sts, and thus united into one
river clear as crystal. This doctrine of salvation in the Scriptures
hath refreshed the city of God, his Church under the gospel, and still
shall do so till it empty itself into the ocean of eternity."

(ii.) This salvation _in its provision_, is _of grace_. "Who prophesied
_of the grace_ that should come unto you." The apostle does not mean to
say by this clause, that there is something in the theme _exclusively_
adapted to those to whom he wrote. But we understand him to mean, in
general terms, that the ancient seers searched diligently into that
system of mercy, which should in after times, and under the Christian
dispensation, be more fully revealed.

The word "grace" may have reference to _the manner_ in which this scheme
should be made known; intimating that it was by _divine favour_ that the
new economy supervened upon the old. But we take it rather to denote
_the gospel salvation itself_. It is altogether a system of grace. In
its projection; in its development; in its accomplishment; in its
application; in its final consummation, it is all of grace. "By grace ye
are saved."

We are not among the number of those who doubt or deny the entire and
absolute fall of man. Whatever good there was in him was then destroyed;
whatever evil there is in him, was then induced. He is fallen in mind
and soul and body. Physically, morally, spiritually, he is a wreck. But
was no vestage left of that divine image in which he was created? Not
one. No lingering desire to regain his glory and the position he had
lost? None. Was he altogether dead to virtue and his Maker's claims?
Yes, altogether. But was his nature so far polluted as that no trace of
his original purity could be discovered? Not a trace to be seen even by
an Omniscient eye. And was there left to him _no_ inherent power to do
that which is good? None whatever. "From the sole of the foot even unto
the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and
putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither
mollified with ointment."

Then see his position. If his fall, which is so entire, is his own act,
he is as much amenable to his Maker as he was before. The fact of his
fall will not lesson his obligations: nor will it impose upon God any
necessity to show mercy. He therefore stands before his Judge a
condemned criminal; and the course which the Judge shall take is entirely
within h