finds himself" complete in him." He takes Jesus as his "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." He lives on Jesus' grace day by day; never thinking to bring anything to him, as wrought independent of him, and to earn his favour; but as a poor, miserable sinner, in whom "dwelleth no good thing," he is going to him, always, to be finisher, as well as author, in him, (Heb. xii. 2,) of every holy duty, every spiritual affection, by the power of the Holy Ghost. All that a sinner needs, all that God can ask, as his full title to life and blessedness, is in Jesus. And, when once a receives him as a

sinner flees to him, and Saviour, having the warrant of God's word that he may, that he must do so, for salvation,-from that hour, Christ is his, and he is Christ's. He is welcome to live upon him, for all spiritual blessings; to rejoice in him, as the inexhaustible storehouse of all grace; to depend on him, for preserving him, amidst darkness and difficulties, enemies and snares, till he be brought safely through to glory.

And this, again, is another glory of the gospel, as respects man, with which we must close. We have seen how it sets the believing sinner free from the law of works, and brings him under grace; (Rom. vi. 14;) brings him to Christ; to find, in him, all he needs to recom

mend him to God, and all sufficiency for all things to which God has called him. Now, hence he has a new and holy liberty unto obedience, which wonderfully enables him thereto. He is no longer a slave, toiling for life by obedience, against all the likings of corrupt nature; but a dear child, accepted in the Beloved, renewed in the spirit of his mind, and choosing holiness, not for what it will earn him, but from sweet delight in it, as it is the character of God himself, and that wherein his blessedness consists. He can follow it freely. His failures in it, painful and grievous as they are to him, no longer terrify, and drive him to despair, as once they did, when he was depending on it, and not on Christ, or along with Christ, for hope. Under the sense of them, he goes, and renews his peace with God: he washes, and is clean, through the blood of sprinkling: he calls in Christ's strength in his own weakness; and so, amidst manifold imperfections, he has yet encouragement to persevere, and to

perfect holiness in the fear of God." Thus the gospel is "glorious," also, in its effects upon the character of those who receive it. It changes believers into the same image with their Lord, from glory to glory; according to his design in dying for them, "that he might redeem them from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a

peculiar people, zealous of good works.” (Tit. ii. 14.)

God grant, my dear brethren, an earnest desire, to each of us, for this only real blessedGod grant to us, to confess this gospel, from our own experience of it, to be "the glorious gospel of the blessed God."

ness.

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SERMON II.

SIN AND PUNISHMENT OF DESPISERS OF THE

GOSPEL.

HEBREWS X. 28, 29.

He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God; and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing; and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

THERE is no sin, perhaps, that is less accounted of among men, than practical unbelief, and contempt of the gospel. Bodily sins, and such as are committed against society, are the only sins that are thought, by many, to have any real turpitude; to be of such a nature, as at all to expose men to merited condemnation. But, to neglect the scriptures, to live without God, not seeking his glory, or conforming ourselves to his will, as the Lord's property, (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20,) to hear the offers of life and salvation in the

gospel, and live on, from day to day, without ever closing with them, as if they were either false or valueless, these are sins of every day occurrence, to which they who commit them attach little, if any criminality. In most cases, they really, in no way, burden the conscience. Dying persons, when they would look back on their lives past, to recall their sins, and see how, and wherein they have transgressed, scarcely ever think of this, I have been living without Christ; I have not received his salvation; I have not personally embraced the gospel, and acted on it as true. No, if they have been, for the most part, correct in their general deportment, and have professed faith in Christ, like the multitudes around them, they are satisfied: and, if not, that which lies heavy on their minds is, not contempt of Christ, not their having trifled with the gospel, or any such offences, of a spiritual kind; but some particular acts of sin, more or less scandalous; could they only be free from which, all the rest, they conceive, might easily be forgiven and forgotten.

Now mark, my brethren, how different is the scripture estimate of the sin we are contemplating. While it assures us, indeed, in the plainest terms, that the fornicator, and the covetous, and the profane person, shall not inherit the kingdom of God, its language is yet more awful, its denunciations still more terrible, as respects

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