To Beings in such a state, there is a Voice-a Voice celestial-more delightful to the ear of those, who are not "like the deaf adder," than the softest, sweetest strains of Melody-more enchanting to the soul, than all the joys of earth—which proclaims the glad tidings, of what? of

SALVATION.

This was the theme and song of the angelic Choir-the multitude of the heavenly host-when they descended from the mansions of bliss, to hail their incarnate God in the most lovely, benevolent, and condescending character of, “A SAVIOUR-which is Christ, the Lord*."

entire Depravity of man: though few more generally, or more resolutely, opposed. Permit a single question on this point. Can they be taught by the same divine Instructor, who do not subscribe to the humble and ingenuous Confession of that great Character, which said, as in Rom. vii. 18?

*No person therefore ought to be accredited by us, as a Minister of Christ, sent forth by him to "shew unto us the way of Salvation," who does not direct us to HIM.

I am therefore speaking only the compendious sense of the whole Book of God

And, for what? That we may be brought into a State of Salvation: or, that we may be actually delivered by Him, from all those miseries, which are the consequence of our apostacy from God, and be conducted to the possession and enjoyment of all those spiritual Blessings, the Fulness of which it hath pleased the Father should dwell in Him. Consult Gal. iii. Eph. i. 3. Col. i. 18, 19.

Should not the public Teachers of our Religion keep this characteristic distinction of the Scriptures principally and constantly in eye-that they are "The Word of Salvation?" And, why "the Word of Salvation?" Because, it gives an account of Christ, the Author of Salvation: and of the Salvation itself; that it is great, perfect, and everlasting and of the Persons, who are interested in it: and because, it is not only the Mean of revealing it—but, of applying it, to them that believe. Rom. i. 16. The Gospel itself, strictly taken, is a pure Promise of Salvation by Christ: and, if a Man has a right understanding of this, he is in a capacity to be wiser, and better, and happier, than if he were intimately acquainted with the whole contents of the once celebrated Library of the Ptolemies in Alexandria. This is no bombast: it will stand the test of Reason, in its strongest exercise. Put it to the trial.

Sola Scriptura ultimum finem designat, nempe unionem cum Deo, et media suppeditans accommodata, viam sternit nunquam tritam ab humana prudentia. Sola imaginem Dei obliteratam instaurat. Sola viam indicat ad Salutem. Sanctis cogitationibus animum imbuit,

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of which, this indeed is the great line of life-when I affirm, that SALVATION, is the complete Deliverance of Man from all the shame, the degradation, and the miseries, of his Fall from original righteousness, and felicity. It is his Deliverance from a state of moral depravity, of humiliating guilt, of eternal destruction, by the Restoration of his soul, to the Favour-to the Image-and to the Glory of GOD: all which are inseparably connected, by his sovereign Constitution, "who worketh all things after the council of his own Will."

From this very brief statement of what the simple dictates of The word of God, undisguised, and unsophisticated by any human alloy, oblige us to understand, by Salvation, I advance to the next link in this golden Chain*.

frænat appetitus, Dei timore timorem hominum pellit, vehementiore animi affectu minores motus comprimens et quasi absorbens.

• Which, however unclassical it may be deemed, we suppose to deserve at least as much attention, as that,

SECTION II.

Mankind are not their own Saviours: they do not save themselves: they are saved.

Were it otherwise, and could Mankind, by any innate power or agency, recover the forfeited Favour of the divine Being-impress the Image of their Creator on their own spirits and entitle themselves to a seat in his everlasting Glory, how much of what has been attested by Moses, and the Prophets, by the Evangelists, and the Apostles, might with the strictest propriety be expunged! Upon the admission. of this impious falsehood, the most valuable part of what they have inserted might

which the Grecian bard imagined to be suspended from the throne of Jupiter. All the movements of the divine Providence in the government of the world are indeed only so many links in that series of Events, which depend entirely upon the Aos Bean, which he understood but blindly. Providentia Dei est Virtus divina rerum omnium gubernatrix, per quam Deus fines, et media ad fines, ab æterno præscivit et præordinavit, et ex arbitrio disponit.

very safely be considered as nugatory, and useless. But, God forbid! and let every thing fall down before the Reason and Philosophy of infinite Wisdom, as Dagon once fell at the approach of "The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord."

The truth is-and, "Let GOD be true," but every Man, who shall be so daring, and presumptuous, as to contradict him, "a Liar"-we can none of us save Ourselves, in any degree, or measure; we can have no part, or lot, in this matter. And, why not? On account of our inherent and moral corruption: which, we are taught by One, who cannot be mistaken, and will never deceive, is so exceeding great, as to be compared to a spiritual death, or, a being "dead in trespasses and sins *:"

* It may be as well, to particularize here only a few of the most unequivocal Symptoms of this moral or spirit ual Death, for the benefit of those, who chuse rather to indulge a spirit of Self-imposition, than to exercise that, of Self-inspection. Who, that does not know his own Heart, would expect to find there the radical semina of Avarice-Ambition-Blasphemy-Cruelty-D8