acknowledged to be grace the most free and unmixed, the fruit of his sovereign will, in opposition to any necessity of nature to which it may be ascribed: for though the nature of his agency cannot but be consonant to his character, though the fruit of his Spirit cannot but be most pure and holy, yet he was under no necessity to interpose at all. That the effect of his special operation on the hearts of the faithful should be sanctifying is unavoidable; but his operating at all by his Spirit in the restoration of a fallen creature is to be ascribed solely to "his own good pleasure."* It is of his own will, as opposed, not only to a necessity of nature in him, but to any claim of merit in the subject of this his gracious agency, No previous worthiness of ours, no attractive excellence in us, engaged his attention, or induced him to exert his power in our renovation: for whence could this arise in a creature so fallen and corrupt as to need so thorough a renovation? Or how, since "every good and perfect gift cometh from above," can it be supposed to subsist previous to, or apart from, his donation? In the context the apostle has been strongly insisting on it, that the beginning of all moral evil is to be ascribed to man; the beginning of all good to the Supreme Being; and it is in supporting this assertion he introduces the words of the text, "Of his own will begat he us." No signs of virtuous and laudable conduct had ensued to procure the communication of divine grace, agreeable to what another apostle observes in his epistle to Titus: "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost."t The production and maintenance of religion is styled, by the same writer, "the good pleasure of his will." II. The instrument of this renovation is "the word of truth." In infusing the principle of divine life into the soul, God is wont to employ the gospel as the instrument, styled, with the utmost propriety, "the word of truth:" not only on account of the infallible truth and certainty of all its declarations, but on account of its high dignity and excellence, as a revelation from God, it is "the truth;" to which whatever is contrary is imposture, and whatever is compared to it insignificant.§ It falls not within the limits of this discourse to illustrate at large the manner in which the word of God produces a saving change: two circumstances may suffice to establish the fact. The first is, that where the light of the gospel is unknown no such beneficial alteration in the character is perceived, no features of a renewed and sanctified mind are to be traced. The second is, that among those who live under the light of the gospel, the reality of such a change is less or more to be perceived, in proportion to the degree in which the gospel is seriously attended to and cordially received. Every person who is deeply influenced by religious considerations, and enabled to live a holy and spiritual life, will acknowledge his deep obligations to the gospel; and that it is to its distinguishing discoveries he is, under God, Phil. ii. 13. † Titus iii. 5. t 2 Thess. i. 11. Gal. iii 1. indebted for the renovation he has experienced. "Being born again," saith St. Peter, "not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." III. We are directed to the consideration of the end proposed by this regenerating influence, "that we might be a kind of first-fruit of the creatures." In the Jewish law, which was, in all its essential parts, a perpetual shadow of the gospel, the first-fruits of the earth were commanded to be dedicated in the temple, and presented by the priest as an offering to God: "The first of the fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God."† In the performance of this part of religious duty, an affecting form of words was prescribed, expressive of the humility and gratitude of the offerer. When a vineyard was planted, the Israelites were forbidden to partake of the fruits for the first three years, during which it was to be looked upon as uncircumcised and impure: "And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of. But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal."§ : In allusion to this the apostle observes, the design of Christianity is, that being received into the heart as a renovating principle, we may become in a spiritual sense what the fruits presented in the temple were in a literal,-" a certain first-fruits of his creatures;" in which representation he meant probably to include the following ideas :that we should be dedicated to God as holy persons, separated from every unclean use; that we should be distinguished as the most excellent part of his creatures, as the first-fruits were ever considered as the best of the kind; and that our dedication to God should be a pledge and [earnest] of the universal sanctification of the creatures. 1. This representation denotes our solemn dedication to God as holy persons, as persons set apart for his use and service. Christians are not their own, and the method by which God claims and appropriates them to himself is that of regenerating grace. 66 The principle of regeneration is a principle which prompts men to devote themselves to God. They in whom it is planted "present themselves a living sacrifice," as a reasonable service;" they present all their faculties and powers to him; their understanding, to be guided and enlightened by his truth; their will, to be swayed by his authority and to be obedient to his dictates; their hearts and affections, to be filled with his presence and replenished with his love; the ↑ Exod. xxxiv. 26. 1 Pet. i. 23. "Thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there. "And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And now, behold, I have brought the first-fruits of the land which thou, O Lord, hast given me And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God." Deut xxvi. 2, 5, 10. Lev xix. 23, 24 || Rom. xii. 1. members of their body, to be instruments of his glory sacred to his use; their time, to be employed in the way which he directs, and in pursuit of the objects which he prescribes, and no longer according to the dictates of inclination and caprice. They feel and cheerfully acknowledge the obligations they are under to regard him as their God, their owner and their Lord, through the Redeemer. They deprecate the thought of considering themselves under any other light than as those who are "bought with a price;"* that as God was highly honoured by presenting the first-fruits in the temple, since it was an acknowledgment of the absolute right over all things inhering in him, and whatever was possessed was held at his pleasure, so he is much more honoured by devoting ourselves, in proportion as the offerer is superior to the gift, in proportion as a reasonable creature is superior to unconscious matter. "They gave themselves," says St. Paul, speaking of the Macedonians, "first to the Lord;" they gave themselves immediately to Jesus Christ as the great High-priest and Mediator, to be by him presented with acceptance to the Father, just as the basket of first-fruits was put into the hand of the priests to be laid upon that “altar which sanctifies the gift." It would have been great presumption for an Israelite to present his fruits without the intervention of the priest, as they were to be received immediately from his hands; so in our approaches we are to come first to the Mediator, and in his name to devote ourselves to God: "No man cometh to the Father but by him."