boaft! Pfalm cxviii. 19. Open to me the gates of righteoufnefs,-this is the door,' &c. feldom efcapes being preffed into the fame fervice. If they happen upon fuch occafions to drop a word about the righteoufnefs of Chrift, you may expect to hear it upheld only as a pattern to your righteoufnefs; that, as he entered into heaven by his own perfect obedience, even fo might you, by the highest perfection of obedience which you can attain to, to wit, your fincere, though imperfect obedience, or endeavours after it; which is, they fay, your gospel-perfection, and which the new covenant, with many other things which the Holy Ghoft gives as little allowance for, admits of, according to them; I fay, according to them, if so be you will allow the scope of a whole fermon to explain itself.

The texts commonly made to ftand on the front' of fuch deftroying doctrines are fuch as these, all the words of the Lord Jefus fpeaking of himfelf; I de

light to do thy will, O my God-O how love I' thy law! Or, bearing witness to the righteousness of the law which he came to fulfil; As I live, faith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,' &c. The man that doeth these things fhall live by them.' Verily, verily, I fay unto · you, except your righteoufnefs fhall exceed the righteoufnefs of Scribes and Pharifees,' &c. or fome fuch paffage of a like fpirit, where a righteoufnefs is recommended, by which a man may have entrance given him into the kingdom of heaven.

As they make this righteousness in their texts fomething else, and not the very righteousness of the Lord Jefus Chrift, it is evident, that all their after-talk of fincerity, virtue, repentance, faith, (for faith is a name they muft deal in too, though they take away the fense of it, and give you one more fuitable to their own ideas), goodnefs of difpofition, and the like, can be nothing elfe but a round-about

way

way of bringing in an abfolute juggle, (not defigned, it may be, by them, but at leaft by the father of lies, who makes whom he may the venders of his abominations), a mere fhuffling, cutting, dealing, and playing, of a pack of unintelligible words.

The effect of those their doctrines of vanity, where they take place, may be compared to the admifion of a multitude of fwine into a garden full of precious roots and flowers. So have they ufed their endeavours to root up every precious thing in the book of Pfalms, and indeed in the whole word of God, as if they had received a commition to deal by the Scriptures as the Ifraelites did with regard to the land of Moab, To fmite every fenced city, and every choice city, and to fell every good tree, and to ftop all wells of water, and to mar every piece of good land with ftones.' Thus they utterly fpoiled the Moabites. And thus the end of thofe who are poffeffed with fuch a falfe fpirit of doc-, trine, except they be again difpoffeffed, may be reprefented by that herd who ran from the Gadarene mountains violently down a fleep place, and were all choaked in the fea..

They who have confcience for it, may call fuch, ones Chriftians, if they plcafe, and then, when they, have done fo, endeavour to fanctify Satan by calling. him Saint. But faints indeed will do well to confi-, der those words of their Lord, as they ftand in their own connection, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted fhall be rooted up.'

¢

There are the men who are for ever filling your ears with fomething or other about philofophers, Tully, Seneca, Socrates, the, divine Plato, as they call that other whom the devil at Delphos is faid to have deified, (honeft heathens, the wonderful things the light of nature teaches you!), the moral fenfe, the beautiful, the fublime, the decent, the fair, the handfome, and fometimes the το καλον and the το πρέπον,

(for

.

(for they love to speak plain!), with other ravings of the fame ftamp.

There is another, but in many refpects very different kind of men, indeed, whom you will find allo at the head of their thoufands and ten thousands, who do, verily, highly, as juftly, difapprove of those mifinterpretations of the Pfalms, and other fcriptures concerning righteoufness, &c. juft now mentioned, yet are by no means free themselves of fome fort of corrupt leaven; which fhews its malignity in them alfo, but in a different appearance from the former.

