distress, there is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.' Therefore Paul and Silas could sing praises in the prison, and Joseph was a happy man under false accusation and in bondage, and Daniel was at ease in the den of lions, for of its living streams they all had tasted. And of the same streams, my brethren, you may all taste freely if you will-I commend them heartily, my brethren, to your use —I commend them unto you in the name of the Lord." For the Spirit and the bride say, Come; and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take of the waters of life freely."† And I commit you to God, my brethren, and to the good word of his grace, and to the guardianship of Him, who is the word's interpreter. I have told you something of what that word contains; I have produced from it at least as much as ought to send you to examine it for yourselves. I have searched the promised Canaan, and behold such as I have presented to you are the fruits thereof; they are better, I think, than the dust and drought and scorpions and poisonous berries of the wilderness. Hear then the word of the Lord : "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for hat which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let

*Psalm xlvi. 4.

+ Rev. xxii. 17.

your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

Isa. lv. 2-4; 6, 7.

126

SERMON VII.

THE CIRCUMCISION OF THE SPIRIT.

(Preached on New Year's Day.)

ROMANS ii. 28, 29.

"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcission, which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcission is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."

THE day on which we are now met, is on two accounts remarkable. It is the first of a new year, and it is appointed by our church for commemoration of our Lord's circumcision.

The text will lead me to bring before you considerations suitable to each of these concurrent occasions. For if I shall be enabled to show you what that true "circumcision of the Spirit" is which God requires, I shall thereby

suggest to you as fit a topic of self-examination as can well engage your thoughts, at this season which of itself may so properly remind "search and try your ways.”

you to

The passage which you have heard, delivers to us this general doctrine-that though God does indeed require from all who hear his word, both an outward profession of the religion. taught therein, and a dutiful attendance upon such outward forms or rites as are also in the same word prescribed, yet the religion itself consists not in anything external, but in a heart washed from wickedness, and renewed after the divine image; and this inward change, of which man cannot judge, is that only thing which God, who trieth the heart, will accept through Jesus Christ at last.

This is the chief matter to be unfolded to you. In order to the better explanation and more fruitful application of it, and agreeably to the method suggested by the text, I shall proceed to speak,

I. First, of circumcision, that outward rite of the Jewish church, to which our Lord himself submitted, but which is superseded in the christian church by the correspondent rite of baptism.

II. And secondly, of the inward change or cleansing typified by both rites, to which the Jew

was pledged by the one, and the Christian is pledged equally by the other, and without which there is no salvation. And then I shall hope,

III. In the last place, to receive your attention to such word of exhortation connected with this important subject, as the present season seems naturally to point out.

I. And first, as to circumcision. This was an ordinance of the Jewish law, by means of which it pleased God to admit that people into covenant with himself. It was first enjoined to Abraham when God chose him to be the father of his own peculiar nation; it was continued to all his children to the time of Moses; and the observance of it was renewed by Joshua immediately previous to the entrance of Israel into Canaan, it having been disused during their abode in the wilderness.

The operation was commanded to be performed on each child, on the eighth day from the birth; not sooner, because till then the mother was ceremonially unclean, and the child partook of that uncleanness by touching her; and not later, because the earliest possible opportunity must, of course, be the best for bringing the child within the terms of an engagement into which it was so much for his benefit to enter.

It was not optional with the Israelites whether they should submit to circumcision or not for