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On viewing these scenes of horror, and this melancholy ftate of confufion, infinite goodness without any other motive, to engage the affections of his people, and render himself an object of their love, and higheft veneration, fent his only fon, from heaven; to acquaint them with their danger, and whom to apply to, for help and deliverance. The intention of which was, to destroy every degree of vice, and every fpecie of corruption in our hearts, as the best expedient, to bend the stubborn wills of finful men, and render them capable of ruling vitiated defires; of preferving the rights of confcience pure, and its faithful dictates inviolable. When men are refcued from the malignant diseases of fin, and influenced by the fuggeftions of undefiled reason, and the motions of God's unerring fpirit, they will not only perceive the beauty and propriety of chriftian precepts, and their fitness to promote unchangeable goodnefs; but the impoffibility alfo, of recovering their primitive rectitude, without forfaking their former licentious courses, and leading new and better lives for the future. For if our minds are not feasoned with piety, and a resemblance of God in holiness is neglected, we, after fuch illuftrious inftances of mercy, fhall be rendered wholly inexcufable,

comprehenfive paffage, Titus ii. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, lay chiefly on his mind, and moft remarkably affected his foul. "The grace of God that bringeth falvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying ungodlinefs and worldly lufts, we should live foberly, righteoufly and godly in this prefent world, looking for that bleffed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our faviour, Jefus Chrift, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. These things fpeak and exhort and rebuke with all authority."

excufable, and fubject to the perpetual rebukes and menaces of confcience. For we without unfeigned forrow of heart, and timely repentance, fhall continue in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Confideration on the divine purity, and the unchangeableness of God's holy nature, will fatisfy every serious ftudious perfon, that whatever methods men propofe, or different fchemes purfue, unless they steadily adhere to such as the deity has prescribed and appointed, they will lofe fight of their heavenly guide; fit down in the fearful fhades of darkness, and in the gloomy horrors of death.

Obftinate offenders that oppose the doctrines of christianity, cannot poffibly avoid the feverest reflections, and the fharpeft cenfures of infinite wisdom, but are obnoxious to the anger of divine omnipotence, and liable to forfeit the undeferved and inconceivable mercies of redemption. Nothing is more clear to honeft enquirers, than that the gospel abounds with inftances of God's love and his fpecial regard for penitential tranfgreffors, which is moft excellently expreffed, to fill their fouls with the attractive and lovely charms of virtue, and all that bleffedness their reasonable natures are capable of, and were originally defigned for. All which stupendous mercies, and the unspeakable riches of divine grace, Chrift has purchased for them; not with fuch corruptible or perishable things as filver and gold, but with his own precious blood, as of a lamb without fpot and without blemish; that our faith and hope might not reft in man, but in the mighty power of God. So that if our Lord's injunctions

are

are defpifed, and the wife defigns of providence contradicted, we reproachfully follow our vain imaginations, fpurn at the kindness of our munificent benefactor, and contumelioufly treat his favours, and the bleffed means of everlasting falvation. By thus rejecting the gospel mode of falvation, and the free unmerited favours refulting from it, we foolishly oppose our own happiness, and pursue the dark inchantments of fin; the enfnaring demands of luft, and every other injurious and pernicious paffion. That we may shun thefe fatal allurements, and the infeparable miferies that are joined to them, and that will follow an intimacy with them; our Lord in the tender bowels of compaffion, forewarns us of evil folicitations, and the deftructive confequences of yielding to them, and affures us that if his benign invitations,and inftructions,are arrogantly flighted, we, after fuch an obftinate refufal, can receive no fpiritual advantages, from those bright difcoveries of pardon and forgiveness, which are

the

* The pious and judicious Dr. Scot thus affirms, God never impofes laws on us pro imperio, as arbitrary tefts and trials of our obedience, nor exacts them of us to ferve himself, or to advance his own intereft and greatnefs; but the chief defign of them is to do us good, to render our lives placid and eafy, and to perfect and glorify our natures. This if we firmly believe, will infinitely encourage our obedience. For when I am fure God commands me nothing, but what my own health, eafe, and happiness requires, and that every law of his is both a neceffary and fovereign prescription, against the difeafes of my nature, and that he could not prescribe less than he hath, without being defective in his care and recovery of my happinefs; with what prudence and modesty can I grudge to obey him, when I ferve myfelf by it, to the nobleft and beft Purposes in the world. Scot's chriftian life, part the 2d, vol. 1, chap. 4, 173, 144.

the pure effects, of God's difinterested love, and cal-
culated for the fole good of his creatures. Because
they are designed as rational helps, and as fove-
reign Remedies, to revive and comfort the bro-
ken hearted, and thofe that are oppreffed with
forrow; not only believers of the Jewish nation,
but also thofe among the Gentiles, to gather to-
gether the Children of God, and incorporate them
into one holy community; that being delivered
from pagan darkness, and the impure worship
of falle deities, they may be prefented without fpot
or wrinkle, and unblameable in the fight of that
God; who is of purer eyes than to behold ini-
quity. So that unless our natures are fanctified,
and we are become new creatures, and breathe
after heaven, and the fruition of heavenly things,
our fouls will naturally cleave to the earth, and
perifh in the giddy mazes and reiterated rounds
of animal delights. For though Christ volun-
tarily died for finners, yet the fpiritual privileges,
and faving benefits of his death, belong to none
but fuch, as are washed from their fins in his
blood, and apparently manifest its fovereign vir-
tues, by an intire fubmiffien to the divine will,
and the refulgent light of divine revelation and
therefore if we do not conform to its efficacious
precepts, and religiously obferve its invariable
and reasonable commands, we shall never feel
its vital
power and
energy in perfecting that ho-
linefs, without which we fhall never fee the
Lord. Or if we turn his grace into wantonness,
we cannot maintain the quiet poffeffion of ourselves,
nor the celeftial communications of our God:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall fee

God,

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God, the exclufion of all others is determined, and there is no revoking this decree, nor any other of God's immutable purposes. The righteoufnefs of the kingdom is the direct and certain way of entering into it. A few good actions performed now and then, i. e. fuch as are compatible with our fecular affairs, or convenient to fupport our temporal concerns, are not available: but a fteady uniform courfe of obedience, when actuated by true faith and the love of God, will render us meet for glory, and our happy abode in eternity, where nothing that is unclean or unholy fhall ever enter. This would appear moft obvious, from reading our faviour's fermon on the mount, fuch a fermon for divine and facred wisdom, as the world never heard before; where in the moft perfpicuous language, we may discover what difpofitions are requifite, to prepare our fpirits for mercy, at the final day of retribution; by having thofe duties beautifully ranged in order, and cleared of all thofe falfe gloffes, which the fcribes and pharifees put upon it. The tenor and scope of which, is to teach mankind to be holy, and all that profefs the name of Jefus, to avoid the impure and foul embraces of fin, and to depart from all iniquity. That which gives the gospel scheme the pre-eminence, and renders it infinitely preferable to all others, is the purity and excellency of its precepts, but if thofe precepts are perverted, or employed to advance fuch purposes, as God in his providence never intended, we debafe our intellectual natures, and greatly injure ourselves, for he that finneth against God, wrongeth his own foul. It

is