Obferve them only expatiating and enlarging upon their darling heads of fpiritual defertions, hidings of God's countenance, withdrawings of his favour, or a sense of it at times from his accepted dear children, doubts and fears about their eftate, darkness concerning their intereft in Chrift; which, with their other kindred topics of difcourfe, make up no small part of their doctrine and popularity.

To give a taste of this fame leaven: after thefe, or the like words, of the Lord Jefus have come in their way, In my profperity I faid, I fhall never be

moved: Lord, by thy favour thou haft made my ⚫ mountain to ftand ftrong. Thou didft hide thy face, • and I was troubled.' Thefe expreffions, the meaning whereof is not difficult to fee, when viewed in the light of the apoftolic teftimony, do they compare with, and illuftrate by that teftimony? No; but with the experiences of Job, who, in the day of his affliction, faid, O that it were with me as ' in months past, when the candle of the Lord fhined upon my head!' Is the caufe of Job's complaint a fecret? but whatever he feared, doubted, or complained of, it was not, certainly it was not, concerning his ftate with God, or his intereft in Chrift; feeing in that he triumphs, and in that only; faying, I know that my Redeemer liveth.-Though he flay

me, yet will I put my trust in him :-then fhall I < be at reft.'

They proceed next to David's experiences as what frequently happen, fay they, or may happen to all faints. How they trumpet forth that famous faying of his which he faid in his heart, One day I shall perish by the hand of Saul,' &c. If that of David had any relation to a believer's fears of falling into perdition, it is plain, that the reading of the fentence to the end, would have given the conclufion a quite contrary turn, being a proof, that, like David, they thought they fhould efcape, and not fall. Why do you trifle with us in the name of the Lord! Have we need of this? or, if fuch a doctrine is to be maintained, has it need to be maintained with such weapons?

They are now come to the Pfalms; and there, fee how they feize upon every strong figure of speech which the Holy Ghoft hath used, expreffive of the fufferings of Chrift, and of the following glory! Lo, how heartily, blindly, and boldly they apply them all as expreffive of the frames of the fpirits of David, Heman, and Afaph, in the times of their foul-trouble and fpiritual defertion; till at length, through their prayers, fupplications, faftings, and tears, they find a glorious outgate (as they speak) by a new and fenfible manifeftation! and these fame rifings and fallings in their spirits or frames, through the vain fuppofition that they were the experiences of mere mortals, are confidered, upheld, and afcertained, as fo many incontrovertible models or patterns of God's fovereign way of dealing with his children, whom the New Teftament fays, he fills with peace and joy in believing, fo that they even glory in God (which is not an accidental coming and going thing, but an effential permanent part of their character) through their Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom they have now received the atonement.

But

But those leaders, in diametrical opposition to the apostles, apply upon occafions to the faints and faithful in Chrift Jefus, all fuch paffages in the Pfalms as the following: My foul is fore vexed--The forrows of death compaffed me-The pains of hell got hold upon me Thine arrows ftick faft in me-Deep calleth unto deep at the noife of thy water-fpouts,: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me-Horror hath overwhelmed me: I fink in deep mire, where there is no ftanding-I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me I am like a pelican of the wildernefs-I have eaten afhes like bread, because thou haft lifted me up, and caft me down-The deep waters are come into my foul-My foul refufed to be comforted-I remembered the wormwood and the gall-I remembered God, and was troubled-While I fuffer thy terFors, I am diftracted,' or torn afunder- Will the Lord caft off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? -And doth his promife fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger fhut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I faid, this is mine infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High, &c. What ideas have thofe men of the power and operation of the Comforter upon the fpirits of the faints, when they think that their ftate, even at any juncture, may be described in the very fame language which defcribes the power and operation of God's wrath upon the spirit and body of their Redeemer, when flanding in their room, and drinking up for them that cup of bitterness which the Father had put into his hand, that they, in place thereof, might have a cup of falvation, thanksgiving, and eternal confolation, put into theirs?

O vain men, how came ye to make fad the hearts of thofe whom the Lord by the fadnefs of his heart b

hath