ii. 11, and with that faculty purified by regeneration, even when the Holy Spirit of God bears witness with the spirit of the believer! To support this, surely would be to establish the most complete scepticism, and to judge of the most holy faith of the elect of God, as one would judge the weakest, the most imperceptible, the most uncertain, the most obscure of sentiments!

Some, perhaps, may say, do you then suppose that faith can exist without works? No! I should be an infidel could I only think it; I should by that deny the holiness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, of whom the Bible declares the Christian to be the temple; I should refute all the evidences of sacred writ. But let me beg it to be remarked, that the question here is not whether faith produces works, but whether works are the mainspring of the Christian's peace of mind. The following are different exercises of the believer's mind, which I beg to present to the serious consideration of the " blessed of the Lord," who by his grace are enabled to walk in the " row path."

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When a man is newly converted by faith in the Redeemer, he has within him rather the seeds of holiness, than that holiness sufficiently developed to be visible to himself; yet those who are accustomed to discern spiritual things, perceive in this newly-born child of God real proofs of faith.

There are times when all is darkness to the Christian, nay, when he is enveloped, as it were, in the shades of night, in which he is insensible to all, except his own insensibility, and that from God there exists a promise.

At other moments his innumerable transgressions alone arrest his view, which rise before him in battle array, as so many ministers of death against his soul.

N. S. No. 28.

At other times he is assailed by the most violent or shameful temptations, which rage as ocean-billows around, ready to overwhelm him.

When, after having fallen in sin, or after seasons of carelessness, we return to the Lord, then we are only capable of feeling our hardness of heart, our ingratitude towards him, and the odious abuse we make of his mercies; we see ourselves to be perverse, and worthy only to be hated, and we see but that alone.

Even in those seasons wherein God has blessed us with several sanctifying graces, it sometimes happens that we are violently harassed in our minds, either by the sense of some important duty neglected, or by some sin into which we repeatedly fall. We have the desire to fulfil the duty, to conquer the sin, but we cannot. Whilst the inner man condemns the evil, the outer man favours it; we pray even with tears, we are not delivered; though we do not feel ourselves to be entirely sincere in our demands for this deliverance, still, however, we wish to obtain it; every new fall is, as it were, a warrant of condemnation which oppresses us; alarm seizes the soul, anguish torments it,

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we doubt whether we are children of God. The promise of the Lord, always free and unchanging, can alone pour balm into our wounded spirit. promise, which includes all, and assures freely of all, is, in these combats, the only stay of the soul.

It happens also that at the moment when the heart is employed in returning thanks to the Lord for deliverance from some evil for which he had invoked him, what still remains to be conquered, what still remains to be wrought in us, rises on our view as a world before which that deliverance granted is but as a point. Satan 2 I

also would fain insinuate to us that the absence of this sin may be but the effect of circumstance and not of grace; and to procure peace to our soul, we must instantly seek refuge under shelter of the promise.

In these various positions, I must ensure my safety, if I know how to appreciate the eternal delights which are at the right hand of God, and to weigh the horrors of an eternal reprobation; and if I call to mind that each hour sounds to me a menace from the "king of terrors." Besides, Jesus our Lord and Saviour has said, "my peace I leave with you," and the New Testament repeatedly represents peace as a reigning feature in the life of the ransomed. Now, in the situations that I have described, it would be impossible for me to know peace or safety but in the promise of God through Christ, and in the consciousness of my sincere reliance on those infallible promises; and every one who is really in Christ, is well aware that these various states form by no means the smallest portion of the life of a child of God, that there are even a thousand others in which the Christian's peace of mind is alone ensured by the promise, and the testimony his heart gives him before God; that he embraces this promise as his only salvation, his only strength. In order that this truth may be felt, it will, perhaps, suffice, to present two general reflections.

1st. The Christian's life is a life of warfare, and will be such unto the end; this warfare, as described by the Apostle Paul, in the 7th chapter to the Romans, is always laborious, sometimes most violent. In this continued conflict, what is the lamentation of the soldier of Christ, when looking at himself? "Wretched man that I am!" this is his complaint, his heartfelt complaint; and it is only when turning his eyes with the consciousness of

his sincerity on Jesus, "the author and finisher of his faith," that he rejoices, that he triumphs; and exclaims, "I return thanks to God through Jesus Christ."

2d. The goal proposed to the Christian is perfection. The more he advances, the more the length, breadth, height, and depth of this perfection, which has no limit, presents itself forcibly to him, and the more, also, the progress he has made, seems, in comparison, a nothing. a nothing. No one ever found the proof of his eternal peace on what seems to him a nothing, and which often fades from his view whilst he contemplates it. That which alone can satisfy the mind, is the infinite mercy of a God who invites it to shelter itself under his wings, with the promise of eternal safety, and the feeling that in sincerity it seeks there its refuge.

