you

and that the Holy Ghost is given in confirmation thereof; for it is said in scripture, that the Holy Ghost could not be given before that Jesus was glorified. But if are convinced of sin, then is the Holy Ghost come; and if the Holy Ghost be come, then is Jesus glorified; and if Jesus be glorified, then hath the Father accepted the offering he made upon the cross for human guilt, and in testimony of it hath sent down the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I think this argument so plain, so clear, and so convincing and unanswerable, that I hope it will operate with its full power of persuasion in your heart. And let me add also, that as you have this real heartfelt conviction of sin from this gracious operation of the blessed Spirit, and he hath led you thereby to see your own helplessness by reason of it, you have one of the strongest assurances therefrom, that he will also lead you to see and to seek the all-suitableness and all-sufficiency of Jesus to relieve; for the same power which convinces of sin, convinces no less of the righteousness of the Savior; and both concur to afford that inward tes timony which the apostle speaks of, the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are born of God, Rom. viii. 16.

Parishioner. Praised be the riches of Divine grace. I think I begin to have some faint glimmering view of what you have been describing. May the Lord make it, like the light of the morning, which shineth more and more unto a perfect day!

Minister. Let me, for the present, dismiss you under these impressions, and my prayers shall follow you, that the God of all grace, which hath given you to see your misery by reason of sin, may lead you to that

Lamb of God which alone can take it away. There is no want, or situation of distress, but what he is competent to relieve. He is an all-sufficient Savior, an almighty Savior, a most gracious Savior, and an everlasting Savior, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and as willing as able to save to the uttermost, all that come to God by him. May the Lord grant you the same conviction, both of your misery and his ability, which the poor leper we read of in the Gospel had, when he came to Christ with that moving and earnest petition, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean: and you will find in Jesus the same power and readiness to relieve as he experienced; Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed, Matt. viii. 23.

THREE GREAT POINTS IN RELIGION.

DIALOGUE III.

Parishioner.

I AM Come with a more cheerful heart to visit

you, than

when I last came. My mind was then greatly distressed indeed, with the weight and burden of sin; but the transporting views which you then opened before me, of the righteousness, and all-sufficiency of the Savior, with his gracious disposition to help poor sinners, have ever since comforted me. And if you can now as fully satisfy my mind, under the third particular you proposed, as through God's help you have in the former two: I mean how I shall be enabled to call Jesus my Savior in seeing my interest in him; you will have shewn yourself to be an able minister of the New Testament, and be justly entitled to my best thanks. I shall have cause VOL. III.

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indeed to pray the Lord to recompense your labors of love, and to grant that, while watering others, you yourself may be watered with the richest consolations of Jesus. Minister. The blessing you are in quest of, my Christian brother, like all others of a gracious nature, I hope you know, to be the sole gift of God. Jesus is both the author and finisher of faith: and every good and every perfect gift cometh from him. But if the Lord, in his abundant mercy, hath begun the manifestation of his grace in your heart, you have every reason to hope, and to believe, that he will carry on and complete the work, until the day of his coming. For never did the gracious Master excite spiritual desires in the soul, but with an intention to gratify them. When he makes a poor sinner sensible of his burden of sin, it is, that he may come unto him and find rest to his soul. When he creates a hungering and a thirsting in the soul, it is that all such may come unto him to be filled. May the Lord grant you but faith thus to come, and I am persuaded that he will not send you empty away. But let us re-assume the conversation where we left off at our last parting. I persuade myself that God by his Holy Spirit hath both convinced you of sin, and of the righteousness of the Savior; and under these impressions you are now coming to him in the language of the poor leper into the Gospel, crying out: Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean,

Parishioner. This sir, if I do not deceive myself, (which I trust I do not) is my present state. I am most awfully convinced of the leprous state of my sinful soul as it must appear before God. And I am as fully satisfied of the all-sufficiency of Jesus to cleanse me. I am convinced that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.

But whether he will condescend to cleanse me: whether I am the object of his grace and mercy: this is the grand point I want to know?

Minister. And a grand and most important point indeed it is! For without this personal interest in Christ, however precious the Savior's name and offices are to others, yet he cannot be precious to you. To them that believe (the apostle says) he is precious. But it can only be to them. It is not the fields, or the houses, or the wealth of another man that can be my treasure. The hungry soul cannot be fed with beholding the most plentiful table, unless he partakes of it. Neither can the naked find warmth from another man's clothing. In like manner another man's Christ (if I may be allowed the expression) can be nothing to me, unless he be my Christ also. Religion is a personal thing. And it must be brought home to the heart by a personal application, before it hath completed its purpose. Your salvation and my salvation are the grand objects with each, individually considered; and until we have obtained the assurance of it, each for himself, the main point in religion, as a personal thing, is not answered.

Parishioner. All this is true sir, and this is the very object that I am in pursuit of.

Minister. And I doubt not but if by prayer and supplication you make your requests known unto God, you you will find the Divine promise fulfilled in your own experience, in finding this peace with God, which all who are justified by faith find through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is true indeed, such assurance hath been much questioned, and doubted by some, and denied by others. But it is by those, who do it because they know

not the Scriptures, neither the power of God: who understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. Unconscious of any such credency in themselves, they presume to deny the same in others. And hastily leaping to false conclusions, from false premises, you may hear the unbelieving world questioning, how it is possible for any man to know that his sins are forgiven? How shall any man be assured that he hath a saving interest in Christ? But in answer to such ill founded questions, I would say: did not the apostle Paul know, whether he had an interest in salvation, when he so confidently said, "The Son of God loved me, and gave himself for me?” Did not the poor Paralytic in the gospel know, when Jesus told him, that his sins were forgiven? And when in proof of it, he healed his body of his disease, as he cleansed his soul from sin? But suppose that our Lord instead of saying to him, thy sins are forgiven thee, had said, thy father's sins are forgiven to him: what an essential difference would the poor man have felt? However unconscious that man is of the personal application of Christ's righteousness and salvation to the soul, who knows not his want of a Savior; it cannot be a subject of unconsciousness to him that knows both. Though the white stone, and the new name written therein, given to pardoned criminals heretofore in Courts of Judicature, were known only by those that received them: yet they that did receive them, must have known and read them with tears of transport and rejoicing. That the assurance is attainable, the testimony of the faithful in all ages have concurred in asserting. And a most gratifying evidence it is, because the faith of it is not founded in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God: for it