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work, there is a duty to which we ourselves are called to attend. While we look, therefore, to the prayers which seek to be filled with all the fulness of God; which supplicate him to "make us perfect in every good work to do his will," and to "sanctify us wholly, and preserve blameless our whole spirit and soul and body; we likewise apply the solemn injunction, calling us to active duty, "Be thou perfect."

1. Be convinced that it is God's work, and that by Him only it can be accomplished. The prayers recorded in the New Testament, with the promises contained in the Old and the New, will furnish us both with materials and directions; while the knowledge that God works by the power and manifestations of the Holy Spirit, will lead us to the direct object of prayer, and our certainty that prayer is heard, and the Holy Spirit given, only through Christ's mediation, will, at the same time, teach us how to approach the throne of grace for the mercy and grace we need, and encourage our faith in the power and faithfulness of God.

Nor must this be all. That prayer be successful, it must be earnest. A few customary petitions, suggested chiefly by our belief in the doctrine, will not of themselves suffice for the attainment of what the doctrine teaches as a personal blessing. It is "the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man," that "availeth much." We must pray for the requisite preparation of heart; for those views of the evil of sin, even in its subdued remains, of the beauties of holiness as pervading our entire nature; and for a quickened sense of our obligation, both as God's creatures and as Christian believers, to be "holy in all manner of conversation, even as He who calleth us is holy." We must pray for those views and feelings which shall make our prayers increasingly fervent, quickening our desires, and heightening the intensity of our aspirations, till we are brought to say, “I will not let thee go unless thou bless me."

2. And the mental state which we thus seek from God, must be cherished and cultivated by ourselves. Our attention must be resolutely directed to the subjects which we desire to have applied to our mind with spiritual light and power. The Holy Spirit does not work in us as by his own exclusive agency, but by the instrumentality of truth from the word already dwelling within us. We repeat it, that indwelling truth is the great instrument in his gracious operations. The word of Christ cannot dwell in us savingly without the Spirit: the Spirit will not work nor dwell in us without the word. He who neglects the devotional study of the word, is not to ask for spiritual influence to supply an absence which this neglect has occasioned. In vain do we extol the Scriptures as the supreme rule of Christian faith and morals, if we omit to peruse them devoutly and prayerfully. That perusal is one of the most important means of grace. It is he who loves the law of the Lord, and meditates therein day and night, that shall be like the tree planted by the rivers of waters, with unwithering leaf, and bringing forth its fruit in season. And this must be especially attended to, if we desire that God would make us perfect. We must thus seek to strengthen in our minds the abhorrence of that which is evil; to deepen the conviction of the extreme sinfulness of sin, even in its character of conquered, but still indwelling, sin; to bring us to the feeling which led Job to say, "I am vile; I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." We must endeavour to be more powerfully impressed by the scriptural statements respecting the glorious holiness and majesty of God, the spotless and awful purity of the divine nature, which yet is that which renders God himself so worthy an object of adoring love.

We must strive to see the beauty of holiness, and to feel the infinite desirableness of being saved from all our idols and all our filthiness, and to have a heart all new, and all clean :

"A heart where Christ alone may dwell,

All praise, all meekness, and all love."

By earnest prayer, by scriptural study and meditation, by attendance on the public ministry of the word, and the sacrament of the Saviour's dying love, we should seek to advance towards the state in which the language of our whole soul, thought, and feeling shall be,—

"Send us the Spirit of thy Son,

To make the depths of Godhead known,
To make us share the life divine:
Send him the sprinkled blood to' apply,
Send him our souls to sanctify,

And show and seal us ever thine.

"So shall we pray, and never cease;

So shall we thankfully confess

Thy wisdom, truth, and power, and love;

With joy unspeakable adore,

And bless and praise thee evermore,

And serve thee as thy hosts above."

And while doing this, we should seek to strengthen our belief in the divine power and faithfulness; our belief in the ability and willingness of God to do all this for us. Great things has he already done by "the power that worketh in us;" and by explicit doctrine, by direct promise, by divinely-inspired prayers, he has taught us how much more he is ready to do; he who is faithful, and who is able to do for us "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Prayer must be offered in faith, as well as be the expression of earnest desire. "He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." The actually receiving faith he will himself enable us to exercise; but by devout Scripture-reading and meditation, accompanied by earnest supplication, we may advance towards that full conviction, that what we seek is not only desirable, but, by the abundant grace of God in our Lord Jesus, attainable; so that we shall be enabled to "pray in faith, nothing doubting."

If these things be so, it is manifest that even in respect to the work of entire sanctification,—a work emphatically referred to Him that hath called us, and is faithful,- —even in respect to this work, the solemn command, "Be ye faithful," lays us under full obligation. If it be God's work, yet "for all these things will he be inquired of by us, to do them for us : "it is our bounden duty, therefore, to seek, that we may find; to ask, that we may receive; and to knock, that the door may be opened unto us. And inasmuch as not any kind of prayer is that which has "power with God," the obligation to pray involves the obligation to endeavour to realize that state of mind from which mighty and successful prayer shall issue. Not to do this, is to halt at the very threshold; to neglect the first step in that course on which all depends. He who is not thus labouring and praying, may well ask himself whether he feels the full weight of the divine command. Some Romanist Divines, who have otherwise written many excellent things on this subject, have, most unhappily, misled by their extremely mistaken notions of Christian asceticism and mortification,

distinguished between the way of obligation, which they refer to all, and the way of counsel, which they refer only to those who aspire after a full, but not absolutely and universally necessary, perfection. We again refer to the remarkable position of the command before us. It refers to him who stands at the head of the long line of believers. It belongs to the covenant which, in its essential principles and characteristics, has endured from that day to this, and constitutes, with unchanged character, although with less, because only dawning, brightness, "the kingdom that cannot be moved." The command is addressed to all believers,—in one sense, to all who are called to embrace the covenant itself. It is of universal obligation, because not counsel, but command. The same voice that says, "Walk before me," pauses not, but immediately adds, " and be thou perfect." To obtain this blessing must be a privilege. Its exalted nature shows that so it is. But to seek it, and therefore to do all which in the way of instrumentality and preparation is necessary for seeking it rightly, must, likewise, be our duty. And the neglect of all this must be injurious. We have not, because we either ask not at all, or do not ask aright; for, repeating a declaration which, while full of encouragement, is closely connected with obligation, "Faithful is he that hath called you, who also will do it." Let us closely, rigorously, examine ourselves, why we are not, in this way, going on to perfection. The cause will be found to be too much associated with religious declension. If we have not lost our first love, its holy fervour is abated. And where shall abatement end? Such is religion, that not to advance is to recede. The progress at first may be, except to the inspection of godly jealousy, imperceptible; but it is not less real; and, if not checked, it will soon become only too evident. Let the reader most seriously contemplate the subject in its two leading aspects of duty and privilege, obligation and desirableness; and let him henceforth place his mind under the full influence of the command, "Be thou perfect.” Thus shall he be brought, in personal experience, to "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God," and so contribute to the true prosperity of the church, in its richer spirituality, its brighter glory, its more commanding influence, and its more rapid extension.

II. There is another point of view in which the subject must now be considered. Does the Almighty God say, "Be thou perfect?" Addressed to us thus in the form of direct command, as no command refers to what is simply impossible, something does it require which may be done by ourselves, aided by Him "without whom we can do nothing." To the inquiry, What this is, let our attention now be directed.

It is necessary that we notice some established laws of our constitution; of which it will be required that we avail ourselves, as well as that we, in some instances, be on our guard against them. Thus, it is well known that we have the power of placing an object before us, and so steadfastly and exclusively considering it, that we shall become, gradually, more and more under its influence, till, eventually, its power on all our habits of thought and feeling will become completely dominant. These are the laws of Attention and of Custom, and are two of the most important and powerful in our nature. Our whole character depends, principally, on the way in which we employ them. They are the great instruments by which, as moral agents, we act, and are acted upon. By a mistaken and imperfect system of metaphysics, remaining from the old Aristotelian scholasticism, the will is often spoken of as dominant in man. Considered under one aspect, it may be so; but, properly speaking, it is the man that

