supersede this. It belongs to Christianity. The Christian is justified before God, by faith, without works he only can be justified as to the genuineness of that faith before man, by works. Any impression of his mind that he is safe, in carelessness of holy endeavour, is perilously vain. Consciousness is, indeed, necessary to the proper examination of this evidence, for the dispositions of the mind form a large part of it but the outward is that of which others can only judge. "Tribulation worketh patience, and patience proof:" the corroboration that we are "in Christ Jesus." It is in this way alone that Christianity can receive its visible portraiture; and it is from the exercise of its principles in the minds and lives of its disciples, that this receives its finest touches and strokes. "The trial of faith," is the great business of this probationary arrangement. "They that are approved are made manifest." Others are detected who are "reprobate concerning the faith."

These views of the holy purpose of evangelic revelation, and of the new probationary œconomy into which it calls us, have a distinct bearing upon our relations to the final judgement. We are informed, repeatedly, most solemnly, of its rule. That is not, indeed, what we might have expected. ordeal and process. It is true that judged by the gospel." It is most legitimate, in anticipating it, to breathe the prayer, "the Lord grant that we may find mercy of the Lord, in that day." The whole constitution of things, of which this event is the close and the climax, is founded on "the gospel,"

It is another "we shall be

and is the express covenant of "mercy." But it is not to be mistaken, that the great bias of Scripture directory and warning, is to draw off our special thoughts from grounds like these, when it points to the day of God." We are not to be adjudged as justified, but, whether we be justified: we are not to be adjudged as regenerated, but, whether we be regenerated. In order to this proof, we shall be judged every man according to his works. The judgement-seat is not the mercy-seat. We must regard this awful transaction as an inquest into character. It is in our character of responsible agents, that we must give account of ourselves to God. In that simple condition shall we stand there. The question is only implicitly, whether we have obtained mercy, and found grace in the sight of God: the question truly and directly is, whether such mercy and grace-supposed to have been received_ have moulded the righteous character, and stamped the holy life? These sovereign favors are reflected in their proofs, but the proofs are the exclusive subjects of the scrutiny. The merit of Christ is still the ground of hope. The power of the Holy Ghost is still the cause of difference. But the adjudication proceeds on the evidence of character and conduct, not the righteousness, but the mind, of Christ,-not the gift, but the sanctification, of the Spirit. Faith is dead without its work, love is dissimulation without its labor, hope is not hope without its waiting patience, repentance needs to be repented of without the fruits meet for it. These statements are due to a healthy, masculine, Christianity. It is a system of rewards and

punishments. The Christian is a candidate for the approval of his Judge. He labors that, whether present or absent, he may be accepted of him. He is a probationer for that sentence, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" It is not a holy humility to hide and weaken views like these. It is false and profane to set any honors of mercy against them. The constitution under which they, who were "enemies in their minds by wicked works," may now "walk before God, unto all well-pleasing," may know that he "has a favor towards them," may seek a recompense, is necessarily a constitution of mercy. To affect a greater jealousy for the claims of mercy, than its own constitution demands, is most hypocritically to insult it. Well-being is the state and the disposition which it confers but well-doing is the course it enjoins and the evidence it requires. There is allotted to us a charge and a trust. We must give account of that stewardship. We are a peculiar people, zealous of good works. We must carry out that description. Wisdom must be justified of her children. We must study to show ourselves approved unto God. The men who have most clearly and triumphantly vindicated the unmixed purity of the Divine grace, to whom it was most reverently dear, even saturating all their thoughts and emotions, have ever thus spoken of duty and its remunerableness. We will be no parties to the dilution of their vigorous style. It agrees with "the words of the Lord, which are pure words." We will not enfeeble it by explanation, nor dishonor it by concession. Duty would cease to be duty if not urged

upon such terms. All will admit that this would be true were it attempted against law; that it would surrender its authority, betray its name, and contradict its notion, but for its sanctions. Yet, what is law, save the handwriting of duty? Was it a sordid thing in the lowly suppliants for mercy, to emulate the crown of eternal life? It was thus that the ancient saints "had respect unto the recompense of reward," and struggled "for a better resurrection;" it was thus that the first propagandists of the Gospel, amidst the gathering clouds of mortality and the rising terrors of martyrdom, could address their converts "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward;" could each lift his eyes to heaven, and assuredly exclaim "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing!"

LECTURE IV.

"AND, BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY, AND MY REWARD IS WITH ME, TO GIVE EVERY MAN ACCORDING AS HIS WORK SHALL BE."

REVELATION Xxii. 12.

THE analogy which we ascertain in the physical tc the moral world must so fully convince us that there is a unity of design in both, as to banish every doubt concerning the oneness of their Author. The dual hypothesis of good and evil powers is not only proved to be absurd, but it is unneeded to explain any difficulty. All is now anticipated and relieved. The physical and moral worlds, as we are accustomed to call them, are but one world: their elements and laws are mutually subservient and perfectly blended. They are not parts and divisions of a whole: there is a transfusion of the qualities from which the whole is constituted. They are not properly different systems adjusted to each other, but are one entire and mature system. They may stand as mighty gates, furnishing distinct entrances, but they are covered by the same porch and lead into the same temple.

In examining the constitution of things amidst