does not this position make sanctification the evidence of justification? and this position is all I contend for. Again (p. 74), the author demands with equal truth, "Who are to abound most in good works, if not those who have felt and believed that this is the example which their Saviour has left them to imitate, and who know that the day is at hand, in which glory, honour, and immortality will be conferred by God upon those who, adding to faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly love, to brotherly love kindness, charity,-shall enjoy, in thus making their calling and election sure, an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? " The practical exhortation that follows is also true and excellent. Again (p. 79); "Be assured then that you belong to the Saviour, because you believe, as Abraham believed. Be confirmed in this assurance by the sincerity of your obedience, by the abundance of your good works." The observations pp. 80, 81, I think exceptionable. I quote the author's words without comment. "But, perhaps, my dear friends, this very natural objection will occur to one of you-May not the Christian experience so deplorable a fall, that the bond of love which unites him to God may be broken, and thus the sinner be deprived of grace?' The Holy Spirit has already answered, That neither death, nor life, (and it is in the Christian's life that the fault in question is found,) nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, (and this fault would belong to things present,) nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' And yet, they will say, What if David had died before his return to God, and Peter during his denial?-But did they die in such circumstances? That is the question. Did God permit them to die? God, He who has said, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee; did he forsake them ?'” The allegory of the Traveller, which follows to explain the foregoing remarks, is far from correct. "An irresistible power," says the writer, "hurries the unhappy fugitive into the interior of the edifice." The expression "irresistible power," is not Scriptural. The Hebrews "resisted the Holy Ghost;" the sinner here described has been made willing in the day of God's power. The remark, that, "however deplorable are the falls of the believer, they only happen within the house under his Father's roof," contains a most dangerous sentiment. Alas! how many have "believed for a time," given every evidence of piety, and after all become apostates. Again (p. 99*); the transfer of our sin and guilt to Christ is not Scriptural: our Saviour suffered whatever was adequate to effect our pardon; but our sins were never • As I would not willingly misrepresent the respected author, I give his own words in a note. Min. "Tell me, dear child, if it were possible that 1 could take the burden of all the sins you ever committed, would it still lie upon you?" Eldest. " Certainly not, sir; you would be answerable for them, and not I." Min. "And if, after I had taken upon that I say all, without excepting a single me all your sins,-but observe, my dears, one,-if God were to punish these sins according to their deserts, who would undergo the punishment?' Eldest. " took upon you all my sins. Undoubtedly you, sir, as you Min. " And, my dear child, would you be punished, that is to say, a second time, for the same sins?" Eldest." Unquestionably not, sir." Min. "You are right; for we cannot be twice punished for only one fault. Would you then be pardoned?' 39 Eldest. "Certainly, sir, since you were so good as to suffer in my place. Min. "Well, my dear child, think of the goodness of the Saviour Jesus, in taking upon him your sins, and in suffering the punishment, all the punishment, which was due on account of them. He has endured, in your place, the curse of God, which ought to have fallen on you.” so transferred to him, as that he became the sinner. He bore the punishment; but to impute to him the sin itself, so that the sin ceased to be our's, and became his, is unscriptural, and would be, but for the sincerity of the intention, blasphemous. At 101 the author sayspage If you really believe, you possess faith, and this faith unites you to your Saviour. You may then ask for the Holy Spirit. This also is unscriptural; for can a man "really believe" without the Holy Spirit? It is not correct to say he may then ask. I would rather say, "You must ask, you may ask, for the Holy Spirit to enable you to believe, to pray, to desire. Ask and you shall receive;-but if you may then only ask for the Holy Spirit, when you are conscious that you possess faith, you may wait as long as life lasts." This doctrine, in fact, makes consciousness of faith to be the warrant of prayer, and authority for a positive duty. There is another unfounded position (p. 119): "The Lord seeks and calls those only who are Christians." The position should beReal Christians are those whom the Lord has sought and called. The truth of sound doctrine, on the various points above adverted to, I conceive to be as follows:I. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 2. No works, sufferings, amendments, or repentance, can take away sin. 3. The Lord Jesus Christ has made a full atonement, a perfect redemption. 4. The covenant of grace-that is, the Gospel-freely offers this redemption to the whole world on the terms of repentance and faith. This gives the interest, pardon, acceptance, hope of glory. 5. In proportion as we ascertain the evidence of faith, repentance, holiness, and obedience, we may know that we are passed from death unto life. 6. Redemption is finished; but salvation will not be finished, till God has "accomplished the number of his elect;" and the church triumphant in one grand chorus shall exclaim, "Thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord." I give the fullest credit to the good intention of the author in his wish, by his statements, to relieve spiritual despondency, and encou rage timid believers; but, as to my own feelings, such statements afford no satisfaction or consolation. I find satisfaction, consolation, and practical influence only in believing "the faithful saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." I am a sinner; therefore I believe that he came to save such as me. He who believeth in Him shall not perish. The question then is, Do I believe? How is this point to be resolved? I consider by the act of faith, and its evidence. I. The act of faith is a persuasion of the truth as revealed in the word of God. 2. The evidence is deriving all my hope from the truth; that is, relying on Christ alone for pardon, grace, and glory. 3. The practical evidence is a humble persevering endeavour to do the whole will of God. Can I say, this is what I approve, what I desire, what I endeavour after? And if so, this evidence affords adequate consolation. It is the work of the Holy Spirit: to God be all the praise. Let me trust, as fully persuaded that all salvation is of grace; let me pursue and labour as if all salvation were of works. B. W. FAMILY SERMONS.-No. CCXVIII. Psalm iv. 6, 7.—There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? in the time that their corn and VARIOUS as are the tastes and pursuits of mankind: all are pursuing one great object to be happy. But what is true happiness; and where is it to be found? Persons greatly differ in their practical reply to these inquiries; and it is therefore the part of true wisdom to endeavour to discover what is the right answer, in order that we may not be misled by vain hopes, and find only disappointment where we looked for solid and durable satisfaction. The Psalmist David, as we find from our text, had come to a decision on this important subject. He saw the large majority of mankind continuing a restless pursuit after good, yet ignorant of what was alone worthy of that name; while he, and the comparatively small number who, like him, had learned to make a wiser choice, were fixing their hopes on God: "Lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us: thou has put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." Such then are the two great classes of persons into which all mankind are divided: let us now proceed to compare their respective characters and condition; contrasting the many who are seeking all their enjoyment in earthly objects, with the few who have made God their portion. And may our examination of the subject be the means, by the blessed influences of his Holy Spirit, of leading us to make a right choice between good and evil, life and death, the favour and the anger of God; that choice which alone can render us truly safe or happy, either in time or in eternity. First, then, we are to consider the condition of the first class of persons mentioned in the text; respecting whom we learn, that they are numerous; that they are ever restless in their inquiries; and that they are constantly disappointed. 1. They are numerous. "There are many that say, Who will shew us any good?" They are not confined to persons of any particular age or station; for among them may be found the young and the old, the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the grave and the thoughtless, the prosperous and the unsuccessful: in short, as before observed, the large majority of mankind, all who have not learned the folly of these vain hopes, and been led to seek far higher enjoyments than the present life can afford. The reason why this vain pursuit after a mere shadow of happiness is thus natural to every human heart, is, that all mankind having forsaken God, they find a painful void which the manifestations of his favour alone can fill. All having partaken of the sin, feel alike its distressing consequences: having forsaken the fountain of living waters, there is, in the absence of those soul-satisfying hopes and enjoyments which God only can afford, a spiritual thirst, to satisfy which men vainly "hew out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no water.” Most fearful is it to contemplate the " many" who are thus following the vain and sinful courses of our fallen nature; and most justly did our Saviour warn us that "wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that find it." So universal indeed is this lamentable turning aside from the ways of God, this preference of the creature to the Creator, that when God "looked upon the earth, behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." This was the character of mankind before the Flood; and there is no reason, either from Scripture or experience, to suppose that it has since changed. On the contrary, we every where still continue to witness the same love of the world, its vanities, and its sins, and the same neglect of the obedience due to God, even where there is no gross open viciousness of conduct; the consequence of which is, that instead of enjoying that true repose which the favour of God alone can bestow, men are ever restlessly saying, "Who will shew us any good?" 2. The nature of this restless inquiry, which, as we have seen, is universal, is strikingly shewn in the question itself. There is no previous care to ascertain what is the right channel for obtaining information that may be depended upon in so weighty a concern. The question is thrown out to the whole world, to the wise and the ignorant, the good and the bad, that each may answer it as he sees fit. And there is also as little care with regard to the object itself as with regard to the persons inquired of respecting it. It is not the highest and the only substantial good that is sought for; but any thing that may be recommended under the name of good; any thing that may seem to afford a chance of gratifying the craving wishes of the inquirer, however really injurious it may, and must, be in its final results. Thus it is that men prefer the pleasures of sin for a season," to that "recompense of reward" which God has promised to those who by faith make it their choice to "suffer affliction with the people of God," "counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures" which the present world can afford. How various and inconsistent are the answers which are made to the inquiry in the text! What