professes to have been delivered1. But, in the midst of all he must say, ' This course of life does not proceed from my prin- ciples ; nor is it in accordance with them. No : it is altogether in opposition to my avoived sentiments, and is one continued violation of my most solemn engagements. The Gospel is not to be blamed for what I do, any more than it was for the sins of Judas or of Peter, of Ananias or of Demas, or of any other person that ever dishonoured his Christian calling.' In a word, the man who has been baptized into the faith of Christ bears in the face of the whole world this unequivocal testimony : " The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, teaches me, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, I should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world :" and, if it pro- duce not this effect, the fault is in myself alone.
Now, I look upon this as a complete answer to the objection in my text. I admit that a person professing the principles of the Gospel may walk unworthy of them : but I utterly deny that the Gospel has any thing in it to encourage such a life : on the contrary, I assert, that a man's entrance into the Church by baptism is an open acknowledgment that a very different life becomes him ; and that he cannot depart from holiness without expressly contravening all his principles and all his obligations.]
Application —
1. Is there now any one present who entertains the objection here made against the Gospel ?
[Alas! there are many who will represent the preachers of the Gospel as saying to their hearers, " Only believe ; and you may live as you please." But methinks there is not one, amongst all this host of objectors, that believes his own state- ment. For it is a notorious fact, that those very persons, who decry our ministry as encouraging licentiousness, will, with the very next breath, cry out against us, as making the way to heaven so strait, that none but a few enthusiasts can walk in it. But, supposing them to be sincere, they only betray their own ignorance. St. Paul says in my text, " Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death ? " No : they know nothing of the matter : they know nothing of the Christian's principles ; nor do they at all consider his obligations. The Christian never accounts himself free from the moral government of the law, though he knows himself free from its condemning sentence. On the contrary, he feels a thousand motives for obedience, which a mere self-righteous moralist has no idea of: and if a proposal
' 2 Pet. i. 9. and ii. 20.