So that we find both precept and example; and as the precept says, “rejoice always," so the example says, “wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." My dear friends, these two points which I have laid before you are not at all in opposition, the one to the other. The world cannot understand how it is possible for a man to have a deep loathing sense of his own sins, and yet rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ; but there is not a child of adoption but what, as he walks under the influence of the spirit of adoption, will say, never has he more tender selfabhorring views than when his soul is rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and that the clearer his atmosphere is, the more is he brought to see specks, and defilements, and offences, though it be where no one knows it but the living God.

rejoicing is this, that, as having fled to Christ for refuge, that, as having betaken myself under the drawings of the spirit of God's electing love in me, as a poor lost and ruined sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ, I am exhorted to rejoice in that finished work, which can present me without a spot, without a wrinkle, or any such thing, accepted in the beloved. This is the ground-work of the joy and the very foundation of the rejoicing.

Oh! I would ask the most aged saint that hears me, to what he is perpetually brought back? Is it not to this? Some minds take a wide and more discursive range, they love the varieties of truth. And there is not a saint of GOD that hears me, but what is made to desire a real conformity to the divine image, they long to be like God, they mourn that they are so little like him, they feel the discrepancy, and they mourn over it in dust and ashes. But to what point, after all, are they brought, whither are they led, on what do they die? The finished work of Christ. I have not heard the particulars of the death of my dear brother, now in heaven, but I think I know as well as if I had been present-as if I had seen the last movement of his lip, and heard the last accent of his voice -as if I had been present by his bed-side-as if I had seen him at the last moment, I doubt not but this would have formed the rejoicing of his soul—the finished work of Jesus ; that, notwithstanding all that he had done, and all that he had left undone, yet such was the perfection of that work of GOD-man, God in our nature-he could stand before God clothed from head to foot in the righteousness of GoD. And, oh! what a truth is it, what a sweet comforting, soul-exulting, soul-delighting thought, is that contained in this The ground-work, therefore, of all truth. My dear brethren, think only

"But if it be asked, what are THE GROUNDS OF the believers' rejoicING? the first of all grounds is this in the finished work of Jesus, in the great work of atonement, in the complete blotting out of sin, in the bringing in of an everlasting righteousness, in the intercession of the Son of GOD. This is the groundwork of all rejoicing, and I believe that, for want of seeing this, the spirit of God does oftentimes lead us to see the blemishes, and the defilements, and the short-coming, and the failure in our best duties; that we may retrace our steps and rejoice in the Lord, our righteousness. He will not have us to rejoice in our attainments, but in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As Owen beautifully says, "it is dangerous oftentimes for a man to see the vigour of his own grace, but never is it dangerous for him to see the perfection of the work of grace."

VOL. VI.

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of this one thing, think only of what the Lord has seen in our prayers this day; think only of our failures in our nearest approaches to GOD, what a substance, what a groundwork, what a rock it is for our faith to stand upon, that GOD looks on us in his Son, passes by, for his Son's sake, all the transgressions, all the iniquities, and all the sin, and, in the way of computing them to us, remembers them no more than if there had been none to remember. The finished work of Jesus is the ground-present roughness, and little do we work of all joy.

been on a peradventure as to their adoption, could they have been in a mourning, despairing state? If there had been but one little suspicion, that they had not tasted that the Lord was gracious, if their spirits had not been bedewed by the anointings of the spirit of adoption, they never could have sung praises in the stocks, and with such a heart as made all the prisoners to hear them.

If I turn to the first chapter of the first Epistle of Peter and the eighth verse: "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:" observe, in the sixth verse:

