That we may receive the full benefit of what Christ hath in these two respects done for us, two things are required on our part-repentance and faith.

The necessity of repentance appears not only from its nature, being the effect of godly sorrow for sin, and of a firm resolution to forsake it; but also from the many declarations in the Bible respecting it. The Holy Baptist, who, in the spirit and power of Elias, prepared the way of the Lord, fulfilled his mission by the preaching and baptism of repentance: "Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand: Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance."* And, a greater than John, the Lord Christ himself, who certainly knew best the end for which he came into the world, and the fittest means to accomplish it, began his preaching with the same solemn call; "The kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the Gospel."†

The necessity of faith appears not only from the last cited text, and from what St. John hath said, "As many as received him, to them gave he power," the right or privilege, "to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on his name ;" but from the declaration of Christ to the Jews, "This is the work of God," that work which he endeavoureth to accomplish by my coming, "that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." That we might be at no loss to know on whom they were required to believe, he said, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."

If, now, repentance and faith be necessary to our admission into the kingdom of heaven, the Church of Christ in this world, which is the lowest sense of that expression; and, to give us, through Christ, the privilege of becoming the sons of God, and heirs of everlasting salvation; for in that sense only have we everlasting life in this world; then repentance and faith must be necessary to our continuance in that state-to preserve our privilege of being the sons of God, and heirs of everlasting glory; then also must repentance and faith be necessary to our finally obtaining that heavenly inheritance of which we are now

* Matt. iii. 2, 8. † Mark i. 15. + John i. 12. § John vi. 29, 47.

heirs through hope-God's kingdom of glory and happiness in the world to come-which is the highest sense of the phrase, the kingdom of heaven.

For let it be remembered, that the end of Christ's mediation is two-fold. One is to reconcile God to us, by making atonement for our sins; the other is to reconcile us to God by repentance and faith, "that henceforth we should not serve sin:"* One is to give us power to become the sons of God, and heirs of eternal life with God; the other to excite and enable us to live in that holiness and purity which become those who are endowed with so exalted a privilege: One to open to us the kingdom of heaven; the other to make us capable of enjoying it.

No state can make us happy, unless we have a capacity of enjoying its pleasures. We could not enjoy the happiness of this world, did not our bodily senses and appetites give us a relish for the pleasures of the world. Neither can we enjoy the happiness of heaven, unless holy tempers and dispositions give us a relish for those pleasures which flow at God's right hand. An ox would find no happiness in a prince's palace. He has no appetite nor relish for its pleasures; but in the midst of gay company, rich furniture, and magnificent entertainments, he would pine for his grass and hay. Before he could there be happy his nature must be changed. He must lose his relish for the enjoyments of a brute, and get a taste suitable to the pleasures of a palace. There is the same necessity that the nature of the wicked man be changed, to make him capable of heavenly happiness; or, like the brute in a palace, he will be uneasy and pining for something which cannot there be found.

It is for this reason that we are commanded to imitate God, to be followers of him as dear children, to walk in love, to preserve ourselves in purity, to perfect holiness in the fear of God; namely, that, obtaining a taste and capacity for heavenly enjoyments through the operation of his Spirit, we may live with him in happiness and glory forever. Therefore, too, are we told that Baptism, by

* See Rom. vi. 2 Cor. v. 17, to the end, and vi. 1,

which we are taken into the Church of Christ, is a figure of his death; and representeth to us, that as he died and rose again for us, so we who are baptised should die from sin, and live unto righteousness, and be made like unto him by continually mortifying our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living.

Then will the end of Christ's manifestation be fully an swered in us. We shall be no longer of the devil, because we no longer do his works; but shall be set free from his tyranny, and from the bands of those sins which, through our own frailty or his instigations, we have committed: And, being animated by the Holy Spirit, shall walk in newness of life; doing all those good works which God hath prepared for us to live in, that we may be conformed to the image of his Son in this world, and be made partakers of his glory in the world to come.

DISCOURSE XIV.

NO RESPECT OF PERSONS WITH GOD.

ROM. ii. 28, 29.

He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God.

To see the force of what the apostle hath remarked in the text, we must attend to the design and manner of his reasoning in this and the foregoing chapter.

His design was to convict the world of sin; that is, to convince all men that they are sinners, and on that account are under the sentence of condemnation from the justice of God: And that, from this condeinnation, nothing can deliver them but the atonement of Christ.

At the time of his writing this Epistle, the whole world consisted either of Jews who were the worshippers of the true God, or of Gentiles who were idolaters of various descriptions. He begins with the latter, and proves them to be sinners and under condemnation on account of their idolatry and immorality. They worshipped the creatures instead of the Creator, and gave that glory which was due to the invisible God only, to the works of his hands: Their "heart was darkened;" they "became vain in their imaginations;" they were " filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, deceit, contention," &c. He brings no accusation against the Gentiles, on account of their transgressing any precepts of divine revelation, for none had been made to them--no express law had been given to them. But they had acted against the light of natural reason and

conscience—the law of God written in their hearts: They did not "like to retain God in their knowledge;" wherefore he gave them up to a reprobate mind-a mind void of judgment—to worship the host of heaven and dead heroes; and to work all unrighteousness and "uncleanness with greediness."

This mode of reasoning would not lie against the Jews. They were the worshippers of the true God. He had given them a particular Revelation and Law for the rule of their conduct, and for the celebration of his worship. They were the descendants of Abraham the friend of God. They were the chosen people of God; who had made many great promises to them. On these privileges they valued themselves highly; and of their Law they were zealous to superstition. Whatever became of the Gentiles, the Jews thought themselves safe, and so secure of the favour of God, that they could not fall under his condemnation.

The apostle, therefore, attacks them on different ground; and observes, that as "there is no respect of persons with God," he "will render to every man according to his deeds:" That" as many as have sinned without the law"without being under any revealed law to direct them, which was the case of the Gentiles-" shall perish without law"-shall be condemned when they are judged; not by the law of revelation, which they had not; but by the law of reason and conscience. And" as many as have sinned under the law" of revelation, "shall be judged by that law;" and, if guilty of transgressing it, shall be condemned; because not the hearers, but the doers of the law are justified before God. If, therefore, the Jews, under their law of revelation, were guilty of the same, or similar crimes with the Gentiles under the law of reason and conscience-the law written in their hearts-they stood as much exposed to the sentence of God's justice as the Gentiles did.

He then proceeds to prove that the Jews were equally sinners with the Gentiles; and were inexcusable, to condemn them for their idolatry and immorality, while they