the Sanctifier, is the chief promise under the second. To this, the hopes and the expectations of the church are anxiously referred; and to the bestowment of His influence to cleanse the guilty and cheer the mourner, all ministerial success has been ascribed from the days of the apostles to the present, by every faithful minister of the New Testament. "I have planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase." In this acknowledgment all believers will cheerfully concur. But the question is yet to be answered-In what does the possession of the Holy Spirit consist? What are the marks and proofs of the enjoyment of this unspeakable blessing? To these inquiries, I reply,

1. It is to have a suitable frame for the holy duties of the day. "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth." Never shall we attain to that spirituality of soul— that self-abasement and lowliness of mind- that spirit of selfdenial and abstraction from secular and sinful pursuits, so necessary to an acceptable approach to God, if we have not this Divine Instructor with us. Without his presence we are morally disqualified for the active, benevolent, and devotional engagements of the sanctuary and the closet. We are wholly destitute; but this destitution we shall not feel, if we are not assisted by his aid. We may utter the words of prayer, but we shall not pray; we may sing the song of Zion, but our heart will be cold and unmoved; and the preacher may be, like Ezekiel of old, as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument;"-but that is all we shall "hear his words, and do them not." On the other hand, if this refreshing influence be upon us, the heart will be enlarged in supplication, the trifles of earth will be commanded away from their unhallowed intrusion, faith will be exercised, the soul satisfied with the fatness of his house, and made to drink of the river of his pleasures. Then shall we see his power and his glory in the sanctuary, and our mouth will praise him with joyful lips. "For the Lord is that Spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

66

2. It will fill us with exalted views of the Author of the day. We have seen, that while every day is the Lord's, this, in a more especial manner, belongs to him. Now among other ends to be answered by the gift of the Spirit, this is one, prominent and essential: "He shall testify of me: he shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you." Never did "the disciple whom Jesus loved," although he had "seen his glory-the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father," see so much of that glory as on the occasion before us. Its brightness beamed upon him in

the day of his captivity, and filled his soul with impressions of awe and grandeur too powerful for his mortal frame. "I fell at his feet as dead," is the recorded testimony he gives us. Ah! there is much reason to fear a lamentable deficiency among multitudes of the hearers of the gospel in this respect. All is form with them. Custom collects them, when it suits their convenience, within the walls of the edifice; and when they have joined in the outward forms of devotion, and have heard a sermon as they would an oration at the bar or in the senate, they are satisfied! The virtue and variety of the Saviour's character and offices; the sacred relation he holds to his church; the completeness of his redemption; and the prevalence of his intercession at the right hand of God in behalf of the redeemed, they never saw-they never desired to see! To the believer, however, that is a cheerless and gloomy day, when he has felt no beams from the Sun of Righteousness upon his mind, and has had no views by faith of the power and grace of his ascended Lord. If the former kind of attendance be yours, you are still, I affirm, "dead in trespasses and sins." If the latter, painful as the absence of the Comforter may be, yet there is hope concerning you. The very sorrow of your heart is a scriptural proof of life within.

3. Closely connected with this, I remark, that the presence of the Spirit will give us holy pleasure in the services of the day. The friends of God, both under the former and present dispensation, have ever been known by their attachment to his courts. Thus David; "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth." So strong was his ardour to appear before God in his temple, that he compares it to the hart coming down from the mountains of Lebanon in quest of the refreshing streams of the valley. The disciples of the Saviour equally delight in the house of prayer now. They hail the return of the period which discharges them from secular occupations for a season, that they may unite with fellow-christians in adoring their common Lord, whose blood redeemed and whose grace renewed them. Constrained by his love, they also come forth from their habitations at the call of duty, to visit the hovel of need and the couch of disease; or to collect groups of poor and ignorant children, that they might be taught to read the words of eternal life. They yearn with all the tenderness of compassion over perishing sinners, and labour to save them from impending ruin. The extension of common christianity lies near their heart, and they seek its widest diffusion with unslackened zeal. Thus the promise of God by his prophet Ezekiel is fulfilled in them and by them; "I will make

them and the places about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessings." But if you prefer the idle walk-the pleasant partythe conversation of the world to these public duties of devotion and mercy, then you need not stop to inquire as to your state of soul: "You are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity;" and your final portion will be with unbelievers, if not renewed.

4. Finally, If we are in the Spirit, we shall be led to anticipate the pleasures and devotions of an eternal sabbath. The elevation of the soul to God, in all the majesty of heavenly-mindedness, and the desire to enjoy him as the chief good, have always been considered indubitable evidences of genuine and spiritual piety. Thus Peter, overcome with the heavenly glory, wished to fix his dwelling on Tabor, that he might mingle no more with the vanities of earth. This feeling is perpetuated in every heart by the communion of the Holy Ghost. The sabbath is too short, and these mortal frames too grovelling, for the Christian's joy. How often is he pained when obliged to close the public exercise, to quit the peace and devotion of the sanctuary, and, after a few hours of necessary repose, go forth to the call of the world, and breathe an atmosphere uncongenial to his spiritual mind! But there remaineth a rest-a sabbatical rest-to the people of God. This is his delight. He meditates on this, not with a spirit of discontent as to the present, but as the purchased inheritance of his Lord-his happy and eternal home. Entered into that calm and celestial region, he will see the King in his beauty, face to face, be equal unto the angels, and the "dull mortality" which clogs him now shall be left behind. My dear brethren, shall either of us come short of this felicity? The Lord grant we may not!

