which shall endure as long as his immortal spirit shall endure. It is the righteousness of GOD; the righteousness which God the Father, in infinite wisdom, devised; the righteousness which God the Son, in unutterable goodness, wrought out; the righteousness which God the Holy Ghost, in unspeakable mercy, applies to the conscience. It is the only righteousness which God requires, and which man needs; and the moment it is embraced, God and conscience are satisfied. All the attributes of God are reconciled and harmonized; justice and truth meet together, righteousness and peace embrace each other.

"Ye are complete in him." Think of this with joy, ye who are justified by faith, and do not let Satan deprive you of the joy. What has the law to do with you as it respects condemnation? It is magnified. What has justice to do with you as respects his demands? They are satisfied. What has sin to do with you as respects its condemning power? It is put away by the sacrifice of Christ. What has Satan to do with you as respects his condemning influence in the soul? Christ has obtained a victory over, and destroyed him that has the power of sin, that is, the Devil. Therefore, lift up your heads with joy, and sing, "I will greatly rejoice; I will glory in the God of my salvation."

Believers are complete in him BY RECEIVING from his fulness. "It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell." All the fulness of the Godhead bodily, all the goodness of the manhood visibly, all the fulness of the Mediator mediatorially; this is the fulness which he possesses; and he possesses it in consequence of the completion of his work, and of satisfying the Divine justice. When the people were present on the day of Pentecost, they were astounded at the things which they saw and heard. Peter explained it, and said, "All this has happened because Christ has ascended to heaven, and has received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, and shed forth this which ye now see and hear." He "ascended up on high, and received gifts for men, even the rebellious."

Now it is every believer's privilege to receive out of this fulness, and grace for grace; and what a fulness must it be to supply a believer's wants! I have seen a little paper, called, “Fifty-two Wants of the Believer in Jesus." They might as well be called fifty-two thousand, or fifty-two million. Fifty-two wants! Why, fifty-two wants will never fill up his mind: these will never reach

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his desires and his necessities. But his fulness is able to satisfy the most enlarged desires of the most enlarged mind. Does he want spiritual blessings? "It has pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell:""Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ." Does he want life when he feels himself fainting? "Ye are dead, but your life is hid with Christ in God." Does he want to realize and lay hold of eternal life? This is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." Does he want peace? We have "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Does he want communion with the Father, and fellowship with his Spirit? By him "we have fellowship with the Father," access by one Spirit unto the Father." Does he want joy? "We joy in God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Does he long for forgiveness? "We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." Does he want acceptance? We are accepted in the beloved." Does he want adoption? We have "the adoption of sons" through Him who is the first-born Son of the Father. Does he want heaven? There is union with him: "Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." He sustains to all the offices which constitute the felicity of his saints. When our friends are dead, or when they are unkind to us, where can we go but to Christ? He is a brother born for adversity, a friend that loveth at all times. He is an everlasting Father, that pities his children, and comforts his weak and mourning saints. He is the husband, the physician, the friend, the guide, the prophet, the priest, the king, the portion, the inheritance, the all and in all, of his saints. You have afflictions sanctified to you, mercies granted to you, graces upheld within you, and heaven to receive you. Tell me what you can want beside. O that I could this morning impart the comfort of this most precious truth! You may, according to the flesh, be in want, but you have abundance in Christ; in pain, but you have health in Christ; in outward affliction, but you have comfort in Christ; on the verge of eternity, but you have happiness in Christ.

Fourthly: Believers are complete in Christ IN THEIR SANCTIFICATION AND GLORIFICATION. I put these two together, because neither are at present perfect, and may be considered incomplete. Still, even in their sanctification they are "complete in him." "Who of God is made unto us sanctification," which, though progressive as to its nature, is complete in Christ their head. A

sculptor, when he commences his work upon a figure, begins at the feet, or perhaps the head; he forms an arm, or a foot, or the head: it is all incomplete. But when a child of God is regenerated, it is all perfect; all the parts are perfect-perfect in their kind, though not in their degree: as an infant when it is born is perfect in its parts, and only wants growth that it may arrive to maturity; so a child of God, when renewed in the spirit of his mind, the new man formed within him is as perfect as to its parts as it ever will be; it has only to be perfected in its degree through grace and boundless mercy.

So of glorification. As in the Saviour while he was on the earth there were some glimpses of his glory manifested, the tabernacle not hiding the shekinah, but there being some glimpses of light pervading the tabernacle of the flesh; so the saint, while on earth, has not glory in perfection, but he has a taste of it. And what a taste of it has been sometimes had! By and bye you are to have its fulness your glorification is complete in him: "Where I am there shall also my servants be." The head will not live without the members: as Moses said, "Not a hoof shall be left behind;" so none that he redeemed by his blood, none that have trod in his steps, none that have sought for residence in glory, shall be left behind.

