216, part ii.; Dr. E. Sands, Archbishop of York, 1563, Sermon preached in Paul's on Nativity; and Dr. John White, 1624, Way to True Church, Works, fol.)

Dr. Whitby. (A.D. 1706.)—" A sense of the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, (Rom. v. 5,) whereby we cry, Abba, Father; (Rom. viii. 15 ;) i. e., We are assured that God is our Father." (Annotations, New Test.) Dr. E. Wells (A.D. 1711) paraphrases Rom. v. 5, in the same words. Archbishop Wake. (A.D. 1715.) Sermons, vol. i., p. 125.

W. Fleetwood. (A.D. 1737.) "Preface to Sermon before Lord Mayor,” 1737, 4to.

Thomas Robinson. (s.D. 1789.)—"A knowledge of the divine favour is what we also may ask and look for. Even now the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. How great, then, is their presumption who deny the possibility of attaining an assurance of salvation! How sinful their remissness who are satisfied without it! How awful their delusion who expect or pretend to it, in any allowed habits of wickedness!" (Scripture Characters, Enoch.)

C. Simeon. (Cambridge, ▲.D. 1802.)—“God hath been pleased to give us the witness of the Spirit, in a way of immediate impression. The Spirit, as a 'Spirit of adoption,' testifies to the believer's soul that he belongs to God. As by the sealing of the Spirit' he stamps his own image on his children for the conviction of others; so by the witness of the Spirit' he testifies to their adoption for the more immediate comfort of their own souls. Do not condemn the witness of the Spirit' merely because you cannot comprehend it. Rather pray to God that you yourselves may be his children. In this way you may hope that the Spirit will testify of your adoption." (Helps to Composition, 8vo., 1802. On Rom. viii. 16.)

THE PURITANS AND NONCONFORMIST DIVINES.

From the voluminous and valuable writings of the Puritans and Nonconformists, extracts might be easily multiplied. However these Divines differ, some understanding assurance to refer not only to the present sonship of the believer, but also to his final perseverance; and others, in putting the direct witness of the Spirit after the testimony of conscience; they agree in teaching that it is the privilege of believers to have the direct testimony of the Holy Ghost to their adoption. A few of these writers will be quoted, and references given to several more.

"That which God's Spirit doth testify to the conscience, the conscience can again testify to us; but God's Spirit doth testify to the conscience of a man regenerate, that he is a child of God. Therefore conscience also doth the same." (Perkins's Works, fol., 1626, vol. i., p. 548.)

Rom. viii. 16. "In these words are two testimonies of our adoption set down the first is the Spirit of God dwelling in us, and testifying unto us that we are God's children. The Holy Ghost gives testimony, by applying the promise of remission of sins, and life everlasting by Christ, to the heart. The second testimony of our adoption is our spirit, that is, our conscience sanctified and renewed by the Holy Ghost." (Perkins's Works, vol. ii., pp. 18, 19. See also Perkins's Works, vol. i., p. 564.)

"And this Spirit is still in our preaching, and in your hearts, and persuades you of Christ's very love to this day." (The Heart of Christ in Heaven towards Sinners upon Earth: Thomas Goodwin, 1653, p. 43.) "A man may have good assurance that he is a child of God."

"And be we sure to confess and ask forgiveness of this debt, (sin,) and never give over until it have pleased God to seal an acquittance unto our consciences by his Spirit, which he will give to all that ask it.” (Scudder on the Lord's Prayer, "Key of Heaven," 1620, pp. 66 and 365.)

"The Spirit that searcheth the deep things of God is given to this end, that we might know the things that are given us of God: accordingly he testifieth that we are the sons of God."

"You may have continual joy in the Holy Ghost through sense and assurance of God's favour." (Sclater on 1 Thess., 1618, pp. 445, 501. See also Sclater on Romans, chap. iv., 1650, pp. 162, 172.)

"The testimony of the Spirit is immediate, by his secret influence upon the heart, quieting and calming all distrust and diffidence concerning its condition, by his own immediate power. Fear is banished by a soft whisper from the Spirit of God in the heart; and this in such a way, that though the spirit of a man is immediately calmed by it, yet it cannot tell how it comes to pass." (Simon Ford on Adoption, 1655, p. 217.)

"We should strive to get evidence of our salvation. Heaven should suffer violence: seeing it may be had, we should never be quiet till we get it."

"The adopted have the Spirit within them to testify that they are the sons of God, as the seal and earnest of their inheritance." (Byfield on Peter, fol., 1637, pp. 77, 646.)

Rom. viii. 16. "The record which God's Spirit and a sanctified conscience do bear to the godly of their own adoption." (Wilson's Christian Dictionary, fol., 1655.)

"The witness of the Spirit is a thing that we cannot express; it is a certain divine expression of light, a certain unexpressible assurance that we are the sons of God, a certain secret manifestation that God hath received us, and put away our sins: no man knows it, but they that have it. I confess, it is a wondrous thing, and if there were not some Christians that did feel it, and know it, you might believe there were no such thing, that it were but fancy and enthusiasm ; but it is certain there are a generation of men that know what this seal of the Lord is." (Preston on the New Covenant, 1630, p. 400.)

