some way have done it, is a proof at once that he could not, would not, and has not, committed it. That sin can only be committed wilfully, knowingly, and maliciously, as the Jews did when they attributed Christ's miracles to witchcraft, which were evidently wrought by the Spirit of God in and by Christ. Matt. xii. 24: “But when the Pharisees heard it (the blind and dumb man healed) they said, 'This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." Luke xi. 19: "And if I, by Beelzebub, cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges." And also, John ix. 41. The sin against the Holy Spirit was such a deadly sin that no atonement could be made for it, even under the old law, but such sinners were stoned to death; and to blaspheme the proofs by the spirit of Christ's Messiahship, was the unpardonable sin, to be visited with a sorer punishment, even with fire. This is the doom of all such as wilfully sin against the Holy Spirit; therefore our friend has nothing to fear from his sinful feelings, on the supposition that he might have committed that sin; for if he had, like Paul, sinned ignorantly in unbelief, it would not have made him chargeable therewith; but it is clear, from his own statement, that he fears to do that that he cannot commit through fear, and which can only be done without fear. And now may the God of hope fill brother John with all joy and peace in believing, that he may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As I promised to be short, I conclude, in the hope that the Lord would in mercy bless a word in season to brother John, who appears anxious to know the truth, that he might be free. May he, then, look to Jesus, who hath said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Yours truly,

Chiswell-street, London, Sept. 10, 1835.

JOHN STYLE.

MAN'S SIN HIS OWN GUILTY ACT AND DEED, AND HIS HEART BEING INCLINED THEREUNTO, SCRIPTURALLY CONSIDERED.

(Continued from page 38.)

Rebekah's stratagem of lies and deceit succeeded, and obtained the blessing for Jacob. There can be no doubt but the immediate presence of God the Spirit was unctuously felt by Isaac as he pronounced the blessing upon the head of Jacob; for if you read the words of Isaac in the blessing, he seems u

pour forth his whole soul of blessing upon him, in the name and from the Spirit of the Lord his God: so much so, that when Esau importuned with tears for a blessing also, Isaac for a while seems at a loss how to grant his request; and it is worthy of further remark, that when Isaac found out the imposition practised upon him by Jacob, in all its aggravated bearings, instead of revoking the blessing, and substituting a curse upon Jacob, more heavy, if possible, than the blessing was great, from the notorious aggravation of circumstances under which the blessing was obtained; I say, instead of revoking the blessing and substituting a heavier curse, Isaac a second time confirms what he had done, by saying to Esau, "Yea, and he shall be blessed;" And upon the departure of Jacob from his father's house, Isaac again calls Jacob, and blesses him a third time. I must make one more remark here, and that is, as Jacob was on his road to Laban's house, a stranger in a strange land, and sleeping under the canopy of the heavens, the Lord himself appears to him, and blesses him himself, nor once upbraids him for what he has done; and emphatically tells him at the conclusion of the blessing, "I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." (Gen. xxviii. 15.) Nevertheless, it is evident from the subsequent life of Jacob, that the sin and guilt of what he had done was his own; for he himself, more than once, in the same measure he measured to his brother, had it measured to him again: First, in being deceived with Leah in marriage for Rachel, whom he so tenderly loved; and having to trail through another seven long and tedious years, before he could obtain the longed-for object of his affections; and when he obtained her, she was the most grief to him. Second, Laban himself, whom he served, changed his wages not less than ten times; not to notice the many painful events besides, which he had to pass through; that in conclusion he was constrained to say, when taking a momentary review of the chequered pilgrimage of his life," Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." (Gen. lvii. 9.)

Upon a review of the whole, then, let me ask, was it not the Lord's good pleasure, his will and determination, that Jacob should enjoy the blessing to its fullest extent, although he took such undue methods to procure it? Surely it was. What shall we say then to these things? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. So argues the great apostle of the Gentiles; and with such a conclusion he was content: and to such a frame of soul, in due time, the Lord will bring and rest all his beloved people.

One thing in particular, I wish the believer not to lose sight of before I proceed, and that is, as to what ought to be our feelings, when truths, as inexplicable as they are glaringly bright, stare us in the face. Let Isaac be our example: he not only trembled, but trembled exceedingly, at the mysterious chain of circumstances before him, from the inscrutable methods the Lord was pleased to make use of, in the sovereignty of his ways, to bring about his strange acts and works of mercy and of judgment. May the Lord bless us with a spirit like Isaac, to tremble at his word, and not fight against it, because we cannot satisfy our over curious minds upon this question, How can these things be, consistent with our own views of right and wrong? "Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth, but woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!" (Isa. xlv. 9.) For of a piece with the history of Jacob and Esau, and similarly inexplicable to us, is the solemn subject with which I have headed the commencement of this essay; and which I now purpose to explain my own views upon, and my belief of.

