2 Cor. i. 21, 22. God the Holy Ghost is both the sealer, and the earnest, or seal. And, therefore," nevertheless (Oh! that sweet nevertheless) the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his," 2 Tim. ii. 19. Hallelujah! Blessed, blessed for ever be God for Jesus Christ!

" No

And now then what hath a child of God to fear, while living by faith on those sweet assurances? Sealed by God the Spirit, that loving Spirit will lead and guide his own whom he hath sealed, into " the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Jesus Christ!" Redeemed by God the Son, will he not love his own, whom he hath bought with so dear a price? man ever yet hated his own flesh.' And how must Jesus love his? And shall not God the Father avenge his own elect (saith Jesus) "who cry day and night unto him?" O yes!" he will avenge them speedily," Luke xviii. 7. For they are not simply an elect, but God's elect. Not merely chosen, but God's chosen. Not simply set apart, but set apart for God, and set apart by God and for himself. Oh! the dignity, the honour, the blessedness, the safety of the elect, yea, God's elect, and God's own elect.

Lamb of God! is it so, and art thou everlastingly interested for thine own? Methinks I hear thee still uttering these precious words concerning them; "that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee; that they all may be one in us!" John xvii. 21.

Oh! this mighty US! and the blessedness of union with this mighty US! Not only one with Christ in his having taken into union our nature, and married the persons of all his people; but by means of this union with Christ, brought into union in Christ with God, "predestinated to the adoption of children according to the good pleasure of his will," Eph. i. 5. Oh! this mighty US in Jehovah, and the blessedness of union with this mighty US in Jehovah.

"HIS OWN INHERITANCE."-Ps. cvi. 40.

It was a vast prayer which God the Holy Ghost put into the heart and mouth of Paul to offer for the church, when he begged for them that they might know the "riches of the glory of the Lord's inheritance in the saints," Eph. i. 18. The knowledge and right apprehension of this, if possessed by the Lord's chosen ones, would be little short of bringing down heaven into the soul, and bringing up the soul, by faith, into the very suburbs of heaven!

An

For only consider what an inheritance implies. inheritance is the substance or property that a man lives upon. It is his demesne, his house, his home. Hence, in accommodation to our manner of speech, the Lord calls his people his inheritance, yea, " his own inheritance." Their persons being chosen by him for himself, he considers them his inheritance. So that the happiness which they derive from him, and the glory which they have in him, he lives upon. Both their persons, and the blessedness they enjoy in their persons from the Lord, terminate in his glory, and become his inheritance.

And there is this additional sweetness in it also, the Lord making his people his inheritance, thereby gives them a right to call him their's. There is a beautiful echo or response in scripture to this amount; "for the Lord hath chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation; this is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it," Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14. And the gracious answer is, "the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup; thou maintainest my lot," Ps. xvi. 5. Doth the reader enter into the sweetness and blessedness of these things? Our inheritance in the Lord ariseth out of his inheritance in us. His is the cause, our's the effect. Christ was not formed for us; but we for him. His whole church is chosen to be

in him everlastingly holy and without blame before him in love; but he himself is infinitely more precious than all.

And there is one property more in this view of the subject which tends to heighten the blessing ten-fold, and endear it to every heart of the Lord's people, namely, in that all the persons of the Godhead concur in this appropriation of the church of Christ to an inheritance. It is God the Father's by choice, and by eternal decree," according to the good pleasure of his will." It is God the Son's both by gift and by purchase. And it is God the Holy Ghost's by regeneration and renewing grace, when from the time-state of corruption in the Adam-fall transgression, we are raised up from being dead in trespasses and sins, and cleansed and "built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit," Eph. ii. 22.

That

Let the reader pause over the contemplation. God the Father, who is over all God blessed for ever, and can need nothing, neither derive any thing in addition to his glory from his creatures, should nevertheless make choice of his people for his inheritance. And again, when that inheritance was defiled with sin, should cleanse it with blood, and no less than the blood of his dear Son. And still more, that God the Holy Ghost, to purify and renew, should quicken us together with Christ when dead in trespasses and sins, and raise us up together, and cause us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ! What wonders are folded up in this one view of the Lord's inheritance? Was it not enough to give us his dear Son, but will he give us himself for our portion; nay more, will make us his portion, and say, "I will dwell in them and walk in them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people," 2 Cor. vi. 16.

But we must not stop here. The Lord's personal choice of this inheritance of his, is among the richest jewels of this coronet. Jehovah, when determining to

have his dwelling-place and portion in his people, did not leave it to a peradventure among what class of the sons of men he would fix his inheritance. It was Zion he chose, and the sons of Jacob he appointed, and that from everlasting. The charter of grace runs in these words:" For the Lord's portion is his people, and Jacob is the lot of his inheritance,” Deut. xxxii. 9.

And what heightened this choice, in manifesting it to be the sole effect of free unmerited grace, the Lord declared that at the time he so determined, and that his purpose according to election might stand, it was "before the children were born, or had done any good or evil," Rom. ix. 11. Nay, the Lord declared further, that he knew Jacob and his seed "would deal very treacherously, and be called a transgressor from the womb," Isa. xlviii. 8. And yet, as if in direct opposition to those things, the Lord manifested his predilection for his inheritance in that he called it his own, saying, "For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure," Ps. cxxxv. 4.

Reader! pause over the subject, for we can go no further. The truth itself is all that we are concerned to know. Wherefore that high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, should choose such an inheritance, and dwell in his creatures, whom the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot obtain, may indeed well excite the highest wonder and astonishment, but to explain is impossible. It is enough, the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance; yea, his own inheritance. All the persons of the Godhead have shewn the interest taken in this inheritance. voice from heaven hath confirmed it. John heard it, saying, "behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them!" Rev. xxi. 3.

A

My brother! see to it that you are in the blessed portion of God's inheritance, yea, "his own inheritance." One of those chosen ones given by the Father to the

Son before all worlds; redeemed by the Son from all the evils of the time-state transgression; and regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and become a new creature in Christ Jesus. And with these divine impressions upon your mind, yea, inlaid by God himself on the mind like Mosaic pavement; take with you all the blessings which belong to the Lord's inheritance, for grace here, and glory hereafter.

In relation to "the life that now is," the emptiest state of the soul is the most prepared state of the soul to denote the Lord's inheritance. Jehovah hath himself said, "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit," Isa. lvii. 15. So that an empty heart, broken walls, a conscious sense of nothingness, unworthiness, and being stripped of every thing a man might call his own, is just then prepared by the Lord for the Lord's reception. Here, saith the Lord, " will I dwell, for I have a delight therein," Ps. cxxxii. 14.

And in relation to the " life that is to come," the Lord that hath chosen Jacob for himself, and Israel for his own possession, hath decreed, and will fully make sure the means, that his people, whom he hath chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blame before him in love, shall be in Christ as holy and as happy, beloved of God, and loving God, as God himself can make them; and be his portion, and he their's, through all the unnumbered ages of eternity. Hallelujah! Oh then the blessedness of being the Lord's inheritance! yea, his own inheritance. Lord! be it my portion" to be filled with all the fulness of God!" Amen.

"BLESSED."-Ps. i. 1.

Perhaps it is not generally known, but from its great importance it is to be wished it were, that the word blessed in this Psalm, as well as in many other scrip