The next three sermons are employed on that divine subject, which I am ready to call the chief wonder and glory of the christian religion, that is, the great atonement for sin made by the death of Christ, and the practical uses derived thence[20]. This is the blessed foundation of our hope, which I have endeavoured to set in a clear light, and to support by reasoning drawn from the types and predictions of the Old Testament and the clearer language of the New. This is that grace and that righteousness which was witnessed by the law and the prophets, as St. Paul expresses it; Rom. iii. 24. This is that important work of the blessed Saviour, who was promised to the guilty world ever since the fall, and whose various glories have been well represented, according to ancient prophecy, in a happy correspondence with the doctrine of the New Testament, by a volume of “Discourses on the Messiah,” lately published by Dr. William Harris. I wonder how any man can read all these correspondencies of the type, prophecy and history, and not be convinced that Jesus was the appointed Saviour of the world. The several sermons that follow next, are all formed upon some of the most momentous concerns of a christian, _viz._ How to improve every thing for the advantage of our own souls; how to look on all things as working for our good; how to employ the time of life to noble purposes, and such as the saints above can never be employed in; and to improve the death of others to valuable ends in the christian life, and especially to a preparation for our own departure. The death of that worthy gentleman and excellent christian, Sir Thomas Abney, gave the first occasion to some of these meditations, for the use of the mourning family, which were much amplified afterwards in my public ministry. Here I have endeavoured to awaken myself and my friends to an immediate and constant readiness for a dismission from this sinful, and sorrowful, and tempting world: And God grant when that awful hour approaches, I may be so far honoured by divine grace, as to become an example as well as a teacher. The last discourse of all, exhibits the “most plain and obvious representation of the doctrine of the blessed Trinity, as it lies in the bible, and the great and necessary use that is to be made of it in our religion.” It is a doctrine that runs through the whole of our serious transactions with God, and therefore it is necessary to be known by men. Without the mediation of the Son, and the influences of the Spirit, we can find no way of access to the Father, nor is there any other hope of his favour proposed in the gospel.