that great enemy of souls8; but he knows not yet how to use it, so as to defeat him, who is but too justly called ApollyonV He has in his hand "the word, which is the sword of the Spirit";" but he knows not how to use it with effect : " he is unskilful in the word of righteousness x." It is not till after many conflicts that he learns, what are the parts on which he is most open to assault, what are the stra- tagems whereby that wily adversary most successfully ensnares him, and what are the means by which he is to ensure the victory over all his assailants. In the spiritual warfare, as in that which is temporal, expe- rience can be gained only by active service. There is however this difference between them : in temporal warfare, proficiency is the result of human ingenuity ; whereas, in the spiritual warfare, it is the Spirit of God alone that can inspire us with the knowledge and address, whereby we are to vanquish the legions of spirits that are combined against usy.
But, further, the Holy Spirit will also discover to us the fulness and excellency of the Gospel salvation. The plan of salvation is, as I have already acknow- ledged, understood by the veriest babe in Christ. But the excellency of it will be more and more de- loped to him, till, from the obscurity of the morning dawn, he attains the fuller light of the meridian sun ; according as it is written by the prophet ; " Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord : his go'mgs forth are prepared as the morning'1;'" and as Solomon also has assured us, " The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect daya." The young Christian knows little of that covenant to which all our sal- vation must ultimately be traced ; the covenant entered into between the Father and the Son for the redemption of our fallen race ; the covenant, wherein Christ, on the one part, undertook to stand in our place and stead, and to endure, in his own person.
s Eph. vi. 13.
t Rev. ix. 11.
u Eph. vi. 17
* Heb. v. 13.
>■ Eph. vi. 17, IS.
z Hos. vi. 3.
a Prow iv. 18.
1866. j THE SPIRIT'S WORK IN BELIEVERS. 255
the penalty which he had incurred ; and the Father, on the other part, both gave unto him a chosen people b, and engaged to accept them as righteous, on account of what he should do and suffer for them. "This covenant is ordered in all things, and sure:" and the blessings of it are all treasured up for us in Christ, our great head and representative0, and are thus secured to us for ever : as it is written, " Our life is hid with Christ in God : and therefore, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also shall appear with him in glory d. These blessings, too, are to be received from him6 simply "through the exer- cise of faith, that thus they may be sure to all the seedf;" for no human being could ever have hoped to possess them, if they had been committed to any other depository, or if the attainment of them had been suspended on the strength and fidelity of man.
To unfold these things to the soul is the Holy Spirit's office. For this end he is given to us as " an unction that shall abide with us," and that shall, to a certain degree, by the clearness of his commu- nications, supersede the necessity for human instruc- tiong; and, being given to us for this end, he enables the believer gradually to dive more and more deeply into this mystery, which the human eye cannot pene- trate, at least not so penetrate as to behold its ex- cellencyh. These are among " the deep things of God, which the Spirit alone searches," even the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived, but which are revealed to the soul by the Spirit of God1, and can be known in no other wayk. True, these things are written plainly in the inspired volume, even as the figures are engraven with the utmost possible plainness on the sun-dial : but both in the one case, and in the other, are they written in vain, till light is vouchsafed from heaven to shine upon them : then only does the gnomon