that I should have been able to set out with some distinctness the means whereby we are to seek the attainment of this state. I must only add just the chief points of that pursuit. It is plain that Christ is the power. And if we would attain to any measure of this state, it must be by his agency within us. And I cannot disguise from you that it will be just as God hath willed in Him, with respect to the measure of our attainment. We are called to aspire at great things in this pursuit; we are called to no less a height of ambition than that which this apostle prescribes to himself. We ought also to say, as he said, "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." But, say as we may, and strive as we may, it is only so far as God hath in his wisdom,-and let me say, not in his wisdom only, but in his tender pity and love,-ordained for us, that we shall actually make attainment. I would encourage you, beloved, as I would encourage myself, to the noblest height of ambition. I would not be content,-yet there is a sense in which I would be perfectly content,-but there is a sense in which I would not be content, without the highest achievement in the attainment of the mind of the risen man, the mind of Christ as He sitteth in the heavenly place. O, beloved, have I not often told you that this is our law? We have not the law of the ten commandments: there is an incidental fulfilment, as I have told you, of the law of the ten commandments in every spiritual man; but the law

of the spiritual man is the mind of Jesus Christ, as He now sitteth at the right hand of God. That is my law; that is your law. Why then, if it be my law, and your law, must you not study that mind? Is not that the first thing you would aim to do? First you set the object before you; you aim to understand your object. Well then, I think I have given you two good hints towards this attainment, the desire to know its highest reach. Understanding that it is Christ's gift. Understanding that it is to be sought by the study of Christ's mind. Understanding,-I will give you a further hint,—that prayer is to be made, even unto Him, and unto God through Him, that such may be your attainment. But there is one mean more,— and that, one which I have especially been insisting upon of late, and I hope and believe that I shall be led to insist upon it to my last gasp,-study the scheme of God in Christ; acquaint yourselves with the mystery of his will; for by the knowledge of God's scheme in Christ alone can you be brought to desire that mind, which to know is to follow after. No man can know it without following after it. No man can follow after it until he has been led to discern something of its excellency and of its desirableness. And one word more. I know it is a common notion that people have but to read their Bible, and they must get to know all that the Bible teaches, all that the Bible contains. Beloved, I have made the remark not many days ago, persons may stumble through the whole Bible, and

never get at the knowledge of the mystery of God's will. The "word," which is declared to be the "truth," and by which the soul is sanctified, (John xvii. 17,) is the message of the kingdom, is this scheme to which I am inviting your study; and I beseech you to ask of God that He will be pleased to lead you, according to the record of his Church, expressed in her confessions and catechism and other formularies, to that knowledge of the scheme He is prosecuting and consummating, which shall indeed instruct you what his mind is; and through the knowledge of his mind as therein developed, to bring you to the knowledge of himself; that by the knowledge of God you may be brought to an imitation of Christ, and in your measure to exhibit a pattern of that mind which is in his bosom who sitteth in the bosom of God.

April 26, 1829.

SERMON XIX.

ACTS ii. 39.

FOR THE PROMISE IS UNTO YOU, AND TO YOUR CHILDREN, AND TO ALL THAT ARE AFAR OFF, EVEN AS MANY AS THE LORD OUR GOD SHALL CALL.

I Do not know that I can better fill up the small space of time which is allotted to me for the present address, than by resuming the subject which I brought before you on a former similar occasion, and which I am in fact pursuing on these several occasions, namely, the consideration of a part of the Baptismal Office. It is my intention, as I have announced it to you, to proceed in a strict and regular order through the consideration of that Office. At present I am endeavouring to open your minds to the right apprehension of the first collect of that service, and have proceeded some way in its interpretation and application. I have noticed to you that the collects of the Church are usually resolvable into three parts. There is a doctrine recited, upon which a petition is founded; the petition follows the doctrine; and to that expression of our desire is added