ESSAYS. No. XCIX.

ON CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS.

No. IX.

THERE is a stable foundation for joy laid for the church by God in the person and redemption of his Son, although it is frequently overlooked by the heirs of grace. Self-love is a corrupt passion that is often cherished by devout men at the expense of truth and consistency; and then the men who have fostered it will complain that they are not favoured with those pleasures which are afforded by God to the household of faith. Communion is the result of union between two or more parties; it supposes a sameness of interest, likeness of disposition, agreement in their plans of action, and one object steadily pursued by the whole. Now if I am not greatly mistaken, all these properties are manifested in the church of God, and particularly in a state of communion with him by faith in Christ, and through the Saviour in fellowship with all his sanctified brethren. It is true, that there is a reciprocal interest existing between God and his people, although it is not equal in the degree of it; for that which is by nature finite, can never equal that which is essentially infinite, therefore, the love of God in his own bosom is greater than any form by which he has manifested it to the sons of men; yet, as he sovereignly loved his people, it is the impulsive cause of all the acts of grace which he has shown toward or in them. Just as the ocean is greater than all the rivers in our world, so the love of God toward his people is superior in its nature and degree to that which they cherish for his name, rights, and glory. By a holy habit of mind imparted to the much-loved heirs of grace, their association with Christ in this love, is known and experienced; for when iniquity governs the man, there is no communion with God as a gracious Father; but when grace reigns, by the righteousness of Christ, in and over the man, he is called to fellowship with the Son of God, and the ground of his action is truly supernatural; the scriptures of God are studied and revered, and the honour of God is steadily pursued, as the chief end of his existence. To such an one all the connections existing between God and his church are interesting, because he is by them happily released from the bondage of his natural estate; and they are, through the ministration of truth by the Holy Ghost, a source of true pleasure. Permanent and endless happiness can never be known by that man who lives and dies an enemy to God; for in the present state of things, it is not possible that the character of God can be concealed even from the sight of thoughtless mortals. Every true christian is partially acquainted with the character of God, according to the holy revelation made of it in the scriptures. Immutability is essential to it,

for if in any degree it were changeable it would un-god the living Jehovah; but he has said, "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore, the sons of Jacob are not consumed." In the dawn of our spiritual day we were principally affected by the development of the holiness, justice, and spirituality of the law of God, and that was truly needful to prove the iniquity of our birth-state, and to demonstrate to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin; but when the law in the hand of the Spirit, had performed its office to slay our self-righteousness, and to clearly establish the fact, that no sinner can be justified before God by the works of it, then the character of our God revealed in the gospel, as a God in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, appeared truly glorious, and we were like the Old Testament church, disposed to say, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness: as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."

God is an object of the highest delight to all his family. The perfections and attributes of his nature are all developed in the relations of grace, and they are all seen in the redemption of the church from sin to God. Were it not that God is seen in the person of Immanuel, we should be consumed; but as he is one with God, and one with us, we draw near to the glorious Jehovah according to his will, and we are saved from aversion to his government, by being conformed to the image of his Son. Here we find perfection of sanctity suited to the mind, which is prepared by the Holy Ghost to receive it on the foundation of absolute election to it before the world began. God's sovereign decision concerning us, becomes, through the Spirit, a strengthening and encouraging principle of action in all our approaches to his eternal throne. It admits of no boasting on the part of the pardoned criminal; it will not allow any works done by him to be the cause of his safety, on the ground of his confidence in God. Thousands of men have talked of the everlasting love of God, whom there is reason to fear have never felt it; but the true saint has found it a solace to his sin-sick soul, although he was reluctant to bow to it. To feel the decree of election on the heart, through the creating power of the Holy Ghost, will produce an internal revolution on the man, the nature of which will never be fully described. The unclouded sovereignty and independence of the triune God, impressing the mind of a guilty sinner, it will make it to see with the clearest evidence, that the Holy Ghost is shedding upon the mind, that Jehovah's will is eternal in its date, and unchangeable in its design. This does more than affright nature, it changes the mind, and holds the man fast by connections, which are holy in their nature, and everlasting in their duration; so that he cannot run away from God. Divine grace illuminates the mind, to perceive the amiableness of the nature and government of God,

and the discernment of it produces a desire to be made truly happy. Indeed there is a power of attraction felt by the regenerate man, that draws him away from self and sin to cast his burden upon the Lord, and to commit the keeping of the soul into his hands. Every wicked man is filled with conceit, that his state is better than what it really is; therefore, he requires no foreign aid to help him: but the Holy Ghost works, by the scriptures on a renewed man, with an enlightening and persuasive influence, to shew him that God is love, and that the Saviour has actually made an end of his sin, and has thereby become his Saviour. This knowledge removes his fear, banishes his doubts, cherishes his confidence; and he is enabled to say, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine, and his desire is toward me."

