said the prophet Jeremiah, He shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.

He is also made of God unto us,

III. Sanctification. Sanctification is founded upon, and is greatly promoted by, our free justification through Christ. Justification frees us from the curse of the law, and the ruling power of sin. Sanctification is the consecration of all the powers, both of the body and soul, to God. Sanctification is a privilege purchased for, given to, and wrought in us, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ; whose blood being applied to the conscience, implants and increases holy dispositions, and directs, excites, and enables us to perform good works. Sanctification comprehends all the graces of knowledge, repentance, faith, love, humility, zeal, patience, and the exercise of them in our conduct both toward God and man. Sanctification has a root, and it has a fruit. Its root is, renewal after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness its fruit is, to cease from sin, and to live unto righteousness, loving, studying, and practising good works. But whether we consider it as a privilege, principle, practice, or preparation for heaven, it is wrought in us only by the divine influence of Christ. He is made unto us sanctification, and

IV. Redemption. This word denotes, figuratively, the spiritual redemption of men, by the blood of Christ, from the bondage of sin and death. "Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." "In whom we have redemp

tion through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Now since Christ came to redeem us from all the effects of the fall, this redemption must also include the redemption of our bodies; "for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." “Therefore we groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” For the prophet, in the person of Christ, saith, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction."

It is wonderful, it is passing wonderful, that the God of glory should bend his pitying look on abject man. He who had thrown ten thousand times ten thousand worlds around him, and spread them over illimitable space, turns himself to our narrow habitation the footsteps of a God-made man have been on the narrow spot of ground we occupy, and on our mysterious redemption has he impressed the whole fulness of the Godhead.

Sinner, a proper view of this condescension, requited as it has been by you with ingratitude, would break your heart; and if you do not, with all the ingenuous sorrow of unaffected penitence, abanyour sins to-day, it will be because you have not gotten a right view of them.

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Christians, do you not long for the day to roll on, when you shall join the adoring worshippers of Him who washed us from our sins in his blood; those spotless souls, who with voices loud as from numbers

244 MARRIS'S SERMONS ON IMPORTANT SUBJECTS.

without number, sweet as from blessed voices uttering joy, when heaven rings jubilee, and loud hosannahs fill the eternal regions; and when you shall cry,

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Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and glory, and honour, and blessing!"

SERMON XXIV.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. James i. 2.

THE word which we translate temptation, has two grand meanings: first, solicitation to sin, and secondly, trial from providential situation or circumstances; as persecution, affliction, or trial of any kind. And in this latter sense it is used here; not intending diabolic suggestions, or what is generally understood by the word temptation.

To those who mind earthly things, or live after the flesh, our text will seem a hard saying. So far from thinking it cause or matter of rejoicing to suffer reproach or affliction, there is nothing which they endeavour to shun with greater carefulness. But the man who no longer lives to himself, but to the Lord; the man who observes the motions of sin in his members; the man who finds by experience that self has entered into league with the world and the devil, to destroy his soul; the man who considers this world

as a place of probation, and this life as a state of trial; in fine, who rightly appreciates the joys of heaven, and estimates every thing in exact proportion to its advantages as a mean of salvation; such a man, I say, will not suppose the advice of St. James in the text, a mere flourish of his imagination. He will not regard St. Paul in the vth of Romans, as speaking at random, when he represents his afflictions as cause of exultation and ravishment. “ We glory, "saith he," in tribulation."

It might be well to observe, that the acquiescence in afflictions, of which we are speaking, while it is at the utmost remove from phlegmatic insensibility, is equally remote from quiescence under them, considered in the abstract. My meaning is this;-we are not called to rejoice in trial or temptation, considered in themselves; but as standing in connexion with their valuable fruits; which are nothing less than a "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The one grand aim of the Christian regards the glory of God; his next consideration stands in connexion with the other, the salvation of his own soul. If then, he finds affliction subservient to his purpose, according to the magnanimous principles of Christian philosophy, he will say, "most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong." My brethren, to those whose probation and pilgrimage lead them through