eternal life;" and he "believes"-continues to believe" on the Name of the Son of God."

APPLICATION.

There are many things which present themselves as suitable to be said, in closing such a subject. I cannot, however, enlarge; and the practical complexion of the latter parts of the discussion renders it the less necessary that I should. Amongst the readers of this little work, there may be, in greater or smaller proportions, three classes, to each of whom I may address a few parting words. They are the confident, the diffident, and the careless.

1. To the first of these classes I would say-I have no objections to confidence. The Bible speaks of it as the believer's privilege. I have no objection to its rising to assurance, to full assurance, to its even assuming this form at the very outset, and maintaining it to the end of the course; inasmuch as we have seen it to be the gracious design of God that his people should "know that they have eternal life;"—and the case is quite conceivable,-nay more, whatever there may be in believers themselves to hinder its being uniformly realized, there is not only nothing in the word of God to prevent it, but every thing to warrant and produce it,-of so clear and simple a perception, and so strong and steadfast a belief, being obtained from the very first, and continued ever afterwards, of the freeness and fulness of the grace of God in Christ, as shall keep the believer in the scriptural enjoyment of unshaken confidence to the last. It is not the fault of God or of his gospel, that it is not always thus. It is in neither that we are straightened, but in ourselves.-It will be well for the confident, however, to attend to the three following simple inquiries.

First. Are you sure your confidence is resting on the true foundation,--on the genuine apostolic gos

pel, the simple testimony of God concerning his Son?-on the finished work of Jesus, held forth in that testimony as the divinely approved and therefore only ground of acceptance for sinners? Many, you must be well aware, have had confidence in error. See then that your foundation be right. This is the first concern. If this be wrong, all is wrong. Examine well the divine record, which reveals the ground of hope with all simplicity, requiring only simplicity on the sinner's part to understand it; and see that your confidence be founded in THE TRUTH.

Secondly. Supposing your conceptions of the gospel to be according to the simplicity of apostolic statement, let me ask you-Is your confidence humble? You may fancy it hardly necessary to ask such a question, after you have said that your confidence rests exclusively on the finished work of the Just One. Be it so. All I wish you to remember is, that if it really do rest there, it will be humble; and that the humble-minded character of your confidence is one of the evidences that this is indeed its foundation. But I have known persons, who have evidently prided themselves in their simple views of the truth; who have made a righteousness of their clear notions; who, instead of living in a habitually lowly dependence on what the truth reveals, have plumed themselves on their emancipation from the enthralling mysticism of human systems, and have looked down, with a cold-hearted superciliousness, on all who, in their statements of the gospel, have not come fully up to their standard. Yes: I have known such persons;-pharisaical foes of pharisaism; uttering, in the spirit of the pharisee, the language of the publican; humbling themselves in words, with a conscious selfelation at their humbling themselves so well; professing to trust exclusively in the righteousness of

Christ, but secretly, and unavowedly to themselves, confiding in their very zeal for the exclusion of their own; in one word, "trusting in themselves that they are right and despising others," a description of character within a syllable of the pharisee's in expression, and quite as little remote from it in principle and state of mind. Those who have been taught by the grace of God to build their hopes on the work of Christ alone, had need to be on their guard against the encroachment of such a spirit. If the confidence they enjoy be genuine, they will, I repeat, hold it, humbly; with a deep and selfabasing consciousness that they owe their simple and cheering views of the gospel not to themselves but to the Spirit of God, that they are debtors for every thing to sovereign mercy; and with a melting tenderness of compassion and of prayer for all who are building on any other foundation,-who are betaking themselves to any refuges of lies,-or who, from the want, whencesoever arising, of a clear apprehension of the simplicity of the gospel, are involved in the gloom of despondency, and " "go mourning without the sun." The assurance which allows its possessor to glory over such, is destitute of one of the most essential characteristics of scriptural confidence; it wants humility.

Thirdly. I ask you, is your confidence a holy confidence? I mean, is it a confidence in union with practical religion? Is it associated with "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly?"-with "cleansing yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and perfecting holiness in the fear of God?" If it be not; if it be connected with sin and worldliness-although not, it may be, with the open indulgence of vice, yet with conformity to the world in its vanities and follies, its gayeties and thoughtless pleasures; as if you thought religion, instead

of consisting in the spiritual and holy influence of those divine truths, of which the faith is intended "to deliver you from this present evil world," lay in the mere holding of a speculative opinion, the adoption of which brought with it the privilege of worldly indulgence;-if such be the character of your confidence, such its earthly and secular associations and tendencies, you may call it by the scriptural designation of "the assurance of faith," but I say again, it is the assurance of presumption. The whole word of God disowns it. It is not a plant of grace, but a weed of corruption. It is not from heaven, but from hell; not from the Spirit of light, but from the Prince of darkness. Jesus " gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:". 66 gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

2. To the second class of persons, the diffident, I would say: let it be well considered, whence your want of confidence arises. So far from disapproving of diffidence, when considered as meaning selfdistrust or self-jealousy, I would apply to it the words of Solomon-" Blessed is the man that feareth always."-But there is a desponding diffidence, which wonders at the cheerful confidence of others, while it is itself the offspring of obscure conceptions, or unbelieving suspicions, of the freeness and fulness of gospel grace. You may be looking too much to yourselves, and too little to Christ.-It would be unseasonable to enter largely into this interesting field; nor do I feel myself at liberty to do so, having recently gone into it at considerable length in another publication.* But a little I must say. Let

*Sermons. The reference is especially to those on 1 John iv. 18. "Perfect love casteth out fear."

me remind my desponding readers, then, that the gospel is the "gospel of peace;" that it is " good tidings of great joy;" and that the communication of peace and joy must therefore be one of the very purposes of its proclamation to sinners. Why should good news be sent us, but to make us happy? There is no presumption, then, you must at once perceive, in a sinner's peace, when it is " peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ:"-there is no presumption in a sinner's joy, when he "rejoices in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the flesh," -when he "joys in God, through Jesus Christ, by whom he has received the reconciliation." The possession of such peace and joy is no more than the fulfilment of the very end of God in the mission and work of his Son. And how is it to be retained? I answer, by steadfast "looking unto Jesus." This is the only legitimate, and it is, in the nature of things, the only reasonable way to find and to keep it. When the mariner is overtaken by the perilous tempest, what imparts to his mind confidence and tranquillity? Does he look forth at the fury of the raving storm, and, in order to enjoy peace and a sense of security, set himself to examine the state of his own feelings about it? No. He examines the tightness of his vessel, the firmness of its timbers, the completeness of its tackling, and its seaworthy structure: he calls to mind the storms it has already weathered, the fearful seas which it has come through in safety. And how does the landsman quiet his fears, when he feels his dwelling tremble before the beating blast? To listen to the roaring of the wind, and brood over his own feelings, would only sink his spirit the more. He thinks of the rock on which his house is founded, and looks at the thickness, and strength, and tried stability of its massy walls. Thus should we do. We must find our peace and security and joy, in surveying