81 gument will apply with us. Let us commit an offence | Christ, the promised Saviour, and not by the against an individual, which the law of the land for- deeds of the law, that Abraham, the father of bids; and unless we can come to terms of reconciliation the Jewish nation, was accounted righteous; with the party whom we may have injured, we are completely at his mercy. If he choose to proceed and that righteousness will in like manner be against us, and prove the offence against us, we imputed or reckoned to all who believe in the must suffer the penalty which the law adjudges Lord Jesus Christ as delivered for their to the offence. And if imperfect human laws attach certain penalties and punishment to indi- offences, and raised again for their justificaviduals for offences, where they can be laid hold of, tion. He then vindicates the efficacy and how much more certain is it that offences against the sufficiency of this faith, not only for the comlaws of God (who knows the very intents and motives plete justification, but for the progressive and purposes of the heart) will be punished, unless the offender, by true and timely repentance for his sanctification of all who partake of it; showtransgression, and by a change of heart and life, ob- ing that it delivers not only from the guilt of tain through Christ, the Lord our righteousness, the past transgressions, but from the dominion of forgiveness of his transgressions, the doing away of sin in the heart; that it subdues that love of his iniquity. And what an unspeakable blessing it is, that, to the Lord our God belong mercies and for- sin which is natural to the heart of man, and givenesses, though we have rebelled against him: implants in its stead a prevailing principle of that if we confess our sins, and acknowledge our love to God as reconciled by Jesus Christ, a transgressions, and seek to put away the evil of our principle which renders obedience to his comdoings, he will forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from mandments no longer a reluctant servitude, all unrighteousness. but the cheerful, thankful tribute of an affectionate child. It is our wisdom then, as well as our privilege, to seek for this free forgiveness from the Lord our God; and in the way which he hath appointed, namely, by true repentance towards himself, and faith in Christ Jesus, together with seeking to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, in exhibition of the sincerity of that repentance; and as we know not what a day may bring forth-as, though we may be in health and strength to-day, we may be in eternity to-morrowto come to terms of immediate peace and reconciliation with God, so that whether we live or die, to live with us may be Christ, and to die with us may be gain. THIS is the conclusion at which the apostle arrives after a course of close reasoning, in which he has proved that Jews and Gentiles -those who have had the advantage of the light of revelation, and those who have notare all under sin; and that none can be justified in that way in which all men naturally look for justification, by certain observances and performances supposed to be meritorious in the sight of God. Having convicted all mankind as transgressors of a divine law to which all owe obedience, and consequently as all needing deliverance from condemnation to eternal misery, he proceeds to set forth the method of righteousness or justification which is appointed by God, viz., that which is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the propitiation for sin, and declares that no other righteousness will be accepted. He shows that it was by a faith which had respect to He had proceeded however to show, in the 7th chapter, that, notwithstanding the subjugation of the former principle of the old nature the love of sin-to the prevailing love of God produced by faith in Christ, there still exists, even in true believers, a natural repugnance to the holy law of God, a repugnance not completely subdued; so that, though they delight in the law of God after the inner man, i.e., in their settled purpose and affections, still they find another law in their members (a fleshly principle of evil) warring against the law of their mind, and endeavouring to bring them back into captivity to sin. Feeling himself this conflict between two opposite principles, he exclaims-"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"-from this clog of a corrupt nature?-but, knowing also that the salvation which he was recommending to others was sufficient for himself, he adds immediately" I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord: so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." And then follow the words of our text-"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Let us, Christian brethren, contemplate the security from condemnation of the persons spoken of in the text," who are in Christ Jesus." The view of their security, defined as their character is in the words which follow, will not, I trust, render negligent of their duties any that are really Christ's, but rather stir them up to make it manifest to themselves as well as to others that they do indeed belong to Christ. And it may lead some who have been over confident of their own security, to examine afresh the foundation of their hope, and to seek, while yet it may be found, an interest in the only Saviour. I. The text leads us to consider, first, who they are that are " in Christ Jesus." The meaning of this expression might be shown from other parts of scripture, but it is especially manifest from the preceding chapters of this epistle. From these we learn that it denotes those who have renounced every other ground of justification or righteousness before God, to depend on that which God himself has appointed, viz., that which he reckons to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the propitiation for their sins "the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ." It is commonly long before men are brought to a simple dependance on Jesus Christ as the propitiation for their sins. If you were to go round and ask a number of persons in this Christian country, "For what purpose did Jesus Christ come into the world?" many would reply," to save sinners." But, if you proceeded to inquire of them whether they expected to be saved, and if so, why they expected it, their reply would probably for the most part