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to the warrant as issued by the sovereign, world, or as elevate them to a certain deand take the boon or fulfil the conditions, gree above the level of the world's populajust as it is there presented to us. The question. These are the materials of the foundtion is between us and God; and in the ad-ation on which they build. It is upon the justment of this question, we must look possession of virtues which in truth have singly to the expression of his will, and feel not God for their object, that they propose that it is with him, and with his authority, to support in the presence of God the attithat we have exclusively to do. In one tude of fearlessness. It is upon the testiword, we must wait his own revelation, and mony of fellow rebels that they brave the learn from his own mouth how it is that he judgment of the Being, who has pronounced would have us to come nigh unto him. of them all, that they have deeply revolted Let us go then to the record. "No man against him. And all this in the face of cometh unto the Father but through the God's high prerogative, to make and to pubSon." "There is no other name given un-lish his own overtures. All this in contempt der heaven, but the name of Jesus, whereby of that Mediator whom he has appointed. we can be saved." "Without the shedding All this in resistance to the authentic deed of blood there is no remission of sin ;" and of grace and of forgiveness, which has been "God hath set forth Christ to be a propitia- sent to our world, and from which we gather tion through faith in his blood." "He was the full assurance of God's willingness to be once offered to bear the sins of many,"-and reconciled; but, at the same time, are ex"became sin for us, though he knew no sin, pressly bound down to that particular way that we might be made the righteousness of in which he has chosen to dispense reconGod in him." "God is in Christ reconciling ciliation. Who does not see, that, in these the world unto himself, and not imputing circumstances, the guilt of sin is fearfully unto them their trespasses." "Justified by aggravated on the part of sinners, by their faith, we have peace with God through rejection of the Gospel? Who does not 'Jesus Christ our Lord ;"-" and we become see, that thus to refuse the grant of everlastthe children of God, through the faith that is ing life in the terms of the grant, is just to in Christ Jesus." We are "reconciled to God set an irretrievable seal upon their own conby the death of his Son,"-" and by his demination? Who does not see, that, in the obedience are many made righteous," and act of declining to take the shelter which is "where sin abounded, grace did much more held out to them, they vainly imagine, abound." These verses sound foolishness that God will let down his approbation to to many; but the cross of Christ is foolish- such performances as are utterly devoid of ness to those that perish. They appear to any spirit of devout or dutiful allegiance to them invested with all the mysteriousness the Lawgiver? This is, in fact, a deliberate of a dark and hidden saying; but if this p sting of themselves, and that more firmly Gospel be hid, it is hid to them which are and more obstinately than ever, on the lost. They have eyes that they cannot see ground of their rebellion-and let us no the wondrous things contained in this book longer wonder, then, at the terms of that of God's communication; but they have alternative of which we read so often in the minds which believe not, because they are Bible. We there read, that if we believe, we blinded by the god of this world, lest the shall be saved; but we also read, that if we light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who believe not, we shall be damned. We are there is the image of God, should shine into them. told of the great salvation; but how shall And here we cannot but insist on the utter we escape if we neglect it? We are there hopelessness of their circumstances, who invited to lay hold of the Gospel, as the hear these overtures of reconciliation, but savour of life unto life: but, if we refuse will not listen to them. Theirs is just the case the invitation, it shall be to us the savour of rebels turning their back on a deed of of death unto death. The gospel is there grace and of amnesty. We are quite confi- freely proclaimed to us, for our acceptance; dent in stating it to the stubborn experience but if we will not obey the Gospel, we shall be of human nature, that all who reject Christ, punished with everlasting destruction from as he is offered in the Gospel, persist in that the presence of the Saviour's power. We are radical ungodliness of character on which asked to kiss the Son while he is in the way; the condemnation of our world mainly and but if we do not, the alternative is that he will essentially rests. And as they thus refuse be angry, and that his wrath will burn against to build their security on the foundation of us. He is revealed to us a sure rock, on his merits,--what, we would ask, is the which if we lean we shall not be confounded; other foundation on which they build it? but if we shift our dependence away from it, If ever they think seriously of the matter, it will fall upon us and grind us to powder. or feel any concern about a foundation on which they might rest their confidence before God, they conceive it to lie in such feelings, and such humanities, and such honesties, as make them even with the

