a privilege peculiar to every believer, fo the faithful in confequence thereof, obtain a good degree of boldness when brought to the teft of God's most holy law; for in this, the largest requirements thereof are fully anfwered; Jefus by his active and paffive obedience, bas magnified the law and made it bonourable; this exact and confummate obedience, he paid as the furety of believing fintherefore they in him are accepted as perfectly righteous, being made the righteousness of God in him.

ners;

The believer glories not in any thing but this, that the Lord is now his husband; that he lives in him, by him, and through him; he glories in his name, the LORD our righteousness, he glories in his work, thou Lord haft wrought all our works in us, and he glories in the donation of himself to God, faying, I am the Lord's; others indeed have too long had the dominion over me, but I am thine. Thus it will appear that a man poffeffes those bleffings the young ruler lacked, when humbled in his Own eyes he gives all the glory of what he is, has, and hopes to be, to God alone; when his lips and life fpeak the fame language, the language of Canaan, and while a fojourner on earth, he has his converfation in heaven, and his fellowship with the father, and with his fon Jefus Chrift. bleffednefs of fuch a ftate, is too great for language to defcribe, or heart conceive; which I think will appear when in the laft place I lay before you in a few inftances wherein it doth confift.

The

ift, It is faid," Because the children were par"takers of flesh and blood, he likewife alfo him"felf took part of the fame, that through death "he might deflroy him that had the power of

"death

death that is the devil, and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life"time fubject to bondage." Now to be faved from the fear of death, is a bleffing not to be purchafed at any price; is a freedom which a man cannot obtain, although he would give all the treasures of his houfe to compafs it. They beft know the greatnefs of this bleffing, who have known the terrors of an accufing confcience, and the fore chaftifement of a wounded fpirit; the fting of death is fin, and when the common enemy attacks a poor finner armed with this dart, what inconceivable anguifh feizes upon the foul! Such a one feels what is infupportable, and finks beneath a diftreffing fear of worfe; his frighted imagination, now fruitful in every kind of terror, fcales the dreaded tribunal of the righteous judge, and feems to hear the irrevocable fentence pronounced, depart thou curfed into everlafing fire, and feems to feel in fearful expectation the fiercenefs of those flames which never fhall be quenched. Now to be delivered from all this weight of woe, and to experience what the apoftle calls victory, given us through our Lord Jejus Chrift; must be a ftate of bleffedness which every one that thinks at all, must wish to partake of; but which none can poffess but in and through the mediator.

.

2d, Where there is a heart renewed by grace, and an union with Chrift, there is a comfortable, fense of his forgiving love; and the believer can now in the words of the prophet, fay, "O Lord "I will praise thee, for though thou waft angry "with me, thine anger is turned away and thou "doft comfort me." This ftate yields abundance of peace, fpiritual peace, fuch as a franger intermedletb

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medleth not with, such as passeth all understanding'; for now the dark providences of God are light about him: "light is fown for the righteous, and

gladness for the upright in heart ;" and the barren rocks and parched defarts pour out unto him, full ftreams of living water. He has now received the bluffing of pardon from the Lord, and therefore has peace with God through our Lord Jefus Chrift; and righteousness from the God of his falvation, and can now come with boldness to the throne of grace. His comforts and delights are of a fpiritual nature, nor depend upon the mutables and uncertainties of perishable things; but flow from a pure, unchangeable, and inexhauftible fpring; the joy of the believer is unspeakable, and full of glory; he is delivered from tormenting, condemning fear, for " he hath not received the fpirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of

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adoption," and the joy of the Lord is his strength. If at any time his joys are eclipsed by some intervening cloud, fo that heavinefs comes upon his foul, and caufes his comforts to ebb; yet the heavenly wind, the blessed spirit of God diffipates and fcatters it here and there, and the refreshing rays of the uncreated brightness again make glad the heart; fuch "heavinefs may endure for a "night, but joy cometh in the morning." The joys and fatisfactions of an hypocrite are but like the crackling of thorns, but these things faith Chrift have I fpoken unto you, that your joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

We may add to all the happiness peculiar to this ftate in the prefent life and for the prefent time; that lively foul-animating hope, of greater, and more fubftantial felicity to be enjoyed here

after

after; for "eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, "nor hath it entered into the heart of man to

conceive what God has prepared for those that "wait for him." The believer's hope is faid to be full of immortality, that is, nothing less than a glorious never-ending life, fpent in the fweet fruition of God, is the object of his wishes, and that on which his heart and eyes are fixed; he is faid to be looking for that bleffed hope, and the "glorious appearing of the great God, even our "Saviour Jefus Chrift."

"

The hope of the believer is called a lively hope; intimating that it influences the foul, and excites to exercises of vital holinefs; and leaves not the poffeffor in a state of fpiritual death while he profeffes yet to live; but reprefenting to his view, the glories of the invifible world, and like Hezekiah fhewing him the treasure house of the Redeemer, &c. he is hereby led on to the practice of holiness, and expecting to fee Jefus

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as he "is, to purify himself as he is pure." The object of this hope is," an inheritance, incorrupti"ble, undefiled, and that fadeth not away," and infinitely tranfcends in worth and excellency all this world can boast; and when compared with which, fink in the estimation, and dwindles into nothing and vanity.

And yet once more, O comfortable thought! All this bleffedness the believer enjoys in the prefent life, is but a prelude to, a foreftate of, that "exceeding and eternal weight of glory," referved for him in heaven. In this frail ftate fo full of imperfection are we in our renewed condition, that the strongest faith has it's ebbs and flows in the joyous fenfations it affords; but the

beatific

beatific vifion will be fubject to no fuch mutations and fluctuations; "at God's right hand there are "pleasures for evermore.' No more complaining of hard hearts, no remaining unbelief to darken the evidence, and diftrefs the foul; no more clouds and darkness, fears, or distrusts; but an uninterrupted stream of living water will yield a full fupply for the inhabitants of the new Jerufalem; perpetual accefs will be given them to the tree of life, with full liberty to take of it's delicious fruit," whofe leaves are faid to be for the "healing of the nations."

Upon the whole, if any of you fhould think yourselves like this young felf-jufticiary to be perfect and lacking nothing; there is much caufe to fear you like him are in want of all things. What fay you? Because you are no drunkards, swearers, or fabbath-breakers, do ye imagine ye are in need of nothing? Because you do not spend your evenings at the play-house, or at the card-table, that you lack nothing to recommend you to the the divine favour? Will a form of religion pafs with God for vital chriftianity? No, every fpecious hypocrite must be ashamed of his hypocrify either here or hereafter; and the formal profeffor must be taught that without the faving knowledge of God in Chrift Jefus he will be rejected with an I know ye not. You fee in the inftance of this young man, how our hearts may deceive us; fo that when we are ready to conclude concerning ourfelves that all is well with us, and we are in lack of nothing; yet in reality, and in the eyes of him that thoroughly understands us, we are in want of all things. What need there is therefore of felf examination, and inftead of faying in a