careful to act according to your convictions, to advance as they advance, to forsake every thing offensive to God so soon as, by prayerful inquiry, you have discovered it to be so, and we venture to say, "Go in peace." You will never be left to perish in unknown or disregarded sin. Be careful only that, while you receive this example to your comfort, you do not take it to your injury; that you do not allow it to satisfy you, if in the commission of any known transgression, or in the disregard of any positive commandment, or while lagging tardily and carelessly on the Christian course, and ashamed of the Saviour whom you desire to serve. We dare not say to you, "Go in peace," if this be the use you intend to make of the example before us, for "there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked; " and few would more deserve that name than they who should endeavour to wrest such an example to such a purpose, to "sin that grace may abound." But it may, and ought to encourage you, whose feet have but lately been planted on the road that leads to Zion, to walk on cheerfully and happily, not being cast down by little failures; nor driven to despair by the slowness of your advances; not rendered wretched because you perceive duties, which with every desire most conscientiously to attend to, you are at present unable to fulfil: only bear in mind that "the path of the just is," invariably, as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Recollect, that what might satisfy the prophet in the first few hours of Naaman's conversion, would have shocked him after as many years. That your Lord and Saviour, with all the tenderness which he so remarkably evinced during the whole of his earthly sojourn, for the young believer, made no exception in their favour when he said, "If any man be ashamed of me and of my words, of Him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in his glory, and with the holy angels; "" and whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before the angels of God."

The following passage deserves the most serious attention of those whose minds are any way disturbed by the modern Oxford schism :

The Almighty selects the lowest and the feeblest instruments, purposely, that it may be utterly impossible to measure the apparent causes, by the real effects. The Church, the sacraments, the ministry, what are they all, but in themselves weak and powerless means, and yet absolutely omnipotent, when in the hands of an Almighty God, for the regeneration of a world? Bear this in mind, and you cannot but feel extremely jealous of the great and laborious effort making, at the pre

sent day, unduly to magnify these means, and to exalt these instruments. However gratifying it may be to natural pride, or to spiritual pride, and in all ages of the Church it has proved itself to be so, thus to magnify the sacerdotal office, I believe it will be found, in the end, to injure even the cause which it is expected to subserve, to debase the Church itself, by endeavouring unduly to elevate it, and most assuredly not to promote the honour and glory of God. For in proportion as men exalt the outward and visible means, however holy those means may be, they are, perhaps, involuntarily, but surely, led to depress the inward and spiritual grace. Thus it may be incontestibly proved from the history of Romanism, that the natural course is this: by unscripturally exalting sacraments, we lower the Lord of the sacraments; by exalting authoritative and traditional exposition of God's word, we diminish men's estimation of that blessed word itself; we may begin, as the Romish Church began, by overestimating the servant, and we shall end, as she has ended, by comparatively overlooking the Master; the only mediator, overshadowed and lost amid a crowd of saintly coadjutors, until at length religion becomes a mere code of forms and ordinances, excluding all close and spiritual intercourse with the Father of our spirits, all holy fellowship and communion with the everblessed Comforter, and all personal and sensible union with the only-begotten Son.

We have only room for one more extract; it is the close of Mr. B.'s tenth lecture, on the fulfilment of Elijah's prediction with reference to Jezebel :

Let us inquire, brethren, what is the great lesson to be derived from them? Is it not this, that whenever, be the subject what it may, we can with truth declare, "This is the word of the Lord which he spake," that word is absolutely certain of accomplishment, though all the powers of earth or hell conspire against it.

There is one class of persons, to be found probably in all congregations, although, we trust, forming a very small minority in our own, upon whom we could desire especially to impress this great and powerfully influential truth. They who are living in disregard of the threatenings of the Most High.

Observe, I entreat you, observe carefully the incident before you. Years had passed away between the threatening and its fulfilment; yet nothing that had intervened, could avail to traverse the will of God, or disarrange its most complete and literal accomplishment. And can you doubt but that God, who, if we may so express it, so studiously, so carefully

