do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find, then, a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law, in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." Who is there that has made almost any advancement in the regenerate life that cannot testify to the truth and pathos of this quotation! How strikingly does it display the dire conflicts which ensue when we endeavour to bring the principles of divine love and charity into practice! Oh, he who imagines he can be born again in an instant, does not know himself! Little does he know of those agonies which the soul endures, and those appalling difficulties which it encounters, in bringing into subjection the inbred loves of self and the world! And those who think they know they are born again; can, with the utmost confidence, tell the very moment when it took place, and are boasting that they have experienced a change of heart; had better take care that they are not still "in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity”!

This reduction of the life to order, by the bringing forth truth from the inner to the outer man, is the fourth stage in the regeneration, and is the education or bringing up of the spiritual man when born. This stage lasts till the end of life in this world. And the life which a man has lived in this world, then serves as a plane for his eternal progression in the knowledge and love of God in the world to come, which is the spiritual man's growth in wisdom to eternity.

Thus a man must be spiritually conceived, gestated, born, and brought up, before he can come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," (Eph. iv. 13:) all which shows that the change by which a man comes out of a natural into a spiritual state is gradual and progressive. Wherefore, marvel not that the Lord says unto you, “ye must be born again."

We conclude, now, from all that has been said and shown, that there is no newness of life without a radical change in the principle of action-that there is no true new birth until the principle of action, which is the end that a man proposes to himself in all he does, is from natural made spiritual; and that, consequently, the new birth consists in ceasing to act from the impulses of natural will as guided by natural reason, and the learning to act in all things from a regard to the Lord's commandments, which are all spiritual truths, and therefore produce, in the conformity of the life to them, spiritual life. We conclude, in short, that the new birth consists in the ceasing to act from the principle of self love, and love of the world, which is a supreme regard to self-interest and to worldly elevation or aggrandizement, in all we do; and the learning to act from a principle of love to God and the neighbour, which is a supreme regard in all we do to what is good simply because it is good, and what is true simply because it is true. We conclude, further, as to the necessity of the new birth, that this arises out of the contrariety between the natural world and God, and out of the fact that man is first born natural, and must afterwards become discretely spiritual. And we conclude, finally, that the new birth is gradual and progressive in its nature, and not an instantaneous work. In short, we are born anew from above; thus the Lord alone is our spiritual father, the sole source of our regeneration; who begets us anew unto righteousness and true holiness, by a successive process of spiritual conception, gestation, birth, and education to eternity: for not one single spark of spiritual life can be given to us by the light of our own wisdom or the heat of our own love.

Wherefore, may the Lord in his infinite mercy give us the spirit of adoption, whereby we can cry Abba, Father! May he thoroughly renew us in the spirit and temper of our minds, giving that faith which works by love and a new creature! And may he, in short, give us "power to become the sons of God”—enabling us so to believe on his name as to be "born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” ! Amen.

SERMON XXI.

MATTHEW, VI. 33.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

WE commenced these sermons with the observation, that the New Jerusalem differs from the old christian church, not in advancing entirely different doctrines, but in understanding the same doctrines in a new way. We now conclude our series with the remark, that, in the true christian church, all things are made new, not by a change of externals, but by a change of internals-not by a change of ordinary and proper natural actions, but by a total change of the ends from which such actions are commonly done. Hence the prescription which the Great Physician has given for the securing of spiritual life, "Thou shalt love God supremely and thy neighbour as thyself -This do, and thou shalt live," is a formulary for every day practice. It is a principle which is to be brought into every duty, every vocation, every pleasure, every enjoyment of this natural life; and it is a spiritual principle, which, when so brought into natural life, makes natural life itself spiritual; that is, makes natural life so subservient as to conduce to the strengthening and perfecting of spiritual life. When natural things are thus done from a spiritual principle-when natural things are sought, acquired and used from an end to God and the neighbour from an end to what is good and true for its own sake-from an end to what is just and honest for the sake of justice and honesty, and without any ultimate or final reference to selfish and worldly gratification, then natural things are truly and eternally enjoyed. But when natural life is in any

way separated from spiritual life, so that natural things are sought, acquired and used without a continual as well as an ultimate and a final reference to spiritual and eternal things, then, not only is true spiritual life lost, but the fruition of natural life also is for ever put out of our reach. Therefore it is, that the Lord gives us the weighty injunction of our text: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

All things in the universe have reference to two principles, namely, goodness and truth, and to their conjunction in ultimate use. And in the Sacred Scriptures there are constantly two terms used and mostly coupled by the conjunctive particle and. One of these terms has specific reference to good, while the other refers to truth, and the coupling of them by the particle and denotes the conjunction of good and truth in use. Thus the terms Lord and God are used-the term Lord referring to the divine good, and the term God to the divine truth. Hence the kingdom of God is the kingdom of divine truth.

In the text, "the kingdom of God" is coupled with "his righteousness" by the particle "and": therefore, according to the general law just stated, while the kingdom of God means the kingdom of the divine truth, his righteousness means the divine good of that truth. The kingdom of truth is its controlling influence in the mind of man, and the righteousness of truth is the good to which truth in practice leads. The king is the inmost or central functionary of the kingdom. And the king, in the human soul, is its inmost principle, or its ruling end of life. The king sits on the throne, which is the highest and first place of the kingdom. The throne is the seat and emblem of power and authority, and from it flows all that which constitutes the kingdom's force and integrity. The kingdom is in fact nothing but the holy principle of royalty extended from the king and his throne. Hence it is that the throne is put for the kingdom, and the king for the kingly office.

Now, in the human soul, the first place is its inmost principle; and whatever rules there, rules throughout the whole soul. And, as we have already shown, the inmost of the soul is its

ruling love, which makes one with its end of life; for whatever a man loves supremely, that he proposes to himself as his end of life. Hence the end of life, is the first place in the human soul; and whatever is in its end of life, this is the ruling principle of the soul. Hence the command to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, implies that the divine truth and the good of that truth should be made man's end of life. It implies that truth should be sought for its own sake, and good be done for its own sake. When truth, with the good of it, is in man's end of life, then it is in the first place, and has dominion over all the inferior principles and parts of the soul. In short, good is as a king, and truth is as a throne, in the mind of man, which is a spiritual world and dominion. Hence, when truth is in the end of life, it is God's throne set in the soul; and when the good of that truth is in the ruling love, that good is as a king, seated on that throne, exercising dominion over the whole will, understanding and ultimate conduct, as his kingdom.

The things which are to be added unto us, when we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, are all the things which are exterior to that kingdom, and righteousness. The kingdom of God and his righteousness constitute spiritual and celestial life in the soul, and the things exterior to this life are all those things which constitute natural life.

Now, if a man makes spiritual and celestial life his end, then all things of natural life will happen as he wishes for his salvation. For "the delights of gain and honours in this natural world, when they are regarded as means conducive to heavenly life as an end, have then life in them by virtue of life from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord; for in this case the end regarded is the Lord. When man is in such an order of life, then worldly gains and honours are a blessing to him; but if he be in an inverted order,"-if he looks first to earthly gains and honours, and pays regard to spiritual and divine things as means to such gains and honours as his end of life,then they are curses to him. Hence that all things of natural life are blessings when man is in the order of heaven, is meant