[You fee the chearful light that flows in upon us thro' thofe windows, and renders the glafs as bright as this fpring day. You know, that this brightness in the glafs is not from the glafs, which was totally dark fome hours ago; a fit emblem THEN of the works of darkness, the works of unbelief, fuch works being as much devoid of rewardableness, as thofe panes were of light at midnight. Let us not forget then, that if our works are graciously rewarded, it is only when they are the works of faith, whofe peculiar property it is freely to admit the merits of Christ, and the beams of the fun of righteousness; just as it is the property of the tranfparent matter, which compofes thefe windows, neceffarily to admit the genial warmth and chearful rays of the natural fun.]

[If I admire a poor widow, gladly cafting her laft mite into the treafury; or a martyr, generously giving his body to blood-thirsty executioners; it is only becaufe their lively faith receives, and their pure charity reflects the light of him, who, for our fake, became poor; and for our fake joyfully furrendered to his bloody murderers. But altho' this image of our Lord's meritorious holiness and fufferings, does great honour to the faints who reflect it; yet, the praise of it originally and properly belongs to him alone.]

[An illuftration will make you fenfible of it. You have feen a glafs perfectly reflecting the beauty of a perfon placed over against it, you have admired the elegant proportion of features, which compofed her beauty: but did you ever fee any man fo void of good fenfe, as to fuppofe, that the beauty was originally in the glafs which reflected it; or that the lovely appearance exifled without depending on its original; or that it robbed the living beauty of her peculiar glory? And fhall any, on the one hand, be fo full of voluntary humility, as to maintain, that Chrift is difhonoured by the derived worthiness of the works of faith, whofe office it is to receive, embrace, and trust in the Redeemer's original and proper merit ? Shall any, on the other hand, be fo full of pharifaic

pride as to fancy, that the diftinguishing excellence of our good works, if we have any, fprings from, or terminates in ourselves? No, my brethren: As rivers flow back to the fea, and lofe themselves in that immenfe refervoir of waters, whence they had their origin; fo let all the "rewardable condecency" + of our evangelical obedience flow back to, and lose itself in the boundless, and bottomlefs ocean of our Lord's original and proper merits.]

[He, He alone is worthy-properly worthy! Worthy, -fupremely worthy is the Lamb that was flain! Let us then always fay, with the humble men of old, Our goods are nothing unto thee, our good works cannot poffibly benefit thee. What have we, great God, that we have not received from thy gracious hand? And shall we keep back part of thy inconteftable property, and impiously wear thy robes of praife! Far be the fpiritual facriledge from every pious breaft! As thine is all the kingdom and power; so thine be all the glory for ever and ever!]

[If therefore, my brethren, we have the honour of filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Chrift in our flesh, for his body's fake, which is the Church; If we are even offered upon the facrifice of each other's faith; let us dread as blafphemy the wild thought of completing, and perfecting our Lord's infinitely complete, and perfect atonement. As God, who is infinite in himself, was not made greater by the immenfe bulk of created worlds; nor brighter by the fhining perfections of countless myriads of angels and funs: So the infinite value of that one offering, by which Chrift has for ever perfected in atoning merits them that are fanctified, is not augmented by the works of all the faints, and the blood of all the martyrs.

And

(19) † 1 need not inform my judicious readers, that I ufe the uncouth, barbarian expreffion of Dr. Owen," rewardable condecency,” to convey the meaning of our Lord, when he graciously speaks of our meriting or being worthy. If fick perfons will not take a draught but out of a certain cup, made in the height of a queer fashion, we must please them for their good.

And as the heat of the fire adds nothing to the nature of the fire, or the beams of the fun to the fun : fo the righteousness of the faints does not encreafe that of Chrift, nor adds their holiness any thing to his perfonal excellence.]

[Keep we then at an awful diftance from the gulph, which felf-righteous Pharifees fet between themselves, and the juftifier of thofe, who, like the contrite publican, are fenfible of their ungodlinefs. With indignation rife we against the delufion of the Romanists, who countenance the abfurd and impious doctrine of indulgences, by the worse than pharifaic doctrine of their works of fupererogation. Let us not only receive, and defend in a fcriptural manner, the important articles of our Church, which I have already mentioned; but with undaunted courage before men, and with penitential contrition before God, let us stand to our xivth article, which teaches us, after our Lord, to fay before the throne of inflexible justice, refulgent holinefs, and dazzling glory, We are unprofitable fervants, even when we have done all that is commanded us. In point of strict equivalence OUR beft works of faith, our holiest duties, cannot properly merit the leaft heavenly reward. But, O! may the humbling truth keep us for ever in the duft! in point of frict juftice our every bad work properly deferves infernal torments.]