provided for the fulfilment of his own word, as regarded these threatenings and these individuals, will not as certainly ensure the accomplishment of every threatening and against every individual? I know not a more fearful or a more painful thought, than the inevitable certainty of God's predicted judgments. If the impenitent sinner could only read the records of days gone by; if the man who has never yet fled to the Rock that is higher than we, and sought pardon from an offended God through the blood of Jesus, would only observe the manner in which every threatened evil that God has spoken, has infallibly come to pass, he would not be able to rest in his bed this night, until he had sought and found a Saviour. But, perhaps, some are still sheltering themselves under the idea that there is no express malediction, at least no personal denunciation as regards themselves, and that these, therefore, are not legitimate deductions from the subject before us. Surely, to such persons we may apply our Lord's words and say, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." For what can be more strictly personal to ourselves, than such declarations as these: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." It is true no names are mentioned here, but characters are names; and may not this be as personal to some among us, as if our names were as plainly inscribed as those of Jehoram or Jezebel ? The apostle, while addressing the fearful catalogue to his converts, adds plainly and unhesitatingly, "And such were some of you." It is not for uninspired man to imitate this example. But we may, without any breach of Christian charity, say, And such may be some of us. At any rate, we dare not say, And such are none of us. If there be, then, but one individual who finds himself, i.e. his own character or habits, among those enumerated, let him lay well to heart the incident we have this morning been considering. We would say to him, not harshly, but affectionately, in denouncing these sinners, God has by your own confession denounced you. And God never yet uttered a denunciation that was not, nor shall not be, most literally fulfilled. It is then certain, that not an individual, whose character is there pourtrayed can inherit the kingdom of God, for "this threatening is the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servant Paul the Apostle.

Again, God has said by the mouth of

the same servant, "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption," and " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha,"accursed before him at his coming. Are we all clear from these maledictions? "" Is no one among us sowing to the flesh," living only for the gratification of the passing hour, cherishing the flesh, instead of crucifying it, with its sinful affections and lusts ? so absorbed in obtaining or enjoying the good things of this present evil world, that God and His glory, Christ and his kingdom, our souls and their eternity are forgotten, or uninfluential themes? Or, do we all so love, or desire to love, the Lord Jesus Christ, that not one among us falls under this most solemn imprecation?

Brethren, these are no trifling inquiries, when you see, as you have this day seen, the certain punishment of the guilty, that no single threatening which God has ever directed his servants to utter, can fall harmless to the ground. And yet God leaves not the culprits without warnings ; thrice he warned Jehoram, though without effect. He warned the old world by the preaching of Noah; he warned the sons-in-law of Lot by the words of their father. He warned the impenitent Jews by the mouth of his beloved Son; and has He never warned or threatened you? Have you never been laid upon a bed of sickness? That was a warning. Have you never followed to the grave a beloved wife, or husband, or parent, or child? That was a warning. Has the Holy Spirit never carried to your heart, it may be but for a passing moment, some striking text, or some solemn discourse? Then that also was a warning. If you could say, which you doubtless cannot, that you never were on any previous occasion in your whole life, warned by God, you have been warned to-day, you are warning now.

Would to God that he might, in mercy, go further still than this, that He might not only warn, but enforce his warning; not only threaten, but this day induce you to believe His threatening; not only show you the terrors of His wrath, but this moment reveal to you the unbounded mercies of His love; opening to every threatened sinner a way to escape, and vouchsafing to every contrite soul an interest in the cleansing blood and justifying righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And may we not hope that He will do so? For, are the threatenings of the Almighty certain, and can His promises be uncertain? Shall nothing prevent the fulfilment of the former, and shall anything intervene to hinder the accomplishment of the latter? No; in the language of an apostle, "As God is true * all the promises of God in Him

*

(Christ Jesus) are yea, and in him, Amen;" fixed, unchangeably, unalterably, and for ever. And one of those blessed promises is, "My word shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that whereto I send it." "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." What would you seek, what would you desire, which is not included here? The child's first sin in infancy, the hoary sinner's last crime in decrepid age, all are within the range of the promise, all come within the scope of the blessed declaration. None need doubt, none need hesitate; the very assurance which it has been the object of this discourse to establish, as regards the threatenings of God, applies with ten-fold force, yea, with ten thousandfold force to his promises, “Almighty to destroy, Almightiest to save." If there be one convinced and convicted sinner before God this day, one who is conscious of practices such as we have enumerated, one who is destitute of that knowledge and that love to the Saviour, of which we have spoken, and who is willing now, in the day of God's power to cry for mercy, to ask for God's Holy Spirit, that he may be enabled to seek in heartfelt penitence and faith the Saviour of the world; to him we say, and we say it at God's command and in God's own words, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool;" though you have hitherto been an alien and an outcast, come thus to the blood of Christ, forsaking sin, and you shall be received this hour as a welcomed penitent, a pardoned sinner, an acknowledged and adopted son. For this also is among the never-broken promises of our God, "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out."

Mr. Buddicom's two volumes are like all his other publications, most instructive and interesting. The life of Abraham, the friend of God, necessarily introduces an extensive range of subjects common to all believers; and each of these is ably discussed. Thus the heirs of promise: the calling of Abram the nature and origin of faith the influence of family religion the Abrahamic covenant: the birth and circumcision of Isaac: the arguments for infant baptism: the allegory of the two covenants: the typical character of Abraham; all pass under review; and are all connected with those more perfect discoveries and revelations

:

of the divine will revealed in the Christian dispensation. Amidst so much that is excellent, we are really at a loss what portions to extract, especially as our limits warn us to bring this article to a close. The following paragraphs are selected from the second sermon, entitled the Heirs of Promise.