And this alternative, so far from a matter to be wondered at, appears resolvable into a principle that might be easily comprehended. God is the party sinned against: and if he have the will to be reconciled, it

is surely for him to prescribe the way of to God in the highest; and for this purpose it: and this he has actually done in the re-did the eternal Son pour out his soul an of velation of the New Testament: and whether fering for sin, and by his obedience unto he give a reason for the way or not, certain death, bring in an everlasting righteousness. it is, that in order to give it accomplish-It is through the channel of this great exment, he sent his eternal Son into our world; piation that the guilt of every believer is and this descent was accompanied with washed away; and it is through the imsuch circumstances of humiliation, and con-puted merits of him with whom the Father flict, and deep suffering, that heaven looked was well pleased, that every believer is adon with astonishment, and earth was bid-mitted to the rewards of a perfect obedience. den to rejoice, because of her great salva- Conceive any man of this world to reject tion. It is enough for us to know that God the offers of reward and forgiveness in this lavished on this plan the riches of a wisdom way, and to look for them in another. Conthat is unsearchable; that, in the hearing ceive him to challenge the direct approbaof sinful men, he has proclaimed its import-tion of his Judge, on the measure of his ance and its efficacy; that every Gospel own worth, and his own performances, and messenger felt himself charged with tidings to put away from him that righteousness of pregnant of joy, and of mighty deliverance Christ, in the measure of which there is no to the world. And we ask you just to con- short coming. Is he not, by this attitude, ceive, in these circumstances, what effect holding out against God, and that too, on a it should have on the mind of the insulted question in which the justice of God stands Sovereign, if the world, instead of respond- committed against him? Is not the poor ing, with grateful and delighted welcome, to sinner of a day entering into a fearful conthe message, shall either nauseate its terms, troversy, with all the plans, and all the peror, feeling in them no significancy, shall fections of the Eternal? Might not you turn with indifference away from it? Are conceive every attribute of the Divinity, we at all to wonder if the King, very wroth gathering into a frown of deeper indignawith the men of such a world shall at length tion against the daringness of him, who send his armies to destroy it? Do you think thus demands the favour of the Almighty it likely that the same God, who after we on some plea of his own, and resolutely had broken his commandment, was willing declines it on that only plea, under which to pass by our transgressions, will be equally the acceptance of the sinner can be in harwilling to pass them by after we have thus mony with the glories of God's holy and despised the proclamation of his mercy; inviolable character? Surely, if we have after his forbearance and his long-suffering fallen short of the obedience of his law, and have been resisted; and that scheme of par- so short as to have renounced altogether don, with the weight and the magnitude of that godliness which imparts to obedience which angels appear to labour in amaze-its spiritual and substantial quality, then ment, is received by the very men for whom do we aggravate the enormity of our sin, it was devised, as a thing of no estimation? by building our hope before God on a founSurely, if there had been justice in the sim-dation of sin? To sin is to defy God: but ple and immediate punishment of sin-this the very presumption that he will smile justice will be discharged in still brighter manifestation on him, who, in the face of such an embassy, holds out in his determination to brave it. And, if it be a righteous thing in God to avenge every violation of his law, how clearly and how irresistibly righteous will it appear, when, on the great day of his wrath, he taketh vengeance on those who have added to the violation of his law, the rejection of the Gospel!

complacency upon it, involves in it another, and a still more deliberate attack upon his government; and all its sanctions, and all its severities, are let loose upon us in greater force and abundance than before, if we either rest upon our own virtue, or mix up this polluted ingredient with the righteousness of Christ, and refuse our single, entire, and undivided reliance on him who alone has magnified the law and made it honour

But what is more than this-God hathable. condescended to make known to us a rea

son, for that peculiar way of reconciliation, which he hath set before us. It is, that he might be just while the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. In the dispensation of his mercy, he had to provide for the dignity of his throne. He had to guard the stability of his truth and of his righteousness. He had to pour the lustre of a high and awful vindication, over the attributes of a nature that is holy and unchangeable. He had to make peace on earth and good will to men meet, and be at one with glory