has the Lord for its giver, is, THE REAL STRENGTH OF THE TRUE ISRAEL OF GOD. It is not merely their comfort, it is not merely their happiness, but it is their strength. We thank Gop for his precepts, we do not want them less minute, we want them to be just as they are, and the saint of GOD would wish to have them transcribed fairly into his heart, and exhibited in his life. We thank GOD for holy example; we find it, through grace, produce a springing motive at times, but there is no strength of motive like that which springs from the joy of the Lord. When a man feels the love of GOD in his heart, when he feels a sense of acceptance in his spirit, when he has a sweet sense of adop-"wherein ye greatly rejoice, though tion written out in his soul, when he is able to look up to GOD as his own kind loving and tender father, that man is strong, and in proportion as he enjoys it really enjoys it, he finds the joy of the Lord is his strength. Let us endeavour to exhibit the truth of this principle by some reference to peculiar effects arising from this cause. Do I speak of patience in tribulation, do I think of my dear brother, my dear sister, my dear brethren, that have known what the paths of affliction mean, what it is to taste the bitter: I would ask, is there any principle that will bear up the soul in trouble, make a man contented to bear, make him ever willing to suffer, like the principle that I am now speaking of? Need I refer you to the sixteenth of the Acts of the Apostles, where we read of Paul and Silas; what made them bear the scourge so patiently? Patiently do I say, this is too poor a word; why were the stocks their rejoicing, why did they couut it an honour to be there, why did they thank God that they were accounted worthy-what was it, could they have

now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations," they were not only trials, but in manifold trials, and yet they rejoiced in the midst of them" rejoicing with joy unspeakable, and full of glory." Is not the joy of the Lord the strength of his Israel? I might appeal to some of you that do occasionally know what the joy of the Lord is, that occasionally taste what this precious mercy is, and I ask whether you do not find that joy strengthen you in the hour of trial, whether, when the cross comes which would seem to bear you down, you are not enabled to take it patiently and meekly, when you are able to see that every part of this cross, painful as it is to the shoulder, is lined with love, and comes from a Father's hand, from a Father's heart: not a drop of wrath in it, no curse in it, no vengeance in it, not one unkind thought in it, all love, all purposes of mercy, to wean me from the creature, to detach me from sin, to take me from the world, to draw me to GOD, and make me meet for heaven. Is not this joy the strength of the Lord's

people? What principle can there hearts, it makes them strong in his blessed ways.

child accepted.

vast importance, I am persuaded it lies at the root of much that is blessed in your walk, and close enjoyment, and abundant fruitfulness, in the service of your GOD.

This bringeth, as it were, a sweet savour of the gospel with him, there is that in it which commends the gospel to others. There must be something, they say, which makes him happy, and gives Many there are that hear me to a substance to his soul which raises whom I might say, where is your haphim above himself. This is no cun- piness? some of you seek it in your ningly devised fable, but its mer-families. Look at poor David, “ Abchandise is better than the merchan-| salom, oh! Absalon, my son, my dise of silver, and the gain thereof son: would that I had died for thee, than fine gold.

I might go on exhibiting many other effects of this sanctifying principle, but I know scarcely of any that seems more to touch the heart, than the exhibition of its effects in the second epistle to the Corinthians, and eighth chapter. The church of Macedonia was a very poor church, but that was a very great blessing to them. Yet though they were not only poor but deeply poor, see what the joy of the Lord did for them: “ Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of GoD bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of | affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality:" and what was the source from which this arose? the abundance of their joy in Christ. My dear hearers, sanctified riches are blessed riches, I do not profess the principle that degrades man from his rank in society, I believe it is a principle in opposition to the blessed gospel, but I only state the fact: here was a church which was remarkable for its deep poverty, yet through the abundance of its joy, abounded in great liberality. Oh! ye little flock and blessed, would that the Lord, if it were his blessed will, would enable me to enter more into this subject to day, for your good and spiritual edification. I know it is of

O Absalom, my son, my son!" But some of you seek it in riches, "he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver." Point out a man that will say, I have found this to be my joy, my comfort, in all the trying moments of life, in sickness, in loss of friends, in the near prospect of eternity.

Some of you seek it in intellect, it is a more dangerous riches, perhaps, than any; yet the wise man tells us, "He that increaseth in knowledge, increaseth in sorrow." Some of you seek it in sin-in gross sin, "yet who hath woe?" Prov. xxiii. 29. Many a witness there is of this truth amongst us, perhaps at this moment, that the wages of sin is present death and misery, "destruction and misery are in their ways."

Some of you seek it in your own self-righteousness, though the praphet speaks of it as "poor filthy rags that can never stand the test of God's holy law for a moment," Isaiah, Ixiv. 6. and the apostle describes it as dross, Phil. iii. 8. Oh! if such are come to the end of their miserable search, and are made to cry out as some have cried out before, "who will shew us any good," Psalm iv. 6. go and ask a dying saint what is it that bears up his soul-what is it that makes him rejoice, enables him to say, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory:" this then is his