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“They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes that I set before you, and before your fathers." Jer. xliv. 10.

"Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant-stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts." Zec. vii. 12.

"Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.” Mal. iv. 4.

"And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." Luke, xii. 47.

"The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaver and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke, xvi. 16, 17.

"For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words ?" John, v. 46, 47.

"And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God; persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses

and out of the prophets, from morning till evening ?" Acts, xxviii. 23.

"But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets." Acts, xxiv. 14.

The Psalms are regarded by our Lord as the law. See John, xv. 25.—Ezra, vii. 25, 26.—Neh. ix. 26, 29, 34.-Psalm lxxviii. 1-8.-Psalm cxix. 44, 53, 142.Rom. vii. 14.

The law of works is excluded for justification, "by the law of faith;" "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law;" "For the law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death; for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Acts, xiii. 38, 39.

"And

"If a man love me, he will keep my words." as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God."

D

THE THREE EXCUSES.

Luke, xiv. 16-20.

The

"A CERTAIN man made a great supper, and bade many : and sent his servant at supper-time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come."

The first excuse is "the lust of the eyes." The excuse of the second is "the pride of life." While that of the third, is "the lust of the flesh." It has been remarked, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," are the three temptations with which the devil assaulted Christ: and they are under innumerably various shapes, forms, and devices, the deceiver's temptations now. Oh! "put on Christ" "which is the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, and having done all

-to stand."

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None of these assigned reasons were in themselves

PSALM LXXIV. 20.---THE THREE GIANTS.

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unlawful-but the heart of each was at enmity with God; Jew, Gentile, and unbliever.

PSALM LXXIV. 20.

"THE dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty,' 99 "the heart of the wicked is little worth" and dark is that heart where the true light shineth not well may it be the habitation of cruelty if love is not an inmate-for "God is love."

THE THREE GIANTS.

Joshua, xv. 14.-Numbers, xiii. 33.

"AND Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak," "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." 1 John, ii. 16.

These are the three giants to be driven out of the city of our hearts. When we receive light and truth, let us be determined to drive them out, remembering "The name of the city from that day shall be the LORD is there;" and He cannot dwell with these giants.

ROMANS, III. 30.

"SEEING it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith."

The Jews looked forward to the atonement, therefore it was by faith: the Gentiles look back to the atonement, therefore it is through faith. The object of both is the

same.

THE KINSMAN.

Ruth, iv.

THE Kinsman that Boaz appealed to, is God himself; who could not redeem in his Godhead, yet as "Lord of all," it clears up the reply-"I will redeem it." By covenant, Jesus was to redeem the Gentiles with the Jews; therefore God would not break his covenant, or forsake his own inheritance, his express people the Jews; and gives as a reason for not redeeming them, "lest I mar mine own inheritance," which again explains a passage in Luke, xv. 31.-"Son thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." So Boaz, the type of Christ, purchases all Naomi's, the Jews,-all Ruth's, the Gentiles-uniting them under one glorious head, never to be separated.

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