unregenerate state. Formerly we had no taste for them, no pleasure in them : now we are never so happy as when we get access to God in these duties : it is even " as marrow and fatness to our souls, when we can praise our God with joyful lips^."
True, " the flesh will yet lust against the spirit, as well as the spirit against the flesh :" but " sin shall no more have dominion over us'';" we shall, in desire at least, be " holy as God himself is holy, and perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfecf*."
Before I come to my concluding remarks on this subject, I beg you to inquire with yourselves, whether you have ever had a practical experience of these things in your own souls ? It is said in my text, " Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Now is this true of you? Have you, (I speak to every individual,) Have you ever been brought to such a sense of your own destitution of all good, and of your utter incapacity to supply, by any efforts of your own, your manifold necessities ? Have you also been led to see what a fulness there is in Christ, exactly suited to your necessities ? and have you actually received out of his fulness a supply of all that you stand in need of, so that Christ is daily regarded by you as your entire Saviour, your all in all ? I pray you, let not this matter be thought of small import ; No indeed. These things are not to be viewed as a mere theory, but as practical truths, upon the experience of which your everlasting salva- tion depends : and, if you die before they are realized by you in your daily experience, it will be better for you that you had never been born.
Here I might well close my subject. But, having taken hitherto only the more obvious and superficial view of it, I would, if it detain you not too long, briefly entreat your attention to some points which are more deep and recondite, and which, I hope, will repay the trespass which I thus reluctantly make upon your time.
i" Ps. Ixiii. 5. " Rom. vi. 14. '' 1 Pet. i. 15, 16.