you learn how to state the worth of his righteousness, and the degree of affiance suited to his merits; rather, you will perceive that his spotless birth, his perfectly obedient life, his exquisitely bitter death, are a satisfac tion of unknown dignity; precious, far beyond all the graces of men, and all the duties of angels; able to save to the uttermost all that rely on them, and come unto God through them.

Consonant to this are the sentiments of that pene. trating critic and profound scholar, Dr. Lightfoot, who treating of our Saviour's obedience, says, Add to all this the dignity of his person who performed this obe. dience, that he was God as well as man, and his obedience infinite; such as in its validity subdued Satan, and in its all-sufficiency satisfied the justice of God.' After which our celebrated author makes this important and delightful improvement: Think, Christian, what a stock of obedience and righteousness here is for thee to answer and satisfy for thy disobedience and unrighteousness, if thou become a child of the covenant. Here is enough for every soul that comes to him, be they never so many. Like the widow's oil in the book of Kings, there is enough and enough again, as long as any vessel is brought to receive it.'t

We need not wonder that Gentiles, who are ignorant of the Redeemer; that Jews, who treat him with contemptuous scorn; that professors of religion, who deny his eternal Godhead, place little, if any confidence in his righteousness. But it is strange that Christians, who know the Saviour, who acknowledge his divinity, and believe him to be exalted above all blessing and praise, it is exceedingly strange that they do not rejoice in him, make their boast of him, and say, with a becoming disdain of every other dependence, 'Get ye hence!'

Such an assemblage of divine perfections must war rant, must demand, the most undivided, and the most unbounded confidence. There never was, no, not in all

This is expressed by the sacred historian with an energy which no translation can equal : την τιμήν του τετιμημένου αν ετιμήσαντο από υιών Ισραηλ, Matt. xxvii. 9 t Lightfoot's Works, vol. ii. p. 1258. Isa. xxx. 22.

ages, nor in all worlds, any thing greater or richer, more dignified, or exalted, than the obedience of our Lord; nay, it is impossible to imagine what could be so suited to our wants, so proper for our reliance, or so sure to answer, more than answer all our expectations. Remember what the apostle affirms, and you will not wonder at my assertion: In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' How comprehensive and exalted is this description! It collects into a point all the rays of majesty and honour: it expresses in a sentence, I say, not whatever this pen has written, but whatever of dignity and excellence the Bible itself contains-the Godhead, the very nature and essence of the Deitythe fulness of the Godhead, unerring wisdom, almighty power, and whatever the great Jehovah challenges as his own-all the fulness, every adorable attribute, in the most ample measure, and in the highest degree; all this dwells, not visits occasionally, but statedly, inva. riably, eternally resides; dwells in Christ Jesus bodily, with a union inconceivably close and intimate, insomuch that the Godhead inhabiting, and the manhood inhabited, make but one and the same person.

Therefore, adds the sacred disputant, ye are com plete in Him." Never was any conclusion more weighty in itself, or founded on more solid principles. Ye are not only pardoned, but reconciled; and not only reconciled, but justified; nay, ye are, and what can be said or desired more? ye are complete; and not barely before men or angels, but before infinite purity and omniscience itself. Ye are made (amazing and charm. ing truth!) the righteousness of God'+ in this wonderful Saviour. What a fountain is this, or rather what a sea of fathomless depth, to obliterate all sins, and supply all wants! What a mirror of God's stupendous grace, and ever-to-be-adored loving-kindness!

Here let our meditations fix, and here let all our expectations centre. From this, not from any thing of our own, let us derive our peace, our joy, our supreme complacency. Into this subject we can never dive too deeply of this subject we can never think too magnificently. The righteousness of Christ is the master-pillar Col. ii. 9, 10. † 2 Cor. v. 21.

on which our eternal welfare rests. Nay, it is the only support which preserves us from sinking into endless perdition :

-There hangs all human hope: that nail supports

Our falling universe.

This renders his intercession prevalent. He is an advocate, a successful advocate with the Father. Why? Because he is Jesus Christ the righteous."* From hence results his ability to justify. He shall justify many, saith the Lord Jehovah. On what consideration? Because he is my righteous servant:'+ this, and no other, is the meritorious cause of our salvation. 'Judah shall be saved,' shall escape damnation, and inherit glory. On what account? On account of the righteous Branch raised up unto David." Since then our acceptance, justification, and salvation; since our comfort in time, and our happiness to eternity, all depend upon the righteousness of Christ, how should we delight in contemplating its faultless, its matchless, its transcendent excellency! Grand! All-sufficient! In every respect perfect! Nothing equal to it on earth, in heaven, throughout the universe! Surpassing the enormity of our guilt; surpassing the reach of our imagina. tion; surpassing all that we can express or conceive; being truly, properly, absolutely divine!

