the Son of God: *"looking unto him as the author and finisher of our faith." Let us go on our way rejoicing; for †“we have the promise of the life that now is, and also of that which is to come.'

Our Saviour declares of those who are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand-those who hear his voice and follow him. "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. § Our life is hid with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is our life, shall appear; then shall we also appear with him in glory." "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

My brethren, we may boldly exclaim with the Apostle St. Paul, ¶"if God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall he not with him also freely give us all things. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?

*Heb. xii. 2. 1 Timothy, iv. 8. John, x. 28, 29. § Col. iii. 4. 1 John, iii. 2. Romans, viii. 31--39.

It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

May the Lord Jesus Christ be the resurrection and the life to every one of us, that we may find, by our own happy and eternal experience, that he died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. Amen.

SERMON VI.

FOR NEW YEAR'S DAY.

"Let it alone this year also."-LUKE xiii. 8.

AT the time when these words fell from the lips of our blessed Saviour, some of the Jews had related to him the severe punishment of the Gallileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, from which our Lord took occasion to exhort the Jews themselves to repentance, declaring that unless they repented, they should all likewise perish." He also mentioned another instance of sudden destruction that had happened about the same time, the falling of the tower of Siloam, by which eighteen persons were crushed to death, and he repeats his exhortation to repentance.

He then delivers a parable, pointing out the long suffering mercy of God, his own effectual intercession for sinners, and

* Luke, xiii. 3.

*"A cer

the nature of true repentance. tain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereon and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? and he answering, said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it, and if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that, thou shalt cut it down."

We cannot be much mistaken in considering the lord of the vineyard, as representing our Almighty and Heavenly Father,—the merciful vinedresser our blessed Saviour,―the vineyard, the visible Church of God on earth, and the fruitless figtree an unconverted sinner; who is outwardly a member of God's Church, but receives the grace of God in vain.

This parable is, in the first instance, applicable to the Jews; for the Church of God was at that time confined to their nation. The Lord had frequently sought from them; those fruits of righteousness, and obedience, which were to be expected from the abundant grace and mercy, that his bounty had showered down upon them.

* Luke, xiii. 6, 7, 8, 9.

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But he found them still unfruitful, as he thus declares by his prophet Isaiah, * "what could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" At length the sentence went forth, that Jerusalem so long, and so highly favoured, should be cut down, as a cumberer of the ground.

And John the Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord, proclaimed to the Jews, that the axe was then laid to the root of the trees, and that "every tree which brought not forth good fruit, should be hewn down and cast into the fire."

But while the destroying angel, stretched out his hand over the beloved city, to execute the sentence of Divine justice, when the axe was now laid to the root of the tree, to level its luxuriant but fruitless branches in the dust, the intercession of our blessed Saviour, obtained a respite: "Lord let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it." He then bestowed upon it the highest degree of spiritual cultivation, it had ever received, by the preaching and numerous miracles, both of himself and his Apostles. But it + Matthew, iii. 10.

Isaiah, v. 4.