because those only who are fenfible that they are finners, will be obedient to the call.

Are you not therefore fenfible of your guilt and danger? Are your understandings fo blinded? Is natural confcience itself so feared, that you do not fee how much you ftand in need of a Saviour? Remember, that if there be any truth in the whole compafs of natural and revealed religion that cannot be spoken againft, it is this, That God" is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity;" and that, for this reafon," he will render to every man "according to his works." It is a truth engraven upon the confcience, and ratified by the courfe of providence ; the Heathens difcovered it through the thickest darkness; and the guilty confefs it by their daily fears. What a harveft of converts would I bring in, even in this affembly, if I could but lead to the Saviour every one that believes, in fome measure, in a judgment to come! What an astonishing diforder is brought into our nature by fin? What a marvellous delufion is upon the mind, and what inconfiftency is there in the conduct of finners! It is hard to say, which of the two is moft amazing; their backwardness to receive the truth, or their unwillingness to obey it; their inattention to evidence on the one hand, or their forgetfulnels of what they do believe, upon the other. Is there any perfon within thefe walls, who doubts that he is to die ; or who does not believe, that he must be judged after death? Are you then ready for the trial? Have you ferved your Maker? Have you loved him above all? Have you lived to his glory? Have you fought and placed your happiness in his favor? Or are you fenfible that iniquities have prevailed against you? Have they now taken hold upon you, fo that you cannot lift your eyes? Behold, I preach peace to you by Jefus Chrift. Believe in his name and merits for your pardon: rely on his grace and Spirit for your your reformation; and return to God, through him, as your unchangeable portion. This is the tenor of the gofpel: Luke xxiv. 46, 47. "Thus it is "written, and thus it behoved Chrift to fuffer, and to "rife from the dead the third day: and that repentance "and remiffion of fins fhould be preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jerufalem."

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And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

T

ACTION SERMON.

MY BRETHREN,

O as many as have any belief of eternity, it must be a matter of unspeakable moment to know, how they may have confidence towards God. This enquiry becomes, if poffible, ftill more ferious, when we confider man as in a lapfed and corrupt state by nature, as guilty, and obnoxious to his Maker's righteous judgment. Then it becomes neceffary, not only to preferve the favor, not only to avoid the difpleasure, but to feek for fome shelter or covering from the wrath of God.

This is the account given us of our condition in fcrip. ture; which, as it is a truth of the utmost importance, lying at the foundation of all religion, I have often endeavored both to explain and enforce. And happy, happy they who have heard with application; happy they whose eyes have been opened on their danger as finners; who have seen and felt the evil of fin, as a departure from, and rebellion against a most holy, righteous and gracious God. Happy they, who, rejecting the vain reafonings of the carnal mind, and the cob-web-defences of the fhort-fight

ed creature, have been laid proftrate as guilty and helplefs, before the fovereign and almighty Creator. All mankind, in the feveral ages of the world, have in general difcovered fuch a jealoufy of their condition, and have fo far felt the reproof and condemnation of natural confcience, that their attempts and inventions have been innumerable to appeafe the offended Deity.

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But bleffed be the name of God, we are not left to any uncertainty as to this important question. We may chearfully apply our minds to it and receive unfpeakable confolation" through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the day-fpring from on high hath vifited us." The way to life and peace is fully explained in the glorious gofpel of the Son of God. We are indeed, by nature, guilty finners, enemies to God in our minds, and by wicked works; but there is a gracious provifion made for our recovery in the mediation of Chrift. This is the ftrong hold and refuge of the finner; it is the foundation stone and confidence of the believer. In the 8th and 9th verfes of the preceding chapter, the apoftle John fays, "If we fay that we have no fin, we deceive ourfelves, and the "truth is not in us. If we confefs our fins, he is faith"ful and juft to forgive us our fins, and to cleanfe us from "all unrighteoufnefs." And in the verfe preceding the text, "My little children, thefe things write I unto you, "that ye fin not. And if any man fin, we have an ad"vocate with the Father, Jefus Chrift the righteous."--He then teaches the Chriftian to live by faith in the Saviour's blood: And he is the propitiation for our sins. And that he might further illuftrate the extent and efficacy of the great atonement, he adds, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. In further difcourfing on this fubject, I propofe, through the affistance of divine grace,

