contend against Him at all, is to exemplify that desperation of wickedness, with which we are so unwilling to confess ourselves chargeable: for what is wickedness, if it be not opposing infinite excellence? How does a good man feel, after emerging, like the Psalmist, from the hell of such contention? So foolish was I and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee What riches of forbearance in God, to spare the creature's life who rises up against Him! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherd of the earth, but wo to him that striveth with his Maker! Let God do what He may, man should be dumb, and open not his mouth, just because God hath done it. But to find fault with His conduct, in a particular wherein his goodness cannot be duly celebrated, even by the praises of eternity; to make this, above all other things, the matter of our complaint; ought we not to be ashamed and confounded at the recollection that we have been guilty of such madness?—And, my brethren, we are involved in this guilt, to a greater extent than at first thought may appear. Every sin we commit carries this guilt in its nature. We are not sooner born, than we are met by the provision against our depravity and ruin, which God's boundless mercy hath made for the fallen race. All its advantages of superabounding grace are at hand the instant they are needed, and a life of sin is but one perpetual rejection of these infinite advantages. Each separate sin expresses new contempt of them. This is the grand condemnation of mankind. Having destroyed

themselves, they reproach the High and Holy One with the blame of their destruction; while He stretches out the hand of deliverance to them all the day long, and strives with them by His Spirit to conquer their aversion to His character and kingdom.

Such is man-self-justifying, God-accusing man. I that speak this am a man myself, and am aware that I pronounce my own shame. But I stand here to bear witness to the truth; and would that I had a voice which could distinctly and convincingly sound out this truth to every creature under heaven, who hath an ear to hear. It is a truth, of which all will be one day convinced. The period of contradiction and gainsaying is approaching, when every mouth shall be stopped, and all the world confess themselves guilty before God. O that I could give one solemn warning of that fast-coming period, to every living man. But it is only to you that my voice can cry. Think me not an enemy, because I tell you the truth. I bring against you the charge of desperate wickedness in the sight of God. This message God has put into my mouth, and commanded me to deliver to every soul that hears me this day. It is the accusation of God Himself. Plead guilty to it, and with lowly and sincere cries for mercy, cast yourselves down at the feet of your Almighty Sovereign and Judge; and there is hope concerning you, for there is forgiveness with Him. Show resentment or indifference at the accusation, and I will presently tell you the result.

Plead guilty, but not with a faltering tongue, or with an unconvinced, unhumbled, unbroken spirit. If you do not feel yourselves guilty, to confess yourselves so is but to mock Him who knows your heart. And what can hinder a sense of guilt? Are there no witnesses against you? Cannot memory gather round you a host of witnesses? Let me awaken memory by two or three questions. Can you count the number of the secret murmurs against God, by which you have impeached the goodness of His character and the rectitude of His government, as really as open and formal accusations would have done? Has there been no complaining, no profaneness in your tongue? But if no hidden feeling of rebellion has polluted your breast, and no expression of enmity escaped your lips-unlikely supposition-yet let me ask once more, what manner of life have you pursued? Worldliness, sensuality, ambition, forgetfulness of God, deadness to the glory and love of Christ, neglect of the soul, bible slighted, sabbath-profanations, conscience defiled, convictions stifled, the Spirit quenched-come up, ye various forms of wickedness, come ye up out of the forgotten past, and stand in order before the face of these hard-hearted men. Behold, my hearers, how many they are that witness against you. The multitude is innumerable. And what do they prove concerning you? That you are rebels, against the law which Adam violated?. no: not breakers of the covenant of innocence and justice, but breakers, despisers, renouncers all your lifetime, from

-renouncers of

the grace of Then hear which now

the first dawn of intelligence until nowthe covenant of the exceeding riches of God. Have you still no sense of sin? one word more. The constitution of grace, suffers you to go at large, carrying ever about with you your hardness and impenitency of heart, is not, as now administered, God's rule of judgment for eternity. An-. other order of things will one day be established. A day is now in God's view, and will soon pour its amazing light on the eyes of all, both quick and dead, called in scripture, the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. It is the day for setting up the third and last form of the divine administration. Then will begin an economy which will never end, and never change. That portion of mankind who then shall be found to have submitted to God's rule now in force, shall inherit the blessedness of which mention has been made in this discourse. But now let me declare the inheritance of the hard-hearted. The infinite grace which they now pervert and abuse, will turn their accuser, and God will make inquisition for every indignity, which, in thought, word, or deed, they shall have committed against it. He will show himself as great in majesty and righteousness, as he now appears in mercy. And as once a world perished by the waters of a flood, so the entire multitude of the wicked, angels and men, shall then be doomed to everlasting fire, and the smoke of their torment will ascend forever and ever.

DISCOURSE IV.

THE NECESSITY OF ATONEMENT.

HEBREWS IX. 22.-" Without shedding of blood is no remission."

REMISSION of sins stands connected, in the holy scriptures, with the shedding of the blood of Jesus, as the atoning cause. Of this leading article of the christian faith, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews urges the shedding of the blood of animals in sacrifice as the grand type, and the undeniable evidence. By the divine institution and design of the typical atonement under the law, he establishes the truth of the real atonement effected by the death of Jesus Christ.

Atonement always supposes a party offending and a party offended. It supposes that the offended holds the offender justly bound to suffer penal consequences as merited by the offence. It supposes that for the