It

calls his wives to him he recites their father's usage; he informs them, the angel of the Lord who appeared to him at Luz, which he called Bethel, to perpetuate the memory of, had appeared again in a dream, giving him directions and orders to depart from thence; to which they shewed a most ready submission: so he departs. Laban hearing of it, pursues, overtakes, and expostulates with him; to which Jacob returns an answer; and an amicable agreement being made between them, they part in a friendly manner. Jacob going on towards Canaan, is comforted with the sight and vision of many angels, whom he styled God's host. They appeared, it may be, in two companies, for him and his to go between; or, because there was one camp of angels, and another of Jacob's family. Jacob called the name of that place where he saw this appearance of the heavenly host, Mahanaim, which signifies two hosts or armies. There was in after time a city of this name near this place, which, it may be, was so called as commemorative of this appearance. was in the land of Gilead, and tribe of Dan, forty-four miles from Jerusalem to the south-east. Jacob sends messengers to Esau, who dwelt in the land of Seir, the Herite, into whose family Esau marrying, he came to the possession of it, and from him it was afterwards called Edom. The messengers upon their return informed their master, that his brother with four hundred men were coming to him, which threw him into a panic, and he devises ways and means for the security of himself and family. Upon which he in faith and prayer calls on the Lord, putting him in remembrance of his word and promise. And having conveyed his wives, and eleven sons, and all that he had, over the river Jabbok, which took its rise from the mountains of Arabia, and was the border of the Ammonites, and was distant from the sea of Galilee, or lake of Gennesaret, about three or four miles; he on the other side of it, being alone, it may be, prayer, the Son of the living God, in human form, wrestled with him unto the breaking of the day; of whom Jacob obtained a divine blessing, and a new name, Israel; i. e. one that hath princely power with God. But this divine personage puts Jacob's thigh out of joint, to be a memorial that his victory obtained by faith was all to be ascribed to divine grace. He named the place Peniel; i. e. the face of God; saying, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is Ainsworth preserved." the Chaldee translates it, I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.' In after time, a city and tower was built here, and it was styled Penuel: it was about forty miles from Jerusalem, and four miles from Mahanaim.

in

says,

The prophet Hosea informs us concerning this appearance, and gives his testimony from the Spirit, that it was Jehovah the angel who thus appeared. He saith, speaking of Jacob, "He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there

1

he spake with us; even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial." See chap. xii. 3, 4, 5. Upon Jacob's return, from this divine intercourse with the angel Jehovah, to his wives and children, he, lifting up his eyes, saw and beheld Esau and his four hundred men were come to him; and a very friendly intercourse the two brothers had with each other after which they part; Esau returning to Seir, and Jacob journeys first to Succoth, which it is said was two miles from Penuel. From thence he departed and came to Shalem, said to be eight miles from Succoth, and forty from Jerusalem; it is thought to be the same with Sychar, John iv. 5. Here he built an altar, as a testimony of his faith, and also as a memorial of the mercy and goodness of God, who had given him a new name. He called this altar by a new title, El-elohe-Israel; i. e. the God of Israel.

Dinah, who was now about fourteen, going out of her father's family to see the daughters of the land of Canaan, and to contract acquaintance with them, was defiled by Shechem, the son of Hamor, who was prince of the Hivites, which greatly distressed Jacob and his sons; two of whom, Simeon and Levi, craftily deceived the Shechemites, falling upon them the third day after they had been circumcised, slew all their males, and brought away their sister. Their malice and cruelty was very offensive to their father, whom they answered in a very pert unseemly manner. Jacob was greatly distressed on account of the slaughter of the Shechemites, and the dangers he might thereby be exposed to. God the Saviour, by a

dream or vision, bid him to remove to Bethel, which is said to be twenty-eight miles from Shechem, which command he obeyed. He ordered his family to purge themselves from all idolatrous relics, and journeyed, the terror of God falling upon the inhabitants of the cities of the land of Canaan all about Shechem, by which they were restrained from following Jacob's family, and cutting them off for the massacre done at Shechem. So Jacob and all his family came to Bethel; and, according to the divine command which had been given him, he built an altar, and out of gratitude for the abundance of grace and mercies which the Lord had heaped on him, he called it, El-Bethel ; i. e. the God of Bethel. Here Rebekah's nurse died, and was buried at the bottom of the hill or mountain on which Bethel stood, and the name of it was called, Allon-bakuth; i. e. the oak of weeping.

At Bethel, God again, in the person of his essential Son, appeared to him, confirmed his new name he gave him at Peniel, renews the promise concerning the multiplication of his seed, in which, as the foundation of it, the blessing of Abraham was contained, and confirms the promise of his posterity inheriting the land of Canaan: all which Jacob gratefully acknowledges, by erecting an altar or pillar, calling it Bethel; i. e. God's house; hereby renewing the memorial of his faith and thankfulness to God, as God had repeated, and at this time and place renewed his grace and promise to him.

(To be continued.)

6

ORIGINAL ESSAYS.'

LXXVII.

ON CONVERSION.

