Christ the Wisdom of God

‘* Christ the wisdom of God.”’
1 Coninrurans 1. 24.

We cannot but remark of the Bible, how uniformly and how decisively it announces itself in all its descriptions of the state and character of man, — how, without offering to palliate the mat-. ter, it brings before.us the totality of our alienation, — how it represents us to be altogether broken off from our allegiance to God, — and how it fears not, in the face of those undoubted diversities of character which exist in the world, to assert of the whole world, that it is guilty before him. And if we would only seize on what may be called the elementary principle of guilt, — if we would only take. it along with us, that guilt, in reference to God, must consist in

the defection of our regard, and our reverence from him, — if we would only open our eyes to the undoubted fact, that there may be such an utter defection, and yet there may be many an amiable, and many a graceful exhibition, both of feeling and of conduct, in reference to those

who are around us, — then should we recognize,.

in the statements of the Bible, a vigorous, discerning, and intelligent view of human nature, — an unfaltering announcement of what that nature essentially-is, under all the plausibilities which serve to disguise it, — and such an insight, in fact, mto the secrecies of our inner man, as if carried home by that Spirit, whose office it is to apply the word with power into the conscience, is enough, of itself, to stamp upon this book, the evidence of the Divinity which inspired it. E But it is easier far to put an end to the resistance of the understanding, than to alarm the fears,lor to make the heart soft and tender, under a sense of its guiltiness, or to prompt the inquiry, — if all those securities, within the entrenchments of which I want to take my quiet and complacent repose, are thus driven. in, where in the whole compass of nature or revelation can any effectual security be found? It may be easy to find our way amongst all the complexional varieties of our nature, to its radical and pervading ungodliness; and thus to carry the acquiescence of the judgment in some extended demonstration about the utter sinfulness of the species. But it is not so easy to point this demonstration towards the bosom of any individual, — to gather it up, as it were, from its state of diffusion over the whole field of humanity, and send it, with all its energies concentered to a single heart, in the form of a sharp, and humbling, and terrifying conviction, — to make it enter the conscience of some

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164, SERMON VIE.

one listener, like an arrow sticking fast, — or, when the appalling picture of a whole world lying in wickedness, is thus presented to the understanding of a general audience, to make each of that. audience mourn apart over his own wickedness; just as when, on the day of judgment, though all that is visible be shaking, and dissolving, and giving way, each despairing eye-witness shall mourn apart over the recollection of his own guilt, over the prospect. of his own ruefuland undone eternity. And yet, if this be not done, nothing is done. ‘The lesson of the text has come to you in word only, and not in power. ‘To look to the truth in its generality, is one thing; to look to your own separate concern in it, is another. What we want is that each of you shall turn his eye homewards; that each shall purify his own heart from the influence of a delusion which we pronounce to be ruimous; that each shall beware of leanmg a satisfaction, or a triumph, on the comparison of himself with corrupt and exiled men, whom sin has degraded into outcasts from the presence of God, and the joys of paradise; that each of you shall look to the measure of God’s law, so that when the commandment comes upon you, in the sense of its exceeding broadness, a sense of your sin, and of your death in sin, may come along with it. Without the commandment I was alive,” says the Apostle; “but when the ‘commandment came, sin revived, and died.” Be assured, that if the utterance of such truth in your hearing, impress no personal earnestness, and lead to no personal measures, and be followed up by no personal movements, then to you it is as a sounding brass and as a tinkling cymbal. The preacher has been beating the air. That great Agent, whose revealed office it is to convince of sin, has refused to go along with him. Another influence altogether, than that which is salutary and saving, has been sent into your bosom; and the glow of the truth universal has deafened or intercepted the application of the truth personal, and of the truth particular.

This leads us to the second thing proposed in our last discourse, under which we shall attempt to explain the wisdom opposite to that folly of measuring ourselves by ourselves, and comparing ourselves among ourselves, which we have already attempted to expose.

