to the believer, in his return after any departure from him through life.

The words which we have read, speak of "a right spirit." "A right spirit" is such a spirit as God requires, and takes pleasure in; and such a spirit as becomes the condition of those who profess to be his followers. It would be easy to prove that such a spirit mustbe a spirit of faith and trust: a spirit of contrition and humility: a spirit of thankfulness: a spirit of love: a spirit of patience and submission: a spirit of zeal: and a spirit of firmness and constancy. Such is the spirit produced in all the subjects of divine grace.

But this right spirit may be injured and reduced. We see this was the case with David in consequence of his fall; and it was in a measure the case with him before; for we read of his "first ways" and the words intimate that these were in some respects his best. Hezekiah, after his two great deliverances, which he felt so much at the time, "rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up." Jeremiah was to cry in the ears of Jerusalem, "Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the first fruits of his increase." The Church of Ephesus had left her "first love," and is called upon to remember from whence she was "fallen" and to do her "first works." Hence we have so many cautions and admonitions against declension in religion. And when we consider how adverse every thing within us and without us is to our better principles, and how the enemy of our souls employs all his devices to injure them, we need not wonder at the frequency of our hindrances and declinings. The defections sometimes appear in gross falls : but let us not think too well of ourselves if we have been preserved from these, or suppose that backsliding consists only in foul and outward misconduct. There is "the backslider in heart," as well as the backslider in life; and while we stand fair with our fellow Christians and our ministers, we may have much to lament before God in the loss of that spirituality, and fervour, and confidence, and delight in ordinances which once distinguished our experience.

We also see that it is necessary when it is impaired to have it renovated. Nothing is right in religion if "the heart" be not "right with God;" and, therefore, says Solomon, "Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." We may go on in the performance of duty, but if " the right spirit" be wanting, the mere action is of little worth. The Lord looketh to the heart. Two donors may give alms; one from a principle of charity, the other from vanity: two attendants may repair to the same sanctuary, the one to seek and serve the Lord, the other, led only by custom or curiosity but how differently do they appear in the view of God, and how differently are they regarded by him. We act in the same manner towards our fellow-creatures as far as our knowledge extends. In what they do for us, we are affected by our apprehension of the spirit with which they are influenced. If we think the favour conferred be from esteem, or love, or gratitude, we prize it, however small; while, if it appears to originate in selfish design, we cannot value it however great. But the want of a right spirit

affects our comfort as well as our duty. We consider it an unfavourable sign in some professors, that they are so lively and cheerful. We should have much more hope concerning them if they felt fear and distress: we are sure that if they belonged to God, he would reprove them in their defective walk, and improper temper, and hide his face from them till they acknowledged their offence. A Christian may get into a wrong spirit, but how differently does he feel? What a loss of peace and satisfaction does he sustain? How is his communion with God interrupted? and his delight in devotion deadened? He becomes also fretful with regard to others: fretfulness is generally the offspring of guilty sensation, arising from some neglect or misdoing. Then, uneasy within, we are pleased at nothing without; and so storm in passion, or ooze in peevishness, like a continued drooping in a rainy day. We are never happy but as we have a right spirit within us.

But we here learn that when it is impaired it is God alone who can renew it. He giveth more grace: he is the God of all grace: As he begins so he carries on the good work. He strengthens that which he has wrought in us; he perfects that which con

cerns us.

And therefore, lastly, we must go to him for this purpose, and pray, as David did, "Renew a right spirit within me." A life of dependance must be a life of application. A religion of grace must be a religion of supplication. If I want certain things, and must be supplied, and cannot derive them from myself, I shall surely repair to him who is able and willing to succour me-especially if the exercise itself exerts an influence every way conducive to the revival and increase of religious principle; and this is the case with prayer; and if he has established it as the mediumn of his communications and said, "For all these things will I be enquired of;" and if he has pledged himself that we shall not call upon him in vain. And is not this his own promise, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find?" "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come."

AUGUST 25.-"The Revelation of Jesus Christ."-1 Peter i. 13.

THE display of him is every thing. Be it therefore observed that "the revelation" of him is fourfold: and though the last of these manifestations be here intended, all of them may be properly and usefully noticed in their order.

The first revelation of him we call scriptural. This began very early, even in Paradise. There the sun of Righteousness dawned, and from thence shone more and more unto the perfect day. "He was announced as the seed of the woman, and the bruiser of the serpent's head-Then, as the seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed-Then, as the Shiloh of Judah, to whom the gathering of the people should be-Then, as the Son of David, and his Lord. Of him Moses, in the Law, and the Prophets, did write. He was held forth not only in words but types. He was seen in Moses as a prophet, in Aaron as a priest,

in Joshua as a conqueror, in Solomon as the Prince of Peace, in Jonah as dying and rising again. Every bleeding sacrifice expressed him as an offering for sin; the manna from heaven, and the water from the rock, as the bread and water of life; the tabernacle and temple, as the residence of the divinity, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the godhead bodily. This exhibition of him may be likened to a perfect portraiture of a most distinguished and endeared personage, at full length, rolled up on the side of a room, and which the owner gradually opens to the beholders, till the whole figure stands disclosed-So God gradually revealed the Desire of all nations, while his delighted and wondering church exclaimed "He is fairer than the children of men"-" Yea, he is altogether lovely."

The second Revelation of him is incarnate. "God was manifest in the flesh." "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he should destroy the works of the devil." "We know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him was no sin." Thus he was not only declared, but perceived. He appeared not in vision, but in person. Not tremendously, as in the giving of the Law, when even Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake;" but familiarly, "clothed in a body like our own." Not transiently, as when he paid visits to his people of old, but by a continuance of three-and-thirty years—for “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us-full of grace and truth."

The third revelation of him is spiritual. And we call it spiritual because it is produced by the Spirit of God in the spirit of man. It is expressed by sight-Not a carnal sight of him; not a sight of him by the eye of sense, but by the eye of faith, according to the words of our Saviour: "He that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, hath everlasting life." It is such an acquaintance with him as draws forth our admiration, excites our love, gains our confidence, and secures our obedience. It is what Paul means when he says, "It pleased God to reveal his Son in me"-and which he prayed for an increase of when he said, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made comfortable unto his death."

The fourth revelation of him is final and glorious. For after all he is now much concealed. There are hundreds of millions of our fellow-creatures who know nothing even of the existence of such a Being. Even where he is professedly known, there are multitudes to whom he has no form nor comeliness, nor any beauty, that they should desire him. Even among those who wear the name of Christians there are many to be found who deny his divinity, renounce his redemption, and ridicule the operations of his Spirit. Thus he is despised and rejected of men. This, to those who know his name, and put their trust in him, is humbling and distressing. But they are relieved and cheered with the thought that it will not be so always. They believe that the number of his admirers is increasing. They are sure that he will be exalted and extolled, and be very high: that he will sprinkle many nations; that all nations shall fall down before him; and the whole earth be filled with his glory. They know also that there is a day approaching, called by way of distinction, "the day of Christ:" "the reveVOL. II.

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lation of Jesus Christ." He will then appear the second time without sin unto salvation. He will come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. We shall see him as he is. He will be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe. Then his grandeur will be acknowledged. Then his love, power, patience, and truth; his character as a Saviour; his tenderness as a friend; his dominion as Lord of all will be developed; and he will enter, accompanied by a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, a world where he will attract every eye, and engage every tongue; and saints and angels will unite with a loud voice, "worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."

But what is to be expected at the revelation of Jesus Christ? "THE GRACE THAT IS TO BE BROUGHT UNTO YOU."

AUGUST 26.-"THE GRACE THAT IS TO BE BROUGHT UNTO YOU at the revelation of Jesus Christ."-1 Peter i. 13.

Two inquiries may here arise.

What does" the grace" here spoken of mean? It comprehends the fulness of the promise, "I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also"-His changing their vile bodies, and fashioning them like unto his own glorious body--His absolving and acknowledging them before an assembled world -His commendation; "Well done thou good and faithful servant" -His invitation; "Come ye blessed of my Father"-His placing them in a state of blessedness, which far transcends all our powers of expression and conception. After all our knowledge derived from Scripture and experience, it doth not yet appear what we shall be-" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the hearts of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." It is a glory which shall be revealed.

But why is it called grace? Why is it not said " The glory that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ?" May it not be first to exclude merit from all share in attaining it? There is only one Being who reigns in heaven by his own right. Jesus deserved his throne, and could claim it on the ground of worthiness. But we are not worthy of the least of all God's mercies. How then could we claim an immensity, an eternity of riches and honour? If we look for a reward, it must be a reward of grace. Our work bears no proportion to the recompense. If our obedience was perfect, it could not be meritorious, because it is due to God: but our services are really full of defects and defilement, and therefore if they were dealt with according to their desert, they would be rejected. To which we may add, that all our good works are performed in the strength of the Lord: we live and walk in the Spirit. Every one therefore that knows himself, will say with the Apostle, "By the grace of God I am what I am: not I, but the grace of God which was with me." And we are sure the top stone of the spiritual temple will be brought forth "with shoutings, crying, grace, grace unto it."

And secondly, may it not be so called to show the identity of

grace with glory? They are not only so intimately and inseparably connected, but so greatly resemble each other, and are so essentially the same, that the one is interchangeably used for the other in the Scripture. Thus Paul calls glory grace, when he says, "We are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord;" meaning advancement from one degree of glory to another; or as it is elsewhere expressed, being "renewed day by day," or going "from strength to strength" in the divine life. And here Peter names glory grace. In fact, grace is glory in the bud, and glory is grace in the flower. Grace is glory in the dawn, and glory is grace in the day. But the morning and noon are produced by the same sun: and the bud and flower issue from the same plant.

Let us remember this-That glory is nothing but the completion of what grace begins. It is the perfection of those principles, dispositions, services, and enjoyments by which Christians are distinguished even in this world. Have we anything of heaven in us already? It will be a state of sinless purity-Do we delight in holiness now? It will consist in the society of the godly-are they our dearest companions now? Death changes our place, but not our state, not our nature. The change to a Christian, is a change not in quality, but degree. He has the foretastes of the bliss; the firstfruits of the harvest; the earnest of the inheritance-" He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who hath also given to us the earnest of the Spirit."

What then is our duty in the prospect of the event? For the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, "GIRD UP THE LOINS OF YOUR MIND, BE SOBER, AND HOPE TO

THE END.

AUGUST 27.-" GIRD UP THE LOINS OF YOUR MIND, BE SOBER, AND HOPE TO THE END for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."-1 Peter i. 13.

OUR duty with regard to this event is expressed three ways. First, confirmation of principles-" Gird up the loins of your mind." The loins are the seat of physical strength. It is said of Behemoth, "his strength is in his loins." If the loins of a man yield, his body soon fails. When therefore he is weary, nature instinctively teaches him to put his hands on his loins, as if to support them. And hence the bandage or girdle worn about the loins by those who would prepare for strenuous exertion of any kind. In reference to which says another Apostle, "Let your loins be girt about with truth." It is not necessary that a man should make up his mind firmly upon every inferior opinion; but if he be loose in his leading principles in religion he will never excel. There may be a foundation without a superstructure; but there can be no solid and safe superstructure without a foundation. Wherein does the profiting of those appear who. think it is a matter of little importance what a man believes? And how do we read the Scriptures? "Buy the truth and sell it not." 'Exhorting them to continue in the faith." "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,”