out of his hands, and that he treats with men as creatures free to stand or free to fall as before; all this is repugnant to truth, to fact, and to experience, and particularly to that constitution, or covenant, or kingdom, of grace, into which sinners are brought, as into the ark of old, and by means of which they can only be saved from that destruction, which ere long will overwhelm the earth. We are told, and we feel, that this is a fallen, evil, helpless, and miserable, world; and therefore is not and cannot be as God

made it, in any moral sense; it is a world, now in a state of rebellion against its Creator; a world, lying in open and avowed wickedness, or the wicked one; a world naturally and continually full of enmity against God and against the most solemn truths revealed by him; a world, in short, immersed in sin, averse to true holiness, already under legal condemnation for

its atrocities, and reserved only till the covenant of grace shall be completed on the one hand, and the measure of iniquity be filled up on the other. Now, if we represent such a world as this to be capable of perfectly moral duty, or, in other words, of obeying the law of its first creation, and thereby entitled, in any degree, to a reward or approbation of the Supreme Governor of the universe, according to the supposed plan of moral government; can we be otherwise than greatly deceived? Do we not, in that case, virtually set aside the Gospel, and pervert the principle of its institution? The declared purpose of this is, to show mercy and to grant pardon, according to the counsel of God, to poor condemned criminals, shut up in prison, and under the bondage of Satan, called the prince of the power of the air, and the god of this world, without strength, in themselves, and

even without will, to do"one valid act towards their release. Doth not the strong-one armed keep his goods in peace, though wrongfully obtained, till the one, who is stronger than he, shall come upon him and recover his own? Is not this the divine representation of man's present state? And is it not amply confirmed by evident proofs and experience? And' is there any escape from this calamitous situation, but by the powerful grace of God, according to the plan he has made known, and through the redemption of Christ as the means of accomplishing it? Surely not. Therefore, he that believeth not is condemned already as a rebel, a traitor, an enemy to God and his law; and, continuing in unbelief, remains only for final decision or execution, through the jus tice of that law, to which some people have had the presumption to appeal for the rectitude of their lives.

On

the

the other hand, he that believeth is justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law; he is rescued from its sentence by the ransom of its Purifier or Redeemer, and now comes to the heavenly throne under quite a new constitution, not of nature, such as stood before the fall, but of divine and unfailing grace, in which, through adoption, God is become his Father, Christ his brother dear and precious, and the Holy Spirit his assured Comforter, Sanctifier, and Guide. How different is this method of salvation, this kingdom of Christ, of light, and of heaven, this fold and field enclosed, this covenant of the divine persons, (all of them terms expressive of distinction or separation,) in Jehovah, as laid down by God himself in his word! how widely different from that scheme of moral government, invented by man's reason; which excludes all grace, by putting all men

into a state of full capacity and adequate advantages, contrary to fact; and which represents God as trying, by natural causes, to banish sin out of the earth, which has never yet been done; yea, as sending the Gospel itself chiefly for that purpose, though millions never had it extended to them, or even heard of it? These contradictions who can reconcile? If man were left to stand or to fall according to his own moral conduct, no man living could be saved; for, in God's sight, considered as a judge only, no man living could be justified. The fact indeed is, God prevents, by his interposition, much evil from wicked men and wicked spirits; or the world itself could not stand, nor his own designs of salvation be accomplished. But he saves men, and grants eternal life, upon a very different ground from that of being a civil judge or moral

governor