The first step is to give up all satisfaction with yourselves, on the bare ground, that your conduct comes up to the measure of human character, and human reputation around you. This consideration may be of importance to your place in society; but, as to your place in the favour of God, it is utterly insignificant. The moral differences which obtain in a community of exiles, are all quite consistent with the entire obliteration amongst them, of the

allegiance that is due to the government @,

their native land. And the moral differences which obtain in the world, may, in every way, be as consistent with the fact, that one and all of us, in our state of nature, are alienated from God by wicked works. And, in like manner, as convicts may be all alive to a sense of their reciprocal obligations, while dead in feeling and in principle,.to the supreme obligation un-

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“aha der which they lie to the sovereign, — so may we, in reference to our fellowmen, have a sense of rectitude, and honour,and compassion,while, in reference to God, we may labour under the entire extinction of every moral sensibility, — so that the virtues which signalize us, may, 10 the language of some of our old divines, be neiiher more nor less than splendid sins. With the possession of these virtues, we may not merely be incurring every day the guilt of trespassing and sinning against our Maker in heaven; but devoid, as we are, of allapprehension of the enormity of thiss we may strikingly realize the assertion of the Bible, that we are dead in trespasses and sins. And we pass our time in all the tranquillityo fdeath. We say peace, when there is no peace. Though in a state of disruption from God, we live as securely and as inconsiderately as if there were no question and -no controversy betwixt us. About this whole matter, there is within us, a spirit of heaviness and of deepslumber. We lie fast asleep on the brink of an unprovided eternity, — and, if possible to awaken you, let us urge you to compare, not your own conduct with that of acquaintances and neighbours, ‘but to compare your ogyn finding of the ungodliness that is in your heart with the doctrine of God’s word about it — to bring down the loftiness of your spirit to its humbling declarations — to receive it as a faithful saying, that man is lost by nature, and that unless there be some mighty transition, in his history, from a state of nature to a state of salvation, the wrath of God abideth on him. The next inquiry comes to be, What is this transition? Tell me the step I should take, and I will take it. It is not enough, then, that you exalt upon your own person the degree of those virtues, by which you have obtained a credit and a distinction among men. It is not enough, that you throw a brighter and a lovlierhue over your social accomplishments. It is not enough, that you multiply the offerings of your charity, or observe a more rigid compliance, than heretofore with all the requisitions of justice. All this you may do, and yet the great point, on which your controversy with God essentially hinges, may not be so much as entered upon. All this you may do, and yet obtain no nearer approximation to Him whosittethon the throne, than the outlaws of an offended government for

their fidelities to each other. To the eye of

man you may be fairer.than before, and in civil estimation be greatly more righteous than before, — and yet, with the unquelled spirit of impiety within you, and ashabitual an indifference as ever to all the subordinating claims of the divine will over your heart and your conduct, you may stand at as wide a distance from God. as before. And besides, how are we to dispose of the whole guilt of your past iniquilies? Whether is it the malefactor or the Lawgiver who is to arbitrate this question? God may remit our sins; but it is for him to proclaim this. God may pass them over; but it is for him to

issue the deed of amnesty. God may have -

found out a way whereby, in consistency with his own character, and with tke stability of his

august government, he may take sinners into re —

conciliation; but it is for him both to devise. and io publish this way ; — and we must just do what convicts do; when they obtain a mitigation or a cancelment of the legal sentence under which they lie, — we must passively accept of it, on the terms of the deed,- — we must look to the warrant as issued by the sovereign, and take the boon or fulfil the conditions, just as it is there presented to us. The question is between us and God; and, in the adjustment of this question, we must look singly to the expression of his will, and feel that it is with him, and with his authority, that we have exclusively to do. In one word, we must wait his own revelation, and learn from his own mouth how it is that he would have us to come nigh unto him.