[Therefore, while we earnestly contend for practica!, pure, undefiled religion, take we the greatest care, not to obfcure the genuine doctrines of grace. With meeknefs let us maintain unto blood, the honour of our Saviour's merits, against the hypocritical fons of virtuous pride, who caft the deftructive veil of unbelief over the invaluable facrifice of his body. And in our little fphere, let every one of us teftify with the beloved difciple, God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, in whom he is well pleafed with us; and for whofe fake he works in us to repent, believe, and obey; when we yield to the drawings of his grace, and concur with his fpirit in the work of our falvation.] [Thro'

[Thro' that dear Redeemer then, we receive all the favours, which the Father of mercies bestows upon us. Are our hearts softened? It is thro' the influence of his preventing grace. Are our fins blotted out? It is through the fprinkling of his atoning blood. Are our fouls renewed? It is by the communication of his powerful righteoufnefs. Are we numbered among God's adopted children, and made partakers of his loving fpirit? It is thro' a faith that receives him as the light of the world, and the life of men.

[The very graces, which the Spirit works in us; and the fruits of holinefs, which thofe graces produce in our hearts and lives; are accepted only for Christ's fake. It is he, who prefents them to God, fprinkled with his precious blood, and perfumed with his meritorious interceffion. Nor are the defects of our holiest things, any other way atoned for, than by the full perfect and fufficient facrifice, oblation, and fatisfaction, which he made upon the cross for the fins of the whole world.]

[For Chrift's fake God has annexed certain rewards of grace and glory, to the works of faith which Christ's fpirit excites us to; and, I repeat it, for the fake of Christ only, we receive the rewards promifed to humble, evangelical, fprinkled obedience. All chriftian believers fay, Not we, but the grace of God in Chrift: So far as their tempers and actions have been good, they cry out, Thou haft wrought all our works in us. They all fhout, Chrift FOR us, and Chrift IN us, the hope of glory. They all ascribe falvation to the Lamb; and while they caft their crowns of righteousness and glory at his feet, they join in the grand chorus of the Church: To him that loved us, and washed us from our fins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Thus all is Chrift; nothing without, nothing befides him. In a word, he is to believers, as the Apostle justly calls him, ALL IN ALL.]

[Indeed in maintaining the doctrine of free grace, I cannot but go even farther than our mistaken brethren,

thren, who fuppofe themfelves the only advocates for it. They must forgive me, if I cannot be of their fentiment, when they infinuate, that they fhall abfolutely and neceffarily be faved. For as reafon dictates, that abfolute neceffity vanishes before free grace; fo Chrift charges his dearest elect to fear God as a righteous judge, who CAN caft body and foul into hell; yea, who can do it justly. No gracious promife therefore is made them, whofe fulfilment, in heaven as well as upon earth, is not all of grace as well as of truth, and all thro' the merits of Chrift.]

[O ye precious merits of my Saviour, and thou free grace of my God! I, for one, fhall want you, as long as the fun or moon endureth. Nay, when thofe luminaries fhall ceafe to fhine, I fhall wrap myself in you; my tranfported foul fhall grafp you; my infatiate fpirit fhall plunge into your unfathomable depths; and while I fhall run the never-ending circle of my bleffed existence, my overflowing blifs fhall fpring from you; my grateful heart fhall leap thro' your impulfe, my exulting tongue fhall fhout your praife, and I fhall ftrike my golden harp to your eternal honour.]

[Nay, this very day, I publicly fet my feal again to the important truths contained in the following fcrip. tures: There is no other name [ no other deferving perfon] under heaven, given to men whereby we may [PROPERLY] be faved in whole or in part, but only the name [or perfon] of JESUS CHRIST. He trod the wineprefs of God's wrath alone, and of the people there was none with him He alone is a Saviour, and there is none befides him. [If he that converts a finner, is faid to SAVE a foul from death, it is because he has the honor of being the Saviour's agent, and not because he is ORIGINAL CAUSE" of any man's falvation.] Wo then to thofe, who teach finners the double way, the pharifaic way, the + [felf-righteous] way of falvation,

the "

(20) † Eleven years ago I faid the popish way: I drop the expreffion now as favouring of proteftant-bigotry. Tho' the papifts lean in general to that extreme, yet many of them have known and taught the way of falvation by a faith that interefts us in the Redeemer's

merits;