EXHORTATION TO BELIEVE. 247 for the ends men proposed to themselves was manifest- ed, it pleased him to reveal his way. And What are we, that we should contend about it with him 1 God's rejec- tion of the way of personal righteousness, and choosing the way of grace and forgiveness, he reveals, Jer. 31: 31-31. " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers," (in which administration of the covenant, as far as it had respect to typical mercies, much depended on their personal obedience,) " but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saitü the Lord: I will put my law in their hearts, and will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sinno more." Let, then, this way stand, and the way of man's wis- dom and self-righteousness perish for ever. 2. This is the way that, above all others, tends di- rectly and immediately to the glory of God. God has ordered all things in this way of forgiveness, so that " no flesh should glory in his presence," but that " he that glorieth, should glory in the Lord." i Cor. 1 : 29, 31. " Where then is boasting 1 It is excluded; by what law 1 By the law of works 1 nay, but by the law of faith." Rom. 3: 27. It might be easily manifested that God hath so laid the design of saving sinners by forgiveness, according to the law of faith, that it is ut- terly impossible that any soul should, on any account whatever, have the least ground of glorying in itself, either absolutely or in comparison with them that pe- rish. " If Abraham," saith the apostle, " were justified by works, he bath whereof to glory, but not before God." Chap. 4 : 2. The obedience of works would have been so infinitely disproportionate to the reward, which Was God himself, that there could have been no glorying before God; yet, in comparison with others
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=