and his word. If sin must be given up for him, this is too hard a condition; and the wicked will not forsake his way, though every moment he continues in it he is liable to lose Christ for ever. I speak first of notorious sinners, seen and known of all, who live in the open breach of any of the commandments, and whose case is confessedly bad, if the Scripture is true, till they repent. But if you are of the number of those who have a better appearance, and in the main stand fair in the eye of the world, for your honest dealing, civil behaviour, and moral character, do not therefore swell with self-conceit, as if you were as clear with God as you are with man, or yourselves, and need no repentance. You may have no better ground for your confidence than a deceitful comparison of yourselves with other men. But Christ has another rule of judging, and searches deep wherever he comes, and possibly you may stumble at him on this account. You certainly do, if you never came under the fiery trial of his law, and refuse to abide by his exposition of it. This is a greater trial than you imagine; and I fear you are backward to understand me on this head. But if we do not look for sin in ourselves where God does, what can the result be but ignorance of our condition, unmeaning prayers, and a false faith, or a vain pretence of believing in Christ without knowing why? Hear what he himself "The says: publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you," Matt. xxi. 31; i. e. great sinners can many times be struck with a sight of their guilt, cry for mercy, and enter into the kingdom of heaven, before those who justify themselves. And why do they justify themselves, but because they have not an eye to look into their hearts, and judge of their state by a rule of their own making? Know, therefore, that every commandment has a twofold signification, an outward and an inward sense; whatever sin it forbids, at the same time it commands the opposite

virtue, and both go to the fulfilling of it. When it says, "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven image;" the right understanding of it is, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God in spirit and in truth, with the utmost devotion and reverence, and depending only on him. When it forbids murder, it commands love; or adultery, it commands purity of heart. When it says, "Thou shalt not steal;" the meaning further is, Thou shalt labour. diligently to keep thyself from want, and be ready to give to every one that needeth and so of all the rest. Indeed, my brethren, till you thus judge yourselves according to Christ, and with his rule in your hands, as interpreted by him, you stumble at him, you disallow him. If you plead freedom from the outward gross act of sin, he will say to you, This is well; but do not stop here, O man! go on; go to the heart; my command reaches thither; and he can never take you up to do you any good, till you submit to him in this important and necessary part of his office, as the expounder of the law, in its full extent and meaning, and suffer him to tell you what sin is, and what sinners you yourselves are. He is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world; and faith lays fast hold on that precious saying for life, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And why is it so? Why does every awakened soul fly to him for safety, but because it has an eye given it to see its secret as well as open sin, and death the penalty of all sin? and therefore receives him in truth and sincerity, and with many thanksgivings to God, as its only atonement for the guilt that is upon it. Again, he is the Lord our righteousness;" the righteousness appointed of God for us to trust in, as our full justification, and title to heaven; he fulfilling the law in our stead, and thereby doing that for us which must of all necessity be done, and we could not do. But if we

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refuse to take the gift of righteousness at his hands; if we do not account ourselves just before God, only and altogether for his merits; if we trust in ourselves, and in our own works, as much or more than we do in him; what can it be owing to but measuring ourselves by a false rule, and neither considering how much goes to the making of our works perfect, nor that they can never be accepted of God while they are imperfect? Take notice, I beseech you, how all hangs together, and one thing depends upon another in our salvation by Christ. By grace we are saved through faith;" Eph. ii. 8. What shows us the necessity of this grace, and of receiving it in repentance by faith? Sin, and death by sin. What discovers sin to us? The law, as expounded by Christ, and set home upon our hearts, both in the outward letter and spiritual sense of it.. Does God require perfect obedience to it at all times, and must we all have this to plead for ourselves? And where, then, shall we find it but in the person of Christ standing in our stead for that obedience and righteousness which the law absolutely demands on pain of death, and we have not performed? Take one link from this chain, and the whole is broken; reject Christ in any of these particulars, and he can be nothing to you but "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence." You will mistake your duty, deny your sin, and set up your own works against him, miserably defective as they are, to the hazard of all your hopes.

Lastly; we must by no means stumble at Christ, as sent of God to restore us to his image in holiness; for this would be wretchedly to mistake him, every thing belonging to him, and done by him. It is true, the salvation he brings us was altogether wrought by himself; and if ever we are made partakers of it, we must entirely renounce ourselves in this respect, as utterly unable to accomplish any part of it, receive it as a gift and unde

served mercy, and ascribe the whole glory of it to him. Lost and undone in ourselves, what could we do in this great work of our redemption? Remove mountains, bid the sun stand still, raise the dead to life, create a world, and then you may think of making satisfaction to the justice of God for sin, conquering death, rising out of the grave, and forcing your way to heaven by your own works.

"O Jesus, thou blessed babe born at Bethlehem, thou camest (as on this day) to do the will of God for us men, and for our salvation, because thou alone couldst do it. It was thy might, and thy work, and in this thou hadst no helper. We have only this to ask of thee, that we may be grounded in the faith of thy love, and keep it, by living worthy of it." And surely, my brethren, he has taught us how to do this. We must receive a law at his mouth, and follow him in the way of his holy commandments. We must abhor and forsake all sin, to the cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye, because it crucified him; we must see the curse of it in his sufferings; and our obedience to him must be very dear to us, because he who died for us absolutely requires it, and has declared over and over again, in the most peremptory. manner, that we cannot belong to him if we will not be governed by him. Does he call us to repentance as the first step in our way to him? What is that but a sense of the evil and damnableness of sin, with a sincere solemn purpose to renounce it? Is it of so deadly a nature, and so hateful to God, that nothing but his blood could wash out the foul stains of it; and do we believe that there is no possibility of peace with God, but in virtue of his atonement and sacrifice? Are our own. works or righteousness so unfit to be offered to God,. because of the mixture of sin there is in them, that we must of all necessity have a better righteousness made over to us, for our justification? Are we so vile, because

of sin, that we must not presume to draw nigh to God, but in the name of Christ, and with humble trust in his mediation? And is he our resurrection and life, because we have so much sin cleaving to us, in our very best estate, as would have left us for ever under death and condemnation? What then is sin? And how can we think that God will accept us in the will of retaining it, when he will accept nothing from us without Christ, nothing but Christ for us, because of the remainder of sin in our natures; and seeing that we cannot take one step to Christ, without knowing our vileness in sin, and condemnation for it, and resolving to repent of it? Put these things together; and see here again, how the several parts of Christian salvation are linked to one another repentance to the will of coming to Christ, faith to repentance, and holiness to faith- and then, if you mistake him in this great end and design of his coming, to make us a holy people to the Lord, it is wilfully; and your sentence is already written, "Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me;" Luke, xix. 27. Let me just take up the expression, "holy to the Lord." Christian holiness is more than the morality of the world. It is not only a smooth life, or civility of manners; you may call it convenience, worldly prudence, the way to get and keep a reputation, philosophy, and ́ what you please; and many things it will do to make a fair show in the eye of the world; but if Christ is not working at the root of it, it is nothing but pride of heart, and horribly defective in the sight of God. In a word, the holiness of the Gospel is the genuine fruit of a renewed, pure heart, offering up itself continually to God in love; and the dedication of ourselves to him, our souls and bodies, our estates and callings, with a single eye to please him, for the command's sake, for conscience