ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." They did not believe that "the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." They supposed, that his benevolent regard to their nation, excluded all his benevolent regard to all other nations. They had no idea of his disinterested and universal benevolence; and were therefore entirely ignorant of his inflexible justice, and sovereign mercy. When Christ preached in the congregation of Nazareth upon the doctrine of divine sovereignty in saving some and not others, "All they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill, (whereon their city was built,) that they might cast him down headlong." And when Paul taught the doctrine of Election and Reprobation, they complained and were ready to say, "Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will ?" This was tantamount to saying, that the doctrine of Election and Reprobation destroyed man's free agency and accountability. The apostle had clear, personal knowledge, that his Jewish brethren were grossly ignorant of the moral character, the holy designs, and benevolent government of God, and therefore could have no right affections towards him.

2. They were no less ignorant of the Law, than of the character of God. The divine law is a transcript of the divine character. It expresses the very heart of God, or his holy, benevolent feelings towards all the moral subjects of his moral kingdom. Those, therefore, who are ignorant of God's moral character, must be equally ignorant of his moral law. The precept of the law expresses what God loves and approves; and the penalty of the law expresses what God hates and condemns. As God is possessed of pure, perfect, disinterested benevolence, so he must love and approve of pure, disinterested benevolence, and hate and condemn all selfishness. Accordingly, we find that the precept of his law requires pure, disinterested love to God and man, and forbids all partial, mercenary, selfish affections. But as the Jews were ignorant of the pure holiness, righteousness, and benevolence of God; so they were equally ignorant of the holiness, righteousness, and spirituality of both the precept and penalty of the divine law. Christ, in his sermon on the mount, reproved and condemned them for their gross ignorance of the divine law. He told them, that the divine law required them to love God supremely, and their neighbor as themselves; and to do to others as they would that others should do to them. He told them, that the divine law primarily and supremely respected their hearts, and not merely

their external conduct, as they believed and maintained. He said to them, "Well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." "Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." The amiable young man, that said he had kept the whole law from his youth up, was totally ignorant of that pure, disinterested love, which the divine law required of him. And Paul, while he was a Pharisee, was equally ignorant of what the precept of the divine law required. For he was confident, that in respect to the righteousness of the law, "he was blameless," or had perfectly obeyed it. He did not discover his gross ignorance, until he understood the prohibition, "Thou shalt not covet ;" or exercise selfishness. Then he was convinced, that he had been destitute of that disinterested love, which the law of God requires. He knew, therefore, by his own experience, that his Jewish brethren were entirely ignorant of the law, as well as of the moral character of God; which authorized him to tell them, that they were in a graceless and perishing condition.

3. The apostle's Jewish brethren were grossly ignorant of the depravity and criminality of their own hearts. This was the necessary consequence of their ignorance of God and of the divine law. They did not know that the divine law required pure disinterested love to God and man, and therefore did not know, that every selfish affection of their hearts and every selfish action of their lives, was a transgression of the divine law, and deserved eternal death. The Pharisee that went up to the temple to pray, felt no guilt, and feared no danger, and only thanked God for his discriminating goodness. None of that sect knew they were spiritually blind, and deaf, and dead in trespasses and sins, under a sentence of condemnation by the divine law, and exposed to endless ruin. Hence Christ said on a certain occasion, "For judgment I am come into this world; that they which see not might see, and that they which see, might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." Paul acknowledges, that while he was a Pharisee, he was entirely ignorant of the total depravity, selfishness and criminality of his own heart, and of his just desert of that eternal death which the holy law of God threatened to every transgressor of it. "What shall we say then? Is the law sin?

God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law:

for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Paul here, by describing the ignorance of his own heart, while in the state of nature, has described the ignorance of his Jewish brethren, in respect to their depravity, guilt, and desert of eternal death. And therefore he knew, that such ignorance as he once had of his own heart, and such ignorance as his Jewish brethren had then, was totally inconsistent with their having any true love to God, or any true obedience to his law, or any true submission to his holy and absolute sovereignty. This knowledge of them gave him a right to believe that they were not visible saints, but visible sinners, and in a graceless and perishing condition.

