and acceptable unto God: rational worship;" and to be "not conformed to this present world; but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds, so as to prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."1

1. If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, "Lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings.' Sure if you have tasted of that kindness and sweetness of God in Christ, it will compose your spirits and conform you to him; it will diffuse such a sweetness through your soul, that there will be no place for malice and guile. There will be nothing but love, and meekness, and singleness of heart. They that have bitter malicious spirits, evidence that they have not tasted that the Lord is gracious; for they who have done so, cannot but, in the degree in which they have done so, ‘be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven them." "2

2. If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, "desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." It was in the word that you tasted the Lord was gracious. And is not this a powerful motive to go back to the word, that again, and again, and again, you may "taste and see that God is good;" and thus grow holier and happier, "keeping yourselves in the love of God, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, and looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus, unto eternal life.” 3

I cannot conclude the illustration of this point in more appropriate words than in those of the pious Archbishop, a man who always makes it evident that "he spoke what he knew, and testified what he had seen and tasted," when he spoke on such themes as these: This is the sweetness of the word, that it has the Lord's graciousness in it; it gives us the knowledge of his love. This they find who have spiritual life and senses exercised to discern good and evil; and this engages a Christian to a further desire of the word. They are fantastical, delusive tastes, that draw men from the written word, and make them expect other revelations. This graciousness is first conveyed to us by the word when we taste it, and, therefore, there still we are to seek it; to hang upon those breasts which cannot be drawn dry. There, the love of God in Christ springs forth in the several promises. The heart that cleaves to the word of God, and delights in it, cannot but find in it daily new tastes of his goodness. There it reads true love, and by that stirs up its own to him, and so grows and loves every day more than the former, and thus is tending from tastes to fulness. It is but little we can receive here-some drops of joy that enter into us; but there we shall enter into joy as vessels put into a sea of happiness."

There is a question which here presses for an answer from the conscience of every individual who now hears me. Have I tasted that the Lord is gracious? Do I know, experimentally "know, the grace of our Lord Jesus ?" You have all often heard of his grace; but have you tasted it? Have you believed his kindness? Have you enjoyed his benefits? The most satisfying evidence of this is, the lay

1 Tit. ii. 12-14; iii. 4-8. Rom. xii. 1–3.

2

Eph. iv. 32. Leighton.

3 Jude 20, 21.

ing aside all malice and similar tempers, and the desiring the sincere milk of the word. This indeed is the only permanently satisfactory evidence; for there is a dead faith, a presumptuous hope, a false peace. If you really have believed the love of Christ to you, that faith will "work by love" to God, to Christ, to the brethren, to all mankind, and it will "overcome the world." If the hope you cherish is founded on that faith, it will lead you to "purify yourselves as he is pure." If your peace rests on his finished work, it will keep your mind, and fortify it against the assaults of your spiritual enemies.

I trust not a few of this audience have tasted, are tasting, that the Lord is gracious. Let them bless the sovereign grace that made them partakers of this distinguishing blessing, opening their blinded eyes, and restoring soundness to their diseased taste. Let them seek new and more abundant discoveries of the graciousness of the Lord, and let them seek these in his word, and by his word. In his word let them seek discoveries of his kindness; by his word let them seek the enjoyment of his benefits. Let them open their mouths wide, and he will fill them "with the finest of the wheat," "angel's food,' " "meat which the world knoweth not of;" "the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, who came down from heaven that he might give life to the world, meat indeed, drink indeed." And let them look forward with earnest expectation and humble hope to the manifestation of his grace, to the communication of his benefits, which is to be made "at his appearing and glory," when they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of His house, and shall be made to drink of the river of his pleasures, "with whom is the fountain of life," and "in whose light they shall see light clearly." Thus shall "they know," and ever follow on to know, the loving-kindness of the Lord."

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But what shall I say to those who, I am afraid, form not a small class in the audience,—to those who have never tasted that the Lord is gracious? I might express wonder at their infatuation, blame their pertinacity, pity their folly, and bewail their misery. I might ask, how is it, when the Lord is gracious, so gracious, when the revelation made of his grace is so plain and so well accredited, and when the blessings of his salvation are so suited to your circumstances, and so kindly urged on your acceptance, that you remain experimentally as much strangers to a sense of his kindness, and to the value of his salvation, as if he were not gracious, or as if you did not need, or were excluded from tasting, his grace? But I choose rather to content myself with proclaiming with the Psalmist, "O taste and see that the Lord is good." The Lord is good and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy, rich in grace, ready to pardon, mighty to save. “Behold HIM, behold HIM." Look, look to Jesus, obeying, suffering, dying, the just in the room of the unjust, rising, ascending, sitting down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, giving gifts, the gifts of pardon and peace, and holiness and salvation to men, even to the rebellious, to you, and then say if the Lord is not gracious. "Herein is LOVE, not that you loved him, but that he loved you;" loved you, so as to "give himself" for you on the cross; loved you, so as to give himself to you in the gospel. And is all this love to be slighted

