quaintance with the spiritual life so well fitted him for expounding its nature and operations. He is skilful in detecting and exposing the lurking places of Indwelling Sin, and in discovering those avenues by which it makes its inroads on the heart, and at which the believer should post himself in most vigilant guardianship. And he unceasingly reminds him, that amidst the urgencies of business, and the companies of this world, which form the insnaring and besetting enemies of the Christian from without, and aided as they are by the treacherous enemies within, the darkness and vanity of the mind, the proneness of the heart to take up with the perishable interests of time, and the natural deadness of the affections to spiritual things, which betray him into the power of these insidious enemies, it is his only wisdom and safety to keep his spirit unremittingly in a jealous and wakeful posture of defence.

Against enemies which work by treachery and deceit, incessant watchfulness is our only security; and we know not a more valuable portion of this excellent Treatise than that in which its spiritually minded Author guards the believer against carelessness and sloth, which relax his watchfulness, and insensibly betray him into an indifference to spiritual things, and a remissness in those exercises, which are necessary to sustain the renewed spirit against the earthly and downward tendencies of his nature. carelessness in the cultivation of prayer and private meditation, and all those expedients which divine wisdom has provided for the nourishment of the spiritual life, he is in hazard of declension in religion, of losing a relish for divine things, of neglecting to cultivate

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close communion with God, and of provoking his heavenly Father to withdraw the light of his reconciled countenance. And, amidst this desertion of light and of comfort, he is in danger of God, in whom he delighted, becoming a wilderness to him. This desertion, by desolating his own heart, and divesting spiritual exercises of the comfort and delight he wont to experience in them, will inevitably render God a weariness to him, and he will become indisposed to all those Christian exercises which are necessary to nourish and sustain the life of godliness in his soul. The Christian cannot be stationary. He must either be in an advancing career of holiness, or in a retrograde process of backsliding. To such as have either slackened their progress, or are falling from their steadfastness, this Treatise may prove a faithful monitor, to apprize them of their danger. It forcibly reminds them that they are in the enemies' country—that the Christian life is a state of incessant warfare-that, ever girt for the conflict, they must manfully and unremittingly fight their way to the heavenly rest. With the most assiduous diligence strengthening the things that remain, and are ready to die, and never resting satisfied with present attainments, they must press onwards to the triumphs of their final victory, ever keeping in remembrance, that he only that endureth to the end shall be saved. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

But while this Treatise is well fitted to administer both comfort and admonition to the believer, it is no less fitted to awaken the ungodly, in whom sin holds its prevailing and undisturbed ascendancy, to a sense

of their fearful condition. As "when the strong man armed keeps his palace all is in peace," so, while sin holds its undisturbed possession, they are in peace, though they are enemies to God in their hearts, and live in an utter forgetfulness of him. And it is a certain indication of spiritual death, when there are no strugglings of the renewed heart with sin, which reigns in their mortal bodies; a sure symptom that there is no principle of grace in the soul, when they feel not the warring of the Spirit against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit. Such a deadly repose of the inner man ought to force across their minds the troubling conviction that they have not yet passed from death unto life. This is a transition which must be made ere they can see the kingdom of God. And those who have made this transition, and have the principles of a new life implanted in their souls, will feel the force and significancy of the Apostle's declaration, when he speaks of "crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts;" and of the severe conflict which they have to maintain with "principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness ;" and the hazard to which they are exposed from the "adversary, who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;" and above all the danger to be apprehended from the most treacherous and deceitful of all their enemies, an evil heart of unbelief, which is constantly leading them to depart from the living God. But those who experience no pain from the crucifixion of the flesh, nor any harassing warfare with their spiritual enemies, nor any sensitive alarm from the wiles of the adversary, nor any fear of being betrayed by their own de

ceitful hearts-if they feel none of these plagues and annoyances which the believer who has acquired a new nature experiences in the divine life, then have they the most satisfying of all demonstrations, that no principle of grace has been infused into their souls-that the god of this world holds his exclusive and undisturbed empire over their hearts—and that they still remain among those who shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But on these fertile topics we must restrain ourselves, and leaving our readers to gather from this instructive Treatise the many salutary lessons and admonitions which it is fitted to communicate, we shall conclude our remarks with the practical exhortation of the Apostle. Let sin reside as it may, it must not be permitted to reign. He may be put up with as a most offensive and unpleasant inmate in the house-but let him be curbed and guarded, and not one item of authority be conceded to him. It is enough that one has to bear his hateful presence, but his tyranny is not to be tolerated. Against this there is ever to be upheld a manful, and strenuous, and persevering resistance. He may distress, but he is not to influence us. There will be

a constant prompting on his part to that which is evil-but the evil thing is not to be done, and the desire which incites to that thing is not to be obeyed. This is the strong and visible line of demarcation between the wilful sinner and the aspiring saint. Both of them have vile bodies charged with the elements of corruption, and impregnated with a moral virus, the working of which is towards sin and ungodliness. Both have one and the same constitutional

tendency. But the one follows that tendency, the other resists it; and as the fruit of that resistance, though not freed from its detested presence, he is at least emancipated from its domineering power. It lives in the house, but it is not master of the house; and is there so starved, and buffeted, and subjected to such perpetual thwarting, and mortification of every sort, that it gradually languishes, and becomes weaker, and, at length, with the life of the natural body, it utterly expires. The soul which acquiesced in its dominion has been sowing all along to the flesh, and of the flesh it shall reap corruption. The soul that struggled against its dominion, and refused compliance therewith, has, through the Spirit, mortified the deeds of the body, and shall live,—has all along been sowing to the Spirit, and of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

shall

St. Andrews, July, 1825.

T. C.