63. ABRAHAM's SEED. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.---Gal. iii. 29. 1. ABRA'M's seed's a chosen nation, 2. Jesus Christ is their possession; Will he ever loose his hold Of his sheep, his chosen fold? 3. When involv'd in Adam's ruin, Fill'd with darkness, ign'rance, pride, Said, "I'll have my chosen bride;"- 4. Fill'd with nothing but confusion, O how foul their hearts appear! All their wisdom is delusion, 66 While they cry, can God dwell here?" But, when taught the Lord to know, Abraham's religion and faith took its rise from the powerful voice of Jehovah, uttered unto him when in Ur of the Chaldees: "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee." He who thus spake unto Abram was "the God of glory," or, the second Person in the blessed Trinity, the Lord Jesus: " Before Abraham was, I am." (JOHN VIII. 58.) Abraham saw the day, and heard the voice of Christ-rejoiced to see his day, and was glad. Abraham's obedience sprang from his faith: "He believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness." Again: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." (HEB. XI. 8.) Now, as it was with Abraham, so it is with his seed, in many respects: Abraham was totally ignorant of the true God, until the day of God's power; so are his seed, until the power of Christ is put forth; and then they turn their feet unto his testimonies. Free, unmerited love manifested itself in the calling of Abraham: "I called Abraham alone, and blessed him;" and we, whom the Lord hath called, can testify," that he hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." and 64. REGENERATION THE WORK OF Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.---1 Peter i. 23. 1. A sinner must be born again, 2. What is it to be born again? How shall the work be done? 3. Alas! the best that we can do Is deeply dy'd with sin; The fountain all corruption too, For envy dwells therein. 4. No outward form, nor zeal, nor creeds, Regeneration gives; From God alone the work proceeds, 5. A light divine breaks on his eyes, The blind now sees, the fool's made wise, Regeneration, or to be born again, is not the work of flesh and blood; nor can nature, in its most polished condition, either assist or concur in this strange work!-strange, as it appeared to Nicodemus, and as it still appears to many, who stand as high in rank, and higher, perhaps, as Ecclesiastics. Regeneration is the work of Omnipotence: "Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." Regeneration is effected on whom the Lord thinks proper: "The wind bloweth where it listeth."The will of God, independent and free, is the cause; the word of the living God, the instrument, and the sinner looking unto him, whom he has pierced, is the blessed effect. Regeneration is ascribed to the Holy Spirit: "That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit," HE moved on the face of the waters at the creation, and regulated the chaotic mass: he moves on as dark and confused a mass, the sinner's heart-shines in the heart, and gives us to behold the Glory of Jehovah in the face of Jesus Christ; Beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. THE SEALING OF THE SPIRIT. After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.---Eph. i. 13. 1. HOW high the priv'lege! how divine! To know that Jesus Christ is mine; |