how he comes into the world with all his parts in good proportion, yet in great weakness. So the child of God is born with all the incipient graces of the Spirit, with faith, prayer, and so forth. These he has communicated faintly at first in regeneration, and then afterwards he grows in them. This privilege he has from being united to Christ, and growing up in him. The happiness of the marriage union consists in the husband and his wife being like minded; and so the beauty of the soul's espousal to Christ, consists in the Christian's being likeminded with him, according to the words of scripture, "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."9 I might here also instance the misery of those who are married, and are constantly thwarting each other; but if the heart be right with God, there will be no contrariety between it and the Saviour. Sometimes indeed he may visit the spouse with correction; but he does it with such loving care, that his rod falls with profit, and like the psalmist, she may say, his loving correction hath made her great.

III. I think I have said enough, my dear brethren, to make you see that if "we are mar

9 Phil. ii, 5.

ried to another, even to him who is raised from the dead," the Lord Jesus Christ, it is that we should bring forth fruit unto God. If a man is a child of God, under the influence of his grace, there is a holy impossibility that he can do otherwise than live to his glory. O blessed God, "thy kingdom come," and "thy will be done," are desires that live in the hearts of those whom thou hast beautified with the grace of thy Holy Spirit. May thy word be the delightful rule of my conduct, from an inward principle, all the days of my life. O, the sweet love of God which is through Jesus Christ our Lord! May that love take a lasting hold upon all our hearts. I wonder not that it is said, "love is the fulfilling of the law;" and though I am a poor diminutive creature, I cannot think there is too much holiness in God, in which I may bathe my happy soul; all I wish, is to be made sure that I truly love him. If so, I shall bring forth fruit unto holiness, and the end will be everlasting life. Brethren, I desire not to entertain you with trifles, but that we may enter fully into the subject matter that is before us, and truly experience that we are enabled by our marriage union with Christ, to bring forth fruit unto God. But how must we be changed be

fore this union can take place! I knew one, whom I believe now to be with God, who proposed to be united to a young person who gained her livelihood by industry, and who manifested that there were belonging to her many excellent qualities, and he said "I will first educate her, and then take her into a higher sphere of life." She was amiable and good; but the Lord Jesus can take the deformed spirit, and make it comely by the loveliness of his holiness; and if there be any of you who desire now to enter into union with Christ, look to him I beseech you to give you a mind similar to his own. O read your bibles, and see what sort of a mind his was, and then pray for the implantation of a like mind in yourselves. These are the plain truths I drop among you. I make no apology; for the last apology I ever desire to make in this world, is for plain preaching. I rather pray God it may be made useful to your souls, and may he grant it for his name's sake. Amen.

SERMON XIII.

THE ATONEMENT AND MEDIATION OF CHRIST.

NUM. xvi, 48.

"He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed.

WE are, from the corruption of our nature, unaccustomed to feel our sinfulness duly before God. We do not sufficiently note the evil that has obtruded itself upon us to our everlasting disgrace, and which indeed we never can properly abhor, till a divine change takes place in our minds, and we feel, through the Spirit, a holy detestation of those sins which have rendered us disgusting in the sight of God. His guidance is also particularly needed, to enable us to seek the remedy where it really may be, found. Our slight notions of the heinousness of sin, introduce into the mind very low and poor ideas of the method, by which both it and its consequences are to be avoided. The generality

of mankind strangely think that a little reformation towards the end of our lives will suffice, because God is very merciful. They expect that God will lavish upon us the riches of his mercy, even though we continue to sin; and thus thousands actually make the mercy of the Lord an excuse for wickedness. But would any servant expect a master whom he openly insulted, to retain him in his place, because he said, "my master is a very merciful man, and therefore I will go on insulting him!" Would this do with man? Yet how we go on insulting God! The bible, however, reveals the truth of all these things to the mind, and tells us that such is the malignity of sin, that if a sacrifice had not been offered up, adequate to the demands of infinite justice, we never could have averted the wrath we deserve at the hand of God. Though man has ruined his soul, he cannot redeem it; and even if he says, "I will be better by and by," this implies an acknowledgment that he has been in error. Could a person pay his debts, by merely promising not to get into debt for the time to come? In fact, "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," and judgment has passed upon

1 Rom. iii, 23.