is the testimony of our own spirit introduced, and conjoined with the testimony of the Divine Spirit? Certain it is that "where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty" and light. He speaks with a voice by which the faithful soul can not be deceived. But though there can be no delusion where the Spirit of God dwells and shines, yet there may be impressions not from him, and which we may mistake for the sacred testimony which he bears. Against a delusion of this sort you must be most carefully guarded. Nor are the means by which such a delusion may be detected and exposed, of difficult application. When the Spirit of God dwells as the Spirit of adoption, he dwells as the great Author of regeneration; as the source of all holy principles and feelings. Our justification and our sanctification are thus inseparable. The Spirit of God dwells with all his graces where he dwells at all.

"He sheds abroad a Saviour's love,

And thus enkindles ours."

He enables us to love God, by showing that God loves us; and thus, when he comes to the heart of the believer as a witnessing and comforting Spirit, he comes as the Spirit of all holiness. When the impression of which we may speak produces not true love to God, and all those fruits which spring from the love of God, and prove its existence, then ought we to feel that it is not from the Spirit of God. Of the change which that good Spirit always effects, our own spirits must always be conscious. If we love God; if we love our neighbor; if, in a word, we are spiritually-minded, as having the fruits of the Spirit, which are always where the Spirit himself is, then have we the witness of our own spirits to the fact that we have received the Spirit of God; that those impressions from which we say we have derived so much comfort, are not delusive ones, but are indeed from the Spirit of God. To this fact, that we have the fruits of the Spirit, our own spirits bear a direct testimony, and thus bear, indirectly, a testimony to the fact of our adoption.

"We by his Spirit prove,

And know the things of God;

The things which, freely of his love
He hath on us bestow'd.

"Our nature's turn'd, our mind
Transform'd in all its powers;
And both the witnesses are join'd
The Spirit of God with ours."

SEPTEMBER 25.

MACARIUS.

Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.-Rom. xii. 2.

If any man who has renounced this world, and is estranged from the delights of it, both possessions, and father and mother, for the sake of the Lord, and having crucified himself, becomes a stranger, poor and indigent; yet does not find in himself the Divine refreshment, in the room of the refreshment of this world, -and instead of the delights which are temporary, the delights of the Spirit;-if, instead of this temporary and fleshly communion, he is not acquainted with the communion of the heavenly Bridegroom-and instead of the joy of this world, he possesses not within, the joy of the Spirit, the consolation of the heavenly grace;-if, instead of this temporary fruition, he does not possess that incorruptible fruition of God-this person is pitiable above all men; he is deprived of the things here, and hath no enjoyment of the gifts divine.

He that hath renounced this world, ought even now to pass in, through the Spirit, into another world, and there to have his conversation and his pleasures, and to enjoy the spiritual good things, being born of the Spirit, as the Lord hath said, “He that believeth in me, is passed from death unto life; " for as much as there is another death besides that which is before our eyes, and another life besides that which doth appear. For, saith the Scripture, "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth" and, "Let the dead bury their dead." "For the dead shall not praise thee, O Lord; but we that are alive will bless thee."

The soul that is born of God, collecting all her thoughts, enters in unto the Lord, into "the house which is from heaven, not made with hands;" and all her thoughts become heavenly, and pure, and holy. For he that is once set free from the darkness of this world, findeth thoughts pure and divine, because

God hath been pleased to make him partaker of the Divine

nature.

If both your body and soul were spent every hour throughout your whole life for the sake of such good things, what would this amount to? Oh the inexpressible compassion of God, that so freely grants himself to them that believe, to inherit God, and for God to dwell in the body of man, and the Lord to have man for his house!

For as God created heaven and earth for man to dwell inso hath he created both the body and soul of man for his own house; that he may dwell and rest in the body as his own house, having the soul for his bride, made according to his image. "For I have espoused you," says the apostle, "to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ."

This is the Lord; she is a servant. This is the Creator; she is a creature. This is the Workman; she the workmanship. There is nothing common to both natures. But through his boundless, unutterable, and inconceivable love and tender compassion, hath it pleased him to dwell in this work of his hands, his precious and choice work, "that we might be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures," for his wisdom and fellowship, for his own mansion-house, for his own precious and pure Bride.

Wherefore such good things being set before us, and such promises made to us, and the good pleasure of the Lord towards us having been such :-Children! let us not be negligent, neither delay our quick return to eternal life, and to devote ourselves to the good pleasure of the Lord, wholly and entirely.

Let us therefore beseech the Lord, that, by the power of his Godhead, he would redeem us from the darkness of our vile affections; and that, having vindicated his own image and work, he would make it to shine out. And thus shall we be thought worthy of the communion of the Spirit, giving glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, for ever! Amen.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.-Matt. v. 16.

SOME are perplexed because after these words, our Lord said, Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them. For so the mind of him who is weak in understanding is disturbed, as desirous to obey both precepts, and distracted by diverse, and contradictory commandments. For a man can as little obey but one master, if he give contradictory orders, as he can serve two masters, which the Saviour himself hath testified in the same Sermon to be impossible. What then must the mind that is in this hesitation do, when it thinks that it can not, and yet is afraid not to obey? For if he set his good works in the light to be seen of men, that he may fulfill the command, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven; he will think himself involved in guilt because he has done contrary to the other precept which says, Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them. And again, if fearing and avoiding this, he conceal his good works, he will think that he is not obeying him who commands, saying, Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works.

But he who is of a right understanding, fulfills both, and will obey in both the Universal Lord of all, who would not condemn the slothful servant, if he commanded those things which could by no means be done.

The very words of the gospel carry with them their own explanation; nor do they shut the mouths of those who hunger, seeing they feed the hearts of them that knock. The intention of a man's heart, its direction and its aim, is what is to be regarded. For if he who wishes his good works to be seen of men, sets before men his own glory and advantage, and seeks for this in the sight of men, he does not fulfill either of those precepts which the Lord has given as touching this matter; because he has at once looked to doing his righteousness before men to be seen of them; and his light has not so shined before men that they should see his good works, and glorify his Father which is in heaven. It was himself which he wished to be glorified, not

.

God; he sought his own advantage, and loved not the Lord's will. Of such the apostle says, For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. Accordingly, the sentence was not finished at the words, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works; but there was immediately subjoined why this was to be done; that they may glorify your Father which is in heaven; that when a man who does good works is seen of men, he may have only the intention of the good works in his own conscience, but may have no intention of being known, save for the praise of God, for their advantage to whom he is thus made known; for to them this advantage comes, that God who has given this power to man begins to be wellpleasing to them; and so they do not despair, but that the same power might be vouchsafed to themselves also if they would. And so he did not conclude the other precept, Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, otherwise than in the words, to be seen of them; nor did he add in this case, that they may glorify your Father which is in heaven, but rather, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. For by this he shows us, that they who are such, as he will not have his faithful ones to be, seek a reward in this very thing, that they are seen of men-that is in this they place their good-in this they delight the vanity of their heart-in this is their emptiness, and inflation, their swelling, and wasting away. For why was it not sufficient to say, Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, but that he added, that ye may be seen of them, except because there are some who do their righteousness before men; not that they may be seen of them, but that the works themselves may be seen; and the Father which is in heaven, who hath vouchsafed to endow with these gifts the ungodly whom he had justified, may be glorified?

They who are such, neither do they account their righteousness as their own, but his, by the faith of whom they live; even as the apostle says, That I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Whosoever then wish their good works to be seen of men, that he may be glorified from whom they have received those things which are seen in them, and that thereby those very persons who see them, may through the dutifulness of faith, be