heart to the guidance of fallible man. But on what different principles do the two parties pursue their apparently like course. The moral man is very sensitive about his own integrity. He is afraid of injuring his self-respect. Provided he approve himself, to himself, all he thinks is well. But not so the believer in Jesus. He loves the truth for its own sake, and he is jealous lest man should dictate to him in matters of faith, not so much because he desires to retain the freedom of his individual mind, but because he is convinced that in this case, God can be the only teacher. He does not desire to assert his independence, or to maintain the liberty of private judgment; all he has at heart is the truth itself, the precious truth, the truth which he thinks rightly, none but God can impart. And there is no doubt that if we analyze the principle that gives birth in many cases, to what we are accustomed to call, a conscientious indifference to human opinions in matters of faith, it will be found a very faulty one, and by no means entitled to the unqualified respect which we are often disposed to give it. Its origin will be discovered to be self-will and self-seeking, rather than the pure and humble love of the truth of God. And the voice of the church is altogether set aside by these sticklers for the rights of private judgment. Her authority is utterly contemned. No holy fear possesses the minds of these boasting ones, when they contemplate their isolated condition, as believers cut off in faith and doctrine from the body of the faithful. Strong in self, and in the consciousness of what they are pleased to think their integrity, no matter to them, who may approve or who condemn. Their motto is, each one for himself alone, the interpreter of Scripture, and of the internal anointing of the spirit. Each one for himself alone, the

judge of the doctrine commonly promulgated as Scriptural, and of the evidence of the Spirit in the heart. Each one, were such a thing possible, his own church. But unhappily for their self-exalting scheme, the great head of the church annihilates their vain assumptions of independence, by his memorable promise," Where two or three are met together in my name, there am I in the midst of you to bless you; and if any two of you agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."

-

The humble believer, then, in Jesus, who rejects with due contempt, the usurped dominion and unlawful tyranny of Rome, hearkens diligently to the voice of the true church: and his faculty of discerning the voice of the true church, amidst the lying voices that say on every side, "Lo here, and lo there," who tell of Christ in the wilderness, and in the desert, and in the secret chamber, the power of discriminating the true church from the false, is communicated by sound doctrine, and the anointing of the Spirit. And should any reply, as assuredly many will do; We too consult the scriptures, and we too have the anointing of the Spirit, and yet we acknowledge a different church from yours; there is only, one reply to make: "The Lord knoweth them that are his." If all appeal to the word, and to the teaching of the Spirit, and to the authority of what they term the church, there is an end of controversy. All that remains for us, is to endure patiently to the end, judging nothing before the time, but committing all judgment to the Lord, and meekly submitting ourselves to the vanity to which God has subjected the creature ; charitably embracing as far as it is possible, all those who differ from us in their supposed deductions from the scriptures, and the Spirit's teaching, and the authority

of the church. It is evident that we profess the same To what then, or to whom can we

first principles.

appeal, in order that our differences should be settled? To nothing upon this earth, and to none save God only. And does not the thought now force itself upon the mind, that if God desires greatly, as most assuredly he does, the unity of his people, and that they "should all be of one heart and of one mind, and that they should all think the same things," (Phil. ii. 2.) that it is also his will, that the remaining blindness of the natural mind should yet be apparent for a season, even in the true church, confusing its decisions, and perverting the perfect agreement that ought to exist between all its members, and this for the exercise of his people's forbearance one toward another, and for the salutary, although humiliating display of their weakness and ignorance in themselves. But God nevertheless wills the unity and perfection of his church, and it actually possesses unity, and also a true perfection. Amidst all apparent diversities, amidst all apparent impossibilities of harmony, there is a true union of spirit in the Lord; for there is one faith, one hope, one baptism. And there is one confession of faith-we repeat it; amidst apparently varying creeds, there is but one and the same confession of faith in the churches of the saints. For what do all simultaneously declare to God and man? That they are sinners, saved by grace alone. That their salvation is of faith, and not of works; that boasting is excluded from their creed; that Christ alone is precious, and worthy of exaltation; that God is their Father, and the Holy Ghost their sanctifier; that without holiness they cannot see God, and that God imparts holiness to those who shall dwell with him for ever; that as time and opportunity is afforded, works that may be beneficial to men must be performed;

and that God must be worshipped externally, as well as internally, according to the rule of his word; that the new nature impels to the love of God and man, and that the saints are peculiarly dear for Jesus sake: Lastly, that the scriptures are the only rule of faith, and that these cannot be interpreted aright, save by the aid of the same Spirit that indited them.

28. And now, little children, abide in him; that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

The apostle proceeds now to add a reason for our abiding in Christ; and it is this: that when he appears, a holy confidence may possess our souls, and that shame and fear may not be our portion at his coming.

Upon the perusal of this passage we are at once struck with the mention of a twofold manifestation of the Lord Jesus, and are naturally led to inquire in what respect the appearing, and the coming of Christ, differ from one another. And the variety, and different signification of the words suggests the conclusion, that by the first of these expressions, the Apostle conveys the idea of the manifestation of Jesus in the hour of death, and by the second, his appearing in the day of judgment; events, which demand an equal solicitude on the believer's part, and for both of which he is to prepare with an equal diligence. Nor is the distinction so unimportant a one, as those would fain persuade us it is, who are well pleased to renounce all hope of the manifestation of Jesus in the hour of death, and who only know, as they say, of the one appearing of the Lord which is to take place in the day of the Resurrection. But the Scripture tells us of more than one future manifestation of

Christ to believers. Already, Christ has been revealed in them, by the power of the new birth and of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, (Gal. i. 15, 16.) and he shall be more fully disclosed to the soul in the state of separate spirits. For on what other ground did the apostle declare, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain; " on what imaginable ground did he " desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better," unless he was persuaded, that a more glorious revelation of Christ awaited him in the hour of his death? It is absurd to have recourse to metaphysical abstractions, to attempt to prove that the believer cannot suffer loss, by being deprived of the consciousness of the presence of his Lord, for an indefinite period of time. If, on this earth. the believer is capable of holding converse with his Saviour, even during his seasons of suspended consciousness, that is, in the hours of sleep, what shall we say to the system, which dooms the Christian to the loss of Jesus, not for minutes or hours only, but for tens and hundreds and it may be for thousands of years ? In vain are attempts made to satisfy the simple-minded Christian, that he will not be conscious of his loss of Christ, when the annihilation of his being takes place in the hour of death. He is conscious now that Jesus is his Lord. It is his privilege whilst on earth to endure, as seeing Him who is invisible. To sit down even now in heavenly places in Christ. Even now, he is come to the assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven," and "to the spirits of the just made perfect; " and shall he indeed forego this sweet society, for the period of lengthened, although unconscious ages? Even now he is "come to the mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,"

66