righteousness, as did the Pharisees. Some variation has taken place in modifying the old mistake. Many seem to think that their own duties and virtues are the foundation, and that, where these fail, Christ will supply the breach, and his righteousness finish the structure. Hence their trust is divided between him and themselves.

But, my brethren, this scheme has no support in the Gospel, and is utterly irreconcileable with the gospel terms of repentance and faith. True and evangelical repentance confesses that our secret faults and open transgressions are innumerable, and that our very best services are mingled with imperfections sufficient for our condemnation. Faith, weary and heavy laden under the consciousness of this burden of guilt and ill desert, joyfully receives Christ as the Lord, our righteousness, whose obedience alone avails to our justification, and procures for us all the treasures of mercy and grace-receives him as "made of God unto us, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Faith is the bond of union between Christ and his people, by virtue of which they derive strength from him for every good work which they perform.

Here, then, we may discern the nature and the principle of that righteousness, which is better than that of the Scribes and Pharisees. It results from that renovated state of mind which takes place on the exercise of repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is consequent upon our

being created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has ordained that we should walk in them, and it is performed through him, working in us both to will and to do.

These sentiments and impressions have taken such hold on the heart of the sincere Christian, as to produce a change in his habitual thoughts, temper, desires, aims, and pursuits. Old things pass away, and all things become new to the taste and relish of his mind. His affections are set on things above. Though he neglects not his temporal concerns, yet he regards them but with a subordinate view to objects incomparably more important. Feeling that he is not his own, that he has been bought with a price, he consecrates himself, body and soul, his worldly possessions, his time, his influence, his all, to the service of him by whom he has been redeemed; and this, not from constraint, but willingly, from love, gratitude, and the pleasure which he experiences in what he believes to be the service of God. To him, the duties of religion are no longer a burden and a weariness, but his delight. His language is that of the Psalmist, "Oh how I love thy law! How amiable are thy tabernacles! I love the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth. I esteem thy precepts concerning all things to be right. I will run the way of thy commandments."

By a righteousness thus prompted by love and gratitude, faith and hope, men become the subjects of Christ's kingdom on earth, and qualify themselves for its enjoyment in heaven. May divine grace produce in us all a righteousness of this kind!

SERMON VII.

PRAYER.

ACTS ix. 11.

And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth.

THE man here called Saul of Tarsus, seems to have been an extraordinary person from his youth. He was indeed a Jew, as both his parents were of that nation; and by them he had been trained up in the religion of his fathers. But his birth was among the Asiatic Greeks in the city of Tarsus, the capital of the neighbouring province of Cilicia. In the schools of this city, young Saul received the first rudiments of learning, and was most probably favoured with peculiar advantages for an early proficiency in knowledge. Undoubtedly he became familiar with the learned works of the Grecian poets, orators, and philosophers. As he grew towards man's estate, he was sent from Tarsus to Jerusalem, there to finish his education under the celebrated

Gamaliel. This man was a member of the Sanhedrim, or supreme council of the Jews, and had great weight and authority in that assembly of the Elders. Such were his learning and abilities, that the "honour of the law is said to have failed with him." While he assisted in the national council, all the members hearkened to him, and his advice overruled their decisions. When the Apostles were first summoned before this assembly, Gamaliel appeared superior to passion and prejudice, and discovered becoming temper and moderation. But the growth of the new sect, and the boldness of the Apostles in disregarding the charge of the Elders, might have exasperated his spirit afterward, and induced him to encourage the zeal of his rash and fiery pupil.

Saul had just completed his studies and fitted himself for public employments, when he conceived the whole hierarchy of his country to be in danger of being overthrown by the prevalence of Christianity. With all the fire of youth and genius, and all the zeal of a flaming bigot, he engaged in the general persecution of the Christians. Resolved on their total extirpation, after the murder of Stephen and many others of both sexes at Jerusalem, he solicited a commission to carry on the bloody business in foreign and distant cities. His learning and accomplishments had probably already procured him a considerable reputation, or we can hardly suppose that the Sanhedrim would so readily have committed to him such an important trust. He was, as the context