to which it relates are to be exercised. It is drawn from the LOVE OF GOD. This is the bond of obedience; and the three blessings which the terms before us comprehend, as they all refer to divine love, are powerful inducements and motives to every part of holiness.

For if we can humbly hope that we are THE ELECT OF GOD, and that he has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world; to what has he so chosen us, but that we should be holy and without blame before him in love? If we, on scriptural evidences, know our election of God; what are those evidences but our work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope? If we indulge any trust that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father; is it not through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience? If we would make our calling and our election sure; is it not by giving all diligence to add unto our faith, virtue, and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness godliness? For the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his; and, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity. Those, therefore, who profess a hope of being the elect of God, are to be especially and urgently exhorted to the practice of those virtues which are the proofs of that blessing, the effects which it produces, and the suitable and indispensable marks of gratitude to God for it.

This is still more evident by the expressions, holy and beloved, which are connected with it. These describe the character and the privilege of those whom the Apostle had just named the elect of God: they are set apart for his service, and they are blessed with the tokens of his peculiar favour. They are HOLY; being made so by the operations of the Holy

Ghost. They are renewed in the spirit of their minds. They yield themselves unto God as alive from the dead, and their members as instruments of righteousness unto God. They aim at being holy in all manner of conversation. They are far from being entirely free from sin, but they are earnestly engaged in cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. To put on, therefore, the Christian graces of compassion, lowliness of mind, and forgiveness, is a duty which by virtue of their character and their actual state of separation to God, they should feel themselves bound both to remember and to practise.

Nor does the special favour of God by which they are distinguished, less powerfully impel them in the same course. They are BELOved. God bears a most tender love toward them. He so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life: God is love. But this is not all. For after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which they had done, but according to his mercy he saved them by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Behold, then, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on them that they should be called the sons of God! Now surely it behoves them who are beloved, to love God in return: surely they will love him, because he first loved them; and if we love him, we shall keep his commandments; for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. It becomes, also, those who are beloved to conform themselves to the image of the God who loves them. We are to be followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. And if the love of God be a powerful

motive to every part of Christian practice, there is yet something more appropriate in the Apostle urging from it the particular graces which we have been considering; those tender and meek and forgiving dispositions which are the very impress of God, the mark of his mercy, the fruit and evidence of the compassion we have experienced ourselves, the peculiar duty of such unworthy, frail, sinful, and yet, by divine pity, distinguished and beloved objects of forbearance and grace. Surely if any temper should characterize those who owe every thing to God's love, and who are still indebted to it daily, it must be some faint imitation of that love in their conduct towards others.

This the Apostle lastly enforces by the consideration of the FORGIVING MERCY OF CHRIST, Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. The example of Christ has the force of an argument to persuade, and of a rule to direct. Has Christ freely and graciously forgiven us-forgiven us so many trespasses -forgiven us at a price so inestimable as his own blood-forgiven us with such overflowing affection; and shall we not forgive the comparatively trifling offences of our fellow-creatures? Did he endure the contradiction of sinners, did he bear reproach, did he suffer ignominy, did he agonize in the garden of Gethsemane, and expire on the cross, and all from mere mercy, all in our stead; for our redemption, our pardon, our admission to the divine favour, our rescue, our salvation; and shall we not be compassionate to the wretched, meek to the froward, and forgiving to the injurious?

If we pretend the greatness of the crime committed against us, the difficulty of banishing its recollection from our mind, and the loss of something of our character and interest in society, if we neglect to revenge it-which are among the excuses men commonly frame when they indulge unhallowed

passions-what are all these vain reasonings, when we consider the rule of the Apostle, EVEN AS Christ forgave you, so also do ye? What injuries can be great, compared with those which we have done to God? What obstacles to forgiveness so threatening, as the obstacles which seemed to prevent our being pardoned? What sacrifice to be named with the awful and incomprehensible death of the Son of God, when he was once offered to bear the sins of many? And yet what forgiveness so gracious, so spontaneous, so rich, so entire, so permanent, so directly flowing from the heart, so pure from all remaining wrath, so imbued and filled with infinite love and compassion, as that act of remission, by which Christ hath forgiven us? He who does not then put on all those lovely graces which begin in sympathy for the miserable, and end in forgiveness to the guilty, has never felt aright in his heart the benefit of Christ pardoning his sin, and has no proof that he possesses this inestimable blessing.

And, indeed, to pass to a brief application of the whole subject, we cannot but learn from what has been said,

I. HOW FAR MEN IN GENERAL ARE FROM BEING TRUE CHRISTIANS.

For if real religion include the feeling of Christian motives and the performing of Christian duties, then how few comparatively, even in a Christian country, can, by any rule of charity, be considered as servants of God! How few have ever assumed a distinct Christian profession; I mean, a profession, not merely of Christianity, but of those things in which Christianity consists! How few have risen with Christ, how few have set their affections on things above, how few are dead to the world, how few have put off the old man with his deeds and

have put on the new man; how few are sensible, or even profess to be sensible, of the unspeakable love which God bears to his children, and of the infinite mercy of Christ in pardoning sin! Or if there were any doubt of the general deficiency of nominal and external Christians as to these and other points of inward piety, what doubt could remain, if we look to their spirit and conduct? By their fruits ye shall know them. What then are the tempers and behaviour of the generality of men? Are they meek, and compassionate, and lowly, and forgiving, or are they not too obviously fierce, and selfish, and obstinate; resentful of the smallest injury, disdainful of submission, proud of superiority, and contemptuous towards others? What mean the family feuds which disgrace our households, what the heart-burnings, what the unnatural divisions and separations, what the interminable quarrels, what the party spirit, evil-speakings, and slanders, which prevail among men?

O, let us at least learn from the subject before us, what Christianity is, and what it must effect in us before we can be Christians. Let us begin with seeking the pardon of our sins. This is to be the motive of obedience, and must therefore precede it. Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, are the beginning of all religion. This will lay the axe to the root of the tree. By repentance the sinner breaks off from transgression; by faith he receives the gift of righteousness, and obtains the benefit of remission. The merits of Jesus Christ being imputed to his account, he is accepted as righteous before God. He who thus receives forgiveness from the hands of his compassionate Saviour, will assuredly begin to love his neighbour as himself. Thus holiness and pardon will be inseparable. The regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, which he has already experienced in