Jesus will no more acknowledge us as his disciples here, than he will admit us into his beatific presence hereafter.

We cannot then without this be partakers of the kingdom of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ has told us plainly, that he does not regard those who merely "say unto him, Lord, Lord," however clamorous they may be, or ostentatious of their zeal for him: he approves of those only "who do the will of his Father which is in heaven." We may assume the name of his disciples, and be numbered amongst them by others; we may associate ourselves with them, as Judas did, and be as little suspected of hypocrisy, as he; we may even deceive ourselves as well as others, and be as confident that we are Abraham's children as ever the Pharisees of old were; we may like them be quite indignant to have our wisdom and goodness called in question; " Are we blind also ?” “ in so saying, thou condemnest us:" But all this will not make us Christians. A sepul

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chre may be whitened and rendered beautiful in its outward appearance; but it will be a sepulchre still; and its interior contents will be as loathsome as those of a common grave. It is to little purpose to "have the form of godliness, if we have not the power ;” to have a name to live, whilst yet we are really dead." God will not judge of us by our profession, but our practice: "Then are ye my friends, says our Lord, if ye do whatsoever I command you." To this effect is that declaration also of the Psalmist; having asked, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?" he answers, "He that hath clean ́hands, and a pure heart." The truth is, that those whom Christ will acknowledge as his disciples, have been “born again;" they are "renewed in the spirit of their minds ;” “they are new creatures; old things are passed away, and all things are become new: they have been taught the spirituality and extent of God's law; to know, that an angry word is murder, and an impure desire, adul

tery; and in that glass they have seen themselves guilty, polluted, and condemned sinners they have been stirred up by this view of themselves to flee unto Christ for refuge, as to the hope set before them in the Gospel having "found peace with God through the blood of his cross," they devote themselves unfeignedly to his service, and strive to "glorify him with their bodies and their spirits which are his." Here is the true secret of their obedience; "The love of Christ constraineth them; because they thus judge, that, if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they who live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them and rose again." This is conversion ; this is regeneration; this is what every Scribe and Pharisee must be brought to: even Nicodemus, "a master in Israel," must become a disciple of Christ in this way: for our Lord declared to him in the most solemn manner, that, unless he should be [thus] born again, he could not enter into the kingdom of God.”

The same is true in relation to the kingdom of glory. Whilst we are in this world, the tares and the wheat which grow together, may so resemble each other, that they cannot be separated by human sagacity. The Jewish tares, (as I myself know by ocular inspection,) cannot even when full grown, be immediately distinguished from wheat by a common observer:* the difference, however, is soon found by rubbing

* The learned are not agreed what the a were. Parkhurst's account of them, in his Lexicon, is, that they were "a kind of plant, in appearance not unlike corn or wheat, having at first the same kind of stalk, and the same viridity; but bringing forth no fruit, at least none good." Macknight is precisely of the same opinion. Linnæus, speaking of that very species which the Author here refers to, designates them as the zizania. Later Botanists deny that that plant grew in Judea; and represent it as of American growth. Whether Linnæus was right, is no part of the Author's intention to discuss. He merely mentions the fact, that he has seen (in a Green-house at Bristol,) that plant, which Linnæus identifies with the zizania of Judea; which in our translation of the Bible, is called tares; and which, though to all appearance useless and unproductive,

the ears, which in the one are nearly empty, and in the other are full of grain. The same may be noticed also in the religious world. Not only common observers, but even those who have the deepest insight into characters, and the best discernment of spirits, may be deceived; but God can never be deceived: however specious we may be in our outward appearance, he will dis

may easily be mistaken for wheat in full ear. In this view, whatever it be called, it illustrates his subject: and, if it be the zizanion, it reflects a beautiful light also upon the Parable of the Tares, Matt. xiii. Some indeed think, that because the servants distinguished the zizania from the wheat, there was no resemblance between them. But that argument is by no means conclusive: for the servants who were constantly habituated to the sight of tares and wheat, might easily discern that they were mixed in the field, whilst yet the difference might not be so great, but that a number of persons employed to pull them all up, might make innumerable mistakes, and root up much of the corn with them. The parable indeed may be explained without supposing any resemblance between the two; but such an interpretation destroys, in the Author's apprehension, much of the force and beauty and importance of the parable.