§ Though we are infinitely unworthy of the acceptance of so great a King, yet when we present ourselves we offer the noblest present in our power, we offer that which has an intrinsic excellence far beyond the most costly material gifts: we offer what has a suitability in it to the character of God; that which is immaterial to the "Father of lights," and that which is spiritual to the "Father of spirits." If he will deign to receive any tribute or acknowledgment at the hands of a fallen creature, as he had demonstrated his readiness to do through a Mediator, what can be deemed, equally fit for this purpose with the solemn consecration of our inmost powers to him, in love, adoration, and obedience? A soul resigning itself to him, panting after him, and ambitious of pleasing him in all things, is a far more excellent gift than the numerous peace-offerings which Solomon, surrounded by a whole nation, presented at the dedication of the temple. Under the gospel he makes little account of other offering: the fruit which he demands is the fruit of our lips. By the Lord Jesus, therefore, "let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.' When the fruits were dedicated the grant was irrevocable. The right to them passed fully and for ever from the offerer, so as to make it impossible for him ever to resume them again. Thus when we have dedicated ourselves to God the act is irrevocable; we must never pretend the least right in ourselves any more; we are to consider ourselves entirely the Lord's. * 1 Cor. vi. 20. 2. This "being a certain first-fruits of his creatures," denotes the superior honour and dignity which it is the gracious design of God to put upon Christians. The first-fruits presented to God were not only required to be of the best, but they derived a pre-eminence above all others from the very circumstance of their being dedicated to God; they were employed to a nobler use. Grace dignifies and exalts in a similar manner its possessor: "The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour;"* however obscure in station, and however beclouded and depressed by the meanness of his external condition, he is one of the excellent of the earth. His employment is that of "a king and a priest unto God." In reflecting some rays of his image, in advancing the honour and sustaining the cause of the blessed God, he is infinitely more honourably occupied than the votaries of the world or the servants of sin. His calling is "high and heavenly."‡ He is associated with Jesus and the holy angels in sacred ministries, his pursuits are of a permanent and eternal nature. If we consider the principles, also, which actuate good men and form the basis of their character, we shall perceive a greatness and elevation to which the world is an entire stranger. Is there nothing more noble in taking a wide prospect, and in looking at "the things which are unseen and eternal,"§ than in being absorbed in transitory concerns? Is not that a higher species of wisdom which calculates upon the interests and advantage which lie concealed from eyes of flesh in the depths of eternity, than that which contents itself with securing perishing riches? a Is it not incomparably more noble and more worthy of an immortal creature to be "providing for himself bags that wax not old,” “ treasure in the heavens that fadeth not,"|| than in searching for " filthy lucre?" Is there not more true dignity in the patience that waits with composure to be happy, than in the childish eagerness which catches at every momentary gratification? Is it not more magnanimous to conquer than submit to the world? to tread the world under our feet than to be enslaved by it? to be able to exercise that self-command over our sensual affections which secures the pleasures of innocence and the approbation of conscience, than to be the victim of unbridled passions? to rule our own spirit, than to be the sport of its tyrannical disorder? to rise above a sense of injury so as to forgive our enemies, rather than to be tormented with malice and revenge? He must be insensible to reason who is at a loss how to answer these interrogatories; and to answer them in the affirmative is to attest the superior dignity of the Christian character, to acknowledge that Christians are "a sort of first-fruits of the creatures." They are so at present with all the imperfections which attach to their state and their character; but they will be incomparably more so when they shall be assembled around the Throne, and it shall be declared of them, "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he Prov. xii. 26. § 2 Cor. iv. 18. Rev. i. 6. Heb. iii. 1. goeth these were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb."* 3. The representation of Christians as a certain first-fruits of the creatures implies the accession of the future harvest; they are a pledge only of what is to follow; their dedication to God as the first-fruits is a preparation for the universal prevalence of religion, the universal sanctification of the creatures. Improvement. I. Let us adore God for having planted in the breast a principle of true religion. II. Let us be ambitious of exemplifying the excellence and dignity of our Christian calling. III. As an important means of this, let us study the gospel, and endeavour to gain a deeper and more extensive acquaintance with the word of truth.t XII. ON SPIRITUAL DEATH. EPH. ii. 1.—And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. THE power of God was most illustriously displayed in raising Christ from the dead; but there is another operation of Divine power which bears a great resemblance to this, of which every individual believer is the subject. It is the prayer of the apostle, in the latter part of the preceding chapter, that the Ephesians might have an increasing experience of the effects of that power which is exerted towards "them that believe, according to the working of his mighty power;" and what particular effect of Divine [power] he had in immediate contemplation, he informs us in the first part of the ensuing chapter: "And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." He had not merely raised Christ from the dead, but he had wrought a similar deliverance for the Ephesians by imparting spiritual life to those who had been dead in trespasses and sins. In treating of these words, I shall first inquire to what extent this representation of a death in trespasses and sins is to be applied, and to what description of persons it belongs; secondly, I shall endeavour to show its import; and thirdly, make a few remarks on the wretched state of those who may justly be affirmed to be dead in trespasses and sins. Rev. xiv. 4. † Preached 7th of March, 1811, at the Wednesday evening lecture |