IN a former paper we have noticed something of the effectual calling of the children of God, and in this we purpose to say a few words on their saving conversion. There is a real distinction between effectual calling and spiritual conversion, yet they are inseparably connected. In the former, God is pleased by his Spirit and word to call his children into the marvellous light and liberty of the gospel; but by the latter, they actually turn to the light of life and evidence, by their choice of heavenly things, that they stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made them free. 'Conversion,' says Charnock, is to be distinguished from regeneration, thus :-regeneration is a spiritual change, conversion is a spiritual motion in regeneration there is a power conferred, conversion is the exercise of this power in regeneration there is given us a principle to turn, conversion is our actual turning. In the covenant, God's putting his Spirit into us, is distinguished from our walking in his statutes, from the first step we take in the way of God, and is set down as the cause of our motion. In renewing us, God gives us a power; in converting us, he excites that power. Men are naturally dead, and have a stone upon them: regeneration is a rolling away the stone from the heart, and a raising to newness of life; and then conversion is as natural to a regenerate man as motion is to a lively body. A principle of activity will produce action. In regeneration, man is wholly passive; in conversion, he is active. The first reviving us is wholly the act of God, without any concurrence of the creature; but after we are revived, we do actively and voluntarily live in his sight. Regeneration is the motion of God in the creature, conversion is the motion of the creature to God, by virtue of that first principle: from this principle all the acts of believing, repenting, mortifying, quickening, do spring. In all these a man is active, in the other he is merely passive.' Every good man is changed in the temper of his mind, for he is conformed to the image of the invisible God, and is made partaker of a divine nature, that he may escape the corruption there is in the world through lust. Conversion may be considered in two distinct ways: first, the act itself, God converting his people; and, secondly, the people who are converted by him turning to him, and cleaving to the Saviour with full purpose of heart.

In regeneration, there is a spiritual foundation laid in the mind, on which a superstructure of evangelical experience is raised, and conformity to the revealed will of God is promoted. The power of VOL. VIII.-No. 91.]

Ꮓ

God is exercised in the saving worth of redeeming blood on the mind of the man who is effectually called to the fellowship of the Son of God, which quickens and animates the soul, for without Christ we can do nothing. Spiritual life in man is that which qualifies him to receive what was assigned to him by the covenant of redemption; without it there is no real communion with God. When he exerts his omnipotence alone in a way of justice, his enemies tremble under his wrathful displeasure, because they have lost the rectitude of that state in which they were created, and the sinfulness of their present state disqualifies them to admit the righteousness of the conduct of God, the lawgiver of the universe. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be: so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." But when Jehovah exerts his power on the sanctified mind, through the work of Christ, he destroys the reign of sin, slays the enmity of the heart against him, melts the sinner into compunction for his iniquity, reconciles him to the plan of grace, and gives him in the right of the holy Mediator dominion over all unrighteousness. Thus the manner of acting, and the agent acted upon by God, are radically distinct from that order of conduct which he is pursuing in the world of nature. In all places of his dominion God maintains his rights in his creatures, but he does this by different ways. Those who will be banished from his presence to dwell for ever with Satan, will be continued in existence by him, and his justice will be glorified in them. But the people for whom Immanuel covenanted with his Father, and for whose sakes he became incarnate, and in that state obeyed, suffered, bled, and died, to redeem them to God, they by his delivering power are saved in this world to know something of the purpose of grace, and they are introduced to communion with him. God works on them by his Spirit and word, to convey to them the fulness of his Son, which evangelizes them to observe his will. By this means the heart is softened, the conscience is made tender, the will is released from bondage, and duty is rendered pleasant, easy, and profitable. The prayers of the Son of God, which he presented to his Father in the days of his flesh, are answered on the behalf of his seed when they are sanctified by the word of truth.

The graces of the Holy Spirit remain and abide in the people of God, and they are used by them in the various duties and services in which they are employed. When they were first communicated to them, it was with the design that God should be glorified. The bible is the revealed will of God, but no man who is destitute of holy life ever yet understood the nature of the truth written in it. This is evident, for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." The graces of a spiritual order of being are the means in the hand of the Spirit,

by which the nature of truth is perceived, known, and enjoyed. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In the scriptures God has very clearly made known his will, but the superadded blessing of spiritual life is the subjective meetness by which the heirs of grace embrace it. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, by the word, shews the things of Christ to the spiritual man; faith believes and receives them, and they enter into the soul by his powerful operation, and subsist in it to sanctify and support the upright in heart. Nothing can be more evident than the distinctions discernable in the people who hear the gospel of salvation preached. Many who are found listening to it are as ignorant of the nature of it, and as destitute of the spirit of it, as though it had never been proclaimed in their hearing. But there is another class of hearers on whom the word of God has a different effect. The Holy Ghost is pleased to fill it with life and light. Christ comes upon them as the showers descend on the grass; and while he fills the soul with his holy, humbling, and gracious presence, their praises are made vigorous, and he is to them the altogether lovely and the fairest among ten thousand. They are converted from distance from, and are brought near to him, in the path of holy communion with him.

Christ, as the prophet in his church, has made known the will of his Father; and by the Spirit, the called according to the purpose of God, are enlightened to see and feel their way to the throne of mercy. Highly as the doctrinal revelation of the will of God is prized by the church, it is received by her not merely as a system of truth, which speculative men cannot deny; but the plan of wisdom unfolded through Christ in the scriptures, is rendered efficient by the sanctification of the Spirit to form the judgment, and to enlighten the understanding of the people of God. By this means, the household of faith are converted from darkness to light, and they walk at large in the light of God's countenance. That knowledge of God, which is connected with eternal life, is more than mere intellectual assurance that the things of the gospel are true. There are thousands of men who are so far acquainted with the word of God as to be satisfied that what they read in it is true, yet they remain in a state of sin, and are far from God by reason of the blindness of their hearts; but those who are saved by the washing of regeneration, are favoured to understand the things of God in another manner. The Holy Ghost, who has a perfect knowledge of the things of God as they exist in his own mind, has engaged to lead the people of God into all truth; and his illuminating teaching unfolds the character of God with persuasive influence, so as to let into the mind of the true believer eternal life. Our Lord, in his prayer to his Father, just before his crucifixion, said, "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." If this statement of our Lord's be compared with what the apostle has