is said in the Catechism to be the sanctifier of all the elect people of God; that is, of all the faithful members of Christ's Church. The office of the Holy Spirit is to preserve them in faith, to support them in temptations, and to conduct them in holy living, that they may become fit for the heavenly kingdom of God.

A fourth advantage which Christians enjoy is, the certainty of the revelation which God hath made to them by his Son, and the precision with which the conditions of eternal life with him after the resurrection, are expressed. Thereby all the doubts concerning a future life, and acceptance with God, which perplexed the Gentile world, are removed: The prospect of eternity, and the means of obtaining happiness in it are fully laid open.

A fifth advantage which Christians enjoy is, that as they are freed from the doubts and uncertainties of Gentilism, or the law of Nature; so they are delivered from the burden of the law of the Jews. Its numerous and inconvenient rites, and ceremonies, and purifications, together with its expensive sacrifices, being all fulfilled and taken away by the obedience and death of Christ in our nature. The painful Sacrament of initiation into the covenant made with Abraham having given place to the institution of Baptism, the mild Sacrament of initiation into the Church of Christ, which is his mystical Body. By Baptism, they who come worthily to it, are, through the operation of the Holy Ghost, washed from all past sin, original and actual; and being thereby regenerated and made members of Christ, are sanctified, body and soul, to be the temples of the Holy Ghost; who, according to the opinion of the primitive Christians, in Confirmation, which they considered as the completion of Baptism, took possession of his temple cleansed from the defilements of sin, to dwell in it, to preserve its purity, to build it up in holiness, and fit it to be a vessel of honour in the temple of the great High Priest in heaven forever.

In the room of the Paschal Lamb, and of the other sacrifices of the Mosaic law, Christ hath ordained the Holy Eucharist, the commemorative sacrifice of his own offer

ing up of himself to God for us, and of his consequent sufferings and death for our redemption. And we believe, that when we make this memorial of his offering and death, according to his will, before the Almighty Father, pleading his merit and intercession, we do obtain all the bene fits of his passion and death-remission of sins, renewed influences of the Holy Spirit, sanctification of our persons, the principle of reviviscence or of a glorious resurrection from the grave, the assurance of a happy acquittal in the day of judgment, and of a triumphant entrance with him into his own eternal kingdom.

These, in few words, are the advantages which Christians enjoy over other people, whether Jews or Gentiles. To the participation of these blessings the holy apostle invited all men of all countries and nations, endeavouring to prevail on them to receive the gospel, and become fellow-heirs with Christians of all its promises and blessings. But none of these advantages, or privileges, or promises give a Christian any indulgence to live wickedly; or, if he do, and die without repentance, any hope that he shall escape the sentence of God's condemnation; who, being "no respecter of persons, will render to every man," whether Gentile, Jew, or Christian, "according to his deeds." While it is true, that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" it must also be true, that no wicked person can enter into heaven. The reason is, God is holy; and it will be hard to show, that the impurity of a wicked Christian is not as contrary to the holy nature of God, as the impurity of a wicked Gentile or Jew.

Therefore it is, that Christianity calls all its professors to the mortification of their sensual lusts and unruly passions; to the denial of ungodliness and worldly lusts; to the rejection of all injustice, and deceit, and violence, and envy, and malice, and hatred. All this was dictated to the Gentile by his reason and conscience, the law written in his heart; and all this was declared to the Jew by the very rite of initiation into the covenant made with Abraham. To this rite Christ submitted, not only that he might be obedient to the law for man; but also that he

might teach us the true circumcision of the heart; that ali our members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey God's blessed will. This is the true Christian sanctification; and to produce it in us is the office of the Holy Ghost. The great purpose for which he is given to the Church being the sanctification of its members, that under his gracious and holy inspiration, they may truly and acceptably serve God, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of their life.

In this way we become partakers of the righteousness of Christ: Not by an outward imputation of his righteousness, but by having the Spirit of God-the Spirit of Holiness-the same Spirit which dwelt in Christ without measure, dwelling and operating in us according to the measure of the gift of Christ.* And remember, this same apostle hath said, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his :" And also, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God."

* Eph. iv. 7.

DISCOURSE XV.

THE CHILDREN OF WISDOM.

MATT. xi. 19.

But wisdom is justified of her children.

THE occasion of the text was our Saviour's reproving the wicked perverseness of his countrymen, in rejecting both his ministry and that of his fore-runner the holy Bapfist: So that for the same reason they rejected John, they ought to have received him; or else, on the same ground they rejected him, they ought to have received John. The manner in which he expressed his censure was drawn from the common custom of his country, with which his audience was well acquainted, and which they could easily apply.

In the time of our Saviour, it was common for the Jews to heighten the festivity of weddings with music, particularly with the pipe, to which the company danced in chorus. Music was also introduced at their funerals; and more particularly the mournful modulation of the voices of elderly women hired for the purpose, who began and increased the lamentation by repeating in melancholy accents, Alas, my brother! Ah, his glory! Of this we have an instance in the house of Jairus, at the death of his daughter. When Jesus came into his house, he found "the minstrels and the people making a noise"*-the musicians and mourners lamenting her death.

These practices the children imitated in their play in the markets. To them Christ compares the Jews of his time. The complaint of the children was the want of a suitable return from their companions. They would neither join

them in representing the merry festivity of a wedding, nor the mournful sadness of a funeral. Unsocial and morose, they would be pleased with neither: "We have piped to you" according to the custom of weddings," and ye have not danced;" "We have mourned to you," as is done at funerals, "and ye have not lamented." Compare this complaint of the children with the conduct of the Scribes and Pharisees-the great and the learned among the Jews, and the justness of the representation will readily appear. The holy Baptist came, with all the austere and mortified appearance of Elias, to proclaim the approach of Messiah, and to prepare the way for his appearance. His education had been in the desert. His food was locusts and wild honey. His clothing a rough garment of camels hair, tied about him with a girdle of common leather. His preaching was repentance, or conversion to God, and a ready disposition to receive the promised Messiah, the Messenger, or Angel of the new covenant which God would make with his people in the latter day. Notwithstanding the austerity of his life, the gravity of his manners, the solemnity of his preaching, the purity of his character; the Scribes and Pharisees not only rejected him, but reviled him as a demoniac-one possessed by the devil, or a melancholy madman. By these slanders they so effectually took off the impression he had made on the common people, that Herod first imprisoned him for reproving his vicious life; and then, at the instigation of a wicked woman, cut off his head, without causing even a murmur of disapprobation that we know of.

Though he mourned to them on account of their sins and evil deeds, and, by his life and preaching, called them to repentance and amendment, that they might escape the wrath of God which was to burn as an oven, and to consume all the proud, and all who do wickedly,† they lamented not; neither did they repent nor turn from their wickedness, till the vengeance of God like an overflowing flood came upon them, and swept them away from the laud which they had defiled with the foulest crimes.