1 Psal. xxxvi. 8, 9.

and despised? Ah! if you will not taste his grace, you must feel his wrath. "Be wise, be instructed; kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, if his wrath be kindled but a little. Blessed," only blessed, truly blessed, eternally blessed, " are they who trust in him." 1

Thus have we filled up the outline sketched on our entering on the consideration of the subject. Our labor and your time have been lost, worse than lost, if they do not lead to practical results. It is to worse than no purpose that we better understand the meaning, that we more clearly perceive the obligation, of the divine exhortation, if we do not set about complying with it. It increases responsibility and deepens guilt. If henceforth we cherish malignant feeling, and neglect the study of divine truth as the great means of spiritual improvement, we do so at an increased peril. Oh that the divine ener gy may accompany these statements; so that, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings, all of us may desire the sincere milk of the word, and thus give satisfactory evidence that we have indeed tasted that "the Lord is gracious!" Amen and Amen.

1 1 John iv. 10. Psal. ii. 10-12.

DISCOURSE VIIL

THE PECULIAR PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS, AND HOW THEY OBTAIN THEM.

1 PET. ii. 4–10.—To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, bat chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

To unfold the nature and illustrate the value of the numerous exceeding great and precious" privileges, which the peculiar people of God have in present possession, and in certain expectation, is one of the most important, as it is one of the most delightful, duties of the public christian instructor. Such illustrations are calculated to serve many valuable purposes. They honor the Saviour, from whom all these privileges are derived, by displaying the ardor and tenderness of his love, the efficacy and value of his sacrifice, the prevalence of his intercession, and the munificence of his liberality. They tend to the conversion of sinners, by showing them that it is their obvious interest, as well as their undoubted duty, to yield to the claims of the Saviour's authority and love; and they greatly conduce to the consolation and joy of the saints, by fixing their attention on the number, and variety, and value, and security, of their distinguishing blessings; and to their holiness, by calling forth into vigorous, sustained exercise, that gratitude for these unspeakable gifts, which is the most powerful stimulant to christian obedience. The more accurately the Christian apprehends the intrinsic excellence, the more fully he appreciates the inestimable worth, of his privileges, the more deeply must he feel his obligations to him, to whose sovereign love he is indebted for them all; and the more readily will he embrace every opportunity of manifesting his sense of this kindness, by actively doing, and patiently suffering, his will.

From these remarks it is obvious, on the one hand, that an enlightened preacher of christian privilege is one of the best friends of practical religion; and on the other, that the public christian instructor who confines himself exclusively to what may be termed the moral

part of Christianity, neglects the principal means with which that divine system furnishes us, for reclaiming the vicious and improving the pious, for converting the sinner and edifying the saint, for making the bad good, and the good better.

Such plainly were the views of the Apostle Peter, who in that epistle, of which our text forms a part, insists largely on the peculiar priv ileges of Christians, representing them as at once a perennial, exuberant source of abundant consolation and good hope, amid all the trials and afflictions of the present state, and an inexhaustible store of, to a christian mind, irresistible motive to perseverance and activity in the discharge of all the varied obligations of religious and moral duty. One of those exhibitions of christian privilege, obviously brought forward as intended and calculated to serve these practical purposes, lies before us in the interesting and beautiful, though highly figurative and somewhat complicated, paragraph which we have chosen as the subject of this discourse.

At first view, the paragraph may appear, to a considerable degree, disjointed, and on that account obscure; but on a closer inspection we shall find it to be just a beautiful expansion and illustration of the sentiment stated in the words which immediately precede it, and which constitutes one of the apostle's powerful enforcements of the duties, with the affectionate injunction of which this chapter of the epistle commences: "Ye," Christians, "have tasted that the Lord,” that is, your Lord Jesus Christ, "is gracious," kind. You have obtained, you enjoy, important, invaluable, blessings in consequence of your connection with him. What these are the apostle states in our text.

In consequence of coming to him, they had been brought by him to God, his Father and their Father. From a state of alienation from God, a state necessarily of deep degradation and misery, they had been brought into a state of most intimate relation to God, a state necessarily of the highest honor and the richest felicity. This is the leading idea: but it is brought out by a variety of figures borrowed from the facts of the Jewish economy, peculiarly calculated to be interesting and instructive to those to whom the epistle was originally addressed.

By becoming connected with him, they had become, in one point. of view, constituent parts of a great spiritual temple, infinitely more glorious than the temple at Jerusalem; and in another point of view, ministering priests in that temple, possessed of a more dignified of fice, and engaged in holier services, than Aaron or any of his sons. They had become the true circumcision, the spiritual Israel, the possessors of those spiritual privileges of which the external advantages of Israel, according to the flesh, were but the imperfect figures ; they had become in a sense far superior to that in which their fathers had ever been, "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, the people of God," the objects of his distinguishing love, his sovereign choice, his most complacential delight. Having come to Christ, the living stone, the divinely appointed and the divinely qualified foundation of the great spiritual temple, they had, from union to him, become living stones, fit materials for the sacred spiritual edifice; and on him they had been built up, made a