"God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth whereunto he called you by our Gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." And the design of Christ the Saviour is thus declared: "Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish ;"—"He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." And the design of the Holy Spirit is not only implied in his very office, as the renewer and sanctifier of God's people, and evinced by the whole scope and tendency of the Word, which is the Spirit's message, and a declaration of his will; but it is expressly declared, when it is said, "When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment;" and that he will "guide his people into all truth," so as to fulfil the Lord's prayer on their behalf, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is truth."

From these passages it is manifest, that in the scheme of redemption itself, God proceeds on the principle that a spiritual character is indispensably necessary in order to our admission into his kingdom. The very salvation which he has provided is spiritual; it includes various blessings of unspeakable value, such as the pardon of sin, peace of conscience, assur

ance of God's love, exemption from hell and admission into heaven; but these blessings, so necessary to our safety, and so conducive to our happiness, are inseparably connected, by God's appointment, as well as in their own nature, with a new spiritual character, and cannot be enjoyed without it, for the promise runs in these terms: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God."

If such be God's design in the scheme of redemption—the declared design of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit-how can you expect to be saved without undergoing a great spiritual change? If you hope to be saved without being born again, your hope must rest, either on the supposition that you are not naturally fallen and depraved, or on the idea, that a holy and spiritual character is not indispensably necessary in order to your admission into the kingdom. On one or other of these two suppositions your hope must be built, if you expect salvation without a change of heart; for, if the fact be certain, that you are naturally fallen and depraved, and if the principle be correct, that "without holiness no man can see the

Lord," the absolute necessity of regeneration is at once established. Now, on whichever of these two suppositions you may take your stand, there is enough in God's declared design in the work of redemption to convince you that they are both alike false and dangerous; for if, on the one hand, you flatter yourselves that you are not so utterly fallen as to require to be renewed, or as to be unable to effect your own restoration, should not your fond confidence in this opinion be shaken, when you find that in the scheme which God himself has revealed for the recovery of men, he proceeds uniformly on the contrary supposition, and makes provision for their regeneration by his own Spirit, and speaks to all in the same language, as sinners that have fallen, and that need to be restored?and if, on the other hand, you flatter yourselves that, although you may be partially sinful, you may yet enter into the kingdom without undergoing any great spiritual change, oh! should not this presumptuous expectation be utterly extirpated and destroyed, when you find that it is in direct opposition to God's whole design, and cannot be fulfilled without subverting the scheme of grace? For what does your expectation imply? Does it not imply that God will depart from his purpose of saving sinners "through sanctification of the Spirit," and save them without being sanctified -thereby reversing the constitution of the scheme of grace, and violating the principle on which it is based? In other words, does it not imply that God must set aside the great scheme of redemption—a scheme on which he has already exercised all the riches of his

omniscient wisdom, and expended the blood of his Son; that immutable wisdom, and inflexible justice, and unfailing truth, must all bend and bow down before the sinner, and suffer him to enter into the kingdom unrenewed? and do you not see, that the whole design of God in the redemption of the world must be abandoned, before your hope can be fulfilled? Does it not imply that the Saviour himself must relinquish the object which he had in view, when "he came to save his people from their sins;" that he must adopt a new design, and throw open the door of his kingdom to the unholy and the unclean—not to the unholy that they may be renewed, or the unclean that they may be washed-for in that sense the door is always open, and open for all-but to such as seek to remain in their natural state "dead in trespasses and in sins;" and that he must assume a new character, as the Saviour of those who refuse the only salvation he has yet procured, and who are "neither washed, nor sanctified, nor justified by the Spirit of God?" And does it not imply that the Holy Spirit must relinquish his offices as the Sanctifier and Comforter of his people,-or that his functions and operations are unnecessary and superfluous? for why is he revealed as the "Spirit that quickeneth,” if there be no need of a new birth ?-why, as the Spirit of sanctification, if without sanctification you can enter into the kingdom?-and why as the Comforter of the Church? Can it be, that he is to comfort men while they continue in their natural state, and to pour his blessed consolations into unsanctified hearts, and to

make them happy while they remain unholy? All this, and much more, is implied in the presumptuous expectation that any of us can enter into the kingdom without undergoing a great spiritual change: it implies that the scheme of redemption itself must be changed, and that, too, after it has been accomplished by the incarnation, and sufferings, and death of God's own Son; for that scheme proceeds from first to last on the supposition that we are fallen, and that we must be renewed, if we would enter into the kingdom.

That a spiritual character is indispensably necessary in order to our being admitted into the kingdom of God, appears from the actual constitution of our own nature, which is essentially a moral one, and renders it impossible for us to enjoy heaven, even were we admitted into it, unless our character be brought into conformity with the will of God. We have already seen that the general government of God is a moral government, and that a holy character must be necessary in his kingdom, so long as God is God. We now add, for the purpose of evincing the certainty of this great truth, that the constitution of our own nature is essentially a moral constitution, and that a holy character must be essential to our happiness, so long as man is man. The principles of our own nature, the very constitution of our being must be reversed, before we could be happy in God's kingdom without a holy and spiritual character. Let me advert to some of these principles; and, viewing them in connection with the character of God's kingdom, you will at once perceive that we must be holy if we would be happy there.