people by himself, and then entered into the highest heavens with his own blood, their accepted Head and Forerunner, having obtained eternal redemption for them; who enter along with him in his right, in their appointed time, not by works of righteousness which they themselves have done, but by that finished, accepted, everlasting work of righteousness which He, their Lord, their Representative, hath done for them; whom he also sanctifies throughout, in body, soul, and spirit, to the glory of his Fa ther, and so makes meet for the inheritance purchased and prepared by himself for his saints in light.

Nevertheless, as if it were a heinous guilt to leave any saying of the Lord unwrested to the destruction of as many as shall fully imbibe the spirit of their doctrine, they persevere in their purpose, and make the xviiith Psalm also chime in to the same tune, where it is said, ‹ The Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, &c. ver. 1927. which they ap ply to the good people of their own flock, as being similar in their experience to David.Not a word here of the good Shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep! In like manner, Psalm xxvi. never fails to be sung in the same strain, especially on a communion occasion, when you behove by all means to be put in mind of some earthly altar; I will wash mine hands in

innocency-Whose innocency? your own indeed for, does not the royal psalmist David

say,

I will wash mine hands in innocency, so will I encompass thine altar, O Lord ?-He had need to be very pure, who would adventure upon such a boast! Psalm cxviii. 19. Open to me the gates of righteousness, this is the door,' &c. seldom escapes being pressed into the same service. If they happen upon such occasions to drop a word about the righteousness of Christ, you may expect to hear it upheld only as a pattern to your righteousness; that, as he entered into heaven by his own perfect obedience, even so might you, by the highest perfection of obedience which you can attain to, to wit, your sincere, though imperfect obedience, or endeavours after it; which is, they say, your gospelperfection, and which the new covenant, with many other things which the Holy Ghost gives as little allowance for, admits of, according to them; I say, according to them, if so be you will allow the scope of a whole sermon to explain itself,

The texts commonly made to stand on the front of such destroying doctrines are such as these, all the words of the Lord Jesus speaking of himself; I delight to do thy will, O my • God-O how love I thy law! Or, bearing witness to the righteousness of the law which he came to fulfil; As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,' &c. The man that doeth these things shall live by them. Verily, verily, I say ⚫ unto you, except your righteousness shall ex

'ceed the righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees,' &c. or some such passage of a like spirit, where a righteousness is recommended, by which a man may have entrance given him into the kingdom of heaven.

As they make this righteousness in their texts something else, and not the very righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is evident, that all their after-talk of sincerity, virtue, repentance, faith, (for faith is a name they must deal in too, though they take away the sense of it, and give you one more suitable to their own ideas), goodness of disposition, and the like, can be nothing else but a round-about way of bringing in an absolute juggle, (not designed, it may be, by them, but at least by the father of lies, who makes whom he may the venders of his abominations), a mere shuffling, cutting, dealing, and playing, of a pack of unintelligible words.

1

The effect of those their doctrines of vanity, where they take place, may be compared to the admission of a multitude of swine into a garden full of precious roots and flowers. So have they used their endeavours to root up every precious thing in the book of Psalms, and indeed in the whole word of God, as if they had received a commission to deal by the Scriptures as the Israelites did with regard to the land of Moab, ‹ To smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and to fell every good tree, and to stop all wells of water, and to mar every piece of good land with stones. Thus they utterly spoiled

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the Moabites. And thus the end of those who are possessed with such a false spirit of doctrine, except they be again dispossessed, may be represented by that herd who ran from the Gadarene-mountains violently down a steep place, and were all choaked in the sea.

They who have conscience for it, may call such ones Christians, if they please, and then, when they have done so, endeavour to sanctify Satan by calling him Saint. But saints indeed will do well to consider those words of their Lord, as they stand in their own connection, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.'

These are the men who are for ever filling your ears with something or other about philosophers, Tully, Seneca, Socrates, the divine Plato, as they call that other whom the devil at Delphos is said to have deified, (honest heathens, the wonderful things the light of nature teaches you!) the moral sense, the beautiful, the sublime, the decent, the fair, the handsome, and sometimes the το καλον and the το πρέπον, (for they love to speak plain !), with other ravings of the same stamp.

There is another, but in many respects very different kind of men, indeed, whom you will find: also at the head of their thousands and ten thousands, who do, verily, highly, as just ly, disapprove of those misinterpretations of the Psalms, and other scriptures concerning righteousness, &c. just now mentioned, yet are by no

ceed the righteousness of Scribes and Phari'sees,' &c. or some such passage of a like spirit, where a righteousness is recommended, by which a man may have entrance given him into the kingdom of heaven.

As they make this righteousness in their texts something else, and not the very righteousness. of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is evident, that all their after-talk of sincerity, virtue, repentance, faith, (for faith is a name they must deal in too, though they take away the sense of it, and give you one more suitable to their own ideas), goodness of disposition, and the like, can be nothing else but a round-about way of bringing in an absolute juggle, (not designed, it may be, by them, but at least by the father of lies, who makes whom he may the venders of his abominations), a mere shuffling, cutting, dealing, and playing, of a pack of unintelligible words.

1

The effect of those their doctrines of vanity, where they take place, may be compared to the admission of a multitude of swine into a garden full of precious roots and flowers. So have they used their endeavours to root up every precious thing in the book of Psalms, and indeed in the whole word of God, as if they had received a commission to deal by the Scriptures as the Israelites did with regard to the land of Moab, To ⚫ smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and to fell every good tree, and to stop all wells of water, and to mar every piece of good land with stones. Thus they utterly spoiled