and thus attaining, through his sufferings, unto righteousness, we may taste that blessedness the holy psalmist describes : "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

SERMON V.

2 CORINTHIANS, III. 17.

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

As every word of Scripture is sent forth for its purpose, and will not return empty, so may the present passage appear dictated by the Holy Spirit of God, to attract the attention of the present day, when the question it refers to, a question whether civil or religious of equal importance, is so earnestly debated. What is liberty? As a question on which the attention of the community is fixed, agitating the opinions of men, and drawing them aside from the consideration of weightier matters, to the pure abstractions and theories of the day, it will not be considered irrelevant if I

endeavour to give an advantageous direction to these inquiries after liberty, and in offering you some brief remarks on the question at issue, endeavour, and I trust to your satisfaction to establish, that the Bible only is the real charter of our liberty.

In attempting this I shall divide my subject, and treat, first, of national, and then of personal liberty.

In considering the first position, it will be necessary to revert briefly to the history of days gone by, that I may show you how constantly the progress of civilization, that is, the advancement of society in all the arts and comforts of social life, has gone hand in hand with the progress of religious truth. As preparatory to this, it will be necessary that a brief reference should be made to the nations of antiquity, whose mental and political energy has thrown a halo round their name. By them, it may be admitted, that some questionable approaches were made towards liberty. I speak of them as questionable,

because, however we may admire their exertions as conspicuous amidst the surrounding darkness, their attention, as is too evident, rather to the name than to the 'substance of liberty, their short duration, marred by troubles and disturbances, to end in the most galling despotism, will render them rather interesting as pourtraying a series of brilliant and distinguished characters, than as displaying in their institutions any practical system of sound and well-regulated freedom. Before, however, setting their value on these exertions, it will be but fair to compare them with the Mosaic institutions of a still earlier age, and, speaking classically, of a much less distinguished people.

In perusing the laws of Moses, it is impossible not to remark the many provisions for protecting the personal rights and interests of all classes of the community. That striking feature so peculiarly evident in the New Testament, is seen equally in the old. is no respect of persons."

"With God there

Justice and

compassion are enforced, oppression and wrong are denounced; and had they been acted up to in their spirit, they would have established a perfect system of freedom. Every Israelite in independence and freedom might have enjoyed the fruits of his labour, for whilst the spirit of the Lord was amongst them, they were free : nor does there occur one instance in their history of their subjection or slavery, but as the punishment of their broken laws; nor were they ever subjected to arbitrary rule, but as the fruit and consequence of their own apostacy. No Israelite, in an age when slavery universally prevailed, and preserved far more of its paternal relations than in later days, could be enslaved but by his own choice, or as the punishment of crime; nor could he then be detained in slavery, however well deserved, beyond the seventh year. Nor again was the foreign slave less protected, while the rigours and cruelties which a civilized age has cause to blush at were forbidden at the price of freedom. Such