rifying of the soul by the Holy Spirit: we receive, therefore, in baptism, the symbols, and pledges, and marks of sanctifying grace: we bear upon our body the impress of the Lord Jesus.

3. At the table of the Lord these vows are again renewed by the Christian believer. A solemn engagement is then again undertaken. When we receive the sacred elements of the bread Divine, it is a great and most serious promise to take Christ as our Saviour, to receive Him as the only ground of our dependance, our Lord, our Pattern, our Prince, our Shepherd, our Friend. We engage ourselves to live upon Him, as the Bread of life; and to live to Him, as the Lord of conscience, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. There is no form of words of the precise nature of swearing, indeed; but this engagement has in it the nature and sanction of an oath. We declare solemnly, in the presence of the all-seeing God, that we are the Lord's, and that we will renounce every thing that is displeasing in his sight. The very word sacrament, by which the Lord's Supper is most commonly designated, is derived from the military oath of the Roman soldierssacramentum militaire-by which they swore never to desert their standard, nor flee before their enemies, but to continue faithful unto death. In like manner this engagement binds the soul to Christ, and renders it a sacrilege afterward to alienate it to the service of sin and the world. And, on the other hand, the Lord binds himself, where this engagement is sincerely taken, to bestow on us all the grace and blessings promised in the Divine covenant.

How important a thing, then, is it to make a profession of religion! It is not the calling ourselves by a new name, nor forsaking one community of Christians and joining ourselves to another; it is not the transferring our attendance and influence from one place, and one minister, to new ones; but it is an engagement which extends to the whole of our being; it is the consecration of ourselves to the unseen but omnipotent Ruler; it is an act which associates us with angels; it is a bond obliging us to live and elevate ourselves to God; to turn our attention from all creatures to Him; to account every thing as vanity but God and his service. And these vows are repeated whenever we approach the Lord's Table. We hold out again, on each such occasion, to the world around us, our public profession of faith in Christ: we proclaim to angels, to men, to devils, to the Church, to God, and to Christ, that we are not our own, but the Lord's; that we have made ourselves over to Christ, to be guided by Him for time and eternity.

This engagement, I would now observe, after thus enumerating the chief occasions when it is made, must reach the heart. It does not extend to actions merely, and stop there; it does not extend to times and seasons only, and stop there; but it pervades àll time, all places, the whole man. We are consecrated to God, with all our bodily faculties and mental powers. We are not our own: we resign ourselves to God, as his peculiar property; to be kept as a sacred thing, to be "the habitation of God through the Spirit."

This engagement, once more, must be voluntary. So it was in the

case of Israel and King Asa before us. For although God has a claim to all our obedience, and a right over us, which nothing can impair or increase, yet He treats us as He did Israel-as free and accountable agents. He laid before the nations of Israel, when the covenant was made at Mount Sinai, the law: He proposed it to their choice, He asked their assent. Upon this, the people accepted the conditions of the covenant. In a covenant, the several parties must act a voluntary part. Religion will not bear compulsion. If obedience is compelled, it is no obedience. Though God enjoins obedience by the sanctions of his law, and has an infinite right to it, as our Creator and Benefactor, yet if we yield that obedience reluctantly, it is not true obedience; it is connected with fear, which has torment; it has nothing vital, nothing of love, nothing cordial, nothing acceptable to God. And such compulsory obedience is, moreover, only partial and temporary; it extends only to a few branches of duty; and is like the morning cloud and the early dew, which soon pass away.

But this engagement must be sincere and hearty, cordial and affectionate. The Christian yields himself unto God as one that is alive from the dead. He says, 66 Other lords besides Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee only will we make mention of thy name." He renounces all other masters, and cheerfully devotes himself to one Master, even Christ. He is a volunteer in his service, made willing in the day of Christ's power, and presented to Him in the beauty of holiness.

II. Let us now consider the spirit with which the engagement was entered into, and especially the joy and satisfaction which accompanied it.

