aspect, adaptation, bearing, and tendency of things, and they regard such arrangements as pretty clearly denoting to them the mind and the purpose of their Maker and providential Governor. In all their speculations and transactions they never make a supposed unrevealed decree their rule, because "the bow in the cloud” vindicates the purposes of God from any suspicion of hostility to their "seed time and harvest time." Let us be as wise in our generation; and in our spiritual transactions believe, that the atonement of Christ vindicates all the decrees of God from any aspect opposed to the published declaration, "Him that cometh I will nowise cast out."

The purposes or decrees of God are revealed and published in the nature, tendency, and meaning of the things which he commands, or offers, or prohibits. To suppose any design or purpose opposite to these, is to suppose the most horrible monstrosity in the universe,— God contradicting himself.

It is true that in numerous instances the event is very different from the design and purpose declared. In a moral government, during an economy of probation in which millions of free agents are at work, such a difference and such a failure are to be expected. This assertion may sound startling, but try to evade it as you may, you can not avoid the conclusion, that the moral government of free agents in a state of trial, must be susceptible of failures. It is a FACT that such failures have taken place; and to attempt to wrest or alter this fact, is to try to change the universe.

The will of God is publicly revealed for public ends, and it is impossible to shew what private ends he can have, that are opposed to his public avowals. The universe is a public commonwealth. Of this commonwealth God is the public head, and chief member. In administering its affairs he does every thing in his official capacity and public character, as the Governor of it. All the measures proposed and executed in it are for the public good of the whole commonwealth. In its

government every wrong and every sin is treated, not as a private offence, but as a public injury, to be publicly noticed, whether in punishment or in pardon. As the public and official organ of this moral commonwealth, God has announced his purposes, requirements, prohibitions, offers, and invitations.

These form his PUBLIC WILL: public, not in opposition to secret, but in opposition to private or unofficial. I call this public will, as I call the great principle on which divine moral government is administered public justice; as consulting the public good of the commonwealth, as well as the private interests of individuals.

The atonement of Christ is a public vindication of this public will from any suspicion of insincerity. In the atonement all the promises, invitations and offers, are yea and amen in Christ, to the glory of the divine character and purposes. The nature of God, as the God of truth in real works and words of verity-the accurate adaptation of the provision to the case of the sinner-the actual experience of every applicant at the door of mercy-the perpetuation of gracious offers and invitations in the world, after so many forfeitures-the pressing earnestness with which men are invited and courted to accept them-the aggravated and sorer punishment which befals those who refuse them--and the worthy name and character of the Mediator, who reveals and confirms all these by his death; all these are "things in which it is impossible for God to lie," and which impress upon all his proposals and overtures the image and superscription of verily undissembling sincerity.

To suppose that the atonement is only a semblance of benevolence and love, put forth to impose on mankind, to mock the applicant, or to tantalize the inquiring penitent, is "to trample under foot the blood of the everlasting covenant." In the atonement there is provision purposely intended for all, and all are sincerely invited to partake of it freely. The all-sufficiency of the atonement is the foundation laid for the universal invitations of the gospel. An all-sufficiency, not in

tended for all who are invited to partake of it, is such an awful imposture that I grudge the ink that mentions it in connection with "the gospel of TRUTH."

If the atonement do not prove the faithfulness and sincerity of God, where shall we look for proof. Should we not shudder at the very surmise of God's using a mental reservation in the atonement of his own Son? and in the offers and invitations and assurances of his grace. Was the blessed Savior himself insincere in his laborious toil, his bloody sweat or ignominious death? No, he was full of grace and truth. If the character of God for sincerity, and the character of a theological system for consistency, come in competition, which must give way? In a well-ordered mind there cannot be a moment's hesitation. Let us rather renounce our theological systems, or confess our ignorance of the whole of the case, than suspect for a moment any mental reservation, insincerity, and dissimulation, either in the divine invitations, or in the divine purposes and counsels. In the atonement God has given a public testimony of his truth and sincerity; and "he that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true;" and let God be true, though all human theologians were liars.

Thirdly. The atonement vindicates the divine purposes from the charge of capricious arbitrariness and partiality, in the determination to impart sovereign and gracious influences.

The Bible asks the question, "Who maketh thee to differ?" On the answer to this question hang all the controversies in polemical theology. The Bible itself answers this question, "Unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, to believe on him." "God worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure." "God giveth the increase." That the difference in the spiritual conditions of men, and the change in men's hearts, is produced by divine influences, is asserted by the whole scripture, and is recognized in every one's prayers, though not in every one's creed.

It ought not to escape notice, that it is only in the transaction of saving a sinner, that men dare ask God, "Why doest thou this?" God has not "seen it good" to give a detailed account of this matter, or to answer the question, except, indeed with a warning voice, "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?" Nevertheless, he has introduced into his government the measure of atonement to be an interpretation of his purposes, and a vindication of his counsels against suspicions of unjust speciality, or unreasonable sovereignty.

The exercise of a sovereign speciality in the application of the atonement is indisputable. No hypothesis that admits the death of Christ to be an atonement, can deny this. There are in its application three instances of speciality which are signal, broad, and evident. There is a speciality in its application to mankind, to the exclusion of fallen angels. There is a speciality in its application to believers, to the exclusion of its rejecters. There is a third speciality, in the application of its benefits more largely to some believers than others, in proportion to their works and labors for Christ. I shall not enter now on a consideration of these subjects, as it will be more in place when we come to the chapter on the atonement in its relation to the work of the Spirit.

Here we have three well defined, indisputable instances of sovereign speciality in the application of the benefits of the death of Christ: What shall we do with them? How shall we evade them? They are not capricious, for they are the uniform laws observed in the appliIcation of the atonement. Shall we say that they are unjust, and that God has exercised a prerogative, in dispensing his favors, to which he had no right? Try it. Did you ever think that for God to take mercy on man, was really a wrong to the devils? Was converting Saul of Tarsus an evil in itself, and a wrong to all the pharisees? Is conferring gracious honors bountifully upon those who have sown bountifully, a wrong to those who have sown sparingly? Again, I say, here they are, three

prominent, stubborn, immoveable, and imperishable facts of speciality; what will you do with them? Betake yourself to the feet of Jesus Christ, and there learn to say, "Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." If there be no evil, injury, or wrong in the actual, practical, and tangible exercise of this speciality, there can be no evil, injury, or wrong, in purposing and determining thus to exercise it.

It may, perhaps, be surmised by some, that the determination to apply the atonement with this speciality was partial and capricious. Let us briefly consider the state of the case between God and man. God has a claim to the whole existence and to the entire service of man. Man, by sinning, revolts from these claims. Though man refuses these clainis, God still maintains and defends them. God, as moral governor, is not bound to give to a revolting subject a disposition to own his claims. The punishment of a revolter is due to the governor, for the ends of good government. The punishment due may be suspended, provided the ends of government be not thereby weakened; that is, provided some measure or expedient can be introduced, which will answer the same ends as the punishment of the criminal. Such a measure we have asserted the atonement of Christ to be a measure devised and instituted by God himself.

Here let us pause, and think-Can the moral governor justly arrange and determine, that this compensative measure shall not be altogether in vain—that it shall not entirely fail of the purposes for which it was introduced? What being or person will God wrong or injure by such a determination? Which of his attributes would be clouded by it? Would a greater good be secured, and more certainly secured, without such a determination? Would there have been less danger of the perdition of souls? Would men have been more sure of being saved? Would Christ have been more sure of his rewards, had such a determination been excluded from the divine counsels? These are questions not to be