66 I thank God that I

whom he had baptized, and says, baptized no other."* Now, although he gives this reason, lest any should say he had baptized in his own name; yet, had he believed, either that it was needful to salvation, or that it promoted the glory of God, is it credible that Paul would have been thankful he had in that, or any other case, served Him so little? that he had baptized no more? unless he had at least a jealousy, that in baptizing those few, he had acted in his own creaturely will rather than in the will of God; seeing that the most extreme desire of every one, so far as he is a christian, is a desire for the glory of God, and the kingdom of our dear Redeemer; and the greatest of all incitements for the humble gratitude, love, and allegiance towards God and his blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is, first, a conviction that he has condescended to shew us His will concerning our duties; and, secondly, and more especially, that He has disposed our hearts and enabled us to perform His will (without the mixture of our own wills), to His glory, (without the mixture of our own glory);† so Paul's rejoicing that he had baptized,

* 1 Cor. i. 14, 16.

+ This sentiment in no degree disaccords with the illimitable gratitude, adoration, and love, with which we contemplate the sufferings of Christ for our sake; but is one feeling in the bundle of life (let him that readeth understand); it harmonizes with a divine harmony, and is the practical application of the doctrine; indeed, what good shall the adorable sacrifice do for us if we be not, through that medium, enabled to overcome our sins? Indeed, what comfort shall we have in our love and gratitude to God, unless accompanied by that allegiance, whose proof and whose fruit is manifested by His having enabled us (in some considerable degree at least) to discontinue offending Him? or what good should our spiritual life do for us if it were possible for us to have it while we work the works of darkness, and do despite to the witness for God

no more bears this construction, that he believed he had not done right in those few instances, surely we can hardly suppose that Paul was only so very superficially experienced in divine things, as not, up to that time, to have attained to this sublime and true experience, that whatever is done in the will of God, glorifies God; and that whatever religious service is attempted in the will of the creature, does not glorify God; but rather that it offends Him, and gathers people away from Him; yea, that it tends to death rather than Life.

Now John writes, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day,"* and goes on through the book of Revelations to declare so much of what he saw and heard on that occasion, as, in wisdom, it was the good pleasure of the Spirit he should write. Now, being in the Spirit, is the only state in which a man can discern and obey the will of the Spirit; is the only state in which man can glorify God or profit the soul of his fellow-man in the life of religion; this applies to Paul as well as to all other christians. We have abundant evidence that Paul was frequently in the Spirit; now, at the period of baptizing a brother or a sister, he either was in the Spirit, or he was not; if he was, in either of those cases, in the Spirit (or Light), and acted in the Spirit (or Light), what he did, glorified God, and was good to the brother or sister: would Paul bless God that any instances of his having been enabled to glorify God, or promote his kingdom in the heart of a brother or a sister, had been of rare occurrence to him? But, if on a retrospect of those

in our hearts? Indeed, what comfort could Heaven itself afford us if our souls be not previously redeemed from any and all rivals of God, whether covetousness or any other idolatry?

* Rev. i. 10.

engagements, he could not discern the finger of God, but believed that in his own zeal (and if his own, it was blind zeal, great an apostle though he was), he had acted in his own will and his own way; well might he thank God that he had done no more in an ordinance which he had been enabled to see no longer glorified the Creator, nor benefitted his creatures. Surely Paul must have often experienced that every act of simple obedience to the will of God brings the soul a nearer approach to the presence of Divine Purity! And it is quite clear, from his own confession, that the creaturely activity of attempting to serve God in his own will, rather than patiently seeking the will of God, made work for his repentance; for he says, "I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God:"* this he did in his own will, his blind zeal, which practice generally merges in professing the will of God and doing our own, and is, perhaps, the most successful of the schemes of the great adversary to man's salvation.

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Thus, the Jews were loud in their professions of love to God, and to the memory of deceased prophets, and had been zealous for the baptism of John, for they were willing for a season to rejoice in his light;"† yet they crucified the Lord of life and glory; they pleased and satisfied themselves with the theory of religion, and fancied they had got the substance; they spent their strength in talking and hearing, and fancied themselves in that state which is reserved for the doers of God's will; yet how plain, and how dreadful, are the denunciations, more particularly by the Lord Jesus himself, against such; "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,

* 1 Cor. xv. 9. † Jolin v. 35.

and many there be which go in thereat:

because strait which leadeth Beware of false

is the gate, and narrow is the way, unto life, and few there be that find it. prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit: but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord! Lord! shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord! Lord! have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”*

Now, whether we understand that Rock to be typical of Christ, or whether we understand it to be typical of that Revelation of the mind and will of God which Christ declared He would build His Church upon, it is either way in perfect harmony and keeping; for it was Revelation on which Christ declared to Peter that He would build His Church. It was for having received Revelation, that Christ declared Peter to be blessed. It was

* Mat. vii. 13, 25.

Revelation that Christ described as a Rock, and declared that the gates of Hell should not prevail against it. And this Revelation does God still continue to give liberally to those who ask Him, while they whose wisdom is of themselves, and not of God, are, with the proud, and the disputer, sent empty away. That Revelation of the will of God and Christ which the Pharisees and Lawyers, the Traders in Religion, blasphemed in the days of Christ's bodily visitation, and which, in the same spirit, to the same effects and fruits, some of the Traders in Religion in this nineteenth century deny the existence of in this day, though ready enough to allow it in former times. Alas! that any in this age of high profession should deny, as those wicked Jews denied, the Revelation of the will of God to man; alas! that so many who profess to be christians, should in this day slight the operation thereof in their hearts, and openly blaspheme against Him both in sermons and books as they do by their declarations, that Revelation has ceased to the sons of men! But this fatal error is readily accounted for; it is easier to the carnal mind to TALK of the holiness of men in former ages, than to OBEY the witness for God, in their own hearts, the obedience to whom by the power of God, caused those whom they so applaud to have been what they were but what shall be said, or how can we hope, for those who having been led by the spirit, and, having walked in the spirit, now deny it?"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the Heavenly Gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame."* How terrible is the coincidence of that

* Hebrews vi. 4, 6.