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upon any other principle than faith in his death, the very attempt is sinful, and proves thee to be under the law. Unless thou art one with him in his death, there can be no pardon of sin, and consequently no victory over it. O fear not then to lay the whole weight of thy salvation upon Jesus. Depend on him, as dying to sin for thee, and look at thyself dead to sin in him-as completely dead to it as he is. Read the testimony of the holy Spirit. Study the infinite, the everlasting sufficiency of his death for thine absolute freedom from guilt and condemnation. Trust without wavering; be not afraid to view the everlasting perfection of thy deliverance in Jesus, and this will weaken the tyranny, and will crucify the power of sin. This will, and nothing else can. Read the sixth of the Romans, and pray for the spirit of revelation to open it to thee. There thou wilt discover the true way to mortify sin. It is by believing that thou art planted together with Christ in his death from thence only thy pardon flows, from thence thy daily victory is re

ceived, and from thence thy eternal victory will be perfected. Fight on; soon thou shalt be what Christ now is. The member shall O glorious

be perfectly like the head. prospect! Thou shalt be with him, and like him-spotless and fair as Jesus, righteous and holy, happy in body and soul.Thou shalt see him as he is, and awaking after his likeness, thou shalt be satisfied with it. Take up thy cross for the joy here set before thee. Bear it in faith. It will be light and easy to thy pardoned conscience: yea, the carrying of it in patience will bring forth many peaceable fruits of righteousness: among the rest there is one, which, in the sight of God, is of great price, and which is daily improved by the inward cross; namely,

HUMILITY, which consists in the right knowledge of ourselves, not only of what we have been, but also of what we now are. The best and holiest man upon the earth has a corrupt fallen nature: he has flesh still, which is always lusting against the spirit. While he is alive to God he feels it. He is VOL. II.

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sensible of the inward conflict.

Dead men

indeed feel nothing. A dead corpse has no sense of the worms which are eating it up. He that has these lusts in him, and warring against his soul, and yet does not feel them, cannot be spiritually alive. A natural man has no sense of them, because they are in him as worms in a dead body: just so it is with the perfectionist. But so soon, and so long, as he lives to God, he will perceive them. If he be in happy communion with God, indwelling sin is present to interrupt the enjoyment. If he exercise any grace, this besetting sin tries to weaken its actings. If he be set about any duty, it will hinder him from doing it so perfectly as God requires, and as he could wish. The abiding sense of these truths will keep down pride. The believer will see nothing of his own to trust in; no faith, or hope, or love, no faithfulness to grace, no holy obedience; all is stained and polluted. He is forced to cry out of his best duties-unclean-unclean. In this school the disciple learns to walk humbly with his God. The more he knows

of himself, the more humble he becomes. And he grows in this heavenly grace, the more he is acquainted with the mercy of God in Jesus. This, learned by divine teaching, keeps the believer meek and lowly in his own eyes. Nothing softens and melts the soul into holy tenderness like the sense of God's mercy. A man who feels the plague of his own heart, is never truly humbled until he be pardoned. But when he is justified from all things in Christ; in him a partaker of all spiritual blessings in earth and heaven; when he sees all his salvation of grace, of free, sovereign grace, flowing from the absolute favour of electing love, and bestowed upon him—as unworthy an object as ever did or can partake of it; then he becomes truly broken-hearted. These truths, taught of God, bring every high thought into subjection to Christ Jesus. The soul bows before him, lies low at his feet, prostrates itself before the throne of his grace, and desires to be kept willing to take all its blessings out of his hands, and to use them to his glory. This is gospel humility, the

true abasement of spirit, with which a man, sensible that he is saved by mere mercy, loathes himself. And while the experience of indwelling sin humbles him down to the dust, it produces, through God's grace, the happiest effects for it keeps him in his strong tower and sanctuary, in which alone he is

SAFE. It is ever reminding him of his need of the blood of sprinkling-ever showing him his want of a perfect righteousness --and ever preaching to him the necessity of his being kept by the power of God. And while he hearkens to these lessons, trusting to Jesus, he will stand fast, and be established. The arm of the Lord God almighty will hold him up, and he shall be safe. While he lives thus out of himself, the sense of indwelling sin will lead him to his true

HAPPINESS, which is all in the fulness of the God-man. He will enjoy the more of this, the less he finds in himself. When he cannot draw comfort from any thing of his own, he will seek it more in God. When all the streams are dried up, he will get nearer to the fountain-head, and live

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