But such, if we may be allowed the expression, is the constitution of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that, in proportion to the terror which it holds out to those who neglect it, is the security that it provides to all who flee for refuge to the hope which is set before them. Paul understood this well, when, though he profited over many of his equals in his own nation,-when, though had he measured himself by them, he might have gathered from the comparison a feeling of proud superiority,-when, though in all that was counted righteous among his fellows, he

signalized himself in general estimation, yet he willingly renounced a dependence upon all, that he might win Christ, and be found in him, not having his own righteousness, which was of the law, but that righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, even the righteousness which is of God by faith. He felt the force of the alternative, between the former and the latter righteousness. He knew that the one admitted of no measurement with the other; and that whatever appearance of worth it had in the eyes of men, when brought to their relative and earthly standard, it was reduced to nothing, and worse than nothing, when brought to the standard of Heaven's holy and unalterable law. Jesus Christ has in our nature fulfilled this law; and it is in the righteousness which he thus wrought, that we are invited to stand before God. You do not then take in a full impression of Gospel security, if you only believe that God is merciful, and has forgiven you. You are called farther to believe, that God is righteous, and has justified you. You have a warrant to put on the righteousness of Christ as a robe and a diadem, and to go to the throne of grace with the petition of Look upon me in the face of him who hath fulfilled all righteousness. You are furnished with such a measure of righteousness as God can accept, without letting down a single attribute which belongs to him. The truth, and the justice, and the holiness, which stand in such threatening array against the sinner who is out of Christ, now form into a shield and a hiding-place around him. And while he who trusts in the general mercy of God does so at the expense of his whole character, he who trusts in the mercy of God, which hath appeared unto all men through the Saviour, offers in that act of confidence an homage to every perfection of the Divinity, and has every perfection of the Divinity upon his side. And thus it is, that under the economy of redemption, we now read, not merely of God being merciful, but of God being just and faithful in forgiving our sins, and in cleansing us from all our unrighteousness. Thus much for what may be called the judicial righteousness with which every believer is invested by having the merits of Christ imputed to him through faith. But this faith is something more than a name. It takes up a positive residence in the mind as a principle. It has locality and operation there, and has either no existence at all, or by its purifying and reforming influence on the holder of it, does it invest him also with a personal righteousness.

Now, to apply the conception of our text to this personal righteousness, the first thing we would say of it is, that it admits of no measurement whatever with the social worth, or the moral virtue, or any other of

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the personal accomplishments of character which may belong to those who have not the faith of the Gospel. Faith accepts of the offered reconciliation, and moves away from the alienated heart those suspicions, and aversions, and fears, which kept man asunder from his God. We would not say, then, of the personal righteousness of a believer, that it consisted in a higher degree of that virtue which may exist in a lower degree with him who is not a believer. It consists in the dawn, and the progress, and the perfecting of a virtue, which, before he was a believer, had no existence whatever. It consists in the possession of a character of which, previous to his acceptance of Christ, he had not the smallest feature of reality; though to the external eye, there may have been some features of resemblance. The principle of Christian sanctification, which, if we were to express it by another name, we would call devotedness to God, is no more to be found in the unbelieving world, than the principle of an allegiance to their rightful sovereign, is to be found among the outcasts of banishment. It is not by any stretching out of the measure of your former virtues, then, that you can attain this principle. There needs to be originated within you a new virtue altogether. It is not by the fostering of that which is old,—it is by the creation of something new, that a man comes to have the personal righteousness of a disciple of the New Testament. It is by giving existence to that which formerly had no existence. And let us no longer wonder, then, at the magnitude of the terms which are employed in the Bible, to denote the change, the personal change, which in point of character, and affection, and principle, takes place on all who become meet for the inheritance of the saints. It is there called life from the dead, and a new birth, and a total renovation,-all old things are said to be done away, and all things to become new. With many it is a wonder how a change of such totality and of such magnitude, should be accounted as indispensable to the good and creditable man of society, as the sunken profligate. But if the one and the other are both dead to a sense of their Lawgiver in heaven,-then both need to be made alive unto him. With both there must be the power and the reality of a spiritual resurrection. And after this great transition has been made, it will be found that the virtues of the new state, and those of the old state, cannot be brought to any common standard of measurement at all. The one distances the other by a wide and impassable interval. There is all the difference in point of principle between a man of the world and a new creature in Christ, that there is between him who has the Spirit of God, and him who has it not,-and all the difference

that all old things are done away, and that all things have become new.

