source of relief and consolation. All I have at present said, is introductory. The person and glory of Jesus Christ our Saviour is the centre-point, the main characteristic, the distinguishing fact of the whole of Revelation. You are surely now prepared to behold the mysterious cross on which he expired, as a sacrifice for sin. You are eager to receive the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, for which all your previous inquiries have been disposing you. You want pardon; you want peace with God; you want something as a ground of merit in approaching the throne of grace—you find nothing in yourself but infirmity, sin, guilt. Behold, then, the person of Christ, the substitute for man, bearing sin in his own body on the cross: dying, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God. Read in his death, pardon, peace, and salvation. Look unto him whom you have pierced, and, while you mourn for sin, rejoice in the forgiveness which his sacrifice promises. All blessings flow from that great event. God is reconciled-the law is satisfied-the moral government of the Almighty is vindicated-and the Holy Spirit is procured and diffused; and in the gift of that divine agent (for redemption, as we have frequently noticed, reveals the triune source of mercy to man-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,) all blessings of grace, regeneration, power to believe, fortitude, joy, resignation, hope, obedience, are virtually included.

You will doubtless find a thousand difficulties start up in your mind, and oppose the simple act of faith, by which you are to receive those benefits. Though you exercise faith in human things every day of your life, yet when you attempt to apply this principle to divine, a difficulty arises. But the Holy Spirit is the author of faith. Pray to him for the grace to believe. Say, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Silence your imaginations, your reasonings, your objections. God reveals the infinite gift of his Son; God declares it to be the effect of his love to man; God points out the grand ends for which the gift is made, and the practical uses for which it is to be employed. But God does not ask your opinion of the redemption itself: you

(v) Mark ix. 24.

are no judge of God's incomprehensible reasons. If you wish for a real acquaintance with the effect of his religion. upon the heart, you must take the method he prescribes. You must believe, obey, trust in his well-beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased." You do so. See-the struggle is over. Your sense of pressing exigency; the anguish of an alarmed conscience; the conviction that God's thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways his ways; but that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than your ways, and his thoughts than your thoughts, carries every thing with it. You cast yourself at the feet of the Saviour, and endeavor to rely upon his word for all the blessings of salvation. You implore the Holy Spirit to enable you to see his glory more distinctly, and rejoice in his cross with more delight, and follow his footsteps in the obedience of your life. All this is done with weakness and trembling of heart; but it is done with simplicity; and increasing vigor will follow.

X

VI. Let me direct you now to compare all the parts of Christianity as you have gone over them, and OBSERVE HOW

THEY CONSTITUTE A WHOLE, AND MEET ALL THE NECESSI

TIES OF YOUR CASE. Study still the Bible in which these truths and the uses of them are contained. There you began, there you must continue your search. You have caught its general impression and main design upon manyou have verified in your own heart its statements about the guilt and ruin of sin-you have adopted the prayers which it taught you to offer-you have persevered in the means of instruction it presented to you-you have been brought up to its main discovery, the person and sacrifice of the Son of God-you have perceived the divine agent, who applies all its truths to the heart, the Holy Spirit. Reflect now upon the bearing of all these things. Observe how they meet all the case of man, (as we observed in a previous Lecture, ) how they supply his WANT OF MERIT, by the sacrifice of Christ, and his WANT OF STRENGTH, by the operations of the blessed Spirit. Mark how they bring him to the knowledge of the most important truths relating to himself, his

(M) Matt. iii. 12.

(x) Isaiah Iv. 8, 9.

(y) Lect. xiv.

duty, his fall, his guilt, his end. Consider how they exactly fill up the void which natural religion could not supply; the gaping void, created by the want of sanction, the want of a distinct knowledge of the supreme Being, the want of a revealed and intelligible moral law, the want of a way of pardon, the want of motives and strength for obedience, the want of peace and consolation of conscience, and the want of an express assurance of the immortality of the soul and an eternal judgment. Yes, Christianity is the natural and essential religion for which God first created man, republished, supplied, restored, enlarged, purified, ennobled with an additional remedial dispensation by the Son and Spirit of God. How grand, how efficacious, how complete is the scheme of Revelation! How it meets all your desires; responds to your thirst after happiness; answers to all the capacities of your rational being; unites the glory of the Creator with the welfare of the creature! Nothing is so reasonable, so elevating, so consolatory, so adapted for man, as the Christian religion. You feel this in some degree. You feel that all you need now, is a larger measure of its grace and a more entire submission to its commands-that what is wanting, is not in Christianity, but in yourself; not in its provisions, but in your obedience; not in the promises and supplies which it offers, but in your acceptance and adherence. Feeble as your attainments are, you are persuaded fully-you are convinced,-that, in proportion as you advance in them, you shall advance in happiness, advance in holiness, advance in peace and consolation and joy.

