was with them in the world, I kept them in that name of thine: those whom Thou hast given me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but that son of perdition; in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled." This, you perceive, expresses what I am so much in the habit of saying,-that it was by an influence put forth by Christ himself,-not by the immediate energy of the Spirit upon them, but by an influence put forth by Christ himself upon their souls,-that He kept them in fidelity to himself whilst He was among them; but the result of that his own care and energy upon them had been, that, whilst He was with them, they remained faithful to the profession of his name; they remained faithful to the profession that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God; with one exception, they had thus remained faithful in his service. One had now departed from that service; but that was by a peculiar distinction of God. O, beloved, see that there is an absolute act of God,-as I had occasion to notice lately with respect to Pharaoh and some others, there is an absolute act of God in fixing upon some individuals of the reprobate as peculiar manifesters of his sovereignty and displeasure. And this "son of perdition," this Judas, was one of these,was preeminently that one. You will find in another place the same sort of title applied to Antichrist. But this Judas stands here branded with the peculiar appellation of "that son of perdition, or destruction," who was lost from the number of the twelve, it is

said, "that the Scripture might be fulfilled." We know there is a further end than the fulfilment of the Scripture; because how comes it to be a part of the Scripture? Why was it put down in the book of God, but because God's mind had devised it? And why had God's mind devised it? Because it was an arrangement, in connection with others, peculiarly calculated to declare his being and Godhead. There is the root of the matter. This awful arrangement was made, as a necessary expedient for the achievement of the great end which God is effecting by this preliminary dispensation,-the manifestation of his own being. For this end a peculiar separation had been made of this "son of perdition;" and the Scriptures had taken notice of that arrangement; and it was therefore nothing to be wondered at,-it was no more than the fulfilment of the Scriptures,-that such a prodigy should be seen amongst the twelve, as the son of perdition was. Whilst the eleven remained faithful, himself became a reprobate, a castaway, a deserter.

O God, grant that none of those who are now before me may be followers of his base example. Grant that no one of us whom Thou hast thus called into the community of thy Church, and made the subject of thy dear Son's intercession, may be in that awful assembly of the deserters of the standard of Christ; but give unto us all the fidelity of the eleven: and grant that, whilst we live in this world, we may take

not the badge only, but the spirit, of thy dear Son; unto whom, with the Holy Ghost, be all glory, in Thee, Father, the alone right object of glory, but who canst not be glorified without reflecting glory upon thy gradually subordinated fellows in the one indivisible substance of God. Amen.

Good Friday, April 17, 1829.

SERMON XVI.

PHIL. iii. 10, 11.

THAT I MAY KNOW HIM, AND THE POWER OF

HIS RESURRECTION, AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, BEING MADE CONFORMABLE UNTO HIS DEATH;

IF BY ANY MEANS I MIGHT ATTAIN UNTO THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.

JOIN with me, beloved, in glorifying God that you are brought out into being under a divine institution which sanctifies certain seasons unto the commemoration of peculiar events. You have had occasion, as I trust many of you feel, to be thankful for the call which was made upon you only two days ago to consider that central fact on which, as I stated, the whole scheme of God depends, even the dying of the Second Person of the Godhead in human flesh. And you are now called to consider the effect of that act in the production of what improperly we call the new creation. The new creation is the fruit of Christ's death. what do we then mean by the new creation?

R

But

We

mean that the creature, having existed in a certain form and state, and having been divested of that form and driven out from that state, is brought again into being in a new form,-into a new state, having new relations. Now this is, in a figure, called the new creation; not properly so called, because creation is the bringing of a substance into being which has never existed before; whereas the very characteristic of what we term new creation" is reproduction; it is essential to the act, and to the state, that the substance have existed before.

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I am purposing to engage you in both services of this day with the subject of which I have given you what I consider to be a most important link; but I intend, as my custom is, to draw the whole context into review, in order that you may perfectly understand the topic which I would especially illustrate. The topic which I would especially illustrate is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the use which we are privileged to make of it,—which we are unworthy of his name if we be not studiously endeavouring to bring into our use from this occasion. I suppose you will all allow that the apostle Paul knew well what was the central point in the scheme of God, and that what he directed his mind to is a worthy subject for our contemplation. Then allow me to read to you this whole portion which I am designing simply to set before you, aiming chiefly to put you into a correct understanding of it, and desiring for you that God of