THE GOSPEL STANDARD, OR, FEEBLE CHRISTIAN'S SUPPORT. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled."-Matt. v. 6., "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”—2 Tim. i. 9. "The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded."-Rom. xi. 7. "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.-And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.-In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."-Acts viii. 37, 38, Matt. xxviii. 19. No. 27. MARCH, 1838. VOL. IV. THE CRY OF A WATCHMAN ON A DARK CORNER OF ZION'S WALLS. "The elder shall serve the younger."-Rom. ix. 12. In this portion of sacred writ, we have doctrine, experience, and practice. It is a quotation from the Lord's words to Rebecca, in answer to her prayer when in great distress. "And she said, if it be so, why am I thus? and she went to inquire of the Lord." (Gen. Xxv.) "And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger." I. Then we have a doctrine, namely, God's sovereign, distinguishing, and electing love, independent of any foreseen good or bad works in the creature; for these two innocent babes in the womb could not exceed each other either in good or bad works. This is to show, that in the dark and eternal decrees of God, the womb of the eternal mind, the elect of God were accepted, blessed, and loved in the Beloved; and the rest were then rejected. "For the children being not yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth." (Rom. ix. 11.) II. We have an experience, "the_elder shall serve the younger." Our old man of sin was born first, as Esau was; then our new man of grace, as Jacob was. The wicked are born only once, they are born in sin, live in sin, and die in sin; the righteous are born twice, first an earthly birth; second, a heavenly birth; "Ye must be born again." So now, as Esau and Jacob could not agree, the old man of sin and the new man of grace are contrary the one to the other, and cannot с agree. Esau, he is a cunning hunter, always hunting after some earthly good. Old nature is a cunning hunter, like Esau, saying, "Who will show us any good?" Jacob loves his tent, the royal pavilion of the King of kings, "And," says he, "how amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts." Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon me; this is my chief good here below. Old Esau is for war and murder; he came against Jacob with four hundred men. Old nature has more than four hundred lusts, passions, and evil troops; many strong troops of lusts warring against the soul; but poor Gad, though a troop shall overcome him, he shall overcome at last. And, sometimes old Esau seems as if he would devour little Jacob, and kill him right out; then, by and by, they weep and kiss each other, that you can scarcely tell Jacob's tears and prayers from Esau's. Only, if you observe, Esau is always pleased with earthly things; Jacob is more pleased with heavenly things. Esau prays for the comforts of the flesh; Jacob for the comfort of the soul. Jacob prays for Esau, but Esau never prays for Jacob. Give Esau the cattle, and a few old tents-he will soon dry up his tears, and ask for no other blessing. But Jacob remembers the ladder, and keeps looking up for some good to come down, not only for the body, but especially for the soul. III. Christian practice. Put off the old man with his deeds, which are corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Remember, O Jacob, thou art a prince, thou hast wrestled, and as a prince hast power with God. Therefore, keep thy servant under thee; "the elder shall serve the younger." Beat down the body, and keep it in subjection. "If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Remember, the old man is your servant; make him obey you. I knew a poor old friend who had been accustomed to much vanity in youth, who, after being born of the Spirit, had to go four miles, after a hard day's labour, to hear preaching. On one occasion, after getting a few meadows from his cottage, he sat on a stile, exceedingly weary, when the following soliloquy began:-"O body, you are very weary to be sure, but you must go. Legs! come, you must carry me. Yes, legs, you shall; you have carried me to many a fair to please my vanity, now you shall go to please my better part. Legs, you shall carry me; come on." So it is now. A few drops of rain come; old Esau looks out, "I cannot go to hear preaching to-day; besides, I am not well pleased with some who will be there, they have not behaved well to me; I will not go, then I shall vex them." Thus, old Esau always takes the devil's part, to trouble poor humble Jacob. Jacob, thou art a prince, use thy princely power and authority; say to the old man, Esau, I charge you, my servant, to bring my hat and coat; I will serve my God; I am determined to appear at court to-day, to hear how eternal state affairs are going on. Dunmow, Essex. A WATCHMAN ON THE WALLS. SEALING. "Now, he who hath sealed us is God."