religion, by awakening our anxieties for safety, invigorating our desires for peace, and calling forth that solicitude for a present salvation, which must prepare for rightly believing in the Lord Jesus Christ—a believing which must maintain a sanctifying influence, and bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Weigh well the question, "What must I do to be saved?" and that will prepare for the answer, and for all the happiness which that answer can impart, and all the holiness which that answer can inspire, and carry on to perfection.

SERMON VI.

1. JOHN, 11. 12.

"I WRITE UNTO YOU, LITTLE CHILDREN, BE

CAUSE YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN YOU FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE."

THE blessings realized by the first Christians, are commonly so much considered as exclusively belonging to the days of miracles, as to lead to the conclusion that many of their privileges must have passed away with the circumstances which called for miracles and peculiar privileges. But surely, very little observation can be required to perceive what is simply the scaffolding, and what is the main building in the erection of which the scaffolding is only a temporary structure; while in the building itself, we may clearly see, from the

perfection given to its several parts, what is intended to be permanent, as a provision for the accommodations and comforts of its future inhabitants. Miracles, then, were merely the scaffolding employed in building up the church of Christ; and those members of the church who stand most prominently before us, were simply workmen, honoured by their employment. But were "all apostles? all prophets? all teachers? all workers of miracles?" St. Paul himself asks these questions to show the Corinthians, that, as they did not all sustain these distinguished offices, it was clear that such honours were not essential to their individual good; while there were privileges of a more general interest, and constituting a permanent blessedness for the Church; and these he urged them to "covet earnestly as the best gifts." And, to lead them to this, he proceeded to point out the

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more excellent way," when he enlarged on the beauty of personal and practical religion, in the different amplifications of love.

The apostolic epistles lead us directly into the interior of God's spiritual house, the

Church; and show us the internal accommodations which were intended to be the

lasting privileges and enjoyments of all the members of the household. And, as by carefully reading the epistles, we best understand what were the great blessings of Christianity, most fully enjoyed in its earliest days; but at the same time find no restrictions, which in the least limited those blessings to its first days, we must conclude that, like its Divine -Author, the Gospel is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

As the consequence of not searching the Scriptures, perhaps no prominent blessing of the Gospel has been more misunderstood, than the doctrine of FORGIVENESS as a present privilege; as one to be now enjoyed in the most satisfactory consciousness that it has actually taken place, with everyone who fully relies on the atonement; as one felt in that serenity of soul which evidences "peace with God," which only could arise from this point; one seen in those "fruits of the Spirit," which only could be produced in that freedom of soul and enlargement of heart in which we