reprobate mind; but they are those who did not like to retain Him in their knowledge. Awful indeed, and hopeless it is to be thus reprobate of God; wherefore, let us beware of becoming so. He who has declared, that "whom He will He hardens," has said also, that He will give His Holy Spirit to them that ask it, more surely than an earthly father will provide food for his children. Let us take the promise and the threat together, and we shall gather that our free will is like every other talent or faculty of our nature, strong enough to serve us to eternal life, if used rightly and in time; but not so strong as to save us from the consequences of our folly, if we long continue to abuse it.

RUGBY CHAPEL,

Sept. 8th, 1833.

SERMON VI.

ROMANS XII.

ROMANS xii. 1.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

HOWEVER useful it may be sometimes to dwell upon the more difficult subjects connected with Holy Scripture, (such as those which I considered in my last sermons,) yet one cannot, I think, feel otherwise than rejoiced to be able at length to leave those thorny points, and to return to the simple and wholesome words which more immediately concern our daily living. Of this last kind is all the latter part of the Epistle to the Romans:-it is so easy, that he who runs may read; it is so beautiful and so useful, that no fairer or better pasture has been provided for the hungry soul by its good Shepherd. Here, too, is nothing about extinct ceremonies and

forgotten distinctions; nothing about the Jews in particular; but all concerns all men of all times equally; it is a perfect manual of heavenly wisdom for every man who is on his way to heaven.

The Apostle connects what he is going to say with the former part of his Epistle. "I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God,"-by those mercies of which I have spoken so largely," that you present your bodies a living sacrifice to God." "I have told you," he might say, "how you are God's redeemed people; acquitted through faith in His Son; with those most powerful motives of hope, and confidence, and gratitude, and love, presented to your minds by the Holy Spirit, which can alone give you the victory over sin and the devil, and enable you to serve God in perfect freedom. See then what has been done for you: God declares His love to you more strongly than He ever did to man before, for you know that Christ has died for you; He is nearer to you than ever He was to patriarch or prophet, for He has written His will in your minds, and made your hearts His temple; He has spoken not to your eyes or to your ears, but to your inmost feelings; He has communed directly with your spirits, enlarging your views, ennobling your desires, and awakening your best affections; and finally, He has taken away the veil that hung over the grave, and while He tells you of Jesus risen, He promises that where Jesus is there shall you be

also. Thus elected, thus called, thus justified or acquitted, by all these abundant mercies bestowed on you, I beseech you break not the golden chain with which God would fain draw you from earth to heaven. May it be true in your case as it should be in every case, that those whom God has once acquitted, those He may also finally glorify."

Therefore, my brethren, I beseech you to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." And first, "Be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed in the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." In all things look forward, and never backward; turn not back to the world that you have left, but press ever forward, learning and loving the will of God every day more and more fully, till you are perfect even as He is perfect. For, my brethren, even the glorious revelation of the Gospel does not at once reveal to us all that God intended us to learn. When it is said, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, we should go on to perfection, our high calling as Christians is truly described. There is much more for us to learn than the facts of our redemption through Christ, and of our being the heirs of eternal life ;-the Comforter who abides with us for ever, leaves us not where we were at first, but if we follow His guidance, is ever drawing

us on to higher degrees of heavenly knowledge. I am not speaking of the revelation of mysteries, or of that sort of knowledge which might gratify curiosity, but of the knowledge of the will of God. But it may be said, "Is not the will of God already revealed to us in the Scriptures? and how then can we learn it more and more, if we have once read those Scriptures ?" To which the best answer which can be given is the simple fact, that all who have read them do not know God's will equally; for many read them who do not study them, and many study them for other views than to learn better and better how they can purify themselves as Christ is pure. Assuredly we can gain no knowledge of God which is not derived originally from the Scriptures; but by comparing one part of the Scriptures with another, by thinking much over it, by accustoming ourselves constantly to judge of life as the Scriptures teach us to regard it, by living according to our present conscience, and striving and praying that it may be more and more enlightened, who can doubt that we shall know much more of the mind of the Spirit than could be gained by a mere careless reading of the letter of God's revelation, with no effort to penetrate below the surface?

But now, in order to attain to these higher points of Christian perfection, observe what follows: "For I say, through the grace of God that is given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of him