good; but what is to be done? weary and heavy laden with the guilt and power of sin, the man has not yet found strength to overcome its dominion he has not yet found out that Christ's yoke is easy and his burden light." He confesses his sins; begs of God to spare him: then, according to God's promises in Christ Jesus, he prays for spiritual help against sin, and for the restoration of the lost image of God.

This, then, is the man who, on true Gospel principles, is in the right road to be in Christ, to be a disciple and follower of Christ, and, as such, to become the new creature in Christ Jesus; and this is the man who, persevering in this course, will live a righteous, sober, and godly life: in few words, this is the character who receives Christ in all his offices, of King, Priest, and Prophet.

And here I conceive I cannot do better than follow the practice of our very best divines in all ages, who have constantly divided the offices of the Messiah into these three parts, of King, Priest, and Prophet. As our King, he governs. and protects his subjects; as a Priest, he makes atonement for their sins; and as a Prophet, he guides and instructs them. If I am in Christ,

therefore, I must be understood to receive him in all these characters: I must not select a part of them and reject the rest: this is not to receive Christ; nor is this to be in Christ, according to the scriptural plan. This is a point of immense importance: no man receives Christ, no man is in Christ, who is content with looking at one or two only of his offices, and who feels no need. of the third. "Christ is my Prophet," says the Socinian: "I only need a little instruction in this state of darkness and ignorance; I neither need. his atonement nor his government." Again, the Antinomian looks to Christ only, as making an atonement, and as satisfying the law of God; and hardens his conscience in the daily transgression of God's holy commandments: and thus makes Christ the minister of sin. And, lastly, the man who views Christ only as placed at the head of a new dispensation; making him his King, his Lord, or his Governor, without considering the other great purposes for which he died; annihilates the great benefits of his sufferings and death, of his instruction and his example, and vainly supposes, as did. the ancient Jews, that he belongs to a great Prince or Ruler, who will protect him and make

him thrive in this world, and load him with glorious distinctions in the next.-Brethren, there is no end of these delusions: the right faith is, to receive Christ in all his three offices with delight and cordiality. The man who is in Christ has fled to him in penitence, as his Priest, to atone for all his sins. He has no subterfuge on which he relies for pardon, either in whole or in part. This is a very trying point: God will not be mocked; what a man sows he must expect to reap. Again: the man who is in Christ looks to him as a Sovereign, who by his power rules in his heart and subdues his bad passions, and by his Spirit sanctifies his affections, and brings every thought, not indeed into slavish fear and bondage, but into a reverential and willing captivity and obedience. Lastly: the man who is in Christ, considers his Lord and Master and High Priest as his best and wisest instructor in all spiritual things. He reads the holy Scriptures with prayer for a right judgment in every part of them: accordingly, his understanding becomes enlightened and edified; he grows rapidly in grace, and in the knowledge of his Saviour; he is an ornament and an example in his profession; he works out his salvation

with fear and trembling, and finishes his course with joy.

It will not escape the attention of this congregation, that in my text there are two distinct points suggested to our consideration. The first is, To "be in Christ:" the second point is, to be a new creature." On this second point I have, as yet but slightly touched; but if the preceding observations and reflections are well understood, and kept in view, they will prove an easy and excellent introduction to the further elucidation of this second head. If by being in Christ we are to understand that a sense of our natural state of depravity, guilt, and misery, and a hearty acknowledgment of our desert of punishment from the wrath of an offended God; and a sincere longing for deliverance, both from the evil consequence of sin, and from its power and dominion ;—if we are to understand that these things have influenced the miserable sinner to flee from the wrath to come, to take shelter in that Hiding-place of which the prophet speaks-or (without a metaphor) to put his whole trust and confidence in God's mercy through Christ, for pardon, for peace of con

science, and reconciliation with God; and, what must never be left out, for strength and courage and inclination to fight manfully, under the banners of Christ, against the world, the flesh, and the devil, to bring forth holy and Christian fruit, and to be Christ's faithful soldier unto his life's endthen it will be easy to see that such new views, resolutions, and principles as these cannot fail to become the foundation of a new character; a character not only different from the old character of fallen and depraved nature, but in contrast with it, in opposition to it, and eminently deserving the appellation of the new creature. In one word, if this be indeed the essence of being in Christ, the new creature will be the infallible consequence of such a connection.

I observed before, negatively, what did not imply a man's being "in Christ:" I would here briefly do the same respecting the "new creature." To produce the new creature, it is not enough that the understanding should be supplied with new notions or doctrines; there must indeed be light in the understanding, but it is the heart which is chiefly concerned in this matter. "With the heart," says St. Paul, "man believeth unto righteousness:'