acts, according to those self-ruling powers with which his Creator has framed him, and by which he was made a proper subject of a government of laws, rewards, and punishments. By the fall, and the loss of spiritual life, consequent on the guilt thus incurred, his whole disposition now is ungodly, turned from God, and directed to evil: but still, the man is not annihilated; though dead in trespasses and in sins, it is the death of an undying, essentially living, nature; the man, therefore, exists still. Under the dispensation, in virtue of which by one man's disobedience all the race were constituted sinners, the individual, acting still according to his original nature, has not God in all his thoughts; he goes astray from his birth, speaking lies, foolishness being bound up in his heart; and had no other dispensation been established, nothing but evil would have proceeded from him. In whatever application the phrase is used, whether in reference to the guilt of the race, in consequence of the violation of the original covenant by the federal head of mankind, or to the procedure from natural corruption of the actions by which personal guilt is incurred, we are "by nature the children of wrath." And, left to nature, we should only walk by sight, that is, according to the course of this world, and be under the tyrannizing bondage of the wicked one, by whose seductions man was at first withdrawn from his allegiance. Left to himself, thus he would remain. But he is not left to himself. He whose mercy endureth for ever, has remembered him in his low estate. A dispensation of grace, by the wisdom and love of God, is established; and according to its principles the divine government is administered. It includes an outward administration, by which the truth necessary to be known, is plainly presented to man, and his attention is thus called to subjects about which he else would never have concerned himself. As to those who are without the sphere of the Gospel, we are not informed of the precise method of the divine procedure. The Gospel is entirely practical in its revelations. Nothing is made known which could only gratify curiosity. Information concerning the manner of dealing with the Heathen would be of no use to them who are not Heathen. It might even lead them, through the corruption of their nature, to assume the lower rule as the standard for themselves. And to the Heathen such disclosure would be equally useless. They could only receive it from the Gospel; and when they were thus brought into what we might almost term the official presence of the Gospel, it would cease to apply. They would then come themselves to the Gospel rule. These secret things belong unto the Lord our God; and the Judge of all the earth will assuredly do right, and, in due time, make it known that he does so. The Gospel revelation and ministry, considered as presenting truth to the rational creature, and appealing to the conscience of the moral agent and probationer, is a direct, intentional portion of the administration of the covenant of mercy. The call of the Gospel is the call of God. And as it has an outward, so it has an inward, administration, even the strivings of the Spirit with man as redeemed by Him who gave himself for all, and by whom is given the Spirit which convinceth the world of sin, though he dwells as Comforter only with those who have obeyed the heavenly calling,—that calling being the fountain and original of all their good. The church is the company of those who are separated from the world, because they have been called out of it. And being now alive from the dead, through Jesus Christ our Lord, it is their great evangelical duty to submit themselves to the influence of grace, and to employ every faculty of their redeemed and quickened nature in working out their

own salvation. The administration of the covenant is one of grace and truth; and while it is their duty not to grieve the Holy Spirit of grace, it is not less so to place themselves fully under the influence of that truth which God has given, and which is the Spirit's great instrument of operation. The object proposed by the divinely-inspired Scripture is, that "the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work." Regenerate man still is man; and therefore, because God worketh in him to will and to do, he is commanded to work out his own salvation.

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There is a well-known anecdote of Socrates to which we may instructively refer. A person, professing to be able to judge of character from the countenance, after gazing attentively on the Athenian sage, said, that his features betokened the existence of certain dispositions, which he mentioned. The friends of Socrates, who had never witnessed any manifestations of these tempers, pronounced his decision a complete failure, and his pretensions to the science of which he had boasted, invalid. Socrates himself said that the man was right. "Such tempers," he acknowledged, are indeed natural to me; but by a careful observance of the rules of philosophy, I have so thoroughly conquered them, that they never show themselves in my behaviour." We again call the anecdote an instructive one. Far be it from us to compare the moral amendments of philosophy with the sanctification of the Spirit. Christian character comprises elements with many of which philosophy is unacquainted. But if philosophy, truly interpreted, is right reason, acting according to correct knowledge, then the question may be asked, Suppose this command, "Be thou perfect," referred to us as actually possessing adequate power for obedience, what methods should we adopt, what steps should we take, that we might render to it the obedience which it requires? especially taking into the account, the possession of intellectual instruction in the sacred Scriptures, and the promise of full divine aid in the gift of the Holy Spirit. The answer we should give to this question furnishes the second aspect under which our duty, in reference to this command, is to be studied. By fervent prayer we are to seek of God that he would make us perfect. By wiselydirected and persevering efforts we are to seek to become so. It is assumed, of course, that all our efforts depend for success on divine grace; and that as we receive this grace only through our Lord Jesus, and as being in him, what efforts we employ must always suppose a practical attention to these two considerations :-First, that we abide in Christ by living faith, resting on him as the propitiation for our sins; and receiving, through union with him as our Living Head, that spiritual life which he communicates to all the members of his mystical body. It is his own explicit language: "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." And, Second, that we are continually to seek for grace by the right use of the means of grace. Merely natural strength will not avail us here. "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall." Whatever may be accomplished by decided and unswerving purpose, and by the energy of powerful and unyielding will, in human philosophy and morals, in matters pertaining to religious obedience, and especially to spiritual perfection, they are, by themselves, utterly unavailing. They that wait upon the Lord," and only they, "shall renew their strength." If high and heavenly aspirations are required, "they shall mount up with wings as eagles;" if effort more strongly and rapidly active than usual is needed, "they shall run, and not be weary;

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