ing trick, to trepan the followers of Moses into a legal reception of the doctrines of the cross (Acts, xxi. 23-27). And see a counterpart of this in Peter, who was reproved by Paul (Gal. ii. 11); wherein we see how he profited by his painful experience. Believer-beloved in the Lord! Will this encourage thee in unbelief, to know that the redeemed of God in all ages have experienced these exercises of unbelief? I trow not. I know if thou art called by grace, this is of all troubles the greatest. The evil heart of unbelief is thy dreaded and direst enemy: To him that believeth all things are possible; whereas, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Thy joy and peace will be proportioned to thy faith, and thy grief and sorrow in proportion to thine unbelief. We would, in the fear of the Lord, direct you to two conclusions in the word (Rom. vii. 25); SO THEN with the mind I MYSELF (not another man, as some would say), serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. This is the conclusion of faith, not reason; and this is the satisfaction of faith, not flesh. Recognising the distinction of the two principles, nature and grace, and rejoicing in faith's view of the completeness of Christ's work. "SO THEN, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free" (Gal. iv. 31); another of faith's conclusions amidst the contentions of legality, unbelief, the flesh, and the devil-persecutions without and within. Faith in exercise still says, So THEN; faith takes in no peradventures, contingencies, or ambiguities. Faith rests on the neverthelesses and notwithstandings of the everlasting covenant; and casting anchor within the veil, can look every enemy in the face, and say with triumph So THEN. Ay, let the devil roar, his seed rage, the enemy triumph, sin prevail-yet grace shall come off victor; and this shall be thy song, poor trampled-on, sin-tormented, faithless believer, More than conqueror through him who hath loved me. Thine for Christ's sake to serve in the Gospel, L. THE LAW OF MOSES AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. (Concluded from p. 24.) I Now proceed to show secondly, what glass it is we see in. And to speak in a word, I would say it is no other than the Gospel; and this in contradiction to all the views or beholdings of God in the law. Through that dispensation he appears in terrible majesty; while in this glass he is discovered to be what he really is to all his people, the gracious, and merciful, and everlasting Father. Nothing but blackness and darkness, the long and dreadfully sounding trumpet, and the awful voice of more than thundering words, are seen and heard from Sinai's burning mountain; while in this precious glass of the Gospel, gracious views are afforded us that God can be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly, even of all who are brought to believe in Jesus. The Holy Ghost assures us Christ hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel. Oh what a powerful and clear glass this is! It gives both retrospective and prospective views. It shows us what God our Father did for us before worlds, and opens to our wondering eyes somewhat of the glory that will be revealed in us when worlds are done away with for ever. Oh happy believer that has had this blessed glass placed before his eyes! It is clear as crystal, it represents the things that God hath prepared for them that love him, to the very life; nor can it give other than true views at any time. We cannot be deceived by this glass: though every time of looking into it we may be astonished, yet shall we not be confounded; and this because it is in the Lord's light we see light, and his light is called the true light that now shineth, and the "marvellous light" into which the church is brought. James very blessedly remarks, Whoso looketh into this glass, the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, that man shall be blessed in his deed and so indeed he is, for there is nothing but blessedness in the Gospel; and the looking and continuing there to look impart the knowledge and enjoyment thereof to the mind. Doing the work is continuing a believer; for "this is the work of God that believe, " and the Holy Ghost declares that establishment and prosperity come by believing. "Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper." Oh for the sacred, the constant leading of the Holy Ghost to continue looking into this perfect law-to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be entangled no more with the yoke of bondage! ye I pass on to consider thirdly, what object it is we behold. My text says it is the glory of the Lord, and this glory is all found in the person of Christ Jesus, as the apostle declares-God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," he is the glorious Shekinah—the temple which is filled with it. God's great decrees, plans, and purposes of old, were all deeply laid in him, nor can there be a manifestation of God but through him. It is the only-begotten Son that lay in the bosom of the Father, that declares what he is to his people. "No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." Therefore if we