feeling that almost annihilates all others, and frequently becomes deep even to melancholy, or passionate to the extreme of agony. He labors in the ministry of the Gospel, if by any means he may save some, and his earnestness is that of a person rescuing others from the most terrible calamities, saving them with fear, "pulling them out of the fire." Is it not natural that very partial success should be far from satisfying benevolence of this description? Can anything surpass the chilling disappoint of him who, with a heart thus sublimed or rather consumed with love, preaches to men in vain, stretching out his hand all day long to a gain-saying people? and who, hearing the storm coming, seeing the sky lower, and blue flames kindle in the air, signs of the fiery deluge above,-warns, without alarming, the giddy multitude, appearing to them like Lot to his sons-in-law when he said, "Up, get ye out of this place, for God will destroy this city."

Solemn to him is the thought of the day when he must stand with his hearers at the bar of God, and appear as a witness against those who have not profited by his ministry; and, however reluctantly, give in his evidence against them. How terrible to him the fear of meeting, at the left hand of Judge, those whom he had so often admonished and invited, in whose ears he had spoken the words of life every week for many, many years! How harrowing to his feelings to witness the death-bed of some of his hearers, and see them sink in death without hope, and recollect with what interest he had often regarded them in the sanctuary when their fears were alarmed by the terrors of the Lord, and they seemed awakened to compunctious feeling for sin, or when they appeared to be melted down by the love of Christ, or overwhelmed with the giories and miracles of the cross! Oh! is this the end of my labors? Have I been heaping consuming coals of fire on the heads of those for whom I hoped I was the means of bringing down the showers of heaven's blessings? Must the tree I have so long and so anxiously tended and watered, be plucked up by the roots and cast into the flames? How have I been disappointed in my dearest hopes! I was anticipating the satisfaction I should enjoy at the last day, and was already saying with the apostle, "What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of the Lord Jesus at his coming?" How has my expectation been cut off! How has it become like the morning cloud, or early dew which goeth away? "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?”

THE AMERICAN.

Delivered before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, at their Triennial Session, in Philadelphia, May 21, 1846.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST FROM MEMBERS OF THE ASSEMBLY.

THE FAITH DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.-EPISTLE OF JUDE, 3D VERSE. ASSEMBLED as the ministers and servants of God, it becomes us to review the commission under which we act, and the duties it imposes. That commission is the Gospel of Christ, whose heavenly precepts are our guide, and whose spirit is our Counsellor.

By the Faith once delivered to the Saints, is meant that system of truth and grace which was given by prophets, and by Jesus Christ and his apostles to the people of God. It is that system of truth which embodies and makes known to us what are the existing ultimate facts in the moral kingdom of God-His character, and the laws of his government-the character and condition of its subjects-the plan of redemption-the conditions of salvation, and the future state of souls. These, with their kindred and essential truths, constitute the facts which we are to receive upon the testimony of God, who has revealed them to us. Hence they are denominated, the FAITH, that is a system of truth to be believed.

As these existing ultimate facts are taught to men, they become doctrines-divine truths, in which men are to be instructed. The more general features of this system, are, God's uncontrolled sovereignty-the apostacy and sinfulness of man-bis free agency and moral obligation-the Deity, incarnation and atonement of Christ-the necessity of regeneration, and the agency of the Holy Spirit, in executing the purpose of God to save sin ners; while such as are incorrigible are left to reap the fruits of their own depravity.

FIRST, I remark, by this system of truth Christ established his

kingdom in this world; and these are the doctrines which the apostles inculcated and defended, and which have been handed down to us by the wisest and best of men in every age.

1. Passing the obvious and acknowledged fact of God's unlimited sovereignty, we meet as the earliest instruction of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the entire sinfulness and moral helplessness of man. The nature and plan of his gracious economy rested upon this ground alone. He expressly declares, that his Gospel is suited only to apostate and ruined men. It is emphatically a system of mercy, and purely of mercy. It in no case admits the possibility of salvation on the ground of original or partial merit, or of mercy given to remedy the defect of human worth.

Jesus Christ repeats and sanctions prophecy: "The people that sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them that sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." And surely darkness and death, those dread symbols of the eternal pit, are no doubtful testimony of man's guilt and helplessness.

Paul and the other disciples enforced the same melancholy truth. The graphic hand of the apostle has drawn in shades of night, the depraved character of man, and though drawn eighteen centuries ago, it is the living portraiture of every sinner now. "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; dead in trespasses and sins." This charge is universal. It is not the picture of some distant and solitary degradation, where causes most malig. nant.combine to pollute and prostrate: no, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The entire character of human loyalty is ended; all have gone out of the way; there is none that doeth good, no, not one; death has passed upon all men.

This melancholy fact has come down to us through the hands of men venerable for wisdom and holiness. In this moral degradation and death, we recognize the doctrine of man's native corruption and entire sinfulness. We are taught, that, from the apostacy of Adam flowed the stream of moral pollution and debasement, and that man is helpless without the grace of God in Christ. We here recognize more than the simple predominance of the animal propensities over the moral sense, as constituting our inheritance from the fall: the heart is diseased, and the entire moral character in ruins!

