temptation; for" though "the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak." I grant that, evangelically speaking, the weakness of the flesh is not sin; but yet the "deceitfulness of sin" creeps in at this door; and by this means not a few of God's children, "after they had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the " sanctifying "knowledge of Christ," under plausible pretences, "have been again entangled therein and overcome." Let their falls make you cautious. Ye have put on the whole armour of God: O keep it on, and use it "with all prayer," that ye may, to the last, "stand complete in Christ," and be 66 more than conquerors" through him that has loved you.

II. Remember that "every one who is perfect shall be as his Master." Now if your Master was tempted and assaulted to the last; if to the last he watched and prayed, using all the means of grace himself, and enforcing the use of them upon others; if to the last he fought against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and did not "put off the harness" till he had put off the body; think not yourselves above him, but "go and do likewise." If he did not regain paradise, without going through the most complete renunciation of all the good things of this world, and without meekly submitting to the severe stroke of his last enemy, death; be content to be "perfect as he was;" nor fancy that your flesh and blood can inherit the celestial kingdom of God, when the flesh and blood which Emmanuel himself assumed from a pure virgin could not inherit it without passing under the cherub's flaming sword; I mean, without going through the gates of death.

III. Ye are not complete in wisdom. Perfect love does not imply perfect knowledge; but perfect humility, and perfect readiness to receive instruction. Remember therefore, that if ever ye show that ye are above being instructed, even by a fisherman who teaches according to the divine anointing, ye will show that ye are fallen from a perfection of humility into a perfection of pride.

IV. Do not confound angelical with Christian perfection. Uninterrupted transports of praise, and ceaseless raptures of joy, do not belong to Christian, but to an

gelical perfection. Our feeble frame can bear but a few drops of that glorious cup. In general, that “ new wine" is too strong for our "old bottles;" that power is too excellent for our earthen cracked vessels; but, weak as they are, they can bear a fulness of meekness, of resignation, of humility, and of that love which is willing to obey unto death. If God indulges you with ecstasies and extraordinary revelations, be thankful for them, but be "not exalted above measure by them;" take care lest enthusiastic delusions mix themselves with them; and remember, that your Christian perfection does not so much consist in "building a tabernacle" upon mount Tabor, to rest and enjoy rare sights there, as in resolutely taking up the cross, and following Christ to the palace of a proud Caiaphas, to the judgment-hall of an unjust Pilate, and to the top of an ignominious Calvary. Ye never read in your bibles, Let that glory be upon you, which was also upon St. Stephen, when he looked up steadfastly into heaven, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." But ye have frequently read there, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

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See him on that ignominious gibbet: he hangs, abandoned by his friends, surrounded by his foes, condemned by the rich, insulted by the poor. He hangs, a worm, and no man! a very scorn of men, and the outcast of the people! "All they that see him laugh him to scorn. They shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying, He trusted in God that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, if he will have him.". "There is none to help him." One of his apostles denies, another sells him, and the rest run away. Many oxen are come about him; fat bulls of Bashan close him on every side; they gape upon him with their mouths, as it were a ramping lion. He is poured out like water, his heart in the midst of his body is like melting wax; his

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strength is dried up like a potsherd; his tongue cleaveth to his gums; he is going into the dust of death. Many dogs are come about him, and the counsel of the wicked layeth siege against him. His hands and feet are pierced. You may tell all his bones. They stand staring and looking upon him. They part his garments among them, and cast lots" for the only remain of his property, his plain, seamless vesture. Both suns, the visible and the invisible, seem eclipsed. No cheering beam of created light gilds his gloomy prospect. No smile of his heavenly Father supports his agonizing soul. No cordial, unless it be vinegar and gall, revives his sinking spirits. He has nothing left, except his God. But his God is enough. for him. In his God he has all things. And though his soul is "seized with sorrow, even unto death," yet it hangs more firmly upon his God by a naked faith, than his lacerated body does on the cross by the clinched nails. The perfection of his love shines in all its Christian glory. He not only forgives his insulting foes and bloody persecutors, but in the highest point of his passion he forgets his own wants, and thirsts after their eternal happiness. Together with his blood, he pours out his soul for them; and excusing them all, he says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." O ye adult sons of God, "in" this "glass behold all with open face the glory" of your Redeemer's forgiving, praying love; and, as ye behold it, "be changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the loving Spirit of the Lord."

