of God. False professors may receive it even with joy and satisfaction, as Herod heard John the Baptist, and as those did, in Christ's parable of the sower, who only believed for a season. All this drinking in of the rain, this hearing of the word, embracing it, apparently embracing it with joy, is common to true and insincere professors.

3. They also enjoy the same external care. The earth is dressed, or attended to, by the husbandman, or by the landlord, through the instrumentality of labourers. Thus true and false professors are equally attended to under the Gospel, in its external adminis- ** tration. The great husbandman of our fallen race. is Jehovah. As such he is repeatedly represented by our Lord himself. He it is who uses workmen to dress his field. These workmen are chiefly the ministers of the Gospel. They exhort and admonish sinners they entreat and supplicate them in God's name, to be reconciled to him. They offer the blessings and privileges of the kingdom of God to all indiscriminately, who will accept of them.

Thus far true and false professors agree. After this, they differ. The former resemble the earth, which bringeth forth berbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, and receiveth blessing from God: the latter, that which beareth thorns and briers; is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.

II. How striking the difference, both as respects their improvement of the same blessings, and their end!

First. Their improvement of the same blessings is different.

1. Believers bring forth herbs meet for the dressers. That rain which descends oft upon them, and is drunk into their souls, fertilizes their natural barrenness. Originally they were unfruitful, void of good, like a desert. By the word, however, they are

made alive; their barrenness is removed. The word is the seed of regeneration. This seed, through the kindly influences of divine grace, vegetates. The rain of the Gospel descends oft upon it, and it is made effectual by the Spirit of all truth. The same word which produces a change of heart, continues that change lively and operative. This last particular proceeds from the first, because,for the earth to bring forth herbs, pre-supposes their seed to be sown, and to vegetate. For any to bring forth fruit meet for repentance, pre-supposes repentance. To argue from this text, the power of man is futile. He must be changed by grace, before he can do any thing acceptable to God. When he is thus changed, he will improve divine blessings. He then resembles that earth on which the rain descending, is absorbed by it, and herbs spring from it. The seeds of those herbs have, however, been previously sown. When they spring up, they are dressed and cultivated by the husbandman, that they may be fit for his use. Thus the heart being renovated by grace, the evidences of this renovation appear.

The fruits of regeneration may be summed up under the two general heads of faith and holiness, the latter including obedience. These are fruits meet for the dressers, and none but these.

Faith is the first fruit, as well as evidence of regeneration. It is implanted in the soul at the very moment the change is experienced. The process is this. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Thus, as the rain descends on the earth, the word does on the soul. By it, its natural hardness is softened. The husbandman ploughs the earth, strikes his furrows, deposits the seed. Jehovah, by his Spirit, through the word, breaks the sinner's heart, disposes it for the reception of the truth, and implants the truth therein. The preaching of the Gospel causes the seed to spring up. The principle of faith

produces the act of faith. The Lord Jesus is known, acknowledged, and embraced, as the only Saviour. His righteousness is apprehended-self is denied the merit and efficacy of good works disclaimed-the merit and efficacy of Christ's death alone, realized as the ground of acceptance before God, by the penitent sinner. Faith in Jesus includes faith in the Gospel and in Gospel promises, together with an unqualified confidence in Jehovah's faithfulness. The Gospel is received by him who possesses this faith, as the only standard of right and wrong: its principles, as the principles of truth, the yea and amen of duty. Hence his natural corruption, his alienation from God, Christ's dignity and all-sufficiency, the Spirit's almighty agency, are all to him acknowledged truths, because bible truths. Reason is made subordinate to revelation, and that for this simple, conclusive cause, that reason is dark and corrupted. It once was the regulator of the life, but through sin it has become the minister of the passions. Who are they who boast the strength of their reason, and despise the light of the Gospel, but the slaves of their passions and appetites ? Before reason can regulate the life, it must be enlightened by the grace of Jehovah. Then, and not till then, does it answer for a guide in the path of duty.

A consequence of faith, is holiness, including obedience, another fruit as well as evidence of regeneration, produced by the same cause. This is that i conformity of the heart and life to the will of Jehovah, which is well-pleasing in his sight. Sin is hated; its first risings repressed; its dominion slain; the will is subordinate to God's will; the appearance of evil is avoided; the very garments spotted with iniquity shunned. Sin is abhorred for its own sake; holiness loved for its intrinsic excellency; our corrupt desires are detested; the gratification of the passions loathed; sinful thoughts are strangled in

their birth; and because the heart is kept with all diligence, out of it are the issues of life. Hence the walk and conversation are holy. The last is seasoned with the salt of the Gospel; it is chaste and pious. The topics are useful and serious. Filthiness, foolish talking, idle jesting, are avoided. The conduct is consistent; the life a life of faith; the walk a walk of faith. The believer performs the duties he owes to God, to himself, and to his fellowmortals, with promptitude and faithfulness; he attends upon the worship of God in public and private, with cheerfulness; speaks reverently of Jehovah; reproves gainsayers; strengthens the feeble minded. Honouring God, and loving him with all his heart, he displays the same in his conduct. He attends to his own soul, examining it, enlightening himself, and directing himself through the appointed means in the ways of righteousness. He does good to all, as far as he can. He acts justly, loves mercy, is charitable, humane, generous in his dealings. He does not deceive; pays his honest debts, though he himself by so doing should be clothed in rags: for a man who defrauds his creditors, and lives well of their money, is no Christian. No case under heaven will justify such conduct. The believer, in short, does unto others, as he would wish to be done by, himself under similar circumstances.

These fruits are meet for them by whom the earth is dressed. Like the harvest of the husbandman, which fills him with joy if abundant, so faith and holiness, including obedience, where they are evinced, are sources of comfort to all God's ministers, and tend to the glory of God. None but these fruits are meet for the honest servants of Jesus. None but these repay them. Personal reputation, worldly honour and ease, the kindness and pointed attention of friends, riches, and such like, are poor compensations to that minister who loves Jesus and

precious souls, if he sees no other fruits of his labours, no increase of faith and holiness in his flock. These are the fruits which satisfy his mind, for these are the fruits which tend to glorify his dear and exalted master.

Both these must be taken in connexion. There can be no faith without holiness, and no holiness without faith. Religion is the mother of mo-H rals. The first includes the last, and is something more. Morality merely regards external actions. Religion looks to the motives and principles of these actions. Where grace is, there, must be the purest morals. There is not, there cannot be, faith without good works. The one is the foundation of the other, and both are evinced where fruit meet for the dresser is brought forth.

2. How different from this the improvement of false professors; they bring forth thorns and briers. These denote the opposite to faith and holiness; they are expressive of barrenness, of an unthankful heart. They are a general expression for all kinds of weeds. What more dreary or more frightful, than a field covered by these? What more painful than to pass over it? What more avoided?

By these thorns and briers are denoted the principles, the conversation and conduct of carnal nature. To bear thorns and briers, is to answer God's kindness, care, and love with hardness of heart and unbelief, with unfruitfulness and unthankfulness, with bitterness, ridicule, apostasy, persecution. Between all these there is a natural connexion. The one leads to the other. A life of ungodliness is not generally commenced at once in all its excesses. The abuse of mercies engenders ingratitude; ingratitude ends in apostasy; the spirit of apostasy is persecution. How aptly are these ungodly fruits compared to thorns and briers! Like them, they spring spontaneously, without care, from the corruption of our nature. They