made it honorable;" who " redeemed him from the curse of the law, being made a curse for him." But "without Christ he could do nothing, and was nothing;" and he was constrained, in answer to the question, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" to reply, "Not one."

2. Another candidate for heaven, whose pretensions it may not be amiss to scan, is the religious formalist. He tells us, that he is punctiliously religious-his prayers and his alms-his church and his closet -the baptismal font and the sacramental table, all testify to the fairness and fullness of his claims to "sit in heavenly places." But Jehovah long ago weighed characters of this description and pronounced them wanting. Heartless forms without heartfelt experience will not answer. He had a people, who, in the days of Jeremiah, exclaimed with no small confidence, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these." To this people, then, before and afterwards, thus "trusting in man and making flesh their arm;" thus "sacrificing to their own net and burning incense to their own drag," he had occasion to say, in the language of reproof and rebuke, by one prophet, "rend your heart and not your garments ;" by another, "to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Bring no more vain oblations: your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me: I am weary to bear them." "Ye that compass yourselves about with sparks of your own kindling, and walk in the light of your own fires, this shall ye have at my hand : ye shall lie down in sorrow." And "God manifest in the flesh," when on earth, found the posterity of the same people bolstering their frail and fallacious hopes upon a similar plea—" We have Abraham to our father." "Whose mouth he stopped," and whose vanity he suppressed, by adding, "God is able even of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." Thus, too, boasted the Laodicean church, in reference to her fair, but superficial, exterior—“I am rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing." And with similar fidelity, the Searcher of hearts prostrated her pride, by the allegation, "thou art poor, and miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked," and ignorant, for "thou knowest it not." Thus must all, who "have a form of godliness," but "deny" or dislike "the power," expect, when "weighed in the balances," to be "found wanting."

He is that

3. Let us next examine the claims of the Antinomian. kind of religionist, who sets the gracious gospel of Christ in opposition to the moral law of God; as if the former was intended, or at least calculated, to undermine, vacate, or destroy the latter. In direct subversion of such a theory, the author of Christianity gives the caution, plain, strong and salutary, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." The

let me

tenor of the antinomian's life, if not the direct language of his lips, is, "continue in sin that grace may abound." There is a spirit, akin to antinomianism, seriously at work in the hearts of not a few who make no profession of religion, under the influence of which, they remain contented without any visible acknowledgment of religious truth, and mingled with the "world which lies in wickedness." They make the doctrines of the Gospel, misunderstood or perverted by themselves, their plea for refusing or declining to embrace its truth, and to swear allegiance to its author. They make no effort to obtain salvation, because they know not before-hand, that, in the purpose of Heaven, they have been "chosen to salvation." They conclude, that if they are so chosen, when the time arrives, they will be brought into the fold, and need feel no uneasiness at present, at being out of it. And that if they are not the objects of this previous choice, they may as well eat, drink, and be merry:" for do what they may, they must die. Such however most cautiously avoid carrying their principle out into the affairs of "the life which now is." If sick, and apprehending dissolution, though this principle might save them much expense from the physician's charge-much distress from the nauseous taste and painful operation of medicine-they nevertheless employ the man of medical skill, and that without knowing, or waiting to ascertain, how the decree of God has decided in the case. If one of this class is engaged in agriculture, he ploughs and sows, weeds, waters and manures, without inquiring whether God has decreed him a crop or not. If in mercantile employ, he studies the state of the market, inquires how he may most advantageously "buy and sell, and get gain ;" and so of other avocations.

Now, unless the adopter of this principle in religious things, apply it also to the affairs of his vocation or profession in the world, what a singular, what a contradictory aspect will he exhibit at the judgmentseat of Christ! It will appear, that, where the subject was distasteful, his principle was tenaciously adhered to, where agreeable and palatable, it was dispensed with, and then he set himself at work to accomplish his projected object, as though omnipotence were his attribute, and the very decrees of God might be set at defiance. O, what a contradiction is sinful, erring man-what an insoluble enigma, the human heart!

But view next the antinomian professor in the church. Having entered Zion's sacred inclosure, he fancies all is well, it becomes his privilege to sin, at least by omissions of duty, if not by commission of positive trespasses. He is now "in Christ Jesus," and cannot be lost, nor incur condemnation. See this professor in his family. Though negligent of domestic devotions; though dispensing with family government, at least in its religious department; though practically dissenting from Joshua, who determined "as for me and my house we will serve the

Lord"-from Abraham, of whom God testified, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him"-from Hannah, who gave her Samuel to the Lord, before he was born and all his life after—from Lois the grandmother, and Eunice, the mother, who began with their Timothy when quite a child, rearing him up to bless the church of God, and to illustrate the truth, "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it"-he notwithstanding hopes, when "weighed in the" final "balances, he will not be found wanting."

