vient to the interests of our souls and the glory of our God. This is to live soberly.

We are to live righteously; that is, in respect of our neighbour; to give every one his due; to honour all men; and do the duty of our stations, whether to our superiors, inferiors, or equals. The New Testament is full of excellent directions as to relative duties. The Apostles largely teach us the duties of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters, servants, and subjects. A true Christian will study his Bible with this view, and in every relation of life he will endeavour to conform himself to it; and he that pretends to religion without this, is a mere hypocrite. This is too little regarded by many professors of religion, as beneath their notice; they would even deter ministers from enforcing the relative duties, by calling it "legal stuff, working for life, and Arminianism;" but these people know not what they say, and how much they disgrace the Gospel of Christ, which our text declares is intended to teach us these things! It was a weighty saying of a good divine, that "To be really holy, is to be relatively holy." All sincere believers think so, and act accordingly.

But the Gospel also requires us to live godly. Many ignorant people think that if they live soberly and righteously it is enough. How many do we hear excusing themselves from all regard to Gospel-religion, by pleading that they are sober and honest! And will these people call themselves Christians? Moral heathens they may be. We deny that they are Christians; for the Christian has a constant regard to God in Christ; he knows him, he believes in him, he fears him, he loves him, he prays to him, he converses with him, he lives to him. O the miserable blindness of many in this land of light! How many on a dying bed build all their hopes on their honesty, and having done no harm; though they have lived all their days in the neglect of the salvation of Christ, neglect of his Sabbath

and worship, buried alive in the cares of the world; sensual, worldly, covetous; perhaps opposers of the Gospel, and persecutors of the faithful!-The Lord in his infinite mercy open the eyes of such mistaken persons, and preserve them from going out of the world with a lie in their right hand!

To live godly, includes a great deal. We must know God by the teaching of his Spirit; we must believe on him as a God reconciled in Christ ;- -we must love him as our Heavenly Father :- -we shall then love his law, and gladly be governed by his commandments. His word will be precious to us; his Sabbath delightful; his worship pleasant; his ordinances sweet: in a word, "we shall walk humbly with our God;" it will be our meat and drink to do his will; and being no longer our own, but bought with a price, we shall glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which are his.

us.

This is that kind of life which the Gospel teaches

This is its nature and extent. The Gospel also shows us the absolute necessity of it. Many deceive themselves with vain words, and think there is no occasion to be so strict; and they labour to render a life of holiness contemptible, by calling it ill names; such as fanaticism and enthusiasm; and by ridiculing serious persons as Methodists, hypocrites, and righteous overmuch. But we abide by the Bible, We abide by our text. The God of truth has prescribed this as the way of life; and has awfully declared, that, without repentance, without faith, without holiness and godliness, no man shall see the Lord. By this we are determined to abide, and let others look to themselves.

But should any say, All this is very right and good, but who can come up to it? By what means can we attain it? I answer, The Gospel that bringeth salvation teacheth us how to attain it; and this is the peculiar excellency of the Gospel. The teachers of mere morality are like the task-masters of Pharaoh, who required the Israelites to make brick without straw. They are al

ways preaching that men should do this and that; but they tell them not their own inability, nor where their great strength lies. When we view a natural man wedded to the world, or tied and bound with the chains of his sins, or wallowing in the mire of sensual lusts, we are ready to say, Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? But nothing is to hard for the Lord. The Gospel first directs the sinner to repair by faith to Christ, and to obtain the pardon of his sins through his precious blood. This is his first business: and if the sinner be enabled to believe in Jesus, his faith will work by love, will purify his heart, and overcome his lusts. We are not by our own power, first to reform our lives, and then, as gracious and good people, to trust in Christ for salvation; but as soon as ever we discover our need of a Saviour, to fly to him without delay, just as we are and he casts out none that come to him! Believing in him will give a new turn to our affections :-we shall mourn for pardoned sin; we shall hate the murderers of our Lord ::—we shall be crucified to the world by the cross of Jesus; and the ways of godliness will no longer be a burden and a task, but our pleasant and easy service. The love of Christ will constrain us; and we shall judge that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that henceforth they who live should not live to themselves, but unto him who died for them.

Besides, whoever believes in Jesus its really united to him, in the same manner as the vine and its branches are united. All our fruitfulness in good works depends on this union. "Abide in me," said our Lord; "thus shall ye bring forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.' This is the true secret of godliness, the Gospel mystery of scantification, and the only way of becoming holy. In this way nothing is too hard to be accomplished: and on this ground every believer may say with St. Paul, "I can do all things, through Christ which strengtheneth me." We shall now conclude with some Inferences and Exhortations.

1. Is the Gospel the Grace of God? the Gift of his Grace? the Revelation of his Grace? and the Instrument of his Grace? Then take care to distinguish the Gospel from all false doctrine. Beware of "another gospel." Whatever does not bring to helpless sinners the good news of a free-grace salvation, is not the Gospel. Reject it.

And O take care that "you receive not the grace of God in vain." 2 Cor. vi. 1. The grace of God as a divine principle in the heart, cannot be received in vain; but the Gospel, which is also called the grace of God, is often received in vain. It is a great privilege to have the Gospel preached to us; but a dreadful thing to have it prove "the savour of death unto death!" for Christ hath said, "He that believeth not shall be damned !" Mark xvi. 16.

Is the Gospel the Grace of God? Prize it yourselves and recommend it to others. Next to Christ himself, it is the greatest gift of God to a ruined world. What an inexpressible privilege and honour is it to be in any way instrumental in communicating this heavenly gift to others! Let us invite our neighbours to hear it; let us put some gospel tracts into their hands; let us speak of it to our relations and friends; let us support and countenance the preaching of it at home and abroad, and especially let us recommend it to others by the holy effects it has produced on ourselves; let us recommend it by our lives.

It appears from what has been said, that there is no ground for the reproach often cast on the gospel of grace, that it leads to licentiousness; or that the doctrine of faith and grace is hurtful to morality and good works. It is a foul and groundless slander;-nothing is more false. Our text confutes it at once. We have shown that the Gospel is properly called the Grace of God; it is the gospel that bringeth salvation by grace; and and this free-grace gospel teacheth us to live a holy life. What can be plainer?-And let it be noted, that no

thing but the gospel of grace can truly teach, or produce, a holy life. This was at first the power of God to the salvation of bigoted Jews and beastly heathens. In every succeeding age it has had the same blessed effects; and it is the same to this day. While moral preachers labour in vain, and many of them address their heathen lectures to sleepy hearers and empty pews, we know and are sure that the plain truths of the Gospel are effectual to quicken dead sinners, to convert notorious rebels, and produce in numberless persons "the fruits of good living."

If any false professors of religion abuse the doctrine of grace for licentious practices, they have no countenance in so doing from the Gospel, or the preachers of it. Our text will at once confront and confound such base hypocrites. It teaches them the nature, necessity, and method of attaining a holy life. Believers were "chosen in Christ, that they might be holy and without blame before him in love." All the commands of God, both in the Old and New Testament, require it: it was an eminent branch of the design of Christ in dying for his people. It is necessary to the present peace and happiness of our souls in this world of sin and vanity. This is the way in which God expects us to glorify him here; and in this consists our "meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light."

May our holy God, who has favoured us with his holy Gospel, render it effectual by his Holy Spirit, to make us "holy in all conversation and godliness!" and, at the great day, "present us holy and unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight!" To Him be glory,

now and for ever! Amen.