of justification by faith, seems to argue thus, if Abraham were justified by works he would have whereof to glory;' but we have before shewn that every ground of boasting is excluded; (verse 27,) wherefore Abraham was not justified by works, but by faith, as the following verses shew. Verse 4. "To him that worketh;" If justification were obtained by working, that is by obedience to the law, it would be a debt due to him, and not a favour granted. Verse 5. "But to him that worketh not," &c.; to him that seeks to be justified not by works of righteousness of his own doing, but by faith in him who justifies the sinner for Christ's sake, he, as Abraham, finds himself graciously accounted righteous by God through faith. REGENERATION COMPARED WITH SANCTIFICATION. REGENERATION is the birth, Sanctification is the growth of this babe of grace; in Regeneration the sun of holiness rises, in Sanctification it keepeth its course and shineth more and more unto the perfect day, Prov. iv. 18. The former is a special change from nature to grace, Ephes. v. 8. The latter is a gradual change from one degree of grace to another, Psalm lxxxiv. 7, whereby the Christian goes from strength to strength till he appear before God in Sion. As creation and preservation differ, so do conversion and sanctification; creation is the production of something out of nothing, preservation is a continued creation, or creation every moment in a new edition. Conversion is a new creation, 2 Cor. v. 17, the making of a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, Sanctification is a continued conversion every moment, in a newer and more correct edition.-Swinnock. HID IN CHRIST. HID in Christ! oh, who can wonder Shelter'd from the Law's loud thunder Rolling down from Sinai's height: What a hiding place is this! Hid in Christ! the rock once riven, Hid in Christ! oh, glorious mansion; Hid in Christ! my precious portion, And her most intense desire: Her life and light, and joy and peace, Should the sun be set for ever, Me from Christ, my all in all: Safe, Incarnate God, in thee! Oh, the blessedness to be My infinite felicity! REV. H. A. SIMCOE, (Penheale-Press) Cornwall. M. F. EXTRACT FROM A SERMON, PREACHED ON THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH KNIGHT, JULY 26, 1807. * Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through our * THIS passage was selected by herself. Addressing the Clergyman who attended her, under whose ministry she had long sat, she said, ‘if you should feel inclined to encourage poor trembling sinners from what the Lord has done for such a weak sinful creature as I am, you know what has been my motto in life, and the same is the language of my heart in death; and on this subject address the people after my decease, "Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." The person to whom I allude is Elizabeth Knight, a name not enrolled amongst the great, the rich, or the renowned in this world's estimation, but written in the Lamb's book of life; little known among men, but known and loved of God; a stranger upon earth, but D one whose soul enjoyed sweet intercourse with heaven: and to whom, as an heir of heaven, the Angels did not disdain to minister in life and in death. One to whom it was Christ to live, and therefore gain to die, for God had given her the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. She had sweet experience of the truth of these words. Her faith, resignation, and peace failed her not in her last sickness; though greatly tried, she was not suffered to have one doubt of her interest in Christ, to the glory of that rich grace which was manifested towards her. She desired me to speak on the occasion, not with a view to her own exaltation, but for the profit of the living, that when sinners heart what God has promised to do, and what he is daily doing for his people in life, and in their dying hours, they may be stirred up to seek the same victory over sin, Satan, death and hell, through our Lord Jesus Christ. This was eminently the case with our departed sister. The Holy Spirit was pleased to fill her mouth with the Redeemer's praises. Her mind seemed to be constantly impressed with a deep sense of the Lord's goodness towards her, both in Providence and grace. When I visited her a few days before her death, her pain of body was great, but she was kept from all impatience and murmuring. She spoke of herself as a monument of the Lord's tender mercy in so wonderfully supporting her a poor, wretched, worthless, creature; and hoped I would hold her up as an example for the encouragement of all such to trust in Jehovah, who strengthens the weak hands, and confirms the feeble knees. In temporals and spirituals, she observed, he had liberally supplied her wants. During this illness, which terminated in her dismissal from this world of sin and sorrow, her mind was divinely kept in a sweet composed frame, waiting for and upon God. She had no rapturous feelings, but what appears more desirable, more satisfactory, and a higher attainment in the divine life, she was favored with the enjoyment of that perfect peace which belongs to those whose minds are stayed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. She was divested of all doubts and fears with respect to her acceptance before God. She knew in whom she believed, and spoke of that sure foundation (on which she was built by faith) which God had laid in Zion, and against which the gates of hell should never prevail, and prayed for faith and patience to wait till her great change should come. She remarked more than once, that she had been taught during this illness to see more and more the necessity of a free grace salvation; that she had been stripped of every rag of her own, and saw nothing but the perfect righteousness of the Redeemer, as wrought out by his obedience and death, as the ground of her reconciliation with God, and this robe she had by faith put on. On taking leave of me she desired I would accompany her remains to the grave, and hoped as many of her Christian friends as could make it convenient would also attend. What she principally had in view in making this request was to shew the world the union that subsists between believers, to which no distinction of circumstances can lessen. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another. On the Lord's day I saw her between the services; her sufferings were excessive, but she was preserved from manifesting any thing like complaint, and scarcely a groan or sigh escaped her. I observed, that I hoped this |