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can be given to this jargon, it is fomething like the following, viz. that God will give all defirable affiftance to the well-difpofed; and if we do but what we can, or at leaft make but one ftep towards our reconciliation with him, he will give us his Spirit to help us to proceed. The fame fentiment has been given us in various other forms of speech, and by fome with a great fhow of found doctrine ;- -we have been told that "Whofoever fincerely endeavors to please God, may reft perfectly affured, that God has no difpleasure against him; for the righteous Lord loveth righteoufnefs." At other times the word of encouragement is given to the weak and feeble, tho well-difpofed, in this form, " In the ufual methods of grace, evil habits are mastered by degrees-and it is a great while before the contrary habits of grace and virtue are grown up to any confiderable degree of ftrength, and man comes to a confirmed ftate of goodnefs-but yet this ought not to discourage us; for fo foon as WE have seriously begun this change, we are in a good way, and all our endeavors will have the acceptance of good beginnings, and God will be ready to help us; and if we pursue our advantage, we shall every day gain ground, and the work will grow eafier upon our hand." When our first beginnings to be better take the notion of fincere repentance, then we have the following inftructions, "If you hate your former ways, which were not good, and fincerely repent of them and with mourn ing hearts, and weeping eyes approach to God, for the pardon of fin: as that law which is the unchanging ftandard of right requires man fhould forgive his enemies, upon their repenting and afking pardon; much more will the divine author of that law. Το the humble penitent every encouragement is given." But when the beginning of any good in us, is termed acting faith upon Chrift, then the addrefs runs thus, "If ever the fpirit of God graciously influence your fouls, ye will become thoroughly fenfible of your

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abfolute inability" (here follows the proof of this) and yet enter upon a vigorous ufe of means. will do for yourfelves as if ye were to do all; and yet overlook all ye do" (which by the way will be the greatest part of the work) ye had done nothing. Will ye do nothing for yourfelves, because ye cannot do all? Lay down no fuch impious conclufions against your own foul. Do what you can, and it may be, while ye are doing what ye can for yourfelves, God will do for you what ye cannot." And in order to remove every difcouragement, from the thought that the natural man cannot pleafe God, it is added "Let us believe as we can, in obedience to God's command, and while we are doing fo, a!though the act be at the beginning but NATURAL, yet in the very act, promised and purchafed grace trikes in, and turns it into a fupernatural act of believing." Thus, at length, it is found out how they that are in the flefh might please God! This the apostle Paul had not attained to, Rom. viii. 8. To the fame amount is the following addrefs, "So foon as the finner was difpofed to accept, the faviour was willing to bestow free and full redemption; and the very first figh that comes from an awakened heart pierces the ears of our gracious God-the Pfalmift fays, he fent water into the wilderness to change its nature; that is, he fent his grace into our hearts to change their nature, to fhew them their dead and barren ftate, to make them fenfible of it, distressed under it, and then to cry to him for deliverance, and when his grace has thus far difpofed the heart aright, and it can pray for more grace; then will our Lord enrich it with abundant ftreams; for he is always difpofed to give, in the measure we are difpofed to receive.'

These are but a few fpecimens, out of a many that might be collected, to fhow the ufe men have made of the gofpel, in what fenfe they understand it, and how they expect to be faved by it., But if it be in

