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trouble: and he that comes to God, must believe "that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that "feek him." God, by faith, leads the finner from death in the Law, to life in Chrift: None can Co come to me, except my Father draw them.” Faith deals with Chrift's blood for pardon, righteoufnefs, and peace; and makes application of it. Faith mixes it's power with the word, and brings the promifes home. Faith is a looking to Jefus for every needful help, and a going out of felf to the Saviour's fulness to fetch it in. It is by the hand of Faith that all our fpiritual provisions are brought in. And it is by the affarance of Faith that the ftrong chriftian finds himself confirmed and sealed: "After that ye believed, ye were fealed with the "holy Spirit of promife:" under which impreffion a comfortable degree of affurance (touching one's perfonal interest in Chrift) is enjoyed. Which leads me to the next weighty requirement of the Law, which is

Love. The fovereign and everlasting love of God is the grand spring-head, or fountain, from which every stream of mercy flows; and Chrift crucified is the only medium or channel through which every ftream flows. There is no love to God for his holiness, purity, or beauty, as fome talk. No appearance, or view of God, will ever draw love to him from a carnal heart, that is enmity against him. It is God's love to us,, fhed abroad in the

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heart by the Holy Ghoft, that draws the heart to

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love God. "Not that we loved God, but that he "first loved us.We love him, because he first " loved us." This love, in the enjoyment of it, always follows pardon of fin.. "I love the Lord, "because he hath forgiven the iniquity of my fin."Mary's fins are many, and they are forgiven, and "the loveth much.-And where little is forgiven, "the fame loveth little." This love will teach us to love all them that love our Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity and in truth, and one's neighbour as one's self; for anger can never rest in a heart blessed with the enjoyment of everlasting love; and he that walks in love, as Chrift hath loved us, walks by faith, and in all the commandments of the Lord, blameless. We have seen what the Saviour means by the leaft commandments, and what he means by the weightier matters of the Law; and he that doeth and

Teacheth them, fhall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. He that doeth them; he who is a righteous, or justified perfon; whofe judgment is paffed; who hath judgment of the goodness of his own state; who has a good judgment of God's ways, of God's word, and of men's hearts; and who is capable of judging between truth and error, right and wrong, and between man and man; and preaches fo.

He that hath obtained covenant mercy of the Lord, and preaches the fure mercies of David; being merciful to the bodies and fouls of men, as God is merciful.

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He that has faith in his heart, and preaches the faith as it was once delivered to the faints; who holds the mystery of faith in a pure confcience, and deals it out from thence.

He that has the love of God fhed abroad in his own heart, and preaches it in all it's branches; the manifestation of it in the death of Chrift; the reve lation of it by the Spirit; the effects of it, pardon and peace.

He that is not angry with his brother without a caufe; he that is faved and kept from uncleanness ; he that refifts not evil with evil; and he that gives his cloak to them that fue him at law for his coatthis is the man, and no other, that doth the commandments, and teaches them. And he

Shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. He is a true, real, genuine, and loyal subject, of the kingdom of Heaven; he is not in bondage to the Law, to Sin, nor to Satan; he is redeemed, justified, and faved; the mysteries of the kingdom are with him; the kingdom of Grace is in him; and he is an heir of the kingdom of Glory before him, and fhall be

Called GREAT in the kingdom of Heaven. He acknowledges himself a great finner, and tells others what great things God has done for him. Great grace is upon him, and "he is a good steward of the manifold grace of God." He is faved with a great falvation, and it is an unconditional falvation

that

that he preaches. He is a man of God, a mouth for God, and an ambassador fent from God. He is an evangelift, and does the work of one. He is a good steward, and is found faithful. He is a minifter of the Spirit, and makes full proof of his ministry, by stopping the mouths of gainfayers, by cutting up elect finners, and by fteering a course that God owns and honours. In short, he is an able minister of the New Teftament, and fhall be called great in the kingdom of heaven by all those who know wherein true greatness consists. Which leads me to the last verse of my text

For I fay unto you, that except your righteousness fball exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharifees, ye shall in no cafe enter into the kingdom of heaven. There have been fix or feyen Discourses lately delivered from this text by different Ministers; and they all agree in this, that the righteousness of Chrift is neither intended, nor included in the text; which is a point that I intend to examine. By entering into the Kingdom of Heaven, these things are

meant,

Firf, Taking the veil of ignorance from the understanding, and enlightening the mind into the mysteries of the kingdom; which is leading the foul out of darkness into marvellous light.

Secondly, It is leading a foul out of bondage into liberty; out of a condemned into a juftified state; put of a state of enmity into a state of reconciliation;

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tion; out of a state of fin into a state of grace; out of a state of alienation into a state of friendship; out of a state of legal labour into a state of reft: which is called tranflating the finner out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

Thirdly, The Saviour's introducing his Elect, body and foul, into the glories of Heaven, is called "an abundant entrance into the everlasting king

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dom of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift.". 2 Pet. i. 10, II.

But then, what righteoufnefs is this that can procure fuch an entrance? Paul's mind was enlightened into the mysteries of the kingdom, as foon as the Lord fhined upon him, and into bis heart: and he entered into a state of grace, or into the kingdom of heaven, as foon as he arofe, and received the Holy Ghoft. But what righteousness had he got, to procure, or pave the way for, fuch an entrance? Paul was a Pharifee, we know: but it could not be his pharifaical righteousness that procured his entrance; for the text fays, it must exceed the righteoufnefs of the Scribes and Pharifees. And, I think, it could not be the malice and murder of his heart, nor his bloody commiffion, nor the death-warrants that he had in his pocket. The righteoufnefs in the text is obedience to the Law, which the Pharifees boasted of, and in which the child of God muft exceed the Pharifee. It must be either the finner's obedience, or the obedience of the Surety, that procures an

entrance

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