the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

Now we are taught, brethren, that "by nature we are born in sin, and the children of wrath," and that in Baptism we are made "children of grace," being translated out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of Christ's Gospel, and, so continuing, in the strength of Christ we are upheld against the wiles of the Evil One, by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. Not that there is no more possibility of our falling into sin;—a man must indeed be blind to all that is going on in him and about him to imagine this;—the infection of our nature yet remains, the tendencies of our fallen manhood are yet in us, the heart is yet prone to go astray; only a new principle is implanted within us, which, if fostered and encouraged, will spread more and more over our whole nature, as a leaven leavening the whole lump. We are placed altogether in a new state; our relation to

God is not what it was; we are members of His Church, subjects of the kingdom of heaven, under the laws by which it rules, and under the discipline which belongs to its dispensation. From want of considering the Church of God in the light in which Scripture places it, much of the language of Scripture loses to us nearly all its force. We are scarcely able to realize to ourselves. its true idea, as a visible, active, energetic society or kingdom, with its laws and government,—in fact, a mighty, living community, framed by the Almighty for the purpose of reconciling man to Himself, and purifying him to dwell hereafter in His presence. presence. Of this kingdom Christians are members or subjects; in their Baptism, renouncing Satan and all his works, they are delivered out of his power; they are "regenerated by God's holy Spirit, and received as His own children by adoption, and incorporated into His holy Church."

What, then, is the course adopted by the Apostle S. Paul, when one had fallen into grievous sin, and so had done most grievous despite to the Spirit of grace, and given

terrible scandal to God's people? He bids the Corinthian Church to "deliver such an one over unto Satan." Into the meaning of these dreadful words we cannot fully enter. But this we know, that the offender was no more admitted into the communion of the Church. He was no more allowed to offer up the prayers of the saints, or to address the Lord in the same language as before, or admitted to receive the Saviour's Body and Blood. He was suspended from all his Church privileges, the preservatives against the devil's power, and marks of not belonging to the devil's kingdom, and he was delivered over unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those blessings which he had abused were withheld from him, if perchance he might learn the value of what he had lost, and by sorrow and mortification return to a better mind.

This same discipline we find the Apostle again exercising, and for the same end, to chastise, and, by chastening, to amend the soul of the sinner. And so he delivered

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"Hymenous and Alexander unto Satan

that they might learn not to blaspheme." So our blessed Lord Himself, after speaking of various ways in which an offender was to be treated,―at last he says, if he will not “hear the Church, let him be to thee as an heathen and a publican."

And still, though the arm of the Lord is not visibly stretched out as it has been,-though men may now sin grievously, and no stern sentence of excommunication issue against them to bring them by its salutary discipline to sorrow for their sin,-yet the same great laws by which God's Church was governed of old, are now, though less obviously, not less surely, administered. In the sacrament of Baptism men are yet admitted into the congregation of Christ's flock; and Christians are yet, whether they will or not, servants of God, under the government of His laws, bound by the obligations He imposes, sworn to renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil. And the sin of a Christian is of a peculiar and grievous kind, even as it was then, and is a rebellion against the allegiance you owe to God your King, and a breaking of the oath, by which you have vowed to obey

Him. And as a rebellion against God, it is a tampering with God's enemy, and brings you so far under the powers of the kingdom of Satan. And indeed we cannot doubt, that though no formal sentence go forth against the sinner, yet that to him, while such and unrepentant, prayers would receive no answer, the bread and wine bring no grace, his Church-membership be but a shadowy, outward thing, with no real spiritual blessing attached to it. It is a solemn fact, which I wish you would ever bear in mind, that sin clogs up the channels of grace, one and all; it puts a veil between God and man; it overshadows the light of God's countenance, and hides His face from shining upon you.

But even such as are the judgments of God to all save the reprobate,-even such as are the corrections which a father inflicts on his disobedient son,-such also was the discipline which in early days the Church exercised over her children. S. Paul's words are much to be remarked; there was no bitterness against the offender, no pharisaical spirit rejoicing over a fallen brother, none of the feelings with which, in the parable, the pub