voice of severity and condemnation. As the thunders and lightnings of Mount Sinai were but one particular instance of those general tempests which so often rage in the natural world, so the denunciations of Mount Sinai were but a particular expression of the general truth which nature is continually uttering" God is a consuming fire." Even the seeming exceptions prove this. Even the temporary delays of punishment confirm this. Even the letting sinners have their own way for a season, only brings upon them more effectually and extensively the misery which is annexed to Sin. Punishment may let the Sinner get for a time the start, but with dogged pertinacity does it track his steps, and inevitably springs upon him at last. "The Lord is known by the judgment that He executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands."

And O then, blessed be God, that "having in times past spoken to the Fathers by the Prophets, he at last has spoken unto us by his Son!"* Blessed be God that "the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true, yea, may be in him that is true”enter into union and communion with the unseen Father through his Son Jesus Christ!" +

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No

longer need we now cry "Show us the Father," for "he that hath seen Jesus hath seen the Father.‡ No John xiv. 9.

* Heb. i. 1, 2.

† 1 John v. 20.

longer need we fear and doubt about the Father's infinite compassion to every returning penitent,for this compassion Christ has manifested, by accumulated proofs, in every possible way; - by his teaching, by his character, by his words and deeds of never-wearied pity, and above all, by his sacrificial and vicarious death. "In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins."* "For, scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet, peradventure, for a good man some would even dare to die; but God commendeth his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us !” †

CHAPTER V.

SPIRITUAL REGENERATION.

THE object of Revelation is to meet the fallen condition of mankind in all its extent, and to bring back the soul in all its exercises, to God. It applies itself, therefore, to the heart, to remove its natural Indifference to God; and to the Understanding to dispel its natural Ignorance concerning God; but it stops not here, for this alone would leave untouched the main-spring of our nature, the deep and influential Will. This, alas! is naturally averse to God. It grows up in us as a will "of the flesh," and therefore cannot but be contrary to Him who is Spirit, for "the flesh lusteth always against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." And consequently all Attention to God's truth, and Acquaintance with his character, will but deepen our Aversion to Him, because it heightens our perception of the natural contrariety which exists between us; unless there come the inflences of his Spirit to subdue that natural opposition and, by the seed of the Divine Word, to beget in us a love of God as our Father, and a will entirely de

voted to Him as our Friend. "That which is born of the flesh," says Jesus, "is flesh;" and that only "which is born of the Spirit is spirit; and, therefore, marvel not that I say unto you, ye must be born again."

New birth, then, or Regeneration, or, as it is elsewhere called, Repentance, or change of mind towards God and Conversion, or returning back into allegiance to Him that inward revolution. of the moving powers of man which makes him thenceforth love what had been irksome to him, and give himself to what he had avoided — this is the topic which now demands our serious meditation. May God enable us to derive from it personal improvement !

It will be my endeavour to show First, the Nature of that Regeneration which I have just mentioned; Secondly the Necessity of our personal experience of it in order to Christian Piety; and Thirdly the Means by which it is developed in the soul.

SECTION I.

THE NATURE OF SPIRITUAL REGENERATION.

REGENERATION, in the sense which we are now considering, is The awakening in the soul, of new sentiments and dispositions, and therewith new purposes, towards God. Of this we have sufficient evi

dence in the First Epistle of St. Peter, chapter i. 14-25. For in this passage we find the Apostle, first, reminding the Converts of the Dispersion of their "former lusts according to which they fashioned themselves when ignorant of God," that is, of the tendencies and dispositions of the inward will, by which their outward character had been formed. Then, he admonishes them that they had been called to an entirely different state of mind and character even to be holy as God himself is holy. Then, he tells them that in obeying this call they had "purified their souls through the Spirit," - they had cleansed their inward man, "their souls," by spiritual influence, not merely their outward man, their bodies, by ceremonial washing.* By which the Apostle means, as the twenty-first verse clearly shows, that they had cleared their minds of those turbid passions of dislike and fear of God, which were necessarily connected with the dominion of their former lusts, (for whosoever is living contrary to God cannot like God,) and had admitted new and purer feel

* The same implied antithesis we have in Acts xv. 9. where St. Peter contends in opposition to those who demanded that the Gentile converts should go through the ceremonial purifications and the bodily circumcision of the law, that God had already purified their hearts by faith." See also 1 Peter iii. 21, where the antithesis is expressed.

K