hearts continually rejoice in him; be talking of all his wondrous works, and telling abroad his falvation from day to day.

Give proof to all that behold you, that you largely partake of the grace of God, by preffing forward towards the mark for the prize of your high-calling, the crown of glory that fadeth not away; great grace will greatly defire grace, and there is no period at which a gracious foul may ftop and fay, I am perfect in grace, perfect in holinefs, and pure from fin; except as every true believer is compleat in Chrift.

Be ye patterns to your brethren in the Lord; in faith, in patience, and in brotherly affection; always bearing in mind, that grace manifefts itfelf most in an humble deportment; ye cannot poffibly forget whilft ye are in the body, that the character beft fuiting you is, a ranfomed finner; a finner ftill, though faved by grace; yet one who has continual need to come to the fountain opened, and whoever wants to have his beft performances washed in the blood of the Lamb, and who at all times needs Jefus the high-priest to bear the iniquity of his holy things. Thus go ye on untill mortality fhall be swallowed of life, all fin and imperfection shall be done away, and ye ftand with much boldness before the throne, made clean through the blood, and adorned in the righteoufnefs of the adorable Jefus, and join the heavenly harps in a fong of falvation, glory, power, and dominion to God and the Lamb.

SER

Surely fhall one fay in the Lord have I righteoufnefs and ftrength.

G

he

OD made man in his own image, in the image of his holiness, and placed him in the garden his own hands. had planted; a place of complete and perfect happiness ; wrote his law in his heart, and his obligations to love his munificent creator as the chiefeft good, and from whom he derived his being, and his bleffings were impreffed upon his mind. Moreover the Lord was pleafed in much condefcenfion and goodness to enter into covenant with his newmade creature, engaging (by a promise implied in the threatening) not only a continuation of that bleffedness he now partook of, but it is highly probable, a state of much more exalted felicity and glory, after full proof fhould have been given of his obedience; and of which, his abftaining from the interdicted tree was now to be the teft.

But Adam being in bonor continued not long, for tranfgreffing the command, he forfeited all the favours that had been conferred upon him, and which he only had any right to expect in confe

quence

finə game him if fred's, 45747444za dýky are purely terms of Redan Ation & do not man frimitive. 6!)

apply to

A

quence of his obedience; and became obnoxious (as the natural and foederal head of all his pofterity) to all the evils comprehended in the curfe, with which his difobedience had been threatened. And now it was that fovereign grace and mercy first appeared, and manifefted in the promised feed, : the LOVE the EVERLASTING LOVE OF GOD, whose length, and breadth, and depth, and height, is too vast and immenfe for angels to meafure, or any created mind to comprehend. There was now no longer access to the tree of life, cherubim and a flaming fword guarded it on every fide; an awful but inftructive emblem this, thatfin had made fuch a feparation between God, the fource of true life and the finner, that there could be no access unto him, until his wrathful indignation fignified by the flaming fword, fhould bei removed, and his juftice fatisfied in the fulfillment of the promise then made concerning the mediator, the Lord Jefus Chrift, who by the fhedding of his blood should expiate fin, and bring in an everlasting righteousness.

Notwithstanding the covenant of works was now entirely broken, and a new and living way : was exhibited for accefs to God, even by a better covenant, and which was established upon better promises, yet all the fons of Adam are still warping to the old way, and follow after righteousness by the works of the law. Chrift Jefus and his bleffed gospel has always been an occafion of ftumbling to the jew, and matter of foolishness to the greek; and the language of every man's heart› until fubdued by fovereign grace, is, we will not bave this man to reign over us. The kings of the earth, (faith holy David) fet themselves, and the rulers

1

{ a mistake. The 047737-575 (Jen ii. 24) 1. Declared not justification by works was bor soor terminates: 2- was the mercy seat for Penitent, beleving Sinners

rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed, his Chrift: but the purpose of the Lord that fall ftand, for faith he, I have fet my king upon my holy bill of Sion. The beathen may rage, and the people imagine vanity, but the only begotten fon fhall reign, the nations fhall be fubdued beneath him, and he shall break the oppofers of his kingdom with an iron rod, and dash them in pieces like a Potter's veffel. The Lord will here or hereafter be acknowleged to be God; and the ftubborn rebel that refufes to kifs the golden fceptre of his grace, shall smart beneath the iron rod of his vindictive juftice; for "Lo! he "cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him, "and they that pierced him, and all nations "fhall wail becaufe of him;" Jefus, firft or laft, will be exalted, and his bleffed gospel muft either be a favour of life unto life, or of death unto death.

The paragraph of which my text is a part, prefents us with a moft ftriking declaration of Jebovab's refolution to vindicate his injured honour among the heathen, and to be had in reverence of all his people; and having opposed himself as the one only living and true God, to the falfly called Gods of the nations, he exhorteth them to look to him for falvation as their only Saviour, befides whom there was not any other, ver. 22.

For this is the fettled and invariable purpose of the unchangeable GOD, I have fworn, by myself, a greater, an equal, he could not fwear by, for "who fhall be compared unto the Lord? The "word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness "and fhall not return," hath the Lord faid it, and fhall he not do it? Hath he fworn and fhall it not come to pafs? Yes, verily, heaven and earth

earth must pass away, but his word is fure. And And what is the Lord's purpofe? Here it ye fons of pride; the haughty head must bow; the stubborn knee must bend, and every tongue must confefs to God, for unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue fhall fwear. The boafting Pharifee may plume and pride himself in his own imaginary and fuperior holiness, may look down with contempt and fcorn on others; but he must be taught and told, for the Lord" will declare his " righteousness, and his works, for they fhall not "profit him." If. lvii, 12. The humbled foul fhall fwear, and the fubftance of his oath fhall be, furely in the Lord have 1 righteousness and strength. en The text fpeaks of two special bleffings, righte bufness, and ftrength, and the manner of poffeffing them is, in the Lord. Righteousness as ufed in the facred fcriptures, is a term of various import, fometimes fignifying God's righteoufnefs or the standard of his holinefs as holden forth in his moft pure and perfect law. Pf. cxix, 142, " Thy righteoufnefs is an everlasting righteousness." xxxvi, 6,"Thy righteoufnefs is like the great moun

t

tains." Sometimes the word righteoufnefs fignifieth man's righteoufnefs, or the measure of o-? -bedience he prefents as adequate to God's righteousness, and answerable to the demands of his moft perfect law. Such was the righteousness of the fcribes and pharifees which our Lord fets forth as imperfect and deficient, Math. v. 20, and conscerning which the prophet Ifaiah fays, they shall not profit thee. And elfewhere by righteousness is fignified that righteoufnefs which our bleffed Saviour wrought out in his most holy life, which is also imputed to the believer, and which is every

way