men," you bear a continual testimony to the excellence of the doctrine of salvation by free grace, as a doctrine which is according to godliness, you will be in constant training for the glorious company of the Apostles and the goodly fellowship of the Prophets; habitually prepared for the heavenly country, and meet for the society and employments of glorified saints and angels; where, in the immediate presence of their God and yours, it will be your eternal privilege and infinite delight to serve him day and night in his temple.

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26

SERMON II.

JUSTIFYING RIGHTEOUSNESS- AND CHRIS

TIAN OBEDIENCE.

MATTHEW V. 20.

I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

If we would avoid making shipwreck of our faith, there are two extremes, against which we must diligently guard-Pharisaical self-righteousness, and Antinomian licentiousness. To fortify us against these widely different, but equally pernicious. errors, seems to be the principal design of our Lord in that part of Scripture from whence the text is taken; and to answer this end it is pre-eminently calculated. The only effectual remedy for either of the evils alluded to, is a full and accurate

discovery of the nature and end of the law of God. And here, in his sermon on the mount, our blessed Saviour himself becomes the expositor of that law, declares it in its nature to be eternal, unchangeable, and spiritual; clears it of the false glosses of the rabbinical traditions, and sets it forth as the great mean, under the influence of the Spirit, of convincing the sinner of his sins, leading him to Christ, and directing him in the path of obedience.

Let me in this place remind you, my brethren, that an intimate acquaintance with that law which has been declared to be "holy, and just, and good," must form the groundwork of all true knowledge and practical experience in religion. Regarding the subject sentimentally; if this be lost sight of altogether, or only superficially considered, the remaining part of our system, utterly destitute of stability and coherence, will be like a house built upon the sands-the pillar will want its base, and the arch its key-stone. But, contemplating the thing in a muchhigher point of view-in relation to

Christian experience—until a man, under divine teaching, has been made acquainted with the law, and that law has come with convincing power to his heart, he will remain impenitent and unhumbled, every avenue of his mind will be closed to the light, and his whole soul disqualified for receiving, in the love of it, a single doctrine of the gospel.

If then, my brethren, you would " go on unto perfection," be careful in the very outset of your Christian course to begin with the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Begin where the Bible begins; commence with the lesson which Christ, in the first place, inculcates-an humbling sense of your state before God as originally both guilty and depraved, corrupt in every faculty, actual transgressors of the law in ten thousand instances, and the objects of Almighty wrath. In a matter of such importance, spare no pains to form a correct judgment, a just estimate. With this view, bring your character and conduct to the test of the divine word; and study that word (especially the part of it now before us) with child-like

simplicity of mind, with humble dependance on the Spirit, and with fervent prayer for divine teaching.

cerns

With what solemnity does our divine Teacher usher in the subject of the text! And well might he do so; for it is one which, in a peculiar manner, con"I say Our eternal interests. unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." By the concluding phrase is sometimes intended a state of grace; sometimes, a state of glory. Here it is probably to be understood in the latter sense. What a train of important considerations, therefore, present themselves! The glories of heaven-the way which leads to themthe very gate of admission into the heavenly mansions-above all, that righteousness upon the ground of which an abundant entrance is ministered into the everlasting kingdom, and that holiness which constitutes our meetness for the same. Such are the points brought before us at this time may we attend to them with