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this enmity is dissolved, viz. by the free offer on the one hand, and the believing acceptance on the other, of the Gospel salvation; while Christ, through whose blood the sinner, who by nature stands afar off, is brought near to the heavenly Lawgiver whom he has offended, was scarcely ever spoken of, or spoken of in such a way as stripped him of all the importance of his character and his offices, even at this time I certainly did press the reformations of honour, and truth, and integrity among my people; but I never once heard of any such reformation having been effected among them. I am not sensible that all the vehemence with which I urged the virtues and proprieties of social life, had the weight of a feather on the moral habits of my parishioners. And it was not till I got impressed by the utter alienation of the heart in all its desires and affections from God; it was not till reconciliation to Him became the distinct and the prominent object of my ministerial exertions; it was not till I took the scriptural way of laying the method of reconciliation before them; it was not till the free offer of forgiveness through the blood of Christ was urged upon their acceptance, and the Holy Spirit given through the channel of Christ's mediatorship to all who ask him, was set before them as the unceasing object of their meditation and their prayers; it was not, in one word, till the contemplations of my people were turned to these great and essential elements in the business of a soul providing for its interests with God, and the concerns of its eternity, that I ever heard of any of those subordinate reformations which I aforetime made the earnest and the zealous, but I am afraid at the same time, the ultimate object of my earlier ministrations. But now, a sense

of your heavenly Master's eye has brought another influence to bear upon you. You have at least taught me, that to preach Christ is the only effective way of preaching morality in all its branches."

This is surely important matter of consideration for the young and earnest minister. We find here the same person recording the different effect of two different modes of preaching which he himself had exercised; and attributing his ultimate success to the essential doctrines which all acknowledge the Gospel to contain.

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CHAPTER VI.

ON SANCTIFICATION.*

*

I HAVE urged, and I believe with truth, that
no inducement will operate so strongly towards
a holy life and conversation, as the genuine
doctrines of the Gospel. Only the naked pro-
position, that works contribute nothing to jus-
tification, can be laid hold of by the Solifidian:
which is indeed indisputably true, but by no
means the whole truth which Christians ought
to hear.
"Faith alone justifies, yet faith alone
is not sufficient." St. Paul well knew the
human heart, and foresaw the perversions which
might rob even divine philosophy" of its

* I adopt this term in preference to the phrase "good works," because the latter appears rather to signify certain specific and unconnected acts of goodness, than that universal holiness, and life of obedience, which is required of Christians, and forms the subject of the present chapter. + Luther's Com. on Galatians.

charms ever watchful, therefore, for the honour of his Master's cause, by a prophetic anticipation, he confutes the Antinomian in the very passages which might seem most favourable to that heresy. The division of the Epistles into separate verses, and the custom of quoting these verses singly to prove particular points, has given a colourable support to numerous subtleties, which a reference to the context would clear away at once. With regard to the present question, it is not a little remarkable, that an association ever presents itself to St. Paul's mind between the mercy of Christ, and the holiness of the Christian; and that a strong declaration of the doctrine of justification by faith, never fails to draw from him, within a very few sentences, an equally strong admonition to the justified man, of the necessity of sanctification. I observe this the more particularly, because I am aware that many excellent persons have not seen in the same light the conduct of the Apostle. Preach the truth, they say, openly; and trust to God, who giveth the increase," to preserve it

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pure from error or perversion. This language would come with more force, if it were backed with similar confidence on St. Paul's part; but there is no lesson he teaches more anxiously, both by his practice and his writings, than the duty of removing a stumbling-block from a brother's way. In the spirit of the arguments he employs on similar subjects, he would say upon this, You clearly see that faith in Christ will produce obedience to his commands; you do well: another thinks that faith exempts him from the obligations of the moral law. And what? Through your strength "shall a weak "brother perish, for whom Christ died?"

In compliance with the plan I have prescribed to myself, I shall point out by various passages, the association which I mentioned as habitual in the Apostle's train of reasoning.

This occurs first, in the same natural order as we have observed in the former doctrines, in the Epistle to the Romans. "Where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound:

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