Direa. MIT. Of Sandi ccation. 247 confer grace to the foul, by the work that is done in the ufe of them. Neither may we ufe them as works of righteoufnefs, to be performed as condi- tions for the procuring the favour of God, and the falvation of Chrift. Neither muft they be account- ed fo abfolutely neceffary to falvation : as if a true faith were void, and of none efFet%when we are de- barred from the enjoyment of leverai of them. The holy fcriptures, with all the means of grace appoint- ed therein, are able to make us wife unto falvation, no other way than by faith in Jefus Chrift, 2 Time iii. 15. And therefore our wife endeavour mt.& be, not to ufe them in any oppofition to the graceof God in Chrift. For God's ordinances are like the che- rubims of glory, made with their faces looking to- wards the mercy-feat. They are made to guide us to Chrift for falvation by faith alone. If any turn them toanother ufe, it is agreat violation of divine in- ftitutions; as if any facrilegious perfon had prefum- ed to turn the faces of the cherubims from the mer- cy-feat fome other way. This right ufe of the means of grace, is a point wherein many are ignorant, that ufe them with great zeal and diligence ; and there- by they do not only lofe their labour, and the bene- fitof the means, but alfo they wreft and pervert them to their own deftrution. The Jews under the law of Mofes, enjoyed many more ordinances of divine worship than we do under the gofpel ; but their ta- ble became their fnare, and they fell tníferably from God and Chrift, becaufe the "veil of ignorance was " upon their,hearts," that they could not lock to the end of thofe ordinances, even to the Lord Jefus Chrift ; and they fought not falvation by faith, but by the ordinances, as works of righteoufnefs, and by other works of the law ; for " they ftumbled at " 6 the £"tumbling - Bone," Rom. ix. 31, 32. and x. 4, 5. 2 Cor. iiï. 13, 14. That you may not ftumble and fall by the fame pernicious error, I thali Phew particularly how feveral of the principal means of
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