140 THE BELIEVER DEAD UNTO SIN. How has this come to pass? because "the law of life in Christ Jesus has made you free from the law of sin and death." O then reckon that it is so; that through faith in Christ Jesus you are one with Him; and being one with Him, you are "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God;" and you shall find that the joy of the Lord is your strength. You shall be inspired to go forward. "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, you shall press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." SERMON VII. THE HAPPY STATE OF THE BELIEVER. ROMANS viii, 1. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is the testimony of God that by the offence of one-or by his one offencejudgment came upon all men to condemnation: that, without exception, the race of man is guilty before God; becoming so in the moment that Adam fell, having an existence in him as the root whence they should all spring; and that to this original offence, vast and numberless transgressions have been added, exposing men to the awful curse of the violated law; to the sentence not only of exclusion from the light and bliss of heaven, but consignment to darkness and despair-to the wrath to come. It is this which renders the doctrine of "Christ and Him crucified" so entirely "glad tidings," inasmuch as it exhibits a way wherein deliverance, free and everlasting deliverance from condemnation, may be experienced, not to the prejudice of the claims of justice, but rather to their full recognition and satisfaction. Nor is it the least acceptable accompaniment of this doctrine, that their state and conduct who are interested in the rich mercies of the gospel have been defined so accurately, that no misapprehension need exist; but that, in an examination of his characters by the tests presented in the word, the enquirer may find a right judgment as to his interest or not, in that glorious freedom from condemnation with which those are privileged who belong to Christ Jesus. To the consideration of these points we are invited in the text, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." First.-We have a declaration of privi lege. Secondly.-A definition of conduct. First, a declaration of privilege, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." This privilege then, consists of freedom from condemnation; and arises out of union to Christ. To be united unto, or to be in Him, is the ground or basis of the privilege. It is by faith that the sinner takes refuge in Christ, and rests in Him for salvation. This faith is accompanied by a persuasion that without Him, apart from Him, there is no salvation; that as the righteous penalty of his rebellion and dis obedience, his unholiness and love of sin, the sinner must perish. Convinced of this, by the enlightening grace of the Holy Ghost, he is prepared to hail the discoveries made to him, that by the appointment of God the Father, and the Son's own voluntary substitution of Himself in place of guilty men, His obedience to the precept they had failed to observe, His endurance of the penalty they had incurred, He had "made reconciliation for iniquity and brought in an everlasting righteousness." Perceiving the glory and grace of His work, its suitableness and all-sufficiency, he is constrained to commit his soul and all his immortal interests to Jesus, as "mighty to save." He trusts Himtrusts Him only-renouncing all other ways of salvation as delusive and ruinous. By this faith, this divine persuasion wrought by the Holy Spirit in the heart, a lively union to the Saviour is effected. Then we become one with Him, as the |