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grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began," 2 Tim. i. 9. If the elect were chosen on account of their own works, i. e. on account of some excellencies by which they were distinguished from their fellow-men, the doctrine would encourage boasting; but now it excludes it. They are not chosen, because they are in the least degree holy, but "that they should be holy." Therefore let him that glorieth glory in the Lord.

It is hoped that what has been said will not only convince us of the truth, but also of the usefulness of the doctrine of particular election. If it is of great use to keep up the spirits of the people of God in a dark time; ---to encourage Christ's ministers to preach the gospel to those who are dead in trespasses and sins ;---if it is of use to awaken and give feeling to stupid sinners, and prevent total despair when their depravity is fully known ;---if it is of use to show the unshaken foundation on which the christian's hope is built, and also to exclude boasting and promote a humble spirit; let no one hereafter say, that the doctrine of election is useless, and ought never to be preached. That, in the present case, it may not be useless, nor prove a savour of death, may we follow it with our prayers, that God would be pleased to accompany it with the blessing of his Holy Spirit. Amen.

END OF SERMON HI

SERMON IV.

ECCLESIASTES Vii. 20.

For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

A JUST man, according to the impartial language of scripture, is one who is born of the Spirit; one who not circumstantially, but essentially differs from other men. A just man is not only honest in his dealings, but he has an honest heart. Through grace there now are, and always have been some such men upon the earth. But there is not even one just man on earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. Every just man is, in the best sense, a good man, and therefore does good but that is not all which he does; he does evil also. He has some holiness, and he has some, yea much sin. We read of the spirits of just men made perfect; but it is not in this world: "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." contains this

DOCTRINE.

The text

That good men, while they remain on the earth, are never free from sinful imperfection. None will dispute that good men in this world are imperfect, in some sense; but the text teaches us that they are sinfully imperfect. They are not

only imperfect in knowledge; but in holiness. They are imperfect in such a sense as to be blameworthy for it.

In considering the doctrinal proposition, two things will be attempted; I. To prove that good men are sinfully imperfect in this life. II. To show the consistency of this divine constitution of things, that it should be so.

I. Let us attend to some arguments which will establish this point, That good men are never free from sinful imperfection in this life.

1. An attention to the religious experiences of the apostle Paul will prove the point. It is granted, not only that he was a real saint, in distinction from a hypocrite; but also that he was a saint of the first magnitude... We have no particular reason to think, that any mere man, while on earth, ever attained to a more eminent degree of sanctification. Now, if we can prove, that the greatest saint was sinfully imperfect, we shall in effect prove that all the rest are so. In the 7th chapter of Romans, the apostle gives us a christian experience in giving us his own. Here he speaks of sin dwelling in him---of his finding a law that when he would do good, evil was present with him---and of a law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members. This led him to make that feeling exclamation, with which every christian is acquainted, "O. wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of his death!" If this is the experience of Paul after his conversion, then he was a just man who did not live

without sin. That this was his experience after his conversion, is manifest, 1st Because he had previously in the 9th verse spoken of being slain by the law, which is always connected with being made alive unto God; and 2nd Because these descriptions of indwelling sin are mingled with descriptions of indwelling holiness. He declares that he did not allow of sin---that he consented unto the law that it was good---nay, that he delighted in the law of God after the inward man. The chapter closes with this declaration," So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." If a man can consent to delight in, and with his mind serve the law of God, and still not be born again, then we do not see why, without being born again, a man may not see the kingdom of God.

The same apostle in his epistle to the Philippians speaks of his earnest engagedness to be wholly conformed to Christ; but he disclaims the idea of having already attained to this state. “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect." This epistle was written in the last part of the apostle's life, after he was sent a prisoner to Rome. If he had not by this time attained to sinless perfection, there is no reason to think that he ever did while he lived.

2. It is stated Gal. v. 17, as an experience common to all christians, that in them, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." The apostle is writing to christians of different grades, those who brought forth thirty, and sixty and a hundred fold; and yet he speaks of them all as sinfully defective; as hav,

ing two moral principles in contrariety to each other---" and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things which ye would." If the deficiency of the christian were in knowledge, or something else which is not sinful it would not be the opposite of the holy nature implanted and preserved by the Spirit of God. Even in the christian, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. Sin does not lie dormant. It struggles to regain the whole heart, and to root out all the graces of the Spirit. The scripture represents the heart of the christian as the seat of a spiritual war. In this spiritual war the two opposite sides of sin and holiness are both espoused, and both opposed, by principles which exist in the heart of every christian.

3. The history of the saints, both as to their inward exercises, and their outward conduct, would lead us to conclude, that all good men in this life have some sin remaining in them. In reading the history which the Holy Ghost has given of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose names are mentioned with great respect, we notice evident marks of sinful imperfection. Their faith was mixed with unbelief, which led them in some instances evidently to depart from the living God, Moses and Aaron were not without fault. And David the man after God's own heart, was sinfully imperfect. Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah, are spoken of as eminently pious; but they are not spoken of as sinless characters. Neither are the New-Testament saints represented as free from sin. Those men who spent their time with the holy Jesus, and concerning the

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