He who will be free from the law of sin and death must be a child of the believing Abraham, beloved and justified: or else he is only the child of the begetting Abraham, a man conceived, born, and wrapped in sin, without faith, without pardon, without the Holy Ghost, and therefore in condemnation. And it was as reasonable in them who lived during the most benighted period of the Christian Church, to think, that notwithstanding all the transgressions in which they lived and died, they would assuredly be saved if they were buried in the cowl and cassock of a monk, as it would be in any of ourselves, to put our privileges and legal obedience in the stead of Christ, and yet hope for their sakes to avoid the sentence of his wrath, "I never knew you, depart from me."

But Abraham's seed,—they in whom he has the right of a spiritual paternity, and they in him the privileges of a blessed parentage as his spiritual offspring, are believers in Jesus Christ: and they are of no particular clime, country, sex, people, language; but, of all. These are they who shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God. The New Testament has taught us, that the promise of an innumerable progeny made to Abraham, though literally fulfilled, had a farther meaning; and is to be understood of all who are partakers of like precious faith with him, whether Jews or Gentiles. "Unto Abraham, and unto his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many, but, as of one; and to thy seed, which is Christ." "Thus then the great and gracious paradisaical promise was republished and confirmed. The blessing in the latter edition, is, under a new form, essentially the same, of which assurance was given in the former; for that general blessing is the bruising of the serpent's head, or the de. struction of the works of the devil," and the victorious salvation of God's Incarnate Son, whereby He hath opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

There is therefore an absolute and happy identity between this gracious seed of Abraham, and the redeemed, justified, adopted, and holy family of heaven. The establishment of this fact forms the cen

tre, towards which every ray of the apostle's triumphant and luminous argument had concourse and convergency. "Ye are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus." The adoption is the same to all the seed of Abraham, whether natu rally derived from him, or spiritually engrafted into him. As all pious Jews obtained this happy relation under the Old Testament, so doth every disciple of our gracious Lord under the New. Were they justified freely? So are we, if justified at all. Was righteousness, even the imputed righteousness of Him who magnified the law, and made it honourable, the needful, the perfect, the spotless robe wherein they must be clothed for acceptance with God? Even so must it be our wedding garment. Was faith imputed to their great progenitor, and to them for righteousness? So must it be to us also. They which be of faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham. He was justified, not by the act, but by the object of his faith, "God in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world to Himself."

even

And here let me observe, that if the Holy Spirit hath graciously gifted us with the purged and purified vision of faith, He opens to our view the second part of his conclusion. "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise, even of that most precious assurance, on which the believing patriarch leaned, when he stretched his sight far down the stream of ages, and saw the day of Christ, to his joy and rejoicing.

"

In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." He saw what every spiritual child, graciously descended from himself, is privileged to behold; pardon, remission, reconciliation, adoption into the family of God, and all the immunities, and all the bestowments of unrestrained and infinite love, in their great treasure house, God in Christ. But who shall open all the blessings which this high relation embraces and includes? Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon the true seed of Abraham, that they should be called the sons of God, the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty! Who shall describe the mercies linked to this pre-adoption of the Father's love towards his children in the grace of faith? "If children, then heirs: heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ."

"Heirs according to the promise." The seal of every engagement to them being the blood of Christ; the seal of every engagement in them, being the witness of the Spirit; one of whose most endearing titles, to an experimental Christian, describes Him as "the Holy Spirit of promise." What an assurance of happiness doth this name contain and convey! What a pledge of life eternal! There is not a promise revealed in the book of God,

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of which the believer may not expect the performance at the hand of the Holy Ghost. He is the spirit in the promise, as its very life and essence. He is the spirit of the promise, being a part in the divine mind who gave it, and the person in the divine nature who accomplishes it to the heirs of promise, according to that everlasting covenant, which is ordered in all things and sure." Heirs of God. In other heritages, many a seemingly copious stream is comparatively dried up by dispersion into a great variety of channels; but here the number of co-heirs cannot diminish that blessedness of each, which is furnished by the inexhaustible sufficiency of Him who filleth all in all. The same light may be seen by millions, yet its fountain in the sun suffers no diminution. And when the all-sufficiency of God, the merit of his Son, and the omnipotence of the Holy Ghost, provide for the objects of their love, what blessings can be wanting to them within the limits of time, or the illimitable eternity that will succeed? The heir indeed is maintained by guardians during his nonage; but even the present possession comes from his own property. It is a portion of the revenue appertaining to him, according to the law of his inheritance. thus it is with the heirs of God, and the joint heirs with Christ. They will never want a present portion, for God shall supply all their need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." And in what they have, they enjoy their own, those first fruits which are the pledges, and earnests, and foretastes of the glorious harvest, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. The whole inspired volume is more full of God's condescension to the lowest and meanest member of his church, than to the highest and proudest of those who do not belong to it; even as He gave more minute directions concerning the very pins, and snuffers, and basins of the tabernacle, than concerning any matter of mere earthly magnificence.