are desirous, as Moses was, to be shown the Lord's glory, we must be placed where he was to see it, even in the cleft of that blessed Rock which followed the spiritual children of Israel through the wilderness, and which Rock (the Holy Ghost plainly informs us) was Christ. This must be the place from whence we may behold. And even here we cannot see so as comprehensively to understand the great majesty of God and live; but we shall see what is inconceivably more interesting and beneficial to us-namely, his goodness, which he will cause to pass before us. Oh this is enough, this is indeed better ! God's manifestative glory is his goodness, and this diffused and spread abroad in the heart-knowledge thereof in his dear people, and as so many glorious rays from the eternal Sun enlivening, cheering, and delighting us. We do not presume to inquire for knowledge of his essential glory, of his being; we would not seek to comprehend the profound mystery of his great existence: our happiness—yea, his praise, is found to arise from the acknowledgment (not the comprehension) of the mystery of God and the Father, and of Christ. Therefore we will not ask as Moses did, "I beseech thee, Lord, show me thy glory;" and if our God be pleased to answer us and place us in the position he did him, we shall have a glorious sight of the King in his beauty, and behold the Lamb that is very far off. I begin my remarks on this head of my discourse (for I have not yet but touched the subject) by declaring that every eternal act or decree of God had this as the great foundation principle of it-namely, his glory. I venture to assert, without fear of being successfully opposed, that the church-yea, Christ himself as the church's great and glorious Head and Saviour, would never have existed as such but for the glory of his almighty name; allow me to prove this by the Scriptures. Of the church God himself remarks, "I have formed them for my glory;" and again, This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise (Isa. xliii. 7 and 21); and in the Father's gracious address to his dear Son, he tells him, "Thou art my servant, oh Israel, in whom I will be glorified; " and the Saviour himself assures his disciples, "Whatsoever they ask in his name he will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John, xiv. 13). A thousand more Scriptures may be brought forward in which this great truth is either explicitly expressed or plainly implied, but these are enough for our present purpose. Let us now look to some few things the Scriptures proclaim, in which may be seen the glory of God in the good pleasure of his will toward his people in Christ Jesus. And I cannot help thinking that the greatest good God ever decreed his church unto, was a union to himself in the person of Christ Jesus ; that inseparable oneness, not only with Christ, but to him whom Paul calls the Head of Christ, which is God! This is what the Saviour sought for his dear disciples; that the church might know, live upon, and enjoy it, our blessed Lord's prayer was, "That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me ; and the glory thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one" (John, xvii. 21, 22). Oh the unfathomable depths of this ocean of blessedness! the church is one with Christ, and one with Christ in God. Here is the extreme honour of the church, she is identified and taken up into union with God, as Christ himself her Head is; surely, then, the Father hath loved the church, as he hath him in whom he gave her being. The relationship too is one and the same, and this proves equal affection to them as to him. Nor does our Elder Brother wish to detract from the honour or happiness of the younger children; for he is not ashamed, but loves to call them brethren; and tells them that his Father is their Father also (Heb. ii. 11; John, xx. 17). The gift of the Father's great property is equal between him and them; for the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand and they are told all things are theirs; being children, they are all heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ (John, iii. 35; 1 Cor. iii. 22; Rom. viii. 17). Brethren in Jesus, see what glory God hath called us unto in Christ and remember God interpreted his glory to be his goodness; for the Lord did not deny Moses' prayer (for I believe the Holy Ghost indited it in Moses' heart), but he granted it him to the full by making his goodness pass before him. Now how can the church, thus blessed in Christ, with Christ, and as Christ, be otherwise than everything that is dear and precious in his sight? With the very beauty of the Lord her God upon her, is she not perfect, entire, lacking nothing? I am sure for one she is, and must be; and I must take leave to say, that the Gospel is not faithfully preached where these things are kept back from the people of God. To begin or close statements of the church's well-being and standing before God, by her redemption from sin by the blood of Jesus, is, as blessed Dr. Hawker used to say, "beginning at the middle of the subject; " I would rather say, as Mr. Kent does, "We'll now the sacred song begin where God began with us." And that was from eternity; and if a poor creature like myself might say what was God's beginning with us, it was choosing us in his Christ, and uniting head and members together in himself. From hence follows everything that is blessed in securities for eternal life, and the blissful impartation of all God's communicable glory; for says the Saviour, The glory thou hast given me I have given them. Oh! what hath sin done, or what can Satan do, to deprive the church of this her ancient, her eternally-purposed blessedness? Verily, nothing whatever! The whole artillery of earth or hell was, and is, but as a storm against the wall of this impregnable fortress: it is written (that is enough for thee, O my soul), My counsel shall stand: I will do all my pleasure. Oh my brethren! this glory of our God, which means his " great goodness to the house of Israel," is too precious to himself to be lost. The church and all her blessedness is hid with Christ in God, and therefore we are said to be "preserved in Jesus Christ, and called." Would Satan and sin now injure our persons or property, they must assail and overcome our great and victorious Head; yea, they must deprive him, who is the resurrection and the life, of existence, before they can do it, for while He lives, we shall live also. In Adam we fell, but we rise from the dust and dunghil of the degradation of our fall, to a happiness in Christ we never could have known or prized had we remained as we were, created in him therefore let the church sing in the very teeth of her enemies, God be thanked, ye were the servants of sin; for ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Oh blessed form of doctrine indeed! wherein God's eternal love is commended to us, even when we were yet sinners, nothing on our part being contributed to the ordaining us to such unequalled honour as that of being the sons of God! Yea, when by our baseness we deserve the lowest hell, we are elevated and raised above all the holy, unsinning angels of light; for to which of them hath God said at any time "Thou art my son ? The fourth particular is the effect of the glorious vision which the apostle declares is "being changed into the same image from glory to glory." What or whose image does he mean? Most certainly Christ's. Beholding him in this blessed glass we are transformed; lose our Adam the First's likeness, and are changed into the likeness of the Lord from heaven. Marvellous indeed, but most true it is, that as we have borne the image of the earthly, we also bear the image of the heavenly. And let the reader remember it was for this self-same thing our God wrought us at first, even from eternity; for it is written, He predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. viii. 29). Then this conformity is effected by looking into this blessed glass, for we are changed into the same image. That beauteous form he has and ever wears before the throne, we appear in and possess also. The blessed inscription engraven on this glorious glass is, "As he is, so are we even in this world." Oh yes! my gracious Lord, it is even so, for this world and all its contaminating influences alter not the glorious position thy people occupy in Christ; there they are perfect, even as is their Master-holy as he is holy-righteous as he is righteous. In him, and in him only, thou, our adored Father, ever beholdest them. Thy testimonies, although wonderful, are most true; they are all fair, without a spot, blemish, or any such thing. Oh what a mercy for thee and me, brother believer, that he whose word is with power, hath commanded, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed in the renewing of your minds!" for though in it, and though we must have to do with it, while we remain below, yet are we not of it. Jesus in mercy grant us many a precious vision in this spirit-transforming glass, and we shall find we are changed into the same blissful image with himself. His beauty fully reflected on us, will surely render us all glorious within, and our clothing be of wrought gold. I take the apostle's words "from glory to glory," to mean the different degrees of apprehension of the children of God, of their state and circumstances as they stand in Christ. There is a great glory the child of God discovers, and is brought into, when he receives the atonement-the pardon of all his sins, through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. His heart realizes a happiness and a joy he never knew before, nor can he fully describe the beauteous rays of heavenly light and glory which beam in sweetest refulgence on his happy and ransomed spirit. There is, however, a greater glory than this-namely, "his full justification in the righteousness of Christ," which enables him to see that his sins never were imputed to him, but that the righteousness of Christ ever was. This is indeed most glorious. In his presentation of himself before God in Christ, he feels a confidence and an assurance of faith, that the holy angels cannot boast. It is his to sing with the poet, "Fully I am justified; Free from sin, and more than free; Guiltless, since for me He died- H |