prefsions, and feelings. So that from the testimony of sense, as well as from the record which God hath given of his Son, the believer cries out with rapture, "Behold God is my salvation, I will "trust and not be afraid; for the Lord "Jehovah is my strength and my song; "he also is become my salvation." The soul is now admitted to know and feel that the love of Christ passeth knowledge. Thus, the kingdom, which consists in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, is enjoyed in the believer's heart. The Holy Ghost brings down into the mind, and sheds abroad therein the love of God. He reveals Christ in the word and by the word to the believer, as his hope of glory, opens to his view the unsearchable riches of Christ, shews him that his every lust, even the whole body of sin, hath received its death-wound, giving him to experience, that "They that are "Christ's, have crucified the flesh with "its affections and lusts," that the death of Christ extends its influence over the whole body of sin and death, and gives him to see, that living by faith on Christ is the life and spring of all spirituality. He opens to his view this inestimable truth, that whom Jee Isaiah xii. 2. f Gal. v. 24. hovah did "predestinate, them he also "called, and whom he called, them he "also justified, and whom he justified "them he also glorified," teaching him herefrom that effectual calling proceeds from, and is the first evidence of election, that manifestative justification follows upon effectual calling, and that such are as fully entitled to Heaven, as though they were instated in glory; which blefsed lefsons the Holy Ghost accompanies with divine power and comfort, so that the believer rejoices in God, " Through our Lord Jesus, by (6 whom he hath now received the atone"ments " O my soul! here is matter for wonder, gratitude, and praise, which thou mayest well exercise thyself in. Yet when thou hast done thy best, the subject and the grace of it will exceed all blefsing and praise. Thou canst not exprefs thy sense of the subject better than by an addrefs to the Holy Trinity for their inestimable grace! O, thou God and Father of all thy family in Heaven and earth! They are all one in Christ Jesus, and thou lovest them all in him with one and the same everlasting love and invariable affection. Thou art pleased to bring them in thine own g Rom. v. 11. good time into the kingdom of thy dear Son. I praise thee for thy love to me IN JESUS. I adore thee for thy mercy in sending down the Holy Ghost into my heart, and for making me a partaker of a spiritual birth, whereby I am capacitated for the enjoyment of thy love, and to hold communion with thee by faith in Christ Jesus through the gracious influences of thine eternal spirit. I would present my best praises to thee, O thou blefsed Jesus! who art the Son of the Father, in truth and love, that I am born into thy kingdom of grace, made a partaker of thee, and brought into communion with thee. O thou Spirit of Jehovah! it is to thee I owe my second birth and every faculty of the new man. Othou divine spirit of all grace! I blefs thee for quickening me with new and spiritual life, for enlightening the eyes of my mind to know Jesus, and the Father's love in him, for revealing Christ in me, and giving me a view of him, as the everlasting treasury of grace and glory. Secure all the praise to thyself, and go on to shew me more of the riches of the Father's love and glory, and exalt in my heart the Saviour's work and fulnefs. Let me set the crown of grace and glory on the head of Jesus, and be engaged in crowning him daily in heart and life, by living in constant dependance on him. Grant this, Holy Spirit, to the honour of the Father and the Son, to whom as co-equal and co-eternal in one JEHOVAH be everlasting praise. Amen, G CHAP. V. · Of the peculiar Temptations and Afsaults of Satan against the regenerate and believing child of God, whose frames and feelings are described and stated agreeably to what is recorded of them in the written Word. TH HE regenerate and believing child of God is brought into that state, which is truly great and blefsed. Looking at what the Lord hath done for him, and other regenerate ones, he may well break forth with rapture and say, "Who is like unto the Lord our God, "who dwelleth on high? who humbleth "himself to behold the things that are "in Heaven, and in the earth! He "raiseth up the poor out of the dust, "and lifteth the needy out of the dung"hill; that he may set him with princes, "even the princes of his people." In the state of grace, to which he is admitted, all the persons in the Godhead are pleased to hold communion with him. The sacred Three entertain him with their loves, give him sweet enjoyment thereof, cause their goodness and glory to pass before him, and, in divine fellowship with the Father in his evera Psalm cxiii. 5, 6, 7. |