When the text says,

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truth. ye shall be filled with the Holy Ghost," I ask, is it not thus brethren? And when Christ says, "" If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink," does he not fulfil what he says, according to the Scripture, "I will pour water on the thirsty, and floods on the dry ground?" I call, then, on you, who know the truth of these things by some good experience, if it be in a small degree, to value and keep your happiness in Christ. As it was by the simplicity of believing in Jesus that you first had the consolations of God's Holy Spirit, remember they must be preserved in the same way still. Take heed of the evil heart of unbelief, which shews itself in departing from the living God; and, in these days of grievous opposition to simple primitive Christianity, stick to the Fountain-head. As Christians were made under Peter's preaching, so must they be made now. Beware of being spoiled by philosophy and vain deceit, after the rudiments of men. There is as much occasion to dread that now, as in St. Paul's time. It is an easy thing by specious arguments to be beguiled and confounded in a subject in which every man has a foe within ready to side with the enemy. Nothing on earth is more precious than true experimental godliness, such as the text sets forth; and nothing on earth is man so prone to hate or to pervert. You need, therefore, much watching and prayer, that you may live to the end the life

that you do live by the faith of the Son of God. And in your choice of company, and of advisers in religion, observe, I beseech you, our Saviour's safe and golden rule; " By their fruits ye shall know them." If a man be even very ingenious and sensible, yet, if his life shew him without the love of God, regard him not. It is a million to one but, if he undertake to speak or write on the Christian religion at all, he will be wrong; because the natural man does not receive the things of God, nor can know them. Let men's obstinacy be ever so great, or let them swell with self-conceit ever so high, they cannot come at Christian wisdom and understanding but by the Holy Ghost. All Scripture says so, and let you and me simply believe it, and pray all our days for wisdom. And no man, who knows himself at all, and how blind as well as wicked sin has made him, will doubt this. How glad and thankful, in truth, should we be for such a promise as, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." Remember, brethren, how it was with you, when the day-star first arose on your hearts; how simple you were, child-like, teachable, conscious of ignorance! And how welcome was the simple doctrine of forgiveness of sins by Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Ghost! Is this doctrine now less true, less suitable to human wants and miseries? or are we grown too wise

for it, and have got above it? or are we to compliment infidels, sceptics, and mere theoretical Christians, with some less offensive modes of speech, and to be ashamed of the truth as it is in Jesus? You cannot please people of this sort but by giving up the whole. They have a determined enmity. God alone can change the heart. But as it is our duty, as means and instruments, to do what we can for them and for all men, that which tends most to unsettle, to alarm, to startle, to convict them, that is most likely to do them good, because they need an entire change. To accommodate the Gospel to them, is to poison their souls, and, by handing out false representations, to help them, as it were, to deceive themselves.

Brethren, have ye Christ, are ye filled with the Spirit? Oh then " let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works." While they remain lovers of sin, and worldly-minded, it is impossible to please them by any mode whatever of representing Gospeltruth, provided the truth be declared; but do them good, and shew that you are sincerely bent on doing them good by every method. Let the law of kindness be on your lips, and let it appear in all your life. Be not highminded, condescend to the low; and be content to be thought fools for Christ's sake. I know no glory on earth equal to this. But act not foolishly; you know you have the highest

wisdom, the Spirit of God, with you, to direct and govern you. Live righteously, soberly, and godly sigh for the mansions above; there is true rest with Jesus. But while you are here, you must prove that he indeed dwells in you by his Spirit; and that must be by walking as he walked, patient, meek, charitable, benificent. And as the promise is to you and to your children, exert yourselves in your families to support godliness there. Let precept and example go hand in hand. Shew your children what real religion is not a party, sectarian thing; nor a piece of philosophy; but the simple truth as it is in Jesus, which Peter preached with so much success to the Jews. Thus may you humbly trust that the promise which has been fulfilled to you will be fulfilled to them also, and that they will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

SERMON VI.

THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT.

LUKE xi. 13.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

IN In the parallel place in the seventh chapter of St. Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, the expression runs, Give "good things" to them that ask him. The terms illustrate one another; the essence of all good things being the Holy Spirit.-Let us first illustrate the thoughts of the text, and see in general what the great thing is which is to be learnt from it; and then apply the doctrine of it to the consciences of men..

It is one of the most commonly known, and in truth one of the most useful texts, in all the Scriptures. Any man, who is at present altogether wrong and ignorant in religion, may safely begin with it. And were I to be called on to speak to a person who had never heard of Jesus Christ, this would be one of the most important things he ought to be informed of, that the God whose religion that of the Scriptures is, is one who hears prayers, and will