66 and turn away from sin; this remedy is. provided in the "communion of the Holy Ghost." He reveals no new or strange things to the soul, but he "takes of the things of Christ, and shews them unto us. He takes the gospel as a lever by which he removes the rock of unbelief;he renews the soul in righteousness after the image of him that created it;-he makes it meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light;-he fills it with new desires, new perceptions, new motives;-he bestows that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord;" for except a man be thus born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He takes away the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh; and enables us so to behold the love of God, and the grace of Christ by the communion of his Holy Spirit. Thus the whole soul is prepared to join in the song of the redeemed, and to sing "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Worthy is the lamb that was slain, and has redeemed us to God by his blood. They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come!" (Rev. iv. 8, &c.) 66 It is thus, my friends, that we must worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance. Thousands fancy they worship the Author of creation and providence, who never offer the homage of the heart to the God of redemption and sanctification. Many expect to be saved simply by Christ's atonement, without any sanctifying application of it to their own hearts; while, on the other hand, some place the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, as the cause of their justification before God; that justification freely purchased by the blood of Jesus. But none of these truly worship him who alone is to be worshipped, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; one God, world without end. "This God is the God of our salvation," and "his glory will he not give unto another," or suffer it to be limited to one portion of his essence. This God must reign in our hearts in undivided dominion, exalted alike as our Creator, by whom we exist,as our Redeemer, by whom we are saved from guilt,-as our Sanctifier, who will enable us to enjoy an existence of ho liness and bliss ;-as the Three in One, to whom all the powers of the intellect, and all the feelings of the heart combine to offer worship and thanksgiving, for ever and ever. May this God be now revealed to every soul present, as its Benefactor, its Redeemer, and its Sanctifier:-and be assured, that as we each learn for ourselves the extent of our necessity, as sinners, we shall each learn to appreciate the "love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost."-May they be with us all evermore! Amen. SERMON III. PREACHED ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1829. JOHN, I. part of ver. 14. "The Word was made flesh." FEW and simple are these words; yet they epitomize the whole object of revelation; they display God in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto himself; they supply the connecting link between the "from everlasting and the to everlasting," of redeeming love. They reveal a fact so sublime in its nature, so stupendous in its results, as the mind of Deity alone could conceive. Neither men or angels, through countless ages, could devise such a scheme of mercy; nor could the boldest imagination, unauthorized by the Spirit of God, ever dare to glance at the idea of an incarnate C Deity, of "God manifest in the flesh." When called to contemplate the glorious work of redemption, the mind naturally reverts to the scene of its completion, "lovely, mournful Calvary;" but though it was finished there, amid the tumults of material nature, and the extremity of human guilt, and the acme? yes, the acme of even divine love, yet let us not overlook the period when "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Let us, on this day peculiarly, my friends, in spirit go to Bethlehem, and offer the homage of our hearts to the infant Redeemer. Had he passed through this world, without a pang, and left it in the triumphal chariot of heavenly hosts, without one sensation of human infirmity; just dwelling among us, as the light of the world, and sanctifying the earth by the mere fact of his presence-even in this there is a length, a breadth, a depth, a height-in the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge; which we can never appreciate, until we behold "the glory which he had with the Father before the world was." Speaking in his character of "the wisdom of God," (Proverbs viii.) he declares "The Lord possessed me in the begin |