Satan and resist him, and in so doing we shall obtain the victory; and with Paul exclaim, I have fought a good fight." Another wile used by Satan is false doctrine and errors: he has men ready to propagate these things, who are called the rulers of the darkness of this world: no nothing is more dangerous than for Satan to dress up his men like the servants of Christ as Paul says he transforms himself into an angel of light, and no marvel if his ministers are transformed into the ministers of righteousness, oh, how deadly a thing is this! The tongues and pens of men of first rate abilities are made use of in order to allure, to lull, to perplex, and to deceive the church; thousands are in the snare, yea nothing is more common in our day than to cry up such men, and it is called a catholic notion to hear all sorts of preachers and also judge and hope the best respecting them; but alas such hearers hug a snake in their bosom, and must be bit, they walk upon hot coals, and must be burnt, both high and low favour these men, and this is now the warfare Satan is carrying on; it has the sanction of the great, and I should not wonder at an open persecution against all that will not say a confederacy; the mouth is now open, and in a little time I expect the hand to be lifted up, but here we are to fight, even for the truth of Christ, the faith once delivered to the saints.

Paul

was brought before kings for the truth's sake and at last lost his life: well might be say, I have fought a good fight; this is a good fight because it is for God's honour and God's glory it is good because it is for the continuance of truth, and the well being of the church: it is good for example sake; he mentions it not by way of boasting, but that Timothy and others might imitate him; it is good because it was for his life: let the truth go, and what has the saint to support him or live upon? The truth and the believer fall together or

stand together: God helps us to be faithful unto death, and he has promised to give us a crown of life: this is a good fight because a man has a conscience in it: it is a good fight because the end is to be an eternal peace, with a crown of righteousness in heaven; therefore Paul says, I have fought a good fight: however the devil has appeared, whether in the garb of false doctrine or in open persecution, I was enabled to endure; and now I hope to die in the field, for I am ready to be offered up. May God help both you and me to follow Paul's example, quit yourselves like men and war a good warefare, so that we may finish our course with joy; and this for Jesus Christ's sake Amen.

A FRAGMENT.

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The Saviour fulfilled the law by his obedience in his life, the temptations he passed through. Do you not recollect what the dear Lord said, "I have finished the work thou gavest me to do." Had he not done it, he had never said, It is finished." He worked that his people might have such a righteousness as their case required. Their offence was of an infinite nature, and nothing short of an infinite satisfaction, an infinite righteousness would do. He said, he finished the work. We could not have worn that robe of righteousness, or have been relieved after he wrought it out, if there had not been an atonement; for remember, without shedding of blood there is no remission for sin. In this relative union in which he stood, our blessed Head lived, died, and rose again for us; and he ever lives to make intercession, therefore the ground of our relationship: "Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory." Thus we perceive one claim which the Lord Jesus Christ makes for his people is upon this ground.

LYING VANITIES THE SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL BARRENNESS.

(Continued from page 178.)

Now, lastly, I am to treat of the sad effects of such conduct, and that is, "They forsake their own mercies." Mercies may be taken according to Scripture in a twofold point of light. First, His common mercies to all men in general; which may be called his providential mercies. Now all men share in these, for God causeth the sun to shine, and the rain to come on the just and the unjust, the evil and unthankful. It is he that feeds, clothes and preserves all the human race; for all things come from him, hence he is called the Father of all mercies and the God of all comfort. But Secondly there are other mercies that none have to do with, but the elect of God, and these mercies flow to them through the meritorious death of the Lord Jesus Christ; hence they are called tender mercies: Thou hast (says David) crowned me with loving kindness and tender mercies." God's special mercies is the new covenant: "Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." And this covenant is the Holy Ghost. It is true that the Spirit came upon Saul as well as David, but only to furnish him with gifts and attributes how to act as a sovereign. Hence you read that he had another heart. But this Spirit never came into his heart. He was anointed with oil out of a glass bottle, to show how brittle the kingdom stood with him; but David out of a horn, which signified power. Now it was mercy in the Lord to favour Saul as he did, being nothing but a farmer's son; I say, it was mercy to raise him up to such dignity and honour, but God took it all away from him for his rebellion and disobedience September, 1843.]

