thing were better for us than soon to be conveyed to the last dance, and covered with shovels.—Luther.

Bishop Burnet, the Arminian prelate, affected to wonder how a person of King William's piety and good sense could so rootedly believe the doctrine of predestination. The royal Calvinist replied, “Did I not believe predestination, I could not believe a Providence: for it would be most absurd to suppose that a Being of infinite wisdom would act without a plan; for which plan predestination is only another name.—Old Mag.

The growth of a believer is not like a mushroom, but like an oak, which increases slowly indeed, but surely. Many suns, showers, and frosts pass upon it before it comes to perfection; and in winter, when it seems dead, it is gathering strength at the root.-Newton.

When God preacheth his word, then presently followeth thereupon the cross; as St. Paul witnesseth, where he saith, "All that will live a godly life in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution." And our Saviour Christ saith, "The disciple is not greater than his Master: have they persecuted me? They will persecute you also." Therefore, most certain it is, that the cross followeth, and under the cross, God's word is rightly understood. Our Saviour Christ witnesseth the same, where he saith, "Such things have I told you before, that when ye see it ye may believe." The work, which thereupon followeth, doth rightly expound and declare the word. Grief and sorrow teacheth how to mark the word. What knoweth he that is without tribulation and temptation? No man understandeth the Scriptures, except he be acquainted with the cross.Luther.

And shall we not be willing to bear reproach for him who made himself of no reputation for us? Shall we not readily part with our reputation, and follow him without the camp, bearing his reproach? Fear it not; it should rather be esteemed a jewel that adorns us. The cross of Jesus is our best ornament: God forbid we should glory in anything except in that cross.--Burder.

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. 2.

SEPTEMBER, 1835.

AN HOLY CALLING.

2d.

"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 was."-2 Tim. i. 9.

Here we find salvation stated before calling by grace; and, indeed, if we take a proper view of the subject, it was so in the mind and purpose of God. God the Father saved, or secured, the elect in Christ before the foundation of the world. Hence, Jude says, "Sanctified by God the Father;" that is, set apart by God the Father, as the people of his holy choice, and so made the special care and charge of Christ: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Eph. i. 4-6.) And though the elect fell, with the rest of mankind, in Adam the first, they never fell as considered in Christ; but, as the Holy

B

Ghost says by Jude, they were "preserved in Christ Jesus ;" and in God's own time they are called.

It is the believer's blessedness, that each glorious person in the Godhead has a glorious hand in his salvation. God the Father saved, chose, sanctified, or set him apart, in Christ, before the world was; God the Son took humanity into union to his personal Godhead, and thus became incarnate, lived a holy life, suffered, bled, died a solemn death, rose again from the dead, ascended up on high, having led captivity captive, and is now exalted at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for him. Thus Christ has meritoriously saved the elect by his life, obedience, death, resurrection, exaltation, and intercession: as it is written, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Rom. viii. 32-34.) Thus the blessed Redeemer 66 was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification" (Rom. iv. 25); and, bless his precious name, he has been the destruction of death, hell, and sin. (1 Cor. xv. 55-57.) The gloriously-blessed God-Man Mediator" gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus ii. 14.) So that, before the world was, the church was saved purposedly by God the Father; in time, meritoriously by the God-Man Mediator, who now lives above to make intercession for them; and, in the day of God's power, they are saved manifestatively and vitally, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Titus iii. 5.)

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Now, not a particle of this is either for, or according to, their works; for it is "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us;” or, as our text has it, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works."

What an indescribable mercy it is that salvation is of the Lord; yea, that God himself, as the God of Zion, is our salvation. Blessed, triumphant faith, under the sweet power and unction of God the Holy Ghost, can at times sweetly sing, Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, he also is become my salvation." (Isa. xii. 2.) This salvation contains

a complete deliverance from every foe, and soul-damning danger, and it is a complete salvation to every real good. We have all spiritual blessings in Christ, all bliss and blessedness secured in him; for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. He is full of grace and truth; and of his fulness we receive, and grace for grace. All things are the real believer's, for he is Christ's, and Christ is God's; and, as I said before, this glorious salvation is all of grace, not of works, lest any man should boast. (Eph. ii. 8, 9.)

