Ephraim, said God, but he knew it not. "I girded thee [Cyrus], though thou hast not known me," Isaiah xlv. 5. In short, all the elect may say with the Psalmist, Thou hast been with me from my mother's womb: or with Jacob, God hath fed me all my life long unto this day.

Ahimaaz. I am sure I can say the same. For, notwithstanding my outward shew of religion, I felt perpetually the accusations of a guilty conscience; and I knew that I indulged myself in many secret sins, which both God and conscience were privy to. Thus I can see that God gave me many a check, even in my blind state. In short, both the pharisee and the publican are dead in soul until quickened by grace: the painted sepulchre, and the sow in the mire, are both of a piece, and both on a level, under the law, and both in unbelief, and consequently both in a state of condemnation. And this God often made me feel by many secret lashes of conscience. For I knew that I was not that man in heart that I appeared to be in life; and as a confounded and abashed hypocrite I have often stood at the bar of my own conscience; for I knew that all my works and shew of religion were only to be seen of men: And "how can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and, seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" John v. 44. The best of men in a state of nature, when once God begins to work on their souls, are like the antediluvians, between two floods, the inundations of guilt, and the floodgates of wrath.

But do tell me how Prodigalis went on after his last trial.

Cushi. For some time his communion with his Lord was close and sweet; and while this was enjoyed his discourses were very heavenly and rapturous; insomuch that poor distressed and doubting souls could get nothing under him; he was too high for them, and too much filled with the joys of heaven to come down to their disagreeable feelings; for you know it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh: therefore the poor weaklings of the flock could only bear witness to the light of his countenance, and envy him his happiness. He preached up holiness likewise to a very high pitch; insomuch that you would have thought at times that he had been perfect.

Ahimaaz. If that was the case, poor brokenhearted sinners, and those buffeted by the devil, could get but little sympathy from him. For tempted souls, that are labouring under the plague of their own heart, think themselves as far from holiness as Satan himself; when at the same time it is the quickening and illuminating power of the Holy Ghost that makes them feel and see the evil of their hearts. I have heard men preach as if divine holiness were to be produced and put in practice by flesh and blood. They call for heart holiness, family holiness, life holiness, insomuch that I have gone groaning home, and crying out, I have no holiness at all.

Cushi. Yes; and there are many double-refined pharisees in the world, that are destitute of the Spirit of God, who yet appear in all that outward garb of holiness that such call for. I have heard people preach up holiness in that way: but unless a man tells me where holiness is to be got, and how holiness has operated on his own heart, I ge-. nerally conclude that he knows but little of the

matter.

The Bible informs me, that Jehovah is the holy One. "There is none holy as the Lord; for there is none besides thee," 1 Sam. ii. 2. God is the only fountain of holiness, and the elect have their holiness from him. "We have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness," Heb. xii. 9, 10.

The sanctification of a believer is, first, in Christ his Head; He is made of God unto us sanctification, and redemption, 1 Cor. i. 30. In Christ the believer's sanctification is complete: "Ye are complete in him," Col. ii. 10. Christ says, "Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee," Song iv. 7.

Secondly, The believer's sanctification is also by the Spirit of God: "Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sancti

fication of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," 1 Pet. i. 2.

Thus you see the believer is complete in Christ his Head, and sanctified in part by the Holy Ghost, though he be not thereby made perfect in this life : for "if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." This is all the holiness that the Bible speaks of; and this is the holiness that every real believer partakes of: and it is called, by way of eminence and distinction, true holiness, in opposition to that which is false and feigned, and only makes a noise, and an outward show in the world. Wherever this holiness is found, it is the workmanship of God, and the glory of Christ's image. "That ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," Eph. iv. 24; " after the image of him that created him," Col. iii. 10.

The soul that is united to Christ by the bond of love, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, is a holy man of God, 2 Pet. i. 21; and walks in the path of holiness, Isaiah xxxv. 8; his conversation will be holy, 1Pet. i. 15; and he has his fruit unto holiness, and his end everlasting life, Rom. vi. 22. All closet holiness, family holiness, or life holiness, that springs not from this root, or flows not from this fountain, is only the varnish of a hypocrite, and may be found or seen on those whose hearts are filled with covetousness, and where legal pride is enthroned, and Satanic rebellion encouraged.

Ahimaaz. He that cleaveth the closest to the Saviour will ever be the most holy in heart, and the most fruitful in life: "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." And that man will ever be the most happy whose heart is the most steadfast with the Lord: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee." But do inform me how Prodigalis went on, and how long he continued on the mount.

Cushi. Why, after he had been some time in this exalted frame, and had delivered many discourses as it were from the very threshold of heaven, the Lord was pleased to bring him under a strange discipline. In his private study he was very happy, and the scriptures were open to him, insomuch that he generally went from his study furnished with a text, and the various heads of doctrine contained in it lay plain in his view, and often afforded him much comfort; but when he began to speak, he found neither liberty in spirit nor in speech; a gloomy confusion came gradually over his mind; his thoughts fled from him, he lost sight of his subject, and his treacherous memory refused to give back what had been committed to it. This disagreeable straitness of soul rendered the ministry a burden to him; for he never had experienced much before this of being bound in the spirit; which was the more puzzling to him.

Having been exercised a few times this way, he began to complain to his flock of the various