set to our expectations, because they depend on the merit of Christ, who has purchased the Holy Spirit for us. If spiritual aid were to be limited by our desert, we could have none. If we obtain any, it is through his desert, not our own. When it is granted to us at his intercession, it is granted to Him, not us-to his merit, not ours. It is therefore limited, not by our merit, but His; and since His merit is infinite, the blessings granted to him for us might be infinite too, did nothing else prevent. No degrees of spiritual influence can be beyond what Christ has deserved to receive on our behalf; and on this ground, therefore, our expectations can receive no limitation. 2. Again if we measure them by the goodness of God no limit can be set to them. For hemust delight in blessing his creatures, as far as he can do it justly, in proportion to his benevolence. Now he can bless believers justly with grace, because he grants it to the merit of Christ, and he can do this justly to an infinite degree, because Christ's merit is infinite: therefore justice does not hinder the highest exercises of God's benevolence to us and since that benevolence is infinite, if nothing else prevented, our blessings might be infinite also. 3. Again, if we measure our expectation by the power of the Holy Spirit, that likewise is infinite. He can form his creatures, at his pleasure, to any degrees of intelligence, holy love, and joy. In this view, therefore, our expectations can have no limit. 4. It is equally impossible to set any limit to them if they are to be measured by the nature of Divine Truth, which is the instrument by which the Holy Spirit communicates his grace. He always enlightens, sanctifies, and consoles by impressing on the mind some revealed truth, not otherwise (John xvii. 17); and to expect his influence in any other way would be enthusiastic, because without warrant of Scripture. But who can tell the extent of revealed truth? What is told us of God's glorious perfections, which are revealed in Scripture? Why, that they are "above all blessing and praise." What is the limit to the love of Christ? "It passes knowledge." What are the riches of his grace? "Unsearchable." What is the joy believers have in Christ? It is "un speakable;" and so must its cause be. In short, the perfections of God, the grace of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, the ways of Providence; the blessedness of the heavenly world, and other truths connected with these, form subjects of thought which are boundless, and therefore may be endless sources of sanctification. 5. Again: if we measure our hopes by the capacity of man to receive spiritual knowledge and grace-which is obviously bounded, and perhaps, as compared with the capacity of some of God's creatures, is very much circumscribed indeed-still there is no limit which we can set to expectation, because we cannot say to what extent our capacity may enlarge. A fine intellect, be it remembered, is by no means necessary to high views of the great sanctifying truths of the Gospel. "They are revealed to babes;" so that a very small share of sense will enable a person, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to understand them nearly as well as they would be understood by the most intelligent: for they are discovered more by the heart than by the understanding (2 Cor. iv. 6); and the vigour of the affections depends not on the force of the intellect. As each believer, whatever may be his force of intellect or its weakness, meditates on the love and goodness of God as seen in the work of Christ, it perpetually enlarges on his view; and still as it enlarges calls forth new emotions of wonder, joy, and gratitude. And where must this end? What believer can say that he knows of the grace of God in the Gospel all that he can know? or that he loves God as much as he can love? On the contrary, each new discovery which the heart makes prepares the way for more; each additional degree of gratitude is but a new instrument of further improvement. So that, if we judge of our expectations by our capacity of grace, we must again determine that we cannot set a limit to them. 6. Nor, again, does the experience of God's people allow us to set any limit. Sickness, indeed, and the decay of age, may altogether suspend, or much interrupt, the exercise of the faculties; so that eminent believers, unable to fix their minds in thought, have had no power left them but to rest, with the feebleness almost of infancy, on the goodness of God in Christ and for such physical infirmities we must prepare: but while the exercise of the faculties have been allowed, how continually have God's servants increased in knowledge and in grace, even to the end? Theirs has been truly the progress of the morning, which shines more and more unto the perfect day. To mention but a few instances: how decidedly progressive was the grace granted to Professor Halyburton and President Edwards, to the Missionary Brainerd, to Alleine, to Janeway, to Fletcher, and, in more modern times, to that excellent minister of Christ, Dr. Payson of New England. To all these, high as their attainments were, death alone brought the termination of their progress in grace; nor can any one say how much further each might have advanced, had they been ordained to continue longer upon earth. 7. Lastly if our best consideration of the subject sets no limit to our hopes, does the language of Scripture limit them? On the contrary, for the most eminent saints, in the purest churches, in the best age of the church, did St. Paul entreat the Lord that their love" might abound yet more and more, in knowledge, and in all judgment,” (Phil. i. 9-see Matt. xxii. 39; 1 Thess. iii. 12). He exhorted them, though already distinguished "for the work of faith and labour of love," yet to abound in it more and more (1 Thess. i. 3; iv. 1). Exactly in the same tone did St. Peter teach all believers, including the most advanced in that age of peculiar grace, when many, through faith in Christ, rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory, still to grow in grace and in spiritual knowledge (1 Peter i. 8; 2 Peter iii. 18). And if, according to St. Paul, the believer who gazes at the glory of God reflected in the Gospel (as the sun in a mirror), is gradually changed into a resemblance of its brightness, from glory to glory (2 Cor. iii. 18); and if, when Christ dwells in the heart by faith, through the internal influence of the Holy Spirit the believer may know so much of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, as to be filled with all the fulness of God; and if God is able to effect this to a degree "exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think," according to the power that worketh in us, "and not by any strange and unheard of exercise of power (Eph. iii. 14–21); then no one can, without sinfully limiting the Holy One of Israel" (Psalm lxxviii. 41), limit his own expectations of grace. Enlarge, then, your expectations, Christian reader, till they are worthy of the promises which God has given. Ask from him, and have, the highest degrees of humility, contrition, holiness, gratitude, joy, and devotedness. Expect them, for Christ's sake, and not your own; as given to his intercession, and not for your worthy conduct. Expect them directly from God the Spirit, not from your own efforts; yet in proportion to your efforts, and not without them. Study, therefore, Divine truth much, and meditate on it deeply; apply your heart to understanding; cry after knowledge; lift up your voice for understanding; seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures, "then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God" (Prov. ii. 2-5). Be much in prayer; be diligent in common duties; grieve not the Holy Spirit by known sin, particularly by conformity to the world, by luxurious selfindulgence, sloth, covetousness, and angry contention with other Christians; dread the indulgence of a fierce, censorious zeal; mortify the natural love of disputation; and you may expect to receive from the God of all grace such enlarged communications of knowledge, grace, and consolation, as shall leave you in a spirit of adoring lowliness, utterly unwilling to spend a moment in vain regret for the loss of miraculous gifts, or in any other regret, except that you cannot, even while here below, emulate the redeemed in a better world, by giving utterance to praises and thanksgivings as fervent and as uninterrupted as theirs. Ellerton and Henderson, Printers, FINIS. |