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deemer. Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, for HERE we have NO continuing city, but WE SEEK ONE TO COME*. Let us approve things that are excellent ; that we may be sincere, and without offence till the day of Christ; being FILLED with the FRUITS of RIGHTEOUSNESS which are BY Jesus Christ, UNTO the glory and praise of GoDt. Yet not so

will it be with many; they will not hear all these warnings; they will not labour to enter into this rest; they will not watch, they will not pray, they will not consider their latter end! Behold, the Son of God hath foretold us how it shall be with an unbelieving world in the day of which Isaiah still speaks unto us all! As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed‡.

* Heb. xiii. 13, 14.

+ Phillipians i. 10.

↑ Luke xvii. 26-30.

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SERMON III.

LUKE XVI. 29.

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ABRAHAM SAITH UNTO HIM, THEY HAVE MOSES AND THE PROPHETS, LET THEM HEAR THEM.'

THE expressed sanctions of the Law of Moses are assuredly chiefly temporal; but it is equally undeniable, that, æternal consequences are also clearly implied, if not absolutely expressed; and that, this, being the law of the Almighty, it could never have wanted the ratifications, necessarily consequent, upon the assurance therein made, of a future existence. That, the expressed sanctions should refer chiefly to this life, was absolutely necessary, as it is in every law intended to guide and control man in civil society, even unto this day. To the promise of the restoration of life æternal through a Redeemer, made unto the first parents, and again unto Abraham, the law was of necessity added because of transgressions. Our full assurance of a future state would be of little avail to restrain us, unless temporal sanctions were added ;—because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil. Nor, of his own authority, could any mortal legislator pretend to

sanction his law by future rewards and punishments,

the

very existence of which can alone be known by revelation. To the Deity alone, belong such ratifications, and He alone, can thus enforce the observation of His own law; nor, can this be otherwise done, than by revealing the consequences of his conduct, in this his state of probation, unto man. If, then, it can be collected, as our Saviour, the prophets, and the Jewish nation affirmed, that æternal life was revealed in the law of Moses, no matter how darkly; and if there be proof ample, sufficient, and incontrovertible, that this self-same law was given unto the Israelites by that awful Being who inhabiteth æternity, it is nothing less than a necessary conclusion, that any considerate being, gifted with common reason, must discover, that such statutes were enforced even by æternal consequences. For, in these circumstances, it is selfevident, that in entering upon the unknown region beyond the grave, we cannot withdraw ourselves from the power or superintendance of our Lawgiver, He being the Æternal and Almighty Creator. Our obedience then, to such a law, given unto us by such a Being, who reveals therein, through a Redeemer, a future state of immortality, cannot but involve æternal life and blessing, And, on the other hand, our transgressions, when beyond the pale of atonement, could not but render us obnoxious to æternal misery, when threatened with death and cursing. Here, REVELATION bears the force of SANCTION, in the same measure as

it does with us even now, decidedly influencing our conduct, inducing us to obedience, and deterring us from transgression.

It is not contended, however, that life æternal was by the law, or rather by the works of the law. It was not by the law *, but by the promise; yet that promise was inseparably attached to the law, and that law to the promise, for obedience was essential to the attainment of life. Were we, to rest on works, instead of faith, we, should commit the same fatal error; for we are not saved by obedience, but by faith, and faith alone, although from this faith, obedience springs, as necessarily, as the water from the fountain, and as the fruit from the tree, or it is NO faith UNTO LIFE T. The WORD is æternal and unchangeable, in it there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Unto us, also, the same sentence is proclaimed; the wages of sin is death, even death æternal; but the gift of God is everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. What

• Rom. ix. 31, 32. Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness hath not ATTAINED unto the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought IT not by FAITH, but as it were by the WORKS of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

+ Gal. iii. 21, 22. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid! for if there had been a law that could have giten life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the PROMISE by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

then is sin? Sin, is the transgression of the law*, even of the moral law of the Almighty, promulgated by Moses, and ratified by our Saviour. This same law, exists throughout both the Mosaic, and the Christian dispensations, and is binding upon us. And by it, in its spiritual extent, do we know, and are convinced of our sin, and of the necessity of a Redeemer. Man ought

never to have rested, and can never rest, in either dispensation upon obedience, but upon faith only, for life æternal. Obedience to this law, in its spiritual extent, was, and is impossible; for like its Author, it is ALL-PURE and ALL-HOLY, a PERFECT standard held up to discipline man for a PERFECT state of holiness and peace. Through the one only atonement then, (shown forth UNTIL the coming of Christ under the type of blood in sacrifice, to prevent the Israelites from falsely trusting in their own righteousness) conferring perfection upon a sincere, but altogether imperfect, and therefore insufficient, obedience, the faithful, are throughout, assured of grace, and life, after death, through all the endless ages of æternity.

Nor is it by any means asserted that every crime which was punished by temporal death under the Mosaic dispensation underwent also the far more awful penalty of æternal sufferings. The peculiar severity of the Mosaic law was undoubtedly t

1 John iii. 4.

This may appear a hard saying to those who will not weigh time against ÆTERNITY.

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