weakness of his present condition, the depravity of his passions, and the imbecility of his reason, hath nevertheless a capacity of high improvement in intellect and moral worth. For it cannot reasonably be supposed, that so much should be done for the deliverance of a creature from the consequence of its own guilt, of whom it was not understood that it had the capacity of being rendered, by the discipline applied in some future stage at least of its existence, in some degree worthy of its Maker's care and love. The scheme of man's redemption originated, we are told, from God's love of man. In man in his fallen state there is nothing which the divine love could make its object. But the divine intellect contemplates every part of its creation in the whole extent of its existence; and that future worth of man to which he shall be raised by the divine mercy, is such as moved the divine love to the work of his redemption. For to say that God had loved a creature which should be unfit to be loved in the whole of its existence, were to magnify the mercy of God at the expense of his wisdom.

But since all improvement of the intellectual nature must in some degree be owing to its own exertions to the purpose of self-improvement, the prospect of the great attainments which the grace

of God puts within our reach, ought to excite us to the utmost diligence "to make our calling and "election sure;" as, on the other hand, the prospect of the danger which threatens the perverse, the careless, and the secure, should keep us in a state of constant watchfulness against the temptations of the world, the surprises of passion, and the allurements of sense. The Christian should remember, that the utmost he can do or suffer for himself, by a denial of his appetites, and a resistance of temptation, or even by exposing himself to the scorn and persecution of the world, is far less than hath been done or suffered for him. And what has he to expect from a merciful, but withal a wise and righteous Judge, who thinks it hard to mortify those passions in himself for which the Lord of life made his life an offering.

Who ever thinks without just indignation and abhorrence of the Jewish Rulers, who in the phrenzy of envy and resentment-envy of our Lord's credit with the people, and resentment of his just and affectionate rebukes,-spilt his righteous blood? Let us rather turn the edge of our resentment against those enemies which, while they are harboured in our own bosoms, "war against our souls," and were, more truly than the Jews, the murderers

of our Lord. Shall the Christian be enamoured of the pomp and glory of the world when he considers, that for the crimes of man's ambition the Son of God was humbled? Shall he give himself up to those covetous desires of the world, which were the occasion that his Lord lived an outcast from its comforts? Will the disciples of the holy Jesus submit to be the slaves of those base appetites of the flesh, which were indeed the nails which pierced his Master's hands and feet? Will he in Will he in any situation be intimidated by the enmity of the world, or abashed by its censures, when he reflects how his Lord endured the cross and despised the shame? Hard, no doubt, is the conflict which the Christian must sustain with the power of the enemy and with his own passions. Hard to flesh and blood is the conflict; but powerful is the succour given, and high is the reward proposed. For thus saith the true and faithful Witness, the Original of the creation of God, "To him that overcometh will I grant to "sit down with me in my throne, even as also I "overcame and am sitten down with my Father in "his throne." Now, unto him that loved us, and hath washed us from our sins in his own blood; to him that liveth and was dead, and is alive for evermore; to him who hath disarmed sin of its strength,

and death of its sting; to the only begotten Son, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, three Persons and one only God, be glory and dominion, praise and thanksgiving, henceforth and forever more.

SERMON III.

MATTHEW, XX. 23.

"To sit on my right hand and my left is not mine "to give, but it shall be given to them for whom Father."

"it is prepared of my

THESE, you know, were the concluding words of our blessed Lord's reply to the mother of Zebedee's children, when she came with a petition to him for her two sons, that they might be the next persons to himself in honour and authority in his new kingdom, sitting the one on his right hand, the other on his left. It was surely with great truth he told them "they knew not what they asked." At the time when their petition was preferred, they had probably little apprehension what that kingdom was to be in which they solicited promotion; and were not at all aware that their request went to any thing