the Gospel inspires? There is a noble elevation, a divine beauty in his character which no merely human excellence can aspire to. Rude, perhaps, in speech, and poor in all worldly attainments, he is yet rich in the graces and eloquent in the language of the skies. Unknown or disesteemed by man, he bears the sacred stamp which angels reverence, and which God himself loves to contemplate. When these scenes shall pass away, and the life we now live is exchanged for an other and purer state of being, what is it which shall outlive the change, and be glorified with the immortal spirit? Is it the taste or learning we may have acquired? These are but the ornaments of our present state, they will be useless in that better world. Is it the power of deep research or lofty conception? These qualities are enjoyed by many who shall never reach heaven. No: it is that purity of heart which may exist without these things; the poverty of spirit which they have no tendency to eucourage; it is that spiritual delight in God, that single eye to his glory, and singleness of heart in his service which are rather endangered than maintained by bigh worldly acquirements. These are the things which shall survive the wreck of nature, and which in the clear light of Heaven shall shine as the true beauty of the soul! The power and excellence of the Gospel, therefore, is that in it which produces these. What man can add is of far less value. It may be becoming indeed; for our highest faculties should do homage here. It may be service able as supplying arms for the defence of the truth, or desirable in many cases to recommend or enforce it. But it is no true ground of attachment, nor the want of it of offence; not the jewel we should prize, nor the truth by which we must be saved.

2. Another exception to the Gospel, is, that some of its most

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important doctrines are not mere fully revealed. For the Divine origin and authority of our faith, we have abundant evidence. Indeed the more thoroughly it is sifted, the more numerous and satisfactory do its proofs appear. There are some important doctrines, however, about which the pride of human reason is not yet satisfied. They are laid down with authority:-no difficulties are removed; no explana tions afforded; no objections or cavils noticed. To the Greeks on this account the religion of the Cross was foolishness. They deemed it an idle tale and would pay no regard. The effect produced by the same objections in our day is seldom, perhaps, that of absolute infidelity. It is rather an unsettledmess of mind on the subject, not daring to deny the truth, and not disposed to believe it; a loose, general, indistinct, suspicion, but in its practical effect highly mischievous. In the day of temptation, restraints are loosened. In the hours of seriousness, impressions are resisted. Is one urged by his pas sious to do what the Bible forbids? He is apt in this state of mind to make light of its authority. Does he attend the ordinances of religion? Its calls are wholly without effect. Mercies do not move; warnings do not alarm him. The most tremendous threatenings strike no deeper than the ear. The doubt, however vague or obscure, is a charm which secures him against the influences of the Gospel.-But can a doubt be justified when we know God has spoken? Do we call on him for explanations before we will believe his word? Perhaps he thus demands the submission of the understanding; or the knowledge we require may be too high for man. There are things we can perceive by reason, only as we see the lights of heaven by the eye, without the power completely to investigate them. Reason, even when employed within her own

sphere, is blind and perverse and fallible; how much more on points beyond that sphere! But the word of the Lord is sure, and not one jot or tittle of it can fail,

3. Others are offended with the strictness of the doctrines of Christ their hostility to all carnal indulgences, and all worldly affections. If any man will be my disciple," says our Lord, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."-Many who had attended our Lord, when they heard this and similar declarations departed and went their way. They would have been glad of the hopes and privileges of the Gospel, but were not prepared for sacrifices. Whilst unacquainted with the true nature of the Gospel, the purity, the selfdenial, the entire devotion which it demands, they were willing to put in a claim for its blessings. But when they found that the world must be forsaken and the cross borne, a train of interests and affections set themselves in array against Christ and his Gospel: they were offended. Now this objection will be found, at all times, in all persons who are under bondage to sin. Other causes of offence may occasionally be less prevalent, but the influence of corrupt affection is always, and universally, and powerfully felt. When the Gospel is in credit, we seldom find men averse either to the profession of it, or to a qualified reception of its doctrines. It costs nothing to profess a faith which is held in general esteem. In the hour of fear and foreboding, when the sinner feels as if "his day were coming," it does not increase his terror to admit, that rete is forgiveness for the worst, and that none need despair of mercy; nor amidst the calamities of life, is it any accumulation of evil to entertain the hope of heaven. These truths separately taken are flattering to the soul. They may be, and doubtless are, applied by many who have no title to do so, as an unction

to sooth and cheer it amidst cares which nothing earthly can relieve. Thus far there is no offence. Nor does it cost much more to allow even the requisitions of the Gospel in a thoughtless and general way. The trial comes when they are pressed on our notice; when they begin to abridge our liberty; when they pierce into our bosoms, and challenge even the cherished idol of the heart. Then it is that most inen desire to be excused. In making a religious profession, they did not count on duties and demands like these. When they engaged to renounce the world and the flesh, they did not include in these terms the allowed indulgences of life, the lighter gaieties of fashion, an accommodation to the maxims, spirit, and manners of the times. When they promised to walk in God's commandments, they did not dream of living as pilgrims and strangers upon earth. These things did not enter into their calculation, and when reminded of them they take offence. However they might desire to retain the hopes and comforts of religion, yet here they fairly take their leave of it.

