We justly admire the power of the Creator, in the motion of the heavenly bodies; but the motion of souls towards God as their centre is far more glorious. The curse of the law was a weight sufficient to crush a world. So they found it who first brought it upon themselves. It sunk legions of angels, who excel in strength, from the heaven of heavens to the bottomless pit. And the same weight hung over the head of man. Before man could bear it, before any person could bear his own proportion of it, it behooved, as it were, to be divided into numberless parcels, and distributed among all mankind, allowing every sinner his share. Man, after numberless ages, would have borne but a small part; the wrath to come would have been wrath to come to all eternity. But Christ had strength to bear it all, to bear it all at once, to bear it all alone; and what a glorious manifestation of his might was this! of the noblest kind of might, that he was mighty to save?"-I might be more particular, but time will not allow.

IV. The scheme of salvation through the sufferings of Christ gives the most gracious, benevolent, and amiable display of the divine perfections. This is evident at first sight, from this consideration, that by this scheme sinners, such sinners as we, may be saved. Oh the joyful sound! salvation for the lost, pardon for the condemned, sanctification for the unholy, life for the dead! what can be more agreeable to us? Angels contemplate this plan with eternal pleasure, though they do not need nor receive such blessings from it; and how much more should we who are so nearly interested! Goodness, grace, and mercy, are always the favourite attributes to guilty creatures such as we are; and where do they shine so bright in heaven or earth, as in the cross of our dying Jesus? But you will

* Mac Laurin.

say, "Suppose that the sins of men had been pardoned, and they saved, without the sufferings of Christ in their stead? suppose that the stern attribute of justice had never been displayed in the infliction of punishment either upon sinners, or upon their surety, where would have been the injury? would not the Deity have appeared in a still more amiable light, as all benevolence and mercy?" So criminals may surmise, whose interest it is that there should be no such attribute as punitive justice. But I appeal to angels, who are not parties, as criminals are, but competent judges; I appeal to every lover of virtue and piety; nay, I appeal to the common sense of mankind, whether a ruler without justice would be an amiable character in their view? Would they choose to live under a government where vice, violence, and confusion, were not restrained by the execution of the law, but shared in the rewards, or at least, in the indemnity of perfect obedience? would they choose a king, who, through a false notion of lenity and mercy, would suffer criminals to pass with impunity? Do not the innocent part of the subjects approve of the conduct of their rulers in condemning and executing criminals, as well as in protecting themselves? and what a murmuring spreads through a government, when such are tolerated or approved? The complaint we hear of the excessive strictness of divine justice, the cruelty of eternal torments, &c., is the voice of guilt, and we should regard it no more than the clamours of a band of robbers against the just laws of their country. Justice, my brethren, is not that grim, horrible, and forbidden attribute, which the guilty are apt to imagine; it is not only a majestic, but an amiable, agreeable, lovely perfection; it is a part of the moral beauty of the divine nature; it is essential to the character of a good ruler; it is necessary to the public good; it is absolutely necessary to the exercise of good

ness itself. The judicious, well-conducted exercise of goodness is not a promiscuous, indiscriminating communication of happiness at random; but the communication of happiness according to the real characters of the subjects; it supposes a distinction of the obedient and disobedient. No government can subsist without this; and this is the very nature of distributive justice. Hence it follows, that the display of divine justice, as well as grace, in the sufferings of Christ, represents the divine nature in an amiable light to us, as infinitely worthy of our love as well as of our fear. But, V. The way of salvation through the sufferings of Jesus Christ gives the most wonderful and surprising display of the perfections of God. That is a cause of wonder and surprise, which is strange and uncommon, new and unexpected; and certainly we can never meet with things more strange, uncommon, and unexpected, than in the way of salvation through Christ. I have mentioned some of them already with another view; and now I shall enumerate a few wonders more. At the creation, a world was brought out of a state of non-existence into being; but in this way sinners are brought into a state of complete happiness and glory out of a state infinitely worse than that of nonexistence. In the old creation, as there were no preexistent materials or tendency to existence, so there was no resistance but in the new creation, there is a strong resistance, an obstinate opposition of corrupt nature against the operation; and yet, behold all things are made new! Who would ever have thought that the apostate angels should have been abandoned to remediless ruin, while a Saviour is provided for the inferior order of man? Had Adam been plainly informed that He, by whom he and all things were made, should assume his frail and mortal nature, how would he have wondered! And how must angels wonder, to see the Creator and the creature made

one person! to see their Lord and Master become man, a man that in his best estate was made a little lower

than they! How strange, that guilty mortals should be saved by the death of the Lord of life! How astonishing that a church should be purchased by the blood of God! how strange and surprising, that the reputed son of the carpenter, the despised Nazarene, should be made "head over all things! that every knee should bow, and every tongue confess to him," that had been so rudely insulted and treated as the most comtemptible malefactor! that the reputed criminal, condemned by Pilate, and crucified on Mount Calvary, should be made the only Saviour, and the supreme Judge of mankind! How strange, that the blood of the cross should restore peace to earth and heaven, and be the grand remedy of a dying world! that the guilty should be redeemed by the death of the innocent! that death should be conquered by the death of the Author of life! that the greatest sin that ever was committed on our guilty globe, namely, the murder of the Son of God, should be the occasion of the pardon of sin, even for his murderers! Are not these, my brethren, strange, unprecedented things! can you find any thing like them in heaven or earth? these are objects of grateful astonishment to all the celestial armies through all the periods of their happy immortality.

I shall now conclude with a few reflections and exhortations.

1. You hence see what should principally recommend the gospel scheme to us; namely, that it promotes the glory of God, and gives such an advantageous, amiable, and majestic view of his perfections. This is the grand design of God, and the only design worthy of him in all his works, and particularly in making this constitution. It was this consideration induced the blessed Jesus to go

through his painful work, and therefore on this account principally we should delight in this method. And this is the disposition of all those that are conformed to God, and have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Our own salvation should indeed be dear to us, but not merely because it is ours, but because it tends to bring glory to God, the great end of all things. Therefore,

2. They who have never been sensible of the glory of God manifested in this method of salvation, and charmed with the divine perfections displayed therein, have not complied with it, and cannot be saved by it. None can be saved by it, that do not heartily approve of it; and none can rationally approve of it, till they see its glory. It is the characteristic of all true believers, that God hath shined into their hearts, to give them the light of the knowledge of his glory, in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. iv. 6, and iii. 18. It is natural to all to desire to be saved: but they are not solicitous about the glory of God; let them be but safe, and the selfish creatures care little for anything else. But heaven itself is recommended to a pious soul by the thought that it may be brought thither in a way that tends to advance his glory. Alas! if this be the case, how many of you are quite off from the only plan of salvation! you see no peculiar glories in it, and it does not attract your hearts as the grand scheme for illustrating the divine perfections; and consequently you have no interest in it.

3. Hence see the aggravated guilt of not accepting this method of salvation; it is a hostile attempt upon the divine glory; it is the worst of sacrilege; and as such Jehovah resents it.

4. You may hence see how secure you are of salvation who are upon the gospel plan. Your salvation in this way is for the glory of the divine perfections. God is so