turn from your wicked ways, and live; him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out: Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon :" That whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have ETERNAL LIFE., This is certainly, infallibly the privilege of every sinner who exercises faith in the Savior's blood. The gospel with its great and precious promises; the covenant with its boundless, endless blessings; heaven with its ineffable immunities and glories, at the moment of his closing with Jesus, become his; they are his by real, unalienable title now; they will be his in full, actual possession forever.

Willingly would I persevere enumerating these proclamations of divine mercy; willingly would I extol more largely the infinite efficacy of Calvary's blood for the redemption of sinners the very chief; willingly would I multiply arguments, expostulating with all who are present, to improve it for their redemption in particular; but I must now direct your attention to the more solemn and interesting services of the day. We have been contemplating the Son of God set forth in the word of reconciliation; let us now behold him in the symbols of his body and blood as crucified for us; and while our eyes see, and our mouths are tasting this word of life, may our hearts overflow with his abundant con

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solations: May we experience an earnest of that more glorious hour when we, redeemed by his blood, arrayed with the spotless robe of his righteousness, & shining in the beauties of holiness," shall eat and drink with him at his table in his heavenly kingdom :" Then, beloved sisters and brethren in Christ, we shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; no recollection of guilt shall ruffle the peace of our consciences; no intervening cloud shall cast its unwelcome shade over our understandings, or chill the ardour of our affections; nothing within, nothing without shall embitter the joys of our hearts: "For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed us, and lead us unto living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes." Come Lord Jesus, come quickly; come in the more abundant, refreshing showers of thy grace; hasten in thine own time the RISING of the day-star of glory. AMEN.

SERMON VIII.

The sovereign agency of God in determining the heirs of salvation.

I. PETER i, 2.

Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father.

THE absolute sovereignty of

God in the disposal of his creatures is a doctrine mysterious and awful. But although it is utterly unfathomable by our finite, de, praved understandings, it is taught clearly and unquestionably in that revelation of his will which he has given to our world.

There he is represented as a great, adorable Supreme who gives no account of his matters; who makes his own pleasure the rule, and his own glory the end of all his transactions towards angels and men ; as having every occurrence relating to them, whether more minute or more important, under his immediate control, directed by his omnipotent power, and rendered subservient to the accomplishment of his everlasting purposes. "The Lord reigneth: The Lord sitteth upon the floods, yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. Of him, and through him, are all things, to whom be glory forever." In his transactions towards the angels Jehovah ap

pears adorably sovereign, and awfully just; in the depths of his good pleasure he confirmed a part of them unalterably in bliss, electing, ordaining them infallibly to persevere in holiness, and happiness; in the searchless depths of the same sovereignty he permitted a part of them to apostatize, and in the rigors of his justice erected them monuments of eternal vengeance. In his transactions to man he appears mysteriously sovereign, and exceedingly, abundantly gracious. In his sovereignty he appoints Adam the Federal Representative of mankind, embarks on his free will their temporal and eternal destinies, and by permitting him to fall suffers them to be plunged in ruin irrecoverable: In the riches of his unmerited, marvelous grace he elects a portion of our apostate family to salvation; gives them to his own Son freely undertaking in their behalf, and through him as their covenant head, ordains them to all the privileges of grace and glory. They are elected, says our apostle, according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father.

Your attention was lately directed to the agency of Jehovah the Father in the appointment of Jesus to his mediatoriał work; we edeavored to confirm from scripture the important and the comfortable doctrine that all the sufferings which were endured by him on earth, his present exaltation in our nature and name in heaven, to

gether with his final appearance at the consummation of all things, were all in direct conformity to that eternal transaction.

That sovereign grace which was exercised in ordainig Christ the surety early displayed its prerogatives in determining the heirs of his salvation; in giving him by name and sirname many sons and daughters who should everlastingly participate his covenant blessings. The prospect of their salvation was, next to his Father's glory, the chief source of his exultation and joy from eternity past, and in them and over them he will rejoice through eternity to come as an ample reward for all the humiliation of Bethlehem, and all the agonies of Calvary. When the election of man is ascribed to the Father, we are not to consider the other ever blessed Persons in the God-head as excluded. There was no doubt a mutual consultation, and the most perfect harmony among the DIVINE THREE in this transaction. The Son who had covenanted to make the purchase, and the Spirit who had engaged to apply this salvation were concerned in determining the persons and the number to be chosen no less than the Fa-ther who had proposed the plan. Yet this act is pre-eminently ascribed to the Father as the first Person in the God-head, and as having consecrated Jesus to his mediatorial undertaking; he who proposes the work, also stipulates the reward. He who ap