therein ?" Yea, he affirms, that however salvation by faith alone may appear to ignorant or prejudiced minds to supersede the necessity of good works, it has directly the opposite tendency: " Do we then make void the law through faith?" says he; " yea, we establish the law." If the objectors understood aright the nature and office of faith, they would see that nothing but that would secure the performance of good works ; since it is by that only that we are united to Christ; and it is only in virtue of that union that we can perforin any good work whatever. But, in various other respects, also, is faith favourable to good works. To go no further than the text, we see in these few words two of the strongest inducements to Christian practice that can possibly be imagined ; namely, that it conduces most eminently to the glory of God, and evidences most decisively the sincerity of our own souls.
Let fruitfulness in good works be considered then by us in both these points of view : I. As glorifying God —
We are not to imagine that any act of ours can really add any thing to the Divine glory: for " our goodness, however it may benefit our fellow-creatures, can never extend to him*." But, as God is pleased frequently to speak of our conduct as reflecting glory upon him, we also may with propriety adopt that language, and say, that our fruitfulness in good works glorifies him ; in that it shews,
1. The proper scope of his Gospel —
[His Gospel was never revealed for the mere purpose of informing our understandings in relation to mysteries which we could never otherwise have known : nor was it revealed for the mere purpose of saving man from perdition. It had a higher and nobler end in view: namely, the destroying of sin, and the restoring of sinners to the Divine image ; " The grace of God, which bringeth salvation," was revealed to " teach us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live righteously, soberly, and godly, in this present world b." The gift of Christ as a Saviour was "to save us
a Ps. xvi. 2, 3. b Tit. ii. 11, 12.