drive you to Christ; to take him for your Lord as well as for your Saviour if he be not both, he is neither unto you. (2 Peter i. 11; ii. 20.) You cannot be saved by your book, could you read it and understand it never so well, unless you practise it also. "Christ must be in you," his Spirit entertained in your heart, or there is no "hope of glory" for you. (Col. i. 27.) All "good hope" is "through grace." (2 Thess. ii. 16.) Thou flatterest thyself that God is thy Father, and so thou callest him in thy prayers; but if thou beest [art] not like him, if thou partakest not of his "Divine Nature," (2 Peter i. 4,) thou takest his "name in vain," and he "will not hold thee guiltless;" for thy prayers will be turned into sin unto thee. (Psalm cix. 7.) And yet pray thou must, or thou runnest into a greater iniquity; by neglecting to acknowledge thy dependence upon God, thou wilt at least border upon atheism. O what a miserable dilemma does thy wickedness betray thee unto!

If thou hadst a design to dishonour God, thou couldest not more effectually execute it than by saying, that thou art his servant or child, and by sin to disparage him thy Father, or Lord and Master: as he must needs provoke any great and noble person, who, in the livery of his servant, or garb of his child, acts filthiness and abominations.

And as for laying hold on Christ, and shrouding of thyself amongst his retinue, calling him thy Husband, or professing him to be thy Head, what a monster (pardon the expression, I tremble to mention it) wouldst [thou] make him! as if he were a Dagon, whose head was like a man, but his lower parts like stinking fish. The truth is, the pretensions of such unto salvation would make scripture a lie, and Christ the minister of unrighteousness; which God forbid. (Gal. ii. 17, 21.)

Dost thou think it will serve thy turn well enough, if thou canst but with Stephen say at last, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit?" (Acts vii. 59.) Unless thy spirit be sanctified, and [thy] sins washed away in his blood, thou wilt now soon hear him say unto thee, "Depart, thou cursed, into everlasting fire." (Matt. xxv. 41.)

Men, brethren, and fathers, hear our apology: if we be taxed, because we maintain free grace and free justification, that we make a way for free sinning, and free living, and doing what we please, and yet getting thus into heaven at last, and that we may be assured of it in the mean while; we justly abominate such inferences, and think they can least of all be inferred from such premisses. May we all agree to stand up for God, and to oppose sin to our utmost! which is the last and only use that remains, and the best and suitablest to the text that can be made.

To depart from iniquity.-It is foretold concerning the times of the gospel, that "in the latter days" they should "fear the Lord and his goodness." (Hosea iii. 5.) O that these words might be now fulfilled! that men would fear to abuse "the goodness of God," which is designed to "lead them to repentance." (Rom. ii. 4.) The

richest and sweetest wines, they say, make the sharpest vinegar; I am sure, sweetest promises, when neglected or abused, issue in the severest torments: "Woe to thee, Chorazin! woe to thee, Bethsaida!". Why is so sad a woe denounced, beyond that on Tyre and Sidon? And Capernaum too is threatened with a more terrible destruction than that of Sodom and Gomorrah: because those miserable ones perished without having had the means of salvation declared in the gospel amongst them; these refused to come to be saved, though invited by Christ himself. (Matt. xi. 21-24.) The hotter the sunbeams are, the more they harden the clay that will not be softened by it.

If you keep your sins now, you do "despite unto the Spirit of grace," that in the gospel invites, persuades, and offers to enable you to forsake them: you trample "under foot the precious blood of the Son of God," which should wash you from all your impurities; you count it as a common thing, and let it be spilt in vain, as water on the ground. (Heb. x. 29; 1 Peter i. 19.) One brings-in Satan upbraiding our Saviour with the fewness of his followers, and true disciples: he (Satan) did never any good for man, he is man's enemy on all accounts; and yet, upon the offer of any foolish toy, profit, or pleasure, he is obeyed, and men yield themselves up to his service, though so hard and tyrannical a master. Our blessed Lord became man, lived meanly, died miserably, that he might gain obedience to such just precepts and commandments that are for our good, and yet hath so very few that will serve and obey him. "Be astonished, O ye heavens." (Jer. ii. 12.) Therefore "Christ died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living." (Rom. xiv. 9.) "All things are put under his feet; " (1 Cor. xv. 27; Eph. i. 22;) and "by his power he ruleth" over all, (Psalm lxvi. 7,) whether they will or no. But Christ died and suffered that he might obtain a "willing people," such as out of choice and love would obey him. (Psalm ex. 3.)

