we this day celebrate, in the view which has been exhibited to you, so far from being visionary and enthusiastic, does not present any thing which our sober judgment will condemn. That the omnipotent Being who made us, does exercise a powerful but invisible influence over our minds, without violating our free agency, presents no difficulty to those who acknowledge his supreme and almighty dominion. That the frailty and corruption of our nature, in its aversion to good, and its liability to temptation, render this divine and holy agency necessary for us, no person acquainted with his own heart, and with the world, will deny; and that this divine agency is exerted by the Holy Ghost, one of the persons of the Godhead, is a truth of revelation which, however incomprehensible, our knowledge of the divine nature, and of our own minds, does not enable us to disprove. The administration of the grace of the Spirit is entirely rational, orderly, and sober. This grace is to be obtained by the diligent use of appointed means; and it produces in the soul that yields to its celestial sway, those virtues which are the ornament of our nature, which reason approves and honours, and which will constitute the never-ending bliss of our future existence.

Seek then, brethren, these influences of the Divine Spirit with diligence, with constancy, with supreme solicitude: seek them in humble prayer, in the worship and ordinances of Christ's church; especially in that holy supper where the church now calls you to celebrate the great event when the Holy Spirit was conferred. Unless we are the subjects of their renovating power, we are

estranged from God, the source of holiness and felicity; we are in bondage to sin, and under the sentence of condemnation. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature," is an inspired declaration; and the only sure evidence of this renovation is our exhibition, in their purity and power, of the fruits of the Spirit.

SERMON XXXII.

THE DIFFERENT WAYS IN WHICH WE MAY QUENCH THE SPIRIT OF GOD.

EPHESIANS iv. 30.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.

THE church this day commemorates an event to which she owes her establishment, her stability and glory, and to which her members must ascribe all the holy graces and virtues which animate them.

The Holy Ghost, descending as at this time on the apostles, and releasing them from the gross prejudices which led them to regard the Jewish law as a system which was to last for ever, inspired them with a perfect and lively comprehension of that great mystery which was to be made known unto the Gentiles, "Christ, the wisdom and the power of God," "God manifest in the flesh," for the salvation of the whole world. Cloven tongues, as of fire, sitting upon them, were an emblem of the gift which then endued them with the power of speaking different languages, that thus they might carry the glad tidings of salvation into all the nations of the world; and the rushing mighty wind forcibly denoted those miraculous powers by which they commanded the operations of nature, and thus attested that God was with them. The Spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of strength, which came upon them from on high, enabled them to plant

throughout the world the cross of their Saviour, triumphant over its learning, its power, and its persecution.

But not only these mighty and splendid gifts, by which the apostles ruled all nature, did the Divine Spirit confer, he this day descended on his church, to abide with it for ever, enlightening, renewing, strengthening, and consoling its members.

The doctrine of communion between the mind and the Divine Being who formed it, though fully made known only in the Gospel of Christ, is so agreeable to reason, that it has been admitted and cherished by the wise and good in all ages. Man feels so sensibly his dependence-so many circumstances perpetually remind him of his weakness— so many objects in the world around him act upon his senses, and call up, in resistless force, those passions that war against his reason and his conscience, that he is prompted to invoke the aid of that superior Power who made and who sustains him, and who, therefore, can have access to every faculty and feeling of his soul.

What unbiassed reason and nature seek, the Scriptures reveal. That Being whose spiritual and infinite essence is past finding out, and whom, therefore, we should adore as he has displayed himself to us, is revealed as subsisting in three co-equal and co-eternal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost-each divine, infinite, and eternal, and together incomprehensibly constituting one God. And in the stupendous and mysterious agency which each exerts in man's salvation, it is the Father who, being the infinite and eternal fountain of Deity, gave the Son to be incarnate for our redemption; it is the Son who, full of grace and truth, redeems us from

our bondage to sin, Satan, and death; and it is the Holy Ghost who sanctifies the powers and affections of our fallen nature, and thus renders us meet for the glory which Christ, the Son, hath gone before to prepare for us.

Various, powerful, and beneficent are the offices of the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Ghost: -the quickening Spirit, that penetrates with conviction the hardened or secure conscience-the consoling Spirit, that applies the promises of divine mercy through a Saviour's merits-the enlightening Spirit, that sheds light on the darkened understanding-the directing and governing Spirit, that influences the determinations of our perverse willsthe renovating and sanctifying Spirit, that purifies our carnal affections; without him we can do nothing.

"I will pray the Father," said our blessed Lord, "and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth:"" he shall guide you into all truth." "The Spirit of God dwelleth in you." "God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts." “According to his mercy, God saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." "God hath chosen us to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit." "It is the Spirit that helpeth our infirmities." "The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth."

The sacred writings thus stating most prominently the doctrine of the existence and agency of the Holy Spirit, we need not wonder at the important station which this doctrine holds in our church. To be born of the Spirit, she lays down as the characteristic of all the true children of God. She