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"themselves to be unworthy of everlasting "life."*

But, although there were some who would not come to the marriage feast, our Lord shews that the wedding was, at length, furnished with guests. "And, when the

king came in to see the guests, he saw "there a man which had not a WEDDING 66 GARMENT. And he said, friend, how "camest thou in hither, not having a

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wedding garment? And he was SPEECH" LESS. Then said the king to his servants, "bind him hand and foot, and take him

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away, and cast him into outer darkness ; "there shall be weeping and gnashing of "teeth."

"He that hath ears to ear, let him "hear." We are all, my brethren, called

*Acts xiii. 46.

to the marriage feast in this world; and many are the guests who sit down at the table. Let every guest begin now to examine himself, whether he hath been invested with the wedding garment. But, first, let us rightly understand what is to be understood by this emblem. The Prophet Isaiah has used it twice in the same pas

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sage, I will greatly rejoice in the

"Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my "God; for he hath clothed me with "the garments of salvation; he hath "covered me with the ROBE of RIGHTE"Is. xli. 10.

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OUSNESS.

The wedding garment must necessarily be that by which we "are made meet to be "partakers" of the festival to which we are invited. It must be that by which our persons are accepted by the master of the feast; or, to lay aside the figure, it

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must be that, by which we are justified from the guilt of our sins, before God; and considered as righteous in his sight.

What, then, is this garment than can so adorn the guest? What is this qualification by which the sinner is accepted as righteous before God? For all men are guilty in His sight. They are born in sin. They grow up in the commission of sin, in thought, word, and deed. The necessary confession of every day is, "We have "left undone those things which we ought "to have done; and we have done those

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things which we ought not to have done. There are degrees of wickedness; but all men are in a state of condemnation; having broken the holy law of God, and incurred the penalty of its sentence. "There is none righteous," saith the scripture, "no, not

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one.

There is none good, no, not one,

"Every mouth is stopped; and all the "world is guilty before God."* Hear first the words of Christ himself; and may they sink deep into every heart; "This is MY BLOOD, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins." Hear next the testimony of the holy Evangelist St. John. "The blood of Christ "cleanseth from all sin."+ That man is therefore justified in the sight of God, who dependeth for salvation on "the blood of the Lamb; and who hath faith to say upon earth, what he is to say hereafter in heaven, "Thou hast "redeemed me by thy blood."

This simple dependence on the sacrifice of Christ, is, as you know, commonly called Faith. And therefore the Apostle saith, that

*Rom. iii. 19. + 1 John i. 7.

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being justified by faith, we have peace "with God;"* that though all « have "sinned and come short of the glory of

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God," "yet we are justified freely by his

grace, through the redemption that is in "Christ Jesus ;" and finally, that man is

"justified by faith without the deeds of "the law." By which last sentence he doth not mean that we are not to perform good deeds. Just the contrary. For there is no justification in the sight of God, where there is no sanctification by his Spirit. There is no true faith if there be not upright conduct. But he means that, we are not to depend upon our deeds as a plea of merit for our Justification before God. We are justified without them; that is, not to the exclusion of them in our Christian course, but not by them. Our works do not justify us; for, they condemn us. Who is there amongst

*Rom. v. 1. Rom. iii. 24.

Rom. iii. 28.

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