count.

not sufficient. The Pharisees allowed it, yet took much complacency in themselves on that very acNeither is it sufficient to remind them, that many blemishes cleave to and defile their best services, so that they have no pretensions to self-esteem. For these things they will place to the score of human infirmities, still proudly dwelling, in their own minds, on the manifest difference betwixt themselves and others. But when you lay the axe to the root of this evil tree, when you convince such self-conceited professors, that after all they have received or done, they are not only imperfect, but lost, if dealt with according to their deserts; since they, no more than the vilest felon, can say they have continued in all things written in the book of the law, consequently they have incurred its curse; and perpetually want, as much as any upon earth, the blood: and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, for their justification.

Thus self-esteem and self-preference, in every state, and in every soul of man, is excluded. Since, whatever difference there may be between sinners, respecting degrees of guilt or excellency, the law suffers no man living to imagine he stands accepted with his Maker, on account of his own good life or temper.

5. The conceit of personal perfection also in the saints (that offspring of spiritual pride) is owing in part to ignorance of the law. For such polluted creatures as we are, after our highest attainments, could never possibly dream we were free from all charge of sin, if we knew the full extent of our duty, what, in every instance, and on all occasions, the law requires that we are commanded not only to serve the Lord, but to serve him with all our strength; not only to love our neighbour, but to love him as ourselves, and demonstrate we do both

by every word, desire, temper, and thought: In short, that it requires us to live up to the very height of that adorable example set before us in the man Christ Jesus, and be to the full as holy as he was himself, since he only fulfilled the perfect law: Who can know this, and say there is no iniquity in me? Who can know this, and not readily acquiesce in that very humbling confession inspired by the Holy Ghost. "There is not a just man upon earth, that liveth and sinneth not? If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee [equally needed by every child of Adam] that thou mayest be feared."

From what has been advanced, it is evident, if you desire to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, upon rational and sound conviction, you must acquaint yourself with the nature and design of the law God spake from mount Sinai, as explained and enforced in Holy Writ. Then, like a faithful mirror, it will give you to see all your poverty and sinfulness. It will make the mercy of God in Christ Jesus appear as great, and necessary, and glorious, as the Bible declares it is. Then you will live by faith in the Son of God, pleading, with all humility at the throne of grace, his sacrifice and perfect righteousness, the sure and only foundation of hope towards God.

And as a son, who, through folly and extreme baseness of mind, has brought himself into a state of disease and ruin, duly affected with his condition, will most thankfully acknowledge the kindness of his loving parent, who, notwithstanding all, receives him home, and embraces him with love unfeigned: So, the sight of your own sinfulness, manifested by the law, will excite in you intense desires to live to God, who had compassion on you, and loved your person, when not one single feature

of comeliness was about you, and, in the midst of much inherent depravity, loves you still. Thus those two universal and mighty principles of disqbedience, self-conceit, and self-esteem, will be expelled, and a rational humility, the excellent ground of every fruit of righteousness, will be secured. Convinced, beyond a doubt, that if judgment be laid to the line, and you were called upon to answer in every article of duty, according to what you owe, you must be found exceedingly wanting; you will adore, love, and obey him, who hath redeemed you from the curse of the law, by being made a curse for you, to an eternal inheritance.

PRAYER,

Suited to the preceding Chapters on the Law.

O GOD, glorious in holiness, jealous of thy honor, yet full of mercy, Thou hast given us a law holy as thyself. Give us, we beseech thee, the knowledge of its perfection and design, that we may utterly cease from every expectation of escaping the punishment due to our transgression by our obedience. O let the time past suffice to have been so long alive without the law. Now may we place all our hope of acceptance with thee, on that sure foundation thou hast laid in Sion, on that tried chief corner-stone, the crucified Jesus. O may this great, this only fulfiller of the law, be always our peace, our righteousness, all our salvation, and all our desire. Him may we love and serve and always rejoice, knowing, that whilst the righteousness of the law saith, the man who doth these things shall live by them, the righteousness of faith saith, if thou

shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

And the nearer the all-decisive hour approaches, when we must give account of ourselves to God, so much the more may we long to be found, not under the law, but under grace; not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith; that, to the confusion of all the enemies of our souls, it may appear, in the presence of men and angels, that we are passed from death to life, and shall not come into condemnation.

We beseech thee, O God, to have compassion upon all who have religious zeal, but without knowledge; who being ignorant of thy righteousness, are going about to establish their own, and have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Give them to know, they never can find peace or safety upon any foundation they can lay with their own hands; for the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself upon it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. Lead them to the Rock that is higher than themselves, to the Lord our righteousness.

Finally, we entreat, that thou wouldst convert from their pernicious error, all who wrest the infinite purity of thy law, to their own destruction : who not only reject it as a covenant of works, but as a rule of life; who, in their mad and impious folly, despise and deride that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Teach them, that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully. Convince them, that all who are dead to the law, by the body of Christ, are married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that they should bring forth fruit unto God.

Hear and answer, O King of Heaven, these our

requests, for the sake of Jesus Christ the righteous, our advocate, and the propitiation for our sins. Amen.

SUNDAY XIV.

CHAP. XIV.

Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ascertained from
Scripture Testimony.

IN almost every page of scripture, excellent things are spoken of the power of faith. And whatever some may boast of their shining deeds, and meritorious virtues, extolled for their good effects in society; still, so long as the authority of the Bible remains, it is a decided point, that to be without faith in Christ, is to be actually exposed to the wrath of God.

Every one, therefore, ought most carefully to inform himself what is the nature of this fundamental grace. The plainest and shortest method to determine so important a matter, I apprehend, will be to ascertain what they did, who are highly commended by our Lord Jesus Christ for their faith in him, and in what they offended, whom he rebuked for their unbelief. When these two points are fixed, the nature of faith will be so far laid open, as to prevent erroneous opinions concerning it; and deliver serious minds from that perplexity, which, amidst continual disputes about faith, they find it difficult to avoid.

The first example, I shall select, to determine precisely the nature of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Centurion, mentioned, Matt. viii. Warmed