258 FORGIVENESS OF SIN. him, they are but the acts of enemies, which he de- spises and abhors; you run, it may be, earnestly, but you run out of the way; you strive, but not lawfully, and shall never receive the crown. True Gospel obe- dience is the fruit of the faith of forgiveness; whatever you do without it, is but a building without a founda- tion, a castle in the air. You may see the order of Gos- pel obedience, Eph. 2 : 7-10. The foundation must be laid in grace; riches of grace by Christ, in the free par- don and forgiveness of sin. From hence must the works of obedience proceed, if you would have them to be of God's appointment, or find acceptance with him. Without this, God will say of all your services, worship, obedience, as he did to the Israelites of old, Amos, 5: 21 -25, I despise it all, reject it all. It is not to him, nor to his glory. Now, if you are under con- victions of any sort, there is nothing you more value, nothing you more place your confidence in, than your . duties, your repentance, your amendment, what you do, and what in good time you will be. Are you not con- scious that you would be greatly unwilling to lose all the hopes and all expectations which you have from hence ? to have no other reception with God, than if all this while you had been wallowing in your sins ? Yet thus it is with you, if you have not begun with God on his own terms. If you have not received the atonement in the blood of his Son, if you are not made partakers of forgiveness, if your persons are not pardoned, all your duties are accursed. This alone will supply such motives and encourage- ments to obedience as will give you life and delight in it. You perform duties, but it is with heaviness, fear,
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