View this professor again in his intercourse with the world. Carrying out his principle, where he can render it subservient to his secular interests, he soon renders the men of the world fearful of coming, in matters of business, into contact with him-preferring much to transact their affairs even with men of their own unpretending, irreligious stamp, than to have commercial intercourse with him. Can it be said of such men, that they are even "not far from the kingdom of God?" "Weighed in" Jehovah's equitable "balances," they must inevitably "be found wanting." What claimants for eternal life still remain ? We may specify,

4. That large class, in the fourth place, who call themselves, the sincere, the candid and the charitable. Give me but the fact, says the individual ranged under this classification, that my neighbor is sincere in his belief, and I ask no more-I inquire not what that belief is-I am satisfied he is on the road to heaven. God is pleased with the great variety of worship that his creatures pay him, whether under the denomination of " Jehovah, Jove, or Lord." If the pagan mother be sincere in the sacrifice, let her give her first-born to the jaws of the fishes of prey-the fruit of her body to the waters of the Ganges. If the Jew be sincere, let him rave at the name of " Jesus of Nazareth," whom Christians adore, leave his Bible unexplored and sit at the feet of the Rabbi. If the Papist be sincere, let him close his eyes and ears to the Scriptures, and submit both his understanding and conscience to priestly domination and control, unbar the door of the Inquisition and expose heretics to its fury. If the Protestant be sincere, let one say, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." Let another give glory only to the Father, dethrone the Son, and make a mere attribute of the Holy Ghost. The wings of this man's charity are sufficiently broad and strong to waft them all to heaven!

But if sincerity be all that is necessary to render a man's religion right, how ridiculous a part was acted by Saul of Tarsus, in exchanging his Judaism for Christianity. If he could honestly say, "I verily thought I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus o' Nazareth," why did he not go on to "waste the church of Christ ?"

Why should he exchange the feet of Gamaliel for the feet of Jesus?— the temple of Jerusalem for the jail of Philippi?-the countenance of the priesthood for their menaces and frowns ?-the honors, emoluments, and prospects which belonged to him, as "an Hebrew of the Hebrews," for the prisons and deaths, which awaited him as a Christian ?-Why sacrifice a name unblemished, and a reputation untarnished among his own people, to be regarded and treated as "the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things?"

But Paul made the discovery, and happily for him he made it so seasonably, that even sincerity might be the high way to perdition. When celebrating the grace, that snatched him, in the midst of his sincerity, "as a brand from the burning"-when telling the world, he sought to convert, of the true, faithful, and worthy to be received saying, that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"-he could not rest till he added in the language of severe self-reprehension, "of whom I am chief." Hear him when in bonds, in the presence and subject to the power of his enemies-hear him at Agrippa's bar, appealing to his enemies and challenging investigation into his former life" My manner of life from my youth, which was at first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." If they would testify. They were silent under this appeal; they would not testify for him, and they could not testify against him. Was not such a man sincere ?

But when he looks at heaven, on what does he ground his hope of entrance there? On his morality, his forms, his duties, his services, his sincerity? On not one, or all of these. In the matter of expectation and dependance, he does with this as the mariner, in danger of shipwreck deals with his most precious cargo. To preserve his vessel and save his life, such a mariner throws all else overboard. Thus, Paul, aware that nothing but the Redeemer's atoning blood was capable of securing the best man in the world from spiritual and eternal shipwreck, clings to the cross of Christ and lets all else go. "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ, yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Away then with sincerity, as in itself alone a competent ground of human hope; it must be that sincerity which consists in the belief of evangelical truth. "Sanctify them through thy truth," prays Jesus to his Father, "thy word is truth."

Do you inquire now, with the astonished disciples, "Who then can be saved?" A satisfactory answer to this inquiry is all important, and shall be next attempted. We observe then,

The really penitent belong to that number. Repentance is necessary for all; otherwise he who was "exalted on high as a Prince and a Saviour," in order to give it, would not have "commanded all men every where to repent;" nor have given to his disciples an order so universal and unqualified in its application, as that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." All men are in themselves sinners, and this is in itself the reason, why in the first instance all are "found wanting." For sin consists not only in the " transgression of the law," but in "coming short of the glory of God." "God has concluded all under sin." "Every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." Such is universally man's character, and in reference to this character, and in recommendation of the feeling that becomes it, it is written, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit—a broken and a contrite heart he will not despise." "To this man," it is testified, "will he look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trenibleth at his word." Let the true, genuine penitent then be "weighed in the balances, and he will not be found wanting."

Again the sincere evangelical believer answers the same description; he that, besides exercising "repentance towards God, also exhibits "faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ." How ample and various are the testimonies on this point. Among them the following constitute but a few. "He that believeth shall be saved." "He that believeth on the Son of God is not condemned." "Whosoever believeth on him hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." But what is faith? That question is most important. Faith, as it relates to all other subjects, is an affair of the head alone; but as it relates to the religion of the gospel, the religion that issues in salvation, it involves the heart also. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." There is a faith resting on facts; and implying the attachment of credibility to them—this is called historical faith. There is a faith that receives theoretical principles of truth, and is confined to mental action in reference to them-this is speculative faith. Both are necessary, but yet not sufficient, to secure a man from the charge of "being found wanting." To them must be superadded an exercise that implies the attachment of the heart, and as its result, the right ordering of the life. The head may be filled with orthodoxy, and yet the heart be engrossed and the life overrun with heterodoxy. Every truth of the Bible may be believed, simply because the evidence is so plain upon the page of revelation, that it cannot be resisted, and "he who runs must read it." And yet these truths, plain and palpable as they are, may not be received "in the love of them," into "good and honest hearts." James represents the devils themselves as