III. Here then we see who are the real candidates for the glory and bliss of the kingdom of God. They are those who are growing in spiritual holiness, who are maturing in deep and humble piety, and acquiring daily, more of the blessed and lovely spirit of the Redeemer of men. They have been delivered from the condemnation of the law, and from the punishment due to sin, but the law as their rule of life has been written upon their hearts; and in conformity to it, they are bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, and have crucified the flesh with its unholy affections and lusts. Our confidence in hope, and our peace in believing, will always rise or fall with the actual conformity of our character to the will of Christ, and our watchfulness and devotion to the attainment of this conformity to Christ. We are to grow in grace, if we would abound in consolation and hope. To be with Christ, and to awake up after his likeness, we must here acquire an entire self-renunciation, and a simple union of ourselves with him. While we thus press forward in the path of obedience, though our infirmities and imperfections are many,-yet being of one mind, and desiring only to become like him whom we love and follow, we are preparing to enter through the gate into the city. The Saviour will pass by our infirmities, and heal our backslidings,-will look to the motive and purpose by which we have been guided, and not to the imperfections which have marked the accomplishment of them. He will accept us according to that which we have,-while all that we had, has been cheerfully given up for him,-and will bid us to come as the blessed of his Father, to receive the kingdom prepared for us, from the foundation of the world.

But sad is the condition of those who cherish a spirit of rebellion and disobedience against God. While the renewed and humble Christian enters through the gates into the city, the door is shut against them. Cast out from the protection and comfort which that city gives, their lot is with odious

and abominable beings, and whatsoever loveth, or maketh a lie. God will look upon them then, with no compassionate tenderness. Like reprobate silver rejected from the refiner's vessel,-like tares bound in bundles for the fire,-they are finally cast away, with no eye to pity them, and with no arm to save. The wages of sin is death,--and they who have sold themselves to be the servants of sin on earth, must receive their hire, though they groan under it, throughout eternity. They have passed their earthly life in enmity to God. They have provoked against themselves, the vengeance of the Most High. They have rejected the holy precepts of the law as their rule of life,--they have refused the freedom from the law which the Saviour offered,--and they remain under the fiery condemnation of the law, unpardoned and in everlasting despair.

O, what can there be in the temporary pleasures of transgression, to compensate the sinner for such a result of his guilty and wasted life! How strange is it, that he should be deluded with the hope of security in sin, when God hath declared, that iniquity has no lurking place in which it can be hidden, that though he could dig into hell,-or climb up into heaven, he should not escape;-and neither the top of Carmel, nor the bottom of the sea, shall afford a shelter for his soul. The only path to safety, is in the return of your hearts to God, in a new and holy life, in obedience to his will,-and in conformity to his law; and you are blessed and happy, when God has convinced you of your sin, and brought you back, in the desire, and determination to serve him in newness of life. To this, are we to urge you, in all the invitations and admonitions of the Gospel,-beseeching you to be reconciled to God, and through his blessed Spirit, to walk before him in newness of life, according to his will.

LECTURE XI.

THE SALVATION OF THE GOSPEL CONFIRMING MAN'S OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW.

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! yea we establish the law.-ROMANS, III. 31.

GREAT boldness of expression, and remarkable unity of purpose, characterize the writings of St. Paul. With great boldness, he proclaims always, the doctrine of an entirely free redemption for man, in the obedience and death of the Son of God. He consults with no narrow opposing prejudice. He overturns all the plans of man's native pride and self-righteousness. He exhibits the invitations and promises of the Gospel, as all freely offered, to all the children of wrath, by the same Lord over all, who is rich in mercy unto all who call upon him. He allows nothing to the power or works of unconverted man. He denies all worth in man's attempted obedience to the law of God. He affirms these principles of truth with remarkable unity of purpose-every where teaching the very same doctrine, as God's plan of mercy and salvation, both for the Jews, and for the Gentiles. But such preaching as this, finds arrayed against itself, the strongest prejudices and objections of the human heart. To be justified freely through grace, by a mere confidence in the merit of Christ, without any dependance upon the works of personal obedience, or any regard to the excellences of man in duty,-involves an elevation of plan, which the blinded mind of apostate man can never comprehend. It was maintained against St. Paul, as it

has been ten thousand times since, that such a system destroyed all the obligations to human obedience, If man's personal conduct and good behaviour had no influence upon his acceptance with God,-all motives to obedience to the divine commands would be taken away from him, and the doctrine of salvation by faith would entirely destroy the law. This was the objection to the Apostle's preaching, which was thought to have force in Rome. But it was in no degree peculiar to Rome, or to Jewish prejudice, or to Gentile pride. It is the language and the honest conception of blinded human nature. Man's slavish spirit while he is under the bondage of guilt, can conceive of no motive to duty but recompense; nor imagine how one who is not lashed by the restraint of fear, can be expected to avoid the enticements and pleasures of sin. The Apostle proclaims that God has provided a righteousness wholly distinct and separate from man's obedience, in which man is justified by simple faith in the testimony of God that offers it. The pride of man rejects this offer; and covers up his rejection, with the plea which is urged in the text before us. He fancies the existence of an excellence in his own character, which the Gospel refuses to acknowledge or honour. He will not yield this imaginary ground, to find justification, through mere mercy to unrighteousness and misery,-a plan which offers the same benefit to the vilest of men, as to the most exemplary and pure. He asserts therefore that the system which proposes and requires this, has a demoralizing tendency,-offers a premium to human transgression,-and thus makes void the law of God. The Apostle meets this objection in our text, by affirming precisely its opposite,-that by faith,-by preaching faith,and requiring faith,-and offering to faith,-and exercising faith, we are so far from making void the law, that we thus confirm and establish it. The term law in this place, means the unalterable law of moral rectitude,-the rule of perfect

conformity to the pure and spotless image of God. The law of transitory ceremonies, and local and national restraints, the Gospel annuls and was intended to annul. But the law of perfect moral obedience, which self-righteous man affirms that it destroys, it confirms and establishes with new strength. The term faith has reference to that gracious system of redemption which is provided in the Gospel, the distinguishing characteristic of which is, that all its blessings are freely offered to the soul that believes in Christ Jesus,-and are fully bestowed upon this faith, and made secure to it. It is the great, and distinguishing doctrine of the Gospel, that guilty man is saved and accepted with God, solely for the obedience of an infinite Saviour in his behalf, and without any regard to his own want of merit in the sight of God. The cordial acceptance of this doctrine has the uniform effect in the heart of the individual who receives it, and in the community of Christians who retain it, of establishing the authority of the law as a rule of life over the souls of men; and of building up men in that spiritual holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. The Gospel annuls the law as a covenant, by proclaiming that entire fulfilment of its demands, which is found in the righteousness of Christ, as a substitute for man. It establishes the law as a rule of life, and confirms and enforces its obedience in the Christian's experience and character. This is the important truth we have now to consider. They who have renounced all hope of salvation in their own obedience, and have accepted a free and gracious salvation as offered in the Gospel, have received as a divine gift new principles and motives, which while they subvert no principle of holiness, confirm and perpetuate all the commandments of God.

The Gospel produces this effect,

I. By furnishing to those who embrace it, and are partakers of its hopes,-new views of truth, in regard to the revela