XV. The consummating excellence of the gospel is its tendency to infinite happiness from its securing to us the friendship of that Being before whose frown or smile all created existence sinks into nothing. Cicero said well if he had made good his point. "I shall be vexed at nothing since I am free from every fault. Nec enim, dum ero, angar ulla re, cum omni vacem culpa." This the Christian might with truth say, had he his spirit only in subjection to the truth; and he has not merely freedom from the load of guilt, but from anxiety on account of the consequences of his actions, for he has the delightful promise that all things are working together for good, and are so interwoven and overruled in their issues as to produce for him the greatest amount of happiness without end. All the acts and duties of Christianity are of a soothing and delightful nature. Trusting in all powerful protection, hoping for inconceivable good, and loving boundless perfection, constitute the perfection of happiness, as well as the sum of duty. No doubt the darkness and the opposition which proceed from the remains of his corrupted nature darken and perplex him, but he carries on the contest not in his own strength, and he fights under the assurance of final and total victory.

PART VII.

SANCTIFICATION.

1. Salvation by Faith, a whole. 2. Union with Christ. 3. The character formed by Belief. 4. Transforming nature of Divine Truth. 5. The Word the instrument of the Spirit. 6. Divinity of the Spirit. 7. All things ready for Sanctification. 8. Mistakes respecting Sanctification. 9. Law of passive impressions and active habits. 10. Acting on principles the true way to strengthen them. 11. The practical view of Christianity the true point of view. 12. A Life conformable to Christianity the best commentary on it. 13. Conformity to the Divine Will the only true Wisdom and Happiness. 14. Practical conclusion.

All the

I. SALVATION, in the strictest sense, is a whole. parts are mutually connected, so that it is impossible to separate them in reality; but, owing to the narrowness of the human mind, it is needful to separate in thought what cannot be separated in fact, and to consider justification apart from sanctification, and the growth of the heavenly character upon earth apart from its perfect completion and full enjoyment in heaven. The process of salvation is altogether carried on by faith, and faith derives its efficacy from uniting the soul of the believer to the Saviour. Hence union with the Saviour is the ultimate principle of Christian doctrine and of Christian experience. This is the principle which runs through all the writings of St. Paul-take this away and they are dark, confused and

illogical; grant this principle and they stand out to the mind with the full conviction of an unbroken chain of reasoning. It is from this union with the Saviour that the perfect confidence of the believer proceeds. As Christ has paid the penalty of sin, so has he who is united to him. As Christ is holy, so shall he be also who is united as a branch in the true vine. As Christ is raised to the right hand of God, so shall the believer, from his indissoluble union, be raised to partake of the same glory.

II. The faith which justifies, being that which also unites to Christ; the faith which unites is the same faith which sanctifies. It is from our union with the Saviour that our new and better nature must proceed, as it is from our union with Adam that our fallen and corrupted nature has been derived. We have in the daily experience of ourselves and others a proof of the extent to which we are affected by the moral state of our federal head. No remoteness of descent or dissimilarity of situation has softened the virulence of that poison which was infused into our nature by Adam's fall. Everywhere sin prevails, and death, the consequence of sin, reigns. The effects of Adam's transgression are inexhaustible, certain, and universal. They who, by a living faith, are partakers of the Divine nature, will experience the effects of that union as certainly and as universally. Righteousness will in them have the complete and final victory; and immortality, the fruit of righteousness, will have its full and ultimate triumph.

In natural religion each intelligent creature stands independent, and in direct relation with the Deity. His condition depends solely on himself, and having once lost the Divine favor, and being in a state of condemnation and enmity to God, he must remain so forever. Such is the condition of the angels "who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, whom God hath reserved in

everlasting chains, under darkness, until the judgment of the great day."

But the appointment of a representative head of the human race in the person of Adam, being an act of Divine sovereignty, does not preclude another representative being chosen, by subsequent union with whom, all that believe may again recover the holiness and the happiness which had been lost, and may hope for that unlimited blessing which is implied in the grace of God, that is, in having an almighty friend.

✅ Thus, in the Divine purpose, Christ was slain before the foundation of the world; on his account the fortunes of mankind were suspended for a time upon Adam, that those who had lost all by an involuntary dependance on the created head of the race, might regain all, and more abundantly, by a voluntary dependance on that head which is uncreated, and who, in himself, unites that which is human and that which is Divine; so that believers might be one with him, as he is one with God. "For their sakes," says the Saviour, "I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth." "That they all may be one, as thou 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 which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even 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 hast loved them as thou hast loved me."

The certainty and experience of our connection with the fate of Adam affords a continual proof that the union with Christ will be equally effectual; and as, by natural descent, we have inherited the beginning of the anger of God, and have had outpoured upon us the first drops of his vials of wrath in the sorrows and sufferings of mortality,

so by faith we do enter into the foretastes and anticipations of a blessedness of which the human heart, when its hopes are highest, can form no conception, which has no limits, as eternity has none, nor infinite love, nor infinite power.

When the Apostle Paul proclaimed that the righteous. ness which could not be obtained by the works of the law, was attainable by believing in the fulfilment of the law by Christ, safety, upon terms apparently so easy, gave rise to objections the same then as ever afterwards, that the freedom of the pardon would give freedom to sin. This objection might have been justly answered then, as it now frequently is, by showing the moral effects and results of unfeigned faith. Pardon will produce gratitude, grati tude love, and love is the fulfilling of the law. It might have been answered also on yet higher grounds, that faith is a Divine operation, that the same Holy Spirit which produces true faith will produce by its regenerating influence all the other Christian virtues, "for we are his workmanship, created by Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." But the Apostle takes higher ground still, and shows that faith justifies because it unites to the fountain of righteousness and holiness, to him who is the source of the law, and who has fulfilled the law, to Christ, "made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."

From this union with the Saviour, the security of the believer rests immovably upon the Rock of Ages; “If God be for us, who can be against us? who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" Even the angels God chargeth with folly, and the heavens are not clean in his sight, but believers, participating in the perfect obedience and essential holiness of the Saviour, may approach with all boldness the judgment-seat of infinite purity.