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OF THE UNGODLY. True it is, if nothing but equity had appeared in Jehovah's name, nothing but mifery could have been expected by the guilty. But when we behold the idea of a compaffionate Saviour, connected with that of a righteous Judge; fuch a character, though fupremely venerable, is greatly inviting. For it fpeaks deliverance, and administers confolation. Yes, difconfolate foul, though you have no righteoufnefs, nor any recom mendation, yet the wifdom of God has appointed a way, and the infinite riches of fovereign grace have provided effectual means for your full difcharge before the great tribunal; and for attaining that honour and joy, which are commenfurate to your utmost withes, which exceed your highest conceptions, and fhall render you happy to all eternity. Is my reader oppreffed with guilt, and harraffed with tuinultuous fears of deserved ruin? wearied with going about to establish his own righteousness, and fenfible that he is poffeffed of no worth, nor any thing that might be a probable mean of recommending him to the Redeemer? Remember, diftreffed fellow-mortal, that no fuch recommendation is needful. Nothing is required at your hand for any fuch purpose. Come and take freely,' is the language of Jefus. He has all that you want, however impoverished; and He gives all with the most liberal hand. Grace reigns; and let that be your encouragement when thinking about acceptance with Chrift, and of your justification in him before the Almighty.

If my reader, not withstanding all that has been faid, fhould yet think it prudent and fafe to depend on his own obedience; let me remind him, before I difmifs the fubject, of the abfolute purity and infi

nite holiness, the tranfcendent majefty and awful glories, of that GOD with whom he has to do, and before whom he must foon appear. Confider, prefumptuous mortal! that with your fupreme Judge is terible majesty. That He is of purer eyes than to look upon evil, and cannot behold iniquity; will by no means clear the guilty, and is a confuming fire. His righteous judgment is, that those who commit fin are worthy of death; and, therefore, his law denounces an awful curfe on every offender.--Remember that he, whofe divine prerogative it is to juftify, is a jealous God; jealous of his honour, as a righteous governor, and determined to support the rights of his throne. So terrible his indignation that, when once his wrath is kindled, it will confume every refuge of lies, and burn to the lowest hell. So awfully majestic is Jehovah, that before him the everlasting mountains quake, the pillars of heaven tremble, and are aftonished at his reproof. As his condefcending fmile irradiates the countenances of angels, and crowns them with unutterable blifs; fo his righteous frown is nothing less than abfolute deftruction. So flaming his purity, and fo dazzling his glory, that he looketh to the moon and it fineth not, and the ftars are not pure in his fight. In his prefence the feraphim, those most exalted of mere creatures, veil their faces and cover their feet, in token of profound 'humiliation; while they cry, in loud refponfive ftrains, HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! IS THE LORD OF HOSTS! How, then, to use the language of Bildad in Job; how, then, can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean, before his Maker, that is born of a woman? When he whofe eyes are as a flame of fire, whofe peculiar province it is to fearch the human heart, and to explore its latent evils;

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when He fhall fift your conduct and mark your offences, laying judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet, you will not be able to answer him one of a thousand and to what refuge will you then flee? Trufting in your own duties, you flight the great atonement, you defpife the revealed righteoutnefs, and Chrift thall profit you nothing. You inay talk in lofty ftrains, about man's moral excellence, and the dignity of human nature; the worth of perfonal obedience, and the efficacy of penetential tears you may declaim upon the neceflity of good works, and reject with difdain the doctrine of imputed righteoufnefs, while your confcience is unimpreffed with a fight of the divine purity, and with a fenfe of the divine prefence. But when you come to confider yourself as before the MOST HIGH, and that the important question is; How shall I be juft before the MosT HOLY ?-when you form your ideas of the God of heaven, not from the charachave drawn of him in your own imagination, but agreeably to that which is given in the infpired volume; then your pretentions to perfonal worthiness muft fubfide, and your mouth must be ftopped. Or, if not entirely filent, you must exclaim with the men of Bethfhemeth, when Jehoval's hand was heavy upon them; Who is able to jland before this holy Lord God? Then, if the atonement be not prefented for your immediate relief, you will be ready to add; Who fhall dwell with deyouring fire? who fhall dwell with everlafling burnings?

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The Holy Spirit fpeaking in the fcripture, directs us to conceive of juftification as before God and in his fight. Intimating, that when final acceptance is the fubject of our enquiry, we fhould look upon

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ourfelves as in the immediate prefence of Him who will soon ascend the great white irreverfable fentence; that we what ground we thall be able to stand, when bee-. ven and earth fall flee away from the face of our eternal Judge, and no place shall be found for them. Yes, reader, if you would not deceive yourself in a matter of the laft importance; if you would come to a fatisfactory perfuafion, in what righteousness you may venture to truft; you fhould confider yourself as at the bar of God, and as having a caufe depending which is pregnant with your everlasting fate; a caufe which muft inevitably iffue, either in your eternal happiness, or infinite mifery. You fhould anticipate, in your own meditations, that great decifive day, and then ask your own confcience; • On what shall I then depend? or, what fhall I dare to plead when my aftonished eyes behold my Judge?' Because it would be fuperlative folly for you to rely on any obedience now, or to difpute for it as neceffary to juftification, of which your own confcience cannot approve as a plea that will then be admitted as valid.

Confider the ingenuous acknowledgments and deep confeffions, which the greateft faints and holieft men that ever lived have made of their impurity and finfulness, when their acceptance with that fublime Being, who is glorious in holiness, came under confideration Job was an eminent faint: he had not his equal on earth, according to the teftimony of God himfelf. Confcious of his integrity, he avowed it before men, and vindicated his exemplary conduct against the accufations of cenforious friends. But when the Almighty addreffes him, and when he confiders himfelf as ftanding before

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the divine tribunal, he says not a word about his inherent rectitude, or his pious performances. Then, in language of the deepest felfabafement, he exclaims; Bebo 'd, I am vil:! I abhor myself, and repent in duft and afher Yea, he declares, If I justify myself, my own mouth fhall condemn me. If I fay I am perfect, it fhall also prove me perverfe. Though I were perfect, in my own apprehenfions, yet, before Him that is infinitely holy, I would be fo far from pleading my own extraordinary attainments, that I would not know my foul; nay, I would defpife my life, with all its moft fhining accomplishments. For if I wa myself with fnow-water, and make my hands never fo clean; yet fhalt Thou,O righteous and eternal Judge, plunge me in the ditch; manifeft me, notwithstanding all my endeavours to obtain purity and find ac ceptance, to be a polluted creature and aguilty criminal. So abominably filthy and highly criminal, that my own cloths, where they fenfible of my pollution and guilt, would abhor me. For He, to whom I am accountable, is not a man as I am; but a Being of fuch difcernment, that the minuteft fault cannot efcape his notice; and fo perfectly holy, that the leaft fpot of defilement is infinitely abhorrent in his fight. It is therefore abfolutely impoflible that I should answer him; plead my caufe and gain acceptance, on the foundation of my own obedience; or that ve should, on any fuch footing, come together in judgment, without inevitable ruin to my perfon and all my immortal interefts*.-David, the man after God's own heart, made it his earnest request, that God would not enter into judgment with him according to the te

* job. xl. 4. xlii. 6. ix. 20, 21, 30, 31, 32.

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