life and the existence of myriads of human generations were forfeited, the Son of God proffered his life as a ransom to redeem them back, and gave himself for the life of the world. It is, therefore, evident that the life of human nature is not its own, but is the right and possession of him who ransomed it. How came mankind to have life? They neither produced it at first, nor redeemed it when it was forfeited, nor can they maintain it from their own resources. The motto of Paul ought to be the maxim of human nature, "To live is Christ." He is the heir of all things, the heir of human life and all its capacities, of the casket and all its jewels. Το refuse our life to Christ, or to withhold it from him, is an act of base dishonesty, and of violent robbery. Christians are not to count their lives dear to them, for their life is the property of Christ entrusted to them, and to be held and employed at his disposal as its righteous owner.

2. The death of Christ is the medium through which all the mercies, and favors, and enjoyments of life come to the possession of man. "Your bodies and your spirits are his.” If Christians, and if mankind themselves, are the property of Christ, every thing that they possess is his. "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price," therefore nothing that you have is your own; for every thing you have has been ransomed and restored at the cost of the interposition and the mediation of Christ. All the resources, capacities, and concomitants of human life are the rights of Christ. Mental abilities and intellectual endowments are his, for he redeemed the whole soul, with all its powers and affections. Bodily health is his, for it is by mercies perpetuated by his ransom, that it is granted and sustained, and should therefore "be spent" in his service. All influence and authority are to be employed for him, from whose throne they are derived to us, and by whose mediatorial power on earth they are conferred. Our children are the heritage of the Lord that bought them, the lambs of his flock, the stones to be polished for his temple; and our families are the feudal occupants of his allotments, and ought to be the householders of his faith. Our wealth is his, "who though he was rich yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich;" and therefore he claims to be honored not with the crumbs and the fragments, which the world and sin may let fall from their well-furnished table, but with the substance of the favors with which his providence has prospered us.

3. The principles on which Christ died for the world are the principles on which the world should live for Christ. This is being made "conformable unto his death." The principles on which our Lord died are these: that all men deserved to die for sin that sin was exceeding sinful and wrong; that there was nothing in mankind to deserve or to justify forgiveness of their sin, or the remission of their punishment; that for the safe and honorable exercise of mercy towards them, an atonement was necessary; and that out of pure good-will, and mere love, Jesus Christ gave his life a propitiation for their sins. If Christians will feel as men just ransomed from a deserved death, as men who were once abhorrent to God, as men utterly void of every merit, as men of such heinous guilt, as that it would have dishonored the character of God to forgive them, except at the intercession, and for the sake of the sufferings, of his own Son; and if they regard themselves as men so abject and worthless that there was nothing to induce Christ to interpose for them but his own sovereign and boundless love, they will feel the force of his claims to all their energies. On these principles Christ devoted himself to the salvation of men, and on these principles men should devote themselves to the glory of Christ. It is thus that Christians are planted unto his death; all their faculties and possessions, all their gifts and all their graces are growing on the grave of the Saviour, garnishing it with their variegated beauties, and perfuming it with the sweetness of their fragrance. This is the only soil in which they can grow with healthy vigor; and it is only of the graces that grow here that Christ will wreath the garland of his triumphs.

4. The Holy Spirit enforces all the duties of life by reasons borrowed from the mediation and death of Christ. This is the case with all the duties which arise from the various relations in life. Children are to be educated in the nurture and the admonition of our Lord, and are enjoined to obey their parents in the Lord. Domestics are to serve "in singleness of heart as unto Christ." Masters are to govern with mercy, "because their Master is in heaven." Husbands are to love their wives, "because Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it." In brief, "whether we live or whether we die, we are all the Lord's." Humility is enforced, because Christ humbled himself, and made himself of no reputation: devotedness to Christian labor, "because the love of Christ constraineth us:" brotherly love, even to laying down our

lives for the brethren, "because Christ laid down his life for us:" caution against giving offence, "because when we sin against the brethren, we sin against Christ," and "destroy him for whom Christ died:" and cheerful forgiveness, because whom we forgive we forgive "in the person of Christ," forgive in the spirit, with the readiness, and to the extent, that Christ himself would have forgiven him. These are only specimens of the relations of Christian duties to the mediation of Christ; but they will suffice to prove that, in the estimation of the Holy Spirit, the death of Christ supplies grounds firm enough, and broad enough, to support his extensive claims to the full and unqualified devotedness of the church.

5. The ultimate designs of the atonement and intercession of Christ cannot be secured, except by the devotedness of the church, and by the surrender of the world to his claims. Did Christ die to condemn sin? Christians must condemn it too. If they connive at sin, or invest it with plausible names, or adopt its maxims, or commit it, they thwart Christ, and side with his foes. They must abstain from every appearance of it, be crucified to it, and die to it: they must frown on it, resist it, and overcome it. Did Christ die to destroy the works of the devil? Christians are sent into the midst of those works with authority and means, to crush them, to check their operations, to break their force, and to stop their movements. They are to resist the devil, to give him no place, to yield him no advantage, to stand his onsets, and to baffle all his wiles. If they bid his agents God-speed, they are to be cast out of the church; and if they tamper and compromise for the enemy's favor, they are to be delivered to Satan; for by such traitors the works of Satan will never be destroyed. Did Christ die to save sinners? He commissions Christians for this noble enterprise, and leads them, as an army, to the relief of a captive world. If they are unfaithful or remiss, no soul will be saved. He does not call on angels to turn many to righteousness, he will not convert the sinner from the error of his way by intuition, or by miraculous impressions; but to achieve this, he has appointed the instrumentality of a devoted church, and it is by this alone that he will save a soul from death.

6. All services, and labors, and efforts, are acceptable to God only for the sake and through the merits of Christ; and no services will be accepted and awarded as such, but those that were proffered and intended for his sake. When Chris

tians have done all, they are unprofitable servants, and their services are unprofitable, except as our benign Lord deigns to turn them to uses, for which he alone could make them available. Of all the sacrifices which we present to God, not one is unblemished, they are hallowed only by passing through the hands of our High priest; they have sweet-smelling savor only as offered in his censer; and they are accepted, only on account of his own worth. Of all our works, nothing will abide with us forever, but what is acceptable to God, and nothing is acceptable to him, but what is done for Christ. It is the noblest distinction of man to share in the approbation of his God; and on no man is this distinguished honor conferred, but upon the faithful laborer for Christ. All other distinctions, privileges, and immunities, are light and empty, transitory and perishable; the honors that come from God through Christ, will alone endure the eternity of the soul and the everlasting fellowship of God. To prove and test the character of all our works, we must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, who will be the infallible and the faithful judge of all the services done for him. The judgment which he will then pronounce on his throne, will be what it is now at his Oh, who can tell the worth of his favor on that day? It is of the same worth now as it will be then. His approbation gives worth to every thing we have, and without it, the most splendid possessions are pompous ciphers. If we think any service too much for him, or any cost too great for him, we are none of his. If we reckon all lost that is given to him, and all saved that is wrenched from his claims, all will be lost, and ourselves will be lost. We cannot give him more than his due, for all is his own. He was not backward to give his all for us. What he asks from us is little to give, but much to withhold: what is bestowed upon his foes is employed against him; let us, therefore, give him all, lose everything for him, and find everything in his worth and in his glory.

cross.

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CHAPTER III.

ON THE UNION OF MEANS AND METHODS BETWEEN THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH.

SECTION I.

Conversion not Miraculous.

SOME Confusion appears in religious sentiments upon conversion, from the manner in which theological writers speak of it at its different stages, and in its different aspects. Sometimes it is spoken of as a process going on, like leavening, in the mind; and at another time as a phenomenon, the being leavened, the result of that process on the character of its subject. Regeneration is not a process; but the second birth is a phenomenon, the result of a process. The acting, or operation in detail, and the process of Divine influences on the mental and moral constitution of man, produce regeneration as the result; the process ends in a product, and that product is new character.

Conversion is a change of mind, that is, the mind changing. Conversion is not an EXCHANGE of mind: it is not a sum of thoughts or an amount of mental habits infused into the place of a dislodged mind. When a man changes his mind, the mind does not alter or exchange its mental elements; it only changes its character, as the farina, when leavened, though completely changed as to its character, is no new farina; nor has it ceased to be the same farina that it was before. The mind may undergo a great change upon merely intellectual subjects, as for instance, in conversion from the ancient theories of the earth to the philosophy of modern geology, or to the Newtonian system of the heavens. This intellectual change is produced by intellectual truth. The change is real, thorough, practical, and permanent. The man who has thus changed his mind is, on the subjects to which the change relates, entirely altered, and is, in the language of some ancient philosophers, regenerated. He is become, not in the essential elements, but in the tastes and practical character of his mind, a new creature, for he has undergone an intellectual conversion. This takes place daily in every instance of conversion from ignorance to knowledge, and from error to accuracy.