capacity for being anything else. Loose his chains, forgive him, trust him, honor him, restore him, and he may be he has the full opportunity-loyal yet. Regeneration removes the hindrance of depravity. The disaffection of the traitor would preclude his loyalty, did even his pardon allow him to display it. But if that traitor were absolved and received by his prince, if his disaffection were purged, and greatly by the influence of this clemency, from his soul,what would be the design? The clemency of the prince would be magnified, but that would be rather a personal celebration. The public grounds of the clemency would be to restore the convict-rebel to the privileges and sentiments of a good subject. And until these evangelic blessings be obtained by us, obedience in its welcome and disposition is debarred. Though duty is all the while the same, the sinner is not in a case nor in a temper to obey. In both these respects there is a disqualifying taint. Nothing is acceptable: nothing is of love. But now he has "by the faith of Jesus," "access into this grace." No guilt need intimidate him as though his obedience were proscribed. It is taken away. No depravity need discourage him as though his obedience were impracticable. Sin now suffers a crucifixion, and it shall perish. "God now accepteth thy works!" Enlightened views of the justifying righteousness of Christ Jesus, and of the regenerating inworking of the Holy Ghost, support all these conclusions. "That

the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

"How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." "Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." The first care of the Christian system is to enthrone the law of God, with a full redress, in all its rightful honors, beyond a possible charge of vacillation and indifference, of connivance at sin, or of partiality towards the sinner: then to "put it into our mind, and to write it in our hearts."

The new occasion and motive of obedience, which Christianity furnishes, constitute a feature most marked and important in the operation of Christianity. It is shown to be not a mere indemnity. The believer "yields himself to God as alive from the dead." Gratefully acknowledging the justifying acquittance, and the regenerating element, to which he owes his all, he is set in a new probation. His state and principle are brought to the test. A constant discipline is conducted, to prove what is in his heart. Temptation tries his courage. Affliction ascertains his submission. Amidst the good and evil of the present, his character must be formed and developed. It is to be determined, whether his state be real and his principle valid. A profession is to be sealed. In these adverse scenes the pilgrim moves. There is much to encounter, much to endure. But it is salutary. The furnace purifies the gold by its rigorous assay. The vine is pruned until it bleeds, that it may bear its richer clusters. A theatre is raised for lofty struggle and celestial dint. No evidence can

punishments. The Christian is a candidate for the approval of his Judge. He labors that, whether present or absent, he may be accepted of him. He is a probationer for that sentence, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" It is not a holy humility to hide and weaken views like these. It is false and profane to set any honors of mercy against them. The constitution under which they, who were "enemies in their minds by wicked works," may now "walk before God, unto all well-pleasing," may know that he "has a favor towards them," may seek a recompense, is necessarily a constitution of mercy. To affect a greater jealousy for the claims of mercy, than its own constitution demands, is most hypocritically to insult it. Well-being is the state and the disposition which it confers but well-doing is the course it enjoins and the evidence it requires. There is allotted to us a charge and a trust. We must give account of that stewardship. We are a peculiar people, zealous of good works. We must carry out that description. Wisdom must be justified of her children. We must study to show ourselves approved unto God. The men who have most clearly and triumphantly vindicated the unmixed purity of the Divine grace, to whom it was most reverently dear, even saturating all their thoughts and emotions, have ever thus spoken of duty and its remunerableness. We will be no parties to the dilution of their vigorous style. It agrees with "the words of the Lord, which are pure words." We will not enfeeble it by explanation, nor dishonor it by concession. Duty would cease to be duty if not urged

upon such terms. All will admit that this would be true were it attempted against law; that it would surrender its authority, betray its name, and contradict its notion, but for its sanctions. Yet, what is law, save the handwriting of duty? Was it a sordid thing in the lowly suppliants for mercy, to emulate the crown of eternal life? It was thus that the ancient saints "had respect unto the recompense of reward," and struggled "for a better resurrection;" it was thus that the first propagandists of the Gospel, amidst the gathering clouds of mortality and the rising terrors of martyrdom, could address their converts "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward;" could each lift his eyes to heaven, and assuredly exclaim-"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing!"

LECTURE IV.

AND, BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY, AND MY REWARD IS WITH ME, TO GIVE EVERY MAN According as HIS WORK SHALL BE.”

REVELATION Xxii. 12.

THE analogy which we ascertain in the physical to the moral world must so fully convince us that there is a unity of design in both, as to banish every doubt concerning the oneness of their Author. The dual hypothesis of good and evil powers is not only proved to be absurd, but it is unneeded to explain any difficulty. All is now anticipated and relieved. The physical and moral worlds, as we are accustomed to call them, are but one world: their elements and laws are mutually subservient and perfectly blended. They are not parts and divisions of a whole: there is a transfusion of the qualities from which the whole is constituted. They are not properly different systems adjusted to each other, but are one entire and mature system. They may stand as mighty gates, furnishing distinct entrances, but they are covered by the same porch and lead into the same temple.

In examining the constitution of things amidst