V. This lesson is deep; but he may teach you one deeper still by a strong sympathy with Him in all his sufferings, he may call you to know him every way crucified. Stern justice thunders from heaven, "Awake, O sword, against the man who is my fellow!" The sword awakes, the sword goes though his soul, the flaming sword is quenched in his blood. But is one sinew of his perfect faith cut, one fibre of his perfect resignation injured, by the astonishing blow? No: his God slays him, and yet he trusts in his God. By the noblest of all ventures, in the most dreadful of all storms, he meekly bows his head, and shelters his departing soul in the

bosom of his God: "My God! my God!" says he, "though all thy comforts have forsaken me, and all thy storms and waves go over me, yet into thy hands I commend my spirit." "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand," where I shall soon sit," there are pleasures for evermore." What a pattern of perfect confidence! O ye perfect Christians, be ambitious to ascend to those amazing heights of Christ's perfection: "for even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps; who knew no sin; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." If this is your high calling on earth, rest not, O ye fathers in Christ, till your patient hope and perfect confidence in God have got their last victory over your last enemy,—the king of terrors.

"The ground of a thousand mistakes," says Mr. Wesley, "is, the not considering deeply, that love is the highest gift of God, humble, gentle, patient love; that all visions, revelations, manifestations whatever, are little things compared to love. It were well you should be throughly sensible of this: the heaven of heavens is love. There is nothing higher in religion: there is, in effect, nothing else. If you look for any thing but more love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are getting out of the royal way. And when you are asking others, 'Have you received this or that blessing?' if you mean any thing but more love, you mean wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting them upon a false scent. Settle it, then, in your heart, that, from the moment God has saved you from all sin, you are to aim at nothing but more of that love described in 1 Cor. xiii. You can go no higher than this, till you are carried into Abraham's bosom."

VI. Love is humble: "Be therefore clothed with humility," says Mr. Wesley; "let it not only fill but cover you all over. Let modesty and self-diffidence

appear in all your words and actions. Let all you speak and do show that you are little, and base, and mean, and vile in your own eyes. As one instance of this, be always ready to own any fault you have been in: if you have at any time thought, spoke, or acted wrong, be not backward to acknowledge it; never dream that this will hurt the cause of God: no; it will further it. Be therefore open and frank, when you are taxed with any thing: let it appear just as it is; and you will thereby not hinder, but adorn, the gospel." Why should ye be more backward in acknowledging your failings, than in confessing that ye do not pretend to infallibility? St. Paul was perfect in the love which casts out fear, and therefore he boldly reproved the high priest. But when he had reproved him more sharply than the fifth commandment allows, he directly confessed his mistake, and set his seal to the importance of the duty in which he had been inadvertently wanting: "Then Paul said, I knew not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." St. John was perfect in the courteous, humble love which brings us down at the feet of all. His courtesy, his humility, and the dazzling glory which beamed forth from a divine messenger, whom he apprehended to be more than a creature, betrayed him into a fault contrary to that of St. Paul; but, far from concealing it, he openly confessed it, and published his confession for the edification of all the churches. "When I had heard and seen," says he, "I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow-servant." Christian perfection shines as much in the child-like simplicity with which the perfect readily acknowledge their faults, as it does in the manly steadiness with which they "resist unto blood, striving against sin."

VII. If humble love makes us frankly confess our faults, much more does it incline us to own ourselves sinners, miserable sinners before that God whom we have so frequently offended. I need not remind you, that your "bodies are dead because of sin;" you see, you feel it: