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of Deity made themselves visible in all their loveliness in the humanity of Christ, and, in an inferior degree, they are now visible in his brethren. "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one." The glory here intended, is the glory of exhibiting the divine perfections; it is a life of delightful dependence upon Christ; if so, then we shall delightfully serve him. And you never will thus serve him, until your pride is so disciplined, and so subdued, that you delight in your dependence upon God, as a child delights in its dependence upon the love, and protection, and guidance of its mother. Until you learn this; you will ever be disobedient; all the sovereign blessings to be received by the Church, here or hereafter, are secured by the covenant of the Eternal Three. Thanks be to God for his gracious promises! Do you enquire whether you have an interest in them? -learn the secret by entering into intimate communion with Christ.

1 John xvii. 22.

Sunday Evening, May 15, 1831.

SERMON XLVIII.

HE WHO BELIEVES, LIVES UNTO GOD.

But the just shall live by his faith.—HABAK. II. 4.

It is said in the first, second, and third verses, "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." God's revealed will reached man in God's good time. Much of its import and of its value is revealed to us in time, but it will be more fully revealed to us hereafter: " Behold, his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him." (former part of the fourth verse). Pride is the parent of every sin; we are less disposed to be acquainted with our

selves, than with anything else: we aspire to imitate and attempt to usurp God's natural attributes, while we disregard his moral attributes. This is the case with every one, when left to himself. To this the humble man, who is taught of God, is a perfect contrast: he never attempts to imitate the natural perfections of Jehovah; he delights to be dependent upon the natural, and to imitate the moral attributes of God. Have we been disciplined and taught by the Spirit of God to imitate these moral perfections?--Christ died to achieve the greatest of all wonders, namely, to teach that being whose natural disposition is enmity against No finite being

God, to love and serve him. has power to exalt himself; but God, by attaching the creature to himself, will exalt him for ever. The Baptist says of Christ," He must increase, but I must decrease." He knew that the essential glories of the Messiah admitted of no addition. God can have no intercourse with the proud, they are opposed to each other; before God can have intercourse with the proud, he must first humble him.

"The just shall live by his faith." Here is presented to us a striking contrast; the words convey two propositions, or rather two modifications of the same proposition, "The just shall live by his faith," or, he that believes shall live.

I. The first thing I shall consider is, THAT HE WHO BELIEVES, LIVES. He lives no longer to himself, but to God ;-who can teach man this, but God? Nothing but the life of God in the soul can teach it; for by nature, man lives to himself. Christ speaks of himself as the source of life, "I am the resurrection and the life;" that is, the resurrection, because he is essential life, and one who has purchased the blessing. The Apostle in his Epistle to the Ephesians, third chapter, and seventeenth verse, says, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." No finite being could do this; it expresses a consciousness of the Saviour's presence in the bosom of his family.

Again Jesus speaking of his family in his prayer to his heavenly Father, John xvii. 21, 32, 23, says, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." And St. Paul in Gal. ii. 20. says "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."

The text implies, that the individual specified is alive, and that unto God; not the natural life, it is contrasted with that, but a spiritual, a humble life, that delights in exalting our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

II. The text implies, THAT HE WHO THUS LIVES TO GOD, IS JUSTIFIED FROM EVERY CHARGE this doctrine, when understood, and connected with every other doctrine of scripture, involves in it the essence of true religion. The individual who transgresses any law, can never be justified by that law; so neither can the sinner be justified by the moral law, which condemns him. Finite being cannot atone for sin, and sin must be atoned for, before God can justify the sinner. No finite being can ever present anything to God which is not due to him. The justification of a sinner must be by a divine person. God required an atonement. Finite being could not atone; no, not even an angelic nature. Nothing less than essential life can atone for sin, or magnify the law, or honor the curse. "For, what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."1 Justice required that one who was God as well

1 Romans viii. 3.

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