions of congruity and fitness in a divine proceeding, and strengthen all the results of external evidences? I ask him whether, when he can most clearly disembarrass himself from matters of speculation, and, relinquishing à priori reasoning, can repose most entirely in the practical uses of divine truth, he does not most forcibly feel its elevating, sanctifying, consoling effects?

Yes; this is the result of the whole subject which we have been reviewing,-the exhibition of the divine character of love in the gift of a Saviour invariably produces A CORRESPONDENT LOVE AND GRATITUDE TO GOD ON THE PART OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN-the love of God to man is calculated, is designed to call forth man's love to God in return. Love to God is the natural consequence of such a display. Just as danger is calculated to excite fear; and proposed good, hope; and unexpected deliver

ance, joy; so such love, on the part of God, is calculated to excite the love of admiration and gratitude and repose, in the breast of man.1

And thus a divine excellency shines forth, not only from the separate characters of the doctrines of Christianity-not only from the great design formed before the ages, of which excellency they are the expressions; but also in THE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF THE WHOLE, in man's obedient and grateful love to God, and devotedness of heart to his service.

Thus does Christianity elevate and ennoble man, aids his mental powers, gives him sublimity of thought and conception, raises him in the scale of moral and intellectual being, touches all the springs of his purest affections, and unites the lofty discoveries of the incarnation, with that practical love and obedience, in which they have their proper effects and consequences.

1 Erskine.

LECTURE XVI.

THE UNSPOTTED PURITY OF THE CHRISTIAN

MORALS.

TITUS II. 11–15.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

WE proceed next to consider the unspotted purity of the Christian morals, for the purpose of

impressing more vividly on the minds of the young, internal the excellency of Revelation. In this branch of our subject we have two advantages.

It is more level to the comprehension of man than the preceding topics. The doctrines which we considered in our last Lecture, are in themselves matters of pure Revelation. Not so the morals. Here we are in some measure at home. For though Christianity lays down the rule of them in a new extent and purity, employs her own means to make them practicable, connects them with her revealed doctrines, and enforces them with her peculiar sanctions; yet the precepts themselves are intelligible to man, address his conscience, fall in with all his convictions as an accountable creature, and have been, in many of their branches, acknowledged in every age and in every part of the world.

A second advantage is the confessions of unbelievers; who with one mouth are compelled to admit the beauty of the Christian morals. They object, indeed, as we might anticipate, to some of the details of them; and they have no real desire, as we shall show, to promote the interests of morality. But their acknowledgments are therefore the more important, when they allow that the gospel is one continued lesson

of the strictest morality; of justice, of benevolence, and of universal charity," and when they declare they would preserve Christianity, for the sake of its moral influence on the common people.

With these points in our favour, let us consider THE EXTENT AND PURITY of the Christian morals. The manner in which they are RENDERED PRACTICABLE. Their INSEPARABLE CONNEXION with every part of the Revelation, and especially with its peculiar doctrines. And the SANCTIONS by which they are ultimately enforced. 2

'Bolingbroke-Herbert, also, Shaftsbury, Collins, Woolston, Tindal, Chubb, applaud the Christian Morals. Hume and Gibbon admit the same.

The text contains a summary of each of these particulars:-1. The extent and purity of the gospel precepts; Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts-live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world-zealous of good works.

2. The manner in which they work: purifying unto himself a peculiar people.

3. The connexion with the doctrines of Revelation :-The grace of God which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, teaching us. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.

4. The sanction:-the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, to judge the quick and dead; and in what