Let us then beware how we lay aside the testimony of the conscience; on the contrary, let us attach to it the importance, and the high importance, it merits, remembering that in a thousand instances that and that only can sufficiently assure us of the reality of our faith, and that from thence flows, on numerous occasions, the only source of peace to a believer.

It is not sufficiently considered, that even to ascertain to myself whether my works are really done in the spirit of the Lord, I must have reference to internal conviction. Every virtue may be counterfeited; the principle may be bad which dictates an action the most holy in appearance; and it may proceed from motives carnal and impure. For example, the Apostle John, in his 1st Epistle, presents love to the brethren, as a proof whereby to assure our hearts before God; but I may seek them, love their society, participate with eagerness in their conversations, in their devout exercises, and their holy enterprises, and all from a principle entirely

carnal; my fortune may be employed for them, and my body burnt in their cause, and yet I may not have charity, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. It is therefore necessary, in order to prove even my works, it is necessary for all, and at all times, to resort to the testimony of the conscience; thus we see that St. Paul referred to it frequently for himself; for example, 2 Cor. i. 12, "Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you ward." In simplicity and godly sincerity, says the Apostle, simplicity and sincerity, two chief gospel virtues, the basis of the Christian character, two infallible marks whereby to distinguish a child of God; and for these, St. Paul rests on the testimony of his conscience, and his heart is assured by that testimony beyond all doubt.

Let us then beware how we take any thing from the glorious virtue of this internal evidence, which proved to St. Paul that he was a sincere servant of the Lord! but conclude from the above considerations, that real faith existing in the heart is felt by the heart, and that it finds in the conscience of the true believer a precious and infallible pledge of its sincerity. At the same time that we acknowledge that the works of the Holy Spirit in us are delightful confirmations of our faith, when God gives us to enjoy them as such, that they aid in a positive manner to establish our hearts, and that to suppose a believer could live assured of the reality of his faith by the testimony of his conscience, without any evidence of works produced by the Spirit, would be to suppose an impossibility; let us confess, nevertheless, that the chief strength of the believer is his faith, seen, not by

the light of his works, but by the testimony which the Holy Spirit renders to his conscience; that it is in sincerity as a sinner void of all resource, that he confides in the promises for grace, mercy, and peace, and in order to be made holy unto God.

To set this aside, would be to plunge the Christian into an abyss of anguish and perplexity. Not to allow that he can be assured of the reality of his faith until he is advanced in sanctification, indeed, as many affirm, far advanced, would be to oblige him to pass the greatest portion of his life, and sometimes nearly the whole of it, in a state of uncertainty with regard to the reality of his faith, that is to say, in doubt whether he may not be the victim of everlasting condemnation! Nothing but a guilty carelessness to our eternal interests-alas! too common, can render a life passed in such uncertainty other than a life of wretchedness. No! with this doubt in the heart, it is only by considering vaguely our own state, and the fearful eternity before us, that we can escape this distress of mind, which would amount even to agony in that infinite number of days wherein the feeling of our sins hides from us our spiritual advancement, and in that not less infinite number, wherein this advancement seems but an atom in the vast and unbounded field of perfection. Thus, instead of those repeated exhortations addressed to the faithful as a body, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice""be always joyful;"-instead of that peace, of that "unspeakable joy," spoken of as a blessing reposing on the entire people of God; we must (representing the enjoyment of these privileges as exceptions), chill the heart by another Gospel. "When you can with certainty assure yourselves of being arrived at a cer

tain degree of perfection, then you may assure yourselves of having saving faith, and rejoice in it as a certainty, but not before; until then it is a matter of doubt." Ah! it is not thus that our Lord speaks!

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I would wish to address with affectionate earnestness one question-one only question-to each companion of my pilgrimage in the sacred path. My brother, with thy hand on thy conscience tell me -From whence thinkest thou to derive peace. Yes! from whence thinkest thou to derive it when on thy deathbed, in the presence of the judgment of God? From the testimony that thy heart will bear thee of the sincerity of thy faith in the blood of Christ? or, in seeking for that testimony from thy works?-Daily thou art on thy bed of death!"

