conscience is no longer under a depressing sense, and a tormenting apprehension of unforgiven guilt. Thus the birth of the Saviour was announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem, as "peace on earth, and good will towards men." Christ is represented as reconciling sinners unto God, "having made peace by the blood of his cross." And it is declared of them who believe, that "being justified by faith, they have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." It is evident, indeed, from the whole tenor of the New Testament, that a pacified conscience is the first practical effect which accompanies the faith of the gospel; and it is equally evident, both from Scripture, and from the constitution of human nature, that till the soul that is conscious of guilt has received and relied on God's own assurance of a free and full remission, there can be no satisfaction or enjoyment in realizing the divine presence; and that peace of conscience therefore, arising from the divine testimony concerning Christ, constitutes the commencement of the believer's fellowship with God. When the Apostle declares, then, that the kingdom of God is peace, his statement necessarily implies, that wherever this kingdom has been established, there the peace of being reconciled to God has been felt, inasmuch as without this, the sinner must either be living in ignorance and forgetfulness of God, or must be a prey to the suspicion and fear which guilt awakens, and, consequently, in a state that altogether disqualifies him for finding any satisfaction and comfort in contemplating the sovereignty of the divine will, and the execution of the divine purposes. But though all this must be understood as intimated in the Apostle's

declaration, it is evident, we think, that it implies a great deal more. However valuable may be the peace which the glad tidings of a free salvation bring to the convicted and trembling sinner, and however essential to the commencement and the future progress of the divine life in his soul, there is a peace also, and that of a more elevated character, arising out of holiness itself; and it is to this especially, we conceive, that the Apostle here refers. He had already set forth the kingdom of God as consisting in righteousness in the restoration of the soul to a state of conformity to the divine will-and the reestablishment, over the affections, of the authority of that law which requires mankind to love God with all their heart, and their neighbour as themselves; and when he proceeds, therefore, further to represent this kingdom as consisting in peace, we cannot avoid concluding, that he refers to the state of mind in which all the affections are placed on their proper objects, regulated by the eternal law of rectitude and truth, and exercised with a reference to the will of Him, who is acknowledged and felt to be infinitely worthy of supreme love and regard, as contrasted with that state of distraction and disquiet in which the strength of these affections is expended on frivolous, and sinful, and debasing objects, and when the principle of selfishness is perpetually leading to disappointment and vexation of spirit, by the very means which it employs to obtain gratification. The circumstances, too, in which the Apostle wrote, go to confirm this interpretation; for though he does assuredly speak of the kingdom of God as the establishment of a divine principle in the heart, yet he is

the

obviously referring also to the manifestation of this principle in the intercourse and fellowship of Christians with one another; and it can require no argument to show, that, in proportion as the peace of which we are now speaking is established in the hearts of individuals, it must promote peace, and harmony, and love among Christians in their collective capacity. The Apostle in fact is just stating the practical effect of that righteousness to which he had previously referred as constituting the kingdom of God in the soul; and is virtually telling us that peace is as necessarily the effect of such a state of the heart, as distrust, and dissatisfaction, and perplexity are of the opposite state. Nor is it difficult to see, that from very nature of things it must be so. So long as a law is felt and regarded only as a mandate of authority, however reasonable it may be in itself, or however bitter may be the consequences of offending against it, there may be no pleasure felt in yielding an external obedience to it; and it will accordingly be found, that there is often a great deal of outward respect paid to the letter of the divine commandments, while they who do so are utter strangers to solid or permanent peace of mind-nay, subject to all the insecurity, and fear, and disappointment, to which mankind, in a state of alienation from God, are every instant exposed. But the establishment of the kingdom of God in the heart consists in rendering the divine law a law of love, and in so far as it is felt to be so, it is very obvious that there will be nothing painful or constrained in the submission which is paid to it that the more extensively the influence of this law operates, the farther is the believer removed from

all that would disturb or distract him-and that when its authority has been completely established, in the entire subjugation of every desire and affection of the soul, his peace will also be placed beyond the reach of every inroad. Nor would the consequences of such a state of things be less palpable, as it regards Christians collectively, than as it relates to the experience of individuals; for were the law of love in general and active operation in a community, where would be the dissension, the animosities, and the intemperance by which the peace even of Christian societies is often disturbed, and the advancement of truth and righteousness retarded? Such a state indeed may never yet have been exemplified, nor do we allege that it ever can be perfectly so in the present life. But in as far as there is an approach to it, either in the case of individuals, or societies, to that extent the kingdom of God has been established, but no farther; and this kingdom will be perfected, only when every individual of its subjects is brought into entire subjection to the law of love; and when it will be as impossible for them to make any inroad on the peace of one another, as it would be deliberately to surrender their own.

But there is still another principle which the Apostle sets forth as constituting the kingdom of God in the soul, namely, "joy in the Holy Ghost." And while by this declaration he has established the truth of the general proposition, that this kingdom consists not in any system of external observances, but in the state of the heart and affections; he has directed us also to the great agency by which the transformation of the inner man, of which we have

been speaking, is in every case brought about. Though it is in virtue of the obedience, and sufferings, and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that sinners are reconciled unto God, and received into favour; and though it is thus that God manifests his righteousness in treating the ungodly as righteous; yet the whole tenor of Scripture goes to show, that this revelation of the divine character does not actually operate with any efficacious influence on sinners but through the agency of the Holy Ghost-that if the claims of the divine law, and the awful nature of its sanctions, do so convict them of guilt, and so alarm them with apprehensions of danger, as to prompt them to seek after a hiding place from the storm, and a covert from the tempest, it is because the Spirit of God has given power and efficacy to the word, whereby it has become quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword —that if the preaching of the gospel leads them to take refuge in the righteousness of the Redeemer, it is because the same divine teacher has opened their eyes to the security of that refuge, and subdued them under an overwhelming sense of the love and mercy which provided it-and that if they become partakers of everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, it is because he has made the efficacy of the Redeemer's blood, and the riches of his grace, and the faithfulness of his promises, to stand forth so clearly revealed, and so distinctly realized to their apprehension, as to furnish them with a solid ground of confidence towards God. Believers feel assured that all this is the effect of the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit, because that effect is ascribed to