if justice does not oblige to punish, so neither does it oblige to spare, but, upon this supposition, leaves the matter entirely to the decision of unerring wisdom. If therefore any reasons of wisdom and expediency call for punishment, we cannot think that God will wholly acquit men from it, unless we think him capable of doing what his infinite wisdom perceives to be unfit and improper to be done. But in what way soever this matter be determined, if reasons, either of justice or wisdom, render it necessary that some better amends should be made for sin than merely repenting and forsaking it, then sinners (and such are all men) cannot directly and immediately be saved, upon the account of any conduct of their own, in conjunction with the mercy and goodness of God; and all pretences to this purpose are vain and false. Nor can this be justly apprehended to bear hard upon the divine goodness and mercy; since it must be allowed, that even infinite mercy cannot pardon, upon terms inconsistent with wisdom and justice. And therefore that mercy may have room to display itself, it may be humbly hoped, that the God who delights in mercy will find out some way to reconcile these seemingly opposite perfections: not that he will pardon by an arbitrary, unguided act of mercy, in defiance, as it were, of attributes as sacred and as essential as that; but that he will contrive some method of salvation which will answer all the demands of justice and wisdom; and which, having made satisfaction to them, will permit mercy to have its perfect work. And this, we say, is actually accomplished by the Christian religion, which alone acquaints us, that we have an Advocate with the Fa ther, even Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins°. 3dly, The pretence we are now considering, that we may be pardoned by the mercy of God, merely upon repentance, has this further defect, that supposing we might be barely pardoned, yet, as there is a great difference between bare pardon, and an eternal, an inestimable reward, it leaves us quite in the dark as to the nature and excellence of this reward, and even whether we shall have any at all. In the Christian scheme these things are so connected, that we generally associate and join them together in our minds, and consider them as the consequence of one another. But if we weigh things a little more attentively, upon the ground of the expedient now before us, there will not appear to be any natural or necessary, any inseparable connexion between them. Be it, that we may be pardoned; yet what reward? or whether any? are questions which are still undetermined. Pardon, in itself, seems to imply no more than exemption from punishment. In a latitude of expression, perhaps, this may be called reward; and in that sense it would be a contradiction to say, that reward and pardon are of different consideration. But certainly it is a contradiction on the other hand, to say, that any positive reward, more than is included in the very nature of the pardon, is necessarily connected with it, or naturally consequent upon it. Suppose then we could be pardoned, and in that sense might be said to be saved, by the goodness of God and our own repentance; yet what is this pardon, and this salvation, in com 。 I John ii. 1, 2. parison of that great salvation P proposed in the Christian religion; that glorious and happy immortality, which is brought to light through the Gospela; that exceeding, and eternal weight of glory', which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ; and that inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for ust? This indeed truly deserves to be called salvation, as we are thereby saved, not only from misery and destruction both of body and soul, but have our perfect consummation and bliss, with regard to both, in his eternal and everlasting glory, in whose presence is the fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore". But it is too evident to need a proof, that the pretence now under consideration (pardon and forgiveness supposed) can afford us no hopes, and no prospect equal or like to this. The advocates for it indeed seem to think, that their excellent virtues must recommend them to the favour of the Deity, who will therefore not only pardon them, but some time, and some where, and in some degree, make them happy. Be this for once supposed, how precarious soever it may appear; yet what is there in this uncertain, this vague, this indeterminate happiness, this something they know not what, that deserves to be called salvation, in comparison of that, which they reject for its sake? may be, for ought they know, (and perhaps some of them wish it may be,) a state of such happiness as is to be found in the pagan Elysium, wherein men are supposed to pursue the same idle amusements, which employed them during life, in a shadowy unr 2 Cor. iv. 17. u Psalm xvi. 11. It P Heb. ii. 3. • Rom. vi. 23. VOL. I. HORBERY. 9 2 Tim. i. 10. t I Pet. i. 4. G real state of existence, something betwixt being and not being, scarce more substantial than a dream: it may be this, or worse; but they cannot and will not pretend, that it will be a reunion of body and soul, and the most real and rational happiness of which both will be capable, in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, amongst the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, amongst the spirits of just men made perfect, and an innumerable company of angels, in the more immediate and blissful presence of Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and of God the Judge of all. This is the Christian salvation; and it is undeniably plain that we have no pretence, and no prospect of being made partakers of it, and saved in this sense and manner, any otherwise than for the sake, and through the name, of the Author and Founder of the Christian religion. If then the expedient I am opposing appears to be false; if it be plainly uncertain and precarious; if, at best, it can assure us of no reward, or, however, leaves us quite in the dark with respect to its nature and excellence; from all this together, it undeniably follows, in the 4th place, That it is further defective, with regard to its efficacy and extent: i. e. it plainly wants motives, and is void of sufficient inducements, to lead the generality, and indeed any considerable number of men to repentance. Repentance is supposed to be necessary; since, upon the ground of the expedient now before us, it, in conjunction with the mercy of God, is the very thing that is to save us. But as repentance is not an event that comes to pass of * Heb. xii. 22, 23, 24. course, in any natural or unavoidable manner, or even without great difficulty and deliberate choice; there is no probability that any considerable number of men should ever engage in it, without some motives of proportionable efficacy and strength to lead them to it. And the scheme under examination is plainly destitute of motives of this sort. It leaves the success of repentance too much in the dark; it places the consequent reward, if any at all, too far out of view; it is surrounded with uncertainties on every side: and in order to prevail with men to change a manner of life which, through long habit, is become almost natural to them, it proposes some dubious distant prospects, some future possibilities, which perhaps may never come to pass at all. Amidst all these uncertainties, indeed, it must be owned, repentance and amendment of life would still be the most reasonable part; but reason is one thing, and fact another; and the inquiry here is not what men should do in reason, or what they would do, if they would act like reasonable creatures; but whether, taking them as they are, heedless and inconsiderate, deeply engaged in wrong pursuits, and under the power of vicious inveterate habits, which they are strongly solicited to persist in; whether in this situation it be at all likely that they would change their course of life and repent, upon such slender motives as are contained in the expedient now before us? A few select spirits, of excellent natural dispositions, improved by virtuous education, and by their circumstances of life removed, in a great measure, out of the way of temptations, would doubtless reap some advantage from these imperfect views, and practically own the force of them. But |