-2 Cor. i. 22. How many different exemplifications, explanations, and opinions have I seen concerning the doctrine of sealing. And empty opinions they only in general seem. For I believe that sealing is the key sione in the great arch of saving religion. It is the secret of the Lord. (Ps. xxv. 14.) It is the mysterious signet. It is the living joint and bands whereby celestial nourishment and activity, whereby heavenly strength and the self-evident witness are communicated to the chosen seed. 66 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." (1 John v. 9.) As clay from the seal, and as the melted wax receives the impression when the hand moves to stamp the impress; as this is true in earthly sealings, so is it true also of that heavenly sealing which is effectual unto the day of eternal redemption by the Holy Ghost on the heirs of heaven who are the seed of promise," which is true to all the promised seed." O, the bright and shining impress, glittering far and wide, beaming with living influences! when the seal of God hath touched the sin-destroyed anxious wretch who wrestles for hope with the living God! when repentance, guilt, the deceits of the heart, and the malice of the devil have caused a broken and contrite spirit before God, when hyssop (that bitter herb) hath purged the soul in godly sorrow and weeping before God; and when the most flaming self-abhorrence, like Job's, and the most heaven-kindled activity, like the hart panting after the water-brooks, have stirred up a poor self-destroyed, lawdestroyed man to seek after God and wait upon Him; if so be there may be hope; I say, for a poor melted wretch like this, waiting at wisdom's gate, through necessity, to be all on a sudden and eternally touched with the seal of God, and to have the living die and lineaments of hope, faith, peace, and heavenly pleasure insensibly creeping over his heart-broken and panting feelings! to have the seal of God in living assurance marking him for God's own in that day when He makes up his jewels, to be touched with the visible mark of God upon him! to feel, handle, and see, and to be delighted with the heavenly feelings, life, spring-time, and summer-dew, accompanying the felt seal, heaven-bestowed approbation, and living delights of God, on his guilt-broken, and sin-melted spirits! this, this is the sealing of God on a man. What I speak on this sealing I speak from my own experience. And as I have felt the experience of it and know it to be true, so I believe the explanation I adduce of the doctrine to be true also. But to be more particular. The two great divisions of sealing, according to my experience, and, as I believe, according to the doctrine of Scripture, are these, viz., melting of the wax; and secondly, the impress of the seal. The wax (so to speak) is our feelings; the seal, impress, and image are the direct operation of God on the feelings. As the feelings of sorrow and joy too are more weighty, vivid, and self-evident than thoughts, fancies, and opinions concerning sorrow and joy; as feelings of the heart overtop all head-knowledge; so I speak with authority on these subjects; not merely having seen them afar off and being persuaded of them in that way; (although that is very good so far as it goes, if it is a true work, in hope;) but having actually gone through this melting and sealing, this softening through the law of terrors, and this divine impress of divine love through the gospel on my poor soul, I may, I say, claim somewhat more attention justly, both in the sight of man and of God. "For out of the mouth of babes God perfecteth strength, to still the avenger, and to show that the lame take the prey." (Isa. xxxiii. 23.) "To give one an expected end." And again, "Thine expectation shall not be cut off." These and similar passages of Scripture are fulfilled in some satisfactory degree in this holy sealing of the Spirit of promise on the broken and longing soul. But I have often thought of many who speak of this sealing, that I would not stand in their shoes at death for a thousand worlds! And why not? Because, poor things! they can do impossibilities! They can be sealed without ever having been melted! They talk about being sealed, when I believe their scaling to be a living lie! They never were melted yet! This shakes my confidence concerning the whole of their religion. For if they can be sealed without ever being melted in anguish, I begin to fear whether the father of lies is not the architect throughout of their religion. I say, if they can charge the sealing of God on their unbroken heart, what false thing can they not do ? I say again, as true as God is living, I never knew any thing of this divine impress of the living God on my feelings until I had been melted in the fires of misery, condemnation, and such woe as I never could describe. Rolled in the belly of hell a little, I felt the necessity of this divine sealing, image, and superscription, to sustain my soul amid the