And now, after offering these directions, let me request you to look back on the course which you have passed, and to observe the RESULT. Let me ask you, whether the Christian religion has not fulfilled in you all its promises, and whether you are not an instance of one who has made a trial of its proffered blessings, and has obtained an inward experience and witness of their reality. This may not have struck you. At an early stage of your inquiries, it could not. Even now it may not at times be very apparent. It is

(z) Lect. ii.

rather upon reflection and at intervals, that you will be able to trace out the accomplishment of the blessings of Christianity in your own case. But after a period, perhaps a considerable period-for the minuter differences in each inquirer's case are multiplied and various-you may be led to reflect thus:

"Surely I am myself a witness of the truth of Christianity. I feel that its general character is pregnant with blessings to man. Its description of my own case is most accurate. Its spirit of prayer and the models it leaves me, are most suited to my feelings. The system of means in which it places me, becomes the glorious God, and is adapted to man his reasonable creature. The person of Christ, his condescension, his sacrifice, the gift of his Holy Spirit, are beyond measure stupendous and consolatory. The completeness of the whole Revelation carries with it the impress of the great and good Being from whom it came.

"And am not I an instance of its truth to its promises? 1 find an awe upon my mind; I feel a conviction of my sinfulness; I am led to pray; I use the methods of instruction appointed me; I behold the Lamb of God; I trust to a divine sanctifier; I see every thing in Christianity which I can want or desire, or am capable of receiving;-and what is all this, but the very impression which Christianity declares shall be produced in the heart of every willing student of her records? What is this but an inward witness to its truth?

"But I have more: I have had many answers to my prayers-I have sought grace, and I have found it. I have implored teaching, and it has been granted. I have asked for the Holy Spirit and I have not asked in vain. I have begged of God for strength and wisdom and consolation; and I have obtained these blessings.

"More than this: I am a monument, unworthy as I am to speak on such a theme, of the power and grace of the gospel. It has brought me, or at least is bringing me, as I trust, from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God. It has changed my proud and stubborn heart. It has already made me happy to a certain extent in believing,

and it sets before me a crown of glory which fadeth not

away.

"And as to the holy influence of Christianity, is it not already apparent in me? Am I not more virtuous, more contented in my mind, more diligent in my calling, more tender in my family, more subdued in my tempers and conduct than I was before?

"And as to the prospects of the future, have I not a dawn of hope? Is not something of the peculiar glory and excellency of the gospel apparent to me, and is it not inviting me onwards? Have I not support under afflictions here, and a humble expectation of beholding my God in peace hereafter?

"What more, then, do I need? I formerly talked of the evidences of Christianity; but I never sought to be satisfied upon safe grounds. I formerly inquired, but with a wish not to find the religion true. I formerly scorned the devotional spirit, and the distinguishing doctrines, and the pure morals of Christianity: I had my reward. I found no peace; I found no satisfying conviction; I remained a proud, careless, discontented, unhappy creature; I was living in the practice of many vices, and in the omission of many duties. But now I am at peace; now I pursue after holiness; now I acquiesce, at least I desire to do so, in the will, the whole revealed will of God; now I ascribe it to the undeserved goodness of God, that I was led in earnest to make this inquiry, which I trust will issue in salvation.

"I am now only ashamed of my former perverseness and rebellion of heart; I mourn that I should so long have resisted truth, hardened my conscience, grieved the blessed Spirit, and provoked God. I lament also over my present weakness of faith, irresolution, inconsistency. But I feel that Christianity has fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, all its promises to its disciples. I feel that it makes me a better man; that it keeps me from sin; that it urges me to duty; that it provides me with resources of pardon and strength; unites me to my Saviour; makes my heart a temple of the Holy Ghost, and gives me an anticipation of eternal glory. Whatever others may do, I shall hold by the Christian doc