awakened conscience sought for ease and deliverance, then they found they were helpless and without strength, They could take no step, nor do anything, which could in the least save them from their sins. Whatever method they thought of, it failed them upon, trial, and left conscience more uneasy than before. Did they purpose to repent? They found such a repentance, as God would be pleased with, was the gift of Christ. He was exalted to. be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance. Suppose they thought of reforming their lives, yet what is to become of their old sins? Will present obedience, if it could be perfectly paid, make any atonement for past disobedience? Will the broken law take part of our duty for the whole? No. It has determined, that whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. Let him be ever so careful in doing what the law requires, or in avoiding what the law forbids, let him fast and pray and give alms, hear and read the word, be early and late at ordinances, yet the enlighted conscience cannot be herewith satisfied; because by these duties he cannot undo the

sins committed, and because he will find so many failings in them, that they will be still adding to his guilt and increasing his misery.

What method then shall he take? The more he strives to make himself better, the worse he finds himself. He sees the pollution of sin greater. He discovers more of its guilt. He finds in himself a want of all good, and an inclination to all evil. He is now convinced that the law is holy, just, and good, but when he would keep it, evil is present with him. This makes him deeply sensible of his guilty helpless state, and shews him that by the works of the law he cannot be saved. His heart, like a fountain, is continually sending forth evil thoughts, yea the very imaginations of it are only and altogether evil, and words and works partake of the nature of that evil fountain from whence they flow: so that after all his efforts he cannot quiet his conscience nor attain peace with God.

The law having done its office, as a school-master, by convincing him of these truths, stops his mouth that he has not a word to say, why sentence should not be passed upon him. And there it leaves

him, guilty and helpless. It can do nothing more for him, than shew him that he is a child of wrath, and that he deserves to have the wrath of God abiding upon him for ever.

The gospel finds him in this condition, as the good Samaritan did the wounded traveller, and brings him good news. It discovers to him the way of salvation contrived in the covenant of grace, and manifests to him what the ever blessed Trinity had therein purposed, and what in the fulness of time was accomplished,

That all

the perfections of the Godhead might be infinitely and everlastingly glorified, the Father covenanted to gain honour and dignity to his law and justice, to his faithfulness and holiness, by insisting upon man's appearing at his bar in the perfect righteousness of the law. But man having no such righteousness of his own, all having sinned, and there being none righteous, no not one; how can he be saved? The Lord Christ, a person in the Godhead co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, undertook to be his Saviour. He covenanted to stand up as the head and the surety of his people, in their nature and in their stead.

То

obey for them, that by his infinitely precious obedience many might be made righteous, and to suffer for them, that by his everlastingly meritorious stripes they might be healed. Accordingly, in the fullness of time he came into the world, and was made flesh, God and man being as truly united in one person, as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man. This adorable person lived, and suffered, and died, as the representative of his people. The righteousness of his life was to be their right and title to life, and the righteousness of his sufferings and death was to save them from all the sufferings due to their sins. And thus the law and justice of the Father would be glorified in pardoning them, and his faithfulness and holiness made honourable in saving them. He might be strictly just, and yet the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.

In this covenant, the holy Spirit, a person co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Son, undertook the gracious office of quickening and convincing sinners in their consciences, how guilty they were, and how much they wanted a Saviour, and in their judgments how able he was to save

all that come unto God through him, and in their hearts to receive him, and to believe unto righteousness, and then in their walk and conversation to live upon his grace and strength. His office is thus described by our blessed Lord in John xvi. 13, 14. "When the Spirit of truth is "come he shall glorify me: for he shall "take of mine, and shall shew it unto

you;" that is, when he comes to convince sinners of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment, he takes of the things of Christ, and glorifies him by shewing them what a fullness there is in him to save. He leads them into all necessary truth in their judgments, both concerning their own sinfulness, guilt, and helplessness, and also concerning the power of the God-man, and his lawful authority to make use of it for their salvation. He opens their understandings to comprehend the covenant of grace, and the offices of the eternal Trinity in this covenant, particularly the office of the sinner's surety,the Lord Christ; and he convinces them that there is righteousness, and strength,comfort and rejoicing, grace for grace, holiness and glory, yea treasures, infinite, everlasting treasures of these in