pofe fome reluctance in beftowing him; in allusion to which there is a beautiful expreffion of the apostle Paul, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up "for us all, how fhall he not with him alfo freely give us "all things?"* The very fame thing fhews, with equal clearnefs, his abhorrence of fin. However ftrongly dif pofed to fave finners, he would have fin to be expiated, though his own Son fhould be the victim: if any thing could have made him difpenfe with it, this fhould furely have had the effect: and therefore the condemning of fin feems to have been as much in view, as the falvation of the finner.

Every light in which we can view this fubject, contributes to fet before us the evil of fin. I fhall only mention further, the greatness and severity of the fufferings of our Redeemer, as they are reprefented both prophetically, to fhew how much was exacted, and hiftorically, to fhew what was paid. As the whole of his life was to be a state of humiliation and forrow, it is faid, "As many were af "tonished at thee, his vifage was fo marred more than "any man, and his form than the fons of men." Again, "He is defpifed and rejected of men, a man of forrows "and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our "faces from him; he was defpifed, and we esteemed him "not." Once more," He was wounded for our tranf

greffions, he was bruifed for our iniquities: the chaf"tifement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes "we are healed." In the hiftory of his life in the New Teftament, we see all this verified, in the meannefs of his birth, and the continued infults and reproaches thrown upon him during the courfe of his life. There is one remarkable paffage, John viii. 57. "Thou art not yet

fifty years old, and haft thou feen Abraham ?" The meaning of this is hardly obvious, unless we suppose that his natural beauty and bloom was fo wafted and decayed by forrow, that he feemed to ftrangers near twenty years older than he really was.

* Rom. viii. 32. † Ifa. lii. 14. liii. 3, 5.

In the clofe of the gofpel, we have an account of the laft fcene of his fufferings, in the garden and on the cross. "He was fore amazed, and very heavy.-His foul was "exceeding forrowful, even unto death.-His fweat was "as it were great drops of blood, falling down to the "ground." He was at laft ftretched on an accurfed tree, where the pain of a tortured body was but fmall to the anguish of an overwhelmed fpirit, which conftrained him to utter this heavy complaint," My God, my God, why "haft thou forfaken me Let the Chriftian stand at the foot of the crofs, and there fee the evil of fin, which required fo coftly an expiation. Let him there fee the holinefs and juftice of God in its punishment, Let him hear the most High, faying, "Awake, O fword, against "the man who is my fellow." And let him thence learn, how much fin is the object of divine deteftation,

Hath a believer then a firm perfuafion of all these truths? Are they the frequent theme of his meditations? And must they not neceflarily fill him with an abhorrence of fin, inflame him with a hatred of it, and excite in him a felf-lothing on its account? Thus it is faid in the prophetic writings," They fhall look on me whom they have "pierced, and they fhall mourn for him, as one mourneth "for his only fon, and fhall be in bitternefs for him, as "one that is in bitterness for his firft-born."* And must not a repetition of the fame views ftill ftrengthen the impreffion, fo that, as the apoftle Paul tells us of himself, The world will be crucified unto him, and he unto the "world."+

I am fenfible, that these things will have no fuch effect upon the enemies of the gospel, who difbelieve them, or upon those Christians, if they deserve the name, who difguife, explain away, or give up the fatisfaction of Chrift; or even those who have a strong tincture of a legal spirit, and are for contributing somewhat toward their acceptance with God, by their own merit, and defective obedience. Such cannot relifh thefe fentiments; and therefore it may

Zech. xii. 10. † Gal. vi. 14.

feem improper, in reasoning against enemies to bring them at all in view. But let it be remembered, that however little many believe fuch things, they may yet perceive, if they will attend to it, their natural operation upon those who do believe them. And let any modern adept in the fcience of morals fhew in his account of the foundation of morality, and the nature of obligation, any thing that hath a force or influence equal to this: or, will the nominal felf-righteous Chriftian, who thinks Chrift only made up fome little wants which he finds in himself, or that his death had only fome general expediency in it, ever be equally tender in his practice, with him who fees fo much of the purity of the law of God, and his deteftation of fin, as to esteem all his own righteousnesses but as filthy rags, and bottoms his hope of acceptance wholly upon the perfect righteousness of his Redeemer?

In the third place, He who expects juftification only through the imputed righteousness of Chrift, has the most awful views of the danger of fin. He not only fees the obligation and purity of the law, but the feverity of its fanction. It is a fear of wrath from the avenger of blood, that perfuades him to fly to the city of refuge. And if we compare the fentiments of others with his, either the generality of a carelefs and blinded world, or thofe who act upon contrary principles, and a different fyftem from that which we are now defending, we fhall find, that not one of them hath fuch apprehenfions of the wrath and vengeance of God due on the account of fin, as the convinced finner, who flies to the propitiation of Christ for deliverance and rescue.