And

The following passages are from the Sermon on the Objects and Warrant of Faith.

They who receive the Lamb of God(and without such reception of Him by faith there is no salvation) have power given to them by Him, to become the sons of God. But they are brought and born into this infinitely precious relation, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. A transcendent power was put forth in raising Jesus from the grave, when the sins of the world, with all their tremendous weight, lay upon Him to crush Him down. That same power which raised Him, and was therefore the mere and absolute act of Omnipotence, enlightens

the will, subdues the rebellious mind, and is, by faith, the resurrection of the soul from its death in trespasses and sins. "Unto you first," saith the Apostle, addressing the church at Philippi, " is it given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for his sake." "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." And this Apostolic posi. tion is as entirely true, concerning the faith of God's word, which overruled Noah to build the ark, or Abram to leave his country, as concerning that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby He becomes to its happy possessor the end of the law for righteousness. If the hand or eye of man be wanting from his birth, only Almightiness can supply them. By what other power then, shall that hand of faith be created, which reacheth to heaven, and lays hold of all its fulness in the tree of life? By what other power shall that spiritual eye be formed, and opened in the soul, which beholds those things within the vail, and regards them as a believer's rightful and unalienable portion, in the testament of God's free, eternal, and unchangeable mercy by Jesus Christ?

6

But although faith be thus a gift, resul ting from the pure unmerited benevolence of God, yet must it be sought in the use of means. It comes instrumentally by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But this word,' the unbeliever will say, 'is spiritually discerned; and the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; how then can obtain faith by hearing or reading the word of God; when faith is presupposed, in any profitable acquaintance with it?' A view of God in the sovereignty of his grace, is the key to unlock this difficulty. It is the only means of putting to shame, this poor objection of infidelity. The action of the Holy Ghost, creating faith in us, goes before the exercise of faith. But the beginning of faith is the receiving of the Holy Ghost. And if the word of God is become dear to any of you-its spiritual meaning more plain than heretofore,-and He of whom it testifies, more precious than formerly to your hearts-then have you already a spiritual discernment; and your faith will be increased in the study of the scriptures of God. Read the holy volume. Pray, as God may enable you, for light to understand, and faith to receive, and love to embrace it. And then, as Jesus bade the man with the withered hand stretch it forth, and the natural impossibility was removed, while he made the effort; so shall you, once infidels concerning all the infinitely gracious disclosures of the written and revealed Book of life, understand it, and enjoy it in its great Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last of Christian faith and

love. Be diligent in the use of all the means of grace, and trust, as you pray, that the grace of means in faith unto salvation, shall be imparted richly to you. The scales of incredulity will fall away; the eye of simple single minded faith will be opened; and while you look upon the wonders of redemption, which in their length, and breadth, and depth, and height, will be new and delightful to you for ever, you will each cry with him whom the Saviour healed, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see."

We would especially recommend to the attention of our readers, three sermons in the second volume, containing arguments for infant baptism; many of these are placed in a new and very striking light. The last extract for which we can find room, is from the thirty-fourth sermon, entitled Isaac a type of the Son of God:

It remains that we notice the typical likeness between the Son of Abraham and the Son of God, in the VIRTUAL Resurrection of the one, and the ACTUAL Resurrection of the other. I say, the virtual resurrection of Isaac, because although offered up only in the unreserved intention of Abraham, he was accepted, as if already slain, and as such the Holy Ghost testifies. "By faith, Abraham when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, 'In Blessed Isaac shall thy seed be called.'"

be God, who when there is a willing mind, accepteth, according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not! Blessed be God, who sought only one sacrifice of human life to Himself: and provided that lamb from his own mercy; so that the sacrifices of his redeemed and sanctified people might thenceforth be only thank-offerings of holiness and grace for ever! During the whole three days between God's command, and Abraham's obedience, on the way to Mount Moriah, Isaac was dead in his father's mind; and was so accounted of God, when he was declared to be raised from the dead in a figure. The ram substituted for Isaac is the type of his resurrection: even as under the Law the bird whose wings were dipped in the blood of his slain fellow, and himself set free, was a type of the resurrection,-the bird which died being a type of Atonement. And no other could be appointed; because as no actual rising again was ordained to these shadows of good things, the great truth of a resurrection could only, in some such manner, be exhibited to the eye of faith, in connexion with the doctrine of vicarious propitiation. The Incarnate Son of God in