constrains him ; because he thus judges, that if one died for all, then were all dead ; and that he died for all, that they who live shoukl not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again ^" And as he serves his God from love, so is he actuated by the same principle in all his intercourse with men : " he walks in love, as Christ has loved him*;" and he looks upon this as the best fruit of his faith ^, and as the surest evidence of his acceptance with God-\]
How widely different from these are the principles
of the wicked !
[Let it be remembered, that I am not speaking of those who indulge in gross wickedness, but of those only who are not positively righteous. Whatever they may possess in respect of outward morality, they are strangers to the true exercise both of faith and love. They do not fully enter into the great mystery of redemption : they feel not their need of such a Saviour as God has provided for them. That God himself should become a man, and die under the load of their sins, and work out a righteousness wherein they may stand accepted before him — they see no occasion for all this : they think they might be saved on easier terms, or, if I may so express it, at a cheaper rate. They cannot see why they should have so inestimable a price paid for them, when their own repentance and reformation might have well sufficed for all the demands which God had upon them. Nor do they feel their need of the Holy Spirit to teach and sanctify them, when their own wisdom and strength were, upon the whole, adequate to their necessities. At all events, if they assent to the Gospel salvation as true, they do not embrace it with their whole hearts, and rejoice in it as that which alone could give them a hope before God. So also in their obedience, all which they do is from constraint, rather than from love: as clearly appears from hence, that they are satisfied, upon the whole, with what they do ; whereas, if they felt their obligations to God for the gift of his only Son to die for them, and of his Holy Spirit to renew them, they would feel nothing but dissatisfaction and grief on account of their short-comings and defects. In fact, all their works are done merely in conformity with the customs of the world, and for the purpose of forming a ground for self-esti- mation, and for the estimation of those around them.
What comparison, then, will these bear with the characters with which they are here contrasted ? They are as inferior to the righteous " as dross is to the purest gokP'."]
Let us trace the comparison yet fm*ther,
' 2 Cor. V. li, 15. t Eph. v. 2. " Gal. v. 6.
^ 1 John iii. 14, 19. and iv, 7, 17. y Jer. vi. 30.