to keep that which I have committed unto Him; therefore, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for, it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." And brethren, do not we, and do not all the family of heaven, possess the same ground for such magnanimous exercise of faith, and the same exalted privileges of citizenship? Yes! verily, for they are heirs of God according to the promise. It is their vested right, the unalienable grant of their Father's love; the purchase of the Saviour's sacrificial death; the result of his intercession; and is implanted in the soul by the invincible prowess and sacred energies of God the Holy Ghost, as the glorifier of Christ, and the revealer of the Father's heart.. Yea! it was the stipulation of the everlasting covenant, entered into by the coessential and co-eternal Three, in the undivided Godhead; and ratified by immutable oath, that those who flee to Christ for refuge should have strong consolation, and a good hope through grace; seeing they have taken refuge in the Rock, for want of a shelter. And, (beloved brethren, let me appeal to your experience) where is the man that hath trusted in Christ, as the Rock of Ages, that hath been ashamed of his confidence? But, whoever refused the refuge that was not ashamed? "How shall they escape if they neglect so great salvation. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" Brethren, be not deceived; for what a man soweth, that also again shall he reap! See to it then, that the foundation of your hopes be the same that God hath laid in Zion. O! beloved, I would in conclusion, give expression to the intense desires of my soul, that God would enable us to realize, to the refreshing of our wearied spirits, but one half the blessedness these considerations are calculated (under the influences of the Holy Ghost) to produce. Then, indeed, would our minds be elevated beyond the confines of mortality, and the corroding cares and perplexing anxieties of this passing world; and casting aside, as too grovelling for our exalted minds, all that the earth calls good and great, in the holy triumphs of faith, and in the exercise of christian resignation, we should say, April 5, 1833. "Go then, earthly fame and treasure, I have call'd thee, Abba! Father, Soon shall close my earthly mission, T. W. H. ESSAYS. No. XCVIII ON CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS. No. VIII. THE life of the child of God is not a scene of perpetual grief, for there are moments when the triumphs of Christ minister to him pure joys in the house of his pilgrimage. As the calamities of the church of God frequently are the result of his decision, for they are not always the consequence of disobedience to his will, so the victory which is obtained by faith in the name of Christ over her enemies, is ever the fruit of his love, and the production of his omnipotent grace. A legal right to freedom from sin, and all its dreadful consequences, was procured by the Son of God at the hand of insulted and injured justice for all his brethren, according to a federal compact with his Father from the days of old. In the plan of wisdom now unfolding in the church of God, is manifested his unalterable counsel concerning his family. Christ his Son is heir of all things; therefore, his infinite wisdom, skill, and love are disclosed in the formation and conservation of his people in a state of spiritual sanctification. The ground of confidence on which the church of God is resting all her hope of salvation is above and beyond, although it is not contrary to the law, for the honour of law is upheld in the mediation of the great Immanuel. True prosperity of soul is the product of the Holy Ghost, who is the kind instructor and illuminator of all the heirs of heaven. By the word the holy Paraclete is graciously pleased to shed a heavenly light upon the understanding, by which means the person of the Son of God is revealed with such evidence to the mind, that faith embraces the testimony of truth, and cleaves to him as Lord of all. The divine and human beauties of the incarnate Son of God fill and consecrate all our powers; and the implanted graces of the Holy Ghost are nourished, and the "town of man-soul" is filled with spiritual pleasure. Spiritual sanctification is a demonstration of union to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ: forasmuch as the Holy Ghost in his operations never conceals nor denies the unity of the Godhead, but he makes manifest the tri-unity of the one living and essential Jehovah to the church in Christ, according to the federal arrangement and settlement of eternal love in him before the world began. And this holy manner of making known God in Christ, is the sovereign cause and influential reason why true saints obtain by faith a victory over all their adversaries. It is true, that on the side of their oppressors there is power, but it must not be wholly forgotten that the truly important connection subsisting between Christ and his seed is different from all other associations with which we are acquainted. The union of our souls and bodies is a mystery that we cannot fully comprehend, nor can we accurately define how these different essences act upon each other, but by an established law they are constantly upheld to answer an end designed to be accomplished by God. But in the union of two natures in the person of Immanuel, God has displayed his wisdom more gloriously than in all the other works of his hand; for by taking humanity into union with his essence, in the person of the eternal Word, he has raised it to the highest honour which can consistently with his eternal perfection be conferred upon a creature, and by the same gracious act to give, as he has done, a federal subsistence to the church in Christ. This is an honour that endless duration of being will never fully develop, and the saints will everlastingly derive advantage from a spiritual knowledge and belief of it. Men professing religion in the present day are generally much in the dark, and they love to remain so concerning this great mystery of godliness. And what is the result of such folly, pride, and presumption? Why, truly, the churches are exceedingly sickly, and they are rapidly decaying in gospel knowledge and experimental communion with God and each other. The venerable apostle John, when writing to his beloved Gaius, said, "I wish, above all things, that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." Soul prosperity was with him a preferable good to any other object. The end of his writing of his first epistle was that their joy might be full; but he said, "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Fellowship with God, and communion with the saints on earth, is the certain consequence of vital union to Christ the Lord. But it is undeniably evident, that an evangelical knowledge of the person, government, reign, and salvation, of the Son of God, is obtained in a gradual manner. In the morning of spiritual consciousness and perception the young christian is much affected by what is disclosed to him by the Holy Ghost of the holiness, justice, and spirituality of the law of God; for this is the holy instrument by which a correct knowledge of the state of man is made evident. