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And it is not to be overlooked, even in this rapid sketch of the subject, that the change, in regard of the principles implanted, is complete and harmonious. It does not consist in the reception of some new principle of action, which becomes simply one in addition to those which were there before, and which may often disagree among themselves, producing inward contention, and a fluctuating variety of character. The new principles, as they flow from one source, agree among themselves; and they are received in such manner, as that they now constitute what is properly the moral man. There are "the works of the flesh;" but "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." And as they are now "led by the Spirit," so "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tempe

rance."

If we observe the state itself, in order to such an analysis as shall bring before us its originating and governing principle, and thus enable us to determine its real character, purity and benevolence will appear to be its distinguishing features, and these to be both occasioned and sustained by the love of God. "We love him because he first loved us;" and this grateful regard to him, produced by the views we now have of his love towards us in Christ Jesus, is always accompanied by the choice of him as our portion, our satisfying por. tion, our portion alike for time and eternity. He is the chief Good of man, and is now chosen as such; and such a choice supposes the abandonment of the creature as the fancied source of happiness. He who truly loves God, no longer loves the world, in the sense in which the love of the world is forbidden. The one affection is necessarily expulsive of the other.

And, in this state, our fellowcreatures are regarded no longer as enemies and rivals, to whom we are to be in opposition, because they are in opposition to us. He who is happy in God, unfailingly desires

that others may be happy in him too. Because he loves God, he loves his neighbour.

Now, this entire state, with all its exercises, is continually represented as supposing and indicating that spiritual life of which the Spirit of God is the Author. It is not merely a certain disposition of the moral and intellectual faculties; but such a disposition as is occasioned by the presence of spiritual life, the highest of which the nature of man is capable. But this spiritual life is always referred to the Spirit of God, as given to those who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them. We attempt not to describe it, as it is in itself. The theologian may well be excused from the task of ascertaining the precise nature of spiritual life, when the physiologist is unable to do more than describe the laws, and exercises, and results of our natural life. What is our whole organized structure, without life? And if, from original defect, or the operation of disease, any separate organ be cut off from the mysterious presence and agency, its organic structure becomes useless. He who was blind from his birth, was dead as to the organs of sight. He who sees, knows not what the life is by which he sees; but he knows that he has it, because he sees. And if formerly he were blind, and his sight has been restored, though it may be attempted to perplex him as to the instrumentality by which the change was effected; yet he can say, "One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see."

The analogy may, in some measure, illustrate the condition of the man that "hath the Son." He is conscious (we still refer to the change of which we have just been speaking) of an entirely new disposition and exercise of all the faculties and affections of his nature; a new power both of discernment and feeling so that now he has a real fellowship with objects of which before he only knew as the man born blind may be, by careful instruction, generally acquainted with objects of sight; yet so as to have no real idea

communicated to him by them. It is not that the mind is differently disposed, that its exercises are different. This is truth; but it is not the whole truth. The different dispositions and exercises are themselves the effects of a cause, that cause being their union with Christ, the Source of spiritual vitality. It is no figure, but a plainly-expressed truth, that they are "alive from the dead through Jesus Christ our Lord." They have the Son; they have fled to him, trusted in him, believed in his name; and he has accepted them; and, in consequence, (as he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit,") being justified, -personally justified by a personal faith, they have the "Holy Ghost given unto them;" that is, they have the Son, and they have life.

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It will now be proper to put, somewhat more in form and order, the summary results to which even the brief sketch that has been taken of this all-important subject will be found to have led.

Religion is the work of God.If the scriptural expressions which declare this are to be reduced to mere figures of speech, piously meant, but referring to nothing more than that God, generally, is the Author of all good, and, therefore, of this good, then is there nothing in Scripture which may not thus be regarded; and then, instead of established truths, we have only uncertainties and illusions.

But

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power to us-ward who believe," by which all that have true religion, though formerly dead in trespasses and sins, are now quickened together with Christ," and "raised up, and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (ii. 5, 6.) And as it is the reception of a new nature, at once victoriously opposed to sin, powerfully leading to decided obedience, and standing in entire contrast to the sinful nature we have derived from the fallen parents of mankind, it is a new creation, a new birth; and of both is God represented as the immediate Author. By his Prophets God had said, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts: " "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you. I will cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." What God has thus promised, he performs by his Spirit; and to those who with the heart believe unto righteousness, that is, to those who have the Son,-he gives his Spirit to do this very work. The Gospel is emphatically THE MINISTRATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS," and

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THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT;" and they who obey the Gospel, which requires "repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" "made free from the law of sin and death;" for they are "justified by faith," and have " the Holy Ghost given unto them."

are

not only are general expressions
employed, which refer all personal
cases of true piety to a real influ-
ence from God, but a particular
phraseology is, from time to time,
used, marking the specific character
of the influence itself, and at the
same time opening to our view,
within certain limits, the spiritual
and moral facts which such particu-
lar expressions are intended to de-
note. As religion implies a change
from death unto life, it is a spiritual
resurrection. But this is God's
work. As it was 66
the working of
His mighty power which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from
the dead;" (Eph. i. 19, &c. ;) so it
is "the exceeding greatness of his
VOL. XXI. Third Series. APRIL, 1842.

Religion, which is thus the work of God, is individual and personal.— That is, these blessings of pardon and spiritual renovation are given to them, and wrought in them, personally, and on the exercise of their personal repentance and faith. The true church of Christ is pardoned and sanctified as a whole, by the pardon and sanctification of its

Y

members individually; not, these members are pardoned and sanctified in virtue of their union with the church. Were the latter asserted, not only might it be rejected, as totally destitute of proof from Scripture, but as requiring for its establishment an entire change in the structure of scriptural language. Is it said, "Join the church, and ye shall find rest to your souls?" No; it is, "Come unto ME, and I will give you rest." Is it said, to the individual asking, "What must I do to be saved?" "Join the church, and the sacraments shall minister salvation to you?" Is it not written, (and, on a memorable occasion, was not the answer given, with a readiness which shows how full the apostolic mind was of the subject,) "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved?" Is it said, "He that is in the church hath life?-He that is in the church hath, by virtue of his union, the witness of God concerning his Son, which is in the church, as it is a church, composed of those only who submit to such as have a commission which is divine, as traceable by a succession of commissions, through individuals of all sorts of character, to the original one given by Christ to his Apostles?" Nay; but can language be plainer than?" He that hath the Son hath life." "He that hath not the Son of God hath not life." "He that believeth hath the witness in himself." And what is meant by, "He that hath not the Son of God hath not life?" Let St. Paul answer, in language that shall explain that of St. John, both in the asserting and denying phrases: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

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For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." And we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." And they who "receive the adoption of sons' are thus addressed: "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

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And in agreement with all this,

are such passages as these: "Unto whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." "Jesus Christ; whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls." And, even under the Old Testament, there were many by whom this subject, in its general character, was better understood than is often supposed. Even with the superior light of the Christian revelation, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned : while, with the inferior light of the Old Testament, they who sought the Lord while he was to be found, and called on him while he was near, obtained a clear view of the plans of divine mercy in their general character. St. Paul refers to David, as describing “the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works," in illustration of his own discourse on justification; and David had said, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant." If, by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the full explanation and establishment of the new covenant (so far as the present state is concerned) were promised, and the blessings of pardon, and the law written in the heart, distinctly declared to belong to it; before the days of either of them, David had said, “I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me: hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Indeed, while from the New Testament we obtain the clearer and fuller descriptions of the nature of spiritual religion; from the Old Testament we obtain indisputable proofs, that this reli

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gion, in all ages, and under all dispensations, is unchangeably the same. In its ultimate essence, religion is the same, both for unfallen and for fallen man. It is humble, grateful, adoring, obedient love. And as the mercy of God interposed for the help of man, so soon as his foot had slipped, the Apostle, among the descriptions which he gives of the objects presented to his view in the apocalyptic visions, speaks of "the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." In the mysterious wisdom of God, there have been divers forms of administration; and, therefore, have there been varying duties and privi. leges but these forms of administration have all rested on the one great plan of human redemption, the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;" and the duties and privileges of that one great plan have always been presented, as to their essential principles, as constituting religion, properly so called. "He is not a Jew who is one outwardly," said the Apostle; "but he is a Jew who is one inwardly." And of the pious Nathanael our Lord said, "Behold a true Israelite." And, therefore, does the Apostle mix up the terms and phrases of both dispensations, without obscuring the truth in the slightest degree, when he says, thus bringing true religion to its distinctively spiritual and personal characteristics,-" We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

On this personal nature of religion, another text must by no means be overlooked. In 1 Cor. vi. 1820, the true Christian is represented as being, individually, a temple of God, by the indwelling in him of the Holy Spirit. In this passage

* Archbishop Whately says, that all the references to the indwelling of the Spirit are to his residence in the entire church, as a temple; so that each part of the temple, as a part, might participate in it. Is it not far more easy and natural, as well as far more in agreement both with the whole tenor of Scripture, and the construction of separate passages, to take exactly an opposite view? The divine Spirit dwells in the

the Apostle not only dehorts from a particular (and personal) sin, but argues against it; and so argues, as to point out the obligation under which the Christian is laid, to aim at an undefiled purity, and an universal holiness: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." The references of the whole passage are personal. The argument is not from a participation in church advantages, to a preservation of church purity, by the means of purity of individual conduct; but, simply and exclusively, from a personal condition,— and considered as personal,-to a personal obligation.↑

Religion, in its essential exercise, consists of love.-Believing in Christ, the penitent sinner obtained forgiveness for the alone sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the love of God was then shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him. And this manifestation to him of the pardoning love of God in Christ, by the Spirit, "the Giver of life," produces the state described by the brief, but significant and comprehensive, language of St.

whole, by dwelling in each, according to his various operations. The text quoted above can only, as it appears to me, be explained naturally, and in accordance with the Apostle's design, by referring it to this personal indwelling.

It is not intended, in the slightest degree, to undervalue the advantages which flow from church union, scripturally considered; nor to weaken the obligation to maintain it, under which every believer is laid. But much is said in Scripture of the church, which only applies to it as the collection of all true believers; and union with this is not to be confounded with union with some particular church, composed of professed believers. But, even in the highest sense, the church is not to be put in the place of Christ and his word. Practically, very little difficulty would arise, if the distinction just alluded to were always remembered. He who really desires union with Christ, is not the man to neglect church union; but union with the best-constituted church that ever existed, would still leave unaffected the necessity of personal union with Christ, through a true repentance and faith, and the consequent experience of a work of God in the soul.

John: "We love him because he first loved us." And this sacred affection, thus produced, is the source of universal holiness. It is exercised by them who have likewise exercised-and when will they cease to exercise?" repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." Gratitude for blessings unnumbered and beyond valuation, adoring admiration of the excellencies included in acknowledged and infinite perfection, the happy repose which the choice of the true and supreme good can alone occasion, all belong to this love. God is loved, and the creature only for God, and in subordination to him. And the divine benevolence now produces its counterpart in man. God is love. And of the soul, choosing God in Christ, and thus resting in him, it may truly be said, that soul is love. There is, in the new creature, the image of God. The life of God in the soul is the life of love. In proportion as this affection reigns, does benevolence reign too. The new nature of the soul is love; and the only distinction is that which is made by the reference of the soul to its infinite Creator, and to its fellow-creature. In the first reference it is grateful, adoring, delighting, imitating, submitting love; in the second, it is pure, intense benevolence.

The

new-born soul has its attention fixed on the great commandments; and, with all the power of its newlyreceived life, seeks to obey them. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself." And this is holiness. The commands which God has given proceed from his own moral nature; and the nature produced by the life-giving, sanctifying Spirit, humbly delights to obey them. Its language is, "O how I love thy law!" And where such are the principles and affections, such will be the regulated conduct. "And this," says John, the disciple who opens to us the glorious mysteries of divine love,-and thus, to the humble and simple, the philosophy

and the morality of the Gospel,and this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments."

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This is religion: and, according to St. Paul, (who, in other language, opens the same truth,) the only available religion. "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love;" and thus declares the man in whom it is found to be, by the power of the Spirit of God, a new creature." And this is life, spiritual life, the life of God in the soul, which no man can give himself, but which Christ will refuse to no one who comes to him for it. And this, he who has, has "in himself." He has it, indeed, in Christ, and from Christ, and only in virtue of his union with Christ; but still he has it in himself. The branch does not possess life independently: break it off from the parent stem, and it dies: but, still, life it truly possesses. And thus is Christ the vine, and they who truly believe in him are the branches; and because they are united to him they have life, the real power of growth and of fruitbearing. They have the Son, they have life, and this life they have in themselves.

Now, this which they thus have in themselves, is that which is declared to be "the witness which God hath witnessed concerning his Son." "He that believeth hath the witness"-hath this witness"in himself." It only remains now that I show the reason why this inward life of God, thus possessed by the believer, is called a "witness," and point out the strength and value of the testimony.*

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When the present paper was begun, it was not intended to enlarge so fully upon the characters of "the life" which "he that hath the Son possesses, as was afterwards judged necessary. But the subjects which have been considered are exactly those which are now so earnestly controverted. Of what are called "church principles," the fundamental dogma is, that "God does not deal with men as individuals; " and, therefore, that it is only in the church, and by virtue of union with it, that men have life. According to

this scheme, salvation is not received by indivi

(To be concluded in our next.)

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