Ye are born again by the Spirit of God; and ye are kept by his mighty power, through faith unto salvation. United as you are to Christ, by a living faith, ye can never perish. His charge to preserve you, is as strict and binding, as his charge to redeem and renew you at first. Ye were given unto him from eternity, by his heavenly Father, and will he not keep those whom the Father hath committed to him? Hear his own words: "All that the Father hath given me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out." Christ formed in the heart of a true believer, resembles, in some measure, Christ incarnate in the world. The divine nature may be obscured for a season; it may, and probably will, have its season of humiliation: but though it may seem to die, yet it shall have its resurrection likewise, and afterwards its ascension into glory. This it was that enabled Paul to say, "I therefore run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air." Perseverance is not only the duty, but the privilege also of all who set themselves in good earnest to travel for heaven. And though the law of God obliges them, and their new nature inclines them, to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, yet they have a far better security for their success than any efforts of their own. Omnipotence is their guardian; "the eternal God is their refuge, and underneath them his everlasting arms."

My brethren, time and strength would fail me, were I to attempt enumerating all the sources of joy which be long to the redeemed of the Lord. I trust, that in your own frequent meditation you revolve them, and that in your frequent addresses to the throne of grace, you commemorate them with thankful hearts before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you not then express the joy and gratitude of your souls, for the benefit of your Redeemer's example, for the promised aids of his Spirit, for the assurance of his intercession, for the gracious appointment of him as the Judge of the world, for

the access you now have by him to the throne of grace, for the means of communion with the Father of your spirits, and the pleasing fellowship of those who are tra, velling with you in the same road to the Zion above. Leaving these, then, to be revolved in your own minds, I will now only exhort you, in the

5th and last place, To rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. "Fear not, little flock," said the blessed Jesus, "for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Ere long your trials and sufferings shall come to an end, and your light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall be followed by an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory. At present we come from acenes of anxiety and vexation, to keep our solemn feasts; and our wedding garments are stained with the pollution, or torn with the briars through which we travel. Even amidst our most sublime delights, we are conscious of a certain blank in our feelings, which reminds us that this is not our rest; but in the presence of God there is fulness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore. The poor afflicted broken spirit, which now breathes in trouble as in its daily air, and scarcely knows any other rule for computing the periods of time, than by the revolutions of sorrows and disappointments, shall then be tuned to the high praises of God; and its love to him who is the Lord of love, shall feel no bounds, and fear no end. O how the unveiled glory of God will then brighten many a face which is now darkened with grief, and stained with tears, and daily wears the hue of melancholy!-There is not a sorrowful countenance in all the courts of Zion's King; their doubts and fears have dropt off with the veil of mortality, and sorrow and sighing have fled far away. Lift up your heads, then, ye that travel towards the heavenly Zion, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. It is not more certain that the sun doth shine in the firmament, than that ye shall live for ever in the heavenly Jerusalem, and join in the innumera

ble company about the throne, in the everlasting praise of your God and your Redeemer. Then shall you understand the happiness of believers, and know better than I can tell you, what God did for your souls, when he called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Rejoice then in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. Let it appear, by the serenity of your countenance, and the alacrity of your steps, that your salvation is already begun, and that though the fulness of your joys be reserved for another world, yet even in this you can remark, with a satisfaction unknown to the mere sons of earth, how sweet is the face of nature, how delicious are the fruits of the field. "Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth your work." Amen.

SERMON XXXVI,

HEBREWS V. 12,

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

THE

HE Apostle having, at the 10th verse, compared, in general terms, the priesthood of Jesus with that of Melchisedek, finds himself obliged to break off the argument, not from any defect of his own knowledge, but from the dullness of those to whom he wrote. Their minds were not as yet prepared for such sublime instruction, and that not owing to any natural infirmity, but merely to their neglect or misimprovement of the best advantages. "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." Accordingly, he tells them very plainly, how disgracefully deficient they were in the improvement which might have been expected, from the time that they had been in the school of Christ. Instead of being in a capacity of teaching others, they were themselves in the lowest class of learners. Instead of making progress in the knowledge of divine truth, they had forgotten what they once possessed. Instead of growing to the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus, VOL. II.

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they had shrunk again to the condition of babes, whose weak and tender organs must be nourished with the sim. plest food. Instead of expanding with a regular and so lid growth, opening and enlarging; their faculties, through disuse, had become so contracted as to refuse admittance to the plainest truths, much more to doctrines so deep and involved as those which he had begun to state. Such is the spirit of the Apostle's reproof contained in the text: For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat."

The case of the Hebrews, as represented in these words, is by no means singular. The neglect, at least the slow improvement, of the means of knowledge, has not ceased to be a reproach in these latter days. Although blessed with the most abundant means of becoming wise unto salvation, how trifling are our attainments, how ill arranged are our religious ideas, how little established are we in the faith, and how ill qualified to give a good reason of the hope that is in us! Amidst all these infirmities, how disdainful are we often of common truths! how desirous to be gratified with novel speculations! how fantastical in our taste for religious instruction! I hope I may be allowed to offer some observations on these topics, without being supposed to aim at any peculiar censure, my sole design being to stir you up to further improvements, even to aspire to the wisdom of the perfect, and of those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The text naturally gives rise to the three following ob servations:

I. That all who are favoured with the light of the gospel, shall be utterly inexcusable, if their improvements in knowledge do not bear a proportion to the time they have continued to enjoy it.