And do any of you pretend to be "bought "with the precious blood of the Son of God?"

with a price," even Then you ought to

glorify him with those bodies and spirits which are his. (1 Cor. vi. 20; vii. 23; 1 Peter i. 19.)

It is now sacrilege indeed to rob God; and he will bring thee into judgment, and indict thee, ay, and condemn thee too, without serious and timely repentance, for it. And, O how hot is that hell which is especially prepared for hypocrites and unbelievers!

Thy obligation is as strict, and, as you heard, stricter too, under the gospel, than it was to any under the law; and yet the transgressors of the law deserved then to perish "without mercy;" (Heb. x. 28;) and how shall we escape?

One difference there is indeed betwixt the law and the gospel: the law required the full "tale of brick," but afforded "no straw;" (Exod. v. 18;) it required obedience, but the law, as such, afforded no means to perform it. The means how thou mayest be enabled to do the will of God, and to depart from iniquity, are manifested in the

gospel; here thou art shown a "fulness" in Christ, out of which thou mayest have "grace for grace." (Col. i. 19; John i. 16.)

Thou art invited to come, thou art assured to be welcome; bring never so many empty vessels, thou mayest fill them freely. (Isai. lv. 1.) It is in vain to say thou canst not, but thou wilt not, be holy. Did any now, in a sense of their weakness and inability, beg strength and power from him to do his will, and walk in his commandments, there would be "joy in heaven" for such a petition, so readily would it be heard and granted. (Luke xv. 7, 10.)

You have heard, that every one that calls himself a Christian does it therefore, because he pretends to be married to Jesus Christ; but, in good earnest, to use the words of Rebekah's friends, "Wilt thou go with this man?" (Gen. xxiv. 58.) Wilt thou go with Christ, and be a follower of him? 66 Say, and do it ;"* and God speed thee well: I cannot wish thee more joy than thou wilt find.

And O what advantages would this bring, would Christians be what they profess and would seem to be! were the precepts of Christ obeyed, and his life copied out by them, this would mend the world indeed. Pagans and Mahometans, Papists and Jews, would not be able to stand out against the power of godliness, when it once appears in the lives of men. Not only ministers may convert, but even women too: thus the husband, the apostle tells us, (1 Peter iii. 1,) may be gained to Christ by his wife; thus a servant, that does his service as to the Lord, may convert his master.

O! up and be doing; "your labour shall not be in vain ; " (1 Cor. xv. 58;) no, but "great shall be your "reward in heaven," when you shall be taken up to "shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars, for ever and ever.” (Dan. xii. 3.)

But if you shall neglect or refuse, my soul shall mourn in secret for you, as knowing that the crying, "Lord, Lord," (Matt. xxv. 11,) will not avail you, nor any confident profession of Christ's name stand you in any stead. When the deluge came, how many perishing wretches ran to the ark, and laid hold on it, cried earnestly for to be admitted into it, but in vain! You know whom the ark represented, even this Christ, in whom alone is salvation. O get into him, by a true and living faith; and that to-day, "whilst it is called To-day," (Heb. iii. 13,) lest "swift destruction" come upon you. (2 Peter ii. 1.) May we all so know and consider "the terrors of the Lord," that we may be persuaded! (2 Cor. v. 11.)

• Fac quod dicis, et fides est. "Do what thou sayest, and it is faith."-EDIT.

SERMON VI.

BY THE REV. VINCENT ALSOP, A.M.

OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

WHAT IS THAT FULNESS OF GOD EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO PRAY AND STRIVE TO BE FILLED WITH?

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.-Ephesians iii. 19.

Γνώναι τε την ύπερβαλλουσαν της γνωσεως αγαπην του Χριστου, ἵνα πληρώθητε εις παν το πλήρωμα του Θεου.

