SIR,

ON EVANGELICAL SANCTIFICATION.

LETTER IV.

It is true, as you observe, that in the Lord, appears a favourite phrase of a sacred writer. According to him, Christian privileges are enjoyed, and acceptable services are performed, in connection and in communion with our Lord Jesus. Indeed, how could he have written otherwise, when he believed, what you earnestly wish fully to understand, that it is Christ who is made of God to us sanctification. A person may have a speculative acquaintance with divine truths; may possess amiable dispositions; may be what the world calls. strictly honest; and may do many things materially good, without Christ. Witness the young man who came running to our Lord, and, kneeling down, asked, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" But, suppose a person vitally united to Christ, that moment the connexion is formed he becomes actually interested in Christ's doing and dying. This complete righteousness being charged to his account, he is necessarily delivered from the command and penalty of the law, as a broken covenant. What influence this has upon our personal holiness, is told us by our apostle"My brethren," says he, "ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." The doctrine is very important, though ill understood by thousands; accordingly, our inspired writer thinks proper to enlarge upon it. When we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death; but now we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of the Spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. Precious privilege!" Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." The strength of sin being broken in his spirit, in him there is no allowed guile; yet even this is not the whole of that blessedness which necessarily flows from the imputation of Christ's righteousness.This, while it breaks the reigning power of sin in the heart, at the same time removes the filth. Our sin, by its contrariety to the holiness of God, renders us loathsome and abominable before him. Now this abhorrence of sin being natural and necessary to God, and the pollution of sin being of a moral kind, which cannot be made otherwise than it is, the only way for its removal is by making it consistent with the

XIII.

glorious perfections of the Deity to overlook it; and this the blood or righteousness of Christ, which made atonement, gloriously effects. When Jesus was obedient to the death, what was the design? Paul shall reply," Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." And hath the gracious design succeeded? Most completely. This blood of Christ, sprinkled on the soul, so glorifies and pleases God, that the ill savour of sin is wholly taken away. On this subject, John the apostle speaks with confidence; and what renders his words peculi atly comfortable, he appropriates when he asserts," the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”—Am I enlarging too much on this circumstance? Perhaps it may be so; but I shall endeavour to compress my thoughts into less room in what follows in this epistle. My wish is to shew, that holiness, both of heart and practice, proceeds entirely from connection and communion with Christ.

Jesus is our life no less now than hercafter, when it pleaseth the Son of God to reveal himself in us. He conveys that 'power and virtue into us which constitutes the new nature, manifesting himself to us as the true light; and as the wisdom of God, our understanding is made light in the Lord. Discovering himself as the quickening Spirit, and as infinitely excellent, lovely, and suitable, the principle of love is produced in the will, discovering him as Jehovah our righteousness; the conscience is made pure and peaceable, is filled with light and Christian awe, tenderness, and boldness. It was hinted, when we began our correspondence, that grace is called the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of God; but it is deserving of remark, that when the Spirit of God gives us this information, he at the same time lets us know, that, as to this new man, "Christ is all and in all." Grace being once implanted in the soul, it is Christ who, by his Spirit and thro' his word, maintains, strengthens, and increases the habit. "I live, yet nothing but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God:" so says Paul; and to this declaration all the people of God say Ainen. Grace dwelling in the heart as a principle, it is Christ who, by his enlightening and attracting influence, draws it forth to action. In correspondence with this, the promise runs, "I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in his name;" and suitable to this, the church prays, " Draw me, and I will run after thee."

I confess, it is not easy to describe the manner in which Christ persuades and enables men to perform particular good actions; but the following things have been remarked by divines: Jesus, by his Spirit, presents to us objects which are calculated to move us to the good work; he reinoves the impe

diments which lie in the way of performing our duty; he impresseth upon the heart the scriptural encouragements and commands to act in such a manner; he binds the mind to attend to the reasons enforcing the good deed; and withal, thro' the doctrines and promises of the gospel, he conveys that influence which makes the performance of the duty not only practicable, but pleasant. Thus some have attempted to illus trate the way in which God our Saviour "worketh in us both to will and to do, according to his good pleasure." Suffice it for me to say to my friend, that while I own the method in which Christ promotes our holiness is very mysterious, I am convinced that it is at least equally true in a spiritual sense as in a natural.—“ In him we live, move, and have our being." Verily, Jesus, when he surveys either our hidden graces or our good works, may say, "Hath not my hand made all these things?" Verily, Christians, conscious of their being sanctified, ought to come to the light, that it may be made manifest that their works are wrought in God. I conclude this epistle by mentioning two metaphorical accounts of the influence which Jesus hath in sanctifying us, in consequence of our union with him. Jesus is the vine, and his people are the branches; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can they, except they abide in hitn. · "He that abideth in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Jesus is the head, and his church is his body, and from him; "the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, maketh increase, to the edifying of itself in love." After hearing this, it would be strange, indeed, if believing Gentiles should walk as other Gentiles do, in the vanity of their minds; but as to the motives to holiness · which are in Christ, I intend to make these the subject of another letter; and am, in the mean time,

Yours most sincerely,

A. B.

Mr. Editor,

TO-MORROW,

As you have wisely striven to levy a tribute upon hoary Time for the benefit of your readers, at the commencement of the year, I am encouraged to hope that you will lay before them the following relation, which, alas! for me, has in it but

too much truth.

