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you with his blood; and to this end, give all diligence to make your calling and election sure. Thus, instead of failing of the grace of God, or seeming to do so, you will be singularly privileged and honoured in your Christian experience. For the diligent Christian is not one who is "scarcely saved," or who barely escapes falling into perdition, but his walk with God shall be steady, his conversation uniformly such as becometh the gospel; and like the Ethiopian mentioned in the Acts, (ch. 8, v. 39,) he shall go on his way rejoicing. Whereas, many, by reason of those spiritual declensions into which their inconsistencies have betrayed them, lose the joys of God's salvation, he shall greatly rejoice in the Lord, and his soul shall be joyful in his God. Whilst others are lamenting, "Oh! that it were with us as in months past," he shall have reason to say, "Come and hearken. ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul." Like unto the heath in the desert, even barrenness itself, is every natural heart:-but thus, under divine culture, and drinking in the

dews of heavenly grace, this wilderness rejoices and blossoms as the rose for such a soul shall prosper abundantly in fruits of holiness, and in all the graces of the Spirit. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; and show the same diligence unto the full assurance of hope unto the end. Thus shall you not only avoid the evil against which you are admonished in the text, that of seeming to come short of heavenly blessedness, but on the contrary, an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the . everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

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See Galatians iii. 7. "Know ye, therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." And subsequently, verses 26-29, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and

heirs according to the promise." This passage may be considered as a key to the spiritual sense of the Old Testament promises, and a warrant for their spiritual application to believers under the covenant of grace.

If we compare Neh. xi. 1, Dan. ix. 24. Matt. iv. 5, Rev. xxi. 2, and xxii. 19, it will appear that the literal Jerusalem was a type of that "city which hath foundations whose maker and builder is God." By a parity of reasoning, and a comparison of similar passages, it would seem that CANAAN was a type of heaven. See Isa. xxvi. 1, Gal. iv. 26, Eph. ii. 12—19, Heb. xii. 22, Rev. xxi. 10.

SERMON IX.

̧ON CHRISTIAN LOVE.

1 JOHN IV. 7, 8.

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.

WHETHER We contemplate the human family in general, or the church of Christ in particular, as one collective body, we shall discover the wisdom of God in rendering mankind mutually dependant on each other. For it is this mutual dependance, as a collateral bond, which confirms and strengthens the unity of the whole. Man, instead of being an isolated creature, wrapt up in himself, and seeking exclusively his own interests, is in a great degree instrumentally necessary to the

welfare, happiness, and existence of mankind he is in short, the helper and benefactor of his fellow man. So that notwithstanding that selfishness which sin has introduced into his nature, and interwoven with his every action and feeling, he finds his own well-being and happiness involved in promoting the interest and well-being of others. If the poor and labouring classes are dependant on the opulent; the opulent, on the other hand, are scarcely less dependant, though in a different manner, on the labouring classes; for wealth owes all its power to the gradations of rank, and those principles of civil intercourse which preserve these gradations from extinction, and link man to man in an indissoluble bond of union. Without these principles, and this order of things, what could wealth effect? could neither build houses, cultivate lands, nor produce the common necessaries of life; much less could it procure luxuries, or minister to indulgence. These considerations show the folly of pride and a self-sufficient spirit in those to whom providence has allotted a liberal share of the

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