life. It gives us to feel that the love of Christ constrains us. This is indeed a spring of action, an incentive to obedience, with the force of which the unregenerate are totally unacquainted, yet the power of which is mighty beyond conception; for whenever the soul of an individual is touched with the love of Christ, he readily yields him implicit and constant obedience. The gospel secures a pleasing change in our spirit and temper immediately, as it makes us glow with affection to its glorious subjeet, its adorable Author. This justifies us in saying,

Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding Love!
Thou Teacher of true morals to mankind!
The grand morality is love of thee!

The gospel teaches us to aim to please God, as well as to show to the world that we are travellers to a heavenly city, within whose gates nothing that defileth, or is defiled, can ever enter.

4. The gospel presents us with a perfect pattern of all that is excellent. It sets before us Jesus the Son of God, whose immaculate purity heaven and earth can attest. In him, indeed, all the rays of moral excellence meet as in one point; and we not only view in him the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person, but we behold human nature adorned and dignified, by a lively combination of all the virtues of which it is capable. And after the gospel has exhibited to us the holy Jesus, it says to us, "Let the same mind be in you, which was also in him." Yea, by its

heavenly power, it assimilates us to his image; it changes us into his likeness; it forms us upon a divine model; for we all with open face beholding, in the glass of the gospel, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Oh, blessed influence of the glorious gospel!

5. The enjoyment of its consolations gives strength to obey its precepts. If you ask here, Does the gospel influence the temper and conduct? we can tell you that it takes you to Christ's banqueting house, where his banner over you is love; it places you at his table, where you hear him say, "Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!" and where you are abundantly satisfied with his presence, and drink of the wine of the kingdom. Sentiments of gratitude are then excited in your mind to the Founder of the feast; you feel thankful to him, and you rise from your seat animated by his fayour and sensible of his love. You evidence that you are not only refreshed by his bounty, but determined to execute his commands; and when you have enjoyed the most, you say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" So much life and vigour are imparted to our minds by a firm belief of the glad tidings of the gospel, that no duty appears too hard for us to discharge, no trial too heavy to bear; but our triumphant exclamation is, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me!" Hence follows a cheerful acquiescence

in the duties we owe to one another, to God, and to the world.

Our tempers, by those frequent and solemn interviews with which we are indulged, become spiritual, heavenly, and divine; admiring spectators see that we have been with Jesus: like Enoch, we walk with God, and, like him, shall be wafted away to the world of purity and peace.

And are these the triumphs of the gospel? Does it indeed produce so divine a change in the moral world? Then surely it is worthy of its Author; of him, "for whom are all things, and by whom are all things." Is it any disgrace to the wisdom that devised it, or the love that gave it to the nations? No: for in the gospel God has declared the glory of all his perfections, and particularly does his holiness shine in it with radiant lustre.

Is it the tendency of the gospel to refine and exalt the character; to make the temper and conduct such as God requires? then who would not long for its general diffusion; who would not exclaim with ardour, "Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel?" Who would not love those noble institutions which have in view its wider circulation, and which God has honoured for the conveyance of its blessings to the children of men?

But oh! are there not many who profess to love the gospel, and to feel its power, who are filled with envy, malice, and all uncharitableness? Yes, there are! But O thou blessed Jesus, are these thy disciples? Most glorious gospel! are these the

men in whose hearts thy truths have made a deep impression? The Saviour and the gospel alike disown them and, "Depart from me, I never knew you," will hereafter be uttered to them by God the Judge of all.

I dare not persuade myself to leave this pulpit, without asking my hearers, What has the gospel done for you? In the presence of God and all his holy angels, I would put this question to you, and leave you with all solemnity to consult God and your own consciences on the subject. But O, do remember, that you may hear the gospel; you may avow your attachment to it; you may liberally support its interests; and yet die, after all, without experiencing its blessings, and have a neglected gospel rise up in judgment against you, to aggravate your condemnation.

Here, however, allow me to turn from man to God; suffer me to express my wishes for all who compose this congregation; and, looking around you, permit me to say to the God of purity and the God of the gospel, "Sanctify them all through thy truth, thy word is truth." *

* This Sermon was preached at the Anniversary of Hoxton College.

SERMON XIX.

PREACHED OCTOBER 7, 1810.

1 CORINTHIANS XV. 49.

"AS WE HAVE BORNE THE IMAGE OF THE EARTHLY, WE SHALL ALSO BEAR THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY."

"THE proper study of mankind is man;" and the best science to which any of us can attain is, to know ourselves; for "all wisdom centres there." Human nature is a fit subject of investigation, and will well repay the mind's attention to it; it has frequently been represented in unjust and improper points of view; men have formed very mistaken ideas of themselves and of their condition, and have too often represented their case to be rather what they wished it, than what it really is. The testimony of the Bible, however, viewed in connexion with facts which we are every day called to witness, will appear to be the best teacher of what we are in our true character, our real condition, and our bounden duty. Here we learn what man originally was, what he now is, and to what standard of excellence he ought to attain. From the Bible