258 ROMANS, VIII. 9. [lStiG.
body and mind, departing from God, and proceeding with fatal indifference and perseverance, till he is finally lost in that abyss from whence there is no return. But, within a certain distance from the sea, we may behold that same river arrested in its course by the tide, and returning with equal rapidity towards its fountain-head : and in that we may behold the sinner returning to his God. Even from the partial back-currents which are occasioned by local obsta- cles, we may behold the parallel yet more strikingly illustrated : for in either case, these may serve to shew, that, as in man's departure from God there are some risings of compunction, and some little, though ineffectual, restraints, from the remonstrances of an accusing conscience ; so, in the believer's return to God, there are some remnants of corrup- tion, which betray a want of that completeness of soul, which he will enjoy in a better world. But the point particularly to be noticed is, How is this change effected ? How is it effected in the river ? Is it through the power and instrumentality of man ? No : it is by the invisible, but powerful, attraction of the moon. The operation of the moon is not seen but in its effects : yet it is not on that account denied : the effects are unquestionable ; nor can they reasonably be traced to any other cause ; at all events they cannot in the smallest possible degree be ascribed to man. And how is the change effected upon the souls of men ? It is the Holy Spirit who operates upon them to bring them back to God. True, his operations are not seen, except in the effects pro- duced by them : but those effects infinitely exceed all human power : and in the unerring word of God they are ascribed to the Holy Spirit, whose peculiar office it is, not only to regenerate us at first, but pro- gressively to form us after the Divine image, and to render us meet for our heavenly inheritance*. That there are defects in the best of men is certain ; but that only makes the analogy more complete. There are, and will be, intervening obstacles, that will, at
t Tit. iii. 3, 5.
1866. 3 THE spirit's work in believers. 259
some times, and under peculiar circumstances, inter- fere with the believer's progress": but these do not interrupt his general course, or give any just cause for questioning the influence under which he moves x. His habitual " walk is, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit y." We have said, that the work is pro- gressive. He goes from grace to grace2, from victory to victory, " growing up into Christ in all things, till he arrive at the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ V At first he is represented in the Scrip- tures as " a child, then as a young man, and then as a father b :" and the work in his soul is compared to the corn, which appears first in " the blade, then in the ear, and then as the full corn in the ear0." These very comparisons shew, that the believer is not at first all that he will be at a future period : his heart will be more and more weaned from earthly things, and with more and more intensity be fixed on things above, till he is altogether " changed into the image of his God in righteousness and true holiness d." This advance towards maturity will be more or less visible to all around him. There will be in him more solidity, more uniformity, more consistency. His principles will be more and more commended to all around him by their efficacy to " beautify his soul%" and to adorn his lifef. In a word, he will be renewed, not in his mind only, but " in the spirit of his minds" and will become " an epistle of Christ known and read of all men," an epistle not " written by any human hand, but by the Spirit of the living Godh." He will be in himself, and will constrain all who know him to acknowledge that he is, what the Scriptures emphatically call, " A man of God1."