As the Word is in the Gospel, so is grace in the heart; yea, they are the same thing variously expressed. The doctrine of the Gospel begets the form, figure, and likeness of itself in the hearts of them that believe, so they are cast into the mould of it. As is the one, so is the other. The principle of grace in the heart and that in the Word are as children of the same parent, completely resembling and representing one another. Grace is a living Word, and the Word is figured, limned grace. As is regeneration, so is a regenerate heart; as is the doctrine of faith, so is a believer. And this gives great evidence and assurance of the things that are believed: 'As we have heard, so we have seen and found it.' Such a soul can produce the duplicate of the Word, and so adjust all things thereby.-Dr. Owen.

It is only by yielding the soul to the impression of every Divine communication and discovery, that the several graces which enter into the composition of the new creature are nourished and sustained. As the perfection of the Christian system results from the symmetry of its several parts, in which there is nothing redundant, nothing disproportioned, and nothing defective; so the beauty of the Christian character consists in its exhibiting an adequate impress and representation of the whole. If there be any particular branch of the Word of God to which we are habitually indisposed, we may generally conclude that is precisely the part which we most need; and, instead of indulging our distaste, we ought seriously to set ourselves to correct the mental disease which has given occasion to it.-Robt. Hall.

'I have this night been thinking with myself that, as these limbs of mine have been ingloriously employed in the service of sin, how reasonable it would be, though pardoning mercy be extended, that they should be blasted, confined, by a series of affliction, and, at last, ingloriously reduced to dust!'-A. Fuller's Diary.

Christian, you have changed masters. Will you not serve God more zealously than you served the devil? Will you not labour harder to save your soul than you did to damn it? A creeping pace beseems not the man that is in the way to heaven: especially who went faster in the way to hell. Live, then, as one who has changed his master, his end, his hopes, his way and work.-Baxter.

Sin is a master that will not suffer its slaves to rest, but is always hurrying them on from one thing to another, till, having finished its operations, it bringeth forth death. The way of sin is a way in which there is no standing still-a kind of down-hill road, in

which every step gives an accelerated force, till you reach the bottom: 'servants to iniquity unto iniquity.'—A. Fuller.

Luther had a domestic residing in his house by the name of Elizabeth, who, in a fit of displeasure, left, without giving the family any notice. She subsequently fell into habits of immorality, and became dangerously ill. In her sickness, she requested a visit from Luther. On taking his seat at her bedside, he said—'Well, Elizabeth, what is the matter?' 'I have given away my soul to Satan,' said she. 'Why,' rejoined Luther, that's of no great consequence. What else?' have,' continued she, done many wicked things, but this is what most oppresses me, that I have deliberately sold my poor soul to the devil, and how can such a crime ever find mercy?' Elizabeth, listen to me,' rejoined the man of God. Suppose, while you lived in my house, you had sold and transferred all my children to a stranger, would the sale or transfer have

6

'I

been lawful or binding?' 'Oh, no,' said the deeply-humbled girl, 'for I had no right to do that.' Very well, you had still less right to give your soul to the arch-enemy; it no more belongs to you than my children do. It is the exclusive property of the Lord Jesus Christ; He made it, and when lost, also redeemed it; it is His, with all its powers and faculties, and you can't give away and sell what is not yours; if you have attempted it,

the whole transaction was unlawful, and is entirely void. Now, do you go to the Lord, confess your guilt with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and entreat Him to pardon you, and take back again what is wholly His own. And as for the sin of attempting to alienate His rightful property, throw that back upon the devil, for that, and that alone, is his.' The girl obeyed, was converted, and died full of faith and hope.-Anecdotes.

You that are believers must never expect any pleasure in sin; for you can neither commit it without regret, nor reflect upon it without shame and confusion. Expect no better consequences from sin than the woundings of conscience, and dismal cloudings of the face of God. That is all the profit of sin. O let these things sink into your heart!-Flavel.

• Walking in the country,' says the Rev. W. Jay, 'I went into a barn, where I found a thresher at his work. I addressed him in the words of Solomon: In all labour there is profit.' Leaning upon his flail, with much

energy he answered, Sir, that is the truth, but there is one exception to it: I have long laboured in the service of sin, but I have got no profit by my labour.' Then you know something of the apostle's meaning when he asked, What fruit,' &c.? Thank God,' said he, 'I do; and I also know that now, 'being made free from sin,' &c. How valuable this simple faith in the Word of God! and how true is the saying of a deceased writer,—that piety found in a barn is better than the most splendid pleasures of a palace!'-Anecdotes.

The wages that sin bargains for with the sinner are life, pleasure, and profit; but the wages it pays him are death, torment, and destruction. He that would understand the falsehood and deceit of sin must compare its promises and payments together.—South.

The fruit of sin, goodly and fair to view,

Deceives us in its beauty. Pluck'd, it turns

To ashes on our lips.

Webster.

There is more bitterness following apon sin's ending than ever there was sweetness flowing from sin's acting.

You that see nothing but well in its commission, will suffer nothing but woe in its conclusion. You that sin for your profits will never profit by your sins.-J. Dyer.

