evidently set forth, crucified among you?" Gal. iii. 1. "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel," Gal. i. 6. He then sets forth the excellencies of the liberty which Christ hath given them; and, amongst other convincing arguments, points out that the freedom of Christian days is to be seen in the lives of the patriarchs, whose actions had been so ordered as to be types of that which was to come. Mount Sinai, he declares, was the mountain of slavery and spiritual bondage, on whose summit Moses had received the law of carnal ordinances, which only brought into the world a knowledge of sin, and lodged a curse on the heads of men. With this mountain of slavery he finds an analogy in Agar, who, being a slave, gave her son to her master Abraham, which son was born after the flesh; but Isaac, Abraham's wedlock-son, was born after the Spirit, that is, by faith and hope; for his mother, who was a free woman, was very aged at his birth, and his father was a hundred years old: they had therefore no hope of children, but God promised them a son, and his promise came true by the birth of Isaac. The child of faith, then, and of hope, was the child of a free woman; but the child born after the desire of the flesh was the son of a slave: so that St. Paul concludes this argument, by saying, "Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." It shall therefore be my task to explain to you this Jerusalem and her freedom.

We must understand St. Paul here to speak of the church; and not of the church triumphant in heaven, as some of the schoolmen, no friends to Christian liberty, have asserted, but the church militant here on earth, that glorious edifice of the faithful, whose names are written in the book of life, and who are united with Christ above in a fellowship of his sufferings. But the word "above" is not to mislead you, as Luther has well observed; for all the processes of spiritual generation and adoption are from above; all intercourse between God and his faithful worshippers is from above; and "our conversation is in heaven;" and they that are Christians have nothing in this world but a daily sense of trial and mortification; they wish to be let loose and be with Christ; to them death is gain, and they cry out frequently, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Their hearts are in heaven, and heaven is in their hearts; the Holy Spirit has given them proofs of their adoption; and they, knowing that they are "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ," sigh to take possession of their splendid fortune

in heaven, from which the barrier only of this mortal flesh keeps them asunder: and behind this barrier they sigh, viewing with an anxious mind the splendours of that kingdom of which they are already free citizens and chartered inhabitants.

But the very beginnings of this birthright and adoption are all from above; for Christ, the Head of the church, and the crowned King of the New Jerusalem, has said, "Verily, verily, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," John iii. 3. Now the word " again," in this text, would have been more correctly translated "from above," (avw0ev,) for the Greek word is the same as that which in the text of this discourse is translated "above," (ανω); "Jerusalem which is above is free:" so that our birth into the kingdom of God is from above; and when the regeneration has taken place, according to God's free grace and predeterminate counsel, then does the believer become incorporate into the supernal Jerusalem, that he should be no longer "a stranger and a foreigner, but a fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone," Eph. ii. 19, 20.

All then that are allowed to see the kingdom of God, are to be born from above: this is the decree of the Head of the church. The old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, is to be put off, as the snakes cast off their old skin; and the new man is to be put on, which "after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." This is the mysterious process of the new birth that opens the gates of the free Jerusalem, the mother of all those who have become constituent parts of Christ's mystical body; for the sinner, being then cleansed and purified by the blood of Christ, and made a new creature before God by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, is admitted into the church, becomes a citizen of the splendid city, has a full right and title to all its privileges and immunities, takes his seat amongst the saints, and by the Spirit of Christ is free from the law of sin and of death. Hence St. Paul says, "If Christ be in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Christ's righteousness imputed to him has killed the body of sin, and brought into action the principle of the new life, which in many ways imparts a sense of liberty that none but Christ's Spirit can possibly impart.

Ye then, whom God's grace has called to turn unto your heavenly Father for pardon and remission ofsins-ye, who no longer stand afar off trembling and amazed at the sight of your crucified Saviour, but have come near and have tasted and seen how gracious the Lord is,-who

have felt that God can pardon and has pardoned even such sinners as you, in respect of the merits of his dear Son,-rejoice before the Lord for this his unspeakable kindness; and in your own hearts, as you are communing with God in secret, be proud of your charter, exult in it greatly, and make much of it; for nothing that this world can give is at all to be compared to the freedom and the high hopes which Christ's Spirit supplieth. For his Spirit teacheth us our adoption, it tells us that we are all one body, and makes us thoroughly comprehend those words of St. Paul, (which to the outcasts and outlaws of the kingdom appear mere poetry,)" We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," Eph. v. 30. And so, having given us to understand these words, his Spirit makes us rejoice in the Head of the body, and look up to it, as that which is to guide the whole, and every part of the whole; for "He is the Head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell," Col. i. 18.