I. To confider Chrift as the propitiation for fin, or what is implied in his being fo called.

II. To confider the extent of this propitiation, or its being for the fins of the whole world.

And,

III. To make fome practical improvement of the fubject.

I. First, then, Let us consider Christ as the propitiation for sin, or what is implied in his being so called.We find our Saviour defigned as a propitiation in feveral other paffages of fcripture; as in this epiftle, chap. iv. 10. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he "loved us, and fent his Son to be the propitiation for our "fins ;" and Rom. iii. 25. "Whom God hath fet forth "to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." It is the opinion of many learned men, that Chrift is called a propitiation, or the propitiation, in allufion to the mercy-feat above the ark, which was fet up at firft in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple in the most holy place. To confirm this, it is obferved, that the original word here ufed is the fame which the Greek tranflators of the Old Testament always ufe to denote the mercy-feat, and which the apoftle to the Hebrews ufes when fpeaking of the fame fubject, Heb. ix. 5. "And over it the cheru"bims of glory fhadowing the mercy-feat: of which we "cannot now fpeak particularly." But I apprehend there is fome inverfion of the order of things in this remark: for Chrift is not called a propitiation in allufion to the mercyfeat, which, independent of him, could ill bear that denomination; but the mercy-feat hath this title given to it because it was an eminent type of Chrift. It beautifully indeed represented the benefit which we derive from him as our propitiation. For as God, by the Shechinah, or fymbol of his prefence, dwelt of old upon the mercy-feat, between the cherubims, and was from that place propitiaus to his people; fo now God dwells in Chrift, and by him reconciles finners to himself: 2 Cor. v. 19. "To wit, "That God was in Chrift, reconciling the world unto

himfelf, not imputing their trefpaffes unto them; and "hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." In that ancient difpenfation, every worthipper was to look toward the mercy-feat; and it was from thence that God accepted them, and gave intimations of their acceptance: fo it is through Chrift, or in his name, that we have now access to God; and it is in him that he fheweth us favor, and maketh us accepted; Eph. i. 6. "To the praise of "the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us acceptVOL. I. Tt

"ed in the beloved." It was from the mercy-feat that God fpake to his people by the intervention of the highprieft, and by Urim and Thummim; fo it is by his Son that God now fpeaks to us, and fhews us the way of falvation: Matth. xvii. 5. "This is my beloved Son, in "whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."

But the true and proper meaning of Christ's being a propitiation, is to be taken from the facrifices in general, and particularly points at his undertaking the office of mediator or peace-maker between God and man, and in that capacity fuffering the wrath of God in the room of finners. By this he appeaseth him, rendereth him propitious or gracious to us, and purchaseth our pardon: Rom. iii. 25. "Whom God hath fet forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood." Remember how intimately it is connected with redemption, another expreffion which runs through the whole of the New Teftament, and is confidered as equivalent to the forgiveness of fins: Eph. i. 7. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, "the forgiveness of fins, according to the riches of his grace." Now, redemption certainly fignifies purchafing or buying with a price.

The facrifices under the Mofaic economy did all of them imply a substitution in room of something that had been forfeited, or was due. It is obferved by one eminent for his knowledge of Jewish antiquities, that besides what was done when any particular perfon prefented a finoffering, at the continual burnt-offering there were certain men appointed to reprefent the whole congregation of Ifrael. Their office was, to lay their hands upon the head of the lamb, and thus as it were transfer the guilt from the people to the victim. On this account they were called stationary men, because they attended continually for this end. And as the very purpose of the facrifices under the law was, to typify the facrifice of Chrift, they are a standing evidence of the early and original reference to him, as the ground of divine mercy.

Nothing is more undeniably true, than that the offering of facrifices was both early and univerfal in every nation under heaven; and it is no lefs certain, that thofe