sin is there or folly that has not had its worshippers, and its martyrs? what device is there so futile or so wicked for obtaining what the world calls good, as not to have obtained eager admirers? But without resorting to extreme cases, without noticing any of the grosser and more discreditable acts of vice or wickedness, we may learn from our text what it is that the great majority of mankind have agreed to call good; namely, worldly prosperity. They have "gladness in their hearts "when their corn and their wine increase." They desire to possess an abundance of this world's riches, beyond what is feally necessary or beneficial to them, in order that they may have the greater opportunity for gratifying their appetites and passions; or that they may indulge their pride and love of worldly consequence and estimation. Like the man described by our Lord, "whose ground brought forth plentifully," they think that true happiness consists in being able to say to their soul, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry ;" forgetting that "this night their soul may be required of them." And then "whose shall those things be which they have provided" with such inordinate anxiety, forgetting all the while their highest, their spiritual, their eternal interests? 3. But our text seems further to shew, that not only are persons thus ever restless in inquiring after this world's good, but that their expectations of finding satisfaction in it are constantly disappointed. They are perpetually trying new experiments, but always with the same result. Like Solomon, they dis cover, that, vary the pursuit as they may, so long as they continue to make the world their god, it proves to be "vanity and vexation of spirit." Even those things which in themselves are blessings, and which, far from deserving to be disparaged, call for a return of unfeigned gratitude to the Author of all mercies, yet, if trusted in as our chief good, soon prove that they are not such by the many cares and pains which attend them. Even health and friends, a good reputation and a bountiful supply of the comforts and conveniences of life, greatly as they may add to our temporal happiness, are too precarious in their duration, and too much subjected to the afflicting reverses which are the just lot of our fallen and sinful nature, to allow their being our chief good. We need something more certain and durable; some thing beyond the reach of change or disappointment; something equal to the boundless wants of the human soul; something infinite and eternal. Secondly. Let us then inquire whether any such good is to be found. It is not found, it is not even sought, by the "many;" but is it therefore impossible to be obtained? May there not be some, however few, who have discovered where it is to be sought, and who have actually arrived at the enjoy ment of it? Our text furnishes an answer to these inquiries; for David has left upon record, that he had discovered this invaluable blessing. But, in order to obtain it, he had quitted the beaten track in which the great body of mankind are contented to walk; he did not lift up his voice in the broad way of the world to every passing traveller to shew him some good; some new vanity or gratification which even he, with all his kingly wealth and power, had not yet explored: he went at once to the infinite Fountain of wisdom and happiness; he made his urgent inquiry not of man but of God; and he utters the conclusion he had come to in the language of fervent prayer, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us;" for that "had put gladness into his heart," more than the most ardent worshippers of earthly good had ever found when "their corn and their wine increased." The light of God's countenance is an expression used in the Old Testament to signify his presence, his favour, and his protection. It might arise from the visible emblem of glory, which rested upon the mercy-seat in the tabernacle, and afterwards in Solomon's temple. When Moses had constructed the ark, he put into it the tables of the covenant which Jehovah had made with the people of Israel, on which occasion the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle; and after this, and for many ages, there rested upon the ark a bright light, which continued till the destruction of the first temple. This visible emblem was a standing memorial of the provis dence of God over the people of Israel; and the withdrawing of it would have portended his greatest displeasure. Now, God is the source of all good; and the enjoyment of his favour is the great happiness of man. Without this, nothing can make him truly and permanently happy; with it, nothing can fatally injure him. He may be exposed to pain or poverty, to reproach or bereave ment; his cup may be mixed with the bitterest dregs of earthly sorrow; but if God be for him, who can be against him? All these light afflictions which are but for a mo ment, will serve only to work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. His corn and wine may not increase; on the contrary, he may fall into a state of grievous depression and adversity; the fig-tree may not blossom, and there may be no fruit in the vine; the labour of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no meat; the flocks may be cut off from the fold, and there may be no herd in the stall; yet, amidst all," he will rejoice in the Lord, he will joy in the God of his salvation." By the eye of faith he will "behold things that are invisible" to our mortal senses; and the certainty and surpassing glory of these will support his mind in the darkest hour of affliction. When all other things forsake him; when life itself is fast flitting away; he will still have in reserve a treasure infinite in glory and everlasting in duration; for God is his portion, heaven is his home, and the unspeakable enjoyments of eternity are his bright reward. But why then, it may be asked, do not all mankind seek their happiness in God? Whence is it, that while so many are pursuing with all their powers of mind and body some short-lived and unsatisfying worldly |