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God's love cannot be separated from himself, and so it is written, "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." A man's having real love in him can be accounted for only in one way, he must have God dwelling in him, he could not have love otherwise, for there is no other love; and so the love of God in the creature is not a mere readiness to do the will of God when known, as the love of an earthly parent is just such a readiness; the love of God is knowledge of His will and conformity to it, as well as readiness to do it; the love of God is actually the fulfilling of the law, because it is God Himself who is the law, dwelling in the creature. Love is the blessing of the new covenant, "I will put my law in their hearts," and not a mere readiness to do it. is the meaning of the dispensation of the Spirit. The Spirit is love. And so, when it is written, that "love believeth all things and hopeth all things," it is not meant that there is a facility or proneness in love to believe or hope any thing; but the meaning is, that love which is God's own spirit in the creature, stands in God's counsel and knows His mind, and therefore recognises all His revelations, and hopes or desires all that he purposes: the meaning is the same as when it is said, “The spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God." Man's love flatters its objects; man's love suffers sin in its objects; man's love comes forth on those who have qualities fitted to attract it; it comes forth on those who are agreeable to him, on those who are estimable in his eyes, on those who flatter his selfish feelings in some way or other. God's love is the opposite of all this. He loves, not because any object attracts His love, but because He is love. "He commendeth His love to us, in that whilst we

were sinners, Christ died for us." This greatest proof of His love is the very thing which declares His unutterable abhorrence of the characters of those whom He thus loved. His love spares not the feelings of its objects-it is a consuming fire-the cross declares the love, this love crucifies those whom he loves, because it rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth," "it loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity." It is love which hateth iniquity, nothing else can hate it. Love is the fulfilling of the law, and one part of the law is, thou shalt not suffer sin in thy brother. Love is the fulfilling of the law, and what is holiness but a conformity to the law? So love is holiness and holiness is love; there is no other love and no other holiness. Love is that fire of which it is written, "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ?" The answer given is, "He that walketh righteously," he and he only can dwell with this love. Love is a state, and it may exist without any object, and so it is said, "He that loveth-is born of God." "He that loveth," without even supposing an object. Loving what? just loving. The man is supposed to be living in a state of love. And so enmity is a state, it is the condition of the natural man. Let no one say, that if another meaning is to be attached to the word love in the Bible, than its ordinary meaning amongst men, then the whole Bible becomes unintelligible to us, and speaks to us in an unknown tongue; for the truth is, that the whole Bible is written, just to explain this very matter to us, just to show us what love is, and to show us how entirely different it is from what man calls love. Love is the birth from above, the everlasting life, and enmity is the natural and universal condition of fallen

man, until born of the spirit. Love is the Spirit. "God so loved the world as to give His Son," and he that believes this love, receives it into him, he receives the spirit, he is born of the spirit, he hath everlasting life. Love is the bruiser of the serpent. The serpent was a murderer from the beginning, love alone can bruise his head. And love is of God alone. Love is the name of God, and for that name's sake Jesus was hated by men, "For my love, they are my adversaries," and in that name it was that Jesus overcame, They came about me like bees, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them." And it is for this name's sake also that his disciples are to be hated of all men, as it is in this name that they are to their banner.

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We are living and moving and having our being in this love, in the midst of it. We are surrounded and embraced and pressed upon by it, and it is a grieved and grieving love, it is the very love which wept and groaned and agonized in. Jesus. The suf ferings of Jesus were not a manifestation of a passing temporary thing, they were the manifestation of the mind of the unchangeable God towards sinful man. Reader, this is a mighty and an awful reality, we are living enclosed in the substance of a loving omnipotent God, whose spirit is continually grieved by the madly wicked resistance that we make to be dwelt in by Him, and so to be made partakers of His nature, of His sorrow, of His joy.

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ON PERSONAL ASSURANCE.

PERSONAL assurance means a knowledge that God is now looking on me with a Father's love, and that he is not imputing sin unto me, because the righteous One who hath finished transgression by tasting death for every man is my Head. This personal assurance, therefore, is the same thing which is called, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "being made perfect as pertaining to the conscience," and "having the conscience purged from dead works," and "having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." Heb. ix. 9, 14; x. 22.

Without this, it is impossible "to serve the living God," or to draw near to God; for until a man has this, all that he does in relation to God must be in the spirit of bondage, and fear, and selfishness, and in order to obtain a personal safety. The man must know himself loved and forgiven before he can serve God. This same truth is contained in that word, "There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared;" that is to say, no man can fear God with a godly fear, until he knows himself forgiven; until then, he will fear him with a slavish fear. No man, then, can do a single act which is not in itself sinful, until he knows himself forgiven. Now, how is he to know that he is forgiven? Just because God testifies in his word, that Jesus" hath tasted death for every man," and that thus he hath made "propitiation for the sins of the whole world." The personal confidence is founded on the general atonement. He who believes in the general atonement, has the personal assurance; and thus it is only by rejecting God's testi

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mony, and so making him a liar, that any man is without personal assurance.

The personal assurance does not add to the sacrifice; it is only the purging and perfecting of the conscience by the knowledge of the sacrifice. The man

is not a true worshipper without it, but his sin has been atoned for without it.

The law of Moses is full of types wherein both the atonement and the personal assurance are represented; and it is of great importance to see them in their proper relation to each other, without mixing them and confounding them. The death of the victim puts away the condemnation; but the ultimate purpose of this being, that the man should "serve the living God,” the sacrifice has not its real purpose answered with regard to him, unless he knows that it is really slain, and that it is for his sin that it is slain, because, until he knows this, he cannot know himself forgiven. Now, the laying the hand on the head of the victim is typical of a man's recognising that the victim is slain for his sin,—and the sprinkling of its blood upon him is a typical assurance that the sacrifice for his sin is finished.

There are observations on this subject to be found in different parts of the book, particularly at pp. 28, 29, 143 (foot note), and 222, 223.

These two things, viz. the laying the hand on the head of the victim, and the sprinkling with its blood, correspond to the two witnesses which the blood of Christ bears to every man; 1st, that he is a sinner; 2d, that he has eternal life. For that blood having been shed for every man, is a testimony to every man that he is a sinner; and as it is the blood of the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, it testi

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