Certain circumstances peculiar to yourselves, have constrained your preachers frequently to inculcate the doctrine of the efficacy of divine grace, and of the sentiment which it impresses on the heart. This doctrine has sometimes been misunderstood. Some have considered certain rapturous emotions, excited in the souls of a few highly favoured Christians, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as the essential character of Christianity. It has been erronously supposed, that to be destitute of these was to be abandoned of God. Hence have arisen those gloomy and desponding ideas which weak minds form respecting their own state, especially at those seasons when the Lord's Supper is administered. The books generally read, as a preparation for participating in this solemn service, tell us, that it is at the table of the Lord, in a particular manner, the communicant experiences those communications of the fulness of joy, Ps. xvi. 11. that joy unspeakable and full of glory, 1 Pet. i. 8. that peace of God which passeth all understanding, Phil. iv. 7. that white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it," Rev. ii. 17. that anticipated resurrection, that heaven upon earth.

What has been written on this subject is liable to misconception on the part of the reader, as it may have been expressed with too much precision by the composer of such manuals of devotion. Hence it comes to pass, that real Christians, who, notwithstanding the imperfection which cleaves to their best services, have most sincerely devoted the remainder of life to God, are haunted with the apprehension

of having communicated unworthily, because they are not conscious of having felt, at the Lord's table, all those effects of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

To Christians of this description it is, that I address my first advice, That they distinguish the degrees of that disposition of mind of which our apostle speaks in the text. A man may be quickened, may be raised up, may be made to sit together with Christ Jesus, in heavenly places, without having all the joy which results from this blessed state. The most infallible mark of our being made partakers in the exaltation of the Lord Jesus, is our striving in good earnest, to fulfil the conditions under which that participation is promised us. Let us fortify ourselves in this disposition of mind, and wait patiently till it shall please God to smoothe the difficulties which we encounter in this work, by the pleasure derived from a consciousness of having surmounted them in part, and by the assurance which we have of at length surmounting them altogether.

2. The second advice which I presume to suggest is this, Be on your guard against the love of the marvellous. It is far from being impossible that a man should confound the effects of an imagination heated by its own visionary workings, with those which the Holy Spirit produces in a soul of which he has taken entire possession. A person animated by the Spirit of God, can easily distinguish his state from that of an enthusiast: but the enthusiast cannot always distinguish his state from that of one animated by the Spirit of God. In general, the road

of discussion is incomparably more sure and direct to reach the conscience, and to form a right judgment of it, than the road of feeling. I know that there are certain feelings superior to discussion. I know that the Holy Spirit sometimes diffuses his influence through the soul, in such abundance, with so much fervour, with so much activity, that it is not possible the persons thus highly favoured should be ignorant that they are the objects of his tenderest and most particular care. But in order to our being warranted to promise ourselves such communica→ tions, the practice of piety must have been carried farther, beyond all comparison, than is commonly the case with most of those who flatter themselves that they have been favoured with singular communications of the Spirit. And, once more, the method of discussion is by much the surer, to arrive at a true judgment of the real dispositions of the conscience, than the test of feeling; in which the temperament, or the imagination have frequently a larger share than real illumination.

Weigh in the balance the proofs on which the ideas you have formed of yourselves are founded. Compare your thoughts, your words, your actions, with the august rules and decisions which God has laid down in his holy word. Regulate your hopes and your fears, according to the characters which you may have discovered in yourselves, after you have studied the subject in this manner. So much for the second advice, which I thought it of importance to suggest.

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3. Permit me to subjoin a third. tence of guarding against the reveries of the enthusiast, and against the love of the marvellous, presume not to call in question certain extraordinary operations of the Holy Spirit, and neglect not the means of obtaining them. Dispute not with saints of a superior order, what they know by experience to be real. Presume not to establish that measure of grace which you may have received, as the standard for determining that which God is pleased to grant to persons more devoted than you are to his service. Form not your judgment from the pleasure which you may at present derive from religion, of that which you may hereafter enjoy, when religion shall have acquired a more powerful influence over your heart. Be not discouraged by the dryness and discomfort which you may now find in the practice of virtue; in time you will experience it to be a perennial source of delight. This is my third advice.

Having premised these necessary precautions, let us attempt to justify the idea which is here given us of the Christian. Let us place in contrast, the condition in which he was, previous to his being converted to Christianity, and that which he has attained in virtue of his having become a Christian. Before he embraced the religion of Jesus Christ, he was dead in trespasses and sins. This is a figurative expression, denoting, that sinners are as incapable of themselves, to shake off the dominion of sin, and the misery inseparable from it, as a dead person is to defend himself against corruption, and to restore his own life. But by becoming a Christian, the believer

is, through the mercy of God, not only set free from the dominion of sin, but is put in possession of the highest recompence of reward that justice ever bestowed on the most perfect virtue which ever existed, namely, that of Jesus Christ.

If" never man spake like this man," John vii. 46. never man lived and acted like this man. Accordingly, never was there a man exalted to such a height of felicity and glory. Now to this very height of felicity and glory the grace of God exalts the Christian. How? In more ways than we are able to indicate, in the time now left us. I satisfy myself with pointing out three of these. The believer is "quickened, he is raised up, he is made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

I. By the proofs which assure him of the exaltation of Jesus Christ.

II. By the means supplied to satisfy him that he is fulfilling the conditions under which he may promise himself, that he shall become a partaker of that exaltation.

III. By the forestate which he now enjoys of it on the earth.

I. By the proofs which assure him of the exaltation of Jesus Christ. It is not necessary here to detail them in their full extent. This has been already done on former occasions.* We have shewn you, that, in support of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, (and the same reasonings apply, with

* Consult the Sermon on Christ's Resurrection, the eighth of Vol. II. of Mr. Robinson's Selection, and Sermon V. of this volume, page 154, &c.