I am very fenfible, that many readers will be ready to challenge this argument as preffed into the fervice, and wholly improper upon my fcheme: they will fuppofe, that every believer, in confequence of his faith in Christ, is fcreened from the penalty of the law, and fheltered from the ftroke of divine juftice; he is therefore no more under this fear; and its being no more a motive of action, in the future part of his conduct, is the very ground of the objection I am attempting to remove. This is no doubt

plaufible; but let it be remembered, in what way it is that believers are freed from their apprehenfions of the wrath of God; it is by their acceptance of his mercy through faith in Chrift. Before the application of this remedy, they faw themselves the children of wrath, and heirs of hell; and they ftill believe, that every fin deferves the wrath of God, both in this life, and that which is to come. Will they therefore re-incur the danger from which they have fo lately escaped, and of which they had fo terrible a view? will they do fo voluntarily, even although they know the remedy to be ftill at hand, ftill ready to be ap. plied, and certainly effectual? Suppofe any perfon had been upon the very point of perifhing in a violent and rapid ftream, and faved when his ftrength was well nigh exhaufted, by the happy intervention of a tender-hearted paflenger, would he voluntarily plunge himself again into the flood, even although he knew his deliverer were standing by, ready for his relief. The fuppofition is quite unnatural; and it is equally fo to imagine, that one faved from divine wrath will immediately repeat the provocation, even whilst he trembles at the thoughts of the mifery of that state from which he had been fo lately delivered.

Let us only confider the strong fense which a believer ufually fhews of the danger of others in an unconverted ftate, from a perfuafion of their being under the wrath of God. He warns them, intreats them, pities them, and prays for them. He would not exchange with any one of them, a prifon for a palace, or a scaffold for a throne. How then fhould he be fuppofed to follow them in their practice, and thereby to return to their state?

But perhaps, here again it will be urged, that this is improper; because, according to the principles of the affertors of imputed righteousness, a believer, being once in a justified ftate, cannot fall from grace; and therefore his fins do not deferve wrath; and he himself must have, from this perfuafion, a ftrong confidence that, be what they will, they cannot have fuch an effect: and accordingly, fome have exprefsly affirmed, that the future fins of the ele&t are forgiven, as well as their past, at their converfion; nay, fome, that they are justified from all eternity, that God

doth not fee fin in a believer, that his afflictions are not punishments, and other things of the like nature. Now, though I must confefs I look upon thefe expreffions, and many more to be found in certain writers, whatever gloffes they may put upon them, as unguarded and anti-fcriptural; yet not to enter into the controverfy at all, I fuppofe it will be acknowledged by all without exception, that a believer's fecurity, and the impoffibility of his falling from grace, is a fecurity of not finning, that is, of not being under the dominion of fin, as much as, or rather in order to his fecurity of deliverance from the wrath of God. His pardon is fure; but this fecurity is only hypothetical, because his faith and holinefs are fecured by the promife of God: fo that, to fuppofe a perfon to fin without reftraint, by means of this perfuafion, that his falvation is fecured by his first acceptance of Chrift, is a fuppofition felf-contradictory. However ftrongly any man may affert that a believer's falvation is fecure, he will not fcruple, at the fame time to acknowledge, that if fuch believer should fin wilfully and habitually, and continue to do fo, he would be damned; but he will deny, that any fuch cafe ever did, or ever can poffibly happen.*

The objection muft furely appear ftrongeft upon the principles of those who make the nature of faith to confift in a belief, that Chrift died for themselves in particular, or of their own personal intereft in him, and the pardon and life which he hath purchased, making affurance effential to its daily exercife. Yet even these will not deny, that their faith is not always equally strong, and that their affurance is fometimes interrupted with doubts and fears. Now, what is the cause of these doubts, and this uncertainty? Is it not always fin more directly, or by con

Indeed there can be nothing more unfair, than to take one part of a man's belief, and thence argue againft another part, upon which the first is exprefsly founded. If I fhould fay, I am confident I fhall never be drowned in a certain river, because I am refolved never to crofs it at all; would it not be abfurd to reason thus: here is a man who hath a perfuafion he will never be drowned in this river; therefore he will be furely very head-strong and fool-hardy in fording it when it overflows its banks, which is contrary to the very foundation of my fecurity!