in point of performance, that there is between him who is without Christ, and can therefore do nothing, and him who can Thus it is, that while none of the Christian do all things through Christ strengthening virtues can be made to come into measurehim. There is a new principle now, which ment with any of what may be called the formerly had no operation, even that of constitutional virtues, in respect of their godliness, and a new influence now, even principle, because the principle of the one that of the Holy Ghost, given to the prayers set differs from that of the other set, in kind of the believer;--and under these provi- as well as in degree, yet there are certain sions will he attain a splendour and an en- corresponding virtues in each of the classes, ergy of character, with which, the better which might be brought together into meaand the best of this world can no more be surement, in respect of visible and external brought into comparison, than earth will performance. And it is a high point of compare with heaven, or the passions and obligation with every disciple of the faith, the frivolities of time, with the pure ambi- so to sustain his part in this competition, tion and the lofty principles of eternity. as to show forth the honour of Christianity; And let it not be said, that the transforma- to prove by his own personal history in tion of which we are now speaking, in- the world, how much the morality of grace stead of being thus entire and universal, outstrips the morality of nature; to evince consists only with a good man of the world the superior lustre and steadiness of the in the addition of one virtue, to his previous one, when compared with the frail, and stock of many virtues. We admit that he fluctuating, and desultory character of the had justice before, and humanity before, other; and to make it clear to the eye of and courteousness before, and that the god- experience, that it is only under the peculiness which he had not before, is only one liar government of the doctrine of Christ, virtue. But the station which it asserts, that all which is amiable in human worth, among the other virtues, is a station of becomes most lovely, and all which is justly supreme authority. It no sooner takes held in human admiration, becomes most its place among them, than it animates great, and lofty, and venerable. The Bible them all, and subordinates them all. It sends tells us to provide things honest in the sight forth among them a new and pervading of men, as well as of God. It tells us, that quality, which makes them essentially upon the person of every Christian, the different from what they were before. I features of excellence should stand so legimay take daily exercise from a regard to bly engraven, that, as a living epistle, he my health, and by so doing I may deserve might be seen and read of all men. It is the character of a man of prudence; or I true, there is much in the character of a may take daily exercise apart from this genuine believer which the world cannot consideration altogether, and because it is see, and cannot sympathize with. There the accidental wish of my parents that I is the rapture of faith, when in lively exershould do so; and thus may I deserve the cise. There is the ecstacy of devotion. character of a man of filial piety. The ex-There is a calm and settled serenity amid ternal habit is the same; but under the one all the vicissitudes of life. There is the principle, the moral character of this habit habit of having no confidence in the flesh, is totally and essentially different from and of rejoicing in the Lord Jesus. There what it is under the other principle. Yet is a holding fast of our hope in the prothe difference here, is, most assuredly, not greater than is the difference between the justice of a good man of society, and the justice of a Christian disciple. In the former case, it is done unto others, or done unto himself. In the latter case, it is done unto God. The frame-work of his outer doings is animated by another spirit altogether. There is the breath of another life in it. The inscription of Holiness to God stands engraven on the action of the believer; and if this character of holiness be utterly effaced from the corresponding action of the good man of society, then, surely, in character, in worth, in spiritual: and intelligent estimation, there is the utmost possible diversity between the two actions. So that, should the most upright and amiable man upon earth embrace the Gospel faith, and become the subject of the Gospel regeneration,-it is true of him, too,

mises of the Gospel. There is a cherishing of the Spirit of adoption. There is the work of a believing fellowship with the Father and with the Son. There is a movement of affection towards the things which are above. There is a building up of ourselves on our most holy faith. There is a praying in the Holy Ghost. There is a watching for his influence with all perseverance. In a word, there is all which the Christian knows to be real, and which the world hates, and denounces as visionary, in the secret, but sublime and substantial processes of experimental religion.

