repeated, for he is in great anguish and tribulation, either of spirit or body, and probably both. His sorrows extort from him his cries for deliverance, but in his heart there never falters or wavers the willingness of a spirit submissive to God. A good man may do externally many things which he knows full well to be acts of disobedience and transgressions against God, but in his heart there is a readiness to respond to every command of Jehovah; yea, he strives to acquaint himself more and more with the will of God, because it is his delight to do it. To him, the thought of cherishing a purpose, even ignorantly, contrary to the will of God, gives exceeding pain; and his constant endeavour is, by earnest prayer for the enlarged influences of the Spirit; by diligent searching and careful study of the Scriptures; by a patient review of the dealings of providence to himself and in the world around him; by every possible means within his reach: his ceaseless practical cry unto God is, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" this man sins; and the Scriptures record for our admonition and warning, that the men who were most according to God's own heart within, were often most like the devil without. Let all men tremble; let every man examine himself, and disregard in this matter, the judgment of other men. You may be willing to do the will of God, and yet fall into heinous transgression; but if you are grieved and sorrowful, and resolve not to sin again, yours is not the sin of an impenitent and rebellious spirit, neither is it the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; but in such a state of mind, you must grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; you must be in your own experience becoming more like unto the Son of God. If this be so within any man, if he offend

Yet

seventy times seven times, and always repent, God will forgive him; and they who teach otherwise, and who by the exercise of church discipline-a human inventionwould seek to embitter and wound still more deeply the broken spirit of a good but sinful man, prove themselves personally and practically ignorant of the mysterious working of the grace of God which bringeth salvation.

The state and the conduct of Balaam were very different. The peculiar aggravation of his sin consisted in the cool, deliberate, and methodical way he went about it. A good man willing to do God's will might have been tempted to disobey it, and at once go with the messengers, but the act would no sooner have been done than he would have repented. Balaam, however, determines within himself and says in his heart, "I will go:" I care not for God; but I see there is some danger in the way, and I will just wait my time, making an ostensible merit of what I know to be an imperative necessity; probably my conscience may at another time. be less troublesome to me, and there may be a change of circumstances favouring my design; be this as it may, I am quite determined, if I can, to oppose God, and show him that my will shall never consent to obey His will; but I must take great care to preserve appearances, so that no one can say I am a rebel. I shall do all under the guise of zeal for God, and in this way I will accomplish my own will in opposition to His will. When messengers came the second time, Balaam acts upon his impious determination, and he goes to God. He is now determined to go with the men, but he would like to have God's sanction. He did not say, Lord not my will, but thine be done, but he said in his heart, I will not do thy will, Jehovah, submit to mine. This is the

mystery of iniquity!-Mark what follows: "God said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them." (Num. xxii. 20.) Had God changed His will in accommodation to Balaam's? Did the immutable Jehovah manifest even the shadow of turning? By no means. What then is the explanation? It is an appalling truth, but it is nevertheless true, that the will of the creature opposed and exalted itself against the will of the Creator, and that in spite of God. It was not possible to control Balaam's will; he resolutely determined that he would not be willing to do God's will; and God could not make Balaam willing against his will, without destroying that will. He not only opposed God's will, but he also exalted himself above all that is called God; for God, while He is Sovereign, leaves every other intelligent being free. Balaam's will was not only sovereign within himself, which God desired it to be, but it influenced him deliberately to plan, and so to act, that if he could, he would have made God's will subject to his own will, while that will was in opposition to God's will. There are but two ways in which the impenitent spirits of men can be dealt with,-their free volitions must be permitted, or they must be destroyed. The nature of a man's will proves this to be a truth beyond all controversy. This further explains those parts of Scripture in which God is represented as hardening men's hearts, or giving them power to do wickedly. God's presenting subjective truth to Balaam's mind was the occasion of the manifestation of his hard heart: the hardness of heart was not produced by God, neither by the word of God, but it was Balaam's own choice. God gave Balaam permission to go with the men, and thus do wickedly; but God did not approve or sanction

Balaam's conduct, on the contrary; "God's anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him." (Num. xxii. 22.) This means that God's Spirit was striving and remonstrating with him, and warning him of his danger.

In either regeneration or reprobation all that is asked or permitted, is the free volition of the man, without which he could not be a responsible or accountable agent. Upon the willingness or unwillingness of a man to do God's will, rests and turns his eternal destiny. If he be willing, still he can do nothing, actually, and literally, and absolutely nothing without Christ. He cannot think a good thought, he cannot do a right action without Christ. Every man can will to do what he knows to be the will of God, and the moment he does so the Spirit of God enters beneath the surface of his heart, and then not by his own power, but by the imparted power of the Spirit-the free gift of God-he begins to endeavour to do what he is willing to do. He will fall many a time, but as often as he falls he will rise again. From the moment he is willing he becomes one Spirit with the Lord; he has dwelling within him the mind of Christ, so that he can never again speak or think of the agency of the Spirit as something different from himself, or of his own exertions as something apart from the Spirit. Henceforth the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of the man are one; and thus united, the conquest of the man's feelings, desires, pursuits, pleasures, and whole nature begins. He is fully conscious of his moral accountability, and balances in his thoughts the consequences of his conduct, as one who must appear at the judgment seat of Christ. He is equally sensible

of his perfect freedom; for he now feels that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Although united to a body of death he begins to abhor sin in his heart; and just because he loves righteousness and hates ini quity, he strives, with ever increasing diligence, to subdue the sinful propensities which are ever at work within him. He becomes in his own eyes a grievous contradiction, and he feels as if there never could have been a man so wicked as himself, and yet possessing so many moral advantages. Trials and afflictions come fast upon him. They come often so connected with particular acts of his life known only to himself, but offensive to God, that he imagines the judgments of heaven are overtaking him; he is thus driven to take refuge entirely in the mercy of God in Christ. He may have been many months perhaps more than one year, in a state of mind halting between two opinions, as to whether he has any thing to do in God's sight to warrant him to hope for mercy, or whether it is freely and unconditionally bestowed. Many are the reasonings in his mind, but his conclusions are vague and indefinite. He searches the Scriptures daily, but he finds there is a vail upon them which has to be done away ere he can see the light clearly. He wearies for the return of each successive Sabbath; and he wonders, and he hopes while he wonders, if the preacher will treat upon that subject which is personally so interesting to himself. He goes up to the sanctuary from sabbath to sabbath to break bread, that is, to be fed by the manna which cometh down from heaven-the preached gospel. His progress is slow, but he feels as if he were advancing in the knowledge of the truth. It occupies a considerable time, in every case, to train a man to have faith in God through