4. Another ground of offence is the spirituality of the religion of Christ. Of this we have a striking instance in Scripture. Jesus had described himself as "the bread of life, the living bread which came down from heaven," alluding to the manna, the type of that spiritual sustenance which their souls would find in his salvation. But when he repeated the words, adding,

Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you,' some of his disciples deemed tris a hard saying, and they walked no more with him. This, however, is but one instance of the aversion of man's fallen nature to spiritual things. We were created in the image of God, for converse with him, with powers which his service only could fitly employ, and desires which he alone could satisfy.

But sin has now hid his face from us The joy of his presence is gone, and with it the feelings which it gratified, and the capacities it. exercised. It is plain from Scripture that there is an intercourse and communion of man with God, of which in a state of nature we are incapable, our whole spiritual constitution being disarranged and ruined by the fall. But our re demption by Christ removes the cloud, and the influence of his Spirit restores our lost powers. Amidst the desolation of human nature there are a happy few who, being justified by faith, and repewed in the spirit of their minds, begin to feel the stirrings of that holy disposition which is the glory of the soul, and to catch a glimpse of that uncreated beauty which forms its chief happiness. They are not at rest here. They have a craving which no earthly happiness can appease. They seek a paradise which casts all human glory into shade; a city of which the Lord God himself and the Lamb are the light. And this holy disposition must have its exercises even here. They communicate with God by prayer and praise. They live by faith in their Redeemer. His flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed. Christ they feel is the bread of their life, the very substance of their renewed nature, which can do all things in his strength-without him nothing. But what says the carnal mind to these things? It is offended. They are foolishness unto it; neither can it know them, because they are spiritually discerned. In other points the Gospel may be valued:-its evidences as clear; its morality as pure and practical; its ordinances as decent; but the spirituality spoils all: here nature stumbles.

These are some of the grounds on which offence is conceived against the Gospel. "Blessed," says our Lord, " are they who are not of fended in me." When he pro

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nounced this blessing, we may sup pose him to cast an eye at the different circumstances of men as they rejected or received his Gospel. Let us take a like view. If we look up to the heights of human life, we see much of pomp and boasted happiness; but besides the evils more obvious to sense-as the cares of greatness, the stings of pleasure, the rivalry of ambition, the envy of superior distinctionScripture shews others incalculably worse. The men thus sporting away life are immortal creatures, having interests to serve, compared with which, the least trifling of earthly vanities is no more than dust on the balance. They are sinners under God's wrath, who have only the passing hour in which to escape eternal misery. The stains of their nature, which should now be cleansed, are growing deeper amidst the pollutions of the world. Some are asleep in sin: others are rapidly advancing to the precipice which overhangs perdition. In a state which at tracts the admiration and envy of mankind, they are preparing for themselves a doom, from which the most wretched on earth would shrink with horror.-Let us descend, then, to the dwellings of the wicked poor. Here is want, and often pains and sickness, and a variety of other natural evils, with little to alleviate them here, and no hope of a better portion to come. Here, too, we shall meet those fiercer torments, the raging lust and passions of the mind, not checked and disguised as in higher life, but in all their sad deformity, like fiends of darkness already on their prey, and dragging it to its infernal prison.-But it may be said, these are the extremes of life. There is, however, no state with out its snares and miseries, and enough in all to make them just objects of pity, if there be no defence nor comfort from the Gospel. How truly, then, are they called blessed, who have yielded

themselves to Christ! Are they in prosperity? He preserves them from its snares. His Spirit opens their eyes to see the dangers which surround them. They escape the corruptions which are in the world. They see God in all his gifts, are enabled to use them for his glory, and are kept by his power through. faith unto salvation. Are they poor and afflicted? They are yet rich in faith, and heirs of his kingdom. Afflictions are indeed for the present grievous. We cannot be insensible to the loss of friends, to the severity of pain, the languor of confinement, or any severe dispensation from Heaven; and still more keenly do we sometimes suffer from, injuries inflicted on our character and feelings, by the pride or malice of men. But if God in Christ be our Friend and Father, we may receive all as the chastenings of his. love. By these very means he is purging our corruptions, and weaning us from the world. We can commit our cause to him with confidence now, and may be sure that, all shall work for good in the end. Amen!

determine, so far as the authority of names can go, whether the termi Regeneration has been exclusively appropriated to the sacrament of baptism;-and, which is by far the more important question, whether. the spiritual grace of the new creation in Christ Jesus, by the operation of the Holy Ghost upon the heart, has been considered as invariably, and under all circumstances, conveyed by the right administration of that sacrament.. By this last inquiry we should learn whether we may affirm of every baptized person that he has fruly been born again, born of the Spirit, born of God, born from above, raised from the death of sin, renewed in the spirit of his mind, new created in Christ Jesus, &c. &c. &c. And when this question has been settled, we shall be "enabled by the first branch of the inquiry to ascertain how far any professed Christians may be properly called upon to examine themselves whether they be truly regenerate, or be exhorted, in cases of evident worldliness of spirit and conduct, to seek for the grace of regeneration by prayer to God.

The passages which I now send you, are from Dr. South. I need not say one word on the talents and principles of so celebrated a writer. My extracts are from the 1st, 6th, 10th, and 11th sermons of his 9th volume. I was led to this volume quite accidentally, and have given nearly all the places which appeared to me to bear upon the question. It will be seen, I ap prehend, from the slightest view of his language, that he does not consider the inward grace of the new birth as inseparably connected with baptism, and that he does not scruple to apply, the terms rege nerate and unregenerate to Christians who have been baptized, accordingly as their spirit and conduet proved them to be spiritually alive to God or not.

W. N.