cursing them, and they spying out every mote in the eyes of others, and accusing and cursing others, as conscience accuses and curses them. "Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?" John vii. 19. They doat about the letter of the law, but are strangers to the spirituality of it; and, as for the glorious gospel of the blessed God, they cannot preach it. They may talk about the one God, about the Holy Trinity, and the trinity in unity; about the divinity of Christ, and of the unity of two natures in him; about the ancient settlements of eternity, and preach up what they may call the important doctrines of election and predestination, particular redemption, and effectual vocation, regeneration, justification, and sanctification, efficacious grace, and final perseverance, and yet at the same time be as destitute of the gospel of Christ as Satan himself. Men may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have the gift of prophesy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and yet be nothing, 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2. Yea more, be des

of the gospel; and

titute both of the law and have no more than the letter of the law and the word of the gospel. But the law is spiritual, and that is more than letter; and the gospel of the kingdom stands in power, and power is more than word.

The gospel is the power of God displayed in saving mankind. "For I am not ashamed of the

gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." This power removes the guilt and filth of sin; it subdues the reigning and destroying power of sin; it makes us free from the drudgery and slavery of it, and saves us from the bondage and curse of a broken law, and from the destructive tyranny of Satan. If this be the gospel of Christ, then an unpardoned minister of the letter, and an unpardoned professor, have no more of the gospel of Christ in them than Satan himself. Their profession is vain, and all letter preaching is vain, and all the presumptuous confidence that attends it is vain, because they are yet in their sins, 1 Cor. xv. 17.

2. The gospel is the ministration of reconciliation. "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation," 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. Pardoning love will excite love. Where much sin is forgiven the same sinner will love much. "We love him because he first loved us." Where no pardoning love is made manifest there is no love to God, and where there is no love to God there the carnal mind is enmity; and, where this enmity reigns, there can be no friendship with God. And what can the enemies of God have to do

with the gospel of reconciliation? Christ made all his disciples friends. "Henceforth I call you

not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you," John xv. 15. Our Lord's forerunner calls himself the friend of the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly, because of the bridegroom's voice," John iii. 29. Our Lord here shows the state of carnal men, that they are servants, and not sons; and, being legal servants, they are blinded by the old veil, They know not what the Lord doeth. And he hints that such are enemies, in opposition to these which he calls his friends; and informs them that he has used them as friends, by admitting them into the secrets of his heavenly Father's will; and having made them friends, he sends them forth with the ministry of reconciliation. And sure I am that nothing under heaven cuts a worse figure than a man in a pulpit, with an accusing conscience and a cursing law within; and a fallen countenance, feigned and fettered speech, a stinking savour of self, and flesh and blood without.

3. The gospel is a divine call to the enjoyment of divine holiness. "God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness," 1 Thess. iv. 7. And, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord," Heb. xii. 14. And our holiness is of God, and not of ourselves. God chastens us for

our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness, Heb. xii. 10; which stands in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you," 1 Cor. vi. 19. "As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them," 2 Cor. vi. 16. The Holy Spirit taking possession of the soul, he plants his delightful crop of heavenly grace therein, called the firstfruits of the Spirit, Rom. viii. 23. And which is an earnest of the glorious harvest, or the harvest of glory above. This delightful crop of divine grace is called the "And be renewed in the Spirit of

new man.

your mind.

mind. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," Ephes. iv. 23, 24. The principal graces that compose this new man, which is created in true holiness, are faith and love; and holiness is ascribed to both; hence you read, "But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life," Jude 20, 21. Thus the words, most holy, are ascribed to faith; and the same holiness is ascribed to love. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love," Ephes

. 4. This is what the scriptures call true holiness, in opposition to ceremonial, negative, or the spurious holiness which is preached up in the present day, and adorns the feigned hypocrites, who make it to consist in an external reformation, decent carriage, affected speech, a demure appearance, head notions, feigned faith, voluntary humility, and dissembled love; which swell the carnal mind with pride, and then they say, "Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou." "These," says God, "are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day," Isai. lxv. 5.

4. A preacher of the gospel is, or should be, a good steward of the manifold grace of God, 1 Pet. iv. 10. He is a partaker of the sovereign love of God, which is the fountain of all grace; he has obtained the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's grace, Ephes. i. 7. He is justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Rom. iii. 24. He is an heir of the grace of life, 1 Pet. iii. 7; is regenerated by the Spirit of grace; and this grace is abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. i. 14. He enjoys the reigning power of divine grace, which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, Rom. v. 21. And obtains everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, 2 Thess. ii. 16. And this grace works and labours in him mightily, and never sends forth a stinking savour, except it be in the nostrils of hypocrites. "I laboured more abun