[It offers salvation freely through the blood and right- eousness of the Lord Jesus Christ It requires nothing
in those to whom it is offered, but an humble sense of their own guilt and misery, and an entire surrender of themselves to him, to be washed in his blood, and to be sanctified by his grace. This is the "right way" of seeking favour with God. All the ways of man's devising are delusory. Not only is all hope of " establishing a righteousness of our own" vain, but even the smallest attempt to blend any thing of our own with his meri- torious death and sacrifice will deceive us3 Salvation
must be of grace, from first to lastb ]
2. Of glorifying his name — [The Gospel calls us to a life of universal holiness0; and requires us to "live, not unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us, and rose again d."
And this also is exclusively the " right way" of serving God. If we imagine that a barren unproductive faith will suffice, we shall find ourselves fatally mistaken. Nor will a partial obe- dience to God's will be accepted : his law, his whole law, must be written in our hearts, and exemplified in our lives. A wilful retaining of a single lust would prove as fatal to us, as a rejec- tion of his Gospel altogether6 ]
The attempts of Ely mas to " pervert" the Gospel lead us to consider, II. The opposition it meets with —
We are not now called to speak of persecution, but only of those arts which were used by this ma- lignant sorcerer. We doubt not then but that he withstood the Apostles,
1. By subtle disputations — [As a Jew, he would bring forward all the arguments he could against Christianity itself. And such opposers are still found amongst those who " name the name of Christ." There are infidels who deride Christianity as much as the most inveterate Jew could do. But where the Gospel is admitted as true, the fundamental doctrines of it are not uncommonly assailed with all the powers of reason. The total depravity of our nature, the truth and efficacy of Christ's atonement, the influences of the Holy Spirit, and the necessity of an entire surrender of ourselves to God, are all denied ; and a religion little better than heathen morality is substituted in the place of that which Christ has revealed. He must be a stranger
■ Rom. x. 3, 4. b Eph. ii. 8, 0. ,: Tit. ii. 11, 12.
d Rom. xiv. 7—0. e Matt. v. 29, 30.