our recovery in Christ. The whole of our guilt, both original and actual, must be stated ; and so stated, as that every one may be made sensible of his lost condition, and of the utter impossibility of ever restoring himself to the Divine favour. The law must be set forth in its spirituality, and with its penal sanctions, that is, as requiring perfect and perpetual obedience, and as denouncing its irrevocable sentence of condemnation for one single transgression h. The plan which God, of his infinite mercy has devised for the satisfying of his justice and the honouring of his law, must then be opened. His gift of his only dear Son, to take our nature upon him, and in that nature to fulfil the law for us; enduring in his own person all its righteous penalties, and obeying to the uttermost all its holy demands ; his gift of his Son, I say, thus to work out a righteousness for us, a righteousness fully commensurate with all the demands, whether of law or justice, and, by im- putation made available for our restoration to his favour ; this, I say, must be declared as the method devised by God for the
salvation of the world But it is not for our restoration
to his favour merely, that he has devised this plan ; but for our restoration to his image. And here must be opened the indispensable necessity of mortifying all sin through the in- fluences of the Holy Spirit, and of devoting ourselves wholly and entirely to God ]
" The whole " of this must be set forth from time to time —
[It must be declared plainly, without disguise; fully, with- out concealment ; firmly, without doubt ; authoritatively , without fear. It is not to be wrapt up in polished language, for the sake of pleasing a fastidious ear ; but to be opened in the simplest terms, or, as the Apostle says, " Not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, com- paring spiritual things with spiritual0." Nor must there be any bias in our minds towards any one part of the system above another ; to doctrines above duties, or to duties above doctrines : every truth that is revealed in the Scripture must be brought forth in its place, and have that measure of pro- minence in our statements which it bears in the sacred volume. On points of dubious aspect we may express ourselves with doubt ; but on all the great leading features of redemption we should express no more doubt than on the most self-evident truth that can be subjected to our view. In delivering these truths, also, we should "speak as the oracles of God1'," even as "Ambassadors from God, in whose place wc stand," and whose word we deliver e.]
b Gal. iii. 10. c 1 Cor. i. 17. and ii. 4, 13.
d 1 Pet. iv. 11. e 2 Cor. v. 20. 1 Thess. ii. 13. and iv. S.