You may say that your idea of opening an account with the Creator was only by way of illustration, but what does it illustrate? Is our situation with our Creator such, that works are sufficient to insure our salvation? and do you believe that if "in looking over the leaf and seeing where the balance strikes,"[35] we should find it to be in our favour, we may indulge in sin and iniquity until the balance is brought to an equilibrium? Do not you believe in the efficacy of repentance, and that the truly repentant sinner may receive remission of his sins, although it may be in the eleventh hour, and when they are of a crimson colour, or a scarlet dye? Footnote 35: Sermons, p. 45. The idea is indeed cold and heartless; in sentiment most degrading, and in its deductions most pernicious. How different from the inspirations of the man of old, when musing on the sacred mount of Zion, or on the banks of Shiloah's stream fast, by the oracles of God, he saw the dawn of that auspicious day, when HE, our promise would appear to blot out our transgressions and redeem us from our sins--and with what holy rapture did he announce the joyful tidings? "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son. Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The sun shall be no more thy light by day: neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." But this is not the Messiah of whom you preach: yours is like yourself, a peccable man clothed with infirmities and liable to transgression; and who, so far from having the power to give salvation to others, was himself tempted to sin.[36] You profess to believe that Jesus Christ is "the way, the truth, and the life," but in direct opposition to the plain intent and purport of the sentence, you declare it only means that he had power to cure outward diseases and give strength of body to enjoy the good things of this life;[37] that for this only was he sent, and his power was but as a figure or shadow of the great Comforter. But even with this perversion, the facts you state will not support your argument. It is true that Jesus Christ healed the diseases of individuals; but surely no rational being can suppose that such was the object of his mission, for the number of the healed was so small that it could have had no perceptible effect on the general outward health of mankind, or even of the particular people to whom he appeared. Footnote 36: