her divine Husband and Lord. That freedom, in its very essence, consists in her deliverance from all her enemies, that she might consecrate herself to the service and love of her Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness throughout all generations. The God she serves and loves, is the only Lord of the conscience of her children: he alone can penetrate its depths, he alone can cleanse and sanctify it, he alone can give it peace and every attempt, even when made in his own blessed name, to bind it or to loose it otherwise than by his word and Spirit, is an atrocious usurpation of his prerogatives.

(b) Nearly related to these great topics is all that belongs to what is called Implicit Faith, and to the just claims of tender consciences. Whatever hath for it the explicit authority of God, and whatever flows by necessary consequence from that which hath the explicit authority of God; all this is of explicit faith, because it is clearly the Will of God. But nothing else is of faith at all: and to imply the Will of God without warrant from him, is in effect to substitute our own will, or the will of those to whom we render a blind obedience; for the Will of God: by either method dishonouring God, and putting our own soul in peril. The folly of doing this ourselves is no greater than the cruel impiety of forcing upon the consciences of others, what nothing but bigotry, fanaticism, or superstition, could make endurable to our own. The right of private judgment is not only sacred in its own nature; but the idea of Good Works is wholly absurd, unless they be performed with the full and free approval of the soul. To disregard the scruples of our own conscience, is to assail the very citadel of our spiritual life: while to contemn that of others, is to violate the very life of Christian charity.

(c) The power of the civil magistrate in things sacred, and the authority of synods and councils with regard to faith and morals, are the last of these great associated topics which seem to demand a certain recognition here. Of human affairs, some are wholly spiritual, some are wholly temporal, and some are mixed, participating of both. There ought to be no question, and in all societies that are free and Christian there is no question, that things purely temporal appertain, by the Will of God, exclusively to the civil power. There is just as little, that things purely spiritual do not appertain to the civil power, but to the kingdom of God, now under the form of the Gospel Church. All

real difficulties concern things that in their nature are mixed. Concerning these, the most obvious general solution is, that the civil and the spiritual powers being both ordained by God, each in its own sphere and for its own ends, it follows, that of things mixed, that part which is temporal appertains to the civil power, and that part which is spiritual appertains to the kingdom of God. What remains subject to both jurisdictions, after such principles are applied to them, must be accepted as remaining so by the Will of God: and in what cases the decision of one jurisdiction shall draw after it consequences that may appertain to the other, must be determined by the prevailing nature of each particular case; respect being had to the liberty of the Church on one side, and the authority of the State on the other.

(d) The authority of synods and councils, like the authority of the State concerning things spiritual, has been a most fruitful source of evil to the kingdom of God; and yet the former topic, like the latter, is singularly clear in the general principles on which it rests. Supposing a government, no matter of what kind, to be divinely established in the bosom of the kingdom of God on earth; it follows that the authority of this government is precisely as extensive as God has declared, neither more nor less. But God has made no declaration on the subject, except in the sacred Scriptures. The question, therefore, is one of pure revelation. Meeting it in this incidental manner, I will only state its great foundations. It is obvious that revelation being admitted, they who presume to add any thing to it, or take any thing from it, must be themselves inspired, and must prove this in the first instance. It follows, that all uninspired synods and councils are absolutely limited to the exposition of what is already revealed and that all ecclesiastical power is absolutely limited to the explication, enforcement, defence, and extension of revealed truth. But I have already shown that it is only of things purely spiritual, and of things mixed, so far as they are spiritual, that spiritual authority can be predicated at all. Whence it follows, in the first place, that the sanctions of spiritual authority must be exclusively spiritual: and in the second place, that they must have outward force exclusively upon those who voluntarily submit themselves to them. Their validity depends absolutely upon their ratification by Jesus Christ, the only Lawgiver, Ruler, and Judge of his Church: and that ratification will, except in cases

of miraculous interposition by him, be openly declared in the day of judgment. The result, therefore, is this: synods and councils, lawfully constituted in the name and by the authority of the glorified Redeemer, may, with divine authority, and at the peril of their souls, expound, declare, and teach the revealed Will of God unto salvation: every human being lawfully related to them, who comes to the knowledge of their deliverances and acts, must obey them if they are true, or refuse to obey them if they are false, on the peril of his soul: and whether they be true or false, must be determined according to the word and Spirit of God, by each child of God for himself, at his own proper peril. There is a government in the kingdom of God: but the kingdom itself is made up of those, all of whom are both kings and priests; and the government over them is under Christ their Lord, and its acts are valid only with the Word and through the Spirit of God.

3. After what has been said, a few general statements may suffice. Absolutely considered, the cause of our New Obedience, and of all Good Works flowing from it, is the grace of God dwelling in us, by reason of our New Creation by the Holy Ghost.1 Considered instrumentally, it is through Saving Faith and Repentance unto Life that all Good Works are wrought. For it is through Repentance that we turn from all evil which God hates, unto all good which God commends: and it is through Faith, which works by love and purifies the heart, that the just live and overcome the world. The great end of all Good Works is the glory of God. To which are to be added, as the very manner of glorifying God through our own Good Works, two ends subordinate only to the great end; namely, our own salvation, and the comfort and edification of all around us.3 The intimate nature, therefore, of the New Obedience and Good Works may be summarily stated, thus:

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(a) It is the motive with which all these acts are performed, which is the first element in determining their real nature. The same outward act might, according to the motive which prompts it, be a heinous sin, or an exalted proof of holiness. The offering up of Isaac is a just illustration.

(b) No work can, therefore, be Good, in the sense here intended, unless it be in accordance with the known will of God.

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Gal., v. 19-25; Heb., xiii. 20, 21.

* Matt., v. 13-16; Phil, ii. 12–16; 2 Pet., i. 10, 11.

2 1 Cor., vi. 19, 20; x. 31.

For Good Works are the exercise of our New Obedience-and where there is no will of God there can be no motive to obey itand, therefore, no New Obedience. This puts an end to all works of supererogation—of voluntary humility-of will-worship—and of obedience to the commandments of men. It also shows why the virtues of men, naturally considered, being wholly disconnected with the New Obedience, have no adequate motive in us, and no adequate relation to the will of God.

(c) None who are out of Christ can perform Good Works, in the scriptural sense. Neither the persons, nor the services of sinful men, can ever be accepted of God on their own account, because of their manifold imperfections: and for these imperfections there is no remedy but the righteousness of Christ. Out of Christ, there can be no love of God in the heart of a sinnerno saving light in his understanding-no holiness of conscience or will. In default of these things New Obedience and its fruits are impossible.

(d) Good Works must be directed to an end approved of God; by means right in themselves, and suitable to the end; and in a manner proper in itself, and answerable both to the end and the means. For if the end is not lawful, it is sinful even to desire it, much less to seek it. If the means are unrighteous, it is an attempt to serve God with the wages of iniquity, and to make him a partner in our guilt. And if the manner is contrary to the end and the means, it is seeking to make God the author of confusion and disorder, and tempting his miraculous power in support of our folly.

(e) These multiplied limitations unite in a single point: the heart must be right in the sight of God. Then the children of God need have no slavish fears of going astray. For the New Covenant which God makes with their souls, and under which all their New Obedience is rendered, is a covenant wherein his laws are written on their hearts, and put into their minds by God himself; and wherein, from the least unto the greatest, they all know the Lord; and in the light and power of that knowledge strive after the things commanded in that law.'

1 Heb., viii. 8-12; Jer., xxxi. 31–34.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE.

I. 1. The conflict involved in our New Obedience and Good Works.-2. Its Nature and Necessity.—3. Its Existence necessarily implies the Truth of the Spiritual System Revealed to us, and in us.-4. Our perpetual Witness-bearing for Christ. -5. Our incessant Working together with God.-6. Our continual Suffering together with Jesus: Qutward Fellowship-inward Participation thereof.-7. Sublime Efficacy of this Warfare-with the Cause and Manner thereof.-8. Intimate Relation between the divinely appointed Means of Grace, and our Spiritual Warfare.-9. The Chastenings of the Lord: his Fatherly Discipline: the Hidings of his Face.-II. 1. Our Spiritual Enemies: Nature of their Enmity to us: Implacable Hostility between them and Christ.-2. All of them resolved into three: Their Union with each other: Vanquished by Christ--vanquished through Christ by us.- -3. Our Warfare with the Flesh.-4. Our Warfare with the World.— 5. Our Warfare with the Devil.-6. The Armour of Light.-7. The Victory.

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I.—1. THE existence of each human being is, indeed, identical and uninterrupted from the moment of its personal commencement, onward through time and eternity. But what vast changes does it incur at death, and at the resurrection! Not inferior in its importance to either of them-and perfectly decisive of the character of both of them-is that wonderful spiritual change which our Saviour calls the New Birth-and which he plainly tells us must occur before we can realize or enter the kingdom of heaven. Each one of these immense changes regeneration-death-resurrection-while it leaves our personal existence identical, self-conscious, and continuous, produces on us results the most profound, and is followed by consequences to us which are absolutely eternal. The results and consequences of death and the resurrection can be realized, in this life, only through faith, even by the regenerate; they can be known in their absolute nature, only after we shall have died -after we shall have risen. Those which follow the New Birth are not only realized by us in the same way as the others— namely, through faith; but to the whole extent that we are 1 John, iii. 3–5.

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