to enforce upon his disciples the whole counsel of God. We shall find him ere long pointing out to the followers of Jesus the propriety of treading in their master's steps. But in the verse before us he is directing the believer to look within rather than without, and to ascertain his acquaintance with Jesus, by a survey of his principles of action, rather than by his external works. Not that external works are not the indications of the state of the heart, for the tree is known by its fruits;" but still with this admission, and the willing recognition of a most important Scripture truth, it must not be forgotten, that no apparent fulfilment of the law, is any sufficient ground of confidence that we know God, or rather are known of him. If the believer is asked, on what do you rest your confidence that you know Christ? will he reply, because I am conscious that my life and conversation are such as become the Gospel of Christ; because my fruits of good living bespeak the tree to have been made good? Impossible. He makes no such inference. Rather he will say 'I rest my confidence that I know Christ in this, that I do heartily desire to be saved by him: for I know myself to be a sinner, miserable and vile. Would that I could see some good works of mine tending to the glory of God my Father, and of Christ my Lord. I do anxiously desire the production of these fruits of holiness, but I dare not say that I perceive any in myself of such sufficient worth as to be able to infer certainly from them that I know Jesus. The utmost that I can say of myself in regard to the doing of his will is this-that I have in a measure kept his commandments, of repentance towards God, and of faith towards himself. I am conscious of a change of mind as it regards the blessed God. For in spite of the remaining insubordination of my mind and affections, I

my

can affirm, and I think with truth, that I desire unfeignedly to love my God, with all my heart and soul and mind and strength; and for this reason, that I perceive him to be worthy of the perfect love and reverential homage of my whole soul. Worthy of my love and homage, did I say? Oh wondrous thought that such a God should accept of the praise and gratitude of his sinful creatures! But as he is pleased to say he will do this, would that the incense of my grateful and adoring praise were evermore ascending as the poor tribute of love! And methinks, I cannot but have a true faith in Jesus, for I know that I have committed my lost dying soul to him. I have believed in the record of his love; I have perceived his fitness to save, and I have laid hold on his covenant of grace. My soul is conscious that it has been placed (by a faith which I believe to have been given me of God) in the hand of Jesus. Here then is the ground of my confidence that I am in some measure acquainted with the Lord, even through keeping the commandments of my God; which commandments of his, repentance and faith, having been carried into execution in my soul, by the power of his grace, and operation of his Spirit, I cannot but perceive that a mighty change has taken place within my heart. There I find new desires, and new affections; new hopes and new fears. Now I can say, I delight in the law of God after the inward man; and can add with truth, "Oh my God, how I love thy law; it is my meditation all the day: mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I may meditate in thy word;" and gladly do I submit myself to Jesus that he may reign over me. To possess him for my Prophet, Priest, and King, is all my salvation and all my desire.'

Such are the attestations of the child of God, who

can discern in his renewed soul, the evidence of faith and of the knowledge of God; whilst on the other hand, if he looks at his works, his heart misgives, and he cries out, "Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He is painfully conscious that the things that he would not, those he does, (Rom. vii.) and that in the things he desires to perform, he too constantly miscarries and falls short. Hence he dare not look at his keeping of the commandments, in the common acceptation of the term, as his ground of confidence that he knows God; for his continual breaches of the law remind him of his remaining ignorance of God his Saviour,-an ignorance, at times so great, that when the believer measures its extent by the power of the law of sin, which still wars in his members, he would be tempted utterly to cast away his confidence of faith in Jesus, but for his conscious possession at the same time of that spirit of life in Christ, which in spite of all his sins and shortcomings, gives continual witness to the fact of its existence in his soul.

4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Many nominal Christians suppose themselves to possess a sufficient and satisfactory acquaintance with the Lord Jesus, because, as they imagine, they keep the moral law, and observe the ceremonials of Christian worship. But such persons are altogether in the dark as to the real nature of those commandments, which in their non-observance, mark the absence of the knowledge of Christ. The moral law is confounded with

the new statutes of the kingdom of God, and morality is supposed to be equivalent with the obedience enjoined under the dispensation of the Gospel. If the ten commandments be acknowledged as the rule of life, and professedly adhered to as such, here is the sufficient evidence, as some think, "that they know the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent." The wide difference between the enactments of Moses and of Christ, is not perceived. Both are considered lawgivers who have the one end in view of enforcing obedience to the same moral law. But this view of the case is incorrect. Christ is indeed the Lawgiver of his Church, and he enforces obedience to every commandment of God; but still, his statutes are distinct from those of Moses, and in many respects very dissimilar. We may also add, that a knowledge of Christ is proved, by the keeping of his own peculiar commandments, and in no other way. Paul informs us of himself, that in his unregenerate state, he was "concerning the righteousness of the law blameless." He certainly appears conscientiously to have kept the commandments of God, and when he persecuted the Church of Christ he did it, thinking to do God service. What then, it may be asked, are those peculiar commandments of the Lord Jesus, the observance of which is needed, over and above the keeping of all the other statutes of God, in order that our professed knowledge of Christ, may not convict us of falsehood? Now the peculiar enactments of Jesus, are these three: Repentance towards God, faith in himself, and love to his people. Of repentance towards God, there is no mention made in the moral law, but Christ enjoins it, as a condition of admittance into his kingdom of grace. He says, "Repent ye and be converted;" and in other words,

"See to it, that ye are partakers of a new birth from heaven." And here is a main difference at once observable between the statutes of the Law, and those of the Gospel. The Law directs us to love God with all the heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. The Gospel enforces the necessity of an entire change of mind and heart, as it regards the blessed God. The Gospel does not annul the first great commandment of the law but it lays the axe at once to the root of our supposed power to love God, by directing us first of all to seek for a new nature, and a new heart. And so it discloses to us the fact of our possessing from our natural birth, a mind at enmity with God, and not subject to his law; a mind so greatly at enmity with that law which ought properly to control its every thought, that its spirit must be renewed and altogether changed by the mighty power of God, before the law can be obeyed. With the command of Jesus to repent and be converted, we find another linked: Repent ye, and believe the Gospel." (Mark i. 15.) Now the Gospel is

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the good news of salvation in the lost world; and here is a commandment to avail ourselves of the proffered mercy. The compliance with this command is the mark that we know Christ, or rather are known of him: its non-observance, a fatal indication, that we know not that we are poor and miserable, and blind, and naked, and consequently, that the truth is not in us. Jesus also commands love to his people as the badge of his discipleship. Here then is another statute, not to be found in the code of Moses or any other lawgiver, and its neglect, so sad and frequent as it must be confessed to be, bespeaks too surely an absence of the spirit of its author. The apostle John is severe in his denunciations

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