It must however be remembered, that though the exercise of these holy dispositions is pleasing and acceptal)le to God, it is not meritorious in itself; nor can it found a claim for our justification before God. A reward, it is true, will be given us ; but it is '' a reward of grace, and not of debt." It is in Christ only that we can have a justifying righteousness; never- theless our works will be regarded as the evidences of our faith: if our faith wrought in the way above mentioned, we shall be acknowledged as Christ's redeemed people ; but if it did not, it will be considered as dead ; and we shall be cast out as hypocrites and self-deceivers.]
Suffer now a word of exhortation. Two things we intreat of you ;
1 . To labour for practical religion —
[There are many professors of religion who love to hear of the privileges of the Lord's people, but not to hear of their duties ; and they call such subjects as the foregoing, legal : but they who do so, understand neither what legality isj nor what the Gospel is. Legality is a leaning, either in whole or in part, to the works of the law to justify us before God : and if we encou- raged that, we might justly be regarded as abandoning and sub- verting the Gospel of Christ. But, when we teach persons to fear the Lord, and, from a desire of his favour in Christ, and from a dread of his displeasure, to approve ourselves to God in the whole of their life and conversation, we do only what the Apostles of our Lord also did: for St. Peter quotes the very words of our text in the precise way in which we have insisted upon them": and therefore we are sure that an attention to them becomes us under the Gospel. We further say, that the people who set themselves up forjudges in this way are ignorant also of the Gospel. The Gospel consists of two parts, doctrine and practice, just as a house consists of a foundation and a su- perstructure. But who would choose a place for his habitation that has a foundation indeed, but neither walls nor roof? or who would call such a structure a house P So doctrines, however sound, will not answer the ends of the Gospel, nor can they be properly called the Gospel, unless they stand connected with good works as issuing from them and built upon them. The doctrines are the foundation ; the good works are the superstruc- ture : and then only are the doctrines available for our salvation, when they operate to the production of universal holiness. This is the account which our blessed Lord himself gives of his Go- spel : and he alone is truly wise, who embraces and builds upon it in this view".]
2. To cultivate a child-like spirit —
[We " 1 Pet. iii. 10—12. ° Matt. vii. 24—27.
355.] THE sinner's hope. '105
[We have addressed you as "children:" and though there may be many present who are " young men and fathers," yet must we say, that an advance towards Christian perfection will always be manifested by a proportionate growth in humility. Our blessed Lord told his Apostles, that whoever amongst them most fully attained the tempers and dispositions of a " little child, the same would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Let your growth then be seen in this way : then, whatever be taught you, it will be " received with meekness, as an engrafted word, able and effectual to save your souls." Indeed without this disposition of mind no man can have that " honest and good heart," which alone will nourish the seed that is sown in it, and enable it to " bring forth fruit unto perfection."
To those who are really but young in age, a teachable spirit is indispensable to their improvement. O let such listen to the voice of their teachers with humility and gratitude ! let them especially also look unto the Holy Spirit of God, to apply the word unto their hearts : and let them " not be hearers only of the Gospel, but doers of it also," lest the privileges they enjoy lead only to the deceiving and ruining of their own souls.]