silent as that grave to which they have de scended.

II. The effects of walking by sight, and not by faith, with regard to the character of our being.

He who regulates his views of himself only by the suggestions of self-love and the dictates of a corrupt reason, considers himself as comparatively pure and perfect. He does not acknowledge or feel that he is subject to the dominion of sin, and obnoxious on account of his actual transgressions to the just displeasure of God. He regards the indulgence of the corrupt propensities of his nature, as sanctioned by the powerful impulse which urges him to the gratification, and by the pleasure which the indulgence affords. The character and effect of his vicious indulgences, as opposed to the holiness, and forbidden by the commands, of that God to whom he is accountable, as involving him in guilt, and rendering him obnoxious to punishment, occupy no share of his thoughts. Or, if his character as a sinful and guilty creature be admitted, the extent to which he is subjected to the dominion of sin, its evil and malignity as opposed to the holiness, violating the authority, and abusing the goodness of God; and the degree of his guilt in the actual transgressions which he hath committed, are not fully and correctly appreciated. The views which the Scripture unfolds of man,

10

as at enmity with God "through wicked works "," as unable of himself, without the influences of divine grace, to purify his corrupt nature, and to render to God an acceptable service, are revolting to his pride, and therefore rejected, or only partially felt and acknowledged.

But these are the views most deeply felt and cherished by him who lives by faith. The corrupt propensities of his nature, which prompt him daily to indulgences and actions offensive to God and forbidden by the divine laws, he feels, acknowledges, and deplores. The evil of sin, in all its consequences with respect to the authority, the holiness, the justice, and the goodness of God, and to the purity, perfection and happiness of his own nature, he fully admits, and seriously contemplates; and under the sense of its enormity, and of his own subjection to it, the most solicitous object of his attention is, the means of deliverance from its guilt and dominion.

On this momentous subject of the means of release from the guilt of sin and of the pardon of transgression, what satisfaction can he obtain who lives only by sight? What assurance can reason and nature afford of the mode and conditions of pardon? Is a merciful God prompt to forgive? Yes: but a holy God must view sin with indignation; a just God must punish iniquity; the righteous Governor of the world must

₫ Col. i. 21.

preserve his moral government, and cannot permit his laws to be violated, nor his authority to be contemned with impunity. How then can the holy, the just, the righteous Governor of the Universe forgive sin, remit the penalties incurred by the wilful infraction of his laws? Would not pardon, even on repentance, in licensing crime by absolving it from punishment, oppose his holiness, violate his justice, and subvert his authority? Here to say the least, reason and nature are perplexed; and he who consults only their dictates and suggestions, who walks only by sight, must be in darkness and doubt as to the momentous inquiry, how God can be just, and yet justify the sinner.

This inquiry does not perplex or agitate him who walks by faith. He beholds it luminously answered in the cross of Christ. There it is that

mercy and truth meet together;" that divine holiness is displayed and established by the infinite dignity and perfection of him who expiated God's displeasure against sin; that the divine justice is vindicated by him, who infinite in his nature, paid in man's nature, the satisfaction which that justice required; and there the divine authority is maintained in executing to the uttermost on an all-perfect victim, the penalties of a violated law. God is just, God is holy, God is the righteous Governor of the world; and yet God in mercy forgives the penitent sinner. Oh!

what opposites are reconciled by the cross of Christ-the punishment of sin, and the pardon of the offender! What a mystery is resolved by the cross of Christ-the display of his holiness, the vindication of his justice, the preservation of his authority; and yet the boundless exercise of his mercy! The cross then is the object of wonder, of love, of confidence to him who walks by faith. "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," is the language which evidences his profound sense of the exalted display of all the divine perfections which it affords, and of the precious benefits which it assures to him. Not in the sighs of his contrite spirit; not in the tears which the sense of guilt calls forth; not in the confessions by which he laments his unworthiness; not in the supplications by which he implores pardon; not in the resolutions by which he pledges himself to renounce sin, and to serve his God; not in those holy works by which he carries his resolutions into effect, does he place his hopes of pardonthese are founded only on the merits of him whom God hath set forth as a propitiation for sin. And while he who walks only by sight is perplexed by doubts as to his acceptance, or deludes himself by a false dependance, faith in the blood of Christ removes every fear from the soul of the contrite believer, and fills him with holy

e Gal. vi. 14.

joy by the inspiring confidence, that God through Christ has reconciled him unto himself.

Trusting to the strength which nature affords, what assurance can he have who walks only by sight, of deliverance from the dominion of sin? Can he hope to expel from his bosom the unholy desires and passions whose sway is so firmly established there; to fix in his soul, the spiritual and holy graces and virtues that are so contrary to its corrupt propensities; to change the habits of sin, for those of holiness, the ways of ungodliness, for those of righteousness-Can he hope to perform a work the difficulty of which is aptly denoted in the " Ethiopian's changing his skin and the leopard his spots," by the unassisted efforts of his own mind-by his own resolutions, so changeable-by his own strength, so feeble? To him who feels the dominion of unholy passions and the force of sinful habits, and has experienced the inefficacy of his best resolutions and efforts to subdue and to change them, what consolation and encouragement in the confidence which faith inspires, that the grace of a divine Sanctifier will be sufficient for him, the strength of a divine Guide made perfect in his weakness o ? While he who walks only by sight, who trusts for his victory over his sinful passions only to his own efforts, remains subject to their dominion ; he who walks by faith, who habitually looks for

! Jer. xiii. 23.

2 Cor. xii. 9.