ed, unbelieving, unconverted, unregenerated neighbours be clothed in the beautiful robes of immortality, and shine as brilliantly in the righteousness of God in the eternal world as we? We who have borne the burden and heat of the day, we who have been regenerated and born of the spirit, who have believed in Jesus and laboured in his cause, are we to be placed on a level with these spiritually blind, halt, and leprous? Could we be persuaded into this belief, we would at once forsake the religion of Christ, his divine commands we would treat with utter neglect, our sinful propensities should all be gratified, and sensual indulgence should be our constant employ. The sabbath, the sanctuary, the holy services of devotion would be all beneath our notice, there would be left no inducement to deny ourselves and to bear the cross of Christ. In one word, if you take away the awful penalty of eternal punishment for unbelief and sin, we would not believe in Jesus, nor would we obey his laws. The substance of all this, my brethren, is constantly held up and earnestly contended for by the professed enemies of the faith we profess, and the holy vocation to which we have been called. The foregoing insinuations are practised on minds naturally feeble and habitually timid; the fond, the pious matron is told, that if the dreadful penalty of endless punishment be not enforced on the minds of her sons and daughters, she has no right to expect them to be either religious or virtuous. It is contended that this penalty is an indispensable requisition, in the cause of religion and morality, and that to deny it is to open the door of impiety, and every sinful practice. Let us ask the question, whether the author and finisher of our faith undertook the work of man's redemption, whether he faithfully laboured and suffered in this cause under the penalty of eternal condemnation. Did he behold in his adorable father a lowering vengeance which threatened his eternai banishment from his father and his God, if he refused the mighty undertaking? It can hardly be necessary to explain how this question relates to our subject. The hearer already discovers, that if such a penalty was not necessary in the commencement of this ministration, it cannot be in the prosecution of it; if it was unnecessary to induce the captain of our salvation, why is it necessary to engage the disciple? Surely it was not to purchase his father's love, that the son of God condescended to become poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich, for this he fully possessed before. The testimony of the father is, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." Not to purchase eternal glory, life, and immortality, did Jesus undertake the work of man's salvation; for of all this was he an heir before the foundation of the world. Never did the blessed redeemer inform his disciples that the dreadful penalty of everlasting destruction lay before him; and that to avoid the indescribable catastrophe he must do the whole work of him who sent him. And as he gave no intimation of any such penalty for himself, so he never made use of it as a mean to induce any one to become his disciple, or to continue faithful to his cause. : But why was this penalty unnecessary to engage the captain of our salvation, to undertake, and to prosecute effectually our redemption? Answer the love which he had for our sinful world, was sufficient to induce him to give himself a ransom for all men. If it be an undeniable maxim with the philosopher, that in accounting for any of the phenomena of nature. no more cause should ever be sought than what is adequate to the effect, may we not with equal propriety contend, that if we have found a sufficient cause for any of the divine phenomena of the dispensation of grace, we expose ourselves to err by seeking after other causes in the regions of imagination; The scriptures account for the cause of man's redemption as follows: "Herein is love, not tha. we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins." Because God loved us he sent his son to be every thing to us, which by grace he is made; such as "Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption." And as this love in God towards man was sufficient to produce this unspeakably glorious event, there was no need of any other cause, no other can be found. No other can possibly exist. For if this cause was sufficient, and did produce the effect, it was not produced by a different cause. As a motive which moved Jesus to die for man, the divine testimony explicitly declares, that "he loved us and gave himself for us." The love of Christ to sinners, is assigned as the cause, which moved him to give himself for us. If this was the cause, and if this cause did produce in him a willingness, then we have no occasion to seek for any other; nor can there be any other cause, that is, no other distinct from this. What was the "joy that was set before him," for which he "endured the cross, despising the shame?" It was the accomplishment of the glorious object for which he laboured. "He loved the Church and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." The joy that was set before him, was a world redeemed, sanctified, cleansed, and glorified in the Lord our righteousness. This object perfectly answered to the love which he had for the world; it was all his love for us desired. And when in pursuit of this soul rejoicing object, and in possession of full assurance respecting obtaining the end of his labours and suf ferings, he despised all the shame, all the contempt and abuse which he received from his enemies. This consummate joy which was set before Jesus rendered all his labours and all his sufferings his meat and his drink. "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." "We have seen and do testify, that the father sent the son to be the Saviour of the world." "He shall save his people from their sins." "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. "For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." That is, saved from sin, from unbelief, from idolatry, from moral darkness, and all the evils of unreconciliation to God. For "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing to them their trespasses." It may be proper to remark, that the Saviour was appointed, not to prevent the wicked from becoming blind, or the transgressor from going into prison, but "to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that set in darkness out of the prison house." The Saviour's grace was not designed to prevent that death which was the curse of the law from coming upon the transgressor, " But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." Such was the object of the Saviour's labours and sufferings, and such was the joy and reward set before him, concerning which it is written, "He shall see of the travel of his soul, and shall be satisfied, for by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. We may now advert to some of the examples which the Apostle has seen fit to associate in our context. For instance, Abraham: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive as an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of prom ise as in a strange country; dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure." Was Abraham threatened with eternal condemnation, with everlasting torments in the future world if he refused to obey God? Did the God of Abraham put him on trial between the penalty of eternal misery, or the offering up of Isaac? Have we the least intimation that Abraham's faith or obedience was the effect of such a penalty? Surely we have not. Abraham's faith was the effect of the divine promise, accompanied with miraculous evidence, and his obedience was the effect of his love of God, and his confidence in his unalterable word. He was fully persuaded, that he who had promised him his son, and had fulfilled that promise notwithstanding the natural improbability of the event, could if he pleased, raise the darling of his soul from death, and make him a great nation, and in him bless all the nations of the earth. Perhaps our limits will allow us to notice what is said of Moses. "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches, than the treasures in Egypt. How shall we account for this remarkable choice of Moses? When an infant he was lodged among the flags, by the brink of the Nile, while his little sister Miriam watched afar off to see what would be the fate of the child. There lay the future Saviour and deliverer of his people. Pharaoh's daughter came to the place, |