I cannot think that any reader, who will have given his attention to what I have advanced, can accuse me of a wish to plead the cause of hateful antinomianism or of impenitence, any more than that of those persons, who in their indolence profane Christ by making him not the resting-place of their souls, but of their idleness. God knows, that I plead the cause of his children, of those whose hearts are upright and sincere: nothing gives me more horror than the impious assurance in the promise, that those dare profess who live as far from a godly life as they ever did-nothing is more painful than to listen to that indolent and lukewarm security, "I am in Christ," without the soul ever appearing to ask itself, "Am I a new creature?" I would be for ever crying to persons of this last denomination, whose delusion, although less striking, appears to me one of the most perfidious snares of the enemy, who persuade themselves that they are become very pious, and wish to be thought such by the children of

God; but who, though leading a life regular as to its exterior, are alas!" neither cold nor hot." I would be for ever crying to them, "Beware, lest the Lord reject ye from his mouth!"* But care must also be taken not to lead indirectly, under the thunders of a second Sinai, "the poor and contrite in spirit who tremble at the word of the Lord;"† and thus to put to the rack the beloved of God, whom Christ has begot that they may rejoice in him.

It is hoped that this discourse will be permitted from a man, who, when under the influence of the same false light, which he has here endeavoured to combat, experienced for many years mental sufferings, which the longest life can never efface from his memory. Let it be permitted him to say, that he considers it his most sacred duty to support the privilege given to the believer, to be fully assured of his faith by the testimony of his conscience, because he feels in the presence of his God, that such is the truth according to Holy Writ; it is the divine strength of the believer amid his conflicts, and whoever tears from him this privilege, tears from him his life. Let it be permitted a minister of Christ, who has the greatest horror of every unworthy abuse of divine grace, to dread also every thing that tends to weaken, or to veil in obscurity this clear, this perfect certainty of faith, the very life of the just, which the Gospel of God breathes and proclaims from one end to the other.

Woe unto us, if we preach not on the house tops; "without sanctification, none shall see the Lord." But also, woe unto us! if we "bruise the broken reed!”

* Rev. iii. 15, 16. + Es. lxvi. 2.

Rom. i. 17.; Gal. iii. 11.; Heb.x. 38.

Woe, without doubt, if we do not openly announce, that "all who say unto Christ, Lord, Lord, shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he alone who does the will of his Father who is in heaven!" But also let us beware how we strike harshly, how we wound with the rod of Moses, those sheep and lambs who are to be gently led by the holy but tender crook of Jesus the good Shepherd.

Whilst we bear engraven on our foreheads, "Holiness to the Lord," let our eyes contemplate unceasingly these words of our Master, "I am meek and lowly in heart."*

ON THE TEMPTATIONS OF

SATAN.

THE celebrated Augustine has asserted, that our whole life is one continued course of temptation. If the term be used in its widest latitude of meaning, to denote a state of trial, this assertion is true; but our present purpose will be confined to a more limited use of the word. There is a pretty large class of religious professors who speak of the temptations of Satan in a style and manner which every enlightened and sober Christian must pointedly condemn. Whether ignorance or cherished sin be the source whence such language proceeds, the effect is unquestionably bad. When every vile blasphemous thought, rash and rancorous word, foolish, or unjust action, is at once ascribed to the influence of the subtle infernal enemy, is there not reason to fear, that this ready commonplace plea, is urged to shift off the weight of responsibility, or in some way palliate the acknow

Heb. xii. 14.; Matt. xii. 20, and vii. 21.; Ez. xxxiii. 8.; John x. 2.; Psalm xxiii.; Isaiah xl. 11., xlix. 10., and lxiii. 14.; Ez.. xxxiv. 4. 15, 16.; Exod. xxviii. 36, 38.; Matt. xi. 29.

ledged evil? And while the individual vainly imagines the blame attached to his unchristian temper, or presumptuous conduct, can in part at least be transferred to another, does he not present a handle to openly profane men, which they promptly seize and employ, to degrade and vilify all religion?

But there is an opposite extreme, against which we have almost equal cause to be on our guard. If the vulgar and unwarrantable mode of speaking, found in some circles, leads to bad consequences, the vague abstraction and false refinement, which others display on this subject, are scarcely less injurious. It should be remembered, that the holy Scriptures unequivocally reveal to us the existence of an evil spirit, called the prince of darkness; that his artful stratagems and aims, his restless efforts and fierce assaults, are directed to compass the ruin and perdition of man; and that we are repeatedly exhorted to resist his mighty and malignant agency. The manner in which this grand enemy gains access to the human mind, and works upon its facilities, is confessedly beyond our knowledge. A small degree of attention may convince us, that no part of the revelation which God has given, was intended to gratify an idle and frivolous curiosity. The principles and precepts, warnings and promises of Christianity, have all of them a practical bearing. We read of the snares, of the wiles, of the desires, and the depths of Satan. By these and similar terms, the policy and craft which he employs to deceive and destroy, are surely described with sufficient clearness, to awaken our vigilance. And shall we, instead of watching and praying lest we enter into temptation, busy and amuse ourselves, with speculative queries and disquisitions? Shall