This thought should give us much consolation in the darkest periods of the church.

There are times, when from the approach of external dangers, or from the increase of internal corruptions, her state appears critical and tending to ruin. But Christ will not forget his promise; "I the Lord do keep her, and lest any hurt her, I will keep her night and day." He may visit her transgressions with a rod; but his loving-kindness he will not take from her, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail. He knows how to overrule the most threatening appearances for the advancement of her purity, and the establishment of her safety. The time is coming, when she will arise and shine, and her glory will spread through the earth and those circumstances, which in human view look most unfavourable, may, under the direction of divine wisdom, contribute to the introduction of such a happy period.

We see how criminal and dangerous it is to oppose the interest of the church.

As the church is Christ's body, which he nourishes and defends, and for which he is made head over all things, they who persecute this, wound him in a most tender part: they who cause divisions in this, make a schism or rent in his body they who form parties in opposition to each other, and still call themselves members of Christ, treat the one Saviour, as if he were divided into as many parts, as there are sects which assume his name: they who, by corrupt doctrines and examples, draw tender minds away from the truth as it is in Jesus, and throw stumbling-blocks before the lame and the weak, are destroying those for whom Christ died; and by thus sinning against the brethren, they sin against Christ: they who call Christ their Lord, and yet serve divers lusts and pleasures, are enemies to his cross, and their end will be destruction.

If the church is Christ's body, let us honour it, study to preserve unity in it, labour for its edification and comfort, and, as fellow members of the same body, exercise for each other the same care as for ourselves.

How safe and happy are they, who are the true members of Christ's body, being vitally united to him by faith! They are of that select and distinguished number, for whom he is made head over all things, and to whom all things under his direction, are working for good.

If Christ is the head of the body, and filleth all in all, let us daily look to him for counsel, comfort, and support; and, in the continual exercise of faith, derive from him all needed supplies of grace.

If we profess to be members of his body, let us move under his influence and in compliance with his directions. Let us honour and reverence our head, and never presumptuously lift up ourselves against it. And God grant, that, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Christ our head, and may make increase, as his body, to the edifying of ourselves in love.

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SERMON X.

EPHESIANS II. 1-3.-And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind: and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.

IF

If you will carefully attend to this epistle you will find that the thoughts expressed in it are closely connected, and one thought leads to another through the whole. Paul, both in his preaching and writing, was an accurate reasoner, not an incoherent declaimer. The thoughts in the text, and the words following, arise out of those which immediately precede. He had just described the glorious resurrection, exaltation and dominion of Jesus Christ, which, he tells the Ephesian believers, were pledges and earnests of their final glorification in heaven. "Now," says he, "as God has raised up Christ your Head and set him at his own right hand; so he has quickened you, who once were dead in your sins, and raised you up with Christ, and made you sit together in heavenly places in him. That the glorious hope, the blessed inheritance, and the happy resurrection, of which I have spoken, will be your portion, you may learn from that which God has already done for you. He has quickened you who were

dead in your sins; he has made you meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints; he has raised up your Head, Christ Jesus, and has placed him, and in him has placed your nature already in heaven. And if the head is raised, the members will follow. If you believe that Jesus is risen, you must believe, that them who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him; for he is the first fruits of them who sleep, and because he lives, they will live also."

That the Ephesians might have the more admiring sentiments of the power and grace of God in quickening them to a spiritual life, and raising them to a hope of the heavenly inheritance, he leads them to the contemplation of that dismal state of corruption and guilt, in which the gospel found them. A description of that state is contained in the words which I have read. The several expressions, by which he describes their past condition, I shall now explain and illustrate. And let us remember that the description is applicable to other sinners, as well as to those ancient Gentiles. This general application the Apostle teaches us to make.

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I. He expresses their state in more general terms. They were dead in trespasses and sins." What is here said of them, is elsewhere said of all under the power of sin: "They are dead, while they live." Hence conversion is called "a rising from the dead;" and "a passing from death to life." These expressions, however, being figurative, must be understood with proper qualifications.

Sinners possess the natural faculties of men; and in their worldly affairs they often exercise such prudence and activity, that our Saviour once observed, "the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light." Their deadness consists, not in the want, but in the perversion of the intellectual powers:

and their recovery consists not in the creation of new faculties, but in the holy direction of the faculties which they have. They are, then, to be addressed as rational beings; truth is to be placed before them; arguments are to be proposed to them; the terrors of the law are to be applied for their awakening; and the invitations of the gospel are to be urged for their encouragement. "Come, and let us reason together," says the Almighty to a wicked and degenerate people. "Paul," in the presence of Felix, "reasoned of righteousness, temperance and a future judgment." His design in his preaching was "to open men's eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God."

We are not from this description to infer that sinners, in a state of unregeneracy, are on account of their deadness excusable for continuing in that state; for as the state itself is criminal, continuance in it, is continued and increasing criminality.

Nor are we from the use of such metaphors to conclude that sinners under the gospel can do nothing to their conversion, more than the dead to their resurrection; and that therefore it is improper and absurd to exhort them to repentance; for with such exhortations the Scripture everywhere abounds.

It is often asked, whether the unregenerate can do anything of themselves, which has a tendency to their conversion? But the answer is, They who enjoy the gospel are not left to themselves. If you suppose a man under the power of vicious inclinations, and at the same time destitute of all means of religious knowledge, and without any influence from the Spirit of God, you then have the idea of a sinner properly left to himself. But this is not your case. You have the gospel in your hands; and it is daily proclaimed in your hearing. There is an