be, that they had done no great harm to any one, and therefore saw no reason to fear falling short of heaven. Now this notion that they may expect to go to heaven because they have done nobody any harm, or if they have, that they have done more good than harm-is decidedly at variance with that dependance upon the Lord Jesus which is necessary to salvation; and yet it is the notion, or something like it, of very many who are called Christians. It is very important that you should not rest satisfied with the vague notions on this subject, I might call them the vulgar notions which prevail too generally amongst persons both of high and low station; for, howsoever little it may appear to you to matter what a man thinks, or on what he grounds his hope of acceptance with God, so long as he is in your view harmless and inoffensive, and especially if he be a useful member of society, it really makes all the difference possible, if the word of God declares that his present state is one of condemnation, so that if he were to die in it he would pass into eternal torment. Now whosoever is trusting for acceptance with God, either avowedly or secretly, to his exemption from gross sin, or to the excess of his good deeds above the evil, or even to the mercy of God irrespectively of the atonement which has been made for sin, is, according to the declarations of scripture, in a state of condemnation. He is guilty before God: he is exposed to the curse of his broken law; for God will not accept as righteousness that which he has declared to be unrighteousness. Men may call evil good, and good evil, but there is a woe pronounced against those who do so: God looks with abhorrence on the very things-those dispositions and that conduct-which men of the world have agreed to commend, and to substitute for the only righteousness which he will accept. God sees, especially, aggravated pride and unbelief in a man's continuing to advance his own claim of merit in opposition to his word, which exposes the worthlessness and sinfulness of that in which he makes his boast. Many who think that they are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, know not that in the sight of God they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. O my brethren, beware, lest this be the case with any of you. You should not too soon conclude that it is not; for there is in all men, by nature, a strong disposition to justify themselves before God. This often keeps fast hold on the mind of a man who has lost all character in the world; and much more is it strong in those whose good opinion of themselves is sustained by the concurrent approbation of misjudging men, who set themselves to oppose the testimony of the word of God. Beware, I say, lest you seal your own condemnation by holding out against the sentence of guilt and condemnation which God has pronounced against you, and so render void, as to yourself, the deliverance which he has mercifully provided for mankind. But there are many, and I trust there are some of my present hearers, who have renounced every other confidence to trust in the promises made by God through Christ Jesus to repenting sinners. You have humbled yourselves before the law of God which condemned you: you have not determinately lowered its requirements to your own practice, but have taken it as a standard by which to judge of your real state before God. You have applied it not only to your actions, but to your words and thoughts: by the light which it has poured into your mind, you have seen numberless sins, and numberless aggravations of your sins, of which once perhaps you had no conception. You have seen too, by the same light, the defectiveness, yea, the positive sinfulness, of the very things to which you were trusting as a counterpoise to your acknowledged transgressions. You have learnt, not in word only, but you have felt, that in you, i. e., in your flesh, dwelleth no good thing; that you are not able of yourselves even to think a good thought; so that of yourselves you are utterly unable to make atonement for one, even the least sin, and are therefore, if left to yourselves, in a state of helpless condemnation. But, having learnt your own helplessness, you have learnt further, that God has laid help upon one that is mighty to save: you have believed the gospel record, that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." You have looked by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, as wounded for your transgressions and bruised for your iniquities: you have laid your hand, as it were, on his sacred head, and confessed over it your desert of punishment; and in the punishment endured by him you have seen your own sins expiated, your own debt paid. And thus, believing in him, you are justified: for his sake God treats you as just, though you are not really so he imputes to you a righteousness which is of God by faith he reverses the sentence of condemnation which was recorded against you: he "blots out," as it is expressed, "the hand-writing which was against" you, and records in its stead a title to everlasting life: he receives you as his adopted children, and, along with the name, gives you the Spirit, and promises you the inheritance of children: he makes you heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, through whom he has adopted you. Hear what the apostle Paul saith on this subject: "If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That sincere believers may and do sometimes feel doubts, I am not at all disposed to deny. But these doubts have commonly respect, not to the faithfulness of God in performing his own promises made through Jesus Christ, but to the reality of their own faith-whether they are really "in Christ" or not: and these very doubts are mercifully over-ruled to produce in them that watchfulness and jealousy over themselves, by which they are kept stedfast in the faith. Is there then, it may be asked, any test by which they who are in Christ may be known? They who are thus "in Christ Jesus," are the happy persons spoken of in the text, for whom there is no condemnation." They have entered in the appointed way, by the door, into the fold of God: they are numbered by Christ, the good shepherd, amongst the sheep of his pasture; of whom he says, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and" no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.' Not only are they delivered