Let us go then to the record. “No man cometh unto the Father but through the Son.” There is no other name given under heaven, but the name of Jesus, whereby we can be saved.” “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin; and “God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” “He was once offered to bear the sins of many, — and “became sin for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God inhim.” “God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and net imputing unto them their trespasses.” “Justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord;” — and we become the children of God, through the faith that is in Christ Jesus.” We are “reconciled to God by the death of his Son,” — -“and by his obedience are many made righteous,” — and “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” ‘These verses sound foolishness to many; but the cross of Christ is foolishness to those that perish. They appear to them invested with all the mysteriousness of a dark and hidden saying; but if this Gospel be hid, it is hid to them which are lost. They have eyes that they cannot see the wondrous things contain: ed in this book of God’s communication; but they have minds which believe not, because they are blinded by the god of this world, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, ‘who is the image of God, should shine into them. .And here we cannot but insist on the utter hopelessness of their circumstances, who hear these overtures of reconciliation, but will not listen to them. ‘Theirs is just the case of rebels turning their back on a deed of grace and of amnesty. We are quite confident in stating it. to be the stubborn experience of human nature, ihat all who reject Christ, as he is offered in the Gospel, persist in that radical ungodliness of character on which the condemnation of our world mainly and essentially rests. And as they thus refuse to build their security on the foundation of his merits, — what, we would ask, is the other foundation on which they build it? [fever they think seriously of the matter, or feel any concern about a foundation on which they might rest their confidence before God, they conceive it to lie in such feelings, and such humanities, and such honesties, as make them even with the world, or as elevate them to a certain degree above the level of the world’s population. These are the materials of the foundation on which they build. It is upon the possession of virtues which: in truth have not God for Yo their object, that they propose to support in the presence of God the attitude of fearlessness. It is upon the testimony of fellow-rebels.that they brave the judgment of the Being who has pronounced of them all, that they have deeply revolted against him. And all this.in the face of God’s high prerogative, to make and to publish his own overtures. All this in contempt of that Mediator, whom he has appointed. All this in resistance to the authentic deed of grace and of forgiveness, which has been sent to our world, and from which we gather the full assurance of God’s willingness to be reconciled; but, at the same time, are expressly bound down to that particular way in which he hath ‘chosen to dispense reconciliation. Who does not see, that, in these circumstances, the guilt of sin.is fearfully aggravated on the part of sinners, by their rejection of the Gospel? Who ‘does not see, that thus to refuse the grant of everlasting life in the terms of the grant, is just to set an irretrievable seal upon their own condemnation? Who does not see, that, in the act of declining to take the shelter which is held out to them, they vainly imagine, that God will let down his approbation, to such performances as are utterly devoid of any

spirit of devout or dutiful allegiance to the Lawgiver? ‘This is, in fact, a deliberate posting of themselves, and that more firmly and more obstinately than ever, on the ground of their rebellion, — and let us no longer wonder, then, at the terms of that alternative of which we read so often in the Bible. We there read, that if we believe we shall be saved; but we also read.

SERMON VIIL 171k

that if we believe not, we shall be damned. We are there told of the great salvation; but how shall we escape, if we neglect it? We are there invited to lay hold of the Gospel, as the savour of life unto life: but, if we refuse the invitation, it shall be to us the say our of death unto death..’The Gospel is there freely proclaimed to us, for our acceptance: but if we will not obey the Gospel, we shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Saviour’s power. We are asked to kiss the Son while he is in the way; but if we do not, the alternative is that he will be angry, and that his wrath will burn against us. He is revealed to us as a sure rock, on which, if we lean we shall not be confounded: but if we shift our dependence away from it, it will fall upon us and grind us to powder. And this alternative, so far from a matter to be wondered at, appears resolvable into a principle that might be easily comprehended. God. is the party sinned against: and if he have the will to be reconciled, it is surely for him to prescribe the way of it: and this he has actually done in the revelation of the New Testament: and whether he give a reason for the way or not, certain it is, that in order to give it accomplishment, he sent his eternal Son into our world; and this descent was accompanied with such circumstances of humiliation, and conflict, and deep suffering, that heaven looked on with astonishment, and earth was bidden to rejoice, because of her great salvation. It is enough for us to know that God lavished on this plan the riches of a wisdom that is unsearchable; that,in the hearing of sinful men, he has proclaimed its importance and its efficacy; that every Gospel messenger felt himself charged, with tidings pregnant of joy, and of mighty deliverance to the world. And we ask you just to conceive, in these circumstances, what effect it should have on the mind of the insulted Sovereign, if the world, instead of responding, with grateful and delighted welcome, to the message, shall either nauseate its terms, or, feeling in them no significancy, shall turn with indifference away from it? Are we at all to wonder if the King, very wroth with the men of such a world, shall at length send his armies to destroy it? Do you think it likely that the same God. who. afterqwahad broken his commandment, was willing to pass by our transgressions, will be equally willing to pass them by, after we haye thus despised the proclamation of his mercy; after his forbearance and his long-suffering have been resisted; and that scheme of pardon, with the weight and the magnitude of which angels appear to labour in amazement, is received by the very men for whom it was devised, as a thing of no estimation ?. Surely, if there had been justice in the simple and immediate punishment of sin — this justice will be discharged instill brighter manifestation on him, who, in the face of such an embassy, holds out in his determination to brave it. And, if it bea righteous thing in God to avenge every violation of his law, how clearly and how irresistibly righteous will it appear, when, on the great day ot his wrath, he taketh vengeance on those who have added to the violation of-his law, the rejection of the Gospel! ta But what is more than this — God hath condescended to make known tous a reason, for that peculiar way of reconciliation, which he hath set before us. It is that he might be just, while the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. In the dispensation of his mercy, he had to provide for the dignity of his throne. He had to guard the stability of his truth, and of his righteousness. He had to pour the lustre of a high and awful vindication, over the attributes of a nature that is holy and unchangeable. He had to make peace on earth and good

