really amiable and praise worthy, as is true holiness in angels, or as true holiness in Adam was before he sinned. God may therefore as consistently reward all true believers for their holiness on their own account, as he could have rewarded Adam for his holiness if he had never transgressed, or as he can reward angels for all their holy services in this world, on their own account, or without an atonement. There is a wide difference between rewarding goodness, and pardoning mercy. The inspired writers clearly and repeatedly point out this distinction. They expressly declare that believers are pardoned or justified by free, sovereign grace, through the redemption or atonement of Christ, and that they are rewarded according to their obedience or good works. Those who have clear and just views of the nature and necessity of Christ's atonement, can easily see the propriety and consistency of God's pardoning believers solely on Christ's account, and his rewarding them solely on their own account.

5. Since Christ has done and suffered so much to obtain eternal salvation for believers, they cannot do too much for him. He loved them before they loved him. He died for them while they were dead in trespasses and sins. He sent his Holy Spirit to convince and convert them, and to bring them out of darkness into marvellous light. What he has done and suffered to deliver them from the condemnation of the law, the power and dominion of sin, and to restore them to the forfeited favor of God, lays them under the tenderest and strongest obligation to consecrate themselves wholly to his service. Hence the apostle, speaking in the name of believers, says, "The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them." Christ has much for his redeemed ones to do for him, while he is carrying on his great and gracious design in the work of redeeming love in this rebellious world. He employed saints, patriarchs and prophets, in former ages, as instruments of building up his spiritual kingdom; and in later ages he has employed apostles, preachers, and all his real friends, as instruments of promoting the great and good cause which lies nearest to his heart. These his redeemed and purchased servants ought to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of their Redeemer, knowing that their labor shall not be in vain, nor unrewarded. It is especially the duty and privilege of all the ministers of the gospel to feed the sheep and lambs of Christ, whom he hath purchased with his own blood.

Finally, let all sinners, of every age, character and condition,

be entreated to come to Christ for salvation. He has made complete atonement for you, and removed an obstacle out of your way, which neither you nor any created being could have removed. He sincerely invites you to come to him, weary and heavy laden and self condemned, and promises to give you pardon, and peace, and rest. The kingdom of heaven is come nigh to you, and life and death are set before you. If you choose life through him who has died for you, you shall live and reign with him for ever; but if you choose death, you will never see life, but the wrath of God will abide upon you both in this world and in the world to come. You must love or hate God; you must love or hate his law; you must love or hate holiness; you must love or hate heaven; you must choose or refuse to be holy and happy for ever; and your choice must fix your eternal state.

PART XIV.

JUSTIFICATION.

SERMONS XLVI. — XLIX.

VOL. V.

6

SERMON XLVI.

JUSTIFICATION OF BELIEVERS.

THEREFORE being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ROMANS, V. 1.

THE apostle having, in the preceding chapters, established the doctrine of justification by faith alone through the atonement of Christ, proceeds to draw a just and important inference from it in the text. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Justification places all, who cordially believe in Christ, in a new, a safe, and a happy situation. There is, however, no small difficulty in reconciling this with some other equally plain and important truths of the gospel. But all this difficulty, perhaps, may be entirely removed by exhibiting the doctrine of justification in a just and scriptural light. In attempting to do this, it is proposed,

I. To describe true believers.

II. To consider what is meant by their being justified.
III. To consider how they are justified.

IV. To consider when they are justified.

V. To consider the terms upon which they are justified.

I. I am to describe true believers. These are persons who have been brought out of a state of nature into a state of grace. All men are by nature morally depraved, and entirely destitute of the least degree of true love to God. They are completely under the dominion of a carnal mind, which is enmity against God, not subject to his law, neither indeed can be. They deserve nothing better from the hand of God, whom they have hated and disobeyed, than eternal death, the proper wages of