In seeking, however, to guard you against the despondency which you might suffer from the calumnies of the world, and the accusations of Satan, when he endeavors to put a false construction upon your conduct, we would not encourage you to neglect a strict and salutary examination intothe motives of your conduct to which perhaps it may be the design of the Holy Spirit to lead you by these false imputations of the enemy. It is always useful for us to search our hearts, lest any im- . proper

motives should have obtained admission into them, or lest there should be any admixture of false zeal, pride, or remissness in the actions which we are reproached with. But if, after all, we find that our proceedings are in accordance with the Word of God, and if, notwithstanding some alloy of imperfection, we are conscious that our intentions are in the main

pure, we may take courage in the assurance, that the Lord in his mercy will pardon the evil and accept the good. The Master whom we serve is not a hard master, who takes pleasure in noticing the evil that is in us, and in depreciating the good which we do. But, on the contrary, when he is obliged to censure something in our conduct, he hastens to add for our encouragement, “ , “ Nevertheless, this thou hast." Rev. ii. 6. Take

. heed therefore, that you be not cast down by the calumnies of the enemy, and, above all, withdraw not your hand from the work of the Lord on account of some false step which you may have made, or some element of impurity which you may have detected in your motives. We may always pray to the Lord to rectify. what is wrong in us, and to purify our hearts, but we must never imagine that we are at liberty to give up working for him.

When there is a degree of uprightness, the heart become more pure as it proceeds in the

path of duty, like water which is filtered and purified in passing through the sand or earth which it moistens and fertilizes. Were the Lord only to be served by perfect beings, who then could be his servant in this world ? Did he not accept as sincere those who must acknowledge a want of sincerity in many things, who could stand before him ?

The fourth argument of Rab-shakeh affords a striking instance of impiety and presumption. “Am I now,"

. he says, “come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.” It is thus that Satan, to dismay the people of God, presumes to threaten them in the name of the Most High, and to persuade them that it is the Lord who speaks to them when he tells them that they are lost, and that there is no more hope of their repenting He brings forward against them those passages of Scripture which relate to the sin against the Holy Ghost and to final apostacy, and says with triumph, “ You see how God speaks to you in his word ; you have wearied his patience; he has cast you off, and will have nothing more to do with you ; it is useless for you to think of moving him.” “ The Lord

" said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it."

Should you be exposed to such attacks of the enemy as this, be careful to examine the passages which he brings forward, and you will invariably find that they are misquoted, and wrested from their original meaning, and applied to cases to which they have no refe

If, for instance, after some aberration from the path of duty, Satan would apply to you that passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where it is said, “If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin" -consult the context, and you will find, that it speaks

a

of a man who has “trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and done despite to the Spirit of Grace," and consequently, that it cannot refer to one who has made a momentary fall from which he rises again, but to one who, after making a profession of the truth, wilfully plunges into sin, and becomes a blasphemer of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his grace. Indeed, we may observe in general, on this and similar portions of the Word, that it is never so much as intimated, that they who finally fall away, and perish in their apostacy, do at any time seek after, or even desire repentance in vain; but, on the contrary, we are told that “it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance," the meaning of which seems to be, that their hearts become so hardened, that they never feel a desire to repent. If, therefore, after a fall, you feel an inward contrition, or even a sincere desire to repent, you may be assured, that you are not of them that draw back unto perdition, for that very repentance, or relenting of heart, is itself the beginning, as well as the earnest, of your restoration.

It is from not well understanding this, that many of God's children have been greatly perplexed by that other passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the apostle, speaking of Esau, says, “ Ye know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Heb. xii. 17. But here it is evident, that when it is said, “ he found no place for repentance," the meaning is, that he was unable to prevail upon his father to change his resolution, and to make him repent of having transferred to Jacob the blessing which belonged to Esau, as the first-born. The apostle is not speaking

of a repentance for sin which Esau sought, and could not obtain, nor of a repentance which he had and which was rejected, but of a repentance or change of mind which he endeavoured even with tears to produce in his father Isaac.

If we examine the twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis, where this history is related, we shall discover in the profane Esau no symptoms of a real repentance for the sin which he had committed, nor any reason to believe that he sought that repentance.

As for the tears which he shed, they were evidently the effect, not of a godly sorrow producing repentance unto salvation, but of a sorrow altogether worldly, arising from regret for the loss of the temporal blessings connected with the rights of primogeniture.

The preceding reflections lead us to make a general remark which will enable you in every case, where the language of threatening is addressed to you, to distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of the enemy. When Satan threatens, it is to discourage the sinner, and so drive him from repentance, and from the cross of Christ. When the Holy Spirit threatens, it is to lead him to repentance, and draw him to the Saviour. Satan never approaches the soul but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; the Holy Spirit never comes to it but to heal, to comfort, and to revive. When Satan cannot prevail to lull us into security in our sins, he endeavours to drive us to despair; when the Holy Spirit has not awakened us, and turned us from our iniquities, he seeks to bring us back by promises and encouragements. The language of Satan is, “there is no hope for you in God;" the language of the Holy Spirit is, “Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." Jer. iii. 22. Far from crushing the poor believer when he has fallen, our God stoops down to him in his prostrate condition, and meets him in the depths of the abyss into which he is plunged. Our God and Father, who is the God of all consolation, and who hath given us a good hope through grace, runs to meet his prodigal son, when he sees him bending his penitent footsteps towards his paternal home-yea, he even invites his wandering children to return, addressing them in this encouraging language:-“Shall they fall and not arise ? shall he turn away, and not return? Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers ; yet return again to me, saith the Lord : for I am merciful saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever.”

Jer. viii. 4; iii. 1, 12. 6 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isa. lv. 7. “ If any man sin

. we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John ii. 1.

Such is the language of the Lord in his word, and such is the language which he uses in our hearts, for he is always consistent with himself. If he has hard words against every sin, he has words of mercy and consolation for every returning sinner. He threatens the sinner only to make him renounce his sins. If he declares that he regards as an enemy the double-minded man, who makes the world his friend, it is only that he may engage him to hear these encouraging words, “ Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” James iv. 8–10. If he tells the angel of the Laodicean church, that because he is “lukewarm he will spue him