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ther world, it matters not whether Jew or Gentile, circumcifed or uncircumcifed; that which maketh the difference, is obeying the truth, or obeying unrighteoufnefs; working good, or doing evil; thefe are the things which will avail to our juftification, or condemnation at the great day. To the fame purpose is that faying of the Apoftle to the Hebrews, chap. v. 9. that Chrift is the author of eternal falvation to them that obey him.

I will conclude this matter with two remarkable fayings, the one towards the beginning, the other towards the end of the Bible, to fatisfy us that this is the tenor of the holy fcriptures, and the constant doctrine of it from the beginning to the end: Gen. iv. 7. it is God's fpeech to Cain, If thou doft well, shalt thou not be accepted? And Rev. xxii. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

And thus I have done with the fecond thing I propounded, which was to fhew, that according to the terms of the gofpel, and the Chriftian religion, the real renovation of our hearts and lives is the great condition of our juftification and acceptance with God, and that this, in fenfe and substance, is the fame with faith made perfect by charity, and keeping the commandments of God.

3. The third and last particular remains to be spoken to, namely, That it is highly reafonable that this fhould be the condition of our juftification, and acceptance to the favour of God; and that upon thefe

two accounts.

Ift, For the honour of God's holiness.

2dly, In order to the qualifying of us for the favour of God, and the enjoyment of him, for the pardon of our fins, and the reward of eternal life.

Ift, For the honour of God's holiness. For fhould God have received men to his favour, and rewarded them with eternal glory and happinefs, for the mere. belief of the gospel, or a confident perfuafion that Chrift would fave them without any change of their hearts and lives, without repentance from dead works,

and

and fruits meet for repentance, and amendment of life, he had not given fufficient teftimony to the world of his love to holiness and righteousness, and of his hatred of fin and iniquity. The Apostle tells us, that God in the juftification of a finner declares his righteousness. But fhould he justify men upon other terms. this would not declare his righteoufnefs and love of holinefs, but rather an indifferency, whether men were good and righteous or not. For a bare affent to the truth of the gospel, without the fruits of holinefs and obedience, is not a living, but a dead faith, and fo far from being acceptable to God, that it is an affront to him; and a confident reliance upon Chrift for falvation, while we continue in our fins, is not a juftifying faith, but a bold and impudent prefumption upon the mercy of God, and the merits of our Saviour; who indeed juftifies the ungodly, that is, thofe that have been fo, but not thofe that continue fo. And if God fhould pardon finners, and reward them with eternal life, upon any other terms than upon our becoming new creatures, than upon fuch a faith as is made perfect by charity, that is, by keeping the commandments of God, this would be fo far from declaring his righteoufnefs, and being a teftimony of his hatred and displeasure against fin, that it would give the greatest countenance and encouragement to it i maginable.

2dly, It is likewife very reasonable, that fuch a faith, that makes us new creatures, and is prefected by charity, and keeping the commandments of God, fhould be the condition of juftification, in order to the qualifying of us for the pardon of our fins, and the reward of eternal life; that is, for the favour of God, and for the enjoyment of him. To forgive men upon other terms, were to give countenance and encouragement to perpetual rebellion and difobedience. That man is not fit to be forgiven, who is fo far from being forry for his fault, that he goes on to offend he is utterly incapable of mercy, who is not fenfible that he hath done amifs, and refolved to amend. No Prince ever thought a rebellious fubject capable of pardon upon lower terms than these..

It is in the nature of the thing unfit that an obftinate offender fhould have any mercy or favour fhewn to him.