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deed true, as moft of the above fyftems would infinuate, that man is a ruined creature, and fo in a forlorn, helpless condition; it does not appear from either of these schemes, that there is any thing like Glad tidings of great joy, to fuch an one; for however much the better difpofed fort of people may be encouraged thereby, they contain no hope or encouragement for the fimply guilty; for nothing can be gofpel to fuch, but that which prefents a fufficient ground of hope to them, while in the divine fight, and in their own confcience, they ftand juftly condemned as tranfgreffors of the law. This the gofpel of the grace of God does: and therefore every fcheme of religion that teaches men to do any thing, or even to wait to have any thing done, to encourage their hope in God; is quite different in its nature and defign, to the gofpel of Chrift, and in fact encourages man's natural difaffection to God, even while it leads him to fancy that he is at peace with him. The gofpel does not teach us to Do any thing, though it be varnished over with the most evangelical names, but to live by what is already finished, i John, iv. 9.-It is, whether men perceive it or no, glad tidings of great joy to ALL people; and fo muft be free from what are called the terms of the gospel; for however fmall thefe terms are fometimes faid to be, when they come to be explained, they fhow that by far the greater part of the work of falvation, is left for the finner to perform. The gospel is in fact nothing more than a report of the grace and truth that came by Jefus Chrift. There are various fummaries given of it in the fcriptures, fuch as." He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our juftification."-" The blood of Jefus Chrift his Son cleanfeth us from all fin."" He was made fin for us who knew no fin, that we might be made the righteoufnels of God in him." For when we were yet without ftrength, in due time Chrift died. for the ungodly," and "God commendeth his love

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towards us, in that while we were yet finners Chrift died for us:" yea "Herein perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us," and "It is a faithful faying and worthy of all acceptation that Jefus Chrift came into the world to fave finners, even the chief among them ;"-" Wherefore he is able to fave them to the UTTERMOST that come unto God by him, feeing he ever liveth to make interceffion for them," fo then it is "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he faved us, by the washing of regene ration, and renewing of the Holy Ghoft; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being juftified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

For now the righteoufnefs of God without the law is manifefted, being witneffed by the law and the prophets, even the righteoufnefs of God, which is by faith of Jefus Chrift, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference; for all have finned, and come short of the glory of God; being juftified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Chrift Jefus, whom God hath fet forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remiffion of fins that are paft, through the forbearance of God: to declare at this time his righteoufnefs, that he might be juft, and the juftifier of him who believeth in Jefus." The word that conveys this bleffed righteousness "Is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is the word of faith which we preach: that if thou fhalt confefs with thy mouth the Lord Jefus, and fhalt believe in thine heart that God hath raifed him from the dead, thou fhalt be faved; for with the heart man believeth unto righteoufnefs, and with the mouth confeffion is made unto falvation; for the fcripture faith, WHOSOEVER believeth. on hini fhall not be afhamed-fo then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

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The glorious truths fet forth in thefe words of fcripture are ift, That the work of Chrift finished upon the cross, does in itself contain every requifite for the juftification of thofe who are ungodly and without ftrength that God appears just in justifying fuch through the work of his fon;-and that, therefore, the Redeemer's work is an all-fufficient ground of present peace to the guilty confcience, and of joy, to the most difconfolate foul, without taking in any other confideration whatever. 2dly, That falvation, through the finifhed work of the divine Surety, is bestowed in the most fovereign, free, and unconditional manner, to finners without any diftinction of character, nation, name or degree, to finners as fuch deftitute of every qualification or recommendation whatever. Such are the perfons, and fuch the deplorable circumftances of thofe, whom the gofpel is defigned to relieve and fave! 3dly, That this gofpel of the Kingdom is brought near to the guilty, and that the faithfulness of God, in the free promife of life in Chrift Jefus to finners believing in him, is the only encouragement that the loft and helpless have to hope in divine mercy; and that to believe through any other medium, is to fruftrate the true grace of God.

First That Chrift obeyed and fuffered in the room of his people, has been before shown to be a fcripture doctrine. We have feen that he placed himfelf in the loweft ftate of human wretchedness, even under the curfe of God: beneath the full weight of which he expired. Now had the Lord Jefus been confined a prifoner by the bars of death; it would have been fully demonftrated, that his work was not fufficient to bring falvation, to perfons in the circumstances under which he died, and therefore we are taught to look upon his refurrection, as the grand, central evidence of the fufficiency of his work of which fact the Lord therefore has been pleased to give ample evidence, both human and di

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