1. I would speak to those who do not know the grace of the Lord Jesus. I fear the most of you are still ignorant of Christ: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him." Ah, brethren! think this day who it is you are lightly esteeming. Did you ever see the son of a king lay by his robes, and his glory, and become a poor man, and die in misery; and all this for nothing? Do you think the Lord Jesus left his Father's love, and the adoration of angels, and became a worm, and died under wrath, and all for no purpose? Is there no wrath lying upon you? Have you no need of Christ? Ah! why, then, do you not flee unto him?

Ah! remember, as long as you come not to Christ, you are despising the grace of the Lord Jesus, and sinning against the love of God. What though you make a show of coming to Christ? What though you pretend it by coming to his table, and doing honor to the poor bread and wine? The poor Papist adores the bread, while he denies the Saviour; and so you may waste your honor on the bread and wine, while you are all the time rejecting and despising the grace of the Lord Jesus.

2. I would welcome poor sinners to Jesus Christ.-He became poor for such as you. He did not come for those "who are rich and increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing." Do not say you are too vile for such a Saviour. If you have all the pollutions of a Corinthian, all the wicked heart of a Roman, he came on purpose for such as you. You are the very souls he came to seek and save. His salvation is all of grace. Free favor to those that deserve hell! Do not deny the grace of the Lord Jesus. It is false humility that keeps any back from Christ; for, "there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money come; let him buy wine and milk without money and without price."

3. To you that know Jesus, and his grace.-Oh! study him more. You will spend eternity in beholding his glory; spend time in beholding his grace. That you may know your own vileness, that you may abhor yourself, that you may see what a poor hell-deserving creature you are, oh! study the grace of the Lord Jesus. That your peace may be like a river, full, deep, and lasting, learn more of the grace of the Lord Jesus. Come and declare with joy at the Lord's table all that he has done for your soul. Oh! learn more. Few know much of Christ. You have infinitely more to learn than you have ever known.

St. Peter's, April 18, 1841.—(Action Sermon.)

SERMON LI.

ENEMIES RECONCILED THROUGH DEATH.

"And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight: if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel."-Col. i., 21-23.

I. The past condition of all who are now believers: “You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works." When two families have quarrelled with one another, they become alienated from one another: they do not visit one another any more; their children are not allowed to speak together as formerly; if they meet in the street, they look another way. So it is with unconverted sinners and God; they are alienated from God; they do not visit God; they do not seek his presence; they do not love to meet his children; they do not like their words nor their ways. When God meets them in a pointed sermon or providence, they try to look another way, that they may not meet God's eye.

1. Alienated. This word is used three times: "Ye were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel." Eph. ii., 12. "Alienated from the life of God." Eph. iv., 18. And again here. In all, it paints to the life the true character of every unconverted man. It is vain to conceal it, dear unconverted brethren. You may pretend the greatest love to ministers, to sacraments, to meetings of Christians; still the true state of your heart is estrangement from God. Ah! I fear there are many of you come to the church, and even to the sacrament, with the name of Christ on your lips, and a cold, estranged heart in your breast: "They did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues; for their heart was not right with God." Psalm lxxviii., 36.

2. Enemies in your minds.-This is more than estrangement. You may be strange to a man, and yet not hate him; but unconverted souls hate God. The whole Bible bears witness that all unconverted men hate God. In Rom. i., 29, it is said: "They did not like to retain God in their knowledge;" so that God gave them up to a reprobate mind, so that they became "HATERS OF GOD." In Exod. xx., 5, God says: "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." And again: "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity against God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, must be the enemy of God." James iv., 4.

Would God this if it were not the case? God knows best

say

what is really in the heart of man. It is true you may not show this hatred in your words, or in your manner; you may not curse God, not even in a whisper; but God says it is in your mind. It is at the bottom of that muddy pool. In hell, where all restraints are lifted away, you will curse God through all eternity.

The most amazing trial of this that could be, was when God came into this world. God was manifest in the flesh. In him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. All the perfections of God flowed through his bosom. There was not a feature of God but it was shining through his glorious countenance, yet softened to human eyes by all the perfections of his manhood. Did men love him when they saw him? Let Isaiah (liii.) answer: "He is despised and rejected of men." Or, hear his own words: "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil."-John vii., 7. And, again: "He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father."-John xv., 23, 24. How did they deal with him? They slew him, and hanged him on a tree, they buffeted him and spat on him, they scourged and crucified him, they nailed and pierced him. They were no worse than other men; men of like passions as we are and yet the opportunity showed what is in man.

It is vain for you to conceal it, dear unconverted brethren, that your heart is full of enmity to God; that you are haters of God. Although it is fearful to think of, yet it is true, that all of you who are friends of the world are enemies of God; and though I believe in my heart there is not one of you here present that would wantonly kill a fly or a worm, yet I fear there are many who, if you could, would kill God.

