and increase that spiritual health which they first gave. The moment that the soul begins to feed on any other food than this, the moment that it takes any thing else for its chief joy, or hope, or confidence, that very moment the health of the soul declines, the disease of sin gathers strength, and disorders the whole frame of the soul; withdraws the affections and faculties from the pursuit of those things which are eternal, and points them to passing shadows; relaxes all the energies of the spiritual life; displaces true joy, and hope, and peace, and substitutes in their room a joy that inebriates, and a hope that dies, and a peace that blindfolds, whilst it conducts to ruin. He who withdraws from the sacrifice of Christ, and places confidence in the spiritual health to which he has already attained, is like the man who would refuse his necessary food, and dream of supporting his life out of that stock of life which he had already enjoyed.

"My beloved brethren," says the Apostle, "be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know, that your labour in the Lord is not in vain." This work consists in living under an ever-present sense of what God hath done for sinners, in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Faith means the conviction of the reality of things which we do not see. Now, in order that this conviction be of any use to us, it must be present with us. A man cannot be said to be under a conviction, unless it is upon his mind. If a man is convinced that particular precautions are necessary for his health, he will take these precautions: but

as soon as he forgets the necessity, his precautions vanish. Thus, forgetfulness comes often to the same thing as an opposite conviction. The belief of the morning, if it be confined to the morning, will do us no good through the day. He that believes is saved, not he who has believed. The sole object of Christian belief is to produce the Christian character, and unless this is done, nothing is done. Good bodily health has a value in itself, independently of the good digestion and good nourishment which produced it; so also spiritual health has a value in itself, independently of the correct belief which produced it. In both cases, the effects are the objects of ultimate importance, but then they cannot exist without their causes, and when the causes cease to operate, the effects must also cease. To resemble God is the great matter, but we cannot resemble him without loving him; and we cannot love him in his true character, without believing in his true character.*

In the character and writings of the REV. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD, the preceding remarks are most powerfully illustrated. He constantly presents the "blood of sprinkling," as the only effectual balm for the wounded conscience; but it is, that the conscience thus pacified, might be purged " from dead works to serve the living God." He constantly

The preceding remarks were furnished by Mr. Erskine for this edition of Mr. Rutherford's Letters; those which follow were furnished by another hand.

He con

rests on the sacrifice of Christ, for removing the guilt and condemnation of sin; but it is that being delivered from the spirit of bondage and fear, he might serve God " in newness of spirit." stantly looks to the perfect righteousness of Christ, as the sure ground of his acceptance with God; but he no less looks to the perfection of Christ, that, by the transforming influence of such a contemplation, he might "be changed into the same image." He constantly directs his view to the glory and blessedness of those heavenly mansions, which Christ has gone to prepare for his people; but it is that having this hope in him, he might be prepared for these blessed mansions, "by purifying himself even as Christ is pure."

While few have cherished a more cordial and unshaken faith in the obedience and death of Christ, as the sole foundation of their hope for pardon and acceptance with God, few have more fully manifested the genuine and unfailing fruits of such a faith in the holiness and purity of their lives. Few have equalled him in their steady adherence to truth in the midst of persecution and suffering or in greater devotion to the will of God, in every thing he considered his duty, with such a fearless disregard of consequences or in cherishing with greater care and tenderness, a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man or in making the work of personal sanctification more the business of their lives -or in labouring more abundantly to teach others the way of salvation, and extend the interests of pure and undefiled religion. In his life, no less than in his

writings, he afforded a noble vindication of the doctrines of grace being doctrines according to godliness. "Holiness to the Lord," was the inscription which he endeavoured to write on every affection of his heart, and on every action of his life; and knowing this to be the indispensable preparation for heaven, in his precious, and spiritual, and edifying Letters, he constantly breathes no less after purity than peace. In obedience to the apostolic injunction, his great endeavour was to keep himself in the love of God; and it was by maintaining in his soul a rejoicing sense of this love, and of peace and reconciliation with God, that he was enabled to offer the hourly and ever-burning incense of a heart devoted in all its affections to Him, as the God of his redemption.

T. E.

EDINBURGH, January, 1825.

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