stauding so renewed as to approve and delight in them. The Christian's tempers are no less the subjects of reformation than his actions. A worldly temper is as contrary to his character, and as opposite to the nature and genius of Christianity, as an evil action. A general carelessness and remissness about our souls is represented in the New Testament, as not less culpable than positive acts of sin. In short, a Christian is one whose will is renewed to love God; who feels that the service of his Maker is at once his glory and his joy; who has a grateful sense of his obligations to the Divine mercy, and a rational and permanent abhorrence of sin. Influenced by just principles and noble desires, he is no longer a slave to the world or the flesh; no longer places his happiness in the gratifications of vanity, the luxury of ease, or the enjoyment of worldly pleasures. He looks up to heaven as his home, and he is training for it in the practice of all righteous duties which that seat of unsullied holiness requires. Such is the nature and purpose of Christianity-that religion which the Son of God came down from heaven to inculcate.

From this view of the change of heart which the religion of Jesus Christ requires, I proceed to derive some practical admonitions.

And first, I address the careless and worldly-minded. You will object to this representation of the design of the Gospel, and think that the benefits of Christianity may be obtained without this extreme strictness of life and purity of heart. But I appeal to yourselves whether what the Gospel thus demands of us is not a reasonable service. Can you expect that God should suffer his creatures to live on his bounty, and to partake of the mercy he has offered them, without a holy conformity to his will, without endeavouring to honour and serve him, to the utmost of their power, with the faculties he has given them? Can you expect that he will receive into heaven, that pure and holy seat in which he is peculiarly present, those who have not been prepared for that glorious mansion? The least se

rious reflection must convince you, that God has given to man a capacity to serve him, and that he must therefore require from him a diligent and upright obedience. And what is that religion which the Son of God, coming down from heaven, must have been expected to teach? A religion consistent with impurity, or with ignorance, or with spiritual indifference? A religion, substituting the belief of mere opinions for holy practice? A religion, allowing a practice partially virtuous, and admitting the performance of some parts of duty as a compensation for the neglect of the rest? No: it is evident, that in a religion taught by the Son of God himself, no insincerity could be admitted; that he could not have quitted the scene of his glory to teach a system in which the highest faculties of man, his will and his affections, were to find a partial or subordinate exercise. He came to purchase to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works; and the sum of his commandments is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and strength, and our neighbour as ourself.

But while I therefore inculcate on the careless sinner the absolute necessity of Christian holiness, let me not forget, that amongst my hearers, there are probably many upright but humble and diffident persons, who are truly desirous to serve Christ, though they feel and lament the difficulty of subduing the corruption of their nature. I would remind them that it is peculiar to the Gospel of Christ, to afford hope and encouragement to the humble. Let not this description of the extensive nature, or perfect degree of Christian holiness, lead you for an instant to consider Christ as a hard Master, or his service as an unreasonable bondage. His yoke is easy, and his burden light. He has considered, he does consider, human infirmity. "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth we are but dust." And therefore, though he cannot dispense with this sincerity of heart and practical holiness in his disciples, he has amply furnished them with means to attain it. For

this end he offers the influence of his Holy Spirit to those who earnestly seek it. That high degree of holiness, also, which is required, is to be the result of a long continued progress. The strength of mature age cannot be expected in an infant, nor the perfection of holiness in the infancy of the spiritual life. The Christian is one who makes a constant progress from grace to grace. He "counts not himself to have apprehended; but, forgetting those things which are behind, he reaches forth to those which are before, and presses towards the mark for the prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus."

And though infirmity still cleaves to human nature, and corruption defiles its best intentions, yet through the atonement of Christ "there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." It is peculiar to Christianity, that though it requires holiness, it yet dispenses pardon; that although it allows not insincerity, it yet shews compassion to the penitent sinner. "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins." It is peculiar to Christianity, that the believer may know the extent of his deficiencies, see his extreme unworthiness, be filled with shame on account of his sin, and yet abound in joy and peace in believing. Thus in every respect, Christianity bears the image of its great Parent, spotless and pure, yet at the same time mild and gracious; too righteous to admit of wilful depravity, yet too merciful not to admit repentance, and provide salvation for those that repent and believe.

Such, then, is Christianity, a lovely copy of the goodness, mildness, purity, and excellence of the Divine Nature. Christ, its author, displayed his own character, the glory of the Father, full of grace and truth; and it was his intention to impart to all his disciples his own resemblance and image. What manner of persons then should Christians be, in all holy and godly conversation? But, alas! what must we say to those Christians, who are living in the world as if they

were of the world; who, instead of considering themselves as pilgrims and strangers on earth, who have no abiding city here, set up their rest in this life, are immersed in earthly things, are making no moral improvement, are strangers to earnest prayer, to a holy temper of mind, to a conformity to the will of God, who, in short, are Christians only in the name and form of worship, while their spirit, temper, maxims, views, and conduct, are just the same as if Christianity had not been revealed? Alas! what can we say of such, but that they have a name to live and are dead? For where is that personal holiness, that purity of heart, which the Gospel requires? They want the very essential characters which alone constitutes the title to Christianity. A lifeless, nominal Christianity, has been the great evil of the world; nor can any general or solid reformation take place, till the distinction between real and pretended Christianity is clearly understood, till the genius and character of the Gospel is studied, and the power, rather than the form, of godliness becomes the object of our desire. This great and fundamental distinction, the doctrine of regeneration is well calculated to explain. It alarms the careless sinner, and confounds the self-deceiver: it allows of no sin, nor permits the absence of any virtue. Its immediate tendency is to put an effectual stop to every evil way, to administer a thorough cure to spiritual diseases, and to form and fashion us after the image of Christ. Such are its practical effects; nor can the danger of neglecting it be described in more awful terms than the Great Judge of the quick and dead has used in the words of my text: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

SERMON VII.

ON JUSTIFICATION.

Ephes. ii. 8-10.

By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

WHEN it is said, that salvation depends on our faith, and not on our works, a very strong objection will immediately suggest itself:-"What, then, are good works of no avail to salvation? Do the righteous by their holy and excellent lives, establish no better claim to heaven than the profligate and profane? Is not this repugnant to common sense? Is it not contrary to all our ideas of the justice and righteousness of God? Is it not a doctrine dangerous to the interests of morality, depreciating the value of a good life, and encouraging the wicked presumptuously to expect salvation in opposition to the many plain declarations of Scripture?" Such are the objections which unavoidably force themselves