will to men meet and be at. one, with glory to God in the highest; and for this purpose did the eternal Son pour out his soul an offering for sin, and by his obedience unto death, bring in an everlasting righteousness. It’is through the channel of this great expiation that the guilt of every believer is washed away; and it is through the imputed merits of him with whom the Father was well pleased, that every believer is admitted to the rewards of a,perfect obedience Conceive any man of this world to reject the offers of reward and forgiveness in this way, and to look for them in another. Conceive him to challenge the direct approbation of his Judge, on the measure of his own worth, and his own performances, and to put away from him that righteousness of Christ, in the measure of which there is no short-eoming. Is he not, by this attitude, holding out against God, and that too on a question in which the justice of God stands committed against him? Is not the 45* poor sinner of a day entering into a feartul controversy, with all the plans, and all the perfections of the Eternal? Might not you conceive every attribute of the Divinity, gathering into a frown of deeper indignation against the daringness of him, who thus demands the favour of the Almighty on some plea of his own, and resolutely declines it on that only plea, under which the acceptance of the sinner can be in harmony with the glories of God’s holy and inviolable character? Surely, if we have fallen short of the obedience of his law, and so short, as to have renounced altogether that godliness which imparts to obedience its spiritual and substantial quality, — then do we aggravate the enormity of our sin, by building our hope before God on a foundation of sn? To sin is to defy God: but the very presumption that he will smile complacency upon it, involves in it another, and a still more deliberate attack upon his government; and all its sanctions, and all its severities, are let loose upon us in greater force and.abundance than before, if we either rest upon our own virtue, or mix up this polluted ingredient with the righteousness of Christ, and refuse our single, entire, and undivided refiance on him, who alone has magnified the law and made it honourable.

But such, if we may be allowed the expression, 1s the constitution of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that,in proportion to the terror which it holds out to those who neglect it, is the security that it provides to all, who flee for refuge to the hope which is set before them. Paul understood this well, when, though he profited over many of his equals in his own nation, — when though had he measured himself by them, he might have gathered from the comparison a feeling of proud superiority, — when though in all that was counted righteous amongst his fellows, he. signalized himself in general estimation, — yet he willingly renounced adependence upon all, that he might win Christ, and be found in him, not having his own righteousness which was of the law, but that righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, even the righteousness which is of God by faith. He felt the force of the alternative, between the former and the latter righteousness. He knew that the one admitted of no measurement with the other; and that whatever appearance of worth it had in the eyes of men, when brought to their relative and earthly standard, it was reduced to nothing, and worse than nothing, when brought to the standard of Heaven’s holy and unalterable law. Jesus Christ has in our nature fulfilled this law; and it is in the righteousness which he thus wrought, that we are invited to stand before God. You do not them take in a full impression of Gospel security, if you only believe that God is merciful, and has forgiven you. You are called further to. believe, that God is righteous, and has justified you. You have a warrant to put on the righteousness of Christ as a robe and as a diadem, and to go to the throne of grace with the petition of, Look upon me in the face of him who hath fulfilled all righteousness. You are furnished with such a measure of righteousness as God can accept, without letting down a single attribute which belongs to him. The truth, and the justice,

