studies, our preparation, as well as our delivery, of our sermons will infallibly sink with the general state of our heart towards God. Our very doctrines will be weakened and adulterated. There is no art that can conceal this. The ointment in the right hand does not more bewray itself, than a worldly temper in the minister of religion. There is a holy simplicity and fervour of affection, a spiritual apprehension of the great scheme of Divine Truth, à tender compassion for the souls of our hearers, an ardent zeal in the discharge of our ministry, a sacred kindling of heart, touched with the love of Christ, and the peculiar unction of his Spirit, which the secular and declining mind will neither understand nor value, and yet on which the far greatest part of the real effect and influence of the Christian ministry depends. To the worldly minded pastor may be applied the thrilling denunciation of the Prophet;"Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened." Zechariah xi. 9.

which the Holy Spirit vouchsafes to the penitent heart, as effectually restore and transform the soul. A new and purer taste is engendered. The glare and tinsel of all earthly things are detected. Their intoxicating nature and malignant poison are laid open. The love of Christ and holiness occupy their place. The soul pants after God, the source of all true bliss. The topics of natural religion, the duties of Christian morality, and the general motives of the Gospel of Christ, inportant as they all are, derive their whole virtue from the cross, the mysterious cross of the incarnate Saviour. This has all the force of an example to guide, and of a motive to inspire. This will invigorate and nourish the spiritual principle in the Christian's mind, If this stupendous subject be well under. stood in its real extent; if the truths which are necessary to prepare the mind for receiving it, those which detail its nature and properties, and those which follow it out into its consequences, are thoroughly com prehended and felt, the world will flee before us. The contemplation of the cross of Christ will teach us the real extent of human depravity, It will produce hatred of sin: it will reconcile to sufferings: it will deliver from the fear of man: it will bring Christ into the heart: it will unite to God: it will purify and elevate the affections: it will make obedience delightful: it will fill the mind with gratitude and zeal. And in all these ways it will directly tend to strengthen us for our conflict with the spirit and temper of the world.

13. But even this suggestion, as well as every other, will be ineffec tual, unless it be accompanied with fervent persevering prayer. This is the more necessary to be insisted on, as it is the spring of all other duties; and falling, from its nature, less under the notice of our fellowcreatures, is too often performed with remissness and negligence. There is no difficulty in any Chris

tian duty which is to be compared with that of secret and fervent de votion. The reluctance of the heart to communion with God in prayer, is one of the clearest and most melancholy proofs of its apostacy and corruption. We may lose Christ and religion in family and public prayer (which are yet of indispensible importance) unless they be united with constant supplication in private. The very principle of worldly-mindedness, on which the success of all external tempta tions depends, is the tendency of the heart to depart from God as the source of happiness; and therefore, the duties of the closet, if conducted with with holy importunity, directly lead to the mortifying of the very root and first element, from which conformity to the world springs. Prayer places the soul immediately under the eye and grace of God. Prayer exercises all the religious principles of the heart; as sorrow for sin, faith in the merits of Christ, love to God, watchfulness, and humility. Prayer also brings the Holy Spirit into the soul, with all that light and freedom, and consolation, and strength, and purity, which flow from his sacred inspiration. From the neglect of prayer arises the low and worldly kind of religion which prevails amongst us. Our religion is too often the religion of education, of company, of system, of criticism, of philosophy-it is any thing rather than the religion of the closet, which, derived from holy intercourse with Heaven, partakes largely of the source from which it springs.

14. Connected with this subject is the kindred one of the necessity of having death and eternity continually in our view.-We are what our object is. One reason, amongst others, why we are so worldly, is because death is contemplated as a confused and distant event. We each exempt ourselves from the probability of that immediate summons, which we admit in the case of others. Let death be

brought near to our minds, let the realities of an eternal world break in fully upon us, and how trifling will the pursuits, the projects, the opinions, and the customs of the great body of mankind appear! This world is, indeed, never overcome but by the intent meditation on another. If philosophy is extolled as tending in many instances to correct the impressions of sense, and as leading us to neglect present advantages for the prospect of fu ture and more important ones, how much more does the grace of Christianity correct the deductions and vain reasonings of a fallen creature, and teach him to despise the momentary and turbid pleasures of this world, for the pure and unfading glories of eternity! Let death then, and judgment, and heaven be much in our view. Especially let us bring near to our hearts the bliss and purity of the saints above. Let us aim at that love and joy and peace which constitute their happiness, and desire to have more of that life of God in our minds now, which we hope to possess perfectly and uninterruptedly in his presence hereafter. Such anticipations of the vision of heaven, such aspirations after its light and its holiness, such foretastes of its employments and bliss, would directly tend to mortify our hearts to the world. We should breathe a purer air. We should account ourselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth. We should be absorbed in our great work and greater prospects. We should have less disposition to descend to the meaner trifles of time. We should endure as seeing, and believing in, him who is invisible..

