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SERMON VII.

BELIEVERS SHOULD WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE.

ROM. vi. 4.

That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

IT is by no means sufficiently considered, that all the great doctrines of the gospel, when rightly received, have a powerful and necessary effect upon the character and life and a want of this due consideration is the cause of unspeakable evil in the christian world; leaving great numbers "short of the glory of God," and being a great hindrance, as well as dishonour, to the gospel itself. When a man

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professes himself a christian believer and a christian worshipper, without a corres ponding sense of christian obligation, and a consistent performance of christian duty, it looks as if he were "making void the law through faith," as if Christ were the minister of unrighteousness.

And again; this ignorance or heedlessness, or whatever it may be named, causes many to misunderstand and misrepresent the true preaching of the gospel: they complain (unjustly, I know,) of our neglecting to preach good works and moral duties; whereas, the very doctrines themselves, if rightly understood and enforced, would become the most powerful means, and the most effectual security, for holiness and integrity of character. It is true, a man may believe without any living principle of obedience; may even boast himself in faith and grace, without any correspondence of life; but such is not the belief by which we can be saved; and no one, who "rightly divides the word of truth," can ever so preach it;

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such boasting is presumption and folly, the work of the deluded hypocrite. Every true believer shows the practical nature and effects of all the great truths of the gospel; how deeply they affect the heart, how blessed an influence they spread over the whole conduct and demeanour. assurance of his own weakness and corruption, of his own inability and helplessness, ("without Me ye can do nothing,") produces in him that holy dependence of spirit, and that humility of disposition, which is the parent of many virtues. The love of God and of Christ is the wellspring of kind and brotherly affection; for he who truly "loveth God will love his brother also." The prospect and promise of heavenly glory will kindle a longing in the soul, and that will purify its desires; the hope of that mansion, which Jesus is gone to prepare, goes far to reconcile the mind to painful endurings; and enables it to bear, without complaint, sufferings like those by which "the Captain of our salvation was made perfect."

But it is time to turn to the text, where we shall find these observations fully confirmed; where we are taught, that the consequence of our believing in the resurrection of Jesus, of our taking an interest therein, must be a "walk in newness of life:" such is the necessary consequence produced by a cordial reception of this most important truth.

Before, however, we enlarge upon it, let us take a view of the Apostle's argument, as connected with the text. He saw clearly, that the gospel doctrine, which he had been laying down, might be so perverted and abused, as to become an instrument of unrighteousness. He had declared, that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the sole foundation of a sinner's acceptance with his offended Maker; that no deeds of the law, no deeds whatever, could have any share in the ground-work of salvation; could be pleaded as a merit, to restore the fallen creature to the favour of his God; that this great blessing is attainable only by the price paid for his

redemption through the sacrifice of the Son of God; in whom alone "He was well-pleased;" and that every individual must apply this benefit to himself by a believing dependence upon the sacrifice thus made for him; this is the door through which he must enter, without any other means of admission; this is "the way, the truth, and the life."

But some were led, by the evil remaining in their hearts, by a corrupt leaning to their own sinful dispositions and practices, to conclude, that as their own righteousness had no share in the merit of the work, therefore they might be less strict and scrupulous in their moral behaviour; as if the mercy of God, on this account, would be the more signally manifested in their forgiveness. All such absurd, we may say wicked conciusions, are cut up by the root, in the opening of this chapter. "What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid." What a dishonour to the holy God, to suppose that His gospel

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