more joyous and transporting, than to have a sense of our reconciliation to God, and of our interest in redeeming love, demonstrated to our understanding, and impressed upon our hearts; and to be able, amidst all the duties and labours, the trials and distresses of life, to say, "This God is my God for ever and ever, and Jesus is my beloved and my friend?"

It sanctifies and purifies the heart, and renders its possessor active in the cause of God and goodness. Having the love of God shed abroad in his soul by the Holy Ghost, and possessed of the spirit of adoption, the believer feels an alliance to Deity, breathes the air of paradise, has a fellowship with the happy spirits before the throne, and transfuses into his temper and conduct, something of the unsullied purity and seraphic ardour, which adorn the characters, and dignify the services of the inhabitants of heaven. Where was there a man that ever rose higher in faith, or love, or holiness; a man whose soul was more completely free from the dross and dregs of mortality; a man who followed the Lord more fully, and was more zealously devoted to his honour; a man who had acquired more of an angel's mind, and possessed more of the spirit of his adorable Master, than Paul? But the great spring of all his activity, the rich source of all his consolations, the grand impelling principle which carried him forward with such matchless energy in his divine career, was a knowledge of his union to the Lord Jesus Christ, and of his interest in the great salvation. "The love of Christ," says he, "constraineth me. I know whom I have believed. The life that I live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." And did we possess the same blessed assurance in the same high and solid degree, it would still produce the same glorious and transforming effects.

It supports and cheers the mind under the various trials and distresses of life. Without this assurance, the mind, in a time of trouble and danger, is in a state of perpetual agitation and distraction; like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. But this assurance proves an anchor to the soul, which keeps it sure and

steadfast; gives stability to the sublime and bliss-creating expectations of the mind; and preserves it, amidst all the attacks and all the foes that can assail it, in perfect serenity and unbroken peace. Our condition may be low, and our lot calamitous; our wordly affairs may be in disorder, and our friends may prove false and treacherous; the dear companions of our youth may be sleeping in the dust and our once happy habitations may be laid in darkness and desolation by the ravages of death; but none of these things can move us, when we know that we have God for our portion, Jesus for our Saviour, and heaven for our inheritance and home. By disclosing the extent of our security, and giving a present subsistence to the objects of our hopes, it disarms adversity of its gloom, death of its sting, and the grave of its horrors. It has carried thousands comfortably, joyfully, through the greatest fight of afflictions, and brought them off with more than victory. It will enable us to take a calm and steady survey of all the terrific forms in which tribulation can possibly assault us, and then to say, in the intrepid tone and holy triumph of the Apostle, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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,"

CHAPTER VIII.

ON DISTRESS ARISING FROM THE REMAINS OF

CORRUPTION.

"Cleanse me, O Lord, and cheer my soul
With thy forgiving love;

Oh make my broken spirit whole,

And bid my fears begone."

THERE is nothing on which the hearts of Christians are more strongly and intensely set than holiness. Their great ambition is to be conformed to the will of God. They are delighted with every additional spiritual attainment which they gain; and rejoice in the prospect of heaven, because there they shall be like Christ, for they shall see him as he is.

But sin is the abominable thing which they hate: and in proportion to the degree in which they love holiness, are the pain and self-abasement which they feel when prevented from reaching the sacred elevations which they admire, and the shame and consternation which they experience when betrayed into the offences which they abhor. Could we follow them into their closets we should find them prostrate before the Lord, complaining in all the bitterness of the most oppressive vexation that they cannot do the things that they would, that they are beset with temptations, and overtaken with iniquity.

When, time after time, the corruption, which they hoped was subdued or entirely eradicated, breaks out, and surprises them by its power and prevalence; they suspect that their religion is delusive, and that they are still in all the guilt, degradation, and wretchedness of a natural con

dition. If their religion were real, they believe that they would be growing in grace, going from strength to strength, shining in the beauties of holiness, and abounding in the fruits of righteousness. Their frequent falls and gross imperfections lead them to fear that they are far from God and far from hope.

On the subject of indwelling-sin two opinions have been advanced, alike opposite to the dictates of inspiration, and hostile to the interests of practical godliness. Whilst some, greatly to the grief of the children of God, have maintained that believers in the present life rise superior to the remains of corruption; others with equal positiveness, to the lamentable encouragement of carelessness and security, contend that religion consists in an assent to the truths of Christianity; and that, whatever may be a man's spirit and practice, as long as he retains this assent he is in a state of safety.

In order to disentangle this subject from embarrassment and perplexity, and at once to prevent the licentious perversion of the doctrine of indwelling-sin, and provide for the establishment and comfort of the believer who suspects that he is in a state of condemnation because he is molested with the remains of corruption; it will be necessary to show:

I. That religion produces a great change upon the char

acter.

II. That it does not in this life make the Christian perfect: but

III. That amidst all his falls and infirmities, he is essentially different from the irreligious and carnal.

I. Religion produces a great and thorough change upon the character of those who embrace it.

It does not bestow merely the remission of sins, but likewise a renewal of nature. Were we to assert that it imparted no more than the forgiveness of iniquity, the consequences would be most horrid and ruinous. If by a mere assent to the doctrines of the Gospel men obtained the pardon of all their trespasses, without being laid

under any obligation to love and serve God, or brought to devote themselves to a life of piety and holiness; this would open the flood-gates of vice, and make Christ the minister of sin. And what a perversion is this of the blessed Gospel! and what an insufferable insult to our adorable Redeemer and Lord! Did he come into the world, endure the outrage of ungodly men, submit to the agonies of Gethsemane and the tortures of the cross, to save us in our sins? to form by his mediation a highway, along which, in hourly succession, the vices and crimes, bad passions and bad tempers of earth, might be conveyed into heaven, and the kingdom of God filled with all the filth and impurity that darken and disgrace our globe? He came to save us from our sins; to destroy the works of the devil; to purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. He came, not to crowd heaven with the trash, scum, and offscourings of this world; but with a people who are redeemed from all iniquity, who are conformed to his own image, and who have washed their robes, and made them white in his blood.

If the forgiveness of sins and a right to eternal life be all that is necessary for our salvation, what is the use of the Holy Ghost? Why has he been sent down to renew us in the spirit of our minds, to create us again in Christ Jesus unto good works, to create in us clean hearts, and renew right spirits within us? If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. The renovation of our nature is as indispensable to salvation, as faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are just as distinctly told, that except a man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God, as that he that believeth not shall be damned. He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Jesus was holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners. And the Scriptures assure us, that if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his.

The society and services of heaven are pure and holy. What enjoyment could a carnal mind derive from its inexhaustible sources of ecstacy and bliss? or what fitness could it possess for the sublime and ennobling employ