Everlasting death is, 1. The natural consequence of sin. Sin is a fruit-tree in a favourable soil; its natural produce is death; the only way to prevent that produce is to kill the tree. 2. Its proper desert. Not a sinner will die who ought not to die; sinners even in hell will be treated just as they deserve to be treated; and no man can conceive a more dreadful doom than for himself to be treated for ever, just as he deserves to be treated for ever.' 3. Its

V. 7. The Law gives a man a distinct sight of indwelling sin. It drags forth the traitor from his secret lurking places. A man, when the Law comes, is no more ignorant of his enemy. If he will now perish by him, it is openly and knowingly; he cannot

but say that the Law warned him of him, discovered him unto him, yea, and raised a concourse about him in the soul of various affections, as an officer doth that discovers a thief or robber, calling out for assistance to apprehend him.-Dr. Owen.

Ever since Adam ate forbidden fruit, we have all been fond of forbidden paths; the diseased appetite is carried out most strongly towards that which is hurtful and prohibited. Without the Law sin was dead, as a snake in winter, which the sun-beams of the Law quicken and irritate.-M. Henry.

The inclination of human nature in general is like that of a froward child,

who will do a thing because it was forbidden, and perhaps is, as it were, reminded of an evil, on hearing it mentioned in a prohibition. But it must surely be acknowledged that all lust does not arise from hence, much being previous to any possible knowledge of God's Law, whether revealed or natural.-Doddridge.

When the commandment came with its accusations to Paul's conscience, sin, that like a sleeping lion had lain still, and he secure and confident by it, began to roar in his conscience, and then he died,-his vain confidence of himself gave up the ghost.-Gurnall.

Sin seen in the glass of the Law is a terrible thing; no man can behold it and live.-Bunyan.

While Paul thought of nothing but the irregularities of his external con

duct, his virtues doubtless appeared to him to outweigh his vices, and therefore he concluded all was well. But when, through the glass of that Divine commandment,' which prohibits the very inclination to evil, he saw the corruption that reigned within, transgression assumed a very different appearance; it was then a mighty ocean, that swelled and swept away all his legal hopes.-A. Fuller.

The closer any man doth stick to the Law for life, the faster sin doth cleave to him. I thought to have obtained life by obeying the Law, but by the Law I became a notorious sin-.

ner; and thus sin deceived me, and thereby slew me.' A strange way of deceivableness, and which is hid from most men! but you see how it comes to pass.-Bunyan.

The commandment is 'holy,' as requiring perfect conformity to God; 'just,' as being founded in the strictest equity; and good,' as being equally adapted to promote the happiness of the creature and the glory of the Creator.-A. Fuller.

The Law is holy, just, and good,'

because God Himself is so. One can conceive it otherwise. The Supreme Power of the universe might, for aught we know, have been the enemy of moral goodness; and instituted another regimen than that of virtue. He might have promulgated rewards for cruelty, and deceit, and violence;

He

and denounced penalties on temperance, humanity, and justice. might have given us the very nature that we now possess; and painfully thwarted all our estimation of the hatefulness of vice, and the excellence and worth of virtue, by issuing enactments in favour of the one, and im: posing prohibitions and threats upon the other. He might have emitted a law of revelation, that was in painful

and puzzling discordancy with the law of the heart; and so broken up the alliance between the moral rightness of actions, and the legal obligation there is upon us to perform them. All this may be imagined; and it is useful often to figure what is opposite to truth, that we might better understand both the import and the effect of the truth itself. Dr. Chalmers.

It seems that the Holy Spirit Himself could not find a worse name for sin than its own. If we speak of a treacherous person, we call him a Judas;' if of Judas, we call him a 'devil;' but if of Satan, we want a comparison, because we can find none that is worse than himself: we must therefore say, as Christ did, 'When he

14 For we know that the law is under sin.

We do not try the evenness of things with a crooked stick, but by the straightest rule we can find. So Saint Paul looks not to see how much more spiritual he was than other men, but how much less spiritual he was than the Law.-Leighton.

speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.' It was thus with the apostle, when speaking of the evil of his own heart, That sin by the commandment might become '-what? He wanted a name worse than its own-he could not find one-he therefore unites a strong epithet to the thing itself, calling it exceeding sinful.'—A. Fuller.

spiritual: but I am carnal, sold

Though the children of God complain with Paul that they are sold under sin,' yet there is a vast difference between their case and that of others; the saints are sold to it by Adam, but others by their own continual consent.-Dr. Reynolds.

There can be no doubt that the opposition which is sometimes found to exist between the habitual and occasional determinations of Christians, is what the Apostle affirms in this passage. The habitual will of a Christian must be on the side of obedience. It actually is so. Where this is not the case, the Christian character does not exist. But the man, who fancies that his will is on the side of obedience at the moment of his disobedience, deludes himself.-Dr. Payne.

It is usual to denominate a charac

ter by his habitual or ruling disposition, and not by occasional deviations from it. Thus when we hear of him who was famed for meekness speaking unadvisedly with his lips, we say, This was not Moses; or of him who was distinguished by his courageous avowal of his Lord denying with oaths that he knew Him, we say, This was not Peter. Both these great characters, in these instances, acted beside themselves. It was not they, as it were, but sin that dwelt in them.-A. Fuller.