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tual character. I have already said, that, whenever a sinner knows and believes the simple testimony of free mercy through the blood and righteousness of Jesus, he has, in the testimony itself, and in the universality and freeness of its assurances to all who believe in it, a ground given him, by the God of truth itself, for immediate and full confidence ;-and he, therefore, who would frown upon him for immediately trusting, and immediately rejoicing in a sense of God's forgiveness, would frown upon him for that which it is God's very intention, in setting the gospel before him, that he should do, and which, as we have seen, is exemplified in many recorded instances in his own word. But, true as this is, it is not less true, nor less important, that, whenever a sinner believes, with a right understanding of it, the testimony of God, that change of heart takes place, in the production of which the truth is the instrument, and the Holy Spirit the efficient agent, and of which the necessity is so strongly affirmed by the Saviour himself, to Nicodemus—

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Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."-This, as we have formerly seen, is the commencement of a spiritual life; which is, in truth, the eternal life begun, that is to be perfected in heaven. If, then, we are right in this, does it not become a matter of fair, and legitimate, and necessary inquiry-How is the possession of this life to be known? Is there any thing

"written" by which we are to ascertain it? and, if there be, what is it? It must be very manifest, that when John says-" These things have I written-that ye may know that ye have eternal life"-the meaning is, not merely that they might have confidence, but that they might have such a confidence as is legitimate and well-grounded. To know that they have eternal life, is to know it on grounds that are in accordance with what is written. Their own knowledge of them-selves must agree with God's knowledge of them. It must rest on the principles of his word. It must be no delusion, but just and true. The Apostle would never wish for them any thing else than this.

If the question, then, be-How is the possession of this spiritual life to be known? surely there can be no other answer to it but one. How, in the nature of things, can it be known otherwise than by its own appropriate symptoms and indications? How is the possesion of animal life known? To the individual himself it is known by certain sensations, and certain powers of motion and action. To others it is known by the pulsation of the heart and arteries, by respiration, and by the various indications of remaining sensibility and power. Now, the life of the soul has its appropriate indications, as well as the life of the body; and by these, of course, it must be known. Where, then, are these to be found, and what are they? They must be sought in the word. If they exist at all, they

must be found among the "things that are written.” It is true that a great deal must lie in consciousness. But here, as before, the consciousness must have some standard to which it corresponds :-it must be the consciousness of something; and this something must be something written. It must be a consciousness of those distinguishing properties and symptoms of the spiritual life, which are specified by the Holy Spirit in the divine word. I confess myself unable to imagine any other way by which the possession of spiritual life can in any case be "known." In Rom. viii. 16, the Apostle Paul says, Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." I quote the words, because, when rightly understood, they contain an important general principle on this part of my subject,-on the nature of the evidence, I mean, by which the possession of the spiritual life is to be known. "The whole "of the preceding context is practical. The evidence

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"there of our being in Christ' is our 'walking not "after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' Therefore,

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brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after "the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die : "but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of "the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by "the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God. For "ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to "fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption,

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whereby we cry, Abba, Father.'*

Filial obedience "and filial confidence are thus connected. The Spirit "of God dwells in believers. This indwelling spirit "is the earnest of their inheritance,—the evidence of "their adoption, and of the soundness of their hopes. "How, then, is this evidence brought out? How is "the possession of this earnest known? Such ques"tions amount to much the same thing with,- What

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are the indications and proofs of a man's having the Spirit?' And the answer to this, in general terms, " is plain :—they are the effects resulting from his resi"dence and operation in the soul; or what are called by "the same writer the 'fruits of the Spirit.'-The case "appears, in the general principle of it, to stand thus. "The Holy Spirit speaks in the word. The same "Spirit operates in the heart. There must be a corre

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spondence between his testimony in the word and his operation in the heart. The evidence lies in this correspondence. We take the divine word, as dictated

by the Spirit, and containing a declaration of his "mind-we see there what he testifies :-we see "especially the description which he there gives of the "faith and character of God's children,—of the prin"ciples and dispositions, the affections and desires, "the hopes and fears, and the peculiar walk and con"versation, by which they are distinguished. If our

* Rom. viii. 12-15.

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'spirit,' in the court of conscience, and before the Father of our spirits, bears witness to a correspond.

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ence between this description and what has been "effected in us by the same Divine Agent-then there "is a concurrence of the testimonies. The testimony "of God's Spirit and the testimony of our spirits agree. "The one witnesseth with the other. What the Spirit "of God has wrought in us harmonizes with what the Spirit of God testifies in the word; and in proportion as our spirits have the inward consciousness of this harmony, do we possess the witness of the Spirit to our being the children of God."*-Let no one allege that we deny the necessity of divine influence. the Holy Spirit alone, by whom the word of life was given, that effects, by his life-giving energy and purifying virtue, an agreement between the sinner's mind and heart, and what He has testified as to the character of the renewed soul in the written word. This is his work and the only way in which we can be aware of this work in us, is by consciousness;-consciousness, not of the Spirit's direct operation (for of that we know nothing) but of its effects, and of the harmony of these with what the Spirit has left on record in the scriptures. This is the test.-We are not to try the testimony of the Spirit in the scriptures

* Sermons by the Author, recently published-Sermon xiv. pp. 407--409.

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