their daily trial, humiliation, and grief; yet in refpect to their spiritual ftate, and their prevailing difpofitions, actions, and purfuits thro' grace, are fuch as the righteous and holy God deems, and deals with as perfect and upright in his fight, and declares (as in the text) concerning them, that their End fhall be Peace.

Here then the queftion returns, "Who are "perfect and upright perfons in a Gofpel fenfe ?" 'Tis anfwer'd," Scripture and common language દ give us both a more general and a more limited "application of the terms;" they are applied either to the grace wherein every Chriftian ftands, or else they denote the diftinguifhing measures of it, with which fome are favoured.

1. By the perfect upright Man, understand every real Chriftian as fuch; Every Gospel-believer, true Convert, real Saint, or whatever other Name thofe may go by, whom God has called by his grace unto the knowledge and fellowship of his Son Chrift Jefus: All thefe come within the character and defign of our text. In every age, the Lord hath had a feed to ferve him whom be bath accounted to himself for a generation: this is the generation of them that seek him*. -The generation of the Righteous †, whom he favours with his presence-- the Generation of the Upright which fhall be bleffed - They are taught of the Lord, and devoted to his fear taught by his word and fpirit, cordially to believe what God hath revealed; thankfully to receive what he hath to give; dutifully to perform what he hath enjoined, and patiently to bear what he pleafeth to allot them. Such are enabled by fpecial and fovereign Grace fidutially to build on the foundation God hath laid; humbly to exercise the

*Pfal. xxiv. 6. + Pfal. xiv. 5. + Pfal. cxii. 2.

the feveral graces he hath implanted; confcientiously to employ the talents he has given; devoutly to obferve the ordinances he hath appointed, and chearfully to walk in the paths which his wisdom has paved.

There are three things more efpecially, by which the propriety and force of the Expreffion will appear.

First, All real Chriftians are called perfect and upright, in respect to their spiritual state before God. This is a state of friendfhip and favour, of peace and communion; Gofpel-Believers are all perfectly reconciled, accepted, juftified, and reftored to the favour of an offended God; and this in vertue of a perfect righteousness received by faith. In the matter of a finner's pardon and acceptance with God, his hopes and expectations are not directed to a righteoufnefs to be wrought out by him, but to a righteoufnefs which is finifhed for him, viz. the righteousness of the great Mediator and Surety of the Church. This was the fpecial Errand of the incarnate Saviour, when he vifited our World, viz. to finish tranfgreffion, and make an End of Sins, and fo bring in an everlasting Righteoufnefs. And this righteoufness, we are affured, is unto, and upon dll them that believe. What could not be obtained by the works of the Law, thus made ours by the bearing of Faith. For by him all that believe are juftified from all things, from which they could not be juftified by the Law of Mofes ||. The Doctrines of free Grace, and an imputed righteoufnefs, have met with great obloquy and oppofition in every age; but they ftand among the most precious and interefting truths of divine Revela

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tion, and yield a most safe and folid bafis to the Chriftian's confidence and hope both living and dying. How can it be otherwise, while it is fo exprefsly declared, " Chrift is the End of the Law for righteoufnefs to every one that believes * ? "That there is now no condemnation to them that are in Chrift Jefust: And that being justified "by faith we have peace with God, thro' our "Lord Jefus Chrift, &c." The Believer's ftate then does not alter and vary with his frames; no, bleffed be God, a ftate of grace is fixed and abiding; the righteousness of Chrift is a fure foundation, under all our own humbling imperfections and fears; here we may depend, here we may ftill reft our caufe, and ground our plea, for here is God's own provifion for our truft and triumph too: In the Lord fhall all the Seed of Ifrael be justified and shall glory. In this fenfe Believers are now moft perfect and complete in Christ their Head, tho' they ftill have fo much amiss within themselves. And hence the Apostle. challenges Men and Devils too, to alledge any thing that shall prove a bar to the true Believer's juftification and acceptance with God. Who fhall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect? It is God that juftifies. Who is be that condemns? It is Chrift that died, &c. And all this is a Doctrine according to Godliness. For,

Secondly, Believers are perfect and upright in a Gospel fenfe, in refpect to the ruling Temper and inward difpofitions of their hearts. We read of an abundance of grace bestowed with this gift of righteousness. Much more they who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness fball reign in life by one Jefus Chrift. A change

* Rom. x. 4. + Rom. viii. 1. † Rom. v. 1.
§ Rom. viii. 33.
* Rom. v. 17.

xlv. 25.

of

change of ftate, and a change of heart, always go together; God makes thofe righteous whom he reckons and pronounces to be fo, his Judgment is always according to truth; Righteoufnefs imputed, and Righteoufnefs imparted can never be fevered: Regeneration is revealed, not merely as a Doctrine to be believed, but also as a Fact to be experienced: 'Tis well, to receive it as an article in our Creed, but the great concern is, to have it exemplified in our hearts. Hence we read of a new heart of God's giving, and a new man of God's creating. A new heart also will I give you*, &c. Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness +. This new, this hidden man of the heart, is the workmanship of God; it is continually spoken of, as the immediate effect of power divine; for we are bis workmanship, created in Chrift fefus unto good works, &c. Believers are feminally perfect (if I may fo exprefs it,) being born of an incorruptible feed, thro' the word of the living God; and his feed, remaineth in them. The new birth is not a new name, or new fentiments, but a new nature; the Spirit of life from Chrift Jesus diffuses a new and facred bias, or tincture, thro' all the powers of the Soul, whereby it becomes fpiritually alive unto God: The feeds of fincerity, uprightnefs, and holinefs, take root in the heart, which were not there before; and thus the Christian is one that is habitually and prevailingly disposed and principled for God and goodnefs Many imperfections indeed continue to attend his heart, and actions; imperfections which others may often difcover, but which he himfelf will oftner lament; and thus it must be, till that

* Ezek. xxxvi. 26. Eph. iv. 24. Eph. ii. 10. 1 Pet.

i. 23. compared with 1 John iii. 9.

which is perfect shall come, and then that which is in part, fhall be done away. No room is there for afferting an abfolute finless perfection attainable in this life; this is to contradict the plaineft declarations of the word, and the univerfal experience of the Saints; and they who pretend to have thus attained, muft needs be greatly ignorant of the fpirituality and perfection of God's holy Law, or of the deceitfulness of fin and their own hearts: Let fuch have a fhare in our pity, and our prayers, while we continue to attend to the propriety and spirit of the character before us: Regenerate perfons live not without fin, yet are they pronounced perfect and upright men, and that with the greatest juftice and beauty of expreffion; for tho' there is not a perfection of degrees, there is a perfection in its kind, to be found with them: As a new-born infant is a perfect perfon, as truely as when he arrives at a fulness of ftature. Afa was not without his failings, but Afa's heart was perfect with the Lord. And Hezekiah's life was not without offence, yet Hezekiah walked with a perfect heart before the Lord t

-Oh! firs, it is a radical mercy to have our hearts perfect, or right with God, in all our de-votions and all our obedience; and this is the great internal difference which the Grace of God makes, between the faint and the finner. What the finner does, he does feignedly and as compelled occafionally to religious duties; but what the faint does, is heartily, fincerely performed, and with a willing mind, as in the fight of God; he acts upon principle and his fruit remains . That which is fundamental to a life of progreffive holiness here and of perfection hereafter, is that heavenly

* 1 Cor. xiii. 10. +1 Kings xv. 14. John xv. 16.

Kings xx. 3.