animal and moral nature. We are bord under law to Him. Sin is both a transgression of this law, and a want of conformity to it, for "all unrighteousness is sin;'* and the Lawgiver has pronounced all sinful persons obnoxious to the penalties which are incurred by disobedience. All have sinned, and God holds all men, in their natural estate, under obligation to suffer that punishment which his law denounces. This is GUILT. From this we must be delivered; and from this all shall be delivered, who through precious faith obtain an interest in the common salvation.

The scriptures teach, that the saved sinner is made free from all obligations to suffer the penality of the broken law, by the death of Christ. Through the righteousness of his Surety, which God has accepted in favour of the sinner, he is judicially, accounted holy, and divine Justice no longer cries, "let him be accursed, because he hath not continued in all things, written in the book of the law, to do them." Instead of exclaiming "vengeance! vengeance! on his guilty head," the Judge is satisfied, and the law finds no fault with him. Sinner as he is in himself, yet in

*

Many of late have rejected the Assembly's definition of sin, and say it consists exclusively in positive exercises. They adduce, as proof of their doctrine, John's declaration, that "sin is a transgression of the law;" but the same Apostle also says, " all unrighteousness," which is a want of righteousness, or of conformity to law, “is sin,”

his favour the law has accepted that perfect righteousness which it demanded for his justification. After this he is guiltless, and he is not required to perform any single action with the expectation, or desire, of being acquitted by it, before the tribunal of Heaven. It only remains that the sinner should be delivered from THE MISERY of the apostacy, and then his salvation will be complete. When justified through faith his guilt no longer exists; but alas! much misery remains. This comprehends all those consequences of sin, which are not included in guilt.

Unbelief, rejection from the favour of our God, blindness of understanding, perverse atfections, a wounded spirit, the depravement of all our mental faculties, a degraded and mortal body, the unhappiness of the present life, death, progressive wickedness, increasing anguish through eternity, and the loss of a covenant title to the felicity of heaven, constitute the misery of sin.

By giving God the lie Adam fell, and by the fall all men became subject to unbelief. Discredit of the divine testimony is the prolific source of all our woe. Such a deterioration of our faculties has taken place, and in such a degree has God withdrawn the illumination of his Spirit, that all natural men are ignorant, and incapable of spritural conception or discernment. Hence salvation consists in

R

part, in having the eyes of our mind opened, and in being made, through the rectification of our faculties, to know God and Jesus Christ, whom to know is life eternal. No man is completely saved until his mental constitution is so changed as to exclude false perceptions, erroneous imaginations, perverse reasonings, stupidity of conscience, slothfulness of memory, and all rebellious activity.

Adam in innocence, it is true, did not know all things; but his finite intellectual faculties ever obtained their proper object. There were no clouds, fogs, vapours, and illusions hovering around his mind. Neither was his will perverse. It ever chose such things as pleased God. Never, then, can any son of Adam be said to be effectually saved, until his heart has been purified from every corrupt bias, until it loves supremely and constantly what God loves, and hates what God hates. When you are saved, you will be delivered from all inordinate affections, and passions of mind, which here dishonour and vex us; so that chagrin, disappointment, vexation, malice, envy, revenge, pride, scorn, distrust, unkindness, hatred, slander, injustice, fear, grief, sorrow, and despair, will find no place.

And thou frail body too, partner of the soul in sin, shall have thy part in this great salvation, for thou shalt be raised incorruptible and etherial from the dust; to be afflicted with deformity, excrescences, pains, disease, and

lust no more. Thou shalt, when saved, always be obedient to the transformed spirit, and subserve the interests of reason, goodness, and grace alone.

The saved sinner, thus changed and perfected in the component parts of his nature, shall stand before his Judge, that his salvation may be publicly manifested to all accountable beings. Then shall the King Eternal say, to all in whom this glorious work has been commenced, and carried on thus far, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations: and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." These shall sit down in the enlivening and happy society of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Paul and John: "neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." These shall ascend into heaven, with the Redeemer, to be employed in his holy service unceasingly; to hold the most familiar communion with him; to behold his glories; to review the triumphs of his cross; to witness the future developement of the cour.sels of the Godhead, in respect to other systems of worlds; and to have all that intel

lectual, moral, social, and spiritual happiness of which their still finite, but perfect faculties are capable. Jehovah shall diffuse around them all, the light of his reconciled countenance, and cause them to shine in their respective spheres, as the luminaries of heaven, for ever and ever.

Let a sinner be justified, and perfectly changed in his character and circumstances; let him be like the ascended Jesus in body, and in spirit; let him associate with the inhab itants of heaven, to love them, and be loved by them all; let him meet his most esteemed relatives and acquaintance, ransomed from earth and hell; let him cast his eye across the gulph, to see the smoke ascending from the pit which he has escaped; let him take his place among the millions of sinners made perfect by the Lamb; let him receive a golden harp, and, while he sings with all his soul, hear the softest, sweetest symphonies from the innumerable choirs that chaunt the praises of redeeming love; and then, because he experiences, will he understand the nature of everlasting salvation.

II. This perfect salvation from the guilt and misery of sin, is the end of faith. This will appear from three considerations.

1. Our personal salvation is the end which God proposes to accomplish by working faith

in us.