Chrift



SERMON VII. 163

Chrift Jefus unto good works, which "God
" hath before ordained that we fhould walk
" in them." But if fome entire books of
St Paul had been hard to be underftood in
any moral fenfe ; others of his writings moft
fully aflert the chriftian obligations to live
according to the precepts, the moral precepts
of the goipel. Nay if the whole of St Paul's
writings had been confined to controverfy,
and of courfe had been merely dod:rinal, and
conveyed no moral inflrudlion ; flill, the
writings of the other infpired teachers, ought
fufficiently to have defended the chriftian
doftrine againft any fuch interpretations as
gave a defcription of the chriftian religion,
different in idea, from a doftrine according
to godlinefs.
From the period of repentance the con-
vert, juftified, by the grace of God, through
faith, and regenerated by baptifm, proceeds
to cultivate his faith, * inconfiderable though
it be, in the beginning, as a grain of mus-
tard feed: that, being watched with inces-
fant care, and weeded by continual mortifi-
cation, it may ° grow to maturity ; and bring
forth "^j by perfeverance in the chriftian dis^
cipline, the fruits of the fpirit in abundance.
^ Matt. c. 13. V. 31. Matt. c. 17. v. 20. " Mark.
c 4. V. 26, 27. ' ' Luke. c. 8. v. 15.
L 2 Many



i64 SERMON VII.