No joy is equal to that which accompanies this transaction of engaging ourselves to God. We have never any true joy, joy of a pure and elevated nature, till we know what it is to enter into covenant with God, by the sacrifice of Christ. Men may have pleasure before, but not joy. They may have the satisfactions of the world, transient and unholy; but the mind is not blessed; the heart is not filled with intellectual, moral, substantial joy. Now the reasons of joy in the case of King Asa are similar to those which prevail in every such

case.

1. There is a joy in engaging solemnly with God, because the thing is infinitely right. "A good man," says Solomon, "is satisfied from himself," from a consciousness of the propriety and rectitude of his actions. When we act agreeably to right reason, there is a complacency which follows, and of which we are conscious. On the contrary, when we act in opposition to what is right, we are rebuked by our own minds; there is a struggle, a conflict within us. Now, it is infinitely right to engage ourselves to the Lord. It is proportionate to his character, and our state and wants. We can only be made happy by Him; we have nothing but what we receive from Him; we owe Him, therefore, ourselves. The character of God, his unspeakable mercies, the sufferings of Christ, the grace of the Spirit, the of fers of the gospel, make it unspeakably reasonable to engage ourselves

to his service. We then treat God as He is; we act agreeably to his nature and our relations to Him. Till we do this, we act most irrationally; we walk in a lie.

Man is a creature wandering in darkness, in the midst of precipices and falls. Like the man in the gospel who dwelt among the tombs, none can bind him, no, not with chains: many have tried to do so, but the bonds and fetters were broken, and they came away wounded. What joy, then, does it create, what transport, when the light of day beams upon him; when his fetters and bands are broken off, and he sits at the Saviour's feet, clothed, and in his right mind! "The path of the just is as the shining light:" the way of truth and holiness approves itself to the mind. The approbation of the inmost soul of man confers upon it its sanction.

2. There is joy also in engaging with God, because it is a plain token of good on the part of God. So it was in the case of Asa and his people. They saw that God was with them, and had wrought for them; and others also, perceiving this, joined themselves to them, from Ephraim and Manasseh, and turned to the Lord God of their fathers with their whole heart. Whereas, when God had previously left them to themselves, they wandered farther and farther from Him, and fell into abominable idolatries. Their engaging themselves with the solemnity of an oath to return to God, was a proof that God was with them, and was blessing them; and this was a just cause of joy. Good men then felt, as they do now, the need of Divine teaching and influence. It is said expressly that the Lord prepared the heart of the people under Hezekiah's reformation; and that in Judah the hand of the Lord was with them, to give them one heart. If we engage to be the Lord's, the hand of the Lord has been upon us; our hearts have been divinely touched; it is the token of the favour and love of God upon us. And this is a copious source of joy. "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona," said our Lord to Peter, on confessing that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God; "for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee." Such a confession was a subject of congratulation. Thus every one is blessed who confesses Christ, and binds himself to his service; the hand of God is with him, the Spirit of God has marked him for his own.

3. There is, farther, joy in making this engagement, because it is a token of good from God for the future, as well as with a respect to the past. Those who engage themselves to Him have a pledge of all future blessings. He is pleased to pledge himself to them, as their protector, and rest, and peace, and portion. Asa and his people, in the case before us, had a pledge of the serene possession of their own land. This was peculiar to the national covenant of God with Israel. "The Lord gave them rest round about," says the text. They sat again under their vine and fig-tree, none making them afraid; they had the secure continuance of good laws and government, and the assurance of being free from plagues and judgments. These, and other temporal blessings, were included in the covenant of Canaan; and the restoration of these blessings resulted from their obedience in thus

engaging themselves to the Lord. And these may be considered as types of the spiritual blessings enjoyed, both by them and by us, in every age, and under the Christian dispensation, who devote ourselves to God in his covenant. This peace, and serenity, and fruitfulness, and freedom from desolating judgments, are representations of the infinite privileges and immunities of the spiritual Church of God. They are the tokens and pledges that there is no condemnation to him that believeth-that the Christian is adopted into the family of heaven-that all in the Divine Being is pledged for his security-that Christ is his elder brother, and that the Spirit, who sanctifies the Church, is his internal monitor, the inhabitant of his soul.

