tion of the Holy Spirit,
in those who cordially embrace the Gospel of Christ. He knows therefore
that this holiness is not to_ PRECEDE _his reconciliation to God, and be
its_ CAUSE; _but to_ FOLLOW _it, and be its_ EFFECT. _That in short it
is by_ FAITH IN CHRIST _only[97] that he is to be justified in the sight
of God; to be delivered from the condition of a child of wrath, and a
slave of Satan; to be adopted into the family of God; to become an heir
of God and a joint heir with Christ, entitled to all the privileges
which belong to this high relation; here, to the Spirit of Grace, and a
partial renewal after the image of his Creator; hereafter, to the more
perfect possession of the Divine likeness, and an inheritance of eternal
glory._

And as it is in this way, that, in obedience to the dictates of the
Gospel, the true Christian must originally become possessed of the vital
spirit and living principle of universal holiness; so, in order to grow
in grace, he must also study in the same school; finding in the
consideration of the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, and in the
contemplation of the life, and character, and sufferings of our blessed
Saviour, the elements of all practical wisdom, and an inexhaustible
storehouse of instructions and motives, no otherwise to be so well
supplied. From the neglect of these peculiar doctrines arise the main
practical errors of the bulk of professed Christians. These gigantic
truths retained in view, would put to shame the littleness of their
dwarfish morality. It would be impossible for them to make these
harmonize with their low conceptions, of the wretchedness and danger of
their natural state, which is represented in Scripture as having so
powerfully called forth the compassion of God, that he sent his only
begotten Son to rescue us. Where _now_ are their low conceptions of the
worth of the soul, when means like these were taken to redeem it? Where
_now_ their inadequate conceptions of the guilt of sin, for which in the
divine counsels it seemed requisite that an atonement no less costly
should be made, than that of the blood of the only begotten Son of God?
How can they reconcile their low standard of Christian practice with the
representation of our being "temples of the Holy Ghost?" Their cold
sense of obligation, and scanty grudged returns of service, with the
glowing gratitude of those who, having been "delivered from the power of
darkness, and translated into the kingdom