God, in any proper sense, before they trusted in Christ, manifestly, and, except they repent, fatally err; for they claim to have accomplished for themselves, without Christ, the very work, which Christ came to accomplish in them, the subjection of their hearts to God.

It were, moreover, gross impiety to think, that now, since God has appointed Christ to reign for Him, we can submit to God except by faith in "that MAN whom He hath ordained." The sum of the Gospel is this: God has provided in Christ, and only in Christ, all that is necessary for our salvation, a new heart, a right spirit, pardon, strength, sanctification, complete redemption; and what he requires of us is, to believe in Christ, or accept Christ as our Saviour, for then and then only, shall we find in Him, a new heart, a right spirit, pardon, strength, sanctification, and complete redemption. Until we believe in Christ as our Saviour, we can have nothing but guilt and do nothing but sin.

2. Submission to God in Christ implies, An adoring acquiescence in the plan of salvation.

This is what the apostle means by "submitting unto the righteousness of God," for he adds immediately, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth;" that is: The righteousness of Christ is the sole and sufficient ground of the believer's justification. Now from what we have seen of the plan of salvation in Christ, acquiescence in it requires :

(a) A conviction of our utter sinfulness in the sight of God, which rendered such a salvation necessary. Until we are sensible of our sins, we can have no part in the Saviour of sinners, who came to seek and to save the lost. There is, indeed, no genuine conviction of sin except from Christ. The law condemns, but the cross convinces. It is, then, from the sufferings of Christ, the Surety of sinners, that we learn from God how great an evil sin is in His sight, and how great that sin is which is committed against One so good, so holy, and so merciful.

"Law and terrors do but harden,

When they operate alone;

But a sense of blood-bought pardon,

That can melt the heart of stone."

How then can we truly repent until we look to Christ. "If I be lifted up from the earth," saith the Saviour, "I will draw all men unto me."

(b) An acknowledgment of the justice of God in our condemnation to eternal death, from which Christ died to redeem us. God has declared His condemnation of us, and showed us that it was no arbitrary act, by providing so great a ransom in the substituted sufferings of His Son. Except, therefore, we believe our condemnation to be justly deserved, nay, that but for Christ, we must forever have lain under the wrath of God, we cannot avail ourselves of the salvation of Christ, nor submit ourselves to the righteous

ness of God. Christ will be precious to us, just as we see ourselves to be guilty, and avail ourselves of his proffered salvation. Yet this does not make it necessary that we should be willing to perish. It is not God's will that we should perish; on the contrary, He has opened for us a way of escape; and, therefore, we should not be willing to remain under His condemnation, but should escape by the way He has opened. Indeed, the very thought is horrible, for condemnation involves not only suffering from the loss of God's favor, but extreme depravity from the absence of God's restraining and converting grace. Who that knows any thing of the excellence of God, could consent to be a damned spirit, cursing and blaspheming for ever with cursing and blaspheming fiends? An acknowledgment of the justice of God in our condemnation, is our duty; but, since Christ has come (and except from Christ we could never have derived strength for such an acknowledgment), a willingness to remain under condemnation, is, turn the matter as you will, a willingness to remain the enemy of God for ever. It is folly to say, that such a spirit could praise God even in torments. God never sends those who praise Him into torments. There is nothing but blaspheming in hell. Heaven is the only place for a praising spirit, after it has left the body. If you revolt from the consequences of the condemnation, you cannot be willing to remain condemned. Where in that book, which declares, that "God is not willing that any should perish," can you find such a dreadful requirement made of a poor trembling sinner who loves God's glory?

(c.) A belief of the full sufficiency and the sufficiency alone, of Christ's righteousness for the justification of the sinner. It is sufficent because God has appointed and accepted it; and because God in Christ wrought it out and declared "It is finished." It is the only sufficiency, because, "if righteousness could have come by the law," or in any other way, "Christ is dead in vain ;" and because "God has set forth the propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God: to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." What God has wrought out and declared sufficient; what God has appointed and accepted as sufficient, it were gross impiety to doubt, or to think of improving. Submission to God, therefore, requires a belief in his readiness to save. True submission is submission to God as he manifests himself; not to one attribute, but to all; to his mercy as well as his justice; his justice in saving by Christ, as well as his justice in condemning out of Christ. Submission to God without hope, is sin, because it is a denial of his righteousness in Christ. We must submit to His salvation by Christ, or we remain unsubmissive.

(d.) A sense of our own inability and dependence upon the Holy

Ghost for strength to work out our salvation. The positive assertions of the Scripture on this point, make it sufficiently clear; but the promise of the Holy Spirit "to work in us both to will and to do of God's good pleasure," makes it sin for us to attempt anything in our own strength. Yet this does not justify us in delaying, nor should it discourage us from attempting, the divine life; because the moment we attempt it, looking to God for help, the Spirit assists us; and we have no promise of his assistance, until we put forth our own endeavors. The man with the withered arm had no strength in it, but when he attempted to stretch it out in obedience to Christ, he received strength from Christ. It was not his own strength but Christ's, yet he used it. If we would have grace, we must exercise it. Submission to God without hope, because of our own inability to serve him, is sin; because, though convinced of our own weakness, we should attempt his service in a reliance upon the assistance of the Holy Ghost. If that were denied us, we should despair; but, since it is promised, our duty is to trust, and hope, and venture forward.

