sent into the world to do; that every moment of your time is misspent which is not given to the care of your soul, and will not tend to facilitate your victory. At least this step will be a great advance; it will prevent you from following the counsels of the ignorant, and the maxims of an ungodly world which is to be destroyed. There is only one voice sounding forth through the thickest of this combat, but it is the voice of the Captain of our salvation" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." God and the Lamb, being present with you, will animate your course. Fix this, then, in your minds-that you will overcome; if not, it were better not to have been born. In the second place, let me counsel every one of you to put on the whole armour of God. It is the advice which the apostle gives, and more important advice cannot be suggested: "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand." I would recommend this complete armour with which grace furnishes you. "Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth;" that is, an upright intention, a serious desire of sincerity, as in the sight of the Lord, without which it is impossible to proceed any steps in religion, for all hypocrisy is abominable to Him with whom we have to do. "Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked;" that is, a prevailing sense of eternal realities; a conviction that every thing else is fading away; that we are beginning to be what we shall forever be, and every thing else is lighter than vanity; that God has prepared a day in which He will judge the world; that Christ is come into the world to prepare us to meet our Judge. This faith will be to us a shield to an intrepid champion; to cover us, to avert our eyes from ambition, as Moses felt, who "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; for he had respect unto the recompense of reward." And "take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;" that is, let the Scriptures be the man of your counsel. Be much in reading, much in meditating upon them. Crucify every thought and every disposition that will not consist with the practice and temper they enjoin. This will be to you as a sword. "Praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance, and supplication for all saints." Prayer, my brethren, is a great and important part of our duty. It is not in the scenes of the world, not in its business or pleasures, but in retirement, that we are enabled to say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." In these seasons, when exchanging the pleasures of sense for humility and self-abhorrence, then we are great indeed. "Fervent watching," it is added, "with all perseverance." Not only praying, but

preparing our hearts for prayer. These exhortations, followed up, will make us more than conquerors, through Him that hath loved us, and will at length conduct us to those peaceful regions, far from the molestation and strife of our spiritual adversaries, where there will be no enemies to engage and no victory to obtain, and where there will be nothing but the remembrance of the combat to heighten the rapture of victory.

XXXIII.

DISTINGUISHING PROPERTIES OF SPIRITUAL LIFE.* Acts, v., 20: All the words of this life.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Lord's Day evening, Jan. 20, 1828.]

AT the time referred to, the gospel flourished at Jerusalem; the more from the effect produced by the death of Ananias and Sapphira. The sacred historian informs us that "fear came upon all the Church, and upon as many as heard these things: and of the rest durst no man join himself to them; but believers were the more added to the Lord." The Church was purified from insincere members; and yet it was augmented by the accession of sincere: "the word of God grew exceedingly." This raised the indignation of the Sadducees, a sect who set aside the belief of angels and spirits, and confined their whole prospect to the present life yet, in that depraved age, such persons held high stations in the Jewish Church; they naturally hated the gospel, as in it they perceived a death-blow to their favourite and licentious speculations: the great doctrine of the resurrection especially excited their hostility: "They laid hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison." The Divine Being deemed this an occasion worthy of his interposition, and sent his angel to deliver them "The angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple, to the people, all the words of this life."

There are probably reasons, with which we are unacquainted, in the economy of the invisible world, why human instruments must be employed in the ministry of the gospel-why there is an incongruity in beings of another nature being so employed. Certainly there is no instance, except that of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in which any other being than one merely human preached the gospel. Yet angels are not unconcerned spectators of the spread of Christianity; they are "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation ;" they are subject to the Son of God-his angels; they are, at least as one passaget seems to signify, invisibly present in Christian assemblies, and rejoice over every instance of conversion.

From the notes of the Rev. T. Grinfield.

The passage to which Mr. Hall probably alluded is 1 Cor., xi., 10.

I shall request your farther attention while we briefly consider, first, the nature of the gospel as here described by the expression, "All the words of this life;" and, secondly, some distinguishing properties of the gospel life.

I. We may briefly consider the nature of the gospel, as here intimated in the expression, "All the words of this life." It is the design of the gospel to restore man to a certain life. With regard to its matter, the gospel is styled the word of truth; with regard to its end, the word of life. The apostles embraced Jesus Christ as "having the words of eternal life." There is a life, lost by the fall to man, restored by the gospel. Man by nature is "dead in sin;" all are such; the apostles knew themselves to have been such: "among whom we also had our conversation in time past, when we were dead in sins, even as others." Christians experience a great transition-no less than from death to life: "by this we know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren;" "he that hath the Son hath life, but he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." On one occasion Jesus Christ said, "Let the dead bury their dead;" let those who are spiritually dead bury those who are naturally dead; "but go thou and preach the gospel." Jesus Christ came to give life, and to give it more abundantly; the gospel being a fuller ministration of the blessings related to spiritual and eternal life than the Old Testament. "He that eateth my flesh hath everlasting life; but except ye eat it, ye have no life in you." A new life is conferred on Christians; they are "born again of incorruptible seed by the word of God"—" born, not of the will of man, but of God;" hence they become sons of God. But, as there are no degrees in death-no middle state between it and life-so all that have not this life are spiritually dead. This life consists in the effects of the gospel on the spirits of men. Their state is essentially changed by the introduction of this life-"all things become new." God, who was the object of aversion, becomes the object of love; God, who was disregarded, becomes the chief source of happiness; his favour, which was left out of sight, becomes the great prize and end of our being; we press after this beyond all beside.

