man, is commanded to be proclaimed "to all nations" for the obedience of faith. § 8. The foundation of the gospel call to evangelical repentance for the remission of sins, and to cordial faith in Christ for justification, is "Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" "who was made sin" (i. e. a sin offering) "for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God" (i. e. constituted righteous by the righteousness which God has provided) "in him" who is "the Lord our righteousness." This message of reconciliation, "to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, without imputing their trespasses unto them," was the great means of conversion in the apostolic days, and has been ever since. By this, "God caused them to triumph in every place." It is a message worthy of God; of sovereign (i. e. arbitrary) grace, in its provision; and of his equitable government, in the manner of dispensing it. § 9. Man, in every stage of his existence, being indispensably obliged to obey the call of God, who is incapable of proposing inequitable terms of compliance, requires of every one to whom the message is addressed, unreserved submission; "to shake off his sins by repentance," with the promise of pardon, and to "submit to the righteousness of God" by faith for acceptance: and as mankind are already under the sentence of condemnation for the breach of divine law, both as a covenant and as a rule; by their refusal of the appointed plan of mercy, their condemnation is not only confirmed, but also aggravated. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light." 10. Notwithstanding this general provision, God has not relinquished his right of access to the human heart, "to turn it as rivulets of water." He can make it hunger and thirst after righteousness, and direct it to himself as the source of its happiness, while the will is left perfectly free in its choice. Though man in his sinful depravity has no claim upon God for any supernatural influence, God must relinquish his essential character of a gracious sovereign, before he can give up his right of influencing the hearts of men, under the direction of infinite wisdom. He is gracious and merciful in proposing conditions so advantageous to the fallen creature; and who shall say to him "What doest thou?" if he proceed still further with some, and open their hearts, and shine into their minds, and implant in them the spirit of faith? How can he, in this, be unjust to others, while all are under the same condemnation? Has he not a sovereign (or arbitrary) right to confer his favours on whom he pleases, when all alike are destitute of just claim? § 11. If it be urged, that this distinction in favour of some bears hard upon others, I ask, how, and why? There would be some force in the objection, if they were willing to comply with the terms proposed, and God unwilling: but if he is infinitely gracious and sincere in the terms proposed, and urges them with promises "exceeding great and precious;" if he puts no hindrance of any kind in the way, but removes innumerable stumbling-blocks and difficulties; "are not his ways equal, and their ways unequal?" May he not say to them, as he said of old to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the men of Judah, " "Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? No one can question that it was in the right and power of a gracious sovereign, to take away from that people "the heart of stone, and to give them a heart of flesh"-to "put his fear in their hearts" and Isa. v. 4. "his Holy Spirit within them," that they might "not depart from him" - without depriving him of his essential character of supreme Benefactor. Yet this did not exculpate them, because they had every requisite to constitute their obligation to comply; otherwise, what meaning can there be in those and similar expostulations? To suppose that the restoration of a spiritual principle, once possessed, but since forfeited and lost, is the basis of moral obligation, is a sentiment fraught with endless absurdities, though this, however, is not the place to point them out. - 12. Every one to whom the gospel is addressed is under obligation to seek the blessings it proposes, as well as to obey the precepts it contains; such as, remission of sin, by repentance; acceptance into divine favour, by faith; gracious assistance, by prayer; holy conformity to Jesus Christ, by the use of all appointed means; and everlasting life, by walking in the ways of wisdom and universal obedience. These blessings flow through Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And were there no sense in which Christ "gave himself a ransom" for all those who are morally obliged to seek these blessings for his sake, I acknowledge that there would not be an adequate basis for their obligation to do so. If Jesus Christ, in no sense, lived and died for their sake, how can they be obliged to seek these blessings for his mediation sake? Without adequate means, or objective sufficiency of merit, ready to be laid to their account on compliance, how could they be consistently exhorted to seek them?since it is unworthy of God to propose to them, on any terms, what was in no sense intended for them. It is idle to say, that they are obliged to obey the command of God, until it can be shewn that he requires men to believe a falsehood. I know it has been observed, that God requires no man to believe that Christ died for him, in particular; but for sinners. But if he died for sinners indefinitely, is not each individual included in that indefinite number? And if by "sinners" be meant a definite number, how can every sinner to whom the gospel comes, be laid under an indefinite obligation, to seek these blessings for the sake of what Christ has done and suffered? 13. These considerations, among many others, constrain me to regard the blessed Saviour, in the whole of his mediatorial undertaking, as the great ordinance of God, proposed to mankind without imitation, for the sake of whom they are encouraged to seek all the blessings they require. If they need an atoning sacrifice, a justifying righteousness, in short, |