Let me say, in conclusion, love this blessed Saviour in whom you are so blessed. All your salvation is by him, all your comfort is from him, all your joy derived from him, all your hopes centred in him, all your happiness from him; and will you not love him? Methinks it is unnecessary to ask a saint to love his Lord and Master: can he do otherwise? Not love Christ! Not delight in Christ! Shame on the wretch that would not love him! But a saint who is allied to him by such bonds, who has received such blessings from him, and is in expectation of heaven from him, far be the thought from you! Why, his name is like ointment poured forth, "as music in the ear, jubilee in the heart, and honey in the mouth :" and will you not love him? Yes, I think I hear some who are coming to his table to commemorate his love, say,

"Yes! I love thee, and adore:

O for grace to love thee more!"

Be it so: and if you wish to love him more, take these three directions, that you may get a little more of this love: Be alive in his company: meditate on his love: and employ yourselves in his service.

Let your completeness in Christ comfort you under your own imperfections and incompleteness. What a contrast does the saint form to his Saviour! How incomplete, beloved, are your joy, your love,

your comfort; what want of perfection! What room is there for lamentation over your temper, over the order which you maintain in your houses, over the want of time for devotion, over the lamentable deficiencies of a consistent and humble walk with God! Now Christ is your pattern, and you are not to aim to copy this believer or that believer; but to aim at the perfections of your Lord and Master. Finally, the Saviour invites those who are sensible of their incompleteness to come to him for perfection. Have you ever considered that it would be impossible for a holy God to receive a spirit in heaven that was not perfect, and that it is necessary that the individual who enters heaven should be perfectly holy? The Deity could not associate but with such; and the individual could not associate with Deity if he were not such. Heaven would be hell itself to the ungodly mind; there would be nothing like a paradise to the wicked man in heaven: all his companions on earth differ from the saints; all his employments and enjoyments differ from those of saints. What would such a man be in heaven unless renewed, changed, and completed in Christ? You have no title to heaven till you get it through the Lord Jesus Christ; and there is no entrance but by faith in his blood. You are incomplete in your happiness. Look at it: what is it? You have perhaps some few relishes of pleasure, rolling it like a sweet morsel under your tongue: but then the bitter reflection, the lying down at night and thinking of the day, the ruminating over past life, and seeing where sin has left you! All these leave stings on your conscience, which nothing can extract but the virtue of the Saviour's blood. And what are your prospects? You are hastening on fast to the eternal world, and very soon must enter on it: and what prospect have you? The man who is going a long journey and does not prepare, is surely a foolish traveller: and you are travelling from earth to heaven, and have no preparation for it, nothing that shall give you entrance into glory, no prospect but that of the lost, no portion but that of the damned! But I have good news and glad tidings to tell you this morning. Though, sinners, you are incomplete in yourselves, multitudes may be made complete in him. There is no barrier to your acceptance of his grace and mercy but your own unwillingness. It is a sad thing to think of the multitudes who attend the Gospel ministry in this place who know nothing of God! My heart yearns over you, dear hearers; and I feel for your state, if you will not feel for yourselves. May God have mercy on you and enable you to feel the wretchedness of your condition, that you may not rest one single moment till you find rest in Christ!

THE TARES OF THE FIELD.

REV. F. ELLABY, A.M.

PERCY CHAPEL, CHARLOTTE STREET, FITZROY SQUARE, SEPT. 4, 1836.

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field," &c.-MATTHEW, xiii. 36-44.

JESUS sent the multitude away to whom he had spoken in parables publicly, and received his disciples at the house for a private conference. There is meaning in this, and instruction to be derived from it, to which therefore I call your attention. When we read of the disciples of Jesus in any of the four gospels, there is either reference made to a company or multitude of them, or a select and limited number. In John, vi. the many are undoubtedly referred to, for at verse 60 it is recorded they were offended at the things he had taught in the synagogue, and said, "Who can hear?" and at verse 66 it is added, "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." It would seem they had been received to discipleship, by some rite, upon their profession of faith in Messiah, and as inquirers and learners, but not upon any evidence of being regenerate: that rite I believe to have been baptism-the easy yoke of Christ, instead of that grievous and heavy yoke of circumcision which the law imposed: and being so admitted they were numbered with the disciples, and eligible to their privileges according to the words of Jesus, Matt. xi. 29: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me:" and again, verse 11, "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but to others (I speak) in parables." Then, what he had done, he commanded to be perpetuated in the church by his followers after him; for in chap. xxviii. 19, it is written, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Here, you perceive, a teaching is enjoined to call to a profession of faith and of discipleship, and then a teaching to instruct in "the mysteries of the kingdom of God," and to observe all things which Jesus had commanded his

servants to make known.