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ESSAYS. No. XCIV.

ON CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS.

No. IV.

A CHURCH state on earth is an expression of the wisdom, power, and goodness of Almighty God to his people. It may be said of true saints, as it was said of Adam, it is not good for them to dwell alone. There is a social compact in private life that is useful to those who compose the association, and in whomsoever Jehovah has opened his holy counsel in and through Christ Jesus his Son by the Holy Ghost, there is a unity of interest common to the whole of his family publicly developed. God never approaches any of his children in a potential manner to produce a religious quality of heart in them, but in and by the Heir of all things, in whom is radically comprehended the sanctification of the whole church. In this centre of life, perfection, unity, and purity, all the regenerate sons of God meet, and are for ever blessed. There could be no church on earth if God had not willed it to be, and it would never appear if Christ were not the Head and Saviour of it, any more than the human family can exist separated from Adam, in whom every child of his was seminally comprehended. These two heads are seen in all their members. For though all the children of Adam are not conformed to the image of Christ, yet they who are distinguished of God cannot conceal from his eyes nor from their own sight that the sin and corruption of their fallen father is resident in them, and we may see that the seminal sanctification which was originally created in Christ to be propagated to his seed, is by a new creation resident in them also. A true christian is at the same time the subject of two different principles of action, viz. flesh and spirit. He is therefore conscious that he is a child of Adam by the various exercises of his inherent corruption, and he is acquainted with Christ, his surety and substitute, to whom he is daily looking for deliverance from the power, guilt, and reign of sin. By faith he lives in the great Redeemer, and he is supported and continued in spiritual being by what he receives from him.

The church of God is his peculiar abode, and every true believer in Christ is the temple where he dwells. Jehovah has chosen, ransomed, and formed her for himself. All things belong to them, but there is nothing which he has produced that is so near to him as his own people. Their nature has from the beginning existed in one of the persons in the Triune God, and it was raised thereby to the highest honour that any creature can possess, know, and enjoy; even so great as to be a part of

the complex person of the Son of God, and to have a bestowed dominion over all flesh, and to be the immediate image and residence of the living God.

Now every heir of grace is united to his complex person, and has by the sanctification of the Holy Ghost an inbeing in him as truly as the branch has in the vine, and a collection of these living members of the Son of God who are gathered in his name together upon evangelical principles, is a church of God. Here he dwells, for he loves his own workmanship, and he looks upon his image in them with peculiar delight. This vital union of the saints to the fountain of life is the formal cause why God communes with them in his ordinances, and why they have fel lowship by faith with Christ their Head in them. How unmeaning are the services of God's house to men of the world; they have no subjective right and meetness to use them to glorify God by them, but a man of God who is connected with the Creator, Redeemer, and sanctifier of the church, has both, and by faith he derives spiritual advantage in the service of his Saviour and King. If God had not chosen, revealed, and commanded his people what ordinances to use in his house, there would be no duty binding upon them in it, but he has explicitly made known his will in the New Testament on this subject. There are those standing ordinances in the house of God which are appointed by him to be observed by his children unto the end of the world, and they are preaching and hearing his word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Faith receives this testimony, and believes the promise of God, that he will be with his people to the end of the world. Grace saves the true christian from aversion to what God has commanded, and affection to God gives an impulse to his actions that cannot be found in an unregenerate man. As God chose how he would be served by his own people, and has promised that he will be with them, hope anticipates the accomplishment of counsels revealed, and statutes given become influential on them to save them from every false way. Thus God, who dwells personally in the man Christ Jesus and the church, is in him, in whom by election God' created an interest for them, and Jesus lives in them through the creating energy of the Holy Ghost; there is an inseparable connection subsisting and a holy fellowship between them proceeds upon this chosen and settled order of things. What a high honour it is to be associated with Christ in the love of God; there is no calculating the importance of it. David thought it a great thing to be the son-in-law of a king, but this order of things does not go on, that foundations for every one who is called of God to fellowship with his Son in this world is by grace an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ Jesus.

There is a separation from all men beside the church of God, kept up in a church state upon earth; in the scriptures of truth VOL. IX.-No. 108.]

