These Sections teach the following propositions : 1st. In order that any human action should be truly a good work, it must have the following essential characteristics: (1.) It must be something directly or implicitly commanded by God. (2.) It must spring from an inward principle of faith and love in the heart. Works not commanded by God, but invented and gratuitously performed by men, are utterly destitute

of moral character, and, if offered in the place of the obedience required, they are offensive.

2d. The effects and uses of good works in the Christian life are manifold, and are such as — (1.) They express the gratitude, manifest the grace of God in the believer, and so adorn the profession of the gospel. (2.) They glorify God. (3.) They develop grace by exercise, and so strengthen the believer's assurance. (4.) They edify the brethren. (5.) They stop the mouths of adversaries. (6.) They are necessary to the attainment of eternal life.

1st. In order that a work may be good, it must be an act performed in conformity to God's rev^ealed will. The law of absolute moral perfection to which we are held in subjection is not the law of our own reasons or consciences, but it is an all-perfect rule of righteousness, having its ground In the eternal nature of God, and its expression and obliging authority to us in the divine will. Not self-development, not the realization of an ideal end, but obedience to a personal authority without and above us, is precisely what reason, conscience and Scripture require. The good man is the obedient man. The sinner in every transgression of virtue is conscious that he is guilty of disobedience to the supreme Lawgiver. David says in his repentance, " Against thee^ thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.'^ Ps. li. 4. God has given in the inspired Scriptures a perfect rule of faith and practice. Every principle, every motive and every end of right action, according to the will of God, may there be easily learned by the devout inquirer. God says to his Church : " What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; thou

shalt ncit add thereunto nor diminish from it." Deut. xii. 32 ; Kev. xxii. 18, 19. And God very energetically declares his abhorrence of uncoramanded services, of " voluntary humility" and "will-worship." Isa. i. 11, 12; Col. ii. 16,23.

2d. In order that a work may be truly good, it must spring from a principle of faith and love in the heart. All men recognize that the moral character of an act always is determined by the moral character of the principle or affection which prompts to it. Unregenerate men perform many actions, good so far as their external relations to their fellow-men are concerned. But love to God is the foundation-principle upon which all moral duties rest, just as our relation to God is the fundamental relation upon which all our other relations rest. If a man is alienated from God, if he is not in the present exercise of trust in him and love for him, any action he can perform will lack the essential element which makes it a true obedience. Good works according to the Scriptures are the fruits of sanctification, having their root in regeneration. " For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 10. James says that faith is shown by works, which of course implies that the kind of works of which he speaks spring only from a believing heart. James ii. 18, 22.

3d. The effects and uses of good works in the Christian life are manifold, and are such as — (1.) They express the gratitude and manifest the grace of God in the believer, and so adorn the profession of the gospel. Faith works by love. Gal. v. 6. Christ says that we

t are to express our love for him by keeping liis commandments. John xiv. 15, 23. As they are the fruits of the Spirit, they render manifest the excellent working of the Spirit. 1 Tim. ii. 10; Tit. ii. 10. (2.) They glorify God. Since God is their author (Eph. ii. 10), they manifest the excellency of his grace, and excite all who behold them to appreciate and proclaim his glory. Matt. V. 16; 1 Pet. ii. 12. (3.) As they spring from grace, so the performance of them exercises grace in general, and each grace severally according to the nature of the work performed. Thus by the universal law of habit grace grows by its exercise. And the assurance as to our own gracious state naturally increases with the strength and evidence of those graces unto which the promise of salvation is attached. (4.) They edify the brethren. Good works edify others, both as confirmatory evidence of the truth of Christianity and the power of divine grace, and by the force of example inducing men to practice the same. 1 Thess. i. 7 ; 1 Tim. iv. 12; 1 Pet. V. 3. (5.) For the same reasons good works disprove the cavils and render nugatory the opposition of wicked men. 1 Pet. ii. 15. (6.) They are necessary to the attainment of salvation, not in any sense as a prerequisite to justification, nor as in any stage of the believer's progress meriting the divine favour, but as essential elements of that salvation, the consubstantial fruits and means of sanctification and glorification. A saved soul is a holy soul, and a holy soul is one whose faculties are all engaged in works of loving obedience. Grace in the heart cannot exist without good works as its consequent. Good works cannot exist without the increase of the graces which are exercised

in them. Heaven could not exist except as a society of holy souls mutually obeying the law of love in all the good works that law requires. Eph. v. 25-27 ; 1 The«s. iV. 6, 7 ; Rev. xxi. 27.

This section states what is necessary to constitute an action a good work, as considered in itself. It must be such as God has commanded in his holy Word. The law of God is the sole rule of man's obedience, and no action, how specious soever in appearance, can be properly called good, unless required by the supreme legislator. No command of man can make a work good, imless it be, at the sametime, virtually or explicitly commanded by God. Those actions which have no warrant from the Word of God, but are devised by men, out of blind zeal, cannot be reckoned good works. On this ground Christ rejected those services of the Pliarisees, which had no other authority than the traditions of the elders, or their own enactments, saying : " Who hath required this at your hands." And, on the same ground, those works of supersti- • Mosheim's Eccl. Hist., cent iii., ch. 5, p. 2, c. 17, 18.

tion and will-worship, which are only enjoined by the commandments of men, in the Church of Rome, must be rejected. " In vain," said our Saviour, " do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." — Matt. xv. 9.

Actions which God has not commanded cannot be transformed into good works (as is maintained by the Church of Rome), by the good intention of the agent. Many have pretended to act from a good intention, when they were acting in direct opposition to the revealed will of God. — 1 Sam. xiii. 13, XV. 17-23. Men have thought that they were doing God good service, when they were committing the most atrocious crimes. — John xvi. 2 ; Acts xxvi. 9.

A work commanded by God is good, considered in itself; but something more is requisite to make it good as performed by us. And no action is a good work in the sight of God, except it he formally as well as materially good. What things are necessary to render a work /orma% good, maybe learned from the subsequent sections of this chapter; but we judge it proper to state them briefly in this place. 1. They must be performed by a person who is justified by the righteousness of Christ, and renewed by his Spirit. 2. They must be done from a right principle — faith working by love. There must be faith or persuasion that what we do is commanded by God ; and we must perform it from a respect to his authority. — Rom. xiv. 23. There must also be a faith of the acceptance of our works only through the mediation of Christ. Our obedience must likewise flow from love to God. — 1 John v. 3. 3. They must be performed in a right manner. They must be done in the strength of promised grace, and in dependence upon the righteousness of Christ for acceptance — in the exercise of gratitude to God for all his benefits, and under a deep sense of our own unworthiness. 4. They must be directed to a right end. Our works cannot be accounted good, except our chief and ultimate end in doing them be the glory of God.— 1 Cor. x. 31.