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." The vileness and wickedness of man by nature is demonstrated, and the poor trembling culprit is fearful that the dreadful sentence of the law will assuredly be executed upon him. But it is not the intention of God to demand from the hand of the sinner payment of his debts, for that he has received from the hand of his Surety; but it is his fixed purpose to make the ingrate wretch know that upon the principle of abstract justice he could for ever punish him; and when the holy law in the hand of the Holy Ghost has done its office, God invariably opens the gracious and legal connection existing between Christ and his seed. Faith, which is comprehended in the principle of life imparted in the hour of spiritual birth, is increased and strengthened by what is made known according to the mind of God from the scriptures. Christ suffering the wrath of justice for the sins of his people, is a subject whenever it is opened and applied to the conscience by the Holy Ghost alleviates it; for to behold immaculate purity and everlasting perfection grappling with injured rectitude, ever calls away the christian man from musing upon his own misery, to behold the wondrous love of incarnate God, making an end of sin and effecting reconciliation for the people. With such a scene before him, the saint forgets every other object while he communes with his bleeding Redeemer. Now we may affirm, that there are conflicting and opposing causes at work at the same time in the mind of a christian, for it is not quite so easy to be nothing before God in the article of justification as many people conceive it to be. To have a speculative knowledge of the righteousness of Christ, as that which alone justifies a sinner before God is not difficult; but when the sentence of condemnation is passed in the conscience, and death is working thereby that which is good, then to have living faith in the person and salvation of Christ Jesus to support the mind, it is wholly of grace and a supernatural blessing, experienced by the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, we may assert that the christian is a warrior, who will never cease to use his spiritual arms until he breathes his natural life into the hand of God who first gave it to him. But the warfare is not always grievous, because in many instances enemies are vanquished, sin is crucified, Satan defeated, self denied, the world resigned, Christ endeared to us, grace is prized, and God is glorified in and by us! For every A conquest is obtained over the evil of the world. one that is born of God, overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” It is not the world as a place that is intended by the apostle, but the principle of the world. Christ has not so much redeemed us from the world as a place, as from the evil of it. "I pray not," said he "that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Positive sanctification does not consist in the absence of moral evil, but in the presence of spiritual life, by which it is counteracted, and the evil tendencies of it are restrained. The price of our freedom from captivity is by the Holy Ghost on influential good in and on us, by which that that is evil is abstained from, and the graces of our heavenly birth-state are employed, even as Christ the Lord has commanded. Now without faith it is impossible that such a victory can be obtained over the world, sin, and self; for this grace was in covenant provided for the saints, and it is peculiarly suited for the purpose to which it is appointed. By it we stand, walk, wait, live, fight, triumph, and are kept until the day of our complete freedom from sin will arrive. We receive our pardon by faith, when through the Spirit we lay hold upon the sacrificial death of Christ. Here, as in a centre, we perceive all the attributes of God meet and shine in our everlasting salvation. Sovereignty and justice are united in Immanuel to deliver the wretched from misery, and to introduce the church of God into a spotless state of being with Christ in his own kingdom. Thus the graces which were originally in the human nature of the Son of God, and which were manifested in him when he lived in our world, are also resident in his seed, and they are upheld by connection with him, and sustained by partaking of his fulness to develop them in their religious services and duties, which they do for his name's sake. When the lusts of the flesh and the mind are crucified, and the life of the christian is conformed to the testimonies of God, we never question the reality of that man's character, forasmuch as he, though engaged in a sore conflict, is armed with the mind of Christ. Faith repeats her mighty acts of conquest over her enemies by renewed application to the blood of Christ. This was the method by which the primitive disciples of Messiah conquered their foes," for they overcame them by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimonies." This is a spiritual victory distinct in its kind from that by which the men of the world are distinguished: it is victory alone for which they contend, and to obtain it they very frequently resort to the use of such measures as must clothe them with disgrace when they have acquired the end for which they so wrathfully fought. But the victory achieved by faith in the merit of Christ over the world, has direct reference to the rights of God; for as Immanuel upheld the honour of his Father's government by making an end of sin, so his feeble brethren do by precious faith in his ransom maintain the same in their spirit and conduct. Inborn sin can only be vanquished by that which honours the law of God, and that is alone the atoning blood of Christ. It is often the case that men change for their own convenience the mode of their sinful conduct; but the unaltered enmity of the heart against God is gratified thereby; and, perhaps, the outbreaking of iniquity in some new channel rivets the mind in a more decided and bitter hostility against the reign of love and mercy; for there is no more true religion in our world than what the Holy Ghost has produced by regeneration. This manner of abstaining from the appearance of evil, has something in it different in its kind from the mere shew of it exhibited by the men of the world. It is nourished by the love of God, it is fed by the virtue of redeeming blood, and cherished by the celestial breathings of the Holy Ghost. The Mere physical and intellectual power is not that by which a victory is achieved over sin, the world, and Satan; for if that were the state of things, we should then conclude that every rational man is in possession of a subjective fitness to obtain such a conquest. church has been led on by God to that conquest which she has obtained over her enemies. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, "Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his know ledge by us in every place. For we are unto God the sweet savou |