flesh subdued. Many there are to whom, from constitution and habit, the lusts of the flesh afford little trial. But to become "teachable as little children," to be "as fools," in order that they may become practically "wise;" this to them is a harder task for the Scriptures "speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world." Their authoritative brevity may be intended to enforce a lesson of humility; the spirit therefore in which we search them must be suitable to this design. And if the great end of our being here is godliness; the discipline of the affections rather than the cultivation of the intellect; we must "search the Scriptures, because in them we think we have eternal life";" not to gratify a speculative spirit.

The practical consideration of the plan of our redemption, as the counter-dispensation to that of original sin, will open the happiest views of its inestimable value, and of man's prospects under it. We shall be led directly to the cony John v. 35.

1 Cor. ii. 7.

templation of God in the most heartimproving of his attributes; as from the beginning seeking and saving that, which by the wiles of an enemy had been lost. Again, our thoughts will be carried back to the pure and peaceful bowers of paradise, when, in the days of his innocence, man walked in the presence of God, knowing neither fear nor shame. Restoration to this blessed state, under the Christian scheme, is no longer a poet's dream, or the wish of the philosopher, but a sober certainty, a tangible hope, an experienced reality, to every one in Christ. "Where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded." And though the glad tidings of salvation have not yet been published in all lands; still in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, may be for Christ's sake accepted with him; and grace will reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord".

z Rom. v. 21.

SERMON III.

II. THE HOLY GHOST SHED ON CHRISTIANS

ABUNDANTLY.

LUKE Xi. 13.

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

ORIGINAL SIN, considered apart from the dispensations by which it has been softened and relieved, exhibits but a cheerless view of this world and its concerns. It presents to us a succession of intelligent beings, designed apparently for good, capable of almost boundless knowledge, and of virtue all but divine, containing nevertheless in themselves a germ of evil, which grows with their growth and strengthens with their strength; until instead of bringing forth fruit unto per

fection, the good that they would they do not; but the evil which they would not that they do. Nor are the consequences of inherent corruption less appalling than its moral effects; for it sets men at enmity with their Maker from the first moment of their existence; it subjects them to death in this life, as the wages of sin; and to the second death, which is far worse. The contemplation of any single portion of human life is no less painful: for what is it but the struggle of conflicting principles; of aspirations after good rendered abortive by tendencies to evil; of truth clouded or obscured by passion; of conscience asserting the law of moral rectitude, and the will impetuously violating that law. The effects too of man's first disobedience are not confined to his own spiritual deterioration. Physical evil has followed in the train of moral: the whole creation groans and travails in pain; made subject unwillingly to vanity, as the effect of sin.

Such is the dispensation under which we came into the world. It may be un

a Rom. vii. 19.

b Rom. vii. 24.