And as without repentance and refolution of better obedience, we are unfit for forgiveness, so much more for a reward. As we cannot expect God's fa vour, fo we are incapable of the enjoyment of him without holiness. Holiness is the image of God, and makes us like to him; and till we be like him, we cannot fee him, we can have no enjoyment of him. All delightful. communion and agreeable fociety is founded in a fimilitude of difpofition and manners, and therefore fo long as we are unlike to God in the temper and difpofition of our minds, and in the actions and courfe of our lives, neither can God take pleafure in us, nor we in him, but there will be a perpetual jarring and difcord between him and us; and though we were in heaven, and feated in the place of the bleffed, yet we fhould not, nay we could not, be happy; because we fhould want the neceffary materials and ingredients of happinefs. For it is with the foul in this refpect, as it is with the body; tho' all things be eafy without us, and no cruelty be exerciled upon us to give torment and vexation to us, yet if we be inwardly difeafed, we may have pain and. anguifh enough, we may be as it were upon the rack, and feel as great torment from the inward disorder of our humours, as if we were tortured from without. So it is with the foul. Sin and vice are internal difeafes, which do naturally create trouble and difcontent; and nothing but diverfion, and the variety of objects and pleasures which entertain men in this world, hinders a wicked man from being out of his wits, whenever he reflects upon himself; for all the irregular appetites and paffions, luft, and malice, and revenge, are fo many furies within us; and though there were no devil to torment us, yet the diforder of our own minds, and the horrors of a guilty confcience, would be a hell to us, and make us extremely miferable in the very regions of happiness. So that it is neceffary that our faith fhould be made perfect by charity, and that we fhould become new

creatures

creatures, not only from the arbitrary conftitution and appointment of God, but from the nature and reafon of the thing; because nothing but this can difpofe us for that blessedness which God hath promifed to us, and prepared for us. Faith confidered

abstractly from the fruits of holiness and obedience,, of goodness and charity, will bring no man into the favour of God. All the excellency of faith is, that it is the principle of a good life, and furnisheth us with the best motives and arguments thereto, the promises and threatnings of the gofpel; and therefore in heaven, when we come to fight and enjoyment, faith and hope fhall ceafe, but charity never faileth; for if it fhould, heaven would cease to be heaven to us, because it is the very frame and temper of happiness; and if this difpofition be not wrought in us in this world, we fhall be altogether incapable of the felicity of the other.

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You fee then what it is that must recommend us to the favour of God; the real renovation of our hearts and lives, after the image of him that created us. This must be repaired us, before ever we can hope to be restored to the grace and favour of God, or to be capable of the reward of eternal life. And what could God have done more reasonable, than to make thefe very things the terms of our falvation, which are the neceflary caufes and means of it? How could he have dealt more mercifully and kindly with us, than to appoint that to be the condition of our happinefs, which is the only qualification that can make us capable of it?

I will conclude all with that excellent paffage in the wisdom of Solomon, chap. vi. 17. 18. The very true beginning of wisdom is the defire of difcipline, and the care of difcipline is love, and love is the keeping of her laws, and taking heed to her laws is the af furance of incorruption. The fum of what I have faid upon this argument amounts to this, that upon the terms of the gospel we can have no hope of the forgiveness of our fins, and eternal falvation, unless our nature be renewed, and the image of God, which is defaced by fin, be repaired in us, and we be created

in Chrift unto good works: that no faith will avail to our juftification and acceptance with God, but that which is made perfect by charity, that is, by fulfilling of the law, and keeping the commandments of God; by fincere obedience and holiness of life, which, notwithftanding the unavoidable imperfection of it in this ftate, will nevertheless be accepted with God, through the merits of our blessed Saviour, who hath loved us, and washed us from our fins in his own blood. To whom be glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON

CXI.

The danger of all known fin, both from the light of nature and revelation.

Roм. i. 18. 19.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven againfi all ungodliness, and unrighteoufnefs of men, who hold the truth in unrighteoufnefs; becaufe that which may be known of God, is manifeft in them; for God hath hewed it unto them.

The first fermon on this text.

In the beginine, af particularly defigned and apTN the beginning of this chapter, the Apoftle depointed by God to preach the gospel to the world, and that he was not afhamed of his ministry, notwithstanding all the reproach and perfecution it was attended withal, and notwithstanding the flight and undervaluing opinion which the world had of the doctrine which he preached, it being to the Jews a ftumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness; for tho' this might reflect fome difparagement upon it in the efteem of fenfual and carnal men, yet to those who weighed things impartially, and confidered the excellent end and defign of the Chriftian doctrine, and the

force

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