4. Paul's Jewish brethren were grossly ignorant of the divinity and character of Christ as Mediator. He came to his own, but his own knew him not and received him not. Though the Jews were his peculiar people, to whom he had committed his sacred oracles, which contain numerous and plain predictions and descriptions of his incarnation, sufferings, and death; yet they viewed him as a mere man, and a very bad man. They charged him with breaking the Sabbath, with working miracles by the assistance of Satan, and with blasphemy by professing to be the Son of God, one with God, and equal to God. When Christ had cured the impotent man on the Sabbath, "the Jews sought to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father." When he had cast out a devil from one who was blind and dumb, the Pharisees said, "This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." When Jesus said to the Jews, "Verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am, then took they up stones to cast at him." And when Christ said, "I and my Father are one, then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." And for this crime their civil and ecclesiastical rulers con

demned him to die. The apostle ascribes this instance of their conduct to their ignorance of his divinity and mediatorial character: "For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

Hence,

5. They were grossly ignorant of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, through the atonement of Christ. As they were ignorant of Christ, as God-man, mediator, so they were necessarily ignorant of the atonement he made for the sins of the world, by his sufferings and death on the cross. Of course, they were entirely ignorant of the doctrine of pardon or justification, through his atoning blood. This ignorance of justification by faith alone, on the ground of Christ's atonement, they plainly manifested, by going about to establish their own righteousness, and refusing to submit unto the righteousness of God, displayed on the cross by Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. They desired and expected to be justified by the works of the law, and not by faith in Christ. They were as ignorant of the way of salvation through faith in Christ as mediator, as the heathen who never heard of Christ. The apostle knew that they could not be justified by faith without the deeds of the law, in their present state of ignorance, and of consequence, that they could not be justified at all, but were under a sentence of condemnation to eternal death. Their ignorance of God, of his law, of their own hearts, of the divinity and character of Christ, and of the terms of salvation, through faith in him, was a sufficient reason why the apostle should view them as totally destitute of saving grace.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. It appears from Paul's manner of judging in respect to the real character of his Jewish brethren, how we ought to judge of the real piety of all professors of religion. He judged whether they were in the state of nature, or in the state of grace, in the most candid and unprejudiced manner. He sincerely desired and prayed that they might be the subjects of saving grace. His sincere benevolence disposed him to judge

in the most candid and favorable manner that their case could admit. He allowed they professed to love God; that they were constant and even punctilious in their external obedience to his commands; and that they were very zealous in their religious devotions, and in their exertions to promote what they considered the cause of religion. He observed and admitted

everything in their character and conduct, that had the appearance of true religion or vital piety. But putting all these favorable things in one scale, and their gross ignorance of the essential doctrines of the gospel in the other, he was constrained to believe that they were entirely destitute of vital piety or saving grace. The apostle was unbigoted, unprejudiced, uncensorious, and entirely candid, in forming this unfavorable opinion of his Jewish brethren. And this example of his, we all ought to follow in judging of the internal, vital piety of the professors of religion, in any and every denomination of Christians. We ought to feel truly benevolent towards them, and sincerely desire their spiritual and eternal good, and admit everything amiable and virtuous in their character and conduct; but if there appears any one thing in their character and conduct, which is not compatible with their having saving grace or vital piety, we ought to view them not as visible saints, but as visible sinners, in a guilty and perishing condition. There was but one thing that destroyed the apostle's charity towards his Jewish brethren; and that was something totally incompatible with true love to God and Christ. There are now various denominations of Christians, who exhibit every mark of piety but one thing, and at the same time exhibit one thing that is totally inconsistent with the least spark of saving grace. Of such, if we are really candid and unprejudiced, we must form the same unfavorable opinion that the apostle did of his Jewish brethren. And, in such a case, we ought not to be called bigoted, prejudiced, or censorious, in believing them to be entirely destitute of the grace of God. I know that many say, we ought to believe that every person in every religious denomination, who professes religion and lives a regular life, is a real saint; but Paul did not think so, nor say so: and we have no right to think so, nor say so. We ought to be candid in judging of the piety of others, and at the same time we ought to be impartial, and judge righteous judgment. One religious denomination have the same right to judge candidly and impartially of the piety of any other religious denomination, that Paul had to judge of the piety of his Jewish brethren; and if they do judge candidly and impartially on this very interesting subject, there is no more reason to call them bigoted and censorious, in case they judge unfavorably, than there was to call the apostle so.

2. It appears from this discourse, that gross ignorance of the essential doctrines of the gospel is totally incompatible with vital piety: The apostle believed this to be true, and acted accordingly. Though his Jewish brethren professed to be reli