In the doing of which, I commence with this solemn declaration, that

First, I DO NOT BELIEVE for a moment, that the Lord infuses the shadow of a principle to sin (if I may use such an expression) in any sinner, in any shape or form whatever; for the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. (Psa. cxlv. 17.) Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. (James i. 13, 14.) Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. (Hab. i. 13.) He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. (Deu. xxxii. 4.) The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity. (Zeph. iii. 5.) See also Ps. v. 4; Jer. ii. 5; Ps. xxii. 3; Rev. iv. 8; and Isa. vi. 3, as a few of the numerous texts of Scripture that might be produced of like import.

From such pointed Scripture testimony as this, of the unspotted holiness and purity of the nature of God, let me turn to the experience of thy heart, Christian believer, as the only source of heart-consolatory confirmation of so Scripture a doctrine. If you really have been brought to the enjoyment of your union to Christ, as a spiritual member of his mystic body, you know, by heartfelt experience, that God is holy: you know, with me, that this Scripture testimony to a carnal man

cannot be received otherwise than any other common historical record, that is, by word only, from the authentic evidence of others: you know that until born again from above, until the Lord made bare the arm of his power through the quickening influences of the Lord the Spirit, you knew nothing of your state as a sinner: you know with me, the opposition of your whole nature to the discovery the Lord made to you of your own heart, all the way he led you, when the Spirit of the Lord as a candle searched the inmost recesses of the soul, and proved your own heart, by feeling experience, to be nothing better than the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird (Rev. xviii. 2): you know also, that when so brought to feel the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and to dread the just wrath of God in your own person, as revealed from heaven, against all unrighteousness and sinfulness of men, on account of it, that you could not believe in Christ in your own strength, if that belief must have constituted the meritorious cause of your salvation: when thus truly humbled before the Lord, and he created you anew in Christ Jesus, by revealing to your heart the atonement of Christ for pardon and peace, and the holiness of Christ for your holiness and justification, like leaven which leaveneth the whole lump, you know, with me, that though you heard and read of the holiness of God, you never, till brought to this point in Christian experience, understood what the holiness. of the nature of God meant; nor the peace, nor joy, happiness, and blessedness included therein. To you, then, and such as you, I alone appeal for confirmation of the Scripture doctrine I have advanced, that God is holy, essentially holy; and that none but the experimental believer in Christ knows anything about it. You know where the natural man is upon the glorious subject, both professor and profane; for you have been in their condition, but they now know nothing of yours: between them and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that, in reality, as it was with the Egyptians and the Israelites at the Red Sea, the one cannot come near the other. To be brought to such experience as this, requires, as the apostle writes, the exceeding greatness of the Lord's power to us-ward who believe. (Eph. i. 9) Therefore, whatever the nominal professor may say, he in reality has no spiritual conception of the holy nature of God.

Second, I DO BELIEVE that every man, as he enters into life, has been shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin (Ps. li. 5): and that in his very nature there is not a particular sin only, above others, that he has a nature to commit; but in deed and

in truth, the very essence of all the sins, in every variety, that the most abandoned miscreant in society in thought, word, and deed, ever committed, or ever will commit, on the face of the earth.

What saith the Scripture? We are clay of the same lump (Rom. ix. 21): And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen. vi. 5.) The margin reads not only the whole imagination, but also the purposes and desires. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. (Jer. xiii. 23.) The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. (Gen. viii. 21.) How can ye being evil speak good things? (Matt. xii. 34.) Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. (Matt. xxiii. 27.) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer. xvii. 9.) If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, &c. (Matt. vii. 11.) I ask, then, can man be worse than evil? Impossible. The Old Serpent, which is the devil and satan, cannot be worse. Again; the apostle has this energetic language to the church at Rome, chap. iii. 7-9 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil that good may come: whose damnation is just. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise. Thus the apostle, to the church at Rome, puts himself in the same scale of merit with those, who so libelled the discriminating truths of the gospel, as to say of him and the church to whom he wrote, that he and they maintained and affirmed in their belief the spirit couched in this expression, Let us do evil that good may come: whose damnation, says the apostle, is just. To the church at Corinth in his first Epistle, chap. vi. 9-11, he has this humiliating language: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: &c. See also at your leisure Ezekiel viii. and xvi. throughout. How totally and universally depraved, then, is man! in all the faculties and powers he possesses both of body and soul!! It is fitly por