honour of justification and salvation. It is in fact a rejection of the word of truth through the pride of an unbelieving heart. This alone it is which leads men into such unscriptural dependences, and from which so many different opinions are formed even upon the fundamental truths of the Gospel. Hence also it is, that we are compelled to lament that there is nothing in which men more differ than in those things where the Scriptures are the most plain and decisive.”—Rev. W. Goode.

"There is no man's case so dangerous as his whom Satan hath persuaded that his own righteousness shall present him pure and blameless in the sight of God. If we could say, we were not guilty of anything at all in our consciences, (we know ourselves far from this innocency-we cannot say, we know nothing by ourselves, but if we could,) should we therefore plead not guilty before the presence of our Judge, who sees further into our hearts than we ourselves can do? If our hands did never offer violence to our brethren, a bloody thought doth prove us murderers before Him. If we had never opened our mouth to utter any scandalous, offensive, or hurtful word, the cry of our secret cogitations is heard in the ear of God. If we did not commit the sins which daily and hourly, either in deed, word, or thought, we do commit, yet in the good things which we do, how many defects are there intermingled! God, in that which is done, respecteth the mind and intention of the doer. Cut off, then, all those things wherein we have regarded our own glory-those things which men do to please men, and to satisfy our own liking-those things which we do for any by respect, not sincerely and purely for the love of God; and a small score will serve for the number of our righteous deeds. Let the holiest and best things we do be considered. We are never better affected unto God than when we pray; yet when we pray, how are our affections many times distracted! How little reverence

do we show unto the grand Majesty unto whom we speak! How little remorse of our own miseries! How little taste of the sweet influence of His tender mercies do we feel! Are we not as unwilling many times to begin, and as glad to make an end, as if in saying, 'Call upon me,' He had set us a very burdensome task?"-Hooker.

"Demean yourselves with that care, caution, and dutifulness that become a state of reconciliation. Bethink yourselves that your present peace and friendship with God is not original, and continued from thence, but hath been interrupted and broken: that your peace is not that of constantly innocent persons. You stand not in this good and happy state because you never offended, but as being reconciled, and who, therefore, were once enemies. And when you were brought to know, in that your day which you have enjoyed, the things belonging to your peace, you were made to feel the smart, and taste the bitterness of your having been alienated, and enemies in your minds by wicked works. When the terrors of God did beset you round, and His arrows stuck fast in you, did you not then find trouble and sorrow? Were you not in fearful expectation of wrath and fiery indignation to consume and burn you up as adversaries?' Would you not then have given all the world for a peaceful word or look? for any glimmering hope of peace? How wary and afraid should you be of a new breach! How should you study acceptable deportments, and walk worthy of God unto all well-pleasing!' How strictly careful should you be to keep faith with Him, and abide steadfast in His covenant! How concerned for His interest! and in what agonies of spirit, when you behold the eruption of enmity against Him from any others! not from any distrust, or fear of final prejudice to His interest, but from the apprehension of the unrighteousness of the thing itself, and a dutiful love to His name, throne, and government. How zealous should you be to

draw in others! how fervent in your endeavours within your own sphere, and how large in your desires-extended as far as the sphere of the universe-that 'every knee might bow to Him, and every tongue confess to Him!"-Howe.

"You and I are like the returning prodigal. Let us remember that he came with no recommendation either of dress, or person, or of character; none but his nakedness, his misery, and his acknowledgment of vileness, which had every aggravating, not one extenuating, circumstance. Yet he was received-received with inexpressible indulgence, and clothed with that first, that best, that divinest robe, the righteousness of Jesus Christ."-Hervey.

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SANCTIFICATION.

"The fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ." PHILIPPIANS i, 11.

"Now I take this to be the sanctification of God's people, which Christ is made to every one of them. That is, that Christ having taken His people into union with Himself, they are holy in Him, they are accepted in the beloved,' they are seen in Him, they are borne upon His breastplate; and if He have boldness to enter into the Holiest, so have we, by virtue of our union to Him. As to this part of our subject, bear in mind two things, that sanctification in this sense, is incapable of degree. A man must be either in Christ, or out of Christ. If he be in Christ, Christ is made to him sanctification; he can appear before God perfect in Christ Jesus. Then, again, according to this primary sense, the Lord's people, who believe in Jesus, and who are in Him, are equally sanctified, one as much as another. Jesus is made to all His people sanctification. So that, you mark, we are to hear no more of this language, 'O, I wish I was as great a saint as this man; I wish I had arrived at such a pitch of sanctification as he has, then I should go into the presence of God with boldness.' The question is, Are we in Christ? Then if a man be in Christ, he is complete in Him. What a beautiful word we have in the

first of Colossians, where the apostle says, that the Father 'hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' The word in the Greek is, 'He hath fitted us, to be partakers of that inheritance.' Let me give you another passage that expresses this great truth. You read in the twenty-sixth of Acts, that when the apostle Paul received his commission to preach the word, he was told by the Lord that he was to open the eyes of those to whom he was sent, 'to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, they they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Now, brethren, God alone can make those things plain to you.

"In the fifth century a controversy, however, arose of extreme importance. Pelagius denied the natural depravity of man, and insisted on his inherent powers of rectitude. Then it was that God stirred up the spirit of Augustine to defend the Scripture doctrine of original sin, and the sanctifying grace of God. I say, the sanctifying grace of God; for the controversy was not-How shall a sinner be justified before God?' but, 'How shall a man become holy?' Augustine, with victorious energy of Scripture argument, demonstrated, that man was totally fallen; that even his seeming virtues are only so many splendid sins; and that it was the efficacious grace of God in Christ alone, which, by the Spirit's operation, could renew him throughout, and make him a new creature. Thus the doctrine of sanctification was clearly and ably explained by this great and good man; and in connexion with this, the electing grace of God, and the justest views of the character, both of God and man, and all the excellencies of Christ Jesus as our Mediator, were distinctly unfolded."-Milner.

"To preach (as we must preach) the need of holiness in the believer, and to rest the attainment of it upon any other