“yg = pa cor are and the holines, which stands in such threatening array against the sinner who is out of Christ, now form into-a shield and a hiding-place around him. And while he who trusts in the general mercy of God does so at the expense of his whole character, he who trusts in the mercy of God, which hath appeared unto all men through the Saviour, offers in that act of confidence an homage to every perfection of the Divinity, and has every perfection of the Divinity upon his side. And thus it is, that under the economy of redemption, we now read, not merely of God being merciful, but of God being just and faithful in forgiving our -sins, and in cleansing us from all our unrighteousness. ‘Fee. ie Thus much for what may be called the judicial righteousness, with which every believer is invested by having the merits of Christ imputed to him through faith. But this faith is something more than a name, It takes up a positive residence in the mind as a principle. ft has locality and operation there, and has either no existence at all, or by its purifying and reforming influence on the holder of it, does: it invest him also with a personal righteousness.. Now, to apply the conception of our text to this personal righteousness, the first thing we would say of it is, that it admits of no measurement whatever with the social worth, or the moral virtue, or any other of the personal accomplishments of character, which may belong to those who have not the faith of the Gospel. Faith accepts of the offered reconciliation, and moves away from the alienated heart those suspicions, and aversions, and fears, which kept man asunder from his God. We would not say, then, of the personal righteousness of a believer, that it consisted in a higher degree of that

virtue which may exist in a lower degree with

him who is not a believer. It consists in the dawn, and the progress, and the perfecting of a virtue, which, before he was a believer, had no existence whatever. It consists in the possession ofa character, of which, previous £0 his acceptance of Christ, he had not the smallest feature of reality; though to the external eye, there may have been some features of resemblance. The principle of Christian sanctification, which, if we were to express it by another name, we would call devotedness to God, is no more to be found in the unbelieving world, than the principle of an allegiance to their rightful sovereign, is to be found among the outcasts of banishment. It is not by any stretching out of the measure of your former virtues, then, that you can attain this principle. There needs to be originated within you a new virtue altogether. It is not by the fostering of that which is old, — it is by the creation of something new, that a man comes to have the personal righteousness of a disciple of the New Testament. It is by giving existence to that which formerly had no existence. And let us no longer wonder, then, at the magnitude of the terms which are employed in the Bible, to denote the change, the personal change, which, in point of character, and affection, and principle, takes place on all who become meet for the inheritance of the saints. It is there called life from the dead, and a new birth, and a total renovation, — all old things are said to be done away, and all things to become new. With many it is a wonder how a change of such totality and of such magnitude, should be accounted as indispensable to the good and creditable man of society, as to the sunken profligate. But if the one and the other are both dead to a sense of their Lawgiver in heaven, — then both need to be made alive unto him. With both there must be the power and the reality ofa spiritual resurrection. And after this great transition has been made, it will be found that the virtues of the new state, and those of the old state, cannot be brought to any common standard of measurement at all. The one distances the other by a wide and impassable interval. There is all the difference in point of principle between a man of the world and a new creature in Christ, that there is between him who has the Spirit of*God, and hin who has it not, — and all the difference in point of performance, that there is between him who is without Christ, and can therefore do nothing, and him who can do all things through Christ strengthening him. ‘There is a new principle now, Which formerly had no operation, even that of godliness, — and a new influence now, even that of the Holy Ghost, given to the prayers of the believer; — and under these provisions will he attain a splendour and an energy of character, with which, the better and the best of this. world can no more be brought into comparison, than earth will compare’with heaven, ‘or the passions and the frivolities of time, with

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the pure ambition and the lofty principles of eternity. = ae:

And let it not be said, that the transformation of which we are now speaking, instead of being thus entire and universal, consists only with a good man of the world in the addition ef one virtue, to his previous stock of many virtues. We admit that he had justice before, and humanity before, and courteousness before, and that the godliness which he had not before, is only one virtue. But the station which it asserts, among the other virtues, is a station of supreme authority. It no sooner takes its place among them, than it animates them all, and subordinates them all. It sends forth among them a new and pervading quality, which makes them essentially. different from what they were before. I may take daily exercise from a regard to my health, and by so doing I may deserve the character of a man of prudence; or I may take daily exercise apart from this consideration altogether, and because it is the accidental wish of my parents that I should do so; and thus may I deserve the character of a man of filial prety. The external habit is the same; but under the one principle, the moral character of this habit is totally and essentially different from what it is under the other principle. Yet the difference here, is, most assuredly, not. greater than is the difference between the justice of a good man of society, and the justice of a Christian disciple. In the former case, it is done unto others, or done unto himself. In the latter case, it 1s done unto God. The frame-work of his outer

Hes a a doings is animated by another spirit altogether. There is the breath of another life in it. The inscription of Holiness to God stands engraven on the action of the believer; and if this character of holiness be utterly effaced from the corresponding action of the good man of society, then, surely, in character, in worth, in spiritual and intelligent estimation, there is the utmost possible diversity between the two actions. So that, should the most upright and amiable man upon earth embrace the Gospel faith, and become the subject of the Gospel regeneration, — it is true of him, too, that all old things are done away, and that all things have become new.