THESE words are a considerable part of that excellent prayer put up to God by the apostle for his beloved Ephesians. (From verse 16 to the end.) And indeed prayer was his tried engine, by which he always could bring down supplies of grace from "the God of all grace," for his own and the souls of others. In this branch of it, you will easily observe, he prays for grace the end, and grace the mean to reach that end.

1. He prays for grace the end: "That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." This, being the utmost of the soul's perfection, ought to be the height of its ambition: beyond this we cannot reach, and therefore in the attainment of this we must rest.

2. He prays for grace the mean to compass that end: namely, "To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." As we grow up into a greater measure of the knowledge of the love of Christ to us, we shall enjoy more of the fulness of God in us.

"To

But here we meet, in each of these parts of the text, with an evavтio aves, or "a seeming contradiction" in the terms. know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge," what is that, but to know what is unknowable? And to "be filled with all the fulness of God,"-what is that, but to comprehend what is incomprehensible? The narrow vessel of our heart can no more contain the boundless and bottomless ocean of the Divine fulness, than our weak intellectual eye can drink-in the glorious light of that knowledge. And yet there are many such expressions in the holy scripture. Thus Moses "saw him that was invisible," Tov aорaτov оpwv. (Heb. xi. 27.) He saw him by the eye of faith in the glass of revelation, whom he could not see by the eye of reason in the glass of creation. And thus we are instructed in the gospel, how to approach that God who is unapproachable; (1 Tim. vi. 16;) to approach that God by Jesus Christ according to the terms of the new covenant, to whom, considered absolutely in himself, we could never approach.

Let us, therefore, first clear and remove the obscurity of the phrases, that we may more comfortably handle the divine matter con

tained in them; always taking along with us this useful caution,— that we run not away with a swelling metaphor, and from thence form in our minds rude, undigested notions of spiritual things; nor fancy we see miracles, when we should content ourselves with marvels.

I. The former of these seeming repugnances is, "To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."-If this love of Christ passeth knowledge, why do we pray, why should we strive, to know it? If it be our duty to pray that we may know it, how is it supposed to pass knowledge? Must we endeavour to reach that which is above all heights? to fathom that which is an abyss, and has no bottom? or to take the dimensions of that which is unmeasurable?

To remove this difficulty, there have been many expedients found

out.

1. Some carry the sense thus: "To know the love of Christ, which passeth, or surpasseth, the knowledge of all other things." There is an excellency, an usefulness in the knowledge of Christ's love, which is not to be found in the knowledge of any thing else. A man may know, to his own pride, to the admiration of others; he may have the knowledge of all tongues and languages, may understand all arts and sciences, may dive deep into the secrets of nature, may be profound in worldly policies, may have the theory of all religions, true and false; and yet, when he comes to cast up his accounts, shall find himself never the better, never the holier, indeed never the wiser, never the nearer satisfaction, till he can reach this blessed knowledge of the love of Christ.

Only the excellency of the knowledge of the love of Christ consists herein :

(1.) It must be a knowledge of Christ's love by way of appropriation to know, with the apostle, that "he loved me, and gave himself for me." (Gal. ii. 20.)

(2.) By way of efficacious operation: that he "loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." (Rev. i. 5.)

(3.) By way of reflexion: that his love has kindled a mutual love in our souls to him: "We love him, because he first loved us.' (1 John iv. 19.)

(4.) By way of practical subjection: when his love subdues our hearts to himself, and constrains us to new obedience: "The love of Christ constraineth us; (2 Cor. v. 14;) it restrains us from sinning against him, and engages us to obey him. To know, that we may

know, and make knowledge the end of itself, is nothing but vain curiosity; to know, that we may be known, is nothing but vainglorious arrogancy; to know, that we may make others know, is indeed an edifying charity; but to know, that we may be transformed into the image and likeness of what we know of the love of Christ,— this is the true, the excellent, the transcendent way of knowledge. And this was that knowledge of Christ and of his love which the apostle set such a price upon, when he "determined not to know any thing, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" (1 Cor. ii. 2;) that he