forms us what is meant by "having Christ," and how union takes place between him and his people. "This," saith he (1 John, iii, 23, 24), “is God's commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He (Jesus) gave us commandment, and he that keepeth his commandments" (those he had just specified, viz.:—believing on the Lord Jesus, and loving those that bear his image; he who doeth so), “dwelleth in Him, and He in him.' Again (chapter iv. 14, 15), "and we have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world:" not to be the Saviour of the Jews only (the blessings He communicates not being confined to that nation, as they vainly imagined that the Divine favour extended not beyond them); but the Saviour of sinners of all nations, languages, and kindreds, and people (Salvation, by the command of Jesus, being now to be proclaimed to all the ends of the earth, no distinction of nation, or family, or condition, or circumstance whatsoever, excluding any from its beneficent announcement): the Apostle proceeds-"whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him, and he in God." Again (chapter v. 12) "He that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life."-He that hath the persuasion that Jesus is the Holy One of God, and that he finished the work which the Father had given him to do, hath life, spiritual life--is made "a partaker of the Divine nature"-is capable of putting forth into act the spiritual principle within him

but he who does not know and intelligently believe the dignity of Jesus' person, together with the nature and object of his work, has not spiritual life—is dead in trespasses and sins"- has no union with Christ-is destitute of all spiritual energy, and cannot perform any of the acts which evidence and express the possession of Divine life within.

This subject is further illustrated in the 15th chapter of John. The Lord is addressing his Apostles, who were "Jews by nature," and in reference to a figure frequently used in the Old Testament, with which they were familiar, under which the Church is represented, declares "I am the true vine." He was

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the vine which the Lord brought out of Egypt," which, "when He cast out the heathen, He planted." He was the "choice vine" that Jehovah planted in his vineyard of which the Prophet speaks (Isaiah v.)—the Jewish people were the vineyard-Jesus was the vine. It was reasonable to expect that where this vine was planted, good fruit should be found; but when Jehothe vineyard rendered nothing but wild grape. val, the Husbandman," looked for grapes, behold looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for rightcousness, and behold a cry. yard is in this prophecy foretold, and in reference The doom of the vinethat doom, to the casting off of the JEWISH BRANCH his Church (and this only for a season), our Lord says, in "every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away;" and in allusion to the persecution His New Testament Church, and particularly His Apostles,

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should experience, and the difficulties they would have to encounter, He graciously forewarns them of the merciful design of the Father in ordaining them, viz : that they should be increasingly fruitful. Judas was at this time cut off from their society; he had left them as soon as the Lord said, “that thou doest, do quickly,” and he pronounces of the rest, that they were "clean, by means of the word which he had spoken unto them.' They believed his word, and through the persuasion of their new mind, they were cleansed from all sin and it was just because Israel had not given credit to His Word, as declared by Himself and by His Prophets, that they were doomed to be rooted up and cast out, as an unfruitful, unprofitable branch, and given over to the anguish of rejection. The source of his people's fruitfulness is illustrated; and the manner by which their fruitfulness should be maintained, is described by the fruitfulness of the branch in consequence of its union with the parent stock. It is evident, that the branch owes its verdure and its fruit, not to any thing in itself—for separated from the vine it would wither and die-but to the fruitfulness of the stock upon which it grows; and he applies the figure, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth"-not fruit only, but "much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing.' From these Scriptures it is evident, that the ability to do any spiritual service is entirely owing to being united with Christ; that where this union exists not, spiritual service cannot be rendered, nor

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can spiritual blessings be enjoyed:-that the union is commenced and maintained by receiving and retaining "the record which God hath given of his Son ;" and that whoever possesses the record in demonstration of the Spirit, has life, and shews it; and whoever understands it not, and does not consequently possess it, has no life of God, and is incapable of doing that which manifests its presence in the soul.

And if this impotence characterize the Apostles; if it be the condition of the whole Church; if the Laodiceans were rebuked for their assumption of independence, and reminded by our Lord Jesus that their condition was miserable, and that in Him alone was all they needed; how emphatically is the helplessness of those proved, who not only possess not apostolic endowments, but are destitute of the very first principles of divine life?

Let us now proceed to point out some of the particulars wherein man's natural helplessness consists :-And I observe, in the first place, that he cannot without Christ believe the Gospel.

No unregenerate man can, by any exercise of his intellectual energies, by any force of argument, by any vigour of his mind, persuade himself that the Gospel is the truth of God. True, he may have an opinion upon that, as upon any other subject; true, he may arrive at a moral certainty respecting the truth of matters of mere history, unconnected with doctrine, contained in the Word of God; but of the truth of the Gospel message, he must be ignorant, and reject

it as untrue, unless he be taught its real meaning, and be convinced of its certainty by demonstration of the Spirit of Christ. Does this statement sound in the ears of any as harsh and uncharitable, and do such set themselves with stubborn severity to close their hearts against it? My dear friends, permit me to beseech your attention; the subject is worthy of all you can bestow upon it:--if it be not clearly proved from the Word of God, then, and not till then, may you legitimately disregard it.

The unregenerate man cannot, by any energy of his own, nor by any aid from others, persuade himself that the Gospel, as preached by the Apostles of the Lord is true; nor can he persuade himself respecting the truth of any common report; in every case, whether the subject be human or divine, the mind is satisfied by evidence; and where evidence is ample and convincing, faith cannot be withheld, In this case, the mind is persuaded by evidence of the Spirit, as it is written (1 John, v. 6.), "the Spirit beareth witness;" and the belief of the Church at Corinth is said to have arisen from "demonstration of the Spirit." A man may indeed, by the examination of its internal and external evidence, be satisfied as to the genuineness, and authenticity, and inspiration of the Scriptures— he may be able to defend the Word of God from the attacks of Socinians and other Infidels; and from the treacherous, and unhallowed insinuations of the Romanist-but a higher evidence is required for the illumination and satisfaction of his mind respecting