But, on the other hand, there is also much in the doings of an altogether Christian of that palpable virtue which forces itself upon general observation; and he is most grievously untrue to his master's cause, if he do not, on this ground, so outrun the world, as to force from the men of

it, an approving testimony. The eye of the world cannot enter within the spiritual recesses of his heart; but let him ever remember that it is fastened, and that too with keen and scrutinizing jealousy, on the path of his visible history. It will offer no homage to the mere sanctity of his complexion; nor, unless there be shed over it the expression of what is mild in domestic, or honourable in public virtue, will it ever look upon him in any other light, than as an object of the most unmingled disgust. And therefore it is, that he must enter on the field of ostensible accomplishment, and there bear away the palm of superiority, and be the most eminent of his fellows in all those recognized virtues, that can bless or embellish the condition of society; the most untainted in honour, and the most disinterested in justice, and the most alert in beneficence, and the most unwearied in all these graces, under every discouragement and every provocation.

of nature, and if any believer amongst you be led by it not to despise these accomplishments, but to put them on, and to animate them all' with the spirit of religiousness,-if any hearer amongst you, beginning to perceive his own nothingness in the sight of God, be prompted to inquire, Wherewithal shall I appear before him? and not to rest from the inquiry, till he flee from his hidingplace, to that everlasting righteousness which the Saviour hath brought in: and if any believer amongst you, rightly dividing the word of truth, shall act on the principle, that though nothing but the doctrine of Christ crucified, can avail him for acceptance with God, yet he is bound to adorn this doctrine in all things. And knowing that one may acquiesce in the whole of such a demonstration, without carrying it personally home, we leave off with the single remark, that every conviction not prosecuted, every movement of conscience not followed up, every ray of light or of truth We have now only time to say, that we not turned to individual application, will shall not regret the length of this discourse, aggravate the reckoning of the great day,or even the recurrence of some of its argu- and that in proportion to the degree of urments, if any hearer amongst you, not ingency which has been brought to bear upon the faith, be led by it, to withdraw his con- you, and been resisted, will be the weight fidence from the mere accomplishments and the justness of your final condemnation.

SERMON IX.

The Principle of Love to God.
"Keep yourselves in the love of God."-Jude 21.

Ir is not easy to give the definition of a rests, and finds a complacent gratification,— term, which is currently and immediately and to assign the circumstances, which are understood without one. But, should not either favourable or unfavourable to its exthis ready understanding of the term super-citement. All this may call forth an exersede the definition of it, what can we tell cise of discrimination. But instead of dwellof love in the way of explanation, but by a ing any more on the significancy of the substitution of terms, not more simple and term love, which is the term of my text, let more intelligible than itself? Can this affec-us tion of the soul be made clearer to you by words, than it is already clear to you by your own consciousness? Are we to attempt the elucidation of a term, which, without any feeling of darkness or of mystery, you make familiar use of every day? You say with the utmost promptitude, and you have just as ready an apprehension of the meaning of what you say, that I love this man, and bear a still higher regard to another, but have my chief and my best liking directed to a third. We will not attempt to go in search of a more luminous or expressive term, for this simple affection, than the one that is commonly employed. But it is a different thing to throw light upon the workings of this affection,-to point your attention to the objects on which it

forthwith take it unto use, and be confident that, in itself, it carries no ambiguity along with it.

The term love, indeed, admits of a real and intelligible application to inanimate objects. There is a beauty in sights, and a beauty in sounds, and I may bear a positive love to the mute and unconscious individuals in which this beauty hath taken up its residence. I may love a flower, or a murmuring stream, or a sunny bank, or a humble cottage peeping forth from its concealment,- -or in fine, a whole landscape may teem with such varied graces, that I may say of it, this is the scene I most love to behold, this is the prospect over which my eye and my imagination most fondly expatiate.

The term love admits of an equally real,

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