the electing love of God, and to deride as deluded enthusiasts those, who found all their hopes upon it ? According to the answer which conscience gives to these queries, we may deter- mine to which covenant we belong, and consequently, what our end must be when we go hence. Let our inquiries then be prosecuted with care and diligence, that, when our state is ascertained, we may tremble or rejoice, as the occasion may require.]
2. For direction —
[When we are brought under the covenant of grace, we are ever in danger of returning, as many of the Galatians did, to the covenant of works. We are prone to indulge self- righteous hopes, and servile fears. We are ready to confound the covenants by associating works with our faith as joint- grounds of our hope. But we must carefully avoid this, and watch against every approach towards it. We must " stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free ; and never more be entangled with the yoke of bondage k." " Sal- vation is by grace through faith :" and " it is by faith, that it may be by grace." The very instant we mix any work of ours with Christ's obedience unto death, we fall from grace, and Clmst becomes of no effect to us1. Faith and works, as grounds of our justification before God, are opposites, and can no more be blended than light and darkness™. Let us then hold fast the covenant of grace ; and, in spite of all the persecution which our profession may bring upon us, let us " maintain our confidence, and the rejoicing of our hope, firm unto the end."]
k Gal. v. 1. J Gal. v. 2, 4. m Rom. xi. 6. with iv. 14.