persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord."

IV. I proceed now to consider the nature and, amount of the holiness which we have scriptural reason to expect in the members of the Church of God, while here on earth.

As a general answer to this inquiry, and for the purpose of giving order to a more particular examination into it, I state these three characteristics of Christian holiness. It is,

(1) Habitually sincere;

(2) Upon the whole progressive;

(3) At the best imperfect.

(1) Habitually sincere. apostle Paul and by the Psalmist, of their own habitual state of mind with reference to the great standard of holiness, the law of God, are to be considered, not as of private or personal exclusiveness, but as of general and transferable application. They express the deliberate convictions and conscientious preferences of all the true members of that body, or Church, to which they themselves belonged. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man;" "With the mind I myself serve the law of God" (Rom. vii. 21, 25). "Oh, how I love Thy law!" "I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold." "I esteem all Thy precepts, concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way" (Psalm cxix.).

The descriptions given by the

It is not alleged that all the true members of the Church of Christ are always in this state of mind, without variation and without interruption. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" "Who can tell how oft he offendeth?" But I do think the passages here cited are accurately descriptive of the habitual state of mind, as to the conscious preference, of every real Christian. It is with reference to this habit of mind, and not with reference to some

occasional act or temper, that the beloved disciple writes, when he says, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John iii. 9). These remarkable words, if taken absolutely, would contradict expressly, not only other passages of Scripture, but also the facts of the case, as recorded in the histories of even the apostles themselves. Tried by such a standard, neither James nor John, neither Paul nor Peter, could be pronounced to be "born of God." But the words, however taken, cannot in fairness be understood to mean less than habitual sincerity of purpose, effectually excluding any harboured, deliberate, and continued course of evil.

Whatever subtlety some besetting temptation may for a time possess, ensnaring the real Christian into even an intention to sin, it can be but for a time, as a passing cloud. A continued habitual intention to sin is absolutely incompatible with true religion. No member of Christ's body can live in it.

This has been illustrated simply and well, by the possibility of a man falling into the water, and the impossibility of his living under the water. To be thrown into the water suddenly, unintentionally, reluctantly; nay, in a moment of excitement wilfully to leap into the water; nay, in an hour of delusion deliberately to plan and execute a fall into the water,—all these are compatible with human life: the man may arise again out of the water, and alive. But, in whatever way he may have got in, to remain under the water is incompatible with human life: the element is too thick; the man who continues in it dies. And what water is in this respect to human life, sin is to true religion. The sincere Christian may be thrown into it, suddenly, unintentionally, reluctantly, and spring out again the next moment; or he may, as I have said, be so far beguiled as actually for a time to intend it; but owing to the new creation within him, the seed of God that has taken root in him, the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in him, it has become impossible for him to remain in it. The life given him in Christ Jesus is eternal life. Habitual continuance in allowed sin would destroy it; but it cannot be destroyed; the sure word of God con

cerning Him is, "He shall not come into condemnation " (St. John v. 24); "Sin shall not have dominion over him" (Rom. vi. 14). Therefore he cannot continue in known sin. His holiness, however occasionally interrupted, will be habitually sincere, corresponding with that characteristic of the blessed man in the Old Testament, "in whose spirit there is no guile."

Whatever interruptions

(2) Upon the whole progressive. may occur in the holiness of the Christian, such as those now alluded to, they do not and cannot prevent its growth upon the whole. The members of Christ, with reference to the new life of God in their souls, are compared to "babes," and the word of God is the "sincere milk" by which the babes "grow" to be young men, and advance to the maturity of wisdom and discernment, characteristic of fathers in Christ (1 Peter ii. 2; 1 John ii. 12-14). It isnot on any positive degree of attainment in his own character, such as might safely content him, without any addition to it, that the real Christian relies. His reliance is on Christ, and his desire is to be like Christ. Christ is all and in all to him; his rock from the first, his example to the last. What he is looking for is progress. At all stages, from the beginning, and unto the end, what he looks for, and aims at, is progress. What he is predestinated to arrive at, is conformity to God's dear Son.1 To this end Christ has арprehended, or laid hold of, him; and his master object is to apprehend, or lay hold of, that for which he is apprehended of Christ.2

Here, again, we appeal to the example of the apostle Paul, who in a figure transferred to himself for our sakes (1 Cor. iv. 6), and exhibited in the glass of his own experience, this genuine characteristic of the members of the Church of God. He announces a great change which had taken place in his character and opinions. His national and hereditary privileges, his zeal for the Jews' religion, and his righteousness according to the law, on which he had before depended for salvation, or, as he expresses it, which "were gain" to him, had ceased to be so.

He had given them all up, "counting them for loss," for Christ. Then, not content with this description of a past change, he proceeds to express, in the strongest terms, his present feelings, his abiding and animating desires for the time to come. “ Yea, doubtless; and I count,"-not only I did so once, but I do still, it is my deliberate and cherished judgment and feeling,—“I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord." Then, looking forward, he adds, "that I may win Him," not as though I had won Him, either were already found in Him, but "that I may win Him, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." And, further, I have another object in view, for which I count all my former pursuits and privileges as dross: it is, "that I may know Christ; " that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, "being made conformable unto His death." Not as though I did already know Him (though I do know Him already well enough to prefer Him above all things), but that I may know Him, "being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Jesus Christ. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." What a spirit-stirring description of progress is here! yes, the Christian's tendency is forward. God said to Moses, "Say to the people that they go forward." servant of the Lord, exhorted the people, saying, maineth yet much land to be possessed.”

Joshua, the "There re

Hosea the prophet says, "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know, the Lord" (vi. 3). "Beholding with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," the true members of the Church

1 Phil. iii, 7-14.

of God are progressively "changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. iii. 18).

Objections to this statement may occur to the reader's mind. It may be, as it has been, urged, that the scriptural histories of the most eminent saints are practical contradictions of such a statement. It may be asked, Is not the unbelieving falsehood of Abraham a contradiction to it? the adultery of David, the vain glory of Hezekiah, the apostasy and blasphemy of Peter? I answer, No, in nowise. There may be progress-real, sound, advancing progress--and still no perfection. To grow in holiness is one thing; to become incapable of any deviation into sin is quite another thing. Compare a robust man of forty with a delicate child of four years old; who can deny that the man has made progress in the power of walking beyond what the child has made? Yet he stumbled and fell yesterday, and the child walked and ran about all day without falling. Abraham stumbled and fell, yet he had made real progress in "walking with God." Again, contemplate a sick man, whose disease has relaxed every muscle and enervated every joint of his body; he cannot move his limbs, he cannot turn in his bed, he cannot feed himself. Compare him with a healthy child: his limbs and joints and muscles have made great progress towards strength beyond those of the child, and yet at this moment the child is stronger than he. David had a severe attack of spiritual sickness: the powers of his life of faith were paralysed; his watchfulness in holy devotion was gone; his resistance against sin was prostrated before the prevailing power of the temptation; yet he had, upon the whole, made great progress in spiritual life, as the depth and bitterness of his repentance afterwards most satisfactorily prove. Once more, look up into the heavens. The sun does not shine so bright now, at eleven o'clock, as it did this morning at seven, soon after its rise. Yet it has been making progress towards its meridian. It may be behind a cloud for a season-a deep, darkening cloud-but upon the whole it makes progress. "The path of the just," of the true Christian, "is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." He may indeed be obscured for a season, and to a