station, then time, and the things of time, are most under my feet; the world, and all its bustles, annoy me less; my heart beats freely for heaven; and I can look down from the hill, seeing the vanities and pitying the follies beneath, which carry men away from God, and too often "drown them in ruin and perdition."

CHAPTER XVII.

The Love of the Spirit.

IF God be love, then the Spirit is love, because the Spirit is God. He manifests himself as the God

of love, by unfolding and bestowing such love as only God himself could have, and from himself could pour forth unto others.

The Holy Spirit, as one of the parties in the everlasting covenant, loveth his people with an everlasting love. By him they are spiritually circumcised, and so admitted into the bond or privileges of the covenant; that is, they are cut off from the state of nature and the world, and are brought into a new fellowship with God, and all that belongs to him. By him also they are made sensible of the love of the Father and of the Son, when he sheddeth forth his own love upon their hearts; for it is He who enables each of them to cry, "Abba, Father," under the taste of his mercy; and to say to Christ, "Thou art my Saviour, my Lord, and my God," in the rich

experience of his grace.

Without the love of the Spirit, as they could not know, so they could not come up to the love of the whole Trinity: for by him alone it is shed abundantly upon all that are his, both in earth and heaven.

If I were left to love God by my own fallen powers, and had not the continual help of the Spirit of love, I should fear that I could do nothing but hate him entirely. "The carnal mind is enmity itself against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." The law of God is pure life and love of God; and only by his Spirit can I delight therein, and then only after the inner man. Hence it must follow, that, "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Without him, every man must remain as he was born, earthly, sensual, devilish.

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O how deeply then am I indebted to this divine Agent, for taking up his holy residence in my unworthy soul! What loving kindness and mercy have I not felt and enjoyed by his blessed power within me!

How is it, that He, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, should vouchsafe to take up his abode in a poor sinner's breast? What marvellous love is this, that he should stoop to dwell with one, whose heart hath been the residence of the evil spirit, and the cage of every unclean bird? Surely it must be infinite love which could cleanse so unholy a tenement, and keep it in any degree clean for himself, against the manifold attempts to pollute it on every side.

Whatever I may lose then, O thou blessed Spirit, may I never lose the love of thee! The loss of

fame, of riches, and of all things here, are but of small account in themselves, and can soon be made up by thy power; but the loss of thee is the loss of more than life itself, the parting with the very anchor of my soul, and turning me adrift into a dark ocean of doubt and despair. O then forsake not thine own, who could never have been thine own but from thy mere love and bounty, and perfect all the work of grace in me, that, before men and angels, I may give indubitable proof that indeed I am thine!

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Work of the Spirit.

THE nature of man, since the FALL, is carnal and prone to evil; nor hath it power or inclination to raise up itself to the desire and enjoyment of heavenly things, but, on the contrary, shuns and abhors them. It "savoureth not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men" and of the world.

Now, as whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh, and as flesh and blood cannot inherit nor even know the kingdom or grace of God; it is not marvellous that Christ should say, "Ye must be born again," or that it is absolutely necessary for a man to be "renewed in the spirit of his mind," before he can

apprehend or enjoy the things of God.

We see this plain necessity proved by the case of all men; for no man seeks and knows God by his own natural abilities; and every one, who doth know him, freely confesses, that it is by grace alone he obtained that knowledge.

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The first work of the Spirit, then, in a sinner, is a new birth unto righteousness." As this is the Spirit's office in the covenant of grace, so believers under it are said to be "born of the Spirit." This is their entrance into the knowledge of themselves and of God. They are united unto God in Christ by the act of his Spirit, and so partake a new life, with new functions, faculties, and affections, peculiar to it; which life is in all things opposite to the carnal life of their fallen nature, and creates, from the time of its birth, a constant warfare in them against the being and power of evil.

As this generation, in its essence, is the sole work of the Spirit, so it is likewise in all its effects. When the Christian begins to live spiritually, he is soon enabled to think and act spiritually. And as the views and objects of this life are beyond the creature, and rest in God and in Christ, the Holy Spirit leads up the heart to a dependence on the Divine Persons for the attainment of them. This is faith: and thus appears, that it is both the gift and the operation of the Spirit.

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By this faith the Christian desires, and attains what he desires. By this he prays, and hopes, and waits, and expects. By this he wrestles against sin, and Satan, and the world. By this he looks with a

By

holy contempt on all dying things, and beholds those delightful realities which are invisible to sense. this he knows himself to be a child of God, and the purchase of Christ. By this he sees a glorious immortality provided for him, and longs often to enjoy it. By this he suffers the will of God, as well as obeys it, knowing that it must work entirely for his good. By this he welcomes death itself, and at length obtains the victory over it, through Jesus Christ his Lord. All this work of faith is carried on by the effectual unceasing agency of the Holy Spirit. It is an action upon the spirit of a man, which none but the God of spirits either would or could perform. And where this work is not thus inwardly performed, there may indeed be the notions of truth, and the forms of godliness, but they have no real