It is true,

tuous act, that we are said to be justified by it. God does reward the services of his people, as the scriptures abundantly teach: but this follows upon justification. We must stand accepted in the Beloved, before our services can be acceptable or rewardable. Moreover, if we were justified by faith as a duty, justification by faith could not be, as it is, opposed to justification by works: To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.* The scripture doctrine of justification by faith, in opposition to the works of the law, appears, to me, as follows: By believing in Jesus Christ, the sinner becomes vitally united to him, or, as the scriptures express it, joined to the Lord, and is of one spirit with him; and this union, according to the divine constitution, as revealed in the gospel, is the ground of an interest in his righteousness. Agreeable to this is the following language: There is now, therefore, NO CONDEMNATION to them that are IN Christ Jesus.—Of him are ye In Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us RIGHTEOUSNESS, &C.-That I may be found IN him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. As the union which, in the order of nature, precedes a revealed interest in Christ's righteousness, is spoken of in allusion to that of marriage, the one may serve to illustrate the other. A rich and generous character walking in the fields, espies a forlorn female infant, deserted by some unfeeling parent in the day that it was born, and left to perish. He sees its helpless condition, and resolves to save it. Under his kind patronage the child grows up to maturity. He now resolves to make her his wife casts his skirt over her, and she becomes his. She is now, according to the public statutes of the realm, interested in all his possessions. Great is the transition! Ask her, in the height of her glory, how she became possessed of all this wealth; and, if she retain a proper spirit, she will answer in some such manner as this: It was not mine, but my deliverer's; his who rescued me from death. It is no reward of any good deeds on my part: it is by marriage: ... it is of grace. +1 Cor. vi. 17.

*Rom. iv. 2-5.

It is easy to perceive, in this case, that it was necessary she should be voluntarily married to her husband, before she could, according to the public statutes of the realm, be interested in his possessions; and that she now enjoys those possessions by marriage: yet who would think of asserting, that her consenting to be his wife was a meritorious act, and that all his possessions were given her as the reward of it?

"

Thirdly From the foregoing view of things, we may perceive the alarming situation of unbelievers. By unbelievers, I mean not only avowed Infidels, but all persons who hear, or have opportunity to hear, the gospel, or to come at the knowledge of what is taught in the holy scriptures, and do not cordially embrace it. It is an alarming thought to be a sinner against the greatest and best of beings: but to be an unbelieving sinner, is much more so. There is deliverance from the curse of the law, through him who was made a curse for us. But if, like the barren fig-tree, we stand from year to year, under gospel-culture, and bear no fruit, we may expect to fall under the curse of the Saviour; and who is to deliver us from this? If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so GREAT salvation ?

We are in the habit of pitying heathens, who are enthralled by abominable superstition, and immersed in the immoralities which accompany it but to live in the midst of gospellight, and reject it, or even disregard it, is abundantly more criminal, and will be followed with a heavier punishment. We feel for the condition of profligate characters; for swearers, and drunkards, and fornicators, and liars, and thieves, and murderers: but these crimes become ten-fold more heinous in being committed under the light of revelation, and in contempt of all the warnings and gracious invitations of the gospel. The most profligate character, who never possessed these advantages, may be far less criminal, in the sight of God, than the most sober and decent who possesses, and disregards them. It was on this principle that such a heavy wo was denounced against Chorazin and Bethsaida, and that their sin was represented as exceeding that of Sodom.

The gospel wears an aspect of mercy towards sinners; but

towards unbelieving sinners the scriptures deal wholly in the language of threatening. I am come, saith our Saviour, a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. IF ANY MAN HEAR MY WORDS, AND BELIEVE NOT, Ijudge him not: (that is, not at present :) for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last_day.* It will be of but small account, in that day, that we have escaped a few of the lusts of the flesh, if we have been led captive by those of the mind. If the greatest gift of heaven be set at naught by us, through the pride of science, or a vain conceit of our own righteousness, how shall we stand when he appeareth?

