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with far more steadiness and success than the young convert. His conduct is more equal, his character more consistent; there is more of peace and repose in it; the heart is more fully governed by the Spirit of God; relapses into sin are more rare. Using his weapons, he acquires the art of employing them better, and with more success; he learns to "stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." It would be strange if one who was only putting on his armour could understand the use of his weapons, and stand against his enemies, and detect the wiles of an artful foe, as an experienced veteran. cannot expect from a new convert that steadiness, that consistency, that resistance of temptation, which mark the mature Christian. Those who are advanced in grace inspire a just confidence in the minds of others, which cannot be the case as to new converts, however high their zeal or promising their character. We ought not to commit young converts to the assay of great temptations; their graces are tender, their habits are fresh, the combat between the two principles of grace and nature has but just commenced; they are not confirmed. By the very law of habits, they are in greater danger than the advanced and established Christian; every achievement strengthens his resolution, and invigorates his hopes, and diminishes the relative power of temptation. "The joy of the Lord is his strength." The more we yield, the weaker we become; our power of resistance is lost. And, on the other hand, the longer the Christian walks in the paths of holiness, the more he is capable of doing, and the faster he makes his way towards perfection.

And here we may easily try ourselves as to the question of our growth in grace. Ask yourselves only, How do you conduct yourselves under temptation; how do you meet provocations to malevoence, impurity, pride, arrogance, covetousness, anger, wrath, selfishness? Do you keep your guard when in slippery paths? When you look back, as to your conduct in critical situations, can you "rejoice in the testimony of your conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, you have had your conversation in the world?" If obedience is more entire ; if the flaws and imperfections are fewer; if you keep yourselves from your iniquity; if temptation loses its power; if you can say with Nehemiah, "This did not I, because of the fear of God;" if this is your case, you have proofs that you grow in grace.

IV. The Christian may farther judge of his growth in grace by the degree of complacency with which he contemplates the prospect of death and eternity. Religion, the religion of Christ, will never permit us to think little of our last hour. That religion is not the religion of the Bible which is not habitually governed by the consideration of death. We must soon appear before God. This contemplation is never long absent from the mind of a Christian. When we, then, can contemplate death with complacency, and "desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better;" when we rise to "the full assurance of hope," in consequence of the diligence given to make our calling and election sure; when we can discern that our names are written

in the Book of Heaven; when we behold the fulness and grace of truth of that Saviour to whom we have intrusted our eternal interests; when, by conversing with the objects of faith, we can appreciate them aright, so that they overbalance in our practical judgment the impression of sensible objects, we then grow in grace: these are indications of our advance in religion. The more the Christian feels the emptiness of the world, its unsatisfactory nature, its falsehood, its de. ception of all his hopes, the more he is weary of it, not from misanthropy, but from those principles which connect him with a better world, the more he may conclude that he has grown in grace.

To live is, with the matured Christian, matter of resignation; to die, matter of choice. Death, instead of being the king of terrors, is viewed with calm and joyful expectation. "He is in a strait between two; having a desire to depart and be with Christ," and yet he is willing to continue and abide in the flesh for the purposes of usefulness o the Church, if it be God's will. If there be any principles which connect the Christian with another world; if there be any attraction from that upper state, the nearer we approach to it, the more powerful will be its virtue: the nearer our journey is to its close, the more contempt shall we feel for all earthly things, and the higher shall we rise in superiority over death. Heaven increases upon contemplation: the more we meditate upon it, the more we feel the poverty and nothingness of all in comparison with it.

Let me now, in application, exhort you to comply with the exhortation of the apostle, which we have thus explained.

1. Grow in grace; because this is the only way to be certain that you have any grace at all. If we aim not at growth in grace, we have never been converted to goodness. He that is satisfied with his attainments, has attained nothing. He that sees so little of the promises of the inward, transforming, elevating influences of grace, as to think that he has attained all he can desire, has never understood the first elements of the Christian life. No, we are begotten to a life which aspires after perfection; we have desires awakened which nothing but complete holiness will satisfy. He who says he is content with his progress, has never set out to heaven.

2. Grow in grace; because, though Christians, in fact, attain at last to very different degrees of perfection, yet it does not follow that any will be saved, if they dare to set limits to their obedience; if they persevere to aim at a lower mark than that of perfection; if they venture to set before themselves any less standard than the whole will of Cod. It is a proof of hypocrisy, of insincerity of heart, to be content with any other standard than the perfect example of Christ, the dictates of the Spirit, the whole law of God, holiness in all its parts. Το grow, therefore, in gre is necessary to our Christian calling, is an indispensable accompaniment of a state of salvation.

3. Grow in grace, farther, if you would taste the consolations of religion. They are inseparably connect with it. “To be spiritu ally-minded is life and peace.' Progress in religion is progress in happiness. It gives a taste of purer pleasures than the brightest im

ages of human felicity have afforded the least intimations of. As the heart becomes pure, it is capable of receiving the satisfying happiness of religion. As the vessel of the conscience is purified, it becomes sacred; the Spirit of God pours into it the fullest tide of blessedness. The backslidings of Christians are the cause of their misery. When we turn towards the Sun of Righteousness, and seek brighter emanations of light and love from Him, He will shine full into the heart, and will shed comfort and peace there. God will give us to drink of those rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand for evermore.

Look back on your past experience. When did you walk in darkness, meditate terror, fear that you were not a true Christian? When you had forsaken God, when you ceased to walk closely with Him; when you followed lying vanities, and forsook your own mercies; when you ceased to pray-then it was you were entangled, then was the critical moment, the hour of successful temptation. If you would have the consolations of religion, the comfort of the Spirit, the presence of the Saviour, you must grow in grace. The Spirit of God cannot witness to a lie; you must shut your ears against temptation, you must not follow the voice of the seducer. If you would enjoy peace of soul, you must walk humbly and closely with your God. 4. Would you be useful in your day and generation, you must grow in grace. And who that is born of God would not desire to be useful? You must, then, press forward. There is no such thing as being stationary, if you would benefit mankind. Nay, if you stand still, if you give up resistance to evil, you will not only fail to be useful to others, but you will yourself decline more and more. If you mean to do good to the Church and the world, you must bring forth much fruit; so shall ye be Christ's disciples, and so will your heavenly Father be glorified. You must seek to be decked and adorned with the beauty of Christ, that you may attract sinners to Him. Your purity of life, your patience under sufferings, your moderation in earthly pursuits, your animated hope of glory after death-these will be the best means of infixing a conviction in the minds of men that there is a reality in religion; and, at least, will produce the wish of Balaam, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."

And soon the realities of eternity will be here. Every effort to do the will of God will then be recompensed in full measure. The Supreme Being will reward every one in proportion to his advances in piety. Those who have grown most in grace will stand nearest to the Saviour. Let us covet a distinguished place among the mansions which Christ will assign. "For, behold, He cometh quickly, that He may reward every man according to his work."

LXXXIX.

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.*

1 JOHN, i., 3: And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Lord's Day, January 8, 1827.3

As John leaned on the bosom of our Saviour, and there drank of that fountain of love which flowed within, so his epistle breathes the spirit of love; love to mankind at large, and espe cially to those who were partakers with him of the same precious faith. In the verse preceding the text, he breathes an ardent desire that his brethren might have fellowship with him in the gospel, and all its privileges; and he then describes in the text what this fellowship is. He invites them hereby to no common privilege, to no common community; but to one the most elevated and the most extraordinary-fellowship with God in Jesus Christ.

No error is more serious than that which prevails so much in the present day, of interpreting every high and glorious description of the privileges of Christianity as confined to the apostles and the apostolic age. To commit so fatal an error, is to exhib. it the truth of another passage, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them." For may we not justly fear that these interpreters, finding nothing in their own experience that agrees with these representations of Scripture, and not knowing well how to deal with them, have thus been led to set them down as referring to a state of feeling and privilege peculiar to the first Christians; and have at length come to condemn all claims to them as enthusiastical, and invading the miraculous powers of the Spirit given to the apostles and first converts?

Now, if we were to allow what these interpreters assert to be true, the Bible, instead of being a present directory of faith and practice, would only be an ancient record of past sentiments, with which we should have no concern as a matter of experience ourselves. But, on the contrary, our religion is a counterpart of that recorded in the New Testament. We find those sentiments, feelings, and hopes within the breasts of Christians now, which are registered as the representations of Christianity in its first age. Among the blessings included in these representations, fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, occupies a prominent place. It comprehends all the internal blessings and immunities of Christianity.

From the notes of the Rev. Dr. Wilson.

Fellowship, or communion, is the participation of two or more persons in the same thing. If any number of persons, two or more, enjoy certain advantages or privileges in common, they have fellowship with each other in them. All men are brethren, as partaking of one common nature: they have communion with each other in all the emotions, duties, advantages of general benevolence, sympathy, love, as fellow-creatures and men. Those who are placed under the same government, and who share in common its benefits as fellow-countrymen, are drawn yet closer: they have fellowship with each other in all the blessings of legitimate government. Those, again, who reside in the same town, or form together a neighbourhood, and intermingle in all the offices of social life, have participation with each other, as fellowcitizens, in the benefits of municipal regulations, and the mutual charities and aids of neighbours. Those who form the same family have also fellowship with each other in the affections and relationships of a family. This is the closest of all fellowships; and in this class are included the communion of parents and children, husbands and wives, masters and servants.

The expression, therefore, in the text, must be understood in this sense; it is a participation of some blessings in common with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. It must be explained, indeed, in a manner suitable to the subject to which it is applied; but still the meaning must be the same: it is still the partaking of something in common. There is no meaning in the word but this. What, then, is this fellowship? It is of true Christians that the words are spoken. Others are invited to seek the blessing; but none except true Christians actually partake of this fellowship.

I. This fellowship consists in the moral excellences of the Divine Being; what the apostle calls "a divine nature."

Fellowship with God implies a participation of the same disposition of heart, the same moral tendency of mind. It is by Jesus Christ, the way to the Father, that this fellowship begins. We must come back to God first by a Mediator, and be justified by faith in his blood, before we can be qualified for this exalted communion. We thus become united to Christ, and are by faith partakers of the privilege of being sons of God. In this relation we stand; and, as the children of God, we have a new nature; we are "partakers of a divine nature." This expression is not rhetorical; it is not merely synonymous with any thing great; but it means that we are partakers of that moral nature in which God exists: his moral excellences are impressed upon the heart of the Christian; he partakes of God's holiness. Being adopted into his family, he has the spirit of adoption: he not only sees the excellence of God, but he receives some reflection and im press of it. And this excellence of God he discerns in the person of Jesus Christ: "We have fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ;" "Beholding, as in a glass, the glory VOL. IV.-4 A