comes not the purity of that state. But though their inherent grace, the contemplation of God, and delight in him, may be some means of their standing, and inethods God useth, yet those are not sufficient of themselves. It is God in his incomprehensible grace which preserves them. It is an excellent speech of a holy man of our neighbour nation; I am sure if my feet were in heaven, and Christ should say, Defend thyself, I will hold thee no longer; I should go no farther, but presently fall down in many pieces of dead nature. If you can find one saint that in that place of glory ascribes the beginning or perfection of his salvation to himself, then glory in yourselves too. But not till then, and I am sure you never will.

[4.] If all this be true, much less can the best grace in this world preserve itself, because at best in itself it is weaker than its adversaries. No sooner is grace put into the heart, but all the powers of hell are in arms against it, and would murder the new-born heavenly nature. Now it being a creature weak and imperfect, it cannot be so powerful in operation as to resist the force of a stronger being, and a subtle and insinuating adversary. Were there no devils to assault, I do not understand how this principle, so weak in itself, were able to make head against the deceitfulness of our own hearts. It is the Spirit steps in to quell those destroyers, and brood upon his own work in the soul. What? Was it Peter's strength, or God's grace in him that made the difference between him and Judas? Between Paul and the rest of the persecuting Pharisees? It is from God's faithfulness that we are established and kept from evil; "But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep yon from evil."(2Thess.

iii. 3.) If God, not ourselves: it is true, we will, but God works that will in us. We work, but the grace of God works that work in us, and for us. If by grace we are what we are, it is by grace we do what we do, and that of God's good pleasure, not our merit. Our sufficiency is of God, not of ourselves. Our fruitfulness depends upon our abiding in Christ.

What can dust and ashes do against principalities and powers? ? What man is able, without the grace of God, to wrestle with an experienced devil? A smoking flax would quickly be blown out or expire after a little blaze, if God did not cherish it: a bruised reed would be trod in the dirt, if he did not secure it. A gracious man depends upon God, as the steel does upon the loadstone in the air, which if once separated, will be carried down with its own weight, and be reduced to a motion proper to its nature. If God should withdraw his grace from us, the grace in us would not preserve us from falling as low as hell; for of itself it is far more insufficient to preserve us, than the strength which Angels and Adam had was to preserve them. We are preserved not by any inherent power in ourselves, but by the constant touches of God upon our wills, whereby he keeps our wills fixed to him.

Let not then our free will usurp the praise which is due only to God's grace.

There is great danger in this. To ascribe thy standing or victory to thyself, is an usher to some scurvy and deplorable fall. When we confide too much in ourselves, God leaves us to our own foolish confidence, to reduce us to our proper dependance on him. Peter's boasting of the power of his own grace, was a

just cause of his being left to himself, that he might be sensible of his own weakness, and the true ground of his security. If we do fall, it is not for want of faithfulness in God, but for want of thankfulness in us.

It is our sin. So much as we ascribe any thing to our own strength, so much we rob grace of its glory. We provoke the Lord to jealousy to usurp the praise due to God, who will not have the glory due to his name ascribed to the creature.

This is also contrary to our advantage. The acknowledgement of our dependency on God is the way to be preserved; the more we give God the glory of his grace, the more will he give us the comfort of it.

(To be Continued.)

THE PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL.

THE religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of peace, but it is also a religion of conquest. "I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer." (Rev. vi. 2.) Such is the sublime opening of the visions of the Church of God, which St. John beheld in the isle of Patmos. The whole book of Revelation must be considered as a splendid figurative description of the trials and victories of Christ's Church from the first period of its history to the end of time. Let us transport ourselves then for awhile with the Divine Prophet, and endeavour to trace with a rapid outline the manner in which the Progress of the Gospel has been carried on, so as

to realize the truth of the prophecy which represents it to our imagination under the striking symbol of a To now not son ai ti

я THT Warrior mounted upon his white horse, going forth with the "Kingly Crown" upon his head, and the bow of destruction in his hand,-Conquering and to Conquer.

Christianity began its triumphs at Jerusalem. Its first signal victory was the resurrection of its Divine Founder; and with this event, the resurrection of the hopes of his followers, who, although amounting to no more than 120 at the ascension, had a wonderous accession to their number on the day of Pentecost, when 3000 were converted, and added to the Church. From henceforth, no longer confined within the narrow circle of Jerusalem and Judea, the Gospel spread itself widely and rapidly into all the neighbouring regions.

Under the labours of St. Peter and St. Paul, it soon afterwards penetrated to Rome, the very seat and throne of Gentile idolatry. Within less than fifty years after Christ's ascension, churches were founded not only there, but in all the chief cities of Asia Minor, a fact to which the Epistles of the New Testament bear ample witness. Through the zeal of some of the Apostles, or their converts, societies of Christians were also established in the remote provinces of Spain and Africa, and there is reason to believe even in Britain and India. This wonderful propagation of Christianity took place before the fall of Jerusalem, so that the prediction of Christ, that "the Gospel should be preached in all the world, and for a witness unto all nations," before he came to destroy that murderous city, was literally fulfilled. (Matt. xxiv. 14; Coloss. i. 23.

But the Conqueror did not here pause in his career of victory over heathen and Jewish prejudice. On the contrary, this catastrophe seemed rather to open a wider field for the struggle. For though the bow of the Gospel now smote with a fiercer stroke, and its enemies stood appalled at beholding the most striking fulfilment of prophecy in the destruction of a city which was evidently condemned and cast off by God for its guilt, yet the enmity of the Gentile heart was every where more extensively stimulated to opposition and persecution, by the scattering abroad of the Jews throughout the Roman empire. Long and arduous was the struggle which the religion of Christ had to maintain with the forces that were arrayed against it. During 3 centuries, the blood of the Martyrs was almost continually flowing. Nevertheless, the Church still continued to advance.