But, on the other hand, if we are not in Christ-what then! Scripture sets nothing before us but the fearful resurrection of damnation, and the burning billows of the fiery lake. Have you, then, brethren, reason to trust, you are in Christ? The Apostle has said, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Has this change taken place in you? Have your desires, your principles, your affections, been renewed? To go still lower, (that I may not give any needless distress to the weakest of the flock,) is the coldness of your hearts, the deadness of your affections, the worldliness of your desires, a sense of unfeigned grief to you, so that you can enter somewhat into the feelings of the Apostle, when he exclaims, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the

body of this death?" If so, dear brethren, you may look forward to that day, when death, to you, shall be swallowed up in victory—when he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you; and, bearing your part in that blessed jubilee which shall then take place, you shall say—“Lo! this is our God: we have waited for him and he will save us : this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."

Christian brethren, you are now invited to that holy ordinance, in partaking of which you show forth the Lord's death till he comes, and you eat and drink with him at his table in his kingdom. You who are strong in faith are invited to come, that you may

by the power of the Holy Ghost. You who are weak in faith are invited to come, that you may be strengthened and confirmed by receiving the pledges of your Redeemer's love and good will towards you. You who are fearing, lest you may not be entitled to the children's bread, though your filial fears prove you to be children, do you also come; the Master of the feast encourages you to do so, and it may be, that he will now give you the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Dear brethren, it would give me especial joy to think that any were now coming, for the first time to the Lord's table, with the sincere desire of giving themselves henceforward unreservedly to the Lord, and that hoping, in partaking of this holy sacrament, their determination of doing so may be strengthened and confirmed. If this is indeed your desire, be assured, that the Lord will not disappoint you in your expectations: he has never said to any, "seek ye my face in vain ;" but if we draw nigh to him, he will assuredly meet and draw nigh to us. But, alas! we cannot suppose that the great majority of this congregation are to be found in any of those classes of God's children who are invited and welcomed to his table. We judge you not; but we beseech you to judge yourselves. Many of you must be sensible you are not yet in Christ. Though it may be, you have often approached his table, yet your consciences will tell you, you, have never yet really drawn nigh to the Lord. Do not, then, rest satisfied in such a state as this: remember that, nominal, unconverted professors, however decent and respectable their profession, are as widely different from weak and trembling believers, as the dead are from the living. While unconverted, alienated in your minds

from God, you cannot suitably take your place at a table that is designed exclusively for the children of God you cannot consistently join the true servants of Christ, in showing forth their Lord's death until he comes; for you have as yet no interest in the benefits of his death; and his coming, if you continue as you are, must to you be "a day of darkness, and not light; even very dark, and no brightness in it." Let me, then, in conclusion, entreat you to examine yourselves whether you be in the faith; and continue no longer deluding your own souls, by passing for followers of a Saviour to whom you are strangers; but now, while the great salvation of the gospel is within your reach-before

the Lord has risen from the mercyseat, before he has put on his garments of vengeance while he is still waiting to be precious, and is "exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness to his people" "kiss the Son, lest he be angry""seek the Lord, and your souls shall live." Oh! that we all may be found in that day when death shall be swallowed up in victory, amongst the number of those from whose faces the Lord God will wipe away all tears; and who shall, as partakers of the first resurrection, have an entrance ministered unto them abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The nearer our Saviour drew to his glory, the more humility he expressed. His followers were first his servants, and he their master; then his disciples, and he their teacher; soon after, they were his friends, and he theirs; straightways, after his resurrection and entrance into his immortal condition, they were his brethren: "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father;" lastly, they are incorporated into him, and made partakers of his glory, 'That they also may be one with us,' saith he; 'I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and the glory which thou gavest me, I have| given them.' O Saviour, was this done for the depressing of thyself, or for the exaltation of us, or rather for both? How couldst thou more depress thyself, than thus to match thyself with us, poor wretched creatures? How couldst thou more exalt us, than to raise us unto this entireness with thee, the all-glorious and eternal Son of God? How should we learn of thee to improve our highest advancement to our deepest humility; and so to regard each other, that when we are greatest we should be least! BISHOP HALL.

Infidelity and faith look both through the same perspective glass, but at contrary ends. Infidelity looks through

the wrong end of the glass; and therefore sees those objects which are near, afar off, and makes great things little, diminishing the greatest spiritual blessings, and removing far from us threatened evils: faith looks at the right end; and brings the blessings that are far off in time close to our eye, and multiplies God's mercies, which, in a distance, lost their greatness. Thus, the faithful saw his seed possessed of the promised land, when as yet he had no seed, nor was likely to have any; when the seed which he should have, should not enjoy it till after four hundred years. Thus that good patriarch saw Christ's day, and rejoiced. Thus our first parent comforted himself, after his ejection out of paradise, with the foresight of that blessed seed of the woman, which should be exhibited almost four thousand years after. Still, and ever, faith is like itself. were there of that grace, if it did not fetch home to my eye things future and invisible? That this dissolved body shall be raised out of the dust, and enlivened with this very soul wherewith it is now animated, and both of them put into a condition eternally glorious, is as clearly represented to my soul in this glass as if it were already done. Faithful is he that hath promised, IBID.

which will also do it.'

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