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hence we read that God left him, and an evil spirit from God troubled him. Now David being well taught his own heart, and the vileness of his nature, no doubt but he had many fears lest after all this blessed Spirit would leave him also. Indeed, after his fall, he put up the following petition : Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." No, says God, I will never take my mercy from David as I took it from Saul, and therefore you read, "that the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward." Now I told you that this covenant or sure mercies of David, it is the Holy Ghost, hence God the Father, speaking to his Son by the prophet Isaiah, says, The word I have put in thy mouth, and the Spirit I have put upon thee, shall never depart out of thy mouth, nor out of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed from henceforth and for ever: this is my covenant with them," chap. lix. 21. But you and I must come nigher home, and therefore, am I a partaker of these sure mercies, this covenant, or this blessed Spirit? This is the question that every honest heart wishes to ask, and really the answer lays in this, Am J regenerated and renewed, for if ever this took place in me, I am a partaker of these sure mercies. But what is it to be regenerated and renewed. I answer, that we are all generated and come into this world sinners, "born in sin and shapen in iniquity," but we know nothing of this experimentally now sooner or later this good Spirit is put into the heart of every elect vessel of mercy, and he makes them see and feel their true state in Adam's fall: I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, saith the Lord God." Now it is that all the evils of the heart are discovered: enmity, hardness, unbelief, pride, malice, murder, phemy, uncleanness, rebellion, &c. This goes on, in the dreadful feelings of it, day after day. The man won

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ders what is come to him. He never used to be such a monster of iniquity as he now feels himself to be, and he lives in daily expectation of some judgment from God overtaking him. He cries and groans in secret retirement to God, but he gets worse and worse. Read where he will in God's word, he feels condemned. In meditation, terrible passages of Scripture pierce him through. When he hears the word preached, it makes him tremble, and he sits watching as the preacher goes on, to see if any thing turns up in his favour. He now and then feels a little hope, but shortly after something is brought forth that sinks him again, and down he goes into the horrible pit. Now these convictions sometimes wear off, and he may get light, trifling and careless; but very shortly after something comes, either a word spoken by another, or some wrong conduct that he sees in himself, or hearing of the awful judgment of God upon a fellow creature, or some alarming dream, or reading the word, some book that describes a hypocrite, or something from the pulpit, various are the ways; and this opens the wound afresh, and he appears now worse than ever he did. He wishes he was a beast, or any thing but a human being. Now all this is instructing him with a strong hand. It is God teaching him out of the law. It is pulling the man down from all his human wisdom, strength and selfrighteousness, stripping him of every thing that he once thought good and gloried in, and making him feel that he is a sinner, a great sinner, the worst sinner that ever lived upon the earth and it is to him the greatest wonder that he is spared from day to day, and not cut down as a cumberer of the ground. At times he feels a heart to confess all before God. Now it is such as these that need a Saviour, and there is one provided for such; an able, willing and all-suffi

cient Saviour, able to save to the uttermost, that will not break the bruised reed, not quench the smoking flax." Now regeneration and renewing is as follows: after the soul has been well instructed into the mystery of iniquity in his own heart, the good Spirit washes it all away, and raises up a better crop.

As a Sovereign, various are the ways he uses to do this. Sometimes it is done in conversing with the saints, in reading a good book or the Bible, sometimes in meditation or in a dream, but in general under the word preached. Hence you read that Christ loved the church and cleanseth it with the washing of water by the word; hence Paul says, " Of his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ,our Saviour:" which text is a parallel text with that by the Prophet Ezekiel, xvith chapter, "Then I thoroughly washed away thy blood, and I anointed thee with oil." Now all this filth being washed away by the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning, we are led to discover the new man, so that love, joy, peace, meekness, self-loathing and godly sorrow all arise, and it is a very heaven upon earth; we can claim God as our covenant God and Father in Christ Jesus, and feel the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. Old things are passed away, and all things are become new. We read the word and can take every promise to ourselves; we hear the word and it is the delight of our souls; we unite with the saints, and feel such a strong affection to them, and can then declare, (and feel our hearts in it,) what the Lord has done for our souls: and was this to continue, as it is been felt at least by some, it would be impossible to go on with the things of this life; and the soul is led in time, to discover that all

this is the fruit and effect of God's eternal and everlasting love, fixed on him in Christ Jesus from everlasting. Now this is mercy. Then it is all mercy, from a morsel of bread to eternal life, for we have forfeited every thing by our sin; but there is such a thing, and we all know it to our sorrow, as forsaking this mercy. To forsake mercy, is to forsake the Lord the fountain of all mercy; and the way this is done is generally as follows: after we have been highly favoured with his presence for some time, and had no particular furnace-work, Satan is permitted to come and work gradually upon the old man within us then, quoth Satan, God has given you a great experience of his truthyou exceed many that you knowfor how few can tell others so clearly what God has done for them-and how you can bring Scripture to make good all that you advance: God certainly intends you for the work of the ministry. Now all this is self, and we forsake the Lord, the fountain of mercy, and secretly admire self-but we do not at the time perceive this, no, this is found out afterwards, this was the first rise of Satan's fall him

