lieve on the name of his Son Jesus Christ. This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."* The first commandment in the law is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." But as every prohibition requires the reverse of what it forbids; as the prohibition of murder and theft, requires the preservation of life and the exercise of brotherly kindness: the prohibition of having any other gods, obliges us to take the Lord for our God, and to employ him for all the blessed and glorious purposes for which an infinite and all-sufficient God can be applied and enjoyed. To have the Lord for our God is the same as to possess an interest in all the riches of redeeming mercy, and in all the fulness of the everlasting Gospel. This is the finishing, the crowning blessing in the dispensation of grace. What more could Adam in paradise have desired, or what more can an angel in the world of light enjoy, than to be united to the Most High, and have the Lord for his God? Yet, so far from being left in uncertainty about your right to go to the Saviour, and accept the unsearchable riches of his grace, by the clear and express authority of the great and eternal God, you are commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to take the Lord for your God.

And do you need a special warrant to do your duty? After we are plainly enjoined to search the Scriptures, to pray, to venerate the holy name of God, to reverence his sanctuary, and hallow his Sabbaths; is a new and additional warrant, written, signed, and sealed, by the hand of the Most High, necessary to authorize us to fulfil these obligations? And when we are so distinctly and forcibly enjoined to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus; what additional security can you demand to imbolden you to rely on the righteousness of Immanuel, and to take all the riches of redeeming love for your own?

If you make any dispute about the extent of the Gospel call, and the right of the sinner to go to the Saviour, and embrace all the fulness of the great salvation; I would like to know who has a right to search the Scriptures, to

* 1 John iii. 23. John vi. 29.

pray, to reverence the name of God, and keep holy his Sabbaths. If you can tell me who is discharged from the performance of the one duty; then, but not till then, I can tell you who is debarred from the other. If you can point out a man or a woman, who, in consequence of the greatness of their guilt, are forbidden, by express and positive statute, from searching the Scriptures, from praying, from reverencing the name of God, entering his house, or keeping holy his Sabbaths; then, but not till then, will I be able to point out a single individual, who, from the number and enormity of his crimes, is prohibited from coming to the adorable Redeemer, and claiming through him an interest in all the blessedness and glory of the great salvation. The calls of the Gospel are as wide as the requisitions of the law. If the last reach the farthest limits of the globe; the former also extend to the utmost ends of the earth. And the authority of Jehovah is just as great and as irresistible in the one, as in the other. The precept, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul," is not more clear and obligatory than the command that all men should repent and believe the Gospel. And till the magnitude of your offences shall release you from the obligation to love the Lord with your whole heart and soul, no amount of crimi nality can free you from the obligation to return to the Lord, and to believe on Jesus Christ whom he hath sent.

Thus, by the provisions of the everlasting Gospel, the blessings of salvation are rendered accessible to the whole human race; and it is as much the duty as the privilege of every man who hears them to embrace them: and it is at his peril, at the peril of his immortal soul, that he has the presumption and madness to reject them. And when it is thus rendered your duty to believe on the Son of God, will you contract any guilt, or incur any danger, by doing what he says; and, in compliance with his commandment, trusting in him, and resting on him? Will you be condemned for reading your Bibles, speaking the truth, and practising honesty? And will you be more exposed to condemnation for believing, in obedience to the injunction of the Most High, on the name of the Lord

Jesus Christ? Guilt and danger lie in disregarding the authority of God, but not in submitting to his will, and complying with his gracious requisitions.

Your guilt may be great and your iniquities abominable and horrid. But all unrighteousness is sin, and the wages of every sin is death. On the field of battle, some of the fallen may be more deeply wounded, and more hideously disfigured than others. But all the slain are equally dead: and while nothing less than Omnipotence can reanimate those who have been most slightly injured, this is able to revive those who have been most awfully torn and mangled. And though the transgressions of men are possessed of every different degree of criminality; yet by nature all are dead in trespasses and sins; and while nothing less than the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is able to save the most decent and harmless of our race, these are sufficient to save the vilest and most unworthy.

Can you argue that the number and enormity of your sins have placed you beyond the reach of mercy,

3. From his fervent expostulations with the most impenitent and profligate; his kind promises to all who return; and his dreadful denunciations against those who, from their carelessness and carnality, refuse to be reconciled to him through the blood of his Son?

Not satisfied with giving the most unlimited invitations, and the most positive commands to believe on the Saviour; he accompanies the whole with the most earnest and affectionate remonstrances with the impenitent and profligate. "What fruit had ye in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Turn.ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Much as you have done to provoke his indignation, he has no pleasure in your death. If you will only return to him, you shall live. Your guilt, however great, shall be forgiven; and your iniquities, however heinous, shall be blotted out. He does not ask, why you have polluted yourselves with

vice; why you have sinned against your own souls; rebelled against his authority, and involved yourselves in guilt and depravity: but why, by rejecting the great salvation, and all the provisions of his mercy, you will entail on yourselves the everlasting consequences of your crimes, and deprive yourselves of all the blessedness and glory of his kingdom?

Without excepting the most flagitious and atrocious offenders, he gives the most kind and unqualified assurances of a gracious reception to all who return. "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

you rest.

In order to rouse them to consideration, and reclaim them from the evil of their ways, and the ruin that attends them; he pours out the most awful denunciations against the profane and the hardened. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded: but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh."

Look at all this, and say, if he is not only willing to receive all who come to him, but even strongly set upon your salvation? When he has all power in heaven and in earth; when in a moment he could render a due reward to the wicked, and turn all the profane and profligate into hell; unless he is solicitous to secure your salvation, why does he bear, with so much long-suffering, all your provocations and sins? Why does he give you line upon line, and precept upon precept, and bless you with all that is necessary to ensure your present and eternal welfare? Why did he assume our nature; sojourn as a man of sorrows in this world of guilt and woe; submit to the ago

nies of Gethsemane, and the tortures of the cross? What was the design of all this but to dissipate every suspicion and fear; and assure you that whosoever will may come unto him, and that him that cometh he will in no wise cast out?

Can you urge the hopelessness of your situation on account of the greatness of your sins,

4. From the past exercise of his grace, and the instances in which he has saved some of the most abandoned and vicious of sinners?

In strict conformity with the letter and the spirit of the instructions which they had received from their adorable Master, the Apostles carried the glad tidings of salvation through the earth, even unto the utmost ends of the world; and did not shun to declare, even unto the most vile and desperate whom they encountered, all the counsel of God. Constrained by love to Christ and compassion for their perishing brethren, they regarded themselves as debtors to the Jews and to the Greeks, to the barbarians and Scythians, to the bond and the free; and wherever they could gain the ear of a human creature, however sunk he might be in infamy and foul with crime, they did not hesitate to proclaim the riches of redeeming mercy, and point him to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Listen to the language in which St. Paul addresses the Jews at Antioch:-"Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses."

Now who were the Jews to whom such an unqualified offer of gospel grace was given? Were they virtuous and upright men? Were they penitent and humble? possessed of pious hearts, and contrite spirits? They were men of whom the Apostle was persuaded, that, whilst they wondered at the truths which he delivered, they would reject his testimony, and perish in their sins. The event awfully verified his fears. "They were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming." Nevertheless Paul and