Thus it is, that while none of the Christian virtues can be made to come into measurement with any of what may be called the constitutional virtues, in respect of their principle, be« cause the principle of the one set differs from that of the other set, in kind as well as in de — gree, yet there are certain corresponding virtues in each of the classes, which might be brought together into measurement, in respect of visible and external performance. And it is a high point of obligation with every disciple of the faith, so to sustain his part in this competition, as to show forth the honour of Christianity; to prove by his own personal bristory in the world, how much the morality of grace outstrips the morality of nature; to evince the superior lustre and steadiness of the one, when compared with the frail, and fluctuating; and desultory character of the other; and to make it clear to the of of experience, that it is only under the peculiar government of the doctrine of Christ, that all which is amiable in human worth, becomes most lovely, and all which is justly held in human admiration, becomes most great, and lofty, and venerable. The Bible tells us to provide things honest in the sight of men, as well as of God. It tells us, that upon the person of every Christian, the features of excéllence should stand’ so legibly engraven, that, as a living epistle, he might be seen and read of all men. It is true, there is much in the character of a genuine believer which the world cannot see, and cannot sympathize with. There is the rapture of faith, when in lively exercise. There is the ecstacy of devotion. There is a calm and settled serenity amid all the vicissitudes of life. There is the habit of having no confidence in the flesh, and of rejoicing in the Lord Jesus. There is a holding fast of our hope in the promises of the Gospel. There is a cherishing of the Spirit of adoption. There is the work of a believing fellowship with the Father and with the Son. Thereisa movement of affection towards the things which are above. There isa building up of ourselves on our most holy faith. There is a praying in the Holy Ghost’ ‘There is’ a watching for his influence with all perseverance. In a word, there is all which the Christian knows to be real, and which the world hates, and denounces as visionary, m thé secret, but sublime and. substantial processes of é€xperimental religion. But, on the other hand, there is also much in the doings of an altogether Christian, of that palpable virtue which itself upon general 1

egret ana) ale lence a real matinee a observation; and he is most grievously untrue to his Master’s cause, if he do not, on this ‘ground, so outrun the world, as to force from the men of it, an approving testimony. The eye of the world cannot enter within the spiritual recesses of his heart; but let him ever remember that it is fastened, and that too, with keen and scrutinizing jealousy, on the path of his visible history. It will offer no homage to the mere sanctity of his complexion; nor, unless there be shed over it, the expression of what is mild in domestic, or honourable in public virtue, will it ever iook upon him in-any other light, than as an object of the most unmingled disgust. And therefore it is, that he must enter on the field of ostensible accomplishment, and there bear away the palm of superiority, and be the most eminent of his fellows in all those recognized virtues, that can bless or embellish the condition of society; the most untainted in honour, and the most disinterested injustice, and the most alert in beneficence, and the most unwearied in all these graces, under every discouragement and every provocation.

We have now only time to say, that we shall not regret the length of this discourse, or even the recurrence of some of its arguments, if any hearer amongst you, not in the faith, be led by it, to withdraw his confidence from the mere accomplishments of nature, — and. if any believer amongst you be Jed by jit, not to despise these accomplishments, but, to. put them on, and to animate them all. with the spirit of religiousness, — if any hearer amongst you, beginning to perceive his own nothingness in the sight of God, be prompted to inquire, Wherewithal shall I appear before him?

and not rest from the inquiry, till he flee from”

his hiding-place, to that everlasting righteousness which the Saviour hath brought in; and uf any believer amongst you, rightly dividing the word of truth, shall act on the principle, that though nothing but the doctrine of Christ crucified, can avail him for acceptance with God, yet he is bound to adorn this doctrine in all things. And knowing that one may acquiesce in the whole of such a demonstration, without carrying it personally home, we leave off with the single remark, that every convicton not prosecuted, every movement of conscience not followed up, every ray of light or of truth not turned to individual application, will aggravate the reckoning of the great day, - — and, in that proportion to the degree of urgency which has been brought to bear upon you, and been resisted, will be the weight and the justness of your final condemnation.