think that you had all out of them which was desirable, because you had as much of drudgery as was laid upon them-however grievous you saw was the distaste which they felt for you and for all your requirements? If it were quite palpable, that their inclinations were in a state of revolt against youwould you think it ample compensation, that you still could restrain their outward movements, and by the force or terror of your authority, could compel from them the homage of all their services? Oh let us know if you could sit down in complacency, because of such an obedience from your own children! And if you but saw that in their hearts, they were inly pining and murmuring and feeling resentfully, because of the utter repugnance which they felt to you and to your exactions, were it not the most wretched of all atonements, that still the bidding was executed, and still the task was performed by them?

And it is thus that I would like to reach the hearts of the careless, with the alarm of a guilt and a danger, far greater than they have ever been aware of. I should like them to understand, that they are indeed the haters of God-that they hate Him for what He is, and hate Him for what He requires at their hands; and though this hostile propensity of theirs lies hid in deep insensibility, when, amidst the bustle and the engrossment and the intense pursuits or gratifications of the world, there is nothing to call it out into distinct exhibitionyet that a demonstration of the divine will or the divine character is all which is needed, to bring up the latent virulence that is lurking in the bosom, and to convict the now placid and amiable man that

he is indeed an enemy to his Maker. And in these circumstances, is his Maker too an enemy to him. The frown of an offended Lawgiver resteth on every one, who lives in habitual violation of His first and greatest commandment. There is a day of reckoning that awaits him. There is a true and unerring judgment which is in reserve for him. That enmity which now perhaps is a secret to himself, will become manifest on the great occasion when the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open; and the justice of God will then be vindicated, in dealing with him as an enemy. Such is the condition, and such are the prospects of all who remain what Nature made them-who, still in the flesh, have not been translated to that new moral existence into which all are ushered who are born again; and who by simply being lovers of the creature more than of the Creator, prove themselves to be still carnallyminded and to be the heirs of death.

And it is only by taking a deep view of the disease, that you can be led adequately to estimate the remedy. There is a way of transition from the carnal to the spiritual. There is a distinct and applicable call, that may be addressed even to the farthest off in alienation; and which, if he will hear and follow, shall transform him from one of the children of this world to one of the children of light. The trumpet giveth not an uncertain sound, for it declares the remission of sin through the blood of Jesus, and repentance through the Spirit which is at His giving; and your faith in the one will infallibly bring down upon you, all the aids and influences of the other. То you who are afar off, is this salvation preached; and the grand connect

ing tie by which it is secured and appropriated to your soul, is simply the credit that you give to the word of this testimony. Many feel not the disease; and so all the proclamations of grace pass unheeded by. Many listen to them as they would to a pleasant song; but the form of sound words is enough for them, and the realities which these words express never find admittance into their bosoms. But some there are whose ears and whose eyes are opened who are made to hear with effect, and to behold the wondrous things that are contained in the word of God. With them the gospel is something more than a sound or an imagination. To them it bears all the character of a great authentic transaction between Heaven and Earth. And they see God as God in Christ waiting to be gracious; and they no longer stand in dread of a justice that is now most abundantly satisfied; and they can brave the contemplation of all the attributes, wherewith mercy to themselves is now blended in fullest harmony; and they rejoice to behold that the throne of Heaven is at once upheld in all its august dignity, and yet that even the chief of sinners has a warrant to approach it; and while they take to themselves the security that is guaranteed by the atonement on the cross, they feel how that very atonement affords most entire illustration of the sacredness of the Godhead. And thus, uniting peace to their own souls with glory to God in the highest; they experience a love which was before unfelt, which weans them from all their idolatrous affections, and translates them from the state of the carnally to that of the spiritually-minded.

396

LECTURE L.

ROMANS, viii, 9.

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of Go dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his,"

We

THERE is nought more undeniable, than the antipathy of nature to the peculiar doctrines of the gospel. This, it is likely, may have been felt by many of yourselves and many have been the devices of human ingenuity, for mitigating the offensive features of the truth as it is in Jesus. are not sure but that the doctrine of the Spirit calls out a more painful revolt from the children of this world, than even the doctrine of the Sacrifice. At least, the attempts and plausibilities have been just as frequent, for explaining it away. And this, perhaps, is the right place, for adverting to the way in which it has been endeavoured, to make all that is revealed of the Holy Ghost and of His regenerating influence upon man, more palatable than it naturally is to unrenewed taste-more fitted to satisfy the demand which obtains for a religion, that shall be altogether rational and devoid of mystery.

Agreeably to this it has been affirmed, that to have the Spirit of God implies no personal visitation by Him upon the soul; and, more particularly, no indwelling on His part in man, as His residence or as His habitation. One, it is thought, may be

rightly enough said to have the Spirit of God, if, from any cause whatever, it so happens that there be a resemblance of character and disposition and principle between him and the Divinity-just as any active and devoted philanthropist of our day may be said to have the spirit of Howard, without its ever being imagined, that there has been any transmigration into his body of that soul by which the body of Howard was animated. All that is intended is, that there is a common or kindred character between the one philanthropist and the other just as we would say of a philosopher, that he had the spirit of Newton; or of a daring conspirator that he had the soul of Catiline. And thus has it been attempted to gloss over the truth, that there is in the souls of believers an actual occupancy by a Spirit from on high, or even so much as the communication of any influence from the one to the other; and to have the Spirit of God is understood as nothing more, than to be in the possession of godlike excellencies or virtues-that to have the Spirit of Christ is nothing more, than just to have the like mind in us that was also in the Lord Jesus.

It is their favourite imagination of the sufficiency of human nature, which attaches them to this style of interpretation. They look upon it as a nature liable to the errors and infirmities of an occasional waywardness—but radically and substantially as sound; and possessed within itself of energies and principles enough, for the attainment of all that spiritual excellence which qualifies for heaven. They deem it to be in the power of ordinary moral