Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.3

a§# THE plEfEA,ENGE EfTeWEEaN THE [Udsc, rv. the pure in heart, for they shall see God; Mat. v. 8. Without holiness no,naan shall see the Lord; Heb. xii. 14. ¡nded none can be truly happy but those who are sane- tified and assimilated to the holy Jesus. A child of $titan, and an enemy of righteousness, and of the law of God, ran never be happy in the midst of the children of God, who have his law written it their hearts, and are ever practising obedience to his law in perfection. Holiness is indeed a part of salvation, which consists in a, release from the bondage of sin, and the power of it in our own hearts, as well as from the.guilt and punish- ment of it in our persons. And the man who professes to receive thegospel of Christ, and hope in God for sal- vation, he cloth not know what he professes, if he does not hope for holiness, and long for it, and desire -it. If he goes to trust in Christ as a Saviour, merely from the wrath of God and hell, he Both not accept of Jesus, as such a Saviour as the gospel represents him ; i e, a Sa- viour from sin ; Mat. i. 21. as well as from hell and wrath. Lastly, REMARKS drawn from the whole text, thus opened explained and proved, Remark 1. See why St. Paul always denies justifica- tion to be obtained by the law, ise. by any law whatso- ever : v z, because none have fulfilled, or can fulfil, any moral law of God in perfection; and a law requires perfect obedience, in order to justification by it.: Nor is it in the nature or power of it, to. justify those. who are under it, and yield not perfect obedience. Cursed be every one that continued?, not in all things, which are written in the book of the law, to do them ; Gal. iii. 10. The epistles to the Romans .and Galatians are full of this doctrine. Whether it be the law of nature ; Rona, ii. 14, 15, or whether the law under which the Jews were, which includes the moral, ceremonial, and political pre- cepts of it; Roma. iii, 19, 20, 23. all have sinned, and come short of the glory. of God, , By the works of the law, any lawwhatsoever, no flesh shall be,justified. Man Both .not, cannot, obtain life by any law; it cannot give life. In this sense all laws are laws of works : Do this and live,is their Ianguage and sense. The man. that loth them shall live in them; Gal, iii. 12. Remark Q. See here to what a wretched and deplor-

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