priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people" (Pet. I. ii. 9), as St. Peter says; and as the Lord himself was pleased to tell them, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to the harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth and another reapeth" (John iv. 35-37). God himself is both the sower, and, by his Word, the seed (Luke viii. 11); he is not only the principal founder but keeper likewise of all our goodness, worth, or merit; he is both mediately and originally their single cause and all-sufficient recommendation. For a virtuous line of conduct cannot be meritorious, if the motives from which it proceeds are not so: therefore immediately a man's merit will be due to his motives;-but a life regulated by the maxims and precepts not of its liver, but of others, does not belong to him so properly as to them; and when not only the means or ability, but the thought and the motives also conducing to any good work are derived from one besides the performer, great must be the merit of that one, small the merit of the performer himself. Commonly when we do good with a good motive we are thought good, and only half good when the good motive is wanting; but in deed and in truth we can never be half good, having never so large a share in any good work. Therefore the saying, "Why callest thou me good?" (Matt. xix. 17), might well have been uttered by any one, but its author: so may the rest of the sentence, "There is none good but one, that is God" (Ibid.) in one sense; while in another his question was strictly pertinent. How much rather might it be said then by one of us to himself on doing any good, that was said to the recovered blind man of his deliverer by the unbelieving Jews, “Give God the praise: we know that this man (the man of his heart) is a sinner" (John ix. 24.)

Relying on our casual merit in any other way, than as an argument of the divine favour, and means of its conti

nuance towards us, were no less absurd than to rely on the all-sufficiency of wealth or power, or any other endowment the benefit as well as the continuance of which is uncertain. And even as an argument of the divine favour, no good that we are allowed to do ourselves can be nearly so comfortable and encouraging as the work of God himself on our behalf, in not only creating us out of nothing, and endowing us originally with a great deal of merit; but also in that when our merit was lost, and we were returned in a manner to nothing; according to the system of goodness and equity which he prescribed to himself in creation, he "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all" (Rom. viii. 32),—an abundant stock of merit. So, if we cannot allege any merit or recommendation in ourselves to the Father, we can allege that which benefactors consider more, their first motive to benevolence remaining unchanged, as in this case it ever must. "For who shall separate us from the love of Christ"-" or from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ib. 35, &c.). In him only our stock of merit therefore consists; as David says, "Whom have I in Heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth, that I desire in comparison of thee" (Ps. lxxiii. 24). Or it may be said, that our stock of merit, if we have any, consists only in God who gave him, and in "our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father" (Gal. i. 4): whereby a new path of merit is also opened to us; that we proceeding from strength to strength in the manner of cause and effect, may finally arrive at a very different conclusion from that which our evil genius had prepared for us.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John ïii. 16). Therefore, as we men owe all our merit by God's allowance to his only begotten Son,-so neither is merit original

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with him, the only begotten; but humanly derived by him with the same allowance, and in like manner, from God. And as all the merit of the Son originally consists in his divinity, or is derived therefrom; so likewise the merit of all who have any, will consist in their relation to God by him, or be derived from such relation immediately by faith the merit consisting in their relation, and not in their faith. For as Paul shewing likewise how all merit is originally of God observes, "Not of works; lest any man should boast" (Eph. ii. 9): so we, adverting to the same divine Original, may say, Not of faith; lest any man should undervalue "the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ib. 7). And if there be any authorities in Scripture that seem to warrant a notion of human or intrinsic merit; as the saying of David, "Preserve thou my soul, for I am holy" (Ps. lxxxvi. 2)—also that by the prophet, "I will defend this city, to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake" (Isai. xxxvii. 35)-also that of Job, "Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands" (Job xiv. 15)-also that of Moses to the Israelites, " And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them" (Deut. iv. 37)-also-and more especially, different expressions by which the merit of Abraham, and his interest with God is magnified beyond every thing to appearance (Gen. xv. 6; xviii. 17; xxii. 16; xxvi. 5)—there would be no difficulty in shewing, that all these expressions have a reference to the same channel of merit descending from God by Christ which has just been explained; as in the last mentioned case particularly. For why did God choose the seed of Abraham, as aforesaid; but for the sake of his Son Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, and for his own by implication as he says elsewhere, "For David, my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen " (Kings I. xi. 13), in which it is clear where the inducement begins, as much as where he says "For mine own sake" (Isai. xxxvii. 35). For this consideration chiefly was Abra

ham distinguished with the highest blessing of which the most perfect creature is susceptible, that of being most extensively a blessing to others. "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; BECAUSE THOU HAST OBEYED MY VOICE" (Gen. xxii. 18); said he-that Voice, as above explained, being Christ unborn; and afterward Christ also, as a principal mode of his existence in the eternal Word.

For when David or any other holy man speaks of his own relation to God on the score of merit, it will be rather in such terms as these, " He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickednesses. For look how high the heaven is in comparison of the earth; so great is his mercy also toward them that fear him: look how wide also the East is from the West; so far hath he set our sins from us. Yea; like as a father pitieth his own children, even so is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him. For he knoweth whereof we are made, he remembereth that we are but dust" (Ps. ciii. 10, &c.). And generally when the Psalmist prays for Israel justly smarting in their turn after having been the instruments of God's wrath against others, it is not by or in consideration of their merits, but of God's mercies; it is not in consideration of their natural descent from Abraham either, but of the promise, and of that which made Abraham interesting, his adoption by God in Christ; as he said, "For in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (cited above): and as the royal Psalmist says, "Thou hast brought a Vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the nations and planted it.... Turn thee again thou God of hosts; look down from Heaven; behold and visit this Vine.... Let thine hand be upon the man of thy right hand, and upon the son of man whom thou madest so strong for thine own self: and so will not we go back from thee. Olet us live and we shall call upon thy Name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, shew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole" (Ps. lxxx. 8, 14, 17, &c.). It is not in consideration of Israel, but of

the Son that was called out of Egypt (Hos. xi. 1'; Matt. ii. 15): it is in consideration of his many merciful deliverances and other spontaneous blessings through former ages on account of the adoption (Ps. xxv. 5); in consideration of the solitary worth and all sufficient sacrifice of our blessed Saviour; " in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Col. i. 14); being taken by him out of the entail of sin and wrath which came by the fault of our first parent, and the consequent subjection to sin of him and all mankind. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom. v. 19). All merit therefore is both mediately and principally in God the giver by Christ, all demerit in the author of man's transgression, the old serpent, and his natural, unregenerate posterity. They who are in Christ can have merit, namely in him; while they who are not in Christ, being in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity, can have neither part nor lot in this matter (Acts viii. 21, &c.), but only demerit: not that their good will be evil spoken of, but that they have not the grace to afford such an opportunity. And when these aliens are allowed to enjoy any temporal advantages, as they often are, (for God is exceeding good to all, Luke vi. 35) it must be, as Moses reminded the murmuring Israelites, not for any merit of theirs, but through the goodness of God. "For we ourselves (says St. Paul, and it is a very ingenuous confession)-we ourselves also were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, according to his mercy he saved us; not by works of righteousness that we did, but by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour" (Tit. iii. 3, &c.). "Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (Cor. I. i. 30).