The spiritual relationship existing between God and his seed is a source of joy to all his children. He is an adopting Father in Christ Jesus. Election is an act of the will of God, by which he was graciously pleased to separate a portion of the clay "for nobler ends" than what he intended to accomplish by that part which he left or passed by, but adoption is the appointment of the segragated persons to be a family to God. A few scriptures will illustrate what we mean; "For the children being not yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calleth.-Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour? What, and if God would, to shew his wrath and to make his power known, suffer with longpatience the vessels of wrath prepared to destruction, and that he might declare the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy which he hath prepared unto glory; even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." "He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unblameable before him in love; having predestinated us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Here the distinction asserted is as plain as it need to be. By election we are separated to be holy, and by adoption we are constituted children of God. It is necessary to maintain these important distinctions, for by a right knowledge of truth we acquire a firmness of character becoming the humble disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus. No act of the eternal Spirit, in or on us constitues any relationship to God, yet without his creating energy exercised in and on the church of Christ, she would never know her connection with him in the love of the Father, nor inherit a nature to value the friendship which has established it. Inattention to these things has often produced much confusion in the church of God. If we reflect for a moment on that eternal purpose, which God had purposed in himself, we soon perceive that grace in God has founded a family

connection in Christ, between him and his offspring, that cannot be affected by any of the convulsions of time; but as he is now working all things after the counsel of his own will, it is evident, that the grant of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, to the adopted, is to make known the love of God to them. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father; therefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God, through Jesus Christ." This is a peculiar and a spiritual relationship; forasmuch as we are not taken into covenant with God by Adam, and so ordained to read in the volume of nature, the greatness, goodness, and glory of God, our Creator and Legislator, in the works of his hands, which establishment was built alone on rectitude, and liable to be violated by man; but we are taken into a holy connection with God, that is founded on the love of his heart, extended to his seed in and by Christ Jesus. The union to which we are chosen is the most holy that we read of in the word of God. Christ is, by the appointment of the Father, made heir of all things; and we are by God predestinated unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ unto himself: or, as the apostle elsewhere expresses himself," If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ;" so that we have our patrimony settled upon us in the person of the heir of all things; and then the Holy Ghost, who first dwelt in him without measure, descends in his name to take up his residence in his joint heirs. By this means, the prayers of Immanuel are answered in the sanctification of his brethren," that they may be all one as thou, O 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 that thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hath loved them as thou hath loved me." The present state of spiritual things is wholly produced by the Holy Ghost, for he is by nature God, and by his ministry alone we come to know the things which are freely given to us by God. He acts as the Spirit of adoption in the regenerate man, and his testimony to truth gives an internal subsistence to it; so that Christ dwells in his people by faith, and they joy in God through Jesus Christ, by whom they have received the atonement.

The spirit of adoption is mainly supported in this life by an evangelical acquaintance with the righteousness of Christ; for it is that robe which Jehovah our Father has provided for our justification to eternal life, and which he has ordained for us to appear in, in the heavenly world on that day when he will publicly divide the world from the church. There is no virtue, grace, nor quality radically seated in the person of the Son of God, but what fills his righteousness with the peculiar worth that there is in it. The holiness of the human nature of Immanuel is that law of the spirit of life

"for what

which hath made us free from the law of sin and death ; the law could not do (viz. justify us) in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." When we said above, that the spirit of adoption is supported by a knowledge of Christ's righteousness, imparted for our justification, we intend thereby that the temper of a child of God is thereby cherished and prolonged; for faith lives and flourishes in that which is the cause of her being. Spiritual joy is a grace of the Holy Ghost; but like every sister grace, it but thrives in a heavenly soil. It was a wondrous act of grace in God to put away sin by the sacrifice of his Son, much greater than it is for the Holy Ghost to bear witness to it in the conscience of a sinner, because the incarnate Saviour met in his own person, the injured and insulted Lawgiver, justly authorized to punish sin wherever he found it. Yet as Christ was personally above the law, and was made under it conformably with the covenant he had made with his Father, "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, and made under the law, that he might redeem them which were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Peter has a similar expression: "To you who have obtained like precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;" thus admitting, that the grant of faith, according to covenant settlement to the heirs of God, proceeds to them on the footing of righteousness imparted to them for justification. Now as justification takes place in order of nature and time, prior to our personal and vital sanctification, so it will be evident to every enlightened christian that his soul will most flourish and abound in heavenly-mindedness, when he is led by the Spirit and by faith to look to Christ as the end of the law for righteousness. It would be a piece of folly of the most flagrant kind for any man, in the noon-day splendour of the sun, to take a rushlight, and go into his cellar, to look for that splendid orb. His neighbours would consider that he had become insane. But how do real saints act when under difficulty and in darkness of mind. Are they not equally as condemnable for their folly, when they look at themselves or to their graces for relief in distress, or conversion from darkness and ignorance? Is it not the word of Christ to his people, "I am the Lord, and there is no God beside me; a just God and a Saviour: there is none beside me. Look unto me, and ye shall be saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." The lovely face of truth is one, nor can any of its features be fairly distorted. True faith receives the testimony of God concerning the righteousness of Christ, and it is increased and invigorated by it. Sorrows are forgotten in an experimental enjoyment of pardoned guilt, and the life that Christ ensured for his people is perpetuated to them, for which they are truly grateful.

VOL. IX. No. 113.]

20