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where God has revealed his will concerning her being, it is very evident that there has ever been a distinction in his will and love in Christ toward the church, and the doctrinal revelation of it is never concealed nor denied by his operations in and on her. The precious change produced by the Holy Ghost on the whole election of grace is a separation of them from sin to God, and afterwards, by a continued work of grace upon them, he sets them apart openly from the world. Know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself. Now the doctrines of grace in the hand of the Holy Ghost are as bread to the hungry soul, by which he is sustained in a spiritual state of existence; and as they positively are expressions of the love and will of God in Christ to all his seed; when the Lord, the sanctifier, imparts a clear and comprehensive knowledge of their import to them, they are enlightened to discern and approve the separation that God has created. Effectual calling is the work of the Spirit upon the man whom he has sanctified in the name of Christ, by which he works by the principle of holy life, imparted to him to lead him away from sin to God. There is a persuasive influence shed upon him, by which he is illuminated to discern by faith with appropriation his connection with the Lord; this brings freedom from captivity, and begets confidence in God; and the liberated child of mercy is joyful in God his Saviour. In the church he is instructed by the preaching of the word and the observance of the ordinances of God, for, as we have said above, they are institutions appointed by God to carry on and to maintain holy communion with his children. The Holy Ghost is always present in every place where the gospel is preached, and he works by it on the people of God to produce in them all the ends intended by God to be accomplished through the death of his Son. The light which he sheds upon them opens the glories of the person of the Great Emanuel, and through his offices his Godhead, humanity, and immense riches and worth, are unfolded. These sanctify the mind upon which they fall, and the man is separated for God from defilement and disgrace, and raised above nature to wear publicly the character with which he is clothed, and the cause of it is seen through the unearthly nature of it. What perfection is displayed in the salvation and sanctification of the church of God; how is God glorified by it. Every part of truth is seen in the state of a real christian, and by his open separation from the world, the love of God, the redemption of Christ, and the sanctification of the Holy Ghost, are manifested.

This scheme of wisdom, grace, holiness, justice, and mercy, when known and felt, is truly useful to the whole household of God, for in it the people of God are by the ministration of the Holy Ghost purified from their native defilement. Faith is that grace by which a representation or subsistence is made or given

to the truth in the mind, and as the revelation of the true God in Christ is contained in the scriptures, the Holy Ghost does not only teach the people of God that the doctrines of the gospel are true, but he reveals their truth in the mind. This manner of making known the true God through faith is his living in them as in his own temple, and beautifying them with everlasting holiness. It may safely be said of the church of God that she has meat to eat that the world knows nothing of, and the food by which she lives ministers to her spirituality of mind, and she is thereby kept from the pollution of the world although she is perpetually surrounded by it. The internal work of the Holy Ghost upon the heart cannot be hidden, for what he is accomplishing there according to the will of God is made evident through the medium of the action, for the conduct of a true christian is not merely an abstinence from gross and outward sin, but the perfection of his state of sanctity is seen through the positive holiness of his life: it is a part of God's will that all his children "put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the Spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Thus, what is inwrought by the Holy Ghost is permanent in its nature, holy in its quality, and useful in its tendency. It is a natural impossibility to suppose that an ungodly man can act in the same way that a spiritual man can do, for he has not a heavenly life in him, and that is essential to qualify a man to act conformably with the holy will of God; this life is resident in the heart, and it is actuated by what is known, seen, and felt of God according to his word. Thus the declarations of his love and mercy are received by faith, and the purifying blood of Christ is let in on the mind by the Spirit opening the legal connection existing between him, the Redeemer, and his seed, and faith purifies the heart from defilement by what it receives. God has set every thing in his kingdom beautiful in its place and manner of action, and when he illuminates by his Spirit and word the mind to perceive it, every thing falls into its own place, and it is every way useful. Thus the exhortation to come away from the world and its defilement is clothed with saving power, and it is observed reveredly and obeyed affectionately. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse from all filthiness of the flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

One bond of union cements the whole church of God toge ther in the same centre of life and holiness. The life of Christ is diffused amongst all his members, and as this influences them, they are drawn together as parts of his mystical body. There is a tenderness of disposition of heart peculiar to a regenerate state that is of the same kind that is present in the heart of the

glorified Son of God, and this is the cord that is touched by the Holy Ghost which sympathizes with all the heirs of grace in their diversified calamities: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ; for the body is not one member, but many. If the feet shall say, because I am not the hand I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? and if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them on the body as it hath pleased him; and if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another; and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." The various metaphors employed by God to shew the union of Christ and his seed, demonstrate how very sacred all his children are in his sight. There has been a time in the annals of the church when this fact was so developed, that their enemies were compelled to say, “See how these christians love." But in these last days it appears a main feature of the policy of Satan to sow the seed of discord in the church of God, and to disturb her by aiming to break up her unity, and to destroy her peace. This cannot be accomplished by the Prince of Darkness, because the causes of the union of the church are above his reach; yet he does much mischief in her borders, and often breaks in upon her, and interrupts the fellowship of the saints. None of the movements of Satan are more injurious than that of creating jealousies and suspicions in the minds of the saints concerning each other; by this means he inflames the pride of the heart, and before the unsuspecting christian is aware, he has wounded his brother and broken his own peace. Well, there is a day advancing when the light of truth will shine in the church with greater brightness and influence, and then the Son of God will be seen in her midst as her Saviour and King; and his brethren at that day will bear a closer conformity to him than they now exhibit. Mercy will prevail to set the church free from the political schemes which now disgrace her, and she will be seen as the King's daughter, all glorious within, and her covering of wrought gold.

In the church of God he is known as her everlasting portion in Christ Jesus, and loved and adored for the revelation he has made of himself in the scriptures. When the Holy Ghost separates a man from the principles and spirit of the world, he does not leave him without a satisfying heritage, but reveals God as

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