What is the reason of this enmity? Ans. "By wicked works." It is the love of their sins that makes men hate God. Jesus himself tells you this: "Me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil." You could hardly imagine it possible that any one could hate the Lord Jesus. "He is altogether lovely." There is no perfection in God but it dwelt in him; there is no loveliness in man but it shone in him. And then his errand was one of purest love. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He healed all that came; spoke lovingly to all. Even his threatenings were mingled with tears of compassion. How could they hate him? He told them of their sins; that these sins were sinking them to hell. He said: "Ye shall die in your sins, and whither I go ye cannot come." He offered to save them from their sins; to give them rest; rest from the weary load of guilt; rest from the tossing of a wicked heart. It was this which enraged them. They loved their wicked works; they did not want to be saved out of them; therefore, they hated Jesus.

So is it still. Many of you, when you first heard the Gospel,

said; "This is very fine; we will hear thee again of this matter." The offer of pardon and heaven, a crown and a harp, and freedom from hell-all this sounded well; but when you found out that you must "break off your sins by righteousness," that Christ "will save his people from their sins," then you began to linger, to ponder, to hesitate, to turn back and hate God. When you saw that Christ would part you from your glass, from your oaths, from your cards and dice, from your lusts-then you hated him. Alas! what a sad choice you have made! loved your sin, and hated the Saviour! "They that hate me love death."

Children of God, this was your state. Eat bitter herbs with your passover this day. Oh! do not forget your sin. You were sometime alienated and enemies of God by wicked works. you look back without being confounded?

Can

II. The reconciliation: "Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death."-Verse 21. This is the amazing work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is the blessed state into which he brings every saved soul.

1. He took on him a body of flesh. Out of pure love to hell-deserving worms," he that was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." In order to be the Saviour of sinners, he must obey the law, which we had never obeyed-he must live a lifetime of sinless obedience; but how shall the great God who made the law do this? He was made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law. Again: if he will save sinners, he must drink their cup of suffering, he must bear their stripes, their sins-on his own body. But how shall the infinitely holy, happy, and unchangeable God, suffer this? Because the children were of flesh, he himself likewise took part of the same. He became united to a weak, frail, human soul and body; so that he could suffer, weep, groan, bleed, die. "Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh." Again: if he will be the Saviour and elder brother of sinners; if he will know their sorrows, and be their tender shepherd; he must have a human heart; a breast filled with all the milk of a mother's tenderness. But how can this be, when he is infinitely holy, wise, just, and true? Ah! he became bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. "When all the tribes of Israel came to David to Hebron, they said, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh" (2 Sam. v., 1); and so can we in going to Christ: "He is one that can be touched with a feeling of our infirmity." Ah! to all eternity the incarnation of Jesus will be the theme of our wonder and praise. Brethren, you will all see that face. Some of you will wail when you see it. When that lovely countenance gleams through the

clouds, you will call on rocks and mountains to cover you. It is the Saviour you have rejected and despised.

2. He died: "Through death."-The death of Christ is the most amazing event that ever took place in the universe; and therefore the Lord's supper is the most amazing of all ordinances. The angels desire to look into it. I doubt not that angels hover round the communion table, and sing their sweetest praises to the Lamb, when they see that bread broken, and that wine poured out. If the incarnation of Jesus was wonderful, far more wonderful was his dying. This was the highest summit of his obedience : "Obedient unto death." It was the lowest depth of his humiliation. He stood silent under our accusations; he lay down under our curse; he bore our hell, and died our death. He was the great Lawgiver-the Judge of all-before whom every creature must stand and be judged; and yet he consented to come and stand at the bar of his wicked creatures, and to be condemned by them! He was adored by every holy creature; their sweetest praises were poured out at his feet; and yet he came to be spit upon and reviled to be mocked, and nailed, and crucified, by the vilest of men! "In him was life." He was the Prince of life—the author of all natural and spiritual life; he gave to all life and breath, and all things; and yet they killed him. He gave up the ghosthe lay in the cold grave. The Father loved him infinitely, eternally-without beginning, or intermission, or end; and yet he was made a curse for us-bore the same wrath that is poured upon damned spirits.

Ah! brethren, herein was infinite love. Infidels scoff at itfools despise it; but it is the wonder of all heaven. The Lamb that was slain will be the wonder of eternity. To-day Christ is evidently set forth crucified among you. Angels, I doubt not, will look down in amazing wonder at that table. Will you look on with cold, unmoved hearts? It is a sight of the Lamb slain that moves the hosts of heaven to praise.-Rev. v., 8. When that Lamb, as it had been slain, appears, they fall down before him, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors. Will you not praise him?

3. He hath reconciled us : "Yet now hath he reconciled."— Sinners, we are not reconciled in the day of our election, nor at the death of Christ, but in the hour of conversion. Oh! that is a precious now: "Now hath he reconciled." It is a happy moment, when the Lord Jesus draws near to the sinful soul, and washes him clean in his precious blood, and clothes him in his white raiment, and so reconciles him to God. There is a double reconciliation takes place in the hour of believing. (1.) God becomes reconciled to the soul. When the soul is found in Christ, the Father says: "I will heal his backsliding, I will love him freely; for mine anger is turned away from him."-Hos. xiv., 4. The soul replies to God: "I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with