self, "he was lifted up with pride," and we may go on for some time in this path before any particular trial come upon us, but down we must come. We have observed this lying vanity, and have forsaken our own mercy, hence you read that Hezekiah's heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. Job also was in the same snare-self is a thing that sticks close. I well remember being in this path, though at the time I did not see it. I was going to PC- one Monday evening as usual to hear Mr. H.; my heart at that time was warm in the cause, and much zeal I then had, but alas, little furnace work to what I have had since. I met a young man that I believed, and still believe, is a good man; he at that time went to hear a preacher that it is to be

feared is destitute of grace, and he appeared to be very worldly, cold and lifeless to me. I reproved him (but not in a spirit of meekness, considering myself in the flesh), and told him he did not live so near the Lord as I did, or he would fare like me, with various other things of the like im. port, and I left him and still stood my ground, but little knew then of the self and spiritual pride that was working in me; thus I was deliberately, (though unknown to me,) forsaking my own mercy, and when this is forsaken, we lose the sweet enjoyment of the liberty of the gospel, and are not upheld with a free spirit, but God appears to frown on us, walks contrary to us, because we have walked contrary to him. God hates a proud look, and a haughty spirit goes before a fall. Hezekiah, God left him that he might know all that was in his heart. Job suffered, we are told, for seven years; and what scenes of misery I have gone through since that time which I spoke of. The Lord is a God of judgment, and by him actions are weighed, so that with the merciful, he will shew himself merciful-with the upright man he will shew himself upright-with the pure he will shew himself pure-with the froward he will shew himself froward

he will save the afflicted, but will bring down high looks. Ps. xviii. 25.

But again, another way that we forsake our own mercy is this: Satan sets up idols, and then works upon our corrupt nature, and draws away the heart from Christ, who will be uppermost in the heart and affections; hence he says, My son, give me thine heart." An object takes the eye, perhaps a person that you never saw before and may never see again, or one that you may be in the habit of seeing-it matters not-the corrupt affections run after this object, and will throw you into confusion in hearing, reading, conversation, sleeping, waking, upon your knees, no

thing is uppermost but this object: you may see all this in Ezekiel xvith chapter; and oh, how such a one would like to have his way-though at the peril of his soul, and with open eyes. I was in this snare for two years at one time to an object, and for three months to another, and in both, by observing these lying vanities I forsook my own mercy; this is a very suitable temptation to flesh and blood, but God in mercy delivered me. But again, another way that Satan, takes is by setting up false preachers, and zealously affecting us towards them; how have I ran after preachers and spent money for that which is not bread; and here it is that we look at their gifts and abilities; they work upon our passions, and we really think the word is attended with the power of God, but I will tell you the effect it will have, it will strip you of all that meekness, humility, love, joy, peace, quietness, and rest, and you will find a sour spirit, bondage, slavish fear, unbelief, a hard heart and enmity work up against Zion. Watch and you shall find it so. But still you will not easily believe that all this comes from the preacher, for, say you, he preaches sound truth; be that as it may, it matters not, he will not communicate that sound truth to you, but death; for a man does not communicate the word he speaks, but the influence he is under, and therefore Christ says, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." He does not tell us to beware of their words, no. I remember being very happy and comfortable in soul some years ago, and in the sweet liberty of the gospel. I had heard Mr. H. in the morning at P- C-, felt a sweet affection to the people, and came along to go home, when seeing people flocking into a little chapel, I observing this lying vanity must go also, and in the sequel you will find that I forsook my own mercy. He was preaching from these words, "And there they preached the gos

pel:" his countenance looked like Cain, and he spoke of many of the doctrines of the gospel, such as election, the righteousness of Christ, his atonement, &c., and said as he went on, Is not this gospel? I could not contradict what he said, it appeared all true, but when I came out, I was as peevish as could be-so cross, illnatured, fretful, sour, could have knocked down the children, and every one that came in my way, and have spoke bad words if God had suffered me, for it was all working in my heart, enmity, hardness of heart, &c. went home, but a very miserable evening I had, for I felt shut up against all that is good. As for the Bible, good books, and Christian conversation, I felt as if I hated it altogether. Monday morning came, and I went in the same state to work; but after I had had my breakfast, I went up stairs by myself, and cried to the Lord, and he heard and answered me to the joy of my heart, and gave me a believing view of the victories of the death of Christ over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and I rejoiced in it. I then saw where all that misery came from, even from that son of death the day before, and I now see that by observing lying vanities we forsake our own mercy.

But again, another lying vanity, is envying the prosperity of others: this if attended to is the way to for. sake our own mercy. As for instance, you shall take an outward view of another, and you shall think how very comfortable that man is off; he has so much a year coming in, he has no family &c.; but as for me, I have a large family and can hardly get bread to eat then envy, malice and spite arises, with hard thoughts of God, and trying to traduce such a man if he is a good man, with thinking he is covetous, unfeeling &c. and it is all because he is not as poor as yourself. Under this influence, let him do ever so much for you, you think he might do more,