its consequences any thing less than perdition; lest it should be presumed, that in his essential holiness, God is not a consuming fire to the guilty; (the sword of justice pierced through the Surety's heart, and the Son of God bled beneath his Father's hand! Oh! most astonishing, but most blessed and effectual display of divine love! Now is the fountain of mercy opened, never to be closed again! now are the glad tidings of great joy sounded through the world! now may the most worthless, abandoned, lost, degraded of human beings lift up his downcast eyes, and exclaim, "God can be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; for the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.".

But in the delineation of the gospel salvation, we must not pause at this point, we must ask what the term salvation does in fact imply? To elucidate the question, a previous question must be asked; what is the destruction to which salvation stands opposed? Now that destruction refers to two evils; the loss of happiness, as arising from internal and ungodly passions, which like the troubled sea, cannot rest; and the loss of happiness as arising from the wrath of God "revealed," and at length to be inflicted on all unrighteousness of men." Any deliverance, therefore, which shall be effectual to the end proposed, must

meet these two disasters. It must avert wrath; and it must dry up the sources of ungodliness. It must remit the penalty; and it must give back the dispositions which insure repose of mind. Nor can one of these blessings to fallen creatures be made the condition of the right to the other. To suspend salvation from wrath, upon the condition of repentance and holy affections, would be, in fact, to shut men up in endless despair; would be to bid a bankrupt come for the free remission of his debt, whenever he might stand possessed of vast resources which are utterly inaccessible to his reach. Now the gospel does meet, and that fully, both these evils. We have already seen how it provides a pardon for the guilty; how it delivers from wrath. It will immediately appear, how it recovers to holiness, or to a disposition for happiness, all those from whom it averts wrath. There is a passage in the epistle to the Hebrews, which exactly expresses the statement I wish to make. "But now," saith the apostle, when contrasting the Levitical priesthood with the priesthood of Christ, “but now, hath he obtained a more excellent ministry; by how much also he is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their

mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." In this passage of Scripture, the engraving of the law upon the heart, or the restoration of holy love to God, is as much described to be an act of the divine prerogative, as the oblivion of offences. Both are the distinguished and peculiar blessings attached to the covenant, of which Jesus Christ is the Mediator; and both are essential to the very notion of salvation. He who should separate the two, and cling exclusively to either, can never find peace. If he should embrace the offer of a free pardon, and be reckless of that holiness which is necessary to the enjoyment of God's favour, he turns the grace of God into licentiousness, and deludes his soul to perdition. If on the other hand, he should labour to work in himself the dispositions which are pleasing to God, and should reject the gracious promise of a full and unconditional remission of offences, he robs Christ of his glory, and perishes beneath the ruins of the selfrighteous fabric which he is proudly endeavouring to rear! Let it then never be forgotten, that the gospel promises both favour and holiness; that while it tells us, that "we have an advocate with the Father," it tells us also,

This

"we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." is the undeviating process of the divine compassion. Never does pardon cheer the guilty, where sanctification does not cleanse the polluted. Holiness is the element of happiness; holiness is the evidence of forgiveness. The possession of these blessings draws the grand line of demarcation between the real and the nominal church of Christ. Those who compose the true church are "justified by faith;" and "the Spirit of the Son is put within their hearts, whereby they cry," in the awful familiarity of affection, Abba, Father."

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The history before us confirms the one part of this statement as strongly as the other. The parable we have considered proclaimed the grace of God. The actions of the penitent, in reference to whom the parable was spoken, attest the accompanying gift of holiness. "Her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved," or, to suit our Lord's own argument rather, "she loveth much;" that is, her love is the evidence of her pardon. These actions of love were manifest. Her's was that broken and contrite heart, "which God will not despise;" her's was that sense of shame, which pressed her down to the very dust; her's was that desire of mercy, which led her gladly to the only foun

tain of mercy; hers was that gratitude which wanted language to unfold its feelings; hers was that faith which kept her at the Saviour's feet, lest hope should abandon her for ever; hers was, in fine, that love which, shed abroad in her heart by the Holy Ghost, inspired her with new and resolute desires, to live no longer to herself, but to God! Thus she stood a wonderous monument of divine compassion and power! "And he said unto the woman, thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace!"

But lest any humble child of God, through weakness of faith, and the subtlety of Satan, should draw a conclusion from this statement destructive of his own consolation, I must yet add to it a few words. I have said that holiness uniformly accompanies forgiveness. I would remark farther, that this holiness, though \ entire as to its principle, is not complete as to its operation. It is in heaven that "the spirits of the just are made perfect." On earth, there is a mournful conflict between "the law in the members," and "the law of the mind;" between the carnal and the spiritual nature. Let no one, therefore, who is "hungering and thirsting after righteousness," and to whom the gospel salvation is infinitely "precious," be discouraged because he experiences this conflict. "It is through much tribulation he is to enter into the kingdom of heaven;" but his final vic

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