mingled catalogue of woe, which, like an army of soldiers, stood in battle-array against me. Neither is this seal which I am speaking of a dead stamp, a lifeless security, or a mere picture to look at. But it is a communication from the Prince of life. It opens the sacred treasuries of heaven into the soul. It uplifts the hid repositories of divine grace and glory into the soul's possession a little. It beams with refulgent brightness over the chequered pathway of our mortal pilgrimage as long as we live. And ever and anon, when the seal appears to have slipped out of one's possession, by and by the Holy Spirit of God renews it all up again with a living and refreshing lustre. I say again, the hid treasures concealed, secured, and at times drawn forth with an illustrious glory before the soul's eye through the seal, is what I believe none but those who are finally to be in heaven have the slightest or most distant conception of. Sealing contains within itself the germ, the foretaste of peace, the small bud of sweetness, the soul-ravishing hope of heaven. It is the earnest and first-fruits rewarding the regenerate husbandman, and encouraging God's servant to be faithful unto death; the crown of glory being thus perceptibly hung out to the eye of hope under the seal of God himself. And what lies like a foundation of adamant to it all is, that it is a sealed salvation to a lost soul! O, the awful condition of a lost estate before God as regards the never-dying soul before an eternal God! O, solemn sensations! O, heart-melting pangs, racking tortures, dismal blindness and errors, and heart-hardened inability to help one's self or get to the haven where one would be. Previously to when it pleases God to touch one's trouble-dissolved soul with the seal of His infinite love! O, the torturing anguish! O, the law-burning damnation! O, the innumerable troubles that get hold upon one, before we feel the individual and personal touch of God's never-fading seal of eternal redemption gilding with a hope full of immortality. "Ye that know the Lord, make mention of His mighty acts! Sing, rejoice, and make melody! For he turneth the wilderness into beauty, the desert into water-springs, and makes the barren to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children." The seal of God, I say, generally touches the soul, when all hope, peace, and expectation are about, like the candle in the socket, to go clean out! O, terrible crisis! O, the hair's-breadth nearness to giving up all as a bad affair, thinking our religion is some damnable halo or other from the devil! when lo, the seal of God touches in due time the melted wax of our heart; when our captivity seems to take a turn; when, as a tree blasted by the thunder, we die to this world in all our feelings; and, like Abraham, we receive the seal of faith as it were in a resurrection from the dead. If any one could certify me of his melting, I could certify him concerning his future sealing. If any one's heart was smitten and cut down like grass for sin, and ready to be gathered into the oven of hell day by day on account of sin; I could give him hope concerning his end, that it would be in mercy. But, never can I bear to see or hear a heart-whole, an un-heart-broken professor talk of Christ, much less of the sacred mystery of binding the heart up anew by the good Samaritan; which binding up anew is couched under the mystic and hid excellence, called sealing. Planted in the likeness of Christ's death through trouble and guilt, through sin and through the wrath of God bringing us down into the dust of death; there arises hope concerning our end that we shall come again to our border. (Jer. xxxi. 17.) We begin in due time to be planted in the likeness of Christ's resurrection. And as death had no more power over Christ after His resurrection; after the eternal Spirit had sealed him with the power of an endless life by the resurrection from the dead; after death, hell, and the grave, along with sin and Satan had as vanquished foes adorned the triumphant chariot of the Lord Jesus Christ by a final resurrection from the dead; after the seal of eternal victory had thus graced the warlike Immanuel; from henceforth expecting until his enemies be made his footstool; so also, I say, likewise does the seal of God on those who bear about in their bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus in order that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in their mortal flesh; so after sin and selfhelp have given up the ghost under the stroke of God's vengeance in Christ towards the elect soul; so, I say, melted in a fellowship of the sufferings of Christ and dead in communion with Him through the Spirit; I say, if we be dead with Him thus, I believe that we shall also live with Him. We believe Him to be a quickening Spirit. We believe that the Angel of the covenant will unseal our tomb of experimental death; and that, terrible as lightning to look at, the |