"No man hath satisfying comfort by the blood of Christ, till it be sprinkled upon his heart, and applied to him by the Spirit of God, and thereby assured that it was shed for him."

"What have you to show that God is reconciled to you? This is not evident, till we have the pledge of our reconciliation with God, the gift of the Holy Spirit. This affords infallible assurance of God's favour. (Rom. viii. 16; 2 Cor. i. 22; Eph. i. 13.)" (Manton's Sermon on Job xix. 25, 4to., 1678.)

In the Confession of Faith, issued by the Assembly of Divines, under the article Assurance, we read, "This certainly is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirit that we are the children of God." (Third edit., 1688.)

"The Holy Spirit witnesseth to our spirit by a distinct and immediate testimony, and witnesseth with our spirit (so the word properly signifies) by a conjunctive and concurrent testimony." (Poole's Annotations, 1700.) "The Spirit worketh joy in the hearts of believers immediately by himself, without the consideration of any other acts or works of his, or the

interpositions of any reasonings, or deductions, or conclusions. This does not arise from our reflex consideration of the love of God, but rather gives occasion thereunto. He so sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, and fills them with gladness by an immediate act and operation." (Dr. Owen, on Communion with God, 1657. Works, Orme's edit., vol. x., p. 310.)

"The Comforter comes; and by a word of promise, or otherwise, overpowers the heart with a comfortable persuasion, (and bears down all objections,) that he is a child of God." (Ibid., p. 295.)

"The Spirit gives a distinct witness of his own, which is his immediate work, and is in a way of peculiarity and transcendency called, the witness of the Spirit.' And this evidence is solitary, without reference to inherent graces; yet, however, it excludes them not." (Isaac Ambrose, 1652, Middle Things, 4to., p. 117.)

The same language is used by Caryl, on Job, chap. x., 1651.

"The Spirit of God-does by his own immediate power imprint this persuasion upon the heart, Thou art a child of God; and by an inward and secret, yet powerful, voice, doth say to the soul, Thou art a believer, thy sins are pardoned.'" (Dr. Samuel Clarke's Comment., 1683.)

"Besides the testimony of the water and the blood, there is a third testimony, and that is the Holy Ghost himself, which is immediate. It raises the heart to see its adoption and sonship by an immediate discovery of God's mind and love. The Spirit receives and borrows no witness from what is in us, but makes his own abundantly satisfy." (Dr. Thomas Goodwin, Works, fol., 1653, vol. iv., pp. 95, 96.)

"The sentence of conscience is fallible; the sentence of the Spirit is infallible. The Spirit is supreme Judge. The Spirit speaks with power, and produces divine effects in the soul, such as neither men nor angels can produce these or like effects, the conscience cannot reach." (Lawson's Theopolitica, fol., 1659.)

"I shall mention," says Dr. Watts, "a most uncontested example, the example of a person whose solid sense, whose deep sagacity, whose sedate judgment, and the superior exercise of his reasoning powers, leave no room to charge him with vain and delusive raptures of a heated imagination. The name is the late venerable Mr. John Howe. The name commands respect, and confirms the narrative. He wrote the following on the blank leaf of his own Bible :-'But what I sensibly felt through the admirable bounty of my God, and the most pleasant comforting influence of his Holy Spirit, on October 22d, 1704, far surpassed the most expressive words my thoughts can suggest. I then experienced an inexpressibly pleasant melting of heart, tears gushing out of mine eyes for joy that God should shed abroad his love abundantly through the hearts of men; and that, for this very purpose, mine own heart should be so signally possessed of and by his blessed Spirit.' (Rom. v. 5.)"

"If anything could be added to the testimony of Mr. Howe, it should be the instance of Mr. Flavel, the famous practical Divine in the West of England, who, in his Treatise of the Soul of Man,' gives us this account of himself, but with his name concealed: "That in a journey on horseback, he fell into a divine meditation, wherein he had such tokens of the love of God, and his interest in the divine favour, manifested to him, that greatly surpassed all the rational and inferential evidences that he ever had,' though he was known to be a close walker with God.” (Watts's Evangelical Discourses, 1746, pp. 270, 271, 272.)

For equally pointed declarations with the foregoing, the reader is referred to N. Byfield's Spiritual Touchstone, 1625, p. 140; Bolton on Comforting Afflicted Consciences, 4to., 1634; England's Remembrancer, 8vo., 1663, p. 167; Thomas Case's Mount Pisgah, 1670; Hildersham, on Psalm li., 1632, p. 617; on John iv., 1632, pp. 333, 341; Gurnal's Christian Armour, 4to., 3d edit., part ii., pp. 389, 476; Sibbs, on Salvation Applied, fol., 1637, p. 322; on the Saint's Assurance, fol., 1637, p. 352; Elton, on Rom. viii., 4to., 1623, pp. 385, 387; Dr. T. Horton, on Rom. viii., fol., 1674, p. 245; Diodati, on Rom. viii. 15, 16, 1640; Watts's World to Come, sec. vi. ; Hurrion's Sermons on the Holy Ghost, 12mo. edit., 1823, pp. 149, 150, 320. Such references might be greatly multiplied; but these may suffice.

