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no Man deceive you: He that doth Righte- SER M. IX. oufness, univerfally and without Referve, is righteous, even as he, his Saviour and Advocate, is righteous: He that committeth Sin,: is of the Devil (b). He that faith, he abideth in the Son of God, ought himself fo alfo to walk, even as he walked: And now, little Children, abide in him; that when be fhall appear, we may have Confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming (c). Here is the Courfe we are to take, here is the Example we are to follow; and if on a Search into our paft Lives feriously made, we find, that we have applied ourfelves to imitate the one, and to pursue the other, either from the Days of our Youth, or the Time of our Converfion, we may reft perfuaded, that we are in a State of Grace and Reconciliation.

FROM which let nothing draw us off, nor remove our Integrity from us. We know our Rule and our Pattern, by which we shall at last be tried; by these let us now frequently try and examine ourselves, always correcting what we find wrong, always improving what we fee to be right within

Y 3

(6) St. John iii. 7, 8.

(c) 1 St. John ii. 6, 28.

us,

SERM, US, and never forgeting, that except our IX. Righteoufnefs fhall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharifees whom our Lord taxes with a partial Obedience, we shall in no wife enter into the Kingdom of Heaviên (d).

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(d) St. Matth v. 20.

SERMON

SERMON X.

Gal. vi. 9.

Let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due Seafon we shall reap, if we faint not.

W

not.----

X.

HOEVER carefully perufes SERM.
the foregoing Part of this Epi-
ftle, cannot fail to remark how
much the facred Author was

obliged to trespass upon his own Modefty, and to vindicate his Apostlefhip and Doctrine from the vile Aspersions of various Slanderers, who through his Sides aimed a deadly Blow at the Heart of Christianity itself.

AGAINST these he firft argues with the utmoft Strength and Conviction, and then

fets

SERM. fets himself, as he had pulled down what X. was faulty in their Building, to erect what

was ufeful and ornamental in his own, by enforcing the general and neceffary Duties of Christianity.---To thofe who declared fo strongly in favour of the Jewish Religion, he urges, that all the Law is fulfilled in one Word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself (a), i. e. All the Commandments of Mofes touching our Neighbour are fummed up in our tender Regards and correfponding Actions towards him; whereto - he adds, It is a vain Thing for any to boast of their Attachments to the Law, and at the fame Time overthrow the grand Defign of it, by their Heats and Animofities against each other; which can neither preferve the Honour due to their Religion, nor themfelves in Quiet and Safety. For if ye bite and devour one another, take Heed that ye be not confumed one of another (b).

AND to their relative Obligations, he fubjoins the Enforcement of their Duty to themfelves, and exhorts them to walk in the Spirit, for then they fhould not fulfill the Luft of the Flesh (c) Now the Works of theFlesh

(a) Gall. v. 14.
(c) V. 16.

(b) V. 15.

are

are manifeft; which our Apoftle enumerates, SERM. and afferts, what they blinded with Paffion, X. and exafperated with Divifions, were not duly apprized of, that Hatred, Variance, Strife, Emulations, Wraths, Envyings, and Herefies, are as truly the Works of the Flesh, as Adultery, Fornication, Lafcivioufness, Murther, Drunkenness, and fuch like, and render a Man altogether as much unqualified for the Mercies of the Gofpel: Of the which he forewarns them again, as he had declared unto them in Time paft, that they which do fuch Things, fhall not inherit the Kingdom of God (d).

HOWEVER, that the Difciples might not be betrayed into an Opinion of thinking, that they had come up to the Character of good Christians by their abstaining only from Evil, St. Paul lets them know, that it was required of them likewife to do Good and to abound in the Fruit of the Spirit, which is Love, Joy, Peace, Long-fuffering, Gentlenefs, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance (e). And these Virtues he again, in the Verfes preceding our Text, recommends from the Confideration of the Certainty of our being recompenfed according to our Deeds;

(d) Gal. v. 19, 20, 21.

(e) V. 23.

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