PRESUMPTUOUS REASONINGS.

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submission of the sinner to His Righteous Government. It is on this great principle that the love of God has made no provision for blessing any man-apart from the free exercise of his own responsibility-apart from his being brought to submit to the sceptre of the Lord Jesus.

The sinner may, indeed, say in heart, when the Gospel of the grace of God is pressed on his attention "if God has such intrinsic compassion for me-if he has such a perfect willingness for my salvation-why then am I not saved? Why does He not at once fill me with peace and joy?" But to such presumptuous reasonings-it is enough at present to reply, that the real root of this inward scepticism, is the wilful forgetfulness of man's actual position as a responsible agent. They are, moreover, a practical denial of the great fact, that he is in possession of a clear revelation describing the way (perfectly accessible and near at hand) which God has opened for all-and, on which he has emphatically promised to meet and bless every sinner. How, then, can he expect God to bless him--while he is in the very attitude of rebellion,- practically disdaining the only way opened by God for his salvation at so awful an expense!

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CONTRACTED SPIRIT OF MAN.

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But to return,-let it be again urgently demanded, Why are the doctrines of the love God, and the gift and death of his Son, so seldom proclaimed in all their fulness seldom resorted to by awakened souls? Why are they so frequently dimmed, if not practically beclouded altogether by many preachers, in their statements of gospel truth? Surely one great reason of this slowness to understand, and fully to respond to the revealed love and promises of God-is, our continual tendency to estimate His infinitely capacious heart and mind, by those of selfish tracted-fallen man. It is, therefore, part of the work of the Holy Spirit—not merely to teach us at first, but continually to remind us that God's ways are not as our ways-nor his thoughts as our thoughts ;that, both in their nature and extent-they are as far removed above ours-as Heaven is above the Earth. We, indeed, find it difficult, nay, impossible, for our narrow-naturally selfish spirit-to comprehend, till our perceptions are enlarged by a Divine power-that the Heart of God-embraces in its infinite capacity, an ocean of love and kindness, commensurate with the universe at large;—and that,

UNSCRIPTURAL LIMITATION OF GOD'S LOVE. 63

since the fearful barrier of Law and Justice between Heaven and earth has been removed by the atonement of the Redeemer this Eternal Ocean is ever rolling its waves on the shores of this world. Hence, we go on to systematize the Divine love, and to contract it within limits-not the measure of God-but of man ;-and are apt, like the ancient Pharisees, to grudge, or be surprised, if the tide of God's kindness sweep over our landmarks ;— rushing onward over the world to embrace freely multitudes of depraved-wretched and miserable prodigals-whom, otherwise, we would have considered unfit to be recipients of such goodness!

Now, of all the evils which have ever been done to true religion by many of its real or professed friends—of all the wounds which Christ ever received in the house of his friends -that of unscripturally limiting, or obscuring the love of God-and the simplicity and freeness of the Gospel-that of narrowing the river of life-and exacting a previous test of some godly feeling-or meritorious qualificationere its healing waters could be approachedere the soul could be forgiven,-have been the deepest-the greatest. For, by these unhal

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MOURNFUL EFFECTS.

lowed means-thousand and tens of thousands have been shut out from the only element which can bless a perishing soul-even the certain knowledge of the compassionate kindness of God to them-manifested by the gift and sufferings of the Redeemer. Thus are they led to disbelieve his infinite readiness to receive any or all sinners to the overflowing fountain of salvation-" without money and without price," that is-without the least degree of qualifying goodness.

Now, there is nothing more calculated to neutralize such attempts to circumscribe the unbounded love of God to the family of man, than to read with unbiassed mind the discourses of our Saviour when addressing unrenewed sinners-even such as were emphatically condemned by man on account of their habitual career. And there we perceive him, so far from guarding the absolute declarations of the love of God, and gift of his Son to them -so far from telling them that it was quite an uncertain thing whether salvation was provided for them, till they first realized some remarkable change in their own character;—we, on the contrary, find him in the most unequivocal manner inviting them-even all wretched as

THE PREACHING OF JESUS.

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they were,--to drink freely of the living stream of eternal life. Thus, in the last day of one of the Jewish feasts, "Jesus stood and cried, saying, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." And, who present in that vast assembly appeared to be more deeply impressed with this gracious invitation-(doubtless also intended for them,) than the very officers who came purposely to arrest the Lamb of God? For, when they returned to their homes, they boldly exclaimed, "Never man spake like this man!" Thus, again, we find the Saviour not merely pointing out in general to his hearers that there was a sufficiency in Him, for them all; but urging on their minds, the glorious liberating truththat that sufficiency of blessings had been expressly provided for them; and, therefore, doubt. less, for all. "My Father giveth you," (addressing the multitude of unrenewed persons around him-many of whom were his open foes,) "the true bread from Heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven, and GIVETH LIFE UNTO THE WORLD.' (John vi. 32, 33.)

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Now, for the very design, manifestly, of establishing beyond a doubt, the perfect free