from condemnation, but they are heirs of the kingdom -not because they have deserved at the hands of God such great benefits, but because they have sought and thankfully accepted them in the way in which they are freely offered to all, but in which many will not accept them. All boasting is for ever excluded by the manner of their admission to their privileges, and by the tenure by which they hold them. Should they boast as if they had merited them, they would thereby renounce that dependence upon Christ on which alone the validity of their title rests. They are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; "and if of grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace." Yes; there is a test given in the text, by which they who are in Christ are discrimi nated, and by which true believers do try themselves. "They walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit;" i. e., not after the dictates of corrupt nature, which is called flesh," but after the opposite influences of regenerating grace, which is called "spirit." The direct tendency of faith in Christ is to produce such a walk as this: for faith unites a man to Christ, makes him one with Christ, as the branch is one with the vine. He will therefore necessarily bear the fruit of the vine; i. e., he will in his measure be made like to Christ, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. True faith in Christ implies that a man has received him, and has attached himself to him, in the whole of the character in which he is proposed to us in scripture. Now it is quite as much a part of Christ's office to deliver us from the dominion of sin, and to reign in us, as it is to deliver us from the guilt of sin, quite as much a part of his office by his Spirit to make us holy, as to pardon our sins. "Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, gave himself for us, that he might trusting, in part at least, to their own works for justification. I shall not at present attempt the explanation of this mystery farther than by observing briefly, that believers are not without law to God, but under the law to Christ; and that by real faith in Christ they are furnished with new motives as well as with new powers for obeying the law of God, such as are not possessed by any other persons: but I appeal to the fact as a decisive proof that the doctrine of justification by faith only is a doctrine according to godliness. If any who are living not after the Spirit, but after the flesh, i. e., if any who are living in any allowed sin, pretend to have faith by which they are justified, we can only say that it is no more than a pretence they have not the faith which justifies before God the righteousness which is of faith, but are under condemnation. redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto | righteousness and holiness those who are himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." If any man live in wilful and habitual sin of any kind, he frustrates the purpose of God in sending his Son, and the ultimate object of the Lord Jesus in giving himself to die for us; and therefore cannot have any part in the salvation of the gospel. Such a one is not "in Christ:" he has not "the Spirit of Christ:" whatever his outward privileges, and whatever his knowledge or his professions be, as certainly as a tree is known by its fruit, so certainly is he not a believer in Christ. He may have a dead faith, such as the devils have, who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and tremble before him; he may make a boast of belonging to an orthodox and apostolical branch of the church of Christ; but he has not that faith which will be of any avail to save him from condemnation; but rather his faith, such as it is, will aggravate his condemnation. The true believer, tried by this test, is not faultless, and certainly he will be the last to pretend that he is; but he walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. In the habitual course and tenor of his life, he refrains from and avoids sin of every kind, and practices and follows after holiness. His profession of faith in Christ obliges him to cease from sin, that he may no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. His profession is to follow the example of his Saviour Christ, that, as he died and rose again, so should all his followers die unto sin, and rise again unto righteousness; continually mortifying all evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living. The love of Christ constrains him, because he thus judges, 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 and rose again." The doctrine of our truly scriptural church on this subject, as contained in the 11th article, is as follows:-"We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the homily of justification." Christian brethren, ye who rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh, you know that this is a comfortable doctrine: it has ministered peace and consolation to you when nothing else could have taken away the sting of sin, and have healed your wounded conscience. You have seen in this doctrine a sufficient provision for your most urgent wants-those wants in comparison with which you regard all others as unworthy of a thought-a provision for the free pardon of all your sins, and for your restoration to the image of God. You find in it a never-failing resource under the lamented weaknesses and failings and sins That faith in Christ (I mean the faith of which still cleave to you in spite of your best those who really trust in him as their only endeavours. It is a fountain ever open, in Saviour, who have fled to him as their only which you may wash and be made clean. refuge from the merited wrath of God, and You feel it to be as necessary to your peace are resting all their hope upon him) does as ever it was, to believe that the blood of produce a spirit and conduct decidedly dif- Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. Well: ferent from, and superior to, the spirit and you may believe it, and take the comfort of conduct of any other men, is not a matter of believing that that precious blood which was theory only it is a fact which is manifest to shed once for all, and which cannot be again all who will open their eyes to behold: it is offered, is presented continually in your be a fact manifest, though unintelligible, to those half. He who shed his blood for