Philip De Mornay, (born, A.D. 1549, died, A.D. 1623,) being asked on his death-bed the reason of his hope of glory, gave this memorable answer,that "he was perfectly persuaded of it, and was so by the demonstration of the Holy Spirit, more powerful, more clear and certain, than any demonstration of Euclid." (Clarke's Lives.)

Lady Rachael Russell. (a.d. 1688.) See her Letters, 9th edit., p. 111. "The work of the Holy Ghost is no less real in us than it was in the Apostles of Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost doth lead us to the experience of that which the holy Scriptures inform us of; and this produces living and efficacious conceptions, impressions, and sensations. God is so gracious as to bestow upon the poor creature, that has now an interest in the sufferings, the death, and the blood of Christ, a firm conviction, an internal consciousness, and a feeling of his grace, of his complacency in him, of the forgiveness of his sins, and of his being now accepted in his beloved Son; which sensation renders the heart calm and quiet." (Spangenberg's Exposition of the Doctrines of the Church of the United Brethren. La Trobe's edit., 8vo., 1784, pp. 189, 207-210.)

"As to the word sensible, when applied to the operations of the Spirit, I freely confess that unless there is such a thing as the sensible feeling of the Holy Ghost in the heart, I neither know why he is styled the Comforter, nor why our Church teaches us to pray that we may evermore rejoice in his holy comfort; nor yet what our seventeenth Article means by saying that they (the elect) do feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ. Even Dr. Nowell's favourite book, the Erudition of a Christian Man, saith, that the best proof of our predestination, is, feeling the motions of spiritual lyfe in our heartes:' however, if the Doctor pleases, I will bring him an hundred quotations out of the best-approved writers who lived at the time of, and soon after, the Reformation, wherein the sensible feeling of the Holy Spirit is mentioned, and that in such a manner, as if it were not supposed there ever would be a professing Christian who could object against it." (Sir Richard Hill's Goliath Slain, 8vo., 1768, p. 173.)

The Services of the Church of England may be adduced in support of the Wesleyan view of the witness of the Spirit. (See R. Watson's Life of Wesley. Works, 8vo. edit., vol. v., p. 177.)

(To be continued.)

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

SCRIPTURAL ESSAYS. (No. XV.)

EVANGELICAL PRACTICE.

(For the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

"Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ."-Phil. i. 27.

In this apostolic injunction, three expressions are found which call for some preliminary observations, that the meaning of the whole passage may be clear. There is, in the first place, the word "conversation." Our English term is now restricted to intercourse by means of speech. Mutual discourse is conversation. The Apostle's phrase has a much wider signification. It takes in the whole behaviour; deeds, as well as words; acting, as well as speaking. But it places this behaviour in a particular aspect, so as to include the notion of intercourse. It is derived from a root referring to social condition, and denotes the behaviour of men as belonging to a regulated society, according to the principles and rules of which they are to conduct themselves; their manner of life, not as insulated and independent individuals, governed only by their own will, and seeking only their own interest; not as a disorderly multitude, swayed only by the passions which have for the time obtained the mastery; but as citizens, members of a community, to the rules, interests, and character of which they, as enjoying its advantages, are continually to look. The cognate terms do not often occur in the New Testament, and are, in almost every instance, used in reference to the important fact, that the true believer is a member of a spiritual commonwealth, or polity; (Eph.ii.12;) a fact which governs his whole behaviour, and fixes its character. (Phil. iii. 20.) In the text, a verb is employed including the same idea: "Let your behaviour as members of this community," your practical policy,-"be what is here required." Never is the Christian to lose sight of this, that, if he be what he professes, he does not stand alone; he belongs to a community, of which God in Christ is the Head, and the whole company of saints are his fellow-members. Not by any exclusive regard to himself, therefore, is he to be governed, but by a constant reference to this, his actual position. He derives from it advantages whose value is beyond calculation; but he is to remember that obligations of equivalent force are imposed on him. He is a citizen of what indeed is no mean city, and as such is he required always to behave.

Then, secondly, we have "becometh," not merely suitableness and correspondency, but such conduct as implies and acknowledges the excellence of the object, is worthy of it. A person has embraced a good cause; but his conduct may be so opposed to its principles, that he shall be said to have disgraced it. When, on the contrary, he not only does not do this, but acts so as to make the excellence of the cause apparent, to bring others to see and confess it; his conduct is so suitable to the cause he has espoused, so corresponds with it, that he is said to honour it, to walk worthy of it. Thirdly, in the case before us, this excellent object is the Gospel. your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ." The term is here evidently designed to include and signify the entire system of truth revealed to us in our Lord Jesus; or, as we sometimes term it in one word, Chris

"Let