ble were the miracles of kindness and love, by which the Saviour manifested his good-will to man.

6. The Christian dispensation is superior to the Jewish, in respect to the spirit of its institution. The spirit of the Gospel is a spirit of liberty. We are required by it to love God with all our heart, and soul, and strength." We also find him exhibited in it as a Being of such benignity, that those who truly believe cannot fail to love him. This principle of love being once established in the heart, we are left to manifest it in the way most natural and expedient. The positive rights ordained are very few: the yoke is easy, and the burden light. Nothing is required which we do not ourselves see to be reasonable; nothing which does not evidently conduce to our own benefit.

In a word, to use the metaphor sanctioned by the Apostle, while under the law, we were at "school under tutors and governors," and "differed in nothing from servants." But, now, we are brought home to our Father's house. Now we are "one with God, and God with us;" we dwell in peace with him; we become sons of God by being disciples of Christ: we look up to him with confidence, and trust to dwell in his immediate presence forever.

And, as the Christian dispensation in so many points exceeds those which have preceded it, so it will continue without change as long as the world shall endure. God has now given to the world a Revelation adequate to its wants a system which secures the glory of God, and the happiness and holiness of man. There may, indeed be periods when the spirit shall be even more liberally poured out than in the first ages of Christianity. These seasons will arrive: they are devoutly prayed for by the whole church: they are confidently anticipated in the prophecies of old. The time, blessed be God, shall come when "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the seas." But, even then, he will vouchsafe, not a new revelation, but a more glorious manifestation of the old.

Nothing need be added; for the work of the Son of God is completed; and it is the office of the Spirit only to give efficacy to that work. All that is sufficient for the conversion, the edification, and the final glory of mankind, has already been accomplished in the dispensation of the Son of God.

Behold, then, my Christian brethren, behold the hope to which God has invited you. Know your privileges and blessings. How many of the prophets of old, when the Spirit of God had inspired them to foretel of your days, searched diligently to discover of what manner of things they were instructed to speak, and who were the persons to whom such blessings should belong. What would Abraham, what would Moses, what would David, what would Isaiah not have done or suffered, to "see the days" in which you live! They beheld them only afar off, and yet the sight transported them with joy. They called upon the whole earth to "rejoice and break forth into singing," on account of the great things which God would do for his people in the latter days. These are the "latter days." The days of glory are those in which you live: the night is spent: the "Sun of Righteousness" has arisen in all its splendour. The full Revelation of God has been placed before your eyes. You dwell in the Church of Christ: all his ordinances are set before you. Every Sabbath are you called upon to taste of the mercy and goodness of the Lord. The seals of his covenant are offered to you; and all the treasures of his Gospel, and all the promises of his word, are daily exhibited to your view. It is surely then your part to value and improve these inestimable privileges.

It is your part to value them.-You ought to esteem them the chief good of your lives; a privilege incomparably superior to any other; a blessing for which, every morning and every evening, upon your bended knees, with the deepest gratitude you ought to bless God. The Gospel should be your consolation in ad

versity-a sufficient compensation for all your losses. Of other blessings you may be deprived; but this will survive the shock of accident, and the ravages of time. But, do you value as you ought. the benefits procured by Jesus Christ? Have you weighed the import of that argument of the Apostle, "He that spared not his own Son, but hath given him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?" Let your consciences faithfully say whether you have duly prized this inestimable Gift.-Let us suppose the day of judgment arrived: you are called to the bar, and hear a voice saying, "Here is one to whom much indeed has been given: for this man the Son of God died: to him the Holy Spirit was offered: the promises of God were continually sounding in his ears: all the Divine love and mercy were set before him, in order to draw him to God." But if you should have disregarded these mercies and blessings, what will you answer? Will you reply, that your thoughts were too much engaged by the concerns of time and sense to attend to these subjects; Where, then, was your gratitude? Where was your true wisdom? What will be the force of such an apology before the angels, before "the kings and prophets, who desired to see the things you see, and to hear the things you hear," but were not allowed so great a privilege? You are now too much occupied to attend to these things. Occupied about what? About the trifles which perish with the using!-You are now satisfied without these things. Satisfied with what? With joys which will shortly flee away forever!

I observe, lastly, that it is our first duty-I say again, our first duty-to improve the religious advantages we possess. We rejoice that Christ was born into the world.. But for what end was he born? It was not only to make atonement for sin, but also to gather to himself a "peculiar people, zealous of good works." Let us not "glory" in the mere name of Christians. Our business is to consider the ends for which Christ

came, to follow him in the regeneration, to appropriate to ourselves his atonement by a lively faith, and to receive his laws as our own laws, and to make his life the model of our own. If we do these things we shall be blessed indeed-blessed, not because we have been born into the world, but because we have been born in "the days of the Son of man."

SERMON XI.

ON THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS.

1 John i. 3, 4.

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto

you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

THE Communion of Saints is an article of our faith, which we are taught to profess in that short summary of it which we so often repeat, and which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed. It was probably thought more worthy of mention than other subjects, which, though not specified, are eqtially material, on account of its importance in a practical point of view. It appears to be inserted in order to remind us. that Christians should be found united to each other in the closest bonds of love.

The words of the text speak of this communion, or fellowship of souls. And they also enlarge our ideas of that communion, by teaching us to consider it, not as confined to the righteous upon earth, but as reaching to the Father

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