displayed than in the history before us. The transition which a person experiences in conversion, is justly represented in the Scripture as a coining " from darkness into marvellous light f;" or rather, as " a passage from death to lifeg." What human power is sufficient for a change like this ? St. Paul represents the power displayed in it as equal to that which was exhibited by Almighty God in raising his Son Jesus Christ from the dead, and in setting him at his own right hand in heaven, above all the principalities and powers, whether of heaven or hellh. The remembrance of this is an encouragement to the Christian in all his future conflicts. He knows assuredly who it is that " hath begun the good work within him :" he is con- strained to say, " I have laboured, yet not I, but the grace of God that was within me : by the grace of God I am what I am1." In its progress the work is carried forward more appa- rently by his own exertions. He has the armour given him; but he is called forth to use it. His whole life is to be a state of warfare ; and it is by fighting that he is to obtain the victory. He will not find any one enemy that will submit to him, till smitten by the sword of the Spirit, and constrained by the holy violence of faith and prayer. The world, the flesh, and the devil, will combine their forces to destroy him. There will be some seasons of more than ordinary temptation, when he will need peculiar succour from on high: and there will be other seasons of comparative rest: but, if Satan at any time depart from him, it will only be for a season, as he departed from Christ himselfk. As it is with the Church at large, which has times of persecution and times of peace1, so is it, in a greater or less degree, with all the individuals that compose the Church: and not unfrequently has the Christian his sorest trials, either when he is most expecting peace™, or when his last enemy, even death itself, is about to be swallowed up in everlasting victory11. At last the completion of his warfare will arrive : O blessed sea- son, when every enemy shall be finally subdued ! Then the almost invincible Anakims shall be rooted out ; and Satan, that great adversary, by whom all the rest are concentrated and led on to battle, shall be bruised under his feet; and he shall enjoy the fruit of his victories in everlasting rest.]
The same resemblance as we have traced in re- ference to the conquest of Canaan, may yet further be discovered in,
II. The partition of it —
The land, when conquered, was divided to the
f 1 Pet. ii. 9. e 1 John hi. 14. h Eph. i. 18—22.
; 1 Cor. xv. 10. k Luke iv. 13. » Acts ix. 1, 31.
11 Job i. 10. 2 Cor. xii. 2, 7. n 1 Cor. xv. 54.