you, and who have not the true faith, that it does pro- rose again, ever lives to present it for you duce effects the very opposite to what they before the throne of his Father, and it will would have expected. It is apparent that and must prevail for you. While you are they who profess to be looking for justifica- interested in that intercession, there is no tion to faith only far exceed in the fruits of condemnation for you. Satan may accuse; : and he will accuse and endeavour to harass and perplex you: unbelievers may mock: your own conscience may be oppressed with a sense of very defective service, and of much actual sin but the voice of that blood will prevail over all. See to it, brethren, that nothing draw you from the simplicity of this faith, of this dependance on the death and intercession of the Lord Jesus. Hold fast the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end let not any thing induce you to mix any other confidence with this; for this alone will be found of any avail at the hour of death, in the immediate prospect of appearing before the Searcher of hearts. Many at that hour have fled with terror and abhorrence from other confidences, to which they had trusted in the days of health and strength, and while judgment seemed to be far off, to cast themselves without reserve upon that free grace of God in Christ which their selfrighteous spirit had before kept them from duly appreciating as their only hope. Many at that hour have warned others to beware of that rock, the rock of self-righteousness, on which they had almost made shipwreck. But none ever found that they had trusted too simply and unreservedly to the promises of God, made through Jesus Christ to those who believe in him. No: in the justifica tion which is by faith in him they have found a shield, and the only shield that would then suffice to repel the fiery darts of the evil one, and the terrors of approaching judgment. Through that faith they have been enabled to say "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?" and, knowing in whom they have believed, to commit their souls to him in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life. Would you, my brethren, look forward with well-grounded confidence to your conflict with your last enemy, would you not be put to shame in the day of the second appearing of the Son of man, prepare for that conflict: prepare for that appearing by renouncing all dependence on your own righteousness and strength, and by going, as you are permitted to go, boldly unto the throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. shall you be kept, by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, and made conquerors, yea, more than conquerors, through him that loved you. So Biography. REV. JOHN KETTLEWELL. No. II. THE wretched policy of the unfortunate James now quickly began to develop itself. Mr. Kettlewell remained stedfast to his opinions, and continued to preach "that it was not lawful, upon any pretence whatever, to take arms against the king." At the revolution the tide of public opinion ran high against those who maintained these views. The primate, Sancroft, and eight bishops, with about four hundred of the clergy, refusing the new oath of allegiance, examined the subject in all its bearings, and went to were deprived of their preferments. Mr. Kettlewell London to satisfy himself before finally making up his mind. His first purpose was-not to quit his post, but on what should appear the most convincing the conclusion, however, of choosing to suffer deprievidence of a heavenly call to leave it. He came to vation rather than to act against his conscience. "That the nonjurors judged erroneously," says Dr. Southey, "must be admitted; but never were any men who acted upon an erroneous opinion more entitled to respect. Ferocious libels were published against them, wherein hints were given that the people would do well in De-Witt-ing them-a bloody word derived from an accursed deed at that time fresh in remembrance. The government, however, treated them with tenderness, and long put off the deprivation which it was at length compelled to pronounce; but it is not to its honour that it reserved no provision for the sequestered clergy, considering their without which no government can be secure." offence consisted only in adhering to the principle Mr. Kettlewell's parochial duties were now ended, but he did not lay aside his functions. He read prayers twice every day (most probably in his own house), with the addition of sermons on Sundays; and every first Sunday of the month, and on the great holidays, administered the Lord's supper. Much scandal was cast upon the nonjurors, and Mr. Kettlewell first addressed himself to some means for removing it he the time of the battle of the Boyne, he finished began by writing in defence of his practice. About "Christian Prudence, or religious Wisdom not degenerating into irreligious Craftiness in trying times;" and soon after," Christianity a doctrine of the Cross, or Passive Obedience under any pretended invasion of legal rights and liberties." On his settling in London he was applied to by many to resolve their doubts on some of the nicer points in this question, which he did-partly by letter, partly vivá voce. On one of these occasions he made use of an amanuensis. Long study and intense appli cation had made sensible inroads upon his health. The great mysteries of Christianity were now openly attacked. The Racovian catechism, containing the worst errors of the Socinian school, and some of the more celebrated pieces of the Polonian brethren, were industriously dispersed. He was anxious to oppose these enemies of catholic truth; but he was no longer able to do so. With true piety of mind he also felt how much more profitably the remnants of his ebbing life would be employed in trying to assist both his own devotion and that of others, with a special reference to "the last enemy." Hence, in 1694, he published " A Companion for the Persecuted," and "A Companion for the Penitent." In August following, he published "Death made comfortable, or the way to die well," under a presage of his own approaching change; to which he added, " An Office for the Sick," and "An Office for Dying Persons." With his remaining strength he prepared, as a sequel to the two last, "An Office for Prisoners," which, as he wished, was published after his decease. Consumption was now |