viz. the restoration of the children of the creation to their primitive condition; their reinvestment with that immortality from which as sinners they had fallen, immortality their distinctive attribute as the sons of God.

They had long become lost and contemptible; .. hurried along into courses unprofitable and unworthy of them; not voluntarily, or because such courses were natural and agreeable to them, but miserably and reluctantly, dragged along by the incurable habits and stubborn propensities, to which sin their tyrant, had subjected them.

In this state of moral degradation, awakened. in some degree by the lights of nature, but more completely aroused and distinctly informed by the inspired anticipations of prophecy, all nations were possessed by an ardent longing for a more intimate and satisfying communion with the Father of the universe. All had sufficiently experienced the pernicious effects of being enslaved to their passions, and all were weary of serving a tyrant, whose service was misery, and whose wages were corruption and death. They were desirous of a change, and prepared to appreciate the value of a nearer and more ef fective connection with the Father and Preserver of all things, in the hope of a release from the encumbrance of their prejudices, and the violent effects of their passions; there was throughout

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the universal race of man a struggling effort and desire, an universal expectancy. Both Jews and Gentiles were come to the birth, but they could not bring forth. For we know that all.. the world is groaning and labouring at the birth Nay, even we who have the first .. fruits, who by baptism have the earnest or pledge of our future glory, have not yet come to the birth; we still are subject to the throes and pangs of labour, and shall be so till this body of sin be not only spiritually and symbolically buried in baptism, but till like the body of Jesus it be actually laid in the grave, and till like the body of Jesus it be actually ransomed and glorified.

For while we are on this side the grave, we live by faith and not by sight. Now faith is the foundation of things hoped for, and not the very things themselves. I now stand upright, but let him that standeth take heed lest he fall; and let not him that girdeth on his harness boast, as he that taketh it off. Even we, who have received the first fruits of the spirit, are working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, if by any means we may attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though we had already attained, either were already perfect, but we follow after, if that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehen

ded of Christ Jesus. Brethren, we count not ourselves to have apprehended, but this one thing we do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, we press towards the mark for the prize, for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I keep under my body and bring it in subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway. Therefore, I say, that even we who have received the first fruits of the spirit await with anxiety that hour, when we shall receive the final seal of adoption, that day when the Lord shall make up his jewels, and we shall be his, and he shall spare us, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Hope, well-grounded hope, is all that the.. best of us can attain unto here, it is the full extent and meaning of the word salvation, as far as that word applies to our condition on this side the grave, and this hope is a support to bear us through the trials that await us here the glory, that shall be revealed in us hereafter, is set before us, not as the object of sight but of faith, not as a possession but as a hope; for if it were seen and possessed, hope would be no more; and if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it, under every trial we encounter, with patient endurance. Thus, though in this

life we reach not, even we who have the first fruits, the consummation of our wishes, yet hope is our support, and moreover the spirit .. itself is not wanting to co-operate with this hope in its influences upon us.

Under the present circumstances of the kingdom, whose founder is Christ, whose extention and universal establishment is committed to us, we sometimes find our office and commission beyond our strength, and oftentimes demanding an intelligence and sagacity much beyond the compass of our natural faculties. Whatever we ask in the name of Christ for the interest and glory of that kingdom, we know he will obtain for us. But in our ignorance and indiscretion our mind is not always equal to the emergencies that arise, and even in our petitions for additional resources, for spiritual guidance and miraculous intervention, we are likely to ask amiss, and not knowing what spirit we are of, to covet gifts and powers that would not be salutary, and we are likely to fall into courses of policy, that would rather frustrate and defeat, than forward and promote the glorious end and purpose we have at heart. all these cases, when the circumstances of our warfare are arduous, complicated and critical, the holy spirit encouragingly intervenes, miraculously supporting our wearied and fainting

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hopes, suggesting to us the most judicious measures, and putting into our minds such petitions to him, in whom, and by whom are all things, as may prove effectual and beneficial to the difficult enterprize committed to our feeble but heaven-supported agency. Under the perplexities that occasionally hamper us, when scarcely knowing how to act or what to ask, we seem to groan and labour without any distinct meaning or object; the spirit condescending to our weakness prevents and anticipates our wishes, giving sense and distinctness to that internal groaning to which naturally we know not how to give emphatic or intelligible articulation.

Those internal anxieties which occasionally oppress our minds are the immature fruit of that godly spirit, which is within us, identified with our own reason and mind; and the search- .. er of hearts knows or understands (which is a ground of infinite encouragement to us,) even the inarticulate aspirations of the faithful. He recognizes within us the disposition of his own spirit, he recognizes that unity which exists between our spirit and his, because our spirit, identifying itself with his spirit, desiring nothing so much as the promotion of his kingdom the welfare of the holy, intercedes for them, as he would have it intercede in language and terms sufficiently clear and intelligible to him,