It will then be found, that a price was in our hands to get wisdom, but that we had no heart to it: and that herein consists our sin, and from hence proceeds our ruin. God called, and we would not hearken; he stretched out his hand, and no man regarded; therefore, he will laugh at our calamity, and mock when our fear cometh. It is intimated, both in the Old and New Testament, that the recollection of the means of salvation having been within our reach, will be a bitter aggravation to our punishment. They come unto thee, saith the Lord to Ezekiel, as the people come, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them.—And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come!) THEN SHALL THEY KNOW THAT A PROPHET HATH BEEN AMONG THEM.† To the same purpose our Saviour speaks of them who should reject the doctrine of his apostles; Into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: NOTWITHSTANDING, BE YE SURE OF THIS, THAT THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS COME NIGH UNTO YOU.‡

Great as is the sin of unbelief, however, it is not unpardonable it becomes such only by persisting in it till death. Saul of Tarsus was an unbeliever, yet he obtained mercy: and his being an unbeliever, rather than a presumptuous opposer of Luke x. 10, 11.

John xii. 46-48. + Ezek. xxxiii. 31 33.

Christ against conviction, placed him within the pale of forgiveness, and is, therefore, assigned as a reason of it.*

This consideration affords a hope even to unbelievers. O ye self-righteous despisers of a free salvation through a Mediator, be it known to you, that there is no other name given under heaven, or among men, by which you can be saved! To him whom you have disregarded and despised, you must either voluntarily or involuntarily submit. To him every knee shall bow. You cannot go back into a state of non-existence, however desirable it might be to many of you: for God hath stamped immortality upon your natures. You cannot turn to the right hand, nor to the left, with any advantage: whether you give a loose to your inclination, or put a force upon it by an assumed devotion, each will lead to the same issue. Neither can you stand still. Like a vessel in a tempestuous ocean, you must go this way, or that; and, go which way you will, if it be not to Jesus, as utterly unworthy, you are only heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. Whether you sing, or pray, or hear, or preach, or feed the poor, or till the soil; if self be your object, and Christ be disregarded, all is sin,† and will all issue in disappointment: the root is rottenness, and the blossom shall go up as the dust. Whither will you go? Jesus invites you to come to him. His servants beseech you, in his name, to be reconciled to God. The Spirit saith, Come; and the bride saith, Come; and whosoever will, let him come, and take of the water of life freely. An eternal heaven is before you, in one direction; and an eternal hell, in the other. Your answer is required. Be one thing, or another. Choose you, this day, whom ye will serve. our parts, we will abide by our Lord and Saviour. continue to reject him, so it must be; nevertheless, be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come NIGH unto you!

For

If you

Finally From what has been advanced, we may form a judgment of our duty, as ministers of the word, in dealing with the unconverted. The work of the Christian ministry, it has been said, is to preach the gospel, or to hold up the free grace of God through Jesus Christ, as the only way of a sinner's salvation. This is, doubtless, true; and if this be not

* 1 Tim. i. 13.

Prov. xv. 8, 9. xxviii. 9. xxi. 4.

the leading theme of our ministrations, we had better be any thing than preachers. Wo unto us, if we preach not the gospel! The minister, who, under a pretence of pressing the practice of religion, neglects its all-important principles, labours in the fire. He may enforce duty till duty freezes upon his lips neither his auditors nor himself will greatly regard it. But, on the contrary, if by preaching the gospel be meant the insisting solely upon the blessings and privileges of religion, to the neglect of exhortations, calls, and warnings; it is sufficient to say, that such was not the practice of Christ and his apostles. It will not be denied, that they preached the gospel yet they warned, admonished, and entreated sinners to repent and believe; to believe while they had the light; to labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life; to repent, and be converted, that their sins might be blotted out; to come to the marriage-supper, for that all things were ready: in fine, to be reconciled unto God.

If the inability of sinners to perform things spiritually good were natural, or such as existed independent of their present choice, it would be absurd and cruel to address them in such language. No one in his senses would think of calling the blind to look, the deaf to hear, or the dead to rise up and walk and of threatening them with punishment, in case of their refusal. But if the blindness arise from the love of darkness rather than light; if the deafness resemble that of the adder, which stoppeth her ear, and will not hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely; and, if the death consist in alienation of heart from God, and the absence of all desire after him; there is no absurdity or cruelty in such addresses. But enforcing the duties of religion, either on sinners or saints, is, by some, called preaching the law. If it were so, it is enough for us, that such was the preaching of Christ and his apostles. It is folly and presumption, to affect to be more evangelical than they were. All practical preaching, however, is not preaching the law. That only, I apprehend,

ought to be censured as preaching the law, in which our acceptance with God is, in some way or other, placed to the account of our obedience to its precepts. When eternal life is represented as the reward of repentance, faith, and sincere