the impossibility of saving yourselves by any thing that you can do, and the indispensable necessity of looking for salva- tion through Christ alone, you are offended, and represent us as depreciating good works, and encouraging licentiousness. If we call you to renounce the world, and to give up your- selves to the service of your God, you are displeased, because we would tear you from your idols, and call you to a life which you do not affect. Our Lord tells us, that " the world hated him, because he testified of it that its works were evilh." And this constitutes the peculiar guilt of unbelief ; as our Lord has said : " This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world ; and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved : but he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God1." We have a striking example of this in the chief priests and elders, who demanded by what authority our Lord drove the buyers and sellers from the temple. He, instead of giving them a direct answer, put a question to them concerning John, desiring them to say, " whether his baptism was from heaven, or of men." They saw, that if they acknowledged it to be from heaven, he would ask, " Why then did ye not believe him?" and, not choosing to confess the truth, declined answering his question at allk. Thus the same dishonesty prevails amongst us : and, even when con- vinced in our minds respecting the truth of a statement, we refuse to admit its truth, because it militates against our prin- ciples or habits.]
3. You are determined to hold fast your lusts, which are condemned by it —
[Men love the world, and will hear of nothing that re- quires them to renounce it. They desire to stand high in the estimation of men, and will not conform to sentiments or habits which will endanger the loss of it. They are often per- suaded in their minds that what they hear is true and good : but then they consider how far their adoption of it will inter- fere with their worldly interests. Among the chief rulers, we are told, many believed on Christ : but, because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue : for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God1." And hence our Lord said to his hearers, " How can ye believe, who receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God
h John vii. 7. i John iii. 19 — 21.
k Matt. xxi. 23—27. > John xii. 42.