are interested in it. In order for a clear enjoyment it is not enough simply to know these things, but "by the remission of our sins" to live upon them. When the apostle Paul would tell the church the blessedness of his own personal estate, in this particular end of his spiritual conversion towards God, he stated it thus: "When it pleased God (said Paul) who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." (Gal i. 15, 16.) Here observe the lines of different degrees of mercy: first, the separation from the womb of his mother in nature; secondly, the call of grace, or the new birth and its consequences; thirdly, the revelation of Christ in Paul; not simply to him, but in him; lastly the effect; all conference with the flesh done away; a sweeping destruction to all self-confidence. And such is the uniform result of all the Lord's people with whom the Lord deals, as by Paul, to reveal Christ in them. There will be increasing views in ourselves of our own worthlessness; and increasing apprehension of the Lord's all-sufficiency.

One word more. "The knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins" in every truly regenerated and converted heart will be, under the divine unction, one assured, fixed, and certain principle. The believing soul will live upon it as men of the world live upon their property. You never find them admitting it questionable, whether it be their own or not. And the Lord's people are supposed to do the same. "We have redemption (said the apostle) through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace." (Ephes. i. 7.) We have it, and we live upon it. And to this agrees the words of the promise, "Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah xxvi. 3.)

And now let me humbly take up the words of our most glorious Christ, and ask, "Have you understood all these things?" See then that the conviction of the infinitely precious and important points, as they concern your own personal happiness, be the result of them. And do not fail to connect in your remembrance of such soul-refreshing truths, that this knowledge of salvation, by the remission of sins, is solely the Lord's gift and not your deserts. And the very preaching of the gospel is to give the knowledge of it unto the Lord's people. And as it is neither obtained by man's merit, nor man's attainment, so in every instance, where it is given, the remission of sins is alike given. Very blessedly to this amount speaks God the Holy Ghost by John. "I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you fathers because you have known Him that is from the beginning. I write unto you young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one." (1 John ii. 12, 13) And now what shall I add, except to close all in a prayer to God for his blesssing!

Gracious Lord! as the blessed Scripture we have been contemplating assures us that the ministry of thy Holy Word is to "give the knowledge of salvation unto thy people by the remission of their sins; vouchsafe such a divine unction may be upon thy Divine Word at this time, as shall accomplish thy sovereign will to our souls' joy, and to thy glory. Let our little assembly be enabled, by thy grace, to have a spiritual and scriptural knowledge of this saving truth on our souls. And then shall we sing with the Spirit, and sing with the understanding also, the new song of salvation, which the redeemed of the Lord in all the churches of the Lord's people sing to God and to the Lamb: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory, and dominion for ever and ever, Amen!"

JESUS

THE

RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.

BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF A SERMON, PREACHED IN THE

PARISH CHURCH OF CHARLES, ON THE LORD'S

DAY MORNING, NOV. 21, 1824.

OCCASIONED BY THE

DEATH OF HIS YOUNGEST DAUGHTER, AGED 32.

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Ir may not be improper to state the occasion, which, under the Lord's providence, gave rise to this sermon. It pleased the Lord to remove from me, by death, three days before the Lord's day, my beloved Sarah, the youngest of my children. children. I found it right to be at my post of duty as usual, on the Lord's day. And when the time for the pulpit service came; after humble supplication to the Lord, that "as my day, so might my strength be;" I addressed the Lord's people to the following purport:

I believe that my attendance here this morning was not expected by some; and may be a matter of surprize to others. Those to whom it is known, that the Lord hath made a breach in my family, by the death of my child, may have supposed that my absence would have been excusable. But it is not so with me.

I dared not, that my private feeling should take place of my public labours. The Lord's cause supersedes with me every other consideration. True indeed it is, that by this event, the Lord hath made a deep wound in my heart. The incision hath been sharp and painful. And perhaps the more poignant from my age and increasing infirmities. Like an old tree of the forest over which the storms of many a winter hath beaten, my greenest branch is now broken off, and I myself am withering. But a wisdom which cannot err hath so appointed; and sure I am that in this, as in every other dispensation of the Lord to his people, a love which cannot fail, nor change, is also at the bottom : and while I bend submissively to the Lord's holy will, I hear the Lord's voice graciously speaking, in tender, but sovereign language: "Be still and know that I am God!" (Psm. xlvi. 10.) It is my mercy therefore, that the Lord dries the tear of nature; and grants me the suited grace. Moreover, according to the course of years, I have but a few sabbaths more to enjoy below; every one becomes the more precious in ministering to holy things, before the Lord shall take me home to the everlasting sabbath which is above.

Added to these considerations, I trace in the records of Scripture the uniform conduct of holy men of old, in their attendance on the Lord, in his house of prayer, when under bereavements. When David's child lay dead, though during the suspense of the sickness the man of God "lay on the earth, and fasted, and