is natural to profane sinners, has a great influence to keep them secure in sin.

In awakened sinners it operates to incline them, by their reformations, prayers, tears, etc., to go about to establish their own righteousness; for, being so terrified with the thoughts of eternal destruction, that they can no longer go on quietly in their sinful pleasures, they now go about to pacify the Deity by their amendment and fervent prayers. And thus they think "If I repent and reform, if I humble myself before God, and pray, and do as well as I can, he is obliged to show me mercy; for it would be hard and unjust in God to require more of his poor creatures than they can do, and then damn them for not doing." And perhaps thousands and ten thousands build their hopes for heaven on this foundation, and live and die upon it; not considering, that "if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain ;" not once reflecting, that if their best doings ought in reason to recommend them to the divine favor, there was no occasion for the incarnation and death of the Son of God; and that therefore, if they are right, the whole gospel is overthrown. Their pride absolutely blinds their eyes, that they cannot see; and stops their ears, that they cannot hear; and hardens their hearts, that they cannot understand. Or, if some men, of more penetration, perceive that this way of thinking does in fact overthrow Christianity, they will sooner give up the whole of divine revelation, than give up their pride. And from this source it is, that Great Britain is so filled with infidels. And from this source it is, that infidelity begins to creep into New England, which, if divine grace prevents not, may in half a century make great progress. For as the Pharisees would sooner believe, that Jesus cast out devils by Beelzebub, than that they were serpents and a generation of vipers, worthy of the damnation of hell; even so it is here. But meanwhile, in Antinomian converts, to extricate themselves out of these embarrassments, a self-righteous spirit prompts and emboldens them to take a short and easy method, to think well of God and of themselves both at once, and so their pride and religion become perfectly harmonious; in the belief of these two maxims: first, "God loves me, impenitent as I am;" secondly, "To believe that God thus loves me, and to love him merely in this belief, is the sum of religion." For in the belief of these two articles, the divine law, which stands prepared to slay the self-righteous sinner, is set aside, and turned out of doors; the curse, by the first; the command, by the second; and so the divine law being cashiered by this belief, the self-righteous sinner stands completely self-justified.

He believes, or rather imagines himself into the love of God, and out of the reach of the law, and so into a good opinion of the Deity, and of himself, both at once; or rather through that enmity to God's real character, with which his selfrighteous spirit inspired him; emboldened by the same selfrighteous spirit, he forms a deity in his own fancy, all made up of love to him, which suits his heart; and being suited with the deity he has made, is pleased with himself more than ever. And so he thinks himself a believer, a saint, a disciple of Christ, and that he shall be rewarded in heaven for all the reproach he brings upon himself; not knowing that enmity to God and his law, and to the cross of Christ, lie at the bottom, and are the sources of all his religion. And thus, and in this way, he is confirmed and self-justified in thinking more highly of himself than he ought to think. And thus we see how a selfrighteous spirit operates differently in different persons. These three sorts are mentioned only as a specimen; for instead of three, there may perhaps be three hundred different ways in which this same spirit works.

II. A self-righteous is a sin-extenuating, self-justifying, and in consequence a law-hating, God-condemning disposition; and so stands in direct opposition to repentance towards God, faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Just in exact proportion as a man is inclined to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, is he inclined to make sin-extenuating, selfjustifying pleas; and every word he says in his own justification, is to the condemnation of God and of his law; for if in fact we are not so bad, nor so much to blame, as the divine law supposes, he who made the law will stand condemned. Take Gal. iii. 10, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them," which are the words with which St. Paul militated against a selfrighteous spirit in his day, and show what the divine law requires in heart and life, and show what is implied in the curse, and from the eternal punishment threatened infer the infinite evil of sin, and by consequence our infinite obligations to love God with all our hearts, and yield a perfect obedience to his will; and show that God is absolutely unobliged, according to law, that perfect rule of right, either to assist the sinner, or to pardon his defects; and urge this law home upon a self-righteous heart, as the law of the great God, the law which was honored on the cross of Christ, and which will be put in execution at the day of judgment on every Christless sinner, angels and saints shouting Hallelujah all around the

judge; and as the anvil bounds back the hammer, so will such a heart resist the truth.

And while he extenuates his sin and justifies himself, he will blame the law, and condemn the lawgiver. For says the profane, "To suppose that my delaying repentance one day longer, is so great a crime, as justly to expose me to the eternal pains of hell without hope, cannot be true; nor will I ever believe God is so unjust as to put his frail creatures under such a law." And says the awakened, "I have reformed and humbled myself before God, and prayed, and done what I can. And to believe now, after all, that God is still absolutely unobliged to show me mercy; that he requires perfect love and perfect obedience on pain of eternal damnation; is more than I can bear. It cannot be justified. The very thoughts of it breed hatred and heart-risings in spite of my heart." And says the Antinomian convert, "I always found by experience, that it was impossible to love God, before I believed his love to me; and by experience I still find, that it is impossible to love God in any other view. All, therefore, that God really requires is, that we believe his love to us, and in that belief, love him again." And thus all three stand discharged from that duty which the divine law requires, self-justified; God and his law implicitly condemned.