II. We may notice some distinguishing properties of this life. None, it is true, can form an adequate conception of this life but those who experience it. This is the case with every kind of life: you could not judge of the life you live, unless you had experienced its functions, its pleasures, and its pains. Similarly, the natural man cannot know the things of the spiritual; they must be spiritually discerned. It is only the Spirit, opening the heart, that can make a man understand "what is the hope of God's calling, and what are the riches of his inheritance, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power in those who believe." Description, however, may convey some idea of this life to others.

1. This is a supernatural and spiritual life. It is not produced by any natural causes or means; none can impart it to another, none can produce it in himself. God must give it; it is called a "new creation," and its subject a "new creature ;" "born of the Spirit-born of VOL. JV.-N.N

God." The apostle carefully excludes all human agency, when he says, "Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." It is produced by the word of God as the instrument; but that word is applied by the Spirit. It is a life quite distinct from every other kind of life; there is vegetable life, distinct from sentient or animal life; and, above this, there is the life of reason, which reaches to the past and the future by reflection and anticipation, and diffuses existence over interminable space; but as far superior to this as this is to the life of mere sensation, is the life of spirituality.

2. This, therefore, is a most elevated life. It brings us into an alliance with the Father and the Spirit by Jesus Christ; establishes a filial relation to "the Blessed and Only Potentate ;" leading us to call Him" Abba Father;" it makes us tend to God as our centre, taste the sweets of his favour and friendship, walk in the light of his countenance, and say, " Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son." He who has this life places his interest in heaven: he extends his views far beyond the present scene; he looks with a sort of contempt on the world and all it contains; regards every thing with a sober dignity, as beneath his high calling of God in Christ; he would not exchange the sufferings of this divine life for all that riches could purchase, all that pleasure could offer, all the glory of time for he feels himself called to the station of those who are "kings and priests to God and the Lamb;" he is enabled to reign over his fleshly appetites and desires, and to sit down with Jesus Christ in heavenly places. Never, my dear brethren, shall we know what real dignity is till we experience this life; till then our souls cleave to the dust; we lose sight of our proper portion and end. This, my brethren, is the life that Jesus Christ lived: "My meat and drink," He said, "is to do my Father's will, to seek his glory, and to finish his work." Animated by the spirit of this life, He "despised the shame, and endured the cross," because He thus proved in the highest degree his love to the Father. He went to the place of suffering with alacrity; and when He rose from the last supper to go to the cross, He said, with a divine impatience," Arise, let us go hence!"

3. This is a holy life. It partakes of the nature of its Author, the Holy Spirit it is given for the very purpose of recovering man from sin to holiness: the necessity that existed for Christ's interposition springs entirely out of this design. It is a life which creates pure desires; wars against every thing base and evil; makes men strive against sin even unto death. Holiness becomes the thirst of the soul; and the saint learns to say, "When I awake in thy likeness, O Lord, I shall be satisfied with it." Christians are united in spirit to Jesus Christ, and, by this union, made partakers of his holiness. "Shall we not," says the apostle, "be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? for he chastens us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness."

4. This is a progressive life. All life is such; such is vegetable, such is human life; at first the natural life is feeble; infancy is a spark easily extinguished, a blossom soon nipped; but it gradually

matures and opens. Thus the divine life is progressive: the views of a Christian become clearer; his faith strengthens; his consolations improve; and, if he has not so much fervour as at first, his increasing stability amply compensates for the decrease. The saints are described as rich and flourishing in old age. Grace is represented as at first a blade, then an ear, then the full corn; as a little leaven leavening the lump. The Christian pilgrim, forgetful of things behind, presses on to things before; he is never satisfied until he is with God: his path is like the ight shining more and more to the perfect day.

5. Lastly, this life is an eternal life. "I give my sheep," said Jesus Christ, "eternal life." As this life commences with the eternal purpose and Spirit of God, so it is destined to flourish with God forever and ever through all the periods of an endless duration they that have this life shall never more die! Jesus Christ declared that He would give "living water; a well within the soul, rising up unto eternal life!" The life of believers is the same, in its essential spirituality, with the life of those who live in heaven; they have the same pleasures, the same devotion; they feed on the same bread, the bread of life, the bread of heaven, with which the Lamb feeds his people above; they taste the same salvation; they sing the same new song, their "song in the house of their pilgrimage."

He that has experienced this life has a knowledge of its value that surpasses all that description, even the description given in the word of God itself, can impart to others; he comes, it may be said, without hyperbole, to the Mount Sion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable company of angels, to God, to Jesus Christ, and to the blood that speaketh better things than that of Abel. He has had realizing foretastes of unutterable, unchangeable, interminable glory and felicity! he seems almost to have entered within the veil.

But without this life heaven itself, as it is the exhibition of God, must prove a most unsuitable element. There must be a new heart, new tastes, a new life in the soul. They that have not this grand specific must die in their sins. And this is the condemnation, that men will not come to Christ for life! "Come to me ;"" he that believ

eth my words shall never taste of death." How important that we should all receive with deep attention and affection all the words of that life, in the diffusion of which the angels take so great concern! Where else can we rest with hope or comfort? Nothing can be so great an instance of madness as to reject that gospel which is the only restorative to the end of existence, which qualifies men to live a divine life, and to die full of immortal consolations! Realize, by a happy experience, what is the great gift of God, worthy of Him to bestow, and sufficient for you to receive, as constituting your eternal felicity! Call upon Jesus Christ, saying, "Lord, save me, or I perish!" for He only can save; He only is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!