hesitated not to give himself a ransom for sinners. In this wondrous work, justice magnifies mercy, and mercy magnifies justice. The greatness of the sacrifice demonstrates the extent both of the divine abhorrence for sin, and of the divine love for sinners. When we sin against this Saviour, or forget him, we must feel that it is the basest ingratitude, it is trampling on that blood that was shed for us. The gospel farther assures us, that this same God is ever present, with these same feelings towards us, with these same feelings towards sin-that he orders every event, and appoints every duty-that he offers us his listening ear, and his enabling Spirit, in all difficulties-and that he points us to a rest beyond the grave, where our resemblance to him shall be completed, and his joy shall be ours.

In this manifestation of the divine character, the attributes of justice and mercy form a combination so amiable and so resplendent, that whilst our affections and esteem are chained to it, our very conception faints under it. We can here love perfect justice, because we are not under its condemnation; we can here adore perfect mercy, because it is unmixed with weakness or partiality. Sin, even in the abstract, is associated in our minds with sentiments of abhorrence, as well as fear; and holiness, with sentiments of affection, as well as hope.

A growing resemblance to the character thus gloriously manifested, is the necessary consequence of our love for it. This is a law of our nature. The leading objects of our thoughts and affections constitute the moulds, as it were, into which our minds

are cast, and from which they derive their form and character. This fact ought to make us most watchful over the motions of our hearts; for it is only by a constant contemplation of the true character of God, and by cherishing and exercising those affections and desires which arise out of this contemplation, that the divine image is renewed in our souls. We are not to expect any mechanical or extraneous impression separate from that which the truth makes: for it is by the truth alone, known and believed, that the Holy Spirit operates in accomplishing that sanctifying work, which is itself salvation. When

the soul, therefore, leaving God, chooses created things for its chief objects, these things become the moulds which impart to it their own fleeting character, and imprint on it their own superscription of vanity and death.

When this connection between loving an object and resembling it, is considered, we can have no difficulty in discerning why faith in the gospel history is required, in order to salvation. We cannot love that which we do not believe, and we cannot resemble that which we do not love. Hence it is, that faith becomes a matter of such vital consequence. It is the very foundation of the whole Christian character, the very root of the tree.

If salvation had consisted simply in the removal of the judicial penalty denounced against sin—if this had been the sole scope of the work of Christ, it would have been unnecessary to have revealed the gospel history to men, or to have required their belief of it because the atonement being made, their

belief could neither add to it nor take from it. But when salvation is considered to express the renewed health of the soul, and when heaven and hell are considered as the names of opposite characters, necessarily connected by the very nature of things, with certain happy or miserable consequences, and thus, when the revealed law of God is considered as explaining and declaring the particulars of a constitution which was originally mixed up with the elements of our being, rather than as enacting a new one, then we see the importance of faith, because it is the only medium through which the perfections of the divine character can possibly make any impression on our minds; and unless our minds be so impressed as to excite our love, we cannot become like God, or, in other words, our spiritual health cannot be restored, nor improved. We are not called upon to believe any thing, for the mere sake of believing it, any more than we are called on to take a medicine for the mere sake of taking it; we are called on to believe the truth, on account of the healing influence that it has upon the mind, as we are called on to take a medicine on account of its influence on our bodily health.

It follows from this, that what is called doctrinal instruction, when properly applied, is really the most practical. No one would be considered as a practical physician, who merely recommended his patients to be in good health, and painted the advantages of a good appetite, of bodily ease and vigour, whilst at the same time he did not apply the remedies which might lead to these effects. So likewise, he is not

a practical teacher of religion, who contents himself with exhorting his hearers to be in spiritual health, and to exhibit in their lives and conversations those Christian virtues which are the symptoms of spiritual health, whilst he does not anxiously and constantly, at the same time, inculcate upon them that view of the divine character in Jesus Christ, which contains in itself means of powerful operation to renew and purify the mind, and which God himself has revealed as the appointed medicine for healing the diseases of the soul, and restoring it to health and vigour. It is possible that a physician either of souls or of bodies, may be so engrossed with the beauty of his theory, that he may forget that application of it, from which it derives its sole importance; but this error is not greater than the error of those who should dream of restoring health, without the application of any means, or by such as are contrary to the obvious principles of the science which they profess.

Besides, although we can form a very accurate notion of what bodily health is, it is impossible for us to do this with regard to spiritual health, without comprehending, according to the measure of our capacities, the state and character of that Eternal Mind, who is the pattern, as he is the source of all spiritual perfection. And this view cannot be taken, without entering into, and understanding the dealings of God with men, in the mission of Jesus Christ, which is represented in the Bible as by far the most striking and important manifestation of the divine character with which the world has been favoured. So

that it is a delusion to call upon men, or direct them to acquire spiritual health, unless at the same time the nature of this health is shown to them, by delineating the purposes of the life and death of Him, in whom alone we can find the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person.

Neither mental nor bodily health can be gained without the use of the appropriate means. The means of bodily health are to be discovered by human experiment and science; but the means of spiritual health are contained in the gospel. Thus the mercy of God in Christ, and his holy abhorrence of sin, manifested in perfect concord with mercy, constitute the spiritual medicine; and the object and result of its application is salvation or healing.

But, although this renewal of spiritual health in man be the great object of the gospel, yet in itself it affords no ground of confidence before God; that is, it is no foundation on which we can rest our hope for pardon or acceptance with him; both because it is imperfect in itself, and because, even if it were perfect, it could not atone for past transgression. The only confidence which it is calculated to give, is analogous to that confidence which a man feels when he finds his bodily health improving by the use of a particular regimen: he is satisfied of the advantage of the system, and he perseveres in it with alacrity. The ground of our hope before God continues the same, and this ground is the sacrifice of Christ, for the sins of the world. The mercy and the justice manifested in this fact, are, and continue for ever to be, the only food which can confirm