of a sinner before God; but we must not close our remarks without alluding to some difficulties which may seem to arise from the subject. It may be asked, Is there not some danger in this representation? May not men abuse the grace of God? If we are justified by believing, and not by working, do we not cast a reproach upon good works, and incur the peril of causing them to be neglected? And further, Is not the language of the text in seeming opposition to another declaration of the same Apostle, where he says, "Work out your own salvation;" and to the whole strain of the Old and New Testaments, in which holiness of heart and life is most earnestly enjoined, and this at the eternal peril of our souls in case of disobedience? These seeming difficulties will be removed if we keep in mind that the Apostle in the text is not undervaluing any good work, but only shewing that no human works are good, so as to be meritorious in the sight of God, our best obedience being imperfect. Who could be more anxious to inculcate every good word and work than St. Paul? And he did so at the very time that he shews the exclusion of good works from the office of justifying, and assigns that office to faith only. For what is justifying faith; the faith mentioned in the text? It is not a simple assent; it is not calling ourselves

Christians; it is not a bold confidence that our sins are pardoned; but it is a simple reliance on the atonement of Christ for pardon and acceptance with God, and such a reliance as is accompanied by sorrow for sin, a desire to obey God's laws, tenderness of conscience, a love of holiness, and newness of heart and life. The sinner comes as "" ungodly" for pardon and justification, on the ground only of his Saviour's death and merits; and ungodly he remains to the end of life, in the sense of being still a frail and sinful creature, who can lay no claim to the merit of perfectly obeying the laws of God: but he is not ungodly in the sense of continuing a deliberate and wilful transgressor: indeed he was no longer such when, guided by the influences of the Holy Spirit, he first came to Christ for justification; for had he continued such, he would still have remained at a distance, unconcerned about his immortal interests, and heedless of God's commands. The desire that brought him to his Saviour was accompanied by repentance and humility; the faith that united him to his Saviour was the fruitful parent of holiness and good works. Till this justifying faith was wrought in his soul, he had neither the inclination nor the power to do the will of God: he was in a state of alienation and rebellion; but no sooner did he truly believe than he became a new creature in Christ Jesus. At

the very time when he rejected the boastful conceit that he could so work, as on the footing of perfect obedience to deserve an eternal reward, and when he was led in self-abasement to cast himself wholly on the mercy of God in Christ, he began for the first time truly "to work out his salvation with fear and trembling;" for "it was God that worked in him to will and to do of his good pleasure." From love, from gratitude, from a holy change of principle and disposition, he began to live no longer to himself, but to Him who loved Him, and gave himself for him. His faith was proved by his works; and without this practical test, in vain would he have hoped that he possessed that justifying grace. Thus, then, the seeming difficulty ceases. Is the law of God made void by the doctrine of free pardon and justification, through faith, in virtue of the sacrifice of Christ? No: it is established by that wholesome and comfortable doctrine, as our Article so justly calls it. It is shewn that the sinner may be pardoned; that the gate of mercy is opened to all who seek for entrance into the city of spiritual refuge; while it is rendered equally clear, that no warrant is held out to the unchristian and impious inference, Let us continue in sin that grace may abound. "God forbid; for how shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?”

494

SERMON XL.

THE LAST WORDS OF THE SAVIOUR.

LUKE Xxiii. 46.

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

FEW things affect the mind more than the dying words of those whom we have known and loved; and if the individual be in any way eminent, or his last hours remarkable, with what eagerness do we listen to the narrative of his words and actions at the closing period of his life! And who so eminent, who so worthy of affection, as the Martyr of Calvary, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world? Of his expiring moments, we have, in the four Evangelists, a most affecting detail. He was not quietly breathing out his soul in the retirement of a peaceful death-bed, but in public, and in tortures upon the cross. We are not therefore

to look for lengthened expositions of his doctrines, such as are recorded of some of the

ancient philosophers; or for a repetition of the conversations which he was accustomed to hold with his beloved disciples, or the listening multitudes. His words were but few; they amounted to but seven brief exclamations from the time he was transfixed to the cross, to the time he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Yet what volumes do these few short ejaculations speak! The first was a prayer for his enemies, "Father, forgive them;" the second was a promise to a humble penitent, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise;" the third was an effusion of that tenderness and sympathy which beamed in all he said and did,–

Woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy mother;" the fourth was an expression of the deepest mental anguish,-" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" the fifth, of intense bodily suffering, "I thirst;" the sixth, a triumphant exclamation of victory and conscious pleasure, even in the midst of extreme weakness, "It is finished;" the seventh, and last, was the calm committal to God of his soul about to quit a body worn down by afflictions and languishing on the cross, in sure and certain hope of that heavenly state which was so soon to burst upon it in unclouded glory,"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Having said thus, he meekly submitted to the stroke of death, and was translated to the pre