ditional state of being; it would only add another puzzling perplexity to the many which the fall hath introduced. We want a Rock to rest our weary foot upon; we want a Light in which there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, whereby to guide our uncertain course; or, to speak without a figure, we want a Will unalterable and unchangeable, whose purposes are disclosed to us, according to which we may rectify all our errors and wanderings, and thereto conform ourselves with all our might. But if that will be not itself constant, if it also be conditional, or if it be not revealed and manifest, or, finally, if it bear no tender and loving regard to us, or if it leave any doubt over the issue of the contest, no one will arise and gird himself to the battle. For it is no ordinary battle upon an equal footing; but it is the battle of the weak against the mighty; of one against a host; of a new-born child against the powers of flesh and blood, against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickednesses in high places. If there be the shadow of a doubt, I say again, resting over the issue of such a contest-if its success be not assured and pledged to us by Divine power and the Almighty unchangeable will, no mortal man will ever arise and take the field; or, if he should (and some certainly do take the field without the knowledge or the faith of this eternal purpose), then mark, that he will make a poor debate with the enemy, and come to parley and to terms of accommodation, upon being permitted any salvo to his honour, which the cunning one is ever willing to proffer. Therefore it is no small matter which we are handling, but the root of the matter, the great quickening, enlivening, and conquering principle of the

warfare, even the will of God for our salvation : and for our greater confirmation, let us turn together and read a passage of St. Paul, where he employs the doctrine to this very end (Rom. viii. 28). "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 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."

But besides this, I have to observe, that, if we

fix not our continual attention upon the purpose of God in Jesus Christ as the only ground of our salvation, we will be tempted to look somewhere else; and the effect of looking any where else will be fatal. Of these false foundations of trust, I perceive two especially which mislead men. The one is, to look to the outward visible church; and the other, to look to the fruits thereof within themselves;-the former giving rise to formality, the latter to mysticism. The greater part of professors look to the outward visible church, or what I would call the manifestation of God's purpose, instead of looking to the mind and will which are manifested therein. And the consequence is, that they are led blindly and timorously under the spirit of bondage and fear. Instead of being acted upon in their will by the Spirit of God, they are acted upon in their understanding, or in their natural feeling, or in their bodily sense by those parts of the revelation which severally address these several parts of their being. But not acknowledging the Supreme purpose and will which actuates the whole body of the revelation, their own will remains unsubdued and entire amidst all their formality of worship, and orthodoxy of faith, and practice of charity, and excitement of feeling. Of which formalists there are as many separate classes as there are different parts of the natural man to be acted upon; some of the sense merely, some of the feelings, some of the understanding: but inasmuch as the will is unrenewed, and it never can be renewed without comprehending the purposes of God (for the meaning of a renewed will is, that its purposes are in accordance with the purposes of God),-inasmuch, I say, as the will is not renewed and bears still according to nature,

there must subsist in all such religionists a spirit of bondage; and I very much doubt whether there can exist in them the spirit of adoption, which is not the spirit of fear but of love. Into this matter I cannot enter at length; and it has been indirectly touched upon already, in what I have said concerning the submission of the will of Christ to the purposes of God, in which he delighted. There is a oneness, a simplicity of purpose in the Divine acts and revelations, which is as it were the soul and life of them; the uniformity in their variety. And so also in the life of a believer there ought to be the same oneness and simplicity of purpose, which may be the life and soul of all his obedience, and form the community of the Spirit in the variety and diversity of our gifts and graces. Now I say, that no one will obtain this common spirit of a son save by knowing and studying the will of our common Father. Otherwise our personality becomes lost and frittered away amidst an infinite variety of duties and engagements, of thoughts and opinions, and every one runneth wildly after his own natural disposition, instead of all submitting to the will of God; and the end is confusion, and sectarianism, and schism, and every evil work. Of so much importance is it to have our souls bent unto the contemplation of the purpose of God, by the operation of the Holy Ghost.

Besides these formalities (for I call every thing a formality in which the renewed will is not), there is another object to which spiritual divines are wont to turn the attention of believers, as the ground of consolation and assurance; namely, to the growth of grace and holiness in their own souls, or to what is commonly called Christian experirience. But into this I enter not at present; for it

is too large and important a matter to be dealt with slightly. Only I will say, in passing, that it is not a principle, or origin, but an effect derived from something else, and therefore not depending on itself, it is therefore not fit to rest upon. Besides, it is full of imperfection, change, and cloudy uncertainty; the light having to pass through the dark and dense medium of the flesh, which doth obscure it at times, and at times modify it, and at times extinguish it altogether. It is looking upon the earth for the proof and assurance of the sun's steady light, instead of looking at the sun himself. But we insist not.

Suffice it, dear brethren, to have given you a little insight into the purpose of God to justify his own holiness in the salvation of sinners the incarnation of his Son, and likewise to have shewn you the superlative importance of this higher theology, which they commonly stigmatize by calling it Calvinism, but which is in truth the theology of the Apostles, as we proved; the theology of the Reformers, and of the Non-conformists, and of every denomination of men in whom God hath placed the testimony of his Son, and by whom he hath built up or repaired the walls of his church. Therefore I do, with the more confidence, entreat you, brethren, to meditate the purpose of God in sending his Son, and your own election in Jesus Christ before the world was; your election to be holy and without blame before him in love, and consequently your perseverance in holiness, and your full assurance thereof unto the end. This fulness of the decree and purpose which he hath purposed in himself before the world was, is the assurance of the church; and it is the overture which the church maketh to the sinful world. We