And is this righteousness mine? Is this righteousness yours, Theron? Is this righteousness free for every sipner? Pleasing, captivating, rapturous thought! Who can forbear exulting and triumphing in this boundless, this infinite blessing! On such an occasion, methinks, some sallies of enthusiasm, or even some starts of tautology, are the language of sensibility, of propriety, of nature. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord,' the Lord himself, 'hath done it.' Our justifying righteousness is finished; finished by Jehovah sojourning in hu

1 John il. 1.

Isa. liii. 11.

1 Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. I believe it will be needless to observe, that the salvation, mentioned in this and other passages of like import, is not limited to a temporal deliverance, but extends to a state of spiritual and eternal happiness. The temporal is only a subordinate blessing, a kind of appendage to the other, somewhat like the halo round the globe of the moon, or that faint and secondary range of colours which frequently attends the glowing rainbow.

man clay.

Shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein for the Lord hath' most marvellously 'redeemed Jacob, and' no less illustriously 'glorified him self in' the recovery of Israel." O for the tongue of a seraph! But even this would be defective, such ardour cold, and such energy languid.

I have done: I add no more: I leave it-to some future letter? to some more laboured essay? No, but to the hymns of heaven, and the adorations of eternity, to supply the deficiency of my acknowledgments. In the mean time let me entreat my Theron to contemplate our Lord Jesus Christ under that most illustrious character described by the prophet, a Priest upon his throne;' dignifying the sacerdotal censer by the regal diadem, adding all the honours of his eternal divinity to the sacrifice of his bleeding humanity: then, I promise myself, you will find it almost impossible not to adopt the emphatical and ardent protestation of the apostle, 'God forbid that I should glory,' that I should confide,' save only in the' obedience and the cross of Christ Jesus my Lord!'

When you made the tour of France and Italy, and, crossing the Alps, gained the summit of some commanding ridge; when you looked round with astonish. ment and delight on the ample plains which, crowded with cities and adorned with palaces, stretch their beauteous tracts below: when you surveyed the famous rivers that roll in silent but shining dignity, stat ing the boundaries of kingdoms, and wafting plenty through the gladdened nations: when you shot your transported view to the ocean, whose unmeasurable flood meets the arch of heaven, and terminates the landscape with inconceivable grandeur, did you then choose to forego the pleasure resulting from such a prospect, in order to gaze upon the naked crag of some adjacent rock? or could you turn your eyes from those magnificent objects, and fasten them with pleased attention upon a shallow puddle that lay stagnating at your feet?

You who have beheld the scene, can accommodate † Zech. vi. 13.

Isa. xliv. 23.

the simile with peculiar advantage for which reason I shall waive the application, and only beg leave to transcribe a wish that is now warm on my heart, and is often breathed in supplication from my lips: May the Father of our spirits, and the fountain of wisdom, ' give us an' enlightened understanding, to know him that is true grant us the inestimable blessing, that we may be in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ: for this Saviour is the true God, and' that privilege is 'life eternal."

My Theron needs no argument to convince him that such a prayer is an act of rational and real friendship, is the most genuine and substantial proof that I am His truly affectionate,

ASPASIO.

LETTER IX.

Theron's account of the Western Cliffs-the Wonders of the Ocean-and the Benefits of Navigation.

DEAR ASPASIO,

Theron to Aspasio.

YOUR two letters have reached my hand, and I hope they have not missed my heart. I might inform you what pleasure they gave me, and how highly I esteem them; but you desire no such compliments; you desire to see me impressed with the sentiments, and living under their influence. This would be the most acceptable acknowledgment to my Aspasio, because it would be the most happy effect to his Theron. May every day, therefore, bring a fresh accession of such gratitude to me, and of such satisfaction to you!

To watch for my soul, and pray for my salvation, I am thoroughly convinced, is the truest instance of rational and exalted friendship. Every claim to that amiable character is defective and vain, if it does not extend to our spiritual interests, and our everlasting

* 1 John v. 20.