clude, that as it is not absolutely perfect, it is not the righteousness of the immaculate Jesus imputed to us, but a righteousness, such as we are capable of, wrought in us by the good Spirit of grace, improved by our own earnest endeavours to cooperate with his holy inspirations, but accepted, because still defective, through the sole merits and intercession of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

SERMON VI.

EPHES. iv. 8-12.

When he ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men........ For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of

Christ.

THE Moral Tendency of Divine Revelation having been proved from the holiness which it represents as essential to God, from the original perfection of man, from the loss of happiness through sin, and from the necessity of his restoration to righteousness before he can be restored to happiness, it remains to be seen, whether it has provided any means for attaining the object, upon which it appears so largely to insist. And that it has done so in the most ample manner will be evident from an inspection of the particular instances,

in which its care in this respect is conspi

cuous.

The means provided by Revelation for the moral improvement of man, may be considered as fairly arranging themselves under the following heads: religious and moral instruction in words; external emblematic signs, which, if understood at all, must be understood as shadowing out and requiring internal purity; direct moral discipline; and, above all, the sanctifying influences of God's Holy Spirit. All these are expressly supplied by the Revelation which we receive as Divine; and whatever their success or failure may be in eradicating vice or producing virtue, the Revelation, which provides them, must be acknowledged to have for its design the complete destruction of the former, and the effectual support of the latter.

With regard then to the first mean of moral improvement, we have this character of it given us by St. Paul, to enable us to judge of its intent and efficacy: " All

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Scripture," says he," is given by inspi"ration of God, and is profitable for doc

"trine, for reproof, for correction, for in"struction in righteousness: that the man "of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur"nished unto all good works." And that this character is to be extended to the Old Testament as well as the New, is clear from this, that the Apostle commands Timothy to "continue" in those " things" which he had "learned," not only from himself, as his evangelical instructor, but in those also which he had imbibed from the holy Scriptures, in which he had been conversant from his childhood. But the only Scripture sin which Timothy could have been conversant from his childhood, were the Scriptures of the Old Testament, no other writings being then extant under that character; and consequently it was for his early proficiency in them, that he was commended by St. Paul. To them therefore must belong that property of useful instruction, which all Scripture is here declared to possess, and of them it must be confessed, that they have the power of correcting" what is wrong, and enforc

a 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.

b 2 Tim. iii. 14, 15.