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Let me therefore earnestly beseech you to reconsider the subject: let me prevail with you to search the scriptures, and to beg of God to shew you the true meaning of them; and to grant, that if these things be indeed true and needful, you may know them by your own happy experience.

Again, some religious people profess to know that their sins are forgiven, and others are anxious to obtain this assurance. If then it be asked, how can any man be thus certain in this matter? I answer, by a consciousness, that "he is in Christ a new creature, "that old things are passed away, and all things are "become new." When our Lord forgave the sins of the paralytick, he enabled him to carry his bed; this proved his sins forgiven, both to himself and others. And in like manner, when we know that, in consequence of having applied to Christ for salvation, we abhor all sin, love the ways of God, and delight in pious company; we have a witness in ourselves, and the testimony of God in his word, that we partake of the gift of righteousness by faith. The clearer this evidence of our new creation appears, the fuller ground of assurance we possess: we are therefore exhorted, " to give all diligence to make our calling and "election sure:" but, without this, all impressions and supposed revelations, declaring our sins to be par. doned, are manifest delusions; for they contradict the express testimony of God in his holy word.

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Too many profess the gospel, who give no evidence of this gracious change, and stumble others by their unholy lives: but the text at once cuts off such men's pretensions; and the reproach ought to rest on them.

selves, and not on the holy doctrines which they disgrace.

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But, as "the path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day," I would earnestly and affectionately caution the serious enquirer, not to undervalue feeble beginnings; but to take encouragement from them to press forward, in the diligent use of the means of grace; that the change may be rendered more evident, and that he may "abound in "hope by the power of the holy Ghost."

Let discouraged souls likewise, who feel sin to be their burden, grief, and terror, and who are ready to say to the Saviour, "Lord, to whom shall I go? thou "hast the words of eternal life:" let such fainting, and feeble minded believers, learn to derive encouragement from their very fears, jealousies, sighs, groans, and tears, because "of the sin that dwelleth in them;" and "because they cannot do the things that they "would:" for these are, without doubt, effects and evidences of the new creation.

Finally, my brethren, if you can rejoice in the assurance, that you are partakers of these inestimable benefits; shew your gratitude to God, by endeavouring to communicate the same blessings to your fellow sinners: knowing that his mercy and grace are sufficient for them also; that he makes use of reconciled enemies, as instruments in reconciling others also to himself; and that he preserves them in life especially for this most gracious purpose.

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SERMON VIL

PSALM ii. 12.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little: blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

WHATEVER were the immediate occasion of this psalm, it evidently contains a most remarkable prophecy concerning Christ, and the divine vengeance to be inflicted on those who opposed the establishment of his kingdom. The Jews were the peculiar objects of the threatened indignation; and they are also the witnesses of the authenticity of those scriptures, in which the prophecy is contained: for by them the old Testament has been preserved; and they now unani. mously attest that the psalm before us was written at least a thousand years before Jesus of Nazareth was born.

It may therefore, be useful in the first place to call your attention, to this remarkable prophecy of things already accomplished, or hastening to an accomplishment." Why do the heathen rage, and the people

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imagine a vain thing! The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed," Let us hear the apostles' application of this passage: "for of a truth "against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gen"tiles and the people of Israel, were gathered toge“ther, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel de"termined before to be done."* These concluding words are well worthy of our notice: as they illustrate the plan of divine providence in the government of the world. We are apt to wonder that wicked men should be permitted to triumph as they often do: not considering that the Lord employs even rebels to fulfil his righteous purposes; and that, contrary to their own intention, they are made the executioners of his vengeance, or used as his chastening rod. Even atheists and infidels, yea, the haughtiest and most selfwilled of his enemies, are permitted to prosper, till they have inflicted condign punishment on sinners, perhaps less criminal than themselves, and then they are consigned to more tremendous vengeance. -Nay, the Lord even makes use of wicked men to accomplish his designs of mercy to the church. Thus the Jewish rulers and priests, with Herod, Pilate, and the people of Israel, though before at enmity with each other, combined together against the Saviour of the world: they thought evil against him and his church, "but the Lord meant it for goodt." And they could

* Acts, iv. 25-28.

† Gen. 1. 20.

only do what "his hand and counsel had determined "before to be done."

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"The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers "took counsel together against the Lord, and against "his anointed," or his Messiah; saying, "Let us "break his bonds asunder, and cast away his cords "from us." All the power and policy of man seemed to be leagued together, with a fixed determination to destroy Jesus and extirpate his doctrine. His numerous and formidable enemies unanimously resolved that they would not have this man to reign over "them." The priests and rulers excited the people to demand his crucifixion, with unrelenting vehemence. They aimed to blot out the remembrance of him and his spiritual dominion from the earth, that they might have no authority but that of the magistrate. "We have no king but Cæsar, whosoever "maketh himself a king, speaketh against Cæsar." Observe, my brethren, what was their principal objection to the religion of Jesus, and whence it arose. They hated the law and government of God; and therefore they rebelled against the kingdom and authority of his Son. Thus men still reject the gospel, because it magnifies and honours the law and justice of God, condemns all their former transgressions, and with the proposal of a gracious pardon, implies an obligation to obedience in future; and in this respect the same part is acted over and over again, from ge'neration to generation.

But mark what follows: "He that sitteth in the "heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in de"rision:" He looks down with contempt and disdain

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