day, for preaching no other doctrine than that contained in my text. True Antinomians are either spec. ulative or practical: speculative are such as endeavour to persuade themselves, and others, that sin can do them no harm; that it shall not destroy nor damn the true believer, we readily own; but of the hurt it does them, they have less or more the experience, whenever they fall into sin; as David had, under the Old Testament, and the Apostle Peter had, under the New. -They likewise say, that God sees no sin in his people: none for which to condemn them, we readily grant; but that he sees sin in the best of them, to purge it out by his word, and by his rod, is what we affirm. They say farther, that believers are not to pray for the forgiveness of their daily sins; not distin. guishing between that which is virtual, in the purpose of God, and in the purchase of Christ, and that which is actual according to the word. It is not to be forgiven in purpose, or in purchase, that the believer prays; but to have purposed and purchased forgiveness, actually applied to him, according to the word.Their worst notion is, that believers are not under the law, as a rule of duty to Christ; but may live as they list, sin not being able to hurt them.-I would hope that of these, there are very few, if any, among Protestant Dissenters. Such would do well to remember, so as to copy after the Apostle Paul, who bewailed sin in its remains, Rom. vii. 24. and desired to have it farther mortified, Phil. iii. 20. and was under the law to Christ, 1 Cor. ix. 21.-Practical Antinomians are those the Apostle speaks of; "For many walk, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are enemies to the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things," Phil. iii. 18, 19. These, it is to be feared, are many, and that their numbers are daily increasing. They gather not honey and sweetness, with the bee, but with the spider, poison from this flower of paradise, the doctrine of a sinner's justification before God.

APPLICATION.

All the application I shall make is, to put you upon the inquiry, how near this righteousness has been brought to you.

To the ear of all here present it has been brought, times without number; that is, in the sound of it, and into the head and memory, in the notion of it. But has it been brought into your hearts in the love and liking of it? Do you, from and with the heart, begin to like, and choose, and prefer this way of a sinner's justification before God? His being made the righte ousness of God in Christ, and so freed in that righteousness from all condemnation on the one hand, and his being entitled to eternal glory on the other. Of which it may be safely said, for it may be abundantly proved from Scripture, that of all possible ways of a sinner's justification, this excels in glory; otherwise it could not be said, that therein God has abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence; "Wherein he has abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence," Eph. i. 18. which holds true as of the whole, so of every part of the salvation we have in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Has this righteousness been brought into your consciences, in the peace and comfort of it? Your spirits, it may be, are easy; but how came they so to be? If never disturbed and distressed for sin, it is a sad sign that their ease is from carnal security, and not from Christ. Or if the ease be such as they at Rome are full of, who think, by their good works, both to atone and merit, it is so far from being Christ's peace, that it is Antichristian. But if it is founded on Christ's righteousness, received by faith, as your alone justifying righteousness; if your hearts have been with Christ, as the Lord your righteousness, the Gospel in both Testaments declares, that you are at peace with God, as being justified by faith.

Do you evidence, that you have thus been with Jesus, both by your worship and by your walk? Is the

one spiritual, and the other circumspect? Go astray you may like lost sheep; but wallow in the mire of sin, like swine, you cannot. The same grace that has changed your state, has renewed your hearts; so that you are really dead to sin, but alive to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is not a doctrine in the Gospel but may be abused: but a work of grace on the heart cannot? that is like a running spring, which breaks through all opposition, and works out all filth.

THE

DOCTRINE OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE,

ASSERTED AND VINDICATED.

TWO

SERMONS,

BY MR. SAMUEL WILSON, Minister of the Gospel.

SERMON I.

PHIL. ii. 13.

It is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his
own good pleasure.

In the beginning of this chapter, the Apostle recommends to the saints, at Philippi, mutual forbearance, affection, humility, and condescension, as the great ornament of the Christian character. To this end, he reminds them of their common fellowship of the Spirit, and their joint relation to, and interest in, the blessed Jesus; who, as he observes, in the days of his flesh, exemplified these graces, in a very distinguishing manner. So entirely was his heart set upon advancing his Father's honour, and so prevailing the affection which he bore to his people, that, "Though he was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and, being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Now, says the Apostle, you profess to be the disciples of this Jesus,

you call him Lord; keep in view then his temper and conduct, and copy after him: Let the same mind be in you that was in him; and so much the rather give dili gence herein, as I, who when present with you, was serviceable, as a healer of your breaches, and a helper of your faith and joy, am now providentially removed from among you. "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." God is calling you to duty, diligence, and circumspection; give no occasion for the reproach, that your zeal declined up. on my leaving you, but remember what is before you, a crown of immortal glory, and run with patience and constancy the race that is appointed you; and, in your way to the prize, let there be no other contention, but who shall soonest reach the goal, and first lay hold of eternal life. And lest they should, conscious of their own spíritual impotence, be discouraged, he adds, For it is God that worketh in you, &c. Your work indeed, is great, your difficulties many; but if God is with you, he will give you a will, and furnish you with power, to perform what is acceptable to him.

Perhaps it will be said, that the words under consideration, relate to saints already renewed in the spirit of their mind, and so cannot, with propriety, be produced as an argument for the necessity of a Divine agency, in the conversion of a sinner. To this it might be answered, that it is no unusual thing, in the ological inquiries, to borrow a passage of Scripture, as an illustration, where it is not insisted on as a direct proof; but the instance before us, admitting it primarily may belong to believers, the consequence will be this, that either the sinner has more will to, and power for, that which is good, than the saint, or the same God, who works in the one, must also in the other, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. If a good man, who knows so much of his duty, who has been so long accustomed to the discharge of it, and so often tasted the sweets of communion with God, whilst en