evidence of his love; audit shall assuredly issue iu everlasting felicity : for, as sure as God is true, " light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart*."]
k Ps. xcvii. 1 1.
1 John ii. 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
AMONG the various excellencies which distin- guish Christianity from all other religions, one of very considerahle importance is, that the Author of it condescended to exemplify in his own person every thing which it required of its most faithful adherents. Different philosophers established rules for their followers : but no one ever professed himself a pattern, and much less a perfect pattern, of all that under any circumstances could be required of him. But the Lord Jesus Christ has perfectly fulfilled his own law, as for other ends, so also that he might " set us an example to follow his steps." True it is indeed that He is the sole Author of our salvation from first to last : but he does not on that account dispense with our obedience to his law : on the con- trary, he says, that " all who abide in him, must walk as he walked."
There are some who deny that the law is to the believer a rule of life. But supposing this error could not be refuted by direct testimony, which it easily and abundantly may, what would the advocates of it gain, if once they admitted, what I suppose no man would deny, that Christ is an example for us to follow? Did not he "fulfil all righteousness," even to the utmost extent of the moral law ? And if he did, and is an example to us, must not we obey the law in the same manner, and to the same extent ? We are not indeed to fulfil it for the same ends ; be- cause he alone, as the Mediator between God and man, can save men by his obedience unto death : but