15. I know not whether it may be necessary to add, what is impli ed in all I have suggested, the indispensible importance of perpetual effort, if we would be preserved from the world. We naturally sink. The stone forced up the mountain does not more immediately roll back when the impelling cause is removed, than the Christian declines into a secular frame of heart the mon

his exertions languish. Indolence is the very last thing to be thought of by a Christian. When men sleep, the enemy comes and sows tures. Other men may leave their work, and find it on their return in the same state. Not so the Christian. If he suspend, even for a day, his activity and circumspec tion, the foe rears its head. The world is about us-within us-on the right hand and on the left. To resist its fatal influence will cost us incessant exertion. The current flows so deep and strong, that unless we maintain a constant oppos ing effort, we shall inevitably be carried down the stream. A fallen creature, quickly occupied with the objects of sense, called to perpetual duties in the world, with feeble principles of spiritual resistance, losing sight continually of his higher end, and too frequently irre. solute of purpose, can obviously have no safety but in a wakeful apprehension and unceasing vigilance. In this way are we to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." To acknowledge, with whatever sincerity, our depravity and danger, is not enough. Confession will not supply the place of effort. Indolent desires are insufficient for this emergency. The exertion of the candidate in the race, of the wrestler in the struggle, of the warrior in the combat is that which we are to put forth in this high and arduous contest. We are to "keep under our bodies and bring them into subjection, lest by any means after we have known and professed the Gospel of God, or even preached it to others, we our selves should be cast-aways."

16. In doing this, let us humbly repose all our trust in the grace and power of God. I place this particular last, because it is intimately connected with all the preceding. In the honest and diligent use of every means of grace, as well as in the contemplation of every Christian motive, our whole confidence must be placed on the Almighty arm of our heavenly Father,

Severed from Christ, we can do no thing. Relying upon him, we need not despond: He bids us be of good cheer: He has overcome the world: He will not forsake his sincere servants in the moment of difficulty: He will "keep them by his power through faith unto salvation." This hope will be the helmet to the Christian warrior: it will animate and strengthen him, The exceeding great promises of the Gospel are expressly designed to deliver us from the corruption of the world, and make us partakers of a divine nature. Afflictions are employed by our heavenly Physi cian for the same end. Our worldly bearts require this discipline. Nothing more tends, under the grace of God, to separate us from all sinful reliance on things below, than sorrow and disappointment. These rend the world from our embrace, and are the ordinary means by which the mercy of God carries us on towards final salvation. May we learn, then, to employ our various losses and trials, as well as our privileges and comforts, for this important end! May we grow in the grace which is in Christ Jesus! May we rely simply on the teaching and mercy of the Holy Spirit! May we continually, in His strength, get further and further out of the world, and into the spiritual church! May we thus be gradually led on through the conflicting scenes of life, till at length, by the mercy of our Saviour, we are delivered finally from the burden of the flesh, are for ever liberated from the snares of this sinful world, and enter on a new and better state of light and glory, and holiness and joy! D. W.

our Saviour Jesus Christ, it would ill become those whom he hath redeemed from sin and death and everlasting damnation to omit the occasion of meditating on that great work which his mercy and love have wrought out for us miserable sinners. By his death he hath purchased for us the pardon of our sins, peace with God, adoption into his family, and an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. And for this ead he quitted the glory in which he was with the Father, entered into this vale of misery, took on him our mortal flesh, and the form of a servant; and all this for our benefit, who were his enemies, who had renounced his holy law, and had preferred to follow the lusts and sinful pleasures of our corrupt nature. He placed himself, as it were, between God's deserved wrath and our sin. He paid that debt we owed to God, and which was far too great for us to pay, and which if he had not paid, God would not have been reconciled to us.