Now, my text says, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling." This call is the solemn, soul-quickening, heart-rending call of an holy God; not a mere call to hear the word preached, nor to attend upon public means; many are called to these things whom God never chose in Christ: but this is an holy calling from death to life, from darkness to light, from the power of sin and Satan to the living God. This call makes the sinner feel his own guilty and ruined condition as a sinner against an holy God. He is called to see sin in the light of God's countenance, and to feel its awful plague, and tremble before God on the account of it; and he is called to feel that his case is too desperate for him to help his own soul. The more he tries and toils, the deeper he sinks in a feeling sense of his own ruin and misery. Help himself! He finds he can as soon create a world as do it. Therefore, with heart-rending groans, he is called to cry," God be merciful to me a sinner!" But he is effectually called to feel and see the emptiness of creature goodness, and to thirst for the living God; nor will anything short of Christ, and a full and free salvation by and in him, satisfy his quickened soul. Hope deferred, often makes his heart sick; but still the divine power by which he is called keeps him to the point, and the issue shall prove that he is called to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, with his love, blood, sufferings, and obedience; to hold sweet converse with him, as his own Lord and Redeemer; and sweetly say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am his." (Cant. ii. 16.) For "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (1 Cor. i. 9.) All the blessings couched in this glorious, endearing character, God has called the real believer to the fellowship of; and, in the Lord's own time, he shall share in the sweet enjoyment of them.

O, the wonders of God's love to his people! Come, poor, sin-oppressed, guilt-smitten, law-wrecked, world-despised, Satan-hunted, self-condemned, heart-tortured, self-loathing sinner, hope thou in the Lord; for, with all thy fears and faint

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ings, misgivings, staggerings, stumblings, sighings, and groanings, by and by thy dear Lord will manifestatively put his arms of everlasting love under thee, and say, Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions dens, from the mountains of the leopards. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!" (Cant. iv. 8-10.) Thus the real Christian is called to be made partaker of Christ's holiness, and to hope in him as the God of hope; yea, to believe in him as the glorious Resurrection and the Life; and in the end feelingly to say, O Lord, thou art my God, and I will praise thee." He is called to receive a full and free pardon through the blood of the Lamb, and to feel the soulcleansing efficacy of that blessed fountain. In a word, he is called to hope in Christ, believe in Christ, trust in Christ, glory in Christ, teem out all his complaints unto Christ, confess with abhorrence his vileness to Christ, and supplicate his throne for daily grace and mercy; to live for Christ, and to live to Christ, and to be daily concerned to honour and glorify him in this world. Christ dwells in him, and he dwells in Christ, and they are manifestatively one. Holiness is his delight, and sin is his burden. His sweetest and most heavenly moments are when he can hold intercourse with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, when the world drops its charms, and God is all and in all. He is, in the Lord's own time, called to feel that Christ has made him free, and he is free indeed; and with holy solemnity he exclaims, "What then! shall I sin that grace may abound? God forbid! Shall I sin because I am not under the law, but under grace? God forbid!" (Rom. vi. 1, 2, 15.) Thus, he is called with an holy calling, by an holy God, to holy things; and at last he shall be called to heaven, when it shall be fully made manifest that he is called to an holy end.

A few more struggles, poor, burdened believer, and thou shalt see all is well. Expect no good from corrupt nature. God has called thee to feel that in thy flesh dwells no good thing. Why look for the living in such a dead, corrupt mass? God help thee to flee to, rest upon, and live in, Christ. Thou art called to be partaker of his holiness, not thy fleshly works, but to flee from them, and daily to twine round and hang upon Christ. There may thy soul be staid, for in him thou art complete, and no where else.