The Apostle calls the word of the gospel an incorruptible seed, by which we are born again. God has blessed every natural seed, by his omnifick fiat, to produce its kind. 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth.' &c. Gen. 1, 11, 12. Thus, by this original blessing, the natural seeds have received the power of propagation, that they multiply to the end of the world. Can the spiritual seed possess a less blessing ? By no means. The natural seeds have not this principle of propagation only sometimes, but always. It is an inseparable principle. If they are sown into a good ground, and properly attended to, they will yield their increase. The same must be said of the spiritual seed,... the word : it is not only sometimes spirit and life, that is, when it reaches the elect ; and yet, at the same time, when it reaches the reprobate be nothing but an empty call. As the natural seeds are sown into the ground, and produce a crop, even so the spiritual seed, when well preserved in the heart, will yield the fruits of the spirit, which are ' love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.' Gal. 5, 22, 23. Although the spiritual seed, the word, resembles the natural, yet it is far superior to all the seeds in the kingdom of nature. As natural seeds are corruptible, so are also their fruits ; they cannot abide in the universal wreck of nature : but the spiritual seed, the word, is incorruptible ; though heaven and earth shall pass away, yet this word abideth forever. Its fruits are incorruptible. In the hearts of the saint, even in the shades of death, they are ever green ! blooming ! immortal ! and divine ! Regeneration is ascribed to this word ; and why should it not, when it is an incorruptible seed?

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