Passages relating to justification by faith, to the election of grace, and to the adoption of believers, do not stand out in their writings, as do the other class of passages to which I have referred. In this respect the Anglicans differed from the Puritans. By the latter, texts bearing upon the topics now mentioned, in connection with other texts touching the Divinity of our Lord, and the Holy Trinity, and the satisfaction made by Christ upon the cross, were most abundantly cited, illustrated, and enforced. The Puritans regarded such texts as distinctive of the Gospel--as rendering it a suitable message of redemption and love to sinful men. I scruple not to say that I warmly sympathize with them in this last respect. The Gospel is glad tidings of great joy to all people: this is the pith of the blessed message, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” “His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” But whilst I admire and honour the Puritans for their attachment to evangelic truth, I cannot conceal my conviction that they too, in their turn, are chargeable with one-sidedness. They had their favourite verses, and, in some instances, dwelt upon them to the neglect of others, and without fully considering the general current of Scripture instructions--which current is really still more important and decisive than particular sentences, which are apt to be looked at apart from their connection. Some of the Puritan Divines did not sufficiently consider those passages which recognize in the Atonement an element of moral power over the human soul; or those passages which present justification and sanctification, in their inseparable relation, as two sides of one and the same redemption; or those passages which teach the power of the human will, the free agency of man, and his personal responsibility; or those passages which unfold the sweet and beautiful fatherhood of Almighty God. The reaction produced by the errors of Popery in identifying sanctification with justification, in overlooking the free grace of the Gospel, and in fostering notions of human merit, drove the Puritans into extreme antagonistic positions, where the forensic idea of righteousness too often overshadowed the moral idea, and an inevitable and resistless fatalism took the place of Divine parental government at once merciful and righteous. Some of the Puritans, indeed, lie less open to such exceptions than did others, as will appear in the subsequent analysis of their works.