rich and poor, learned and unlearned, to "flee from the wrath to come,"* and to "lay hold on eternal life." I ask every one here present, Is my text true, or is it not? If it be true, what is it less than madness to waste the time now afforded you for obtaining the gift of God's Holy Spirit, and securing thereby the salvation of your souls? It will be too late to repent when we are taken hence, or to "ask for even a drop of water to cool our tongues;"‡ when now, if we would but cry to God, we might obtain "rivers of living water."§ Were we but in earnest, no soul amongst us should be suffered to seek this gift in vain. Our blessed Lord has promised his Holy Spirit to us; yea, he has himself received this heavenly gift on purpose that he may bestow it upon us. But, however free his promises be," he will be inquired of by us," before he will perform them.¶ The promise runs, "Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."** Let us then, in dependence on this promise, entreat of God to give us, in the * Matt, iii. 7. Luke xvi. 24. t + 1 Tim. vi. 12. § John vii. 38. In Psalm lxviii. 18, it is, "he received;" but in Eph. iv. 8, "he gave." He received in order that he might give. ¶ Ezek. xxxvi. 37. ** Matt. vii. 7. first place, his Holy Spirit as a "spirit of grace and supplication;"* and then, in answer to our prayers, to "pour out his Spirit, even as it were in rivers and floods upon us;" that so there may be accomplished in us that good work, which it is the Spirit's office to perform, by renovating our souls, and "causing us to walk in God's statutes, and to keep his judgments, and do them." Then, having obtained this inestimable gift, let us be careful to improve it aright, never "resisting his holy motions," lest we provoke God to "withdraw his Spirit from us,"|| and with holy indignation to swear, that "his Spirit shall strive with us no more ;" and that "we shall never enter into his rest."** The most important parts of my subject must of necessity be deferred to the remaining opportunities of addressing you. This, which I may call only a prefatory part, I will conclude with that beautiful Collect of our Church, in which the whole that has been brought before you is thus briefly and piously expressed: "Q * Zech. xii. 10. Acts vii. 51. **Heb. iii. 11. t Isa. xliv. 3. Ezek. xxxvi. 27. ¶ Gen. vi. 3. God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."* * Collect for Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. SERMON III. ROMANS VIII. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. In our two preceding discourses, we touched on points necessary to be considered in order to a just apprehension of our subject; but they were rather of an introductory nature, than a direct unfolding of the subject itself. We now come to that which is of prime importance, and in which our present and eternal interests are most deeply involved; namely, the work which the Holy Spirit accomplishes in men, in order to their becoming the people and the property of Christ. And in our statements we will exercise all imaginable caution—not, on the one hand, to fall short of what the Scripture indispensably requires; nor, on the other hand, to strain any requirement of Scripture beyond what it plainly and incontrovertibly imports: for if, on the one hand, we are bound, at the peril of our souls, not to withhold any thing that can be profitable to you; so we are extremely anxious, on the other hand, not, by carrying any part of our subject to excess, to "make sad the heart of any whom God would not have made sad."* In prosecution of the plan before laid down, I now come to state, III. What the Holy Spirit will work in us in order to our being Christ's. And here I shall comprehend the whole in those three acknowledged duties-repentance, faith, and obedience. I say then, that in order to bring us to Christ, the Holy Spirit will-first, Convince us of sin ; secondly, He will reveal Christ to us, as the appointed and only Saviour; and, thirdly, He will lead us to an unreserved surrender of ourselves to God, in a way of holy obedience. First-He will convince us. of sin. This is the first work of the Spirit in bringing us to Christ; and till this is accomplished, we neither * Ezek. xiii. 22. |