282 1 Corinthians, X. 15. [1976.

confidence about the justness of your views : now you can discuss these matters as if it were of little moment what your sentiments are, or what is the ground of your affiance. But if you hold fast any of the foregoing delusions, you will not find them so satisfactory in a dying hour as you now imagine. Doubts like these will arise in your mind ; ' What if my works should be found at last, either in number or quality, insufficient? What if my fancied good- ness, which I am blending with my Redeemer's right- eousness, should prove a refuge of lies ?' Amongst the numberless evils to which this fatal error will expose you, is, that in that hour, when you will most need divine and heavenly consolation, your soul will be trembling wdth uncertainty as to the ground of your hopes, of those hopes which will in a little time be blasted or realized for ever. For, who shall tell you whether you have attained that precise measure of righteousness which God will accept ? And what a fearful thing will it be to be going into the presence of your Judge, uncertain what shall be his sentence upon you, and whether heaven or hell shall be your everlasting portion ! Would you but place your- selves, where you must all very shortly be, on a dying bed, we should not find it so difficult to con- vince you, that it is better to trust in the righteous- ness of Christ, which is commensurate with all the demands of law and justice, and adequate to the wants of the whole world, than to be trusting in any respect to any poor defective righteousness of your own. Methinks this argument alone were sufficient to convince any considerate man : supposing that your own righteousness w^ere sufficient, your Lord would not condemn you for thinking too humbly of it, and for relying solely on his all-atoning sacrifice : but supposing it insufficient, will he not condemn you for your pride and arrogance in trusting to it, and for your ingratitude in rejecting his salvation ? Here all the declarations of his word are as pointed and clear as words can make them : " He that be- lieveth on the Son hath life : and he that believeth