almighty power and all-conquering grace of God that there is nothing in them to move God to do this for them, but every thing to the contrary-that God is at perfect liberty to have mercy on whom he will, according to his sovereign pleasure that it is reasonable to think that the same sovereign good pleasure, which moves him to be the author, will move him to be the finisher of our faith-that true faith, being thus specifically different from every counterfeit, may therefore be discerned and known, &c. But because I have already been larger than at first I designed, therefore I will omit these, and all other remarks which might be made; and will conclude, 2. With only this one observation, viz. That if these things be true, which have been said concerning the nature of faith and the way of salvation by free grace through Christ, and concerning that view of things which the true believer has, then nothing is more plain and evident than that the true believer must needs feel himself to be under the strongest obligations possible to an entire devotedness to GOD, and a life of universal holiness. Every thing meets, in that view of things which he has, to bind his soul forever to the Lord. One main design of the gospel was to make men holy; and it is, in its nature, perfectly well adapted to answer the end: For now all the natural obligations we are under to love God and live to him, are seen in a divine light; such as arise from the infinite excellence of the divine nature....God's entire right to us and authority over us: and their binding nature is exhibited in a more striking and affecting manner in the gospel than in the law ;-the cross of Christ gives a more lively representation of the infinite evil of sin than all the thunders of Mount Sinai: and a sight of our natural obligations are attended with a sense of all the additional sacred ties, arising from the infinite goodness of God to a guilty, ruined world, in providing a Savior....from the dying love of Christ....from the free gift of converting grace....from pardoning mercy....from God's covenant love and faithfulness, and from the raised expectations of eternal glory;-all which must join to beget a right sense of sin, as being a thing, in itself, the most unfit, unreasonable and wicked, as well as infinitely disin genuous and ungrateful to God, and concur to make it appear as the worst of evils....the most to be hated, dreaded, watched, and prayed against: And a humble heart, full of self-diffidence, and under a sense of the divine all-sufficiency, and in a firm belief of the truth of the gospel, will most naturally, and, as it were, continually apply itself, by faith and prayer, to God through Christ, to be kept from all sin, and to be preserved to the heavenly kingdom: so that those views which the true believer has, have the strongest tendency to universal holiness, and do naturally lay a solid foundation for it. And those views are not only maintained in a greater or less degree, from day to day, by the gracious influence of the holy spirit, which dwells in them; but are increasing and brightening through the course of their lives: so that as the grand design of the gospel is to make men holy, so it is pefectly well adapted, in its nature, to answer the end: And therefore he that is born of God sinneth not; and how shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? And such like scriptures must, in the nature of things, be found to be true, in the experience of every real believer. Nor can any but graceless hypocrites be emboldened, by the doctrines of free grace, to sin, as it were, upon free cost; and a double vengeance will they pull down upon their guilty heads. Particularly, the whole frame and tenor of the gospel naturally tends to excite us to an universal benevolence to mankind, in imitation of the infinite goodness of the divine nature—and even to be benevolent and kind to the evil and unthankful, and to those in whom there is no motive to excite our good will, but much to the contrary-and to love our enemies, and bless them that curse us, and do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us. It is impossible, when we see the infinite beauty of the self-moving goodness of the divine nature, as exercised in the whole affair of our redemption and salvation, towards creatures so infinitely vile, unworthy and ill-deserving, but that we should love that glorious goodness, and be changed into the same image, and have it become natural to us to love enemies, and forgive injuries, and be like God. A malicious christian, a spiteful believer, is the greatest contradiction and the most unnatural thing. That which has had no small hand in bringing the doctrines of grace into contempt in the world, as tending to entiousness, is partly because they have not been rightly understood, and partly through the wicked lives of graceless hypocrites, who have made a high profession. What remains now, therefore, but that the people of God, by holy and exemplary lives, should convince the world that these are doctrines according to godli ness? I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that ye present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service: for you are not your own, but bought with a price-and that not of silver and gold, but of the precious blood of the Son of God; and therefore live no more to yourselves, but to him that died for you: And be ye followers of God as dear children. Blessed be God for the unspeakable gift of his Son. AMEN. THE END. D Contents of the First Discourse. TRUE religic consists in a confor- | And our inability to perfect holiness mity to the law, and compliance with the gospel. Page 1 The law requires us to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbor as ourselves. 2 arises only from our badness. 100 Which badness we are voluntary in. 104 18 And delight. 131 133 134 And is in its own nature right and fit. 135 And enjoined by the authority of God. 136 Which effectual grace is dispensed according to God's sovereign good pleasure, and flows from his selfmoving goodness. 192 And it is natural to suppose, that he who in such wise begins this work, will carry it on, and so all true Saints persevere to the end. 197 That they must expect spiritual conflicts from remaining corruption. Is sin an infinite evil? and does it deserve an infinite punishment? 54 Can future obedience make the least amends for past sins? 58 60,95,211 65 56 Will the sinfulness and misery of the damned be forever increasing. Is the law abated? 199 Or wholly repealed? Yet assurance may be obtained. 202 What influence have false notions of These consequences are undeniable, the law on men's religion? . 66 if the premises, touching the na- What do Antinomians make their ture of the law, are true. rule of duty? But if the law is abated and altered, Are the threatenings of the law in force? Can a man, merely from self-love,love God more than himself? 209 the whole scheme is undermined. as much. 210 216 And so is the whole gospel-revelation the next 221 223 68 70 93 Is our impotency only moral? . 94 Are we to blame for our spiritual blindness? 99 104 Or for our corrupt nature? ners to take all the blame to themselves, and justify GoD. 110 Do true believers feel themselves wholly to blame for not being per fectly holy? 111 Does God's withholding the sanctifying influences of his holy spirit lessen our blame? 114 Why does the scripture, in some places, speak of the external ad |