2. Upon this ruined state of man, succeeded the provisions of the atonement.

"I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance;" says the Saviour. "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick-I am the way, the truth, and the lifeI am the light of the world--If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me."

In the atonement of Christ, he would have us recognize universal and unconditional mercy, in the provisions of pardon and proffers of salvation to all mankind.

This atonement in the amplitude of its provisions, was the theme of the apostles' preaching every where. They were literally filled and enraptured with the doctrine of the cross-"Christ," our "passover," "propitiation," "sacrifice"" without the shedding of blood, no remission." The atonement of Christ, we are authorized to regard as the glorious devising of the Infinite Jehovah to illustrate the divine perfections, to advance and secure the honor and stability of the divine government, and to save the lost race of men. We are to regard it as adequate for all the purposes of man's salvation; as the ground for the proffer of pardon to all; its claims binding on all; its blessings open to all; and its rejection as constituting the guilt and condemnation of the soul. While we would limit the power and proffers of the blood of Christ only by the boundary of human necessity, we would not abridge at all the obligations and responsibilities of the sinner. We do not regard the atonement, as expressive of God eager in the pursuit of justice, bent upon the renewed vindication of his injured honor; for then he might have swept another race of rebels to the pit: but we view his designs as replete with wisdom and "mercy, encompassing justice," and giving an infinite advance in moral government. With us, mercy leads the way; and it is for salvation that Christ appears and dies, while justice is honored and law enforced.

We do not view the atonement as a mere symbolic representation, on the one hand, nor on the other as the simple creation of justice in its demands for vengeance; but rather as the device of love, mercy, and wisdom; a glorious and gracious substitution for the guilty.

With such a death in view, the death of the adorable Son of God, we behold God just, in justifying the believer; we are assured that all who believe shall be saved.

We are not troubled, nor would the gospel embarrass our ministry with the speculations of the schools as to the exact purchase of the death of Christ: but we behold in God, through Christ, the redemption of the world; justice honored; moral government secured; God satisfied; and from his glorious nature we behold flowing forth rivers of life and salvation to the lost; mercy, swift on its wing as the white-robed seraph; light breaking from the throne; the teachings of truth; the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation; grace abounding to the chief of sinners; angels of light and love ministering to men, rocking the cradle of infancy, and leading the weary patriarch home the grace and power of the Holy Ghost perfecting the purposes of mercy in Christ to a ruined world. Call this what you please; the purchase of Christ; a part of his atonement; or the necessary, the natural outgoings of the grace of God to the guilty and the lost, where justice and law, truth and government, are honored and secured by the substituted merits and death of a divine Saviour. All this "is just like God"-just what we

should expect him to do, in view of Christ. All the attributes of his nature conspire to bless and save; blending and radiating forth in the richness and glories of salvation to the lost and dying. I will not ask, did Christ purchase exactly all this, but I behold in the parental, kind, and blessed God, a nature infinitely lovely, and ready to restore to his arms, and raise to his throne every returning apostate. We rather behold and welcome all this, from the overflowing exuberance of eternal love, than from the rigid exactions of a commercial purchase. The sun no more bursts upon the world when the clouds are scattered, than the exhaustless love and grace of God flow forth in streams of salvation when the vicarious atonement is fully made.

Moreover, while we admire in all this the richness of divine grace, we never forget, that it is through the death of Christ, his advocacy, his spirit, his righteousness, that these blessings of life and heaven are opened and secured to the lost. The veil has been lifted from heavenly glories by his hand alone, and our life and hope, with every aid and agency that attend us from the cradle to the grave and to heaven, we refer gratefully and exclu sively to the blood of Christ.

3. Upon the ground of this atonement, Christ has rested the obligations of men to repent, or, rather, made them doubly imperative, and pronounces their condemnation as the fruit of its rejection; and on its universal rejection rises the necessity of di vine and sovereign power to secure its gracious purposes.

Christ saw and met the melancholy fact, that his love would be despised. His own received him not. The cry every where arose, Have me excused! Away with him! One universal burst of disaffection moved the multitudes of wretched men.

In view of this rejection of his salvation, Christ in his first public address presented the doctrine of sovereign and distinguishing grace; "Many widows were in Israel when the heavens were shut up for three years and six months, but unto none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon; and many lepers were in Israel in the days of Eliseus the prophet, but none of them were cleansed but Naaman, the Svrian. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."

In the apostles' teachings we meet the same fact of Christ's rejection, and everywhere they preached the doctrine of special, divine sovereignty in the salvation of men. They rested their hope of success on God alone. No force of means, no power of persuasion, no majesty of miracles, though co ning in the glories of heaven or the commanding terrors of the judgment, could subdue the soul. Amid the crowds of rebellious men madly rushing to death, the apostles beheld the purpose of God to rescue from an apostate race a seed to serve him, made willing in the day of his power.

And how did Paul receive the announcement of this gracious