apostle, in the passage now in hand, tells us thus much, when in the preceding verse before he had bidden us be transformed by the renewing of our minds, he tells us how to dispose of our bodies-that is, keep their every appetite under restraint, even though it should be with such a violence to our inclinations as might amount to the feeling of a most painful sacrifice. And so also the prophet Ezekiel in the place already quoted, and before he had bidden his countrymen make them a new heart and a new spirit, lays it in charge upon them to cast away from them all the transgressions whereby they had transgressed. But most significant of all is that saying of Hosea, when he complains of the people, that "they will not frame their doings to turn unto their God." 2 Amid such explicit testimonies as these, the trumpet surely cannot be said to give an uncertain sound. We can neither pray too earnestly, nor work too diligently; and if it be asked, which of these should have the precedency,—better far than any metaphysical adjustment is the sound practical deliverance, that we can neither pray nor work too soon. On the one hand, we should make haste and delay not to keep the commandments.3 But on the other, the cry of our felt helplessness can never ascend too early. The aspirations of the heart and movements of the hand should begin and keep pace together. Paul's first question at the moment of conversion was, What wilt thou have me to do; and his first recorded exercise is, 1 Ezekiel, xviii, 31. 2 Hosea, v, 4. 3 Psalm cxix, 60.

Behold he prayeth. Let us dismiss the idle question of the antecedency between these two things. Let there be no self-indulgence in praying, for thus should we be antinomians; no self-sufficiency in doing, for thus should we be legalists. It is not by sitting still in the attitude of a mystic and expectant quietism, that we shall carry our salvation. But neither is it by activities, however manifold or boundless, without a constant sense of dependence upon God. From the very outset His helping hand must be sought after. He not only puts His Spirit within us; but He causes us to walk in His statutes.1

That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.' The man who lives in and is led by the Spirit of God, will come to know in the new and heaven-born desires of his own regenerated heart, what the will of God is. That fruit of the Spirit, which is in all righteousness and goodness and truth, must be best known in these its various characteristics and excellencies, by him who is the bearer of it. When God putteth His law into the inward parts of men, and writes it in their hearts-then they need not to be taught of others, saying unto them, Know the Lord, for all who are thus enlightened know Him from the least even to the greatest. They surely know best the laws and lessons of the Holy Ghost, who are the immediate subjects of His teaching; and even they who see their good works recognise 1 Ezekiel, xxxvi, 27. 2 Jeremiah, xxxi, 33, 34.

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in them the lineaments of that divine image in which they are created-and so, on looking to the righteousness and the true holiness of those whose light thus shines before men, discern in these virtues the very will and character of God, and are led thereby to glorify their Father who is in heaven.1

1 Ephesians, iv, 24; Matthew, v, 16.

239

LECTURE LXXXIX.

ROMANS, xii, 3--8.

"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness."

me.

VER. 3. For I say, through the grace given unto The particle 'for' establishes a connection between the present and the preceding verse, and which I think might be made out in this way— Paul had just as good as said, that, by being transformed through the renewal of our minds, we should be enabled to prove or discriminate or ascertain what the will of God is. We should be "renewed

in knowledge."1 We should not only be made right in our wills, but right in our understandings also. Indeed the one rightness is a sort of gua1 Colossians, iii, 10.

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rantee for the other-He that willeth to do God's will shall know the doctrine of Christ;1 of Him who pre-eminently and indeed exclusively is the Teacher of the things of God, seeing that no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. It is thus that he who wills aright shall be made to know aright, and more especially to know the character and will of God. Now this rectification of the will, and consequently of the understanding, is done by a renewal of the mind, which itself is an operation of divine grace; and so there is a peculiar significancy and connection in Paul telling the Christians of Rome, when proceeding to unfold the will of God for the regulation of their conduct, that what he was going to say was through the grace given unto him. He had just acquitted himself throughout the foregoing chapters of this epistle as a teacher of truth; and he now tells them how he came by his qualifications for discharging the office on which he was about to enter of a teacher of righteousness. He was on the eve of giving forth so many practical lessons-a list of particulars respecting the will of God—which he through grace was enabled as their apostle to reveal; and which they, if indeed his genuine disciples, would also through grace be enabled to recognise, as those very lessons of righteousness which proceeded from God, and had in them the character and seal of the upper sanctuary, Between him and them, there would be the tact 1 John, vii, 17.

2 Matthew, xi, 27.