of holy character, and holy service, and holy enjoy ment. It is then that "The soul, from sin for ever free, The saints of God are commanded to "give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” If there be any aspect of the divine character that is, more than others, fitted to fill the breast of a consciously guilty sinner with trembling, it is its holiness. "Who shall stand before the HoLY LORD GOD?" But in the cross the believer sees this holiness so delightfully blended and incorporated with love, and with love to man; that, instead of alarm, the view overpowers his heart with gratitude and joy. Yet it is not merely for the peace diffused through his soul, by the believing contemplation of this union of purity and grace, that he is thankful. He gives thanks at the remembrance of God's holiness, because in his holiness he sees a pledge and security for the perfect accomplishment of the highest of the purposes of his love. It assures him, that He will not leave the sanctification of his people incomplete. A holy God, whose holiness is his happiness, will not stop short in the process of purification, till every spot of defilement has been taken away. Loving his people, and hating sin, he will leave nothing in them of that which he hates. He will make them such, that he shall be able to look upon them for ever with an unmingled complacency, the complacency of holy love:-and were the slightest vestige of moral pollution to re main in them, this could not be. But they cannot think of his holiness, and retain a doubt of the ultimate perfection of their own. Such, then, being the great end which the God of holiness and love has it in view by the Gospel to effect; in proportion to the importance of this end, -and its importance is beyond human or angelic calculation-must be the importance of not confounding it with any thing that is merely external. Here lay the prevailing and deadly error of the Jews. They trusted in their circumcision,-in their outward privileges and distinctions. And there is ground for more than fear―(nothing indeed can be more evident and certain)-that the same kind of delusion is hardly, if at all, less prevalent in countries like our own, denominated Christian. The inhabitants of such countries are, perhaps, as numerously misled by dependence on their baptism, as the Jews were by dependence on their circumcision. And this natural propensity, to a delusive confidence, has been helped forward, in many instances, by an unscriptural use of particular terms. Baptism is hot regeneration; but, in consequence of a natural enough association, arising both from the emblematic significance of the rite, and from the fact of its administration to converts, considered as partakers of regenerating grace, it unhappily came to be so called -the sign being put, according to no uncommon figure, for the thing signified. But surely it is a matter of comparatively very trivial consequence, in what sense particular terms were used by one or another, or most, or all, of the early fathers. Our chief, perhaps our only question ought to be, what their acceptation is in the usage of the inspired writers themselves. It is an exceedingly perilous thing, on such subjects, to affix to Bible terms a sense of our own, different from that in which they are there used; especially when the affixing of such a sense contributes to encourage and strengthen the disposition, so deeply seated in our fallen nature, to place a ruinous dependence on what is outward. Instead of giving any countenance and aid to such a propensity, every means in our power should be employed to counteract and restrain it. When persons have been led by a habitual association, to connect the idea of regeneration with their baptism, and by the identification of the terms, and the modes of speech to which they are accustomed, to imagine some kind of virtue in the rite, whereby it communicates, they cannot tell how, what is meant by regeneration in the Bible;-the consequence is, that, in the naturally indolent thoughtlessness of their minds as to all that regards their spiritual interests, they settle down in the easy imperturbable quietude of nominal Christianity. They have been made Christians by their baptism. This has been, in their eyes, the washing of regeneration. They think no further about the matter; but regard all beyond as enthusiasm. They are like their neighbours; and they desire no more. On this subject of baptismal regeneration, the reader will find some scriptural and critical strictures in the Appendix to this work. For our own parts, we are of opinion, that nothing needed ever to have been written on the subject beyond the statements 66 which close the first Sermon in this Volume, to which we refer our readers. They are distinguished by the amiable and excellent Author's wonted clearness of statement, and affectionate earnestness of persuasion. He served God with his spirit in the Gospel of his Son;" and all his addresses to his fellow-sinners, breathed at once the ardour of piety, and the tenderness of benevolence, by which that spirit, under the guidance of a sound and divinely enlightened understanding, was ever animated. There can be no subject whatever of deeper interest than that to which the following Sermons are devoted. It is the peremptory declaration of Christ himself, uttered by his own lips when introducing the gospel dispensation-" YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN." And the necessity of the change expressed by the figure, is founded in the natural incapacity of every man, as he is born into the world, for enjoying the blessings of his spiritual kingdom:-"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." To see, means to enjoy; or rather, I should say, (for it is applied to evil as well as to good,) to experience :-" He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." "He cannot see the kingdom of God," means, that without a change of heart, the sinner is not in a capacity to participate in its blessings:-He can have no relish for them, no enjoyment of them, either on earth or in heaven. It is not a mere arbitrary appointment, a sovereign de termination and dictate of authority, that no man shall enter the kingdom of heaven, or be admitted to share its joys, unless he be born again. The exclusion arises from the nature of the thing. The unregenerate man cannot share its joys. They are of such a kind, that without a new heart they cannot be tasted. On the deaf man, or on the man who has no ear to distinguish musical sounds, the sweetest melodies and the richest harmonies of the best masters would be lost, and every effort to charm him thrown away. While the souls of others around him were "imprisoned" and "lapt in Elysium," he would sit in listless vacancy, or possibly even in fretful annoyance, and wonder at their unaccountable raptures. Set down a blind man, or a man without taste and sensibility, in the midst of the loveliest or the sublimest of nature's landscapes; no emotion of tender delight, or of joyous ecstasy, or of lofty and awful veneration, would visit his bosom. He wants the organ that is necessary to his perceiving, or the state of mind and heart that is indispensable to his enjoying, with any appropriate zest, the scenes around him. Thus it is with the unregenerate man, in regard to the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. The natural state of his mind and heart unfits him for either appreciating their excellence, or relishing their sweetness. In order to either the one or the other, he "MUST be born again." This sentiment the reader will find largely and finely amplified in the fifth of the following Sermons. And, indeed, we feel it difficult to introduce the all-important subject to the notice of our readers, without anticipating sentiments which may be found better illus |