As Christ therefore is in heaven, and as he is Head of the church, so is the church spiritually in heaven, even whilst she is militant here below; for the church is an unmeasured edifice, and never can be measured till some one by searching can find out the limits of the Almighty: "It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know?" The Head of the church is at the right hand of God; the feet are walking here on earth: and yet one mighty eternal Spirit animates the whole, one will and principle of action pervades the immense body; one thought and intention directs and disciplines all the mass; for in Him "we live, and move, and have our being; and the whole company of true and faithful believers, from the day that Christ was crucified, down to the hour when the last trumpet shall sound from heaven, do form but one mystical body, with one soul and one spirit, entire in union and perfect in cooperation. Endless are the comforts of this union, unspeakable are its benefits: it brings down the length of time to a small span, it makes a thousand years but as yesterday, and diminishes a century into an hour; for as Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," and as the Spirit of God never changes, but is always uniform in grace and truth, it enables us to hold converse, even in these days, with the saints and martyrs of old ;-for beholding a true servant of God, who is evidently led by the Holy Spirit in his thoughts and actions, and seeing in him an increase of grace and holiness, we then behold a follower of Christ, we then see one who walked with him in Galilee, who listened to him on the Mount of Olives, and groaned with him

on Mount Calvary. Why will idle and superstitious persons be raking amongst the ruins of church history, to discover all the little matters of the primitive Christians? Why will they go so far back to discover that which after all they never can discover; and why will they so toil at the thankless task of bringing forth these old traditions to light, which have nothing to do with the simplicity of Christ? -for, "the kingdom of God cometh not by observation, it is within you ;" and every one in these days,—however poor or mean his condition, if he be joined to the body of true believers, if he worship God in spirit and in truth, entirely relying on Christ with a firm faith, and shewing forth his faith by a sanctified and holy life,—is to all intents and purposes a primitive Christian, as noble as the Bereans, and more noble than the Galatians who had renounced the privileges of the free Jerusalem to return to the bondage of beggarly elements. Talk not then of Pothinus, and Hegisippus, and Melito, and Justin Martyr; for these were all weak and fallible men, who, though they lived very near the times of Christ's appearance in the flesh, yet have no more claim to our reverence than their faith and trust in Jesus can demand; and some of these celebrated names wrote idle things and vain dreams which cannot now be received, and of their lives we do not know enough to judge of their sincerity and their real sanctification. But, if you must busy yourself about antiquity, search into the history of the Spirit of Christ, which spake by the prophets, and inspired God's servant, the holy Job, sixteen hundred years before the birth of Christ in the flesh, and therefore more than three thousand four hundred years before these days in which we live. Here, if you please, ponder deeply; here search with diligence; for in this search you must be constrained to dive deep into the treasures of Scripture: the Bible, the Bible is the only record of the Spirit of Christ; no other history in the world tells you any thing of this crowning subject; it is the ocean of spiritual knowledge, in whose depths are concealed gems and pearls which none but able divers can bring to light, and those only who are guided in their search by the Spirit of God.

Be not then ashamed to say with David, "Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O Lord:" for these are the depths of humility, and that is the abyss of repentance; and if for a season you stay there, seeking for the hidden treasure, you shall arise with the jewel in your bosom, you shall walk the waves with Christ, he shall guide you to the ark that floateth safely on the waters, and he shall sail with you into the haven of your rest, even into the harbour of the free Jerusalem.

But the beauty of this city is her freedom: the real church of

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Christ has ample privileges; and all her laws are comprehensive and liberal. There is no spirit of bigotry, no local attachments, no exclusive jealousy, no straining on the conscience, no turning of the fancies of man into the decrees of God. St. Paul, the illustrious scribe of that holy city, lays no heavier burthen on the chartered inhabitants than this" Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage," Gal. v. 1. How easy, one would think it must be, to love the freedom which God has given us! But, alas! that which has been given us as our freedom by God, has been, by the world in general, considered irksome and intolerable. The world cannot endure a spiritual church; it loves neither a spiritual worship nor a spiritual faith; and to worship God in spirit is what it can neither understand nor tolerate. At the crucifixion of our Saviour, the veil of the temple was rent in twain; and by that rent the whole system of the carnal church was entirely abrogated and finished. And that there might be no doubt of it, the Saviour himself cried out, “ It is finished!" by which memorable words he proclaimed the entire termination of all types of the law, of all ceremonies, and of every part of religion that depends on the senses. By that word of command, he disbanded the whole company of priests and Levites: all those numerous mediators between God and man were dismissed and declared useless; not one of them remained; but all became absorbed in the body of Christ, who is the one Mediator between God and man, the one eternal High-Priest over the house of God, who, through the veil of his flesh, has opened a new and living way, free for the approach of all those whom the Father draws towards the covenant of grace. And all those whom the Father does so draw become priests of the new covenant, because they become united indissolubly with our High-Priest, Christ, and are therefore called by St. Peter, "lively stones of the church, built up as a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ," 1 Pet. ii. 5. Every faithful Christian, then, is one of the caste of the spiritual priesthood; he is one of "the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people," 1 Pet. ii. 9. He can go in and out of the sanctuary before God, to present his body cleansed by the blood of Christ, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is his reasonable service, 1 Pet. xii. 1; and he thus fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah, "Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord; men shall call you the ministers of our God," Is. lxi. 6. But this is what the world cannot away with: it delights to walk in those paths wherein it may be entangled again with the yoke of