justification, God is not reconciled to us; and without sanctification, we are not reconciled to God: justification gives sinners that favour of God, without which they could not come near him; and sanctification gives them that holiness, without which they would not choose, nor would be fit to come near him; so that, in order to a sinner's perfect happiness, there must be sanctification, and justification, whereof justification removes the impediments on God's part, and sanctification those on ours: but now, by the former of these, God being reconciled, and by the latter, believers being qualified, nothing remains but communion between God and believers in order to perfect happiness; accordingly, in the fullest manner we are assured, that the saints shall have enjoyment of God; "We shall see him face to face, and know him even as we also are known." "They are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." "They are equal to the angels, and are the children of God." It is not to be forgotten, that to the presence of God they are advanced as the redeemed of Jesus, and that the beholding and partaking of his glories will be no inconsiderable part of their joy. "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me." "I go to prepare a place for you; I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." What the happiness of souls must be in such circumstances, is impossible for mortal man to conceive; for then mortality is swallowed up of life, and there can be no more pain, and sickness, weakness, decay, nor death: when the body is glorified, and the soul is perfectly pure and holy, and all sin is done away; then there is the fullest assurance of God's favour, and the most immediate enjoyment of his presence; then the Almighty, eternal, all-glorious, blessed God communicates his countenance; then he is seen face to face, even as he is, as the soul's own, its proper unalienable portion! The happiness, security, peace, love, joy, and delight, which this must give, is to us inconceivable. It is joy unspeakable, and full of glory; it is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; it is a crown, a kingdom, a paradise, a treasure; it is pleasure, it is rest, it is Jerusalem, it is a building of God, a house not made with

hands, it is fulness of joy, and all happiness. We may labour to comprehend the blessings of seeing God in glory, and the enjoyment of the life everlasting, from scripture expressions, but we must fail, flesh and blood cannot comprehend it; for it is the fullest and freest enjoyment of God.

And is this your hope, O you believers in Christ? Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived what is prepared for you, and that eternally too? Shall time be no more? shall your heavenly state be unchangeable in its very nature, never to fail? Fight, then, the good fight of faith; hold the beginning of your profession steadfast unto the end; be not troubled because you are afflicted; "be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for surely your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord."

And you, poor sinners, what! must you never see God? never taste one drop of all this joy? Ah! what an enemy to your own happiness is your sins! See of what they are robbing you! of a crown, a kingdom, an inheritance in the heavens; of the brightest crown, the richest treasure, the fullest joy, of your eternal life. It is robbing you of God's favour, his presence, his protection, his arm, his glory, his countenance, and of Christ too. You shall never see him in glory, never hear the songs of praise that they sing before him above. Ah, poor sinners! there shall be no everlasting joy upon your heads, no crowns of glory upon your brows, no hallelujahs in your mouths. Ah! do but think of this. Are you content, or willing, never to be with God in glory? content that thousands and ten thousands be raised up from their graves, with glorified bodies, enter into God's kingdom of glory, and enjoy the life everlasting, while you are excluded? It cannot be; you are not content. O! what a joyful circumstance would it be, to see you sinners going up to meet the Lord in the air, to see him smile on you, call you his own, take you up in his arms, and bid you live for ever; to see angels joying over you, and conducting you into glory, to see you in the courts above, happy, happy beings, standing before the throne of the Lamb for ever and ever! But your love of sin hinders all this; it is only sin that will not let you. O! consider in time, while yet you may live; and the Lord grant that the course of sermons which you have heard

upon the Creed, may be a means of awakening you careless sinners to a sense of the guilt and danger of your unbelieving state; of establishing the seeking souls in a dependance upon Christ the rock of ages; of undeceiving the formal and selfrighteous; and of promoting the edification of all! Let us conclude the whole, with this collect of our church.

O God, the king of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son, Jesus Christ, with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; we beseech thee leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

GLORIA SOLI DEO.

LECTURES

ON THE

CHURCH CATECHISM.

SERMON XXVI.

GALATIANS iii. 24.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

THE main purpose of this epistle is to show that justification is not by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. In handling this point, he answers divers objections made to his doctrine; and, among others, this (verse 19 of this chapter): 'If the inheritance be of promise, wherefore then serveth the law? It was added, because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.' It was given because of sin, to make it known, and so, by showing the want of a Saviour, to dispose the hearts of those who were under the law for receiving that Saviour whenever he should make his appearance. This he explains more fully afterwards in the text, calling the law our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ; by the law he means the whole law of Moses, moral, ceremonial, and judicial; and he insists that the great design of the whole Mosaic dispensation was to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now those parts of this dispensation which were ceremonial, having had their end, are ceased; they were the shadows of the good things to come, that is, of Christ, who was ever the substance of them all, and, whenever the Jews are called in, these ceremonies will not be restored; for since the appearance of Christ they have no more use, as is fully argued in the epistle to the Hebrews; and accordingly from the establishment of his spiritual kingdom, and destruction of the Jewish polity, they are

entirely laid aside by divine authority, however they have been and are the great occasion of stumbling to the Jews.

But then, with regard to that part of the law which is moral, it still remaineth, because the need and the use of it are the same. It serves now, as it did always, to give knowledge of sin, and so by humbling us to bring us unto Christ for justification through his merits; and, in consequence thereof, for power from him dwelling in us, to fulfil in truth, though not in perfection, that righteousness which the holy, just, and good law of God, enjoins and exacts from us.

It is in this latter sense I shall take the words, inasmuch as we have no concern with the ceremonial parts of the law; and I will endeavour to show you how the commandments of God, when applied to the conscience, serve as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, by discovering to us our sinfulness; inasmuch as the commandments of God exact of us a holiness, which (however God the holy Governor of the world can require no less) yet is such as we have not, do not, and cannot perform; therefore must be beholden for mercy through the obedience of him who alone has fulfilled the righteousness of the law, and was made a sacrifice for us. It is in this manner we are taught by the church to which we belong to apply the law, when, after hearing every one of the commandments, a petition for pardon is put into our mouths, "Lord, have mercy upon us!" and that we may obtain a deeper sense of our needing mercy, as transgressors of God's law, I shall now enter on a consideration of the Commandments, one after another, in this view.

And this, I conceive, will be a suitable employment for these Sundays in Lent: for which reason I purpose to go no further with them than this season will allow me. If God spare my life, and continue me among you, I may possibly resume and complete this design another year.

We are to begin with the first commandment.

"Thou shalt have none other gods but me, or before me." And here I will show what it is this commandment enjoins, adding and intermixing such inquiries and remarks as may by the divine blessing serve to humble and bring us to Christ.

The four first commandments require us to worship God with the inward worship of the heart and the outward worship of the