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THE LIGHT DID NOT SATISFY.

such thoughts as these have been continually present to their minds :-Here are two powers struggling within me, one good, one evil; sometimes one prevails, sometimes the other; sometimes the darkness seems about to be scattered, sometimes the light seems almost quenched: but I, who am I, in the midst of all this awful struggle? Do I belong to the light, or to the darkness? Of which have I a right to call myself the child now; of which shall I be the child for ever? The consciousness of evil, of rebellion against a power continually exerting itself for my good, testifies against me; my belief in the graciousness, in the mightiness of the Being who is on my side, speaks in my favour: but then, what awful outward facts seem to corroborate the former conclusion! All the outward sicknesses, sorrows, troubles of the world, seem to be lifting up their voice to condemn me,-to be proving that my unseen Friend is either not omnipotent, or that His forbearance with my often repeated disobedience will at last have a limit ;-and what is that limit? May not Death at last decide this struggle? may he not be God's permitted minister, to decide it against me? These thoughts do not imply the least unbelief of a future state; that was not the anxious question of the Heathen, as all their mythology proves: but it was, What shall I be, in that state? Some etherial particle in me may mount up and enter into rest, and even be united to the divine essence;-but will it be myself? I cannot believe that I shall die, in the sense in

THOSE WHO POSSESSED IT.

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which all the things about me die. Whenever I feel that I am at all, I feel that I am immortal; I may lose the thought while I am speculating; I can never lose it while I am acting and living. But this is the point,-shall good or evil, shall light or darkness be that to which I am united, when all the spiritual energies, by which I seem to have asserted my connection with something better than myself, shall be as much crushed by pain, and weakness, and death, the great consummation of them, as the energies by which I eat, and drink, and walk? These, I think we may perceive satisfactorily, were the real, the practical questions which agitated the minds of the better men (nay, in some sense of all men) in the old world. Scholars have not at all times perceived that this was the real jet of their inquiries, partly because they have not been sufficiently conscious of the same anxieties within themselves, to be capable of interpreting them in others; partly, because they have been misled by the language of Cicero, and those who lived at a time when philosophy was pursued rather to gratify a taste, than to satisfy a want; and, consequently, when questions respecting the permanence of the spiritual part in man, the existence in him of something immaterial and indiscerptible, took place, of the far more deep and interesting problem-Who am I? What will become of me? The Jews were taught, by their divine Trainer, to experience precisely the same difficulty, only with still greater power and reality, only with a

24

THE ONLY ANSWER.

brighter and better hope as to its solution. They felt in themselves this struggle; but then, taking hold of the covenant, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they were able to believe that the righteous Lord, who revealed himself to their hearts, was indeed their Lord, and would be so for ever and ever; and coming with the appointed sacrifice, at the appointed time, in the appointed place, to the appointed priest, they were able to believe that that covenant had not been destroyed through their iniquity; that they still had an inheritance in the King of their nation; that they should behold his face in righteousness; and thus, when his glory was manifested to the whole earth, they should partake in it. Yet it was a hope still;-still the doubt rested upon their minds, and at times would gain a dreadful ascendancy, Is this evil and accursed nature which belongs to me, my ownself? Are not its evils imputed to me? Are not they counted a part of me? Will not death destroy that nature; and when he destroys it, shall I be spared? These questions, we say, must have occupied men, not because they did not possess the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, but because they did possess it;-yea, according to the degree in which that light was revealed to them, or in which they followed it. And it is on this ground that I say that the doctrine of George Fox is not itself Christianity; while I argue just as zealously, that it is implied in Christianity; and, that they who would deny it, must be

IDEA OF JUSTIFICATION.

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driven to great shifts to explain what Christianity is. For I say, that when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; when, in that flesh He passed through the trials, and troubles, and conflicts of man; when in that flesh He died a real death; when He rose again triumphant over that death; that he answered these dreadful doubts and questions of the spirit of man at once, and for ever;- and that no other answer whatsoever could have satisfied them. Then was that question, Who am I?—am I to account myself the child of light, or the child of darkness?—am I to believe that God looks upon this evil nature as myself, or as my enemy ?-am I to believe that He regards me as His child, or merely as His servant-as one whom He wishes to save from death and sin, or one that He is only content to save if I please him?—at once resolved by the most wonderful demonstration that men or angels ever saw. By death He condemned sin in the flesh-by His resurrection He justified all that believe. Here is the grand distinction at once established which men had all their lives been crying after; here is that justification of the person of man-here is that condemnation of his nature which he requires; here is the assertion finally made, man united to Christ is a holy and righteous creature-man separated from Christ is married to his evil nature, is under a curse. Here is God, by raising up Christ from the dead, justifying men from all things from which they could not be

с

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HOW IT SATISFIES THE HEART.

justified by the law of Moses-assuring them that this is their true and proper state, that which every man, since Christ has died and risen, may claim for himself, and that, by claiming it, he looks upon his sins in their proper light-as plagues from which he hopes to be separated for ever; upon Christ's righteousness as that which he enjoys now and hopes to enjoy for ever. Now, I say that this view of justification is that which brings peace to the heart and spirit of manis that view of it which a sinful man, under the goadings and anguish of conscience, embraces with such delight and rapture ;-that this is the doctrine set forth in the Epistle to the Romans, and the progress to the discovery of which is brought out with such wonderful power and life in the seventh chapter of that Epistle. Nay, I will venture to stake the truth of this assertion upon the acts and records of convictions, and conversions, and experiences, whether found in the writings of Quakers, or Methodists, or Calvinists. I will be bold to say, and I am ready to make good my assertion by actual proof, that if you separate in those records that which the confession of the party shows to have actually brought peace to the conscience, from the notions and opinions which the teaching of particular doctors may have identified with it, you shall perceive that it was the belief, that one whom the heart had long been struggling to find,-with whom it had felt that it had the most intimate connection,-whom it felt had been reproving