in order, by whatever means it was done, to promote the attainment of salvation to mankind, and to each and every one of themselves, was a theme they dwelt upon with feelings of the warmest thankfulness; because they were feelings proportioned to the magnitude of the benefit. Earthly benefits are nothing compared with those, which are heavenly. That they

felt from the bottom of their souls. That, in my opinion, we do not feel as we ought: but feeling this, they never ceased to testify, to acknowledge, to express the deepest obligation, the most devout consciousness of that obligation, to their Lord and Master, to him whom, for what he had done and suffered, they regarded as the finisher of their faith, and the author of their Salvation.

SERMON XIX.

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ALL STAND IN NEED OF A REDEEMER.

(PART II)

HEBREWS ix. 26.

"Now once in the end of the world bath, be appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

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IN a former discourse upon this text I have shewn, first, that the scriptures expressly state the death of Jesus Christ as having an efficacy in the procurement of human salvation, which is not attributed to the death or sufferings of any other person, however patiently undergone, or undeservedly inflicted and further. it appears, that this efficacy is quite consistent

with our obligation to obedience; that good works still remain the condition of salvation, though not the cause; the cause being the mercy of Almighty God through Jesus Christ. There is no man living, perhaps, who has considered seriously the state of his soul, to whom this is not a consoling doctrine, and a grateful truth. But there are some situations of mind, which dispose us to feel the weight and importance of this doctrine more than others. These situations I will endeavour to describe; and, in doing so, to point out, how much more satisfactory it is to have a Saviour and Redeemer, and the mercies of our Creator, excited towards us, and communicated to us by and through that Saviour and Redeemer, to confide in and rely upon, than any grounds

of merit in ourselves.

First, then, souls which are really labouring and endeavouring after salvation, and with sincerity; such souls are every hour made sensible, deeply sensible, of the deficiency and imperfection of their endeavours. Had they

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no ground, therefore, for hope, but merit, that is to say, could they look for nothing more than what they should strictly deserve, their prospect would be very uncomfortable. I see not how they could look for heaven at all. They may form a conception of a virtue and obedience, which might seem to be entitled to a high reward: but when they come to review their own performances, and to compare them with that conception; when they see how short they have proved of what they ought to have been, and of what they might have been, how weak and broken were their best offices; they will be the first to confess, that it is infinitely for their comfort, that they have some other resource than their own righteousness. One infallible effect of sincerity in our endeavours is to beget in us a knowledge of our imperfections. The careless, the heedless, the thoughtless, the nominal christian feels no want of a Saviour, an intercessor, a mediator, because he feels not his own defects. Try in earnest to perform the duties of religion, and you will soon learn how incomplete your best perform

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performances are. I can hardly mention a branch of our duty, which is not liable to be both impure in the motive, and imperfect in the execution; or a branch of our duty, in which our endeavours can found their hopes of acceptance upon any thing but extended mercy, and the efficacy of those means and causes, which have procured it to be so extended.

In the first place, is not this the case with our acts of piety and devotion? We may admit, that pure and perfect piety has a natural

title to reward at the hand of God. But is ours ever such? To be pure in its motive, it ought to proceed from a sense of God Almighty's goodness towards us, and from no other source or cause or motive whatsoever. Whereas even pious, comparatively pious men, will acknowledge, that authority, custom, decency, imitation have a share in most of their religi ous exercises, and that they cannot warrant any of their devotions to be entirely independent of these causes. I would not speak disparag