1461.] The Gospel Message. 207

Lastly — The last excellency which I shall mention as belonging to the Gospel, is, that it most of all secures the practice of good works. Here is the chief ground of jealousy with the world : and if the Gospel were indeed liable to the imputations cast on it, if it gave licence to men to continue in sin, we should not hesitate to discard it as a fiction, seeing that it could never be the production of a holy God. But, as the Apostle says, " The grace of God which bringeth salvation teaches us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world." If we appeal to antiquity, who was ever so strenuous as St. Paul in asserting the doctrine of justification by faith alone ? and yet, who was ever so abundant in labours of every kind ? or who ever inculcated with greater energy and minuteness the necessity of good works '! If we come to modern times, we must observe that they, who now preach justification by faith, are with the very same breath accused of opening heaven to all, however they may act, and yet of shutting the door against all by their unnecessary strictness : and they who receive the Gospel are condemned as licen- tious, while they are at the same time blamed as too rigid and precise : nor is this by any means a slight proof of the efficacy of the Gospel on the hearts and lives of its professors ; for if their sentiments expose them to the former censure, it is their holy conduct that subjects them to the latter. We grant and ac- knowledge it with sorrow, that there are some who name the name of Christ without departing from iniquity : but must all therefore be represented as of the same stamp, and the Gospel itself be considered as unfavourable to morality? Is it just, that, while ten thousand glaring sins pass unnoticed in an unbe- liever, the misconduct of a few, or perhaps one single fault in "a person professing godliness" should excite a clamour against all the religious world as hypocrites ? But, thanks be to God ! we can appeal to experience, that faith " does work by love," and " overcome the world," and "purify the heart:" we are therefore