III. I shall now close by a few reflections upon the whole.

1. The first reflection I offer from the review of the subject is, that God is reconciled through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is declared by the resurrection of his Son from the dead, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Hence he is styled "the God of Peace." The promised salvation for a lost world hereby appears accomplished. The Divine Being is not set forth as an offended Deity, the angry judge of a revolted world, waiting for his creatures to humble themselves and conciliate him, that they might be forgiven, but, like a merciful sovereign, as having in his Son Jesus Christ already secured their pardon. The Saviour in the gospel appears making atonement for sin; and as having so borne it in the burden, and agony, and humiliation of the deserved

penalty, as to have made an entire reconciliation of the sinner to God. However men may cavil at the fact, so it is written; "we are accepted in the beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." And again, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to men their trespasses; for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be the righteousness of God in him." Here the gratuitous sufferings and death of Christ are solemnly stated, as meritorious for the reconciliation of the world. The proof of its completion rests in the raising up the Lord Jesus from the dead, by which the Father proclaims to the world, that the deed of mercy is ratified and accepted. The resurrection of the Surety is a palpable exhibition of the acquittal of all whom he represents "from the pains of death," to which they were righteously doomed: thus are they complete in him "who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption; that, according as it is written, Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord."

2. My next reflection is, the necessity of Divine influence. Before we are prepared to be "in the Spirit on the Lord's day," it is necessary that we be renewed in the spirit, temper and disposition of our minds. We must undergo that real and essential change, which our Lord defines a second birth. Now whatever its nature may be, or however effected, one thing is evident, that it is the commencement of that spiritual life by which we alone become capable of living to God and enjoying him. An unholy mind can take no pleasure in fellowship with a holy Being. It is morally unfit for, and incapable of, such an elevation: "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" If it be necessary among men, that there be a general agreement in their principles and character to constitute them united and harmonious, how much more is this fact applicable to the sinner before God! Now the strong but accurate language of Scripture is, that men are all unclean, unjust, deeply corrupted, and have "no soundnes" in all their moral nature. That such beings cannot enjoy God until they are regenerated is most evident; but how are they to be regenerated? What power can cleanse a heart so polluted, or subdue a mind so frozen and impenetrable? "Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much sope, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God."-" Can the Ethiopian change his skin, and the leopard his spots? then may ye who are

accustomed to do evil learn to do well." The principle of depravity is so strong and universal, that we are wholly disabled from passing to holiness by human effort. Death can never become the cause of life neither can a soul under the bondage of corruption rise to the exercise of heavenly affections, until a divine agency be applied. Enmity must give place to love, impenitence to contrition, unbelief to faith, the spirit of self-righteousness to an utter reliance on the cross; but such a revolution it is beyond the power of man to effect. We must be born of the Spirit, or we shall die in our sins. This plain statement suits not the human heart, because it flatters not its pride; but unless it be received, and felt, and acted upon, sinners will never be converted, nor saints comforted. Many questions might be asked, as to "how these things can be;" but where the fact and the fruits are palpable, both in revelation and the church, no difficulty of solution must ever be allowed to raise a suspicion of the doctrine. By the power of the Holy Spirit through the word, the mind becomes enlightened, prejudices are made to yield; new feelings and sympathies are awakened; the disinclination so natural and strong towards God is destroyed; the sinner becomes "willing;" forms are no longer rested in ; the man is " a new creature." All his powers and faculties have received a new bias and tendency. The gospel now possesses the most alluring charms, and the Saviour is precious to him. The tumultuous passions of the soul are hushed into holy tranquillity and joy. This is necessary to be effected in order to the enjoyment of the Spirit on the Lord's day, and all other seasons.

3. We observe, that the manifestation of the Spirit is not confined to particular places. If we remember God, we may expect his favour wherever his providence may call us. It may fall to our portion to sojourn for a season where religious privileges are very few. But the servant that honours his Saviour in the isle of Patmos, or in any other place of constant or temporary abode, shall be honoured by him. Thus Ezekiel "saw visions of God" in the captivity of Babylon; and the three Hebrews had perfect protection and support in the fiery furnace. Should the Sabbath be to you a day of suffering and confinement, you may, notwithstanding, have spiritual peace. "Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifice of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord." But how different the case with those persons who on the merest excuse absent themselves from the sanctuary. There are, it is to be fearfully apprehended, multitudes of professors, who seem concerned to ascertain with how small a portion of attendance they may be able to retain their membership