of their nature as well as the corruptions of their lives. Know then, that there is

no condemnation to thee. The judge himself says so. And when he acquits, who shall lay any thing to thy charge? Here thou must hold, if thou would'st manage well thy spiritual warfare. Abide by the sentence of God, and keep condemnation out of thy conscience. Have it ready to plead against all charges from whatever quarter they come, that Christ hath made ME free from the law of sin and of death.

Here I must refer thee back to what has been said concerning Christ and his fir.ished salvation. Thou now seest how necessary it is thou should'st be well established in the belief of his Godhead, and the infinite sufficiency of his salvation; so that he is both able and willing to save thee from all thy sins, and all the misery due to them, and to bestow upon thee eternal happiness, and to bring thee by his almighty power safe to the enjoyment of it. All this he will give thee, not for working, but in believing. I intreat thee therefore to read again and again, what has been before said upon these subjects,

and the good Lord help thee to apply it to thy present case, that thou mayest be 'convinced, thou art in Christ, and that there is no condemnation to thee.

But perhaps thou art ready to sayStedfastly do I believe all this, but I do not find such victory over my corruptions as I could wish, nay I think at times they rage more than ever. Here thou forgetest the Lord thy strength. Thou dost not make use of him, and therefore thou failest. The woman with the bloody issue grew worse and worse, till she went to Christ: So wilt thou. Go to him then, and plead his promise-Lord thou hast declared, that sin shall not have dominion over thy people, I believe this word of thine cannot be broken, and therefore helpless in myself I rely upon thy faithfulness, to save me from the dominion of such and such a sin (as then tempts thee.) Put forth thy power, O Lord Christ, and get thyself glory in subduing my flesh with its affections and lusts. And then trust him to make his word good, and wait the event. Sooner shall heaven and earth pass away, than sin, any sin thus left

G 2

with Christ to be subdued shall reign over

thee.

If thou sayest, I think I seek for victory over sin in no other way, and yet I do not attain it so completely, as I desire; depend upon it thou art under some mis take for Christ is almighty to fulfill every promise in its largest sense and fullest meaning, and there never was a believer who could justly charge him with the breach of his word. Perhaps thou dost believe, that power to subdue sin comes from Christ, and thou art expecting it from him, but hast thou not some legal dependance, some notion of thy own working together with him? Search and see. Dost thou commit all to the Lord, who is to do all and in all? Is the whole battle left to him; wisdom and courage, and armour, and strength, and patience, and victory, is all from the Lord? If thou art not doing this simply, thou art not living by faith upon Christ, but thou art fighting in thine own strength, and depending upon some stock of grace, or knowledge, or experience, While these

proud selfish motives put thee upon ask

ing his help, he will not give it thee: for thy heart is not upright before him.

Or, perhaps, Christ does not appear on thy side, because thou art proposing some wrong end. Thou art working and striv ing against sin to establish a righteousness of thine own, which is to be some part of thine acceptance before God, and thou hast been trying in thine own strength to get thy corruptions quite subdued, but they were too strong for thee, and therefore now thou art glad to make use of Christ's help. And if he would do the work for thee, then thou wouldst have confidence in the flesh, and this thy fancied holiness would be the ground of thy rejoicing before God. Is it not so? If it be, thou wilt never succeed upon this plan. Christ will not give his glory to another, nor put the crown of his gospel grace upon the head of thy legal dependance.

Or, perhaps, thou art expecting from Christ what he has not promised, such a victory over thy corruptions, that they shall not fight again for some time, or that they shall be quite dead and buried. And so they shall be in the Lord's appointed time. But now he calls upon thee to

fight against them, he provides thee armour for that purpose, even the whole armour of God; and he requires thee to resist unto blood, striving against sin, promising thee daily victory. This is thy present state of warfare. To this thou art now called, and there is no discharge in this war. O beware then, as thou lovest thy soul, of a false peace. Thou wilt be sadly deluded, if thou ever supposest that thy fighting is over, before thy course be finished. The good fight of faith must continue till death: for till then, corruption being in thee, thou must oppose it, relying upon God for promised victory over it. He is able to save thee from the very being of it now, as well as in heaven. But it is not his mind and will. Here he will have thee to live by faith, which is every moment to keep thee dependant upon Christ, or thou wilt fall. This is to exalt his grace, and to subdue thy selfish legal spirit, to humble thy pride, to put thee upon prayer and watchfulness, to make sin more hateful, and heaven more desireable, and to secure the glory of every victory to him, whose strength is perfected in thy weakness. These are some