(e.) Acceptance of salvation through the righteousness of God in Christ and by the grace of the Holy Ghost. We put this last, not because it is least, or because anything should go before it, but as the sum of the whole truth. It has run through all we have said. Under the first covenant the command with the promise was "This do and thou shalt live." Under the Gospel the command with the promise is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Belief in Christ sums up the evangelical duty, because all duty is now included by it, and consequent upon it. For to believe in Christ is, as we have seen, to acknowledge ourselves sinners, and justly condemned; to acknowledge ourselves corrupt and dead in sin; to desire salvation, not only from the punishment of sin, but also, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, from the power of sin; to see, with adoring gratitude, the sufficiency of Christ's righteousness, and of the Spirit's grace to save all who come unto God: and, therefore, acceptance of Christ as our Saviour, is submission to the will of God, in Christ. He commands us to believe, as plainly as when he commands to have no other gods before him. To delay this acceptance for a single moment; to suppose that we must or can do anything right before we accept it, is to reject the grace of God. We must, it is true, not think of being saved in our sins. There is no such salvation. But we must accept salvation from sin, while we accept pardon of sin. If we open our hearts to a justifying Saviour we shall receive with him a sanctifying Spirit. There are those who will tell you, that you must submit to God, and, after you have thus given up your sins, Christ will manifest himself to you as your Saviour. But the word of God says nothing of the kind. Jesus never said so. The apostles never said so. There never was a soul truly converted to God by such a doctrine. It is not the gospel. The word of God

in Christ is "Believe in Christ; " "Submit yourselves to the righteousness of God," even to Christ, who is "the end of the law for righteousness," and he will, by his Holy Spirit, enable you to give up your sins, and God will accept your heart, not in its native vileness, but washed by the blood, and covered by the righteousness of Jesus. This is not selfishness, though it is selflove, for it is such a love as a man ought to have for his soul, and it is compliance with God's method for our glorifying of his name.

INFERENCES.

1. Great care should be used, when addressing our fellow sinners, to interpose Christ as the Mediator between them and God. To exhort them "to submit to God," and not show them that they must submit to God in Christ, as their Saviour; to bid them give up their hearts to God," and not insist that those hearts must be put, by faith, in Christ's hands, is not Christian teaching. A Jew, or Mohammedan, or Deist, could teach as well. It is "the preaching of the Cross," which is "the wisdom of God and the power of God to salvation." This is the "faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

It is vain to say, that the sinner knows the Gospel, and that, therefore, there is no need of such particularity. The offence of the cross" is the great cause of the sinner's refusal to submit unto God. Neither can there be any Gospel, except Christ be first, Christ last, Christ throughout, Christ all and in all. Besides, there are not wanting false teachers, even in our day, who purposely keep Christ out of sight, until they have insisted upon certain things preliminary to faith in Christ. A most dangerous error! The Apostle Paul found such in the church of Galatia, and what does he say ? "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him, who first called you in the grace of Christ, unto another Gospel; which is not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Gal. i. 6, 7, 8.) Is not that another gospel, which keeps back Christ, or puts anything before faith in his precious name, as our Saviour and Deliverer?

2. All those who suppose that they have submitted unto God, without at the same time desiring and accepting salvation from God through Christ, are under a delusion, a most unchristian, baneful delusion; a delusion dishonorable to God and full of vanity and self righteousness. No true peace can come from such a source. Peace is only found in submission to Christ as the Saviour.

3. Inquiring souls have the greatest encouragement to believe in Christ for their own salvation. Christ invites them to salvation,

bids them seek, ask, knock, strive for it. God waits to be gracious, for He promises in Christ, whom He hath sent, salvation to all who desire pardon and a new heart. It is your duty to seek salvation for God's glory, but you are also commanded to seek it that you may live. Only be desirous of salvation from sin as well as from hell, of perfect holiness as well as immortal blessedness; in a word, "submit yourselves to the righteousness of God" in "Christ, the end of the law, for righteousness to every one that believeth," and you need not, you ought not to doubt the willingness of God to receive, nay, that He does receive you as his children, "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."

4. How great is the wickedness, and how inexcusable the folly of those, who refuse to submit themselves unto God! Salvation is offered unto them. All things are made ready for their acceptance. God waits in his Gospel to be their friend. Yet they choose his wrath. They reject Christ. They break away from the arms of the Spirit. Because they love sin too well to give it up, or are too proud to be saved through Christ, they live without God in this world, to perish in the next. O, that they would think of the mercy they despise, the love they reject, the God they provoke, the soul they ruin, and the wrath they must endure!

SERMON CCCCLXXI.

BY REV. GEORGE H. FISHER, D. D.,

PASTOR OF THE REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH IN BROOME STREET, NEW YORK.

DIVINE PROVIDENCE PROVED AND ILLUSTRATED.

When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son.-GALATIANS, iv. 4.

THE main design of the following discourse is to attest and illustrate a Divine Providence, by means of certain historical facts. It can be shown most conclusively, as it appears to me, that the great self-existent Being, whom we call God, intelligently, powerfully, and wisely controls all human affairs, in their accessions and revolutions, for the accomplishment of his own sublime purposes.

The text chosen for this discourse decidedly intimates the doctrine, that God sent forth his Son, at a time whose fulness, or characteristic appropriateness, had been intentionally sought and prepared, through previous ages and events. If, then, it can be shown that the advent of Christ constituted an august purpose, to