enjoyment of it.

But we are not brought into this state, or life, merely by faith, fimple faith, or faith alone, as it is said; but rather, by the influence of divine love and truth from the Lord, whereby we are led to true repentance, which is the beginning of redemption in man; forsaking of evil, believing on and loving the Lord our God, and fincere obedience to his divine laws...

When this change is wrought in the mind, then we fee that our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharifees, which was only an external, hypocritical, and partial one; and that we must be internally righteous, actually righteous, and impartially so: that the laws of God must be engraven on the heart, and fulfilled in the life -that we must depart from all evil, and do that which is good and that we must do this as of ourfelves; yet knowing that the power so to do is from the Lord and that all goodness and truth, faith and love, charity and obedience, arise from the influence of his divine love and truth upon our will and understanding. And here we are enabled to see most plainly, that we can keep the laws of God-be actually righteous, both internally and externallyand at the fame time we have nothing to boaft of as to ourselves; all the power is from the Lord alone, and to him alone returns all the praise and glory for ever and ever.

We are thus led to understand, that the law of God, instead of being abrogated, set aside, and that

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we have nothing to do with it; is, on the contrary, the rule of our life-the fum and substance of all religion that it is spiritual and divine-and that it will be our rule of life and conduct in the other world, and through the endless ages of eternity. Though heaven and earth pass, yet one iota or tittle of the law shall not fail. "Do we then make " void the law through faith? God forbid-yea, " we establish the law" (says Paul). And hereby we learn, too, how unnecessary, and also how impoffible it is, that the righteousness of Jesus Christ should be imputed to us, and become ours, that we may be juftified.

First, It is unnecessary, because the true chriftianthe man who believes in loves, and obeys the Lord, is actually made righteous. His evils are fubdued-his heart and life are changed he is regenerated, born again, made a new man-in short, he is restored to the image and likeness of his God. He is the pure in heart, who shall fee the Lord. Therefore, the imputation of another righteousness is unneceffary.

But again, the imputation of the Lord's righteousness, is a thing impossible. His righteousness is the righteousness of a God-for he is God alone; and creation, redemption, or falvation, might as well be imputed to us as that righteousness. For his righteousness is a thing purely divine, and therefore cannot be imputed to any creature. The fact is, that the notion which has prevailed in the christian

christian church, namely, that there are more Gods than one; with a few passages in the holy word (and more particularly in Paul's epistles) wrongly understood, have been the real cause of all these unfcriptural and irrational fentiments concerning the law of God, redemption, imputation, and faith alone. But I hope the time is come, in which the pious mind will be delivered from the shackles of tradition-the bondage of false doctrine and be led to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the one only God of heaven and earth. Then will he fee that redemption consists in a deliverance from all evil and mifery, and a restoration of the foul to real goodness, the image and likeness of God, and the enjoyment of all that is heavenly and divine.

Let me intreat my audience to take into ferious confideration what I have laid before you, upon these very important subjects-examine and judge for yourselves and let enlightened reason and pure truth determine your judgment. I have endeavored to prove that Jesus Christ came, not to atone divine wrath not to fulfil the law on our account, that we might be exempted from obedience to it -not to reconcile the Father to finners, and make him placable;-but that he came to deliver us from the power of all evil-to fubdue the infernal powers to redeem us from all iniquity-and to purify unto himself a people, zealous of good works. I have labored to prove, that the law of God is not only moral, but spiritual and divine -that -that it is immutable and eternal that we have power given unto us to observe it and that to love the Lord with all the heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, is the sum and substance of that law.

May every one of us experience a real redemption from all evil, falfhood, and misery; and a reftoration to all that is good, true, and heavenly: then we shall delight in the law of God, after the inward man—and in a little time be translated to that blessed world, where all is love, goodness, and joy, for evermore. Amen.

SERMON VIII.

THE INTERNAL PURIFIED;

OR,

THE REAL MEMBER OF THE LORD'S TRUE CHURCH A HOLY ΜΑΝ.

ISA. iv. 3, 4.

And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerufalem, shall be called holy; even every one that is written among the living in Jerufalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerufalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

THE latter part of the preceding chapter

treats of the vastation and end of the fallen church; in the beginning of this chapter a new church is spoken of, and its quality and character are described in the words of our text. Whoever carefully attends to what is written in the third chapter, must be convinced that it has an internal and spiritual

mean

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