of probation with only a conditional promise of final happiness. If he obeyed he was to live; if he disobeyed he was to die. And he had no assurance of effectual grace to preserve him from final apostacy and perdition. In this last respect, the case of those who are justified through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, is essentially different. Indeed, some have supposed that believers in Christ, have, in this life, only conditional promises of final salvation. Nor can it be denied that persevering obedience of the gospel is made necessary in order to eternal life. It is written, "The just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. He that endureth to the end," says Christ, "the same shall be saved. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."

From such passages as these many have been led to suppose, that all the promises of the second covenant, like those of the first, are only conditional, and depend upon the mutable will of man for their ultimate accomplishment. But texts enough may be produced,' which assert the absolute safety of all who are once justified by faith. Justification and glorification are spoken of as infallibly connected, Rom. viii. 30. "Whom he justifieth them he also glorifieth." And our Saviour says, John v. 24. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation."

Nor are these at all inconsistent with those other texts, which imply that none shall be saved at last, but such as obey the gospel to the end of life. For perseverance in faith and holiness may be made absolutely

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sure in the first justification. And that this is actually the case is most evident from scripture. Christ t says of his sheep-of all who "hear his voice, and follow him, I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." Those who truly believe, we are taught, are not of them that draw back unto perdition. They are said to be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation." We may be confident of this very thing, according to the apostle, that he who hath begun a good work in any one-a work of faith with powerhe will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. From these passages, and many more in the New Testament, it appears evident enough that those who have once obtained gospel justification, are not only put into a new state of trial upon a milder constitution, according to which it is possible they may be finally saved; but that their salvation is made infallible, by this better covenant, established upon better promises; this everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.

II. I proceed to speak of the redemption of Christ, the essential ground of gospel justification.

To redeem, signifies to deliver; more strictly, and most commonly, to deliver by ransom. There were various laws in Israel concerning redemptions:-the redemption of lives, of lost inheritances, and of persons sold to slavery. Every first born male, according to law was the Lord's; but the first born of man, and the firstlings of certain beasts might not be sacrificed; provision was therefore made for their being redeemed by the substitution of others in their stead. See Exod. xiii. 13. "Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck; and all the first born of man amongst thy children shalt thou redeem." With re

gard to the redemption of inheritances, see Lev. xxv. 25. "If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother had sold." Of the redemption of Israelites who had sold themselves, see the same chapter, ver. 47-49. "And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger; after that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: either his uncle, or his uncle's son may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or, if he be able he may redeem himself."

In allusion to these and such like redemptions in Israel, Christ is called our Redeemer, and is said to be made of God unto us redemption. Agreeably to these different instances and ways of redeeming, the redemption that is in Jesus Christ may be understood as comprehending, both the merit of his obedience, and the manifestation of divine justice made by his sufferings, in our nature and stead. We were waxen poor; our eternal inheritance was alienated; and such was the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who "was rich, that for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.". He took upon him the form of a servant-the nature and place of man, and, in that nature and capacity, obeyed perfectly his Father's law as man ought to have done, that "by his obedience many might be made righteous," and obtain the inheritance of eternal life. We had sold ourselves; the Son of Man therefore, our kinsman, came to seek and to save to ransom and redeem us. Hence we are said to be bought with a price; and to be redeemed, not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, We were devoted to ut

ter destruction; for it is said, "The soul that sinnetl it shall die; and, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. Christ therefore suffered for us, the just for the unjust. He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. He was wounded. for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniqui ties; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed."

What rendered the vicarious obedience and sufferings of our Saviour necessary, was, that we might have remission of sins and the rewards of the righteous, and yet the honour of the divine law and government be maintained. "To justify the wicked, is abomination to the Lord. He will by no means clear the guilty." This were to countenance iniquity, and to cast an indelible slur on his own glorious character. It were to bring the eternal law of righteousness, and the eternal Law-giver of the universe into disregard and contempt. God had given a law which was holy, and just, and good. He had enforced this law with infinite sanctions, that it might be forever observed and had in reverence, This law had not been fulfilled by man, and therefore the reward of righteousness could not be given him. This law had been openly violated by man, and therefore the penalty of transgression and disobedience must be inflicted upon him.. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Better never to give a law, than to let the violation of it pass with impunity. But the holy law of God was not rashly given. His own glory, and the good of the moral creation, required that there should be such a law, and that the dignity of it should be supported. A lawless, licentious universe were infinitely worse than none. Hence heaven and earth might sooner pass away, or be annihilated, than

the divine law be made void, or one tittle of it fail and 'not be fulfilled.

But the letter of a law may possibly be deviated from, and yet the spirit of it be supported, and the design of it fully obtained. We are told of a certain ancient king (Zaleuchus, king of the Locrians) who, that he might effectually suppress adultery, which exceedingly prevailed among his subjects, enacted a law that the adulterer should be punished with the loss of both his eyes. His own son was convicted of this crime. The royal father, whose bowels yearned for him, and who could not bear to have one so dear to him forever deprived of the light of day, devised an expedient to soften, in that one instance, the rigour of his own law, and yet not abate its force in future. The king in a most public manner, before all the people, had one of his own eyes plucked out, that so one of his son's eyes might be saved. By such a commutation as this, by redeeming one eye for his son, at so costly a price as the loss of one of his own, he conceived the law would appear as awful, and be as great a terror to evil doers, as if the letter of it had been executed. And it must, I think, be acknowledged that, by this means, the king's inflexible determination to maintain government and punish transgression, was even more strikingly evinced than if he had suffered the law to have its natural course, and neither of his son's eyes had been spared. For some fathers have been without natural affection, but no man ever yet hated his own flesh. The apple of one's own eye must certainly be dear to him.

In like manner, we are to conceive of the redemption of Christ, as an astonishing expedient of infinite wisdom and goodness, that we transgressors might be saved, and yet God be just, and his righteous law suf