The divine law supposeth that God is an absolutely perfect, an infinitely glorious and amiable being; and on this ground it requires mankind, each and every one, to love him with all their hearts, on pain of eternal death. This it requires even of the Gentiles, who never heard of the grace of the gospel, and consequently of all mankind, antecedent to that consideration. And in the sight of God all were without excuse, every mouth stopped; and in this view of the case, he gave his Son to die upon the cross, to declare this law to be holy, just, and good. But in this view, the divine law is universally hated by every self-righteous heart, and a non-conformity thereto is universally justified, from the most profane to the most devout. "I cannot," cries one. "It is impossible," cries another. "The very thought of such a law breeds hatred and heartrisings, in spite of my heart," cries each and every one.*

Mr. Cudworth has gone further, and taken a very extraordinary step indeed, to justify the self-righteous sinner, in not loving that character of God which is exhibited in the divine law, in honor to which an incarnate God died on the cross. He not only declares, and endeavors to prove, that it is "utterly impos sible" to love it; but also that to love it, is in its own nature a wicked thing, "contrary to the law of God." And if "contrary to the law of God," it is contrary to the nature of God. God himself then does not love that character; that is, God the Father does not love himself. No wonder, then, he thinks, that

Now, that belief, which gives comfort to a self-righteous heart, thus at enmity against the divine law, by whatever humble name it is called, does, in fact, feed and confirm a selfrighteous spirit; and for that reason, will be tenaciously maintained, although without any evidence from Scripture, sense, or reason. So one believes, that if he will do as well as he can, God has promised to save him; and this gives him ease. And another believes, that God has promised absolutely to save him without any condition at all; and this gives him comfort more abundantly. And while each remains strong in his belief, by which the divine law is set aside and removed out of sight, each enjoys himself full well. But if light should break in, and the divine law come into view, and their true character and state appear, dead in sin and under the curse, both would return to their "hatred and heart-risings" again, as much as ever. For, the sin-extenuating, self-justifying temper remaining unmortified, God and his law will be, of course, hated and condemned, whenever they come into view. The faith of both is of use only to keep God and his law out of sight and out of mind, and thus it comforts them. Let God and his law come into view, and their faith is destroyed, and their comforts are gone, and their heart-risings come again; and therefore both are to the last degree tenacious of their different schemes. A self-righteous spirit lies at the bottom of to love this character is " beyond what Adam did in paradise, beyond the Scripture saints, the apostles, and even Jesus Christ himself." For if it is "contrary to the law of God," and so a wicked thing, it must be contrary to the nature of God, and of every holy being in the universe. And thus the self-righteous sinner stands completely justified, in not loving God's true and real character; yea, has the comfort to think it would be a sin to love it; a thing "contrary to the law of God."

But, "contrary to the law of God," and wicked as it is, no sooner does he see Theron brought through the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit, in a view of the amiableness of this character, to take all the blame of his disaffection to the Deity himself, and repent and return to God through Jesus Christ, all his hope of acceptance arising simply from mere free grace through the great atonement, but he changes his tone; and for the sake of condemning Theron, expressly contradicts himself. For now, all at once, that very thing which he had been just trying to prove to be "contrary to the law of God," is affirmed to be of so holy and divine a nature, as to have virtue and merit enough in it to atone for all our past sins, and recommend us to the favor of God, and entitle us to eternal life, without any need of Christ or his atonement. Such converts as I make my Theron to be, he affirms, "have no occasion for the sovereign mercy of God in Jesus Christ. They are entitled to life in their own name, on the foundation of their own love, wherever they can be found." And this he sets himself to prove, from the words of the prophet Ezekiel, which has been already answered. So that, according to Mr. Cudworth, that which is in its own nature sinful, "contrary to the law of God," is more meritorious than all the virtue of the heavenly hosts, which would not be sufficient to atone for one sin. Yea, its virtue is as effectual to save, as the blood and righteousness of the Son of God. If Mr. Cudworth can believe all this, what cannot he believe? And can such a man be reasoned with?

all their zeal, as their schemes are adapted to give ease and comfort to self-righteous hearts, and guard and defend them from the terrors of the divine law, prevent the blasphemous workings of their own minds, which beget horror and awaken the fears of future wrath.

III. A sin-extenuating, self-justifying, self-righteous frame of heart, is in direct opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ. For had our disaffection to the divine character not been as criminal as the curse of the law supposed, there had been no reason the Son of God should have been made a curse in our stead. Had there been any plea to extenuate our fault, or in the least to have justified us in our not loving God with all our hearts, the law had not been strictly right. And God's being so severe against sin, had not been a beauty, but a blemish, in his character; and if there had been a blemish in the divine character, to love him with all our hearts had been strictly and properly impossible. The fault would have been not in us, but in God; and so no need of Christ to die, to declare God to be wholly right. Rather, as on this hypothesis, God was wrong: he ought to have retracted, to have repealed his law, and granted us relief; he ought in justice to have done it, and a mediator was altogether needless in the case. And thus the sinner is justified, and God condemned, and the whole gospel overthrown. And this is the native tendency of a self-righteous spirit. A self-righteous spirit is therefore in direct opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And, accordingly, a self-righteous spirit was the source of the hatred and heart-risings of the Pharisees against the character of Jesus Christ. They could not bear to think themselves so bad as his doctrines imported; and therefore they became soon disaffected toward his person. (John iii. 19-21.) And when he plainly told them what they were in the sight of God, and what they deserved at his hands, (Matt. xxiii.,) they immediately conspired to put him to death. The twenty-third chapter of Matthew contains our Savior's last speech to the Pharisees, who, three days after, got him fast nailed to the cross. "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? were words the Pharisees never could forgive. The character these words gave the Pharisees was no worse, was but just equal to the import of the divine law, the law God gave to Moses, the very law which the Pharisees pretended to believe and love, but which they really hated. Our Savior, therefore, merited their resentment, by these words, no more than God the Father did by his law. And, indeed, in the height of all their religion and devotion,