theless, it is a strong sense of the evil of sin, and exalted sentiments of the holiness of God, which effectually remove all hard thoughts and unworthy reflections concerning the goodness of God, and his justice in the punishment of sinners. And those whose experience in the Christian life has not in some measure taught them this truth, must have made poor advances towards the character of the "new creature in Christ Jesus:" for it is the great characteristic of the "new creature,' that he not only submits without a murmur to the Divine will, in its declarations of vengeance against sin, but he also loves and admires that holiness and purity which is the foundation of those declarations, and without which the dignity and excellence and perfections of the Divine character could not be supported.

My desire is to be thoroughly understood in a matter where I conceive the whole of practical religion to be so much concerned. For this purpose I endeavour to bring the important subject of the "new creature" to a point, by observing, that, from what has been said, it appears to consist very much in two things: 1st, The judgment which a man forms of his own condition by na

ture; and, 2dly, His ideas of the Divine government in relation to himself and his fellow-creatures.

I will suppose a man faithfully to receive the Scriptures as the word of God, and to make their contents the rule of his belief. He there finds that all the world is pronounced guilty before God; that the wages of sin is eternal death; but that, nevertheless, the gift of eternal life is proclaimed through Jesus Christ, who came to save sinners, and to empower his Apostles to preach repentance towards God and faith in his Son, for the redemption of sinners. Now the language of a mere nominal Christian, if you have an opportunity of reaching his real sentiments, is of this sort: "I cannot but acknowledge that I have faults and imperfections; but I should not have suspected that any defects, or even vices, of which I have been guilty, could have merited eternal death. I thank God, however, that there is a Saviour; and I hope for God's mercy in the world to come." Among the millions who tread this globe, I doubt not but there may be many shades of difference in the sentiments of professiug Christians; but long experience has convinced me

that the ideas of great numbers amount to no more than this.

Now mark the distinction between the mere professor of Christ's religion, and the new creature in Christ Jesus, after whose character we are now inquiring. His heart is brought to approve the Divine sentence of condemnation. His sense of the evil of sin is so great, that, with holy Job, he abhors himself in dust and ashes, and pronounces himself vile, and lays his hand on his mouth in deep conviction of sin. He does not merely say, "There is no health in us," but be feels that it is so, he knows that is so, by watching the workings of his own heart and the devices which it is continually inventing. Daily hungering and thirsting after righteousness, he "fights the good fight" against all the evil tendencies of his nature; but it is his grief that the contest should often prove so difficult, and that sin should strive with so much efficacy to preserve its dominion. Yet he has not the smallest wish that the holy Law of God should be relaxed one jot or tittle. His prayer is, that he may obey God's commandments with effect, and be preserved unspotted from a wicked world.

He loves the Lord his God with

all his soul, and all his strength; never indulges hard thoughts of God's government; nor, when such thoughts arise, ever wishes to palliate any one breach of his commandments. The fact is, he is a man, a rational being, precisely of the same composition as before he became the new creature. It is his taste that is changed; new principles of action now influence the very same faculties of understanding and will and affections.

The scriptural account of all holy men entirely accords with this statement. Examine and reflect on the difference between St. Paul as a persecuting Jew in his natural state of ignorance and alienation from God, and St. Paul as an eminent servant of God, labouring in Christ's vineyard, eternal life in the

and bringing forth fruit unto character of a new creature.

His great talents

and learning, his ardent and affectionate temper, were the very same before and after his conversion; but he becomes a new man from the moment he was in Christ Jesus; and he constantly impressed the great truth of my text, that "if any man be in Christ, he must be a new creature." It was the taste, the spiritual taste, of this great man that was changed. A mere conviction that "Jesus

was the Christ," would not have produced the effect. We know that among the pharisees there were many that believed in Christ—that is, they believed he was the Messiah that was to come into the world-but this belief did not make them new creatures, any more than a mere belief of the truth of the Gospel history does now and we may learn from this instance, that to be in Christ, and to be called the new creature in Christ, implies something very materially different from a mere profession of Christianity.

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It is very true, that in the case of St. Paul a splendid miracle was wrought, to qualify him for the great service to which he was called; and, as far as direct inspiration and new revelation were concerned, his case differs from the case of ourselves, who are not called to such extraordinary and eminent services: but remember, the spiritual taste of which I speak, the change wrought in the heart of St. Paul, which gave him a real relish for Divine things, and a thorough approbation of the salvation by Jesus Christ, was wrought by the grace of God; and the same thing is the promise of God, and the gift of God, in all ages and seasons. "He that cometh to me," says the Divine Sa