consigned to after-thought or peradventure. God having irreversibly drawn his plan, and Christ hav ing completely accomplished the redeeming work assigned him; the sacred Spirit has only to breathe upon the hearts of his people in effectual calling, give them faith, imbue them with inward holiness, preserve and increase the holiness he communicates, lead them forth in the paths of outward duty and obedience, exercise them with desertions, visit them with his comforts, keep them from falling, or restore them when fallen, seal them to the day of Christ, and carry them safely through death to heaven.

And as

Thus mercy shall be built up for ever. surely as this book is the book of God; as surely as the Spirit of God inspired it, and inclined David to write these words; so surely is that a truth, which the words themselves convey. No part of salvation is left at sixes and sevens; but the whole is a plan which does honour to infinite wisdom; a plan, conceived and hid (a) in the all-wise mind of God from eternal ages, but afterwards externally made known in the written word, or gospel of grace; and savingly unfolded in the souls of men, when the blessed Spirit begins to turn us from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God (b).

I was yesterday, at some little distance from town; and received a very refined entertainment, in going over a most superb and elegant mansion, which, both within and without, exhibited such a combination of magnificence, beauty, and perfection of taste, that I could not help feeling a curiosity to know, how long that masterly edifice was in building? and, on being informed that it was both founded and finished, within the compass of ten months only; I could not help observing, to some friends who were with me, that if human art and human hands could rear so transcendent a fabric as this, in so short a space; why should we think it (a) Eph. iii. 9. (b) Acts xxvi. 18.

strange, that Jesus Christ was able to finish, and that he actually did finish, the fabric of man's salvation in a course of three and thirty years?

Blessed be God, our salvation is a finished work. It neither needs nor will admit of supplement.And here, let us remember, that, when we talk of a finished salvation, we mean, that complete and infallibly effectual redemption, accomplished by the propitiatory merit of Christ's own personal obedience and of Christ's own personal sufferings; both one and the other of which have that infinite perfection of atoning and of justifying efficacy, that it is utterly out of our power to add any thing to the merit or validity of either. Every individual of mankind, for whom Christ obeyed, and for whom he bled, shall most certainly be saved by his righteousness and death, not one of the redeemed number excepted; seeing Christ has paid, completely paid, the debt of perfect obedience and of penal suffering: so that divine justice must become unjust, ere it be possible for a single soul to perish for all or any of those debts which Christ took upon himself to discharge, and which he has absolutely discharged accordingly.

Arminianism cannot digest this grand Bible truth. Hence, that poor, dull, blind creature, bishop Taylor tells us, some where, if I mistake not, that "We are to atone for our great sins by weeping, and for our little sins by sighing." If our sins have no other atonement than this, we shall go on weeping, and wailing, and gnashing our teeth, to all eternity. But thanks to divine grace, the work of atonement is not now to do. Christ has already put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself (a). We are acquitted from guilt, and reconciled to God, not by our own tears, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, as of a lamb without spot or

(a) Heb. ix. 26.

blemish (a):-not our own sighs, and tears, and sorrows; but the humiliation, the agony, the bloody sweat, and the bitter death, of him who did no sin, of him who was found in fashion as a man, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; these, and these alone, are the propitiation for our sins (b). And as surely as Christ obeyed, as surely as Christ expired, as surely as he rose again, as surely as he intercedes for all the people of his love; so certainly will they all, first and last, be enabled to sing of his faithfulness to all generations; and of that mercy which shall be built up for ever in their full, free, and final glorification.

This is farther confirmed, by those words of the psalmist, thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. As much as to say: "When all thy. chosen, redeemed, and converted people are assembled round thy throne; then thou wilt, in the very heavens, give an everlasting proof of thy everlasting faithfulness." So far will God be, from leaving his people to perish in their passage through the wilderness of life, or through the river of death; that he will present them all faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy (c). God loves his jewels too well, and Christ bought them at too dear a rate, and the holy Spirit polishes them with too much attention, either to throw them away, or to lose them at last. No: they shall be made up (d); their number shall be accomplished; and in their glorification will the whole Trinity be glorified.

Now, after surveying some of the branches, let us look at the grand root from whence they spring. Having taken a cursory view of these streams, by which the church of God is enriched unto salvation; let us endeavour to contemplate them in their great source and head. That you will find, in verse

(a) 1 Pet. i. 19. (b) 1 John ii. 2. (c) Jude 24. (d) Mal, iii. 17.

the third, where God the Father says, I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Do you suppose that this was spoken to David, in his own person only? No, indeed: but to David as the antitype, figure, and forerunner of Jesus Christ.Hence, the Septuagint version renders it, I have covenanted To ExλEXTOS 8, with my elect people, or with my chosen ones: i. e. with them in Christ, and with Christ in their name. I have sworn unto David my servant, unto the Messiah, who was typified by David, unto my co-eternal Son, who stipulated to take on himself the form of a servant; thy seed, i. e. all those whom I have given to thee in the decree of election, all those whom thou shalt live and die to redeem, these will I establish for ever, so as to render their salvation irreversible and inamissible; and build up thy throne, thy mediatorial throne, as king of saints and covenant head of the elect, to all generations: there shall always be a succession of favoured sinners to be called and sanctified, in consequence of thy fœderal obedience unto death; and every period of time shall recompence thy covenantsufferings, with an increasing revenue of converted souls, until as many as are ordained to eternal life (a) are gathered in.

Observe, here, that when Christ received this promise from the Father, concerning the establishment of his [i. e. of Christ's] throne to all generations; the plain meaning is, that his people shall be thus established: for, consider Christ in his divine capacity as the Son of God, and his throne was already established, and had been from everlasting; and would have continued to be established without end, even if he had never been incarnate at all. Therefore, the promise imports, that Christ shall

(a) Acts xiii. 48.

reign, not simply as a person in the godhead (which he ever did, and ever will, and ever must); but relatively, mediatorially, and in his office-character, as the deliverer and king of Zion. Hence it follows, that his people cannot be lost: for he would be a poor sort of king, who had, or might have no subjects to reign over. Consequently, that throne of glory on which Christ sits, is already encircled in part, and will at last be completely surrounded, and made still more glorious, by that innumerable company, that general assembly, and church of the first-born, who are written in heaven (a): for the remission of whose sins, his blood was shed; for the justification of whose persons, his righteousness was wrought; for the preservation of whom in a state of grace, his intercession is still carried on in heaven; and to recover and retrieve whom from the personal dishonours of sin, the holy Spirit comes down, and takes up his abode in their hearts, nor will ever cease from his gracious guardianship, until he has sanctified them into the kingdom of God.

Well may the psalmist add, And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord; thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. What are we here to understand by the heavens? I should suppose, the primary inhabitants of heaven; namely, the angels of light. Electing goodness, redeeming mercy, sanctifying grace, and preserving power, so beneficently exhibited in the salvation of fallen man, are wonders even to the very angels themselves. But are angels the only beings who shall wonder at this display of love? No: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. In the con gregation of believing saints below, and of glorified saints above. For saints and angels, in the great result of things, when the transactions of grace and providence shall be unfolded and clearly laid open to

(a) Heb. xii. 23.