And can you doubt whether God will indeed thus bless those who are engaging themselves in covenant with Him? The man who has a heart to serve God, has a witness in himself that he is adopted into the heavenly family, and that all blessings are in reserve for him. Only love God, and serve Him, and remain faithful to your oath and covenant, and this is a better security for eternal happiness than a voice from heaven. A vision of angels would not be so good a security for our future peace, as the consciousness that "in simplicity and godly sincerity, not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world."

4. The joy of this oath was increased by the unanimity of those who took it the numbers, the courage, the harmonious efforts and resolutions. It is said that Asa took courage, and that he "gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them;" and "all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought Him with their whole desire."

What pleasure does the Christian feel when hand joins in hand in the love of God-when men on every hand, and with one consent, say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths!" What a pleasure, when Christians go. up to the house of God in company-when many flock, and "ask their way to Zion with their faces thitherward"-when the Church is exhibiting the unity and harmony of a body breathing the same spirit, speaking the same language, animated by the same charity! What joy will there be one day in the Church of God, when all the followers of Christ shall be filled with love-tolerating what is indif ferent and non-essential-touched, transformed, and sanctified by the living truth of Jesus!

Let me now, in concluding this subject, observe, that we have all entered into a solemn covenant with God, which has the nature of an oath, if we are Christians. You are to renew this on the next Sunday. You then renounce the world once more; you turn your back again upon all its pleasures, and direct your attention to eternal realities. You approach to behold your Redeemer upon his throne of grace, to drink into the Spirit of his transforming dispensationyou express all your desires, and renew all your vows at his table. “What manner of persons, then, ought you to be, in all haly conver

sation and godliness," who take such vows upon you? Shall we carry sin unrepented of into the presence of the heart-searching Being? Can we combine the living and the dead? "What fellowship hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? and what fellowship hath the temple of God with idols?" If we consecrate ourselves to Christ at his table, we must come out from the world we must set ourselves apart for the Lord, as we hope He hath set us apart for himself, not by unnecessary singularity, by instances of weakness and folly, but by purity, by simplicity, by watchfulness in all important things, by universal holiness.

Thus the ends of our profession will be advanced by our glorifying God, our heavenly Father, to whom we have devoted ourselves; and by leaving a witness, an appeal upon the consciences of men among whom we live; and, in the day of visitation, something they have seen in us may be the means of awakening their minds to true religion.

Our duty and dispensation are clear. We are to be witnesses for the Lord; we are to be holy, as those that are his vessels; we are to demean ourselves as the followers of Christ, who expect to be for. ever with Him, and forever like Him.

LV.

FEATURES OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.*

ACTS, iv., 23: They went to their own company.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, October 5th, 1826, preparatory to the Lord's Supper.]

In the connexion of these words we are informed that the apostles, Peter and John, having healed the cripple who sat at the gate of the temple, were seized by the Sadducees, and imprisoned; but, as the miracle was clearly established, and the people glorified God on account of it, they were soon released, and "went to their own company." By so simple a term is the infant Church of Christ designated; "a company." As soon as Jesus had ascended, we find that there was an assembly of his followers, both men and women, who continued with one accord in prayer, resorting to an upper room. (Acts, i., 13, 14.) This small assembly was speedily increased by fresh adherents. On the day of Pentecost, three thousand converts were at once added by the preaching of Peter; and not long afterward, on the occasion connected with the text, Peter delivered an address which appears to have been even more effectual than the preceding, as it was followed by an accession of five thousand disciples. It is not related that our Saviour formally appointed and organized his Church: He left it to the natural course of things; to the operation of the human mind, assisted by Divine influence. Men find it necessary to as

VOL. IV.-DDD

• From the notes of the Rev. T. Grinfield.