like them, from faith to faith, till all things in their regenerate hearts are become new.

But, if this doctrine is a savour of life unto some, it is also a savour of death unto others. It gives offence to blinded bigots, while modern infidels strengthen themselves against it, as Pharoah once strengthened himself against the authority of Jehovah. “Thus saith the Lord," said Moses to that obstinate Monarch," Let my people go, that they may serve me:" and the haughty infidel replied, "who is the Lord that I should obey his voice ? "I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Come up out of mystic Egypt, saith the Son of God to every sinful soul: Follow me in the regeneration, and I will teach you to worship God in spirit and in truth. And who is the Son of God? replies some petty Pharoah I know neither him, nor his father, nor conceive myself in any wise obliged to obey his commands.

Impious as this language may appear, the conduct of every irreligious christian must be considered as equivalent to it, according to those words of our Lord" He that despiseth my servants, and my doctrines, despiseth me ; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me." Whatever mask such a pharisaical professor may wear, he loves the world; therefore the love of the Father is not in him; he hates both Christ and his Father, his repentance is superficial, his faith is vain, and sooner or later, his actions or his words will testify, that he is an utter enemy to Christ and his members.

HOW THE FAITHFUL PASTOR LEADS SINNERS TO REPENTANCE.

WHAT was spoken by God to Jeremiah, may in some sort be applied to the true minister: "I have set thee to root out and to plant, to pull down and to build." For before the sacred vine can be planted, the thorns of sin must be rooted up, together with the thistles of counterfeit righteousness and before the strong tower of salvation can be erected, that spiritual Babal must be overthrown, by which presumptuous men are still exalting themselves against Heaven.

To lead sinners into a state of evangelical repentance, the true minister discovers to their view the corruption of the heart, with all the melancholy effects it produces in the character and conversation of unregenerate men. After he has denounced the anathemas of the law against particular vices, such as swearing, lying, evil-speaking, extortion, drunkenness, &c. he points out the magnitude of two general or primitive sins. The greatest offence according to the law, he declares to be that, by which its first and great command is violated: consequently, those, who love not God beyond all created beings, he charges with living in the habit of damnable sin; since they transgress that most sacred of all laws, which binds us to love the Deity with all our heart. Hence, he goes on to convict those of violating a command like unto the first, who love not their neighbour as themselves; and to these two sins, as to their deadly sources, he traces all the crimes, which are forbidden in the Law and in the Prophets.

And now he proceeds to lay open, before the eyes of professing christians, the two greatest sins which are committed under the Gospel dispensation. If the two great commands of God, under the new covenant, are to this effect; that we believe on his Son

Jesus Christ, and love one another; it is evident, that the two greatest sins under the Gospel, are, the want of that living faith, which unites us to Christ, and that ardent charity, which binds us to mankind in general, as well as to believers in particular, with the bands of cordial affection. As darkness proceeds from the absence of the sun and moon; so from these two sins of omission, flow all the various of fences, which are prohibited by the evangelical law And if those who are immersed in these primitive sins, are withheld from the actual commission of en ormous offences, they are not on this account to be esteemed radically holy; since they are possessed of that very nature from which every crime is produced. Sooner or later, temptation and opportunity may cause some baneful shoots to spring forth in their outward conduct, in testimony that a root of bitterness lies deep within, and that the least impious of men carry about them a degenerate nature, a body of sin and death.

To give more weight to these observations, he sets forth the greatness of the supreme Being, enlarges on his justice, and displays the severity of his laws. He tramples under foot the pharisaical holiness of sinners, that he may bring into estimation the real virtues of the "new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Το awaken those who are sleeping in a state of carnal security, he denounces the most alarming maledictions, calling forth against them the thunders of

ount Sinai, till they are constrained to turn their faces Zion,waid; till they seek for safety in the Mediator of the new covenant, and hasten to "the sprinkling of that blood, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.”

By this method, he conducts his wandering flock to the very point where ancient Israel stood, when God had prepared them to receive the law by his Servant Aloses. Now after the people had heard the

thunderings, and the noise of the trumpet;" after they had seen "the lightnings, and the mountain smoaking" when, unable any longer to gaze on the dreadful scene," they said un'o Moses, speak thou with us and we will hear; but let not God speak unto us," without a Mediator, "lest we die".... Then it was that Moses began to console them in the fol lowing words: "Fear not: for God is come to prové you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that you sin not." So in the present day, they only, who are brought to this poverty of spirit, are properly disposed to receive the riches of divine mercy. soon, therefore as the evangelical minister has sufficiently alarmed a sinner, with the terrors discovered upon mount Sinai, he anxiously prepares him for the consolations of the Gospel, by a sight of the suffering scene upon Calvary.

As

Many pious divines have supposed, that, by preaching the cross of Christ alone, mankind might be brought to true repentance. What the fathers

of the Synod of Berne have said upon this point, deserves the attention of those, who desire successfully to use that spiritual weapon, which is "sharper than any two-edged sword."

"The knowledge of sin," say they," must of "necessity be drawn from Jesus Christ. The Apos ❝tle writes thus, God commendeth his love toward Aus, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for "us.' It follows, that sin must have made us abomi"nable and extremely hateful, since the Son of God "could no other way deliver us from the burden of it, than by dying in our stead. Hence, we may " conceive, what a depth of misery and corruption there is in the heart, since it was not able to be "purified, but by the sacrifice of so precious a vic "tim, and by the sprinkling of the blood of God." iet of a man miraculously formed, in whom dwelt "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." "The "Apostles have clearly manifested the sinfulness of

"our nature by the death of Christ; whereas the Jews, after all their painful researches, were not convinced of sin by the law of Moses. After a so. "lid knowledge of sin has been drawn from the pas "sion of our Lord, there will naturally flow from this knowledge a true repentance; that is, a lively sorrow for sin, mingled with the hope of future pardon. To this necessary work, the Holy Spirit also powerfully contributes, bringing more and more to "the light, by its mysterious operations, the hidden "evils and unsuspected corruptions of the heart; daily purifying it from the filthiness of sin, as sil"ver is purified by the fire." Acts of Synod, chap. viii, ix, xiv.

HOW THE PROPHETS, JESUS CHRIST, HIS FORERUNNER, AND HIS APOSTLES, PREPARED SIN

NERS FOR REPENTANCE.

EVER faithful to the word of God, the minister of the Gospel endeavours to humble the impeni. tent, by appealing to the sacred writers, and particularly to the declarations of Jesus Christ.

The corruption of the heart is the most ancient and dreadful malady of the human race. Man had no sooner made trial of sin, but he was driven by it from an earthly paradise: and so terrible were its first effects, that the second man was seen to assas sinate the third. This moral contagion encreased through every age to so astonishing a degree, that, before the deluge," God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil con tinually. After the flood, God still declared the imagination of man's heart to be evil from his youth. The heart of man," saith he again long after that