gloomy apartment can be instantly filled with meridian light, why might not the instantaneous rending of the veil of unbelief, or the sudden and full opening of the eye of faith, instantly fill your soul with the light of truth and the fire of love, supposing the Sun of Righteousness arise upon you with healing in his wings? May not the Sanctifier descend upon your waiting soul as quickly as the Spirit descended upon your Lord at his baptism? Did it not descend as a dove; that is, with the soft motion of a dove, which swiftly shoots down, and instantly alights? A good man said once,' A mote is little when compared to the sun, but I am far less before God.' Alluding to this comparison, I ask if the sun could instantly kindle a mote, nay, if a burning glass can in a moment calcine a bone, and turn a stone to lime; and if the dim flame of a candle can, in the twinkling of an eye, destroy the flying insect which comes within its sphere, how unscriptural and irrational is it to suppose, that when God fully baptizes a soul with his sanctifying Spirit, and with the celestial fire of his love, he cannot, in an instant, destroy the man of sin, burn up the chaff of corruption, melt the heart of stone into a heart of flesh, and kindle the believing soul into pure seraphic love." The testimony of Mr. Wesley will not, I am sure, be unacceptable: "The separation of sin from the soul is constantly preceded and followed by a gradual work; but is that separation in itself instantaneous, or is it not? In examining this, let us go on step by step. An instantaneous change has been wrought in some believers; none can deny this. Since that change they enjoy perfect love. They feel this, and this alone. They "rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.' Now this is all that I mean by perfection. Therefore, these are witnesses of the perfection which I preach. But in some, this change was not instantaneous.' They did not perceive the

instant when it was wrought. It is often difficult to perceive the instant when a man dies; yet there is an instant when life ceases. And, if ever sin ceases, there must be a last moment of its existence, and a first moment of our deliverance from it. But if they have this love, they will lose it.' They may, but they need not. And whether they do or not, they have it now; they now experience what we teach. They now are all love; they now rejoice, and pray, and praise without ceasing. However, sin is only suspended in them, it is not destroyed.' Call it what you please, they are all love to-day, and they take no thought for the morrow."

Arguments drawn from analogy are good and conclusive. We are not, however, wholly confined to that source for our proofs that it is instantaneous.

Not to dwell upon the important fact, that we are said, in the New Testament, to be purified by faith, as we are justified by faith;-a penitent sinner is pardoned in a moment, by faith; but a believer is "sanctified by faith;" therefore he is purified in a moment. If the instrumentality be the same in both cases, so must the effects. It is to the commands of God, and to his promises, that we look for our warrant in saying, The work of purification must be instantaneous. A few of these will be as good as many. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." Deut. vi. 5. "Thou

And

shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Lev. xix. 18. Both passages are prominently set forth by our Lord in Matthew xxii. 37-40. "Ye shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy." Lev. xix. 2. in the succeeding chapter: "Be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God." And again, in the following chapter: "For I the Lord which sanctify you am holy." To this end is that cominand of our Lord, in his sermon on the mount: "Be ye therefore perfect,

even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matt. v. 48. The apostle St. John, perhaps, glanced at the holiness of God as necessitating ours, when he speaks of the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleansing from all sin, the soul that walks in the light as God is in the light. 1 John i. 7.

But can we, of our own will and power, love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might, and our neighbour as ourselves? or make ourselves perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect? or purify and transform ourselves into the holiness of God? Surely not. Sooner may the leopard change his spots, the Ethiopian his skin. Sooner may we cleanse hell of devils. But the commandment has gone forth; ability to perform must come from some quarter. Who shall qualify us thus to love? Who shall make us thus holy, if we ourselves cannot? God himself will do it. The apostle refers the whole to him: "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." 1 Thess. v. 23, 24. But does God desire us to be as holy and loving as he has commanded us to be ? Yes, surely, for it is expressly declared: "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." But is it possible we can be thus holy, and love God and our neighbour to such a degree? Certainly it is; else he had never commanded it. Does he expect, does he desire, instant obedience? Most surely; for, for God to command without the possibility of obedience, or without any desire we should obey, is quite unworthy of the character of the supreme Governor of the universe. That one sentence, in the passage already quoted is worth a volume: " Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." Well, then, so surely as God

has commanded our perfect love, and perfect holiness; so surely as we cannot create within us such a gracious state; so certainly as God commands, and desires us to be holy, while none but himself can make us so; so certainly it is his pleasure that we should obey, and enter now into this state of perfect love and perfect purity; so surely is the work of sin's destruction, and heart purification, instantaneous.

But you will ask: "Why, then, is not sin immediately expelled from our nature? Why are we not instantly purified? How is it that we do not at once love the Lord our God with all our heart ?" The reply is at hand: he has planned the method of our purification. We are free agents, and he has ordained that we shall be saved from all inward sin, as well as from all outward, by our own free will, consent, and co-operation. Hence we are commanded to believe that we receive, with a promise that we shall have, appended to it. Sanctified by faith, purifying their hearts by faith, are declarations which involve acts of our own; faith is our own act, not God's. He does that for us which we cannot do for ourselves; but what we can do, he will have us do, or leave us to bear the consequences of our disobedience. Do you understand me? I might quote numerous illustrations from common and every-day life; but I shall leave you to supply yourself with facts which are passing constantly before your observation. What God requires of us in order to our entire sanctification, is, it is true, very little : to desire purity, to pray for purity, and to believe that we receive it while we are praying for it. is all. But then, the little we can do, must be done, or what he alone can do is left undone. It is, perhaps, just because it is so little that he requires of us, and not some mighty thing, that he holds with us, upon this point, so firmly.

This

Other duties call me away. Yours in Jesus, holiness, and truth,

J. C.

DEAR SIR,

LETTER XX.

TO AN INFIDEL.

Sheffield, August 12, 1844.

HAVE you never read the story of one Aristoxenus, the musician? So great was his admiration of his profession, that he defined the human soul to be nothing more than a harmony. You, from a baser motive, love of sin, define your soul to be " a part and parcel" of materialism.

"The ardent hope, the fond desire,

This longing after immortality,"

I consider to be the universal feeling of our race, with the exception of an unfortunate few; those to whom, by a wicked course of life, immortality has been rendered undesirable. Look at the inferior animals; there is not one desire in their nature for which a benevolent Creator has not made a provision. desire for immortality is one of the "leading passions" Has the Author of our being left this wholly

of man.

unprovided for?

A

Do not think, my friend, that I misunderstand your character. If I chose, on the night in question, to meet you on your own ground, and to attack you in your chosen points of defence, I did not lose sight of the real difficulties by which your mind is embarrassed. I thought it unwise to blink your " objections," for that might have led you and others to infer inability to grapple with them. I never can lose sight of the fact, that there is nothing in infidelity for which any intelligent man would seriously contend