tenor of the antinomian's life, if not the direct language of his lips, is, let me "continue in sin that grace may abound." There is a spirit, akin to antinomianism, seriously at work in the hearts of not a few who make no profession of religion, under the influence of which, they remain contented without any visible acknowledgment of religious truth, and mingled with the "world which lies in wickedness." They make the doctrines of the Gospel, misunderstood or perverted by themselves, their plea for refusing or declining to embrace its truth, and to swear allegiance to its author. They make no effort to obtain salvation, because they know not before-hand, that, in the purpose of Heaven, they have been "chosen to salvation." They conclude, that if they are so chosen, when the time arrives, they will be brought into the fold, and need feel no uneasiness at present, at being out of it. And that if they are not the objects of this previous choice, they may as well eat, drink, and be merry:" for do what they may, they must die. Such however most cautiously avoid carrying their principle out into the affairs of "the life which now is." If sick, and apprehending dissolution, though this principle might save them much expense from the physician's charge-much distress from the nauseous taste and painful operation of medicine—they nevertheless employ the man of medical skill, and that without knowing, or waiting to ascertain, how the decree of God has decided in the case. If one of this class is engaged in agriculture, he ploughs and sows, weeds, waters and manures, without inquiring whether God has decreed him a crop or not. If in mercantile employ, he studies the state of the market, inquires how he may most advantageously "buy and sell, and get gain ;" and so of other avocations.

Now, unless the adopter of this principle in religious things, apply it also to the affairs of his vocation or profession in the world, what a singular, what a contradictory aspect will he exhibit at the judgmentseat of Christ! It will appear, that, where the subject was distasteful, his principle was tenaciously adhered to, where agreeable and palatable, it was dispensed with, and then he set himself at work to accomplish his projected object, as though omnipotence were his attribute, and the very decrees of God might be set at defiance. O, what a contradiction is sinful, erring man-what an insoluble enigma, the human heart!

But view next the antinomian professor in the church. Having entered Zion's sacred inclosure, he fancies all is well, it becomes his privilege to sin, at least by omissions of duty, if not by commission of positive trespasses. He is now "in Christ Jesus," and cannot be lost, nor incur condemnation. See this professor in his family. Though negligent of domestic devotions; though dispensing with family government, at least in its religious department; though practically dissenting from Joshua, who determined "as for me and my house we will serve the

Lord"-from Abraham, of whom God testified, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him"-from Hannah, who gave her Samuel to the Lord, before he was born and all his life after-from Lois the grandmother, and Eunice, the mother, who began with their Timothy when quite a child, rearing him up to bless the church of God, and to illustrate the truth, "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it"-he notwithstanding hopes, when "weighed in the" final "balances, he will not be found wanting."

View this professor again in his intercourse with the world. Carrying out his principle, where he can render it subservient to his secular interests, he soon renders the men of the world fearful of coming, in matters of business, into contact with him-preferring much to transact their affairs even with men of their own unpretending, irreligious stamp, than to have commercial intercourse with him. Can it be said of such men, that they are even "not far from the kingdom of God?" "Weighed in" Jehovah's equitable "balances," they must inevitably "be found wanting." What claimants for eternal life still remain ? We may specify,

4. That large class, in the fourth place, who call themselves, the sincere, the candid and the charitable. Give me but the fact, says the individual ranged under this classification, that my neighbor is sincere in his belief, and I ask no more-I inquire not what that belief is-I am satisfied he is on the road to heaven. God is pleased with the great variety of worship that his creatures pay him, whether under the denomination of "Jehovah, Jove, or Lord." If the pagan mother be sincere in the sacrifice, let her give her first-born to the jaws of the fishes of prey-the fruit of her body to the waters of the Ganges. If the Jew be sincere, let him rave at the name of "Jesus of Nazareth," whom Christians adore, leave his Bible unexplored and sit at the feet of the Rabbi. If the Papist be sincere, let him close his eyes and ears to the Scriptures, and submit both his understanding and conscience to priestly domination and control, unbar the door of the Inquisition and expose heretics to its fury. If the Protestant be sincere, let one say, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." Let another give glory only to the Father, dethrone the Son, and make a mere attribute of the Holy Ghost. The wings of this man's charity are sufficiently broad and strong to waft them all to heaven!

But if sincerity be all that is necessary to render a man's religion right, how ridiculous a part was acted by Saul of Tarsus, in exchanging his Judaism for Christianity. If he could honestly say, "I verily thought I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth," why did he not go on to "waste the church of Christ?"

Why should he exchange the feet of Gamaliel for the feet of Jesus ?the temple of Jerusalem for the jail of Philippi?-the countenance of the priesthood for their menaces and frowns ?-the honors, emoluments, and prospects which belonged to him, as "an Hebrew of the Hebrews," for the prisons and deaths, which awaited him as a Christian ?-Why sacrifice a name unblemished, and a reputation untarnished among his own people, to be regarded and treated as "the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things?"

But Paul made the discovery, and happily for him he made it so seasonably, that even sincerity might be the high way to perdition. When celebrating the grace, that snatched him, in the midst of his sincerity, "as a brand from the burning"-when telling the world, he sought to convert, of the true, faithful, and worthy to be received saying, that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"-he could not rest till he added in the language of severe self-reprehension, "of whom I am chief." Hear him when in bonds, in the presence and subject to the power of his enemies--hear him at Agrippa's bar, appealing to his enemies and challenging investigation into his former life-"My manner of life from my youth, which was at first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." If they would testify. They were silent under this appeal; they would not testify for him, and they could not testify against him. Was not such a man sincere?

But when he looks at heaven, on what does he ground his hope of entrance there? On his morality, his forms, his duties, his services, his sincerity? On not one, or all of these. In the matter of expectation and dependance, he does with this as the mariner, in danger of shipwreck deals with his most precious cargo. To preserve his vessel and save his life, such a mariner throws all else overboard. Thus, Paul, aware that nothing but the Redeemer's atoning blood was capable of securing the best man in the world from spiritual and eternal shipwreck, clings to the cross of Christ and lets all else go. "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ, yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Away then with sincerity, as in itself alone a competent ground of human hope; it must be that sincerity which consists in the belief of evangelical truth. "Sanctify them through thy truth," prays Jesus to his Father, "thy word is truth."

Do you inquire now, with the astonished disciples, "Who then can be saved?" A satisfactory answer to this inquiry is all important, and shall be next attempted. We observe then,

The really penitent belong to that number. Repentance is necessary for all; otherwise he who was "exalted on high as a Prince and a Saviour," in order to give it, would not have "commanded all men every where to repent;" nor have given to his disciples an order so universal and unqualified in its application, as that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." All men are in themselves sinners, and this is in itself the reason, why in the first instance all are "found wanting." For sin consists not only in the " transgression of the law," but in "coming short of the glory of God." "God has concluded all under sin." "Every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." Such is universally man's character, and in reference to this character, and in recommendation of the feeling that becomes it, it is written, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit-a broken and a contrite heart he will not despise." "To this man," it is testified," will he look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at his word." Let the true, genuine penitent then be "weighed in the balances, and he will not be found wanting."

Again the sincere evangelical believer answers the same description; he that, besides exercising " repentance towards God, also exhibits "faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ." How ample and various are the testimonies on this point. Among them the following constitute but a few. "He that believeth shall be saved." "He that believeth on the Son of God is not condemned." "Whosoever believeth on him hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." But what is faith? That question is most important. Faith, as it relates to all other subjects, is an affair of the head alone; but as it relates to the religion of the gospel, the religion that issues in salvation, it involves the heart also. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." There is a faith resting on facts, and implying the attachment of credibility to them-this is called historical faith. There is a faith that receives theoretical principles of truth, and is confined to mental action in reference to them-this is speculative faith. Both are necessary, but yet not sufficient, to secure a man from the charge of "being found wanting." To them must be superadded an exercise that implies the attachment of the heart, and as its result, the right ordering of the life. The head may be filled with orthodoxy, and yet the heart be engrossed and the life overrun with heterodoxy. Every truth of the Bible may be believed, simply because the evidence is so plain upon the page of revelation, that it cannot be resisted, and "he who runs must read it." And yet these truths, plain and palpable as they are, may not be received "in the love of them," into "good and honest hearts." James represents the devils themselves as

J

the subjects of such a faith-" they believe, they tremble" too, but "Satan cannot love." Saving faith implies trust in the merits and love to the character of Christ, as well as belief of his records. It cries, "Lord save me or I perish"-it "rejoices in Christ Jesus and has no confidence in the flesh." It throws around the sinner the robe of his righteousness, having first torn away and displaced the "filthy rags" of his own. It carries the sinner into "the city of refuge," safe from "the avenger of blood." It admits the long account of charges in God's book to be correct-audits the whole and certifies its accuracy-it sees in the debit side a long and frightful list of transgressions, and calculates the amount at ten thousand talents"-it surveys the credit side, and finds there the gloomy entry, "he hath nothing to pay"—and just as the creditor is going to give orders, "cast him into prison until he has paid the very last farthing," it introduces a mysterious hand, not unlike that which terrified Belshazzar, but for a very different, for a very opposite purpose the hand of redeeming love, writing at the foot of the account a receipt in full, in the following terms, "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin." Thus it furnishes the penitent with a complete discharge. Thus "where sin abounded, grace much more abounds." Thus "grace reigns through righteousness;" thus, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." This penitent believing sinner is, weighed in the balances and is not found wanting," "for he is found in Christ," like Noah in the ark, whom the deluge cannot touch-like Naaman in the pool, where he loses for ever his leprosy, once regarded as incurable. It is grace then that reigns, from first to last, in the salvation of a sinner; for he is "justified by faith," and faith disclaims merit, while it produces, and where genuine, ever must produce all those "fruits of righteousness that are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." Bring such a man before his God, and this language of Paul is appropriate to his case "justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Bring him in presence of his fellow creatures, and James describes his character "a man is justified by works and not by faith only." But flaming professors of the doctrine of grace, whose life is notwithstanding beclouded and darkened by unholy tempers, and stained by illicit practices, have not the root of this matter in them.

And now, dear hearers, with the law and the testimony in your hands, the law of Moses, which is a ministration of death, and the testimony of Jesus by whom came grace and truth, ascertain where your spiritual posture is; and if Tekel is the inscription on your character, let it be effaced at once-let it be commuted for the inscription"accepted in the Beloved." But if "the foundation," as it respects