Can we think upon all this; can we consider that to God sin was so hateful that it could only be redeemed by the death of his only and well-beloved Son, and shall we not fear and hate it also? It was for our sins this Lamb of God was driven to death. We did the deeds by which he was pierced and stricken; the Jews were only the ministers of our wickedness. Shall we not, then, bewail our misery and in? For we may be assured that if Jesus was thus stricken for sin

church, concerning the death and passion of our Saviour Christ." Whatever be the defects of those homilies, considered as literary compositions, when examined by the modern rules of criticism, they will be found to contain the grand fundamental truths of the Gospel, clearly laid down and powerfully enforced; and may we be allowed with all humility to add, that they will also be fount to contain that precise view of bose truths which we have uniformly hboured to inculcate.

not his own, we shall be much more sorely stricken for our multiplied sins, if we do not earnestly repent. No man can be in the favour of God, and yet love the sin which He so much hates. No man can say that he loves Christ truly, and yet cherish sin which was His mortal enemy. Our love to God and Christ may be measured by our hatred to sin. If we take pleasure in sin, we are enemies to God and traitors to Christ. Those who commit sin are represented by St. Paul as even "crucifying the Son of God afresh."The wages of sin," we are also told, " is death;" death everlasting: and, again, “if we live after the flesh, we shall die." In short, we can live to God only by dying to sin. For Christ hath not so redeemed us from sin that we may indulge in it, but he hath redeemed us from sin that we should for ever renounce it and live to righteousness. There, fore in our baptism we are washed from the filthiness of sin, that we should live thenceforth in pureness. of life; and we also promise to re. nounce the devil and all his sug gestions, and as obedient children to follow God's will and pleasure. If he, then, be our Father, let us give him due honour. If we are his children, let us obey him after the example of Christ, who “ was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

But to return: "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities." On the cross "he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows." No pain did he refuse to suffer, that he might deliver us from pain everlasting. The consideration of this should not only excite our thankfulness and bind us to his service, but it may inspire us with the hope that as "God hath not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, he will with him also freely give us all things." We shall be his children, if we believe in Christ; for as many as believe in his name, to them

gives he power to become the sons of God; and thus believing, whatsoever we ask in his name he will give it to us. So well pleased is the Father with his Son Jesus Christ, that for his sake he will be favourable unto us, and deny us nothing. So pleasant to him was this oblation of his Son's death, that it forms the only and full reparation for all the sins of the world. And such is the merit of this sacrifice, that if we be Christians not in word only but in deed, we are now fully restored to the grace and favour of God, and wholly freed from our sin. What tongue can express the worth of this precious death; in which is comprised the continual pardon of our daily offences, our justification, our acceptance with God, and the everlasting salvation of all our souls! Nor is there any work of man, be he ever so holy, that shall be coupled in merits with Christ's most holy act. All our thoughts and deeds are of no value, if not accepted through the merits of Christ's death. All we do is full of imperfection, and therefore unworthy of itself to incline God to favour us, much less to challenge to itself the glory which is due to Christ. Let us therefore magnify and praise his name for ever. For he hath dealt with us according to his great mercy, and by himself hath purchased our redemption. Unmoved by the intolerable ago nies of his cross and passion, he repented not that he had undertaken the cause of his enemies. He opened his heart for us, and freely gave himself for our ransom. Let us, then, now open our hearts to him, and study in our lives to shew that we are evermore thankful for such a benefit: let us take up our cross, and follow Christ.

And here I would observe, that Christ's passion is not only the perfect satisfaction for our sin, but also a most perfect example of all patience and long-suffering. "Christ hath suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should

follow his steps;" and "if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him." Not that the sufferings of this transitory life are worthy of that glory; but we should be glad so to suffer as to be like Christ in our life, that thus we might glorify our heavenly Father. Such sufferings, indeed, are grievous; but they bring forth the joyful fruit of hope in all who are duly exercised by them. Only let us take care that we suffer innocently as our Saviour did. "For what glory is it if, when ye suffer for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.”

when.

after

Nor should we only imitate the perfect pattern, but the perfect charity, of our blessed Saviour. Instead of thinking to revenge the injuries we receive, we shall love our enemies, bless them that curse, us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute, us; example who, while hanging in bitter anguish on the cross, bleeding at every pore, surrounded by his enemies and murderers that pitilessly mocked at his intolerable pains, yet felt towards them such compassion of heart, that he prayed to his heavenly Father, “ Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Thus should we place before us the example of our Saviour's love as manifested on the cross, if we would benefit as we ought by thinking on his death and passion... How, indeed, can we crave forgiveness at the hands of God for our great offences, if we will not forgive the petty offences of our neighbours against us? Those shall call in vain for mercy, who will shew no mercy. On this condition doth God forgive us our trespasses, that we forgive to others their trespasses against us. And however unworthy of forgiveness our neighbour may appear, yet let us remember that Christ is worthy that we should do thus much for