תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

expected in Judea, where he began his mi-SERM. nistry. For this end he worked many il- VI. luftrious miracles, the most proper and effectual way for engaging the attention of difaffected and prejudic'd men to his doctrine, and procuring it a fair hearing. The first condition, then, of obtaining any benefit by the gofpel, must be, what the blessed author declares, believing it, or believing in him. Next, he requires repentance, or that men convinc'd of their former fins, of the evil of them, and the miferies to which they are thereby rendered obnoxious, should break them off with abhorrence and indignation, and return to a better mind and to a better course of life, bringing forth fruits meet for amendment. The fe are the true original C terms of christianity, fix'd by our Lord Jefus Chrift; who, when he came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, faid, (that is, this was the fubftance of his preaching,) the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel, Mark i. 14, 15.

But, when men became his profefs'd fubjects, embrac'd his religion, and entered into the kingdom of God, upon these terms, or into the chriftian ftate; the general K 2

laws,

[ocr errors]

SERM.laws, or rules of their obedience, were deVI. clared by him in his other discourses; particularly in his fermon on the mount, and and most clearly affertain'd by the example of his own life: and they appear to be no other than the moral law, the eternal and invariable law of nature, abridg'd in those moral, and perpetually binding precepts, which Mofes gave to the Ifraelites, containing that love, confidence, fubmiffion, and obedience we owe to the deity; and the mutual offices of righteoufnefs and charity we are bound to perform to one another. To this end the precepts of the law are vindicated from the defective and corrupt interpretations of the Jewish doctors, and a more ftri& purity and virtue enjoin'd by Jefus Christ, than what was practis'd, or so much as understood by them. He exprefly declares to his hearers except your righteoufnefs fhall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharifees, ye fhall in no cafe enter into the kingdom of heaven; and all along, he uniformly purfues the fame defign throughout the whole course of his teaching; conftantly requiring of all his difciples, fincere holiness and conformity to the will of God,

* Matth. v. 20.

God, as indifpenfably neceffary to their ob- SER M. taining his favour, and the reward of eternal VI. life. He defcribes the future judgment with great clearness and folemnity, and affures us, that fentences will then be pronounced according to our works: the righteous, that is, as he explains it, those who have abounded in the fruits of charity and beneficence, fhall inherit the kingdom prepared for them before the foundations of the world; but the wicked fhall be adjudg'd to everlasting punishment.

If this be a true account of our Saviour's doctrine in the gofpels, as I think it will plainly appear to every one who reads them, attentively to be, there can be no doubt concerning the terms of our acceptance with God, which he has fix'd. The conditions of our becoming the difciples of Christ are faith and repentance; to which, if we be fincere, the forgiveness of all our past fins is annexed; and the condition of our title to the final happiness Chrift has promis'd to his disciples, is a persevering stedfaftness in obeying the immutable moral laws of God; or in practising the virtues of fobriety, godliness, juftice and mercy.

[blocks in formation]

SERM.

But, as I obferved before, a controversy VI. arifing among chriftians, in the very infancy

of the christian state, about the neceffity of obferving the Jewish law, occafion'd by the high opinion which the Jews had of their peculiar and diftinguishing privileges, and the excellence and perpetuity of the Mosaic inftitutions; the apostle Paul, to whom the ministry of the uncircumfion, or preaching christianity to the Gentiles, was especially committed, enters into this debate; and to determine it rightly, fo, as according to his own expreffion, the truth of the gospel might continue in the church, he wrote several of his epiftles. It is very evident, that he decides against the pretences of the Jews, and strenuously afferts the fufficiency of the gofpel itself, without the addition of the law, which he pronounces unprofitable; earnestly exhorting chriftians to stand faft in the liberty, wherewith Chrift had made them free, and not fuffer themselves to be again entangled in a yoke of bondage. To this purpose he expreffes himself in fuch terms, as tend to magnify the gospel, and show the neccffity and usefulness of it; and the infufficiency of the law to the great ends of religion. I shall in this discourse endea

[ocr errors]

;

vour to explain his doctrine of juftification SER M. by grace, without works, and by faith, as in VI. oppofition to the law which two appear from the text to have a neceffary connexion. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be fure to all the feed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that alfo which is of the faith of Abraham.

In the first place, let us confider the meaning of this apostle's doctrine of justification by grace without works. That he teaches this is plain to any one who reads his epiftles, Rom. iii. 24. having largely prov❜d, that all men had finned and were corrupt, both Jews and Gentiles; that all had fallen fhort of the glory of God, and were concluded under wrath; he fays, they are juftified freely by grace, thro' the redemption that is in Chrift Jefus. And in the 11th chapter, having difcourfed of the rejection of the Jews, that is, the body of the nation for their difobedience to the gofpel, he fays, that as formerly, in the days of Elias, when there was a general defection of the Ifraelites to idolatry, God referved to himself feven thoufand who did not bow the knee to the image of Baal; fo

« הקודםהמשך »