With all the pensiveness of grief and bitterness of self-reproach, I lately turned my steps towards the house of a Chris-" tian friend. On entering the abode where I had ever been. greeted with smiles, I was surprized to find nothing but sad

ness, like my own. Conscious guilt suggested the suspicion, that they knew and reproached me for my neglect; but my friend soon undeceived me, by pouring into my bosom her la mentations for the loss of an only child.

"Alas!" cried she, "my Henry is gone! But three days ago he was romping about ine in full health, when, suddenly, he sickened with a fever, which seemed to lie chiefly in his head; and he has, this morning, breathed his last!”

I struggled with myself, summoned up resolution, and made an awkward attempt at consolation, while my own heart hung heavy in my breast; but I was struck dumb, when the afflicted parent, fetching a sigh from the bottom of her heart, exclaimed, "Ah! Sir, these consolations might assuage my grief for the loss of my child, but they cannot blunt the stings of my conscience, which are as daggers to my heart! It was but last week that I was thinking my Henry is now twelve years of age; his mind is rapidly expanding; I know he thinks and feels beyond the measure of his years; and a foolish backwardness has hitherto kept me from entering so closely into serious conversation with him, so as to discover the real state of his mind, and make a vigorous effort to lead his heart to God. I then resolved to seize the first opportunity to discharge a duty so weighty to the conscience of a Christian and the heart of a parent; but, day after day, my foolish and deceitful heart said, I will do it To-morrow,' till the very day he was taken ill. I had resolved to talk with him that evening; and, when he first complained of his head, I was half pleased with the thought that this might incline him to listen more seriously to what I should say. But, O Sir! bis pain and fever increased so rapidly, that I was obliged to put him immediately to bed; and, as he seemed inclined to doze, I was glad to leave him to rest. From that time he was never sufficiently sensible for conversation; and now he is gone into eternity, and left me distracted with uncertainty concerning the salvation of his precious soul. I know he had arrived to the period when he must be judged as an accountable creature; for I have several times observed in him such efforts of reason and conscience, as surpassed many who had seen twice his years. I recollect the favourable symptoms I have discovered, and, for a moment, hope that the Good Shepherd had gathered the lamb into his bosom. But then, again, I cry, If it should not have been So That thought plunges me back again into the depths of distress. Dilatory wretch! had it not been my own sin, I might now have been consoling myself with the satisfactory conviction of having discharged the duty of a Christian parent, and enjoying the delightful assurance of meeting my child before the throne of the Lamb! O! the cursed sin of procrastination! O! the ruinous delusion that lurks in the word To-morrow!"

You may readily conclude that I sympathized with the ago. nizing parent, but cannot easily conceive what I felt on being obliged to say to her, " My friend, if that can afford you any consolation, I must own to you that I am now distracted with reflections similar to your own. Perhaps you observed, when I came in, that I was thoughtful and dejected, and that it was a forced effort which I made for your relief. I had but just returned from a house, which was to me, as well as to the family, a house of mourning. I was sent for, yesterday, to visit a sick man, and as I fancied that I was then engaged, I promised to call and see him To-morrow. But, when I went there To day, I was shocked to hear that he was dead, especially as I had reason to fear for his eternal state; and his wife said he was very anxious to see me." Unwilling to pour" vinegar upon nitre," I refused indulgence to my own feelings; and, after feebly pointing my distressed friend to some of the consolations of the gospel, I withdrew. As I returned home, I was surprized and confounded to observe how differently iny excuses now appeared, and how light they proved when weighed in the balances against a sinner's eternal interests.Stupid and cruel wretch! to prefer my own convenience to my brother's salvation! And can I pretend to be a disciple of Him who came even from Heaven " to seek and to save that which was lost, and to give his life a ransom for many!". What are the advantages of a few hours business, when compared with eternal joys or pains? "Lord, lay not this sin to my charge, nor let the blood of my brother's soul rest upon. my mind, and blast the future success of those employments, for which I left him to perish in his sins! Grant me to learn hence, to abhor, through all my future life, the thought of deferring the concerns of souls till To-morrow!" Christians, Parents, Ministers, learn wisdom from my folly: obey the voice that says, "Go work To-day in my vineyard;" To-morrow is none of yours. "Sinners, to-day, if ye will hear the voice of Christ, harden not your hearts, lest he swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest."

J. B.

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THE HOLY TENDENCY OF SCRIPTURAL-TRUTHS,

THE superior manner in which this subject has been treated by one of the contributors to the Evangelical Magazine, is enough to make an ordinary pen tremble at attempting the same theme. But as his comparison of the moral tendency of the Calvinistic and Socinian systems, though well known, is not likely to be in so many hands as is your Miscellany, it may.