you, and you have not yet entered into the ark. Soon will these floods rise above the highest mountains, and the door of the ark be for ever shut. How then will you escape if you neglect so great salvation. But again, Perhaps II. What is your character? You profess and call yourselves christians, are esteemed such by those around you and appear before God, in his house, and at his ordinances, as his people. you may long have been acquainted with the gospel method of justification, and may have yielded it more than a cold assent, may profess to make Christ-his blood and righteousness, the sole ground of dependance, and, in short, may outwardly appear before men all that the most experienced christian could desire you to be-Even so. Yet deem it not needless to enquire, what is your real character in the sight of God? The religion of the Pharisees was a religion of pride, but the religion of Christ is pre + Heb. ii. 3, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. eminently distinguished for humility.Their's was made up of ostentatious display, but the humble penitent studies to approve himself in secret before his God. They were like whited sepulchres, outwardly beautiful before men; but within, full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.† Whom do you most of all resemble? Do you fear the sin of the heart? Do you delight in the law after the inward man-is that which renders it odious to the carnal mind the very thing which endears it to you-the holiness of its precepts and the extensive nature of its demands? Do you long for inward purity and uprightness? Can you bear the reproach and ridicule of man, so that you are enabled to live in all good conscience before God? Are you infinitely more anxious to be religious, than to have the character for being so? Are you not only religious abroad, but amongst your intimate associates and nearest connections? Are you thus relatively religious, + Matt. xxiii. 27. + Rom. vii. 22. that is, habitually under the impulse and controul of such holy maxims and gracious tempers as are required by the gospel in the various relations of life, and in the particular moral obligations resulting from them? Now the gospel requires, in the nearest of all relations, that "wives submit themselves to their own husbands as unto the Lord;" that "men should love their wives," exercising forbearance towards their infirmities and failings, and using with mildness the authority with which the God of nature has invested them."Children too, must obey their parents, in the Lord," and in their mutual intercourse, even from their earliest years, must be careful to "put away all bitterness and wrath, and clamour and evil speaking,"§ and must be kind one to another,|| endeavouring to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of domestic harmony and brotherly love. Christian servants will be obedient unto their own masters, + Eph. v. 22. ↑ Eph. vi. 1. not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.* They will demean themselves with honesty, fidelity, and becoming respect," not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.† Heads of families likewise, if under the influence of gospel principles, will rule their own houses well, regarding a proper authority over their children, servants, and dependants, as an important talent entrusted to their care, to be exercised, not under the impulse of arbitrary feelings and unholy tempers, but with gentleness and moderation for the common good and glory of God. The real christian in short, whatever his station, capabilities, or influence may happen to be, studies to approve himself unto God, and to do the will of God from the heart. He takes pains thoroughly to acquaint himself with his duty, and from gratitude to his Saviour, and love to his fellow men, endeavours, in the strength of divine *1 Pet. ii. 18. + Eph. vi. 6. grace, faithfully to fulfil the same; accounting this as his privilege, and a very essential part of his happiness and delight. Let me then enquire of you my brethren, whether your righteousness (understanding this term in the three-fold sense in which it has been regarded in the present discourse) does indeed exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees? Is the righteousness whereon you are depending for acceptance with your God, perfectly distinct from theirs, and infinitely more excellent? And not only so, but do your real sentiments in experimental piety and practical holiness manifestly exceed any thing to which they appear to have attained? Whereas they took for their standard the opinion of man, do you regard only the word of God; and have you in the particulars already mentioned conformed your righteousness to the law and to the testimony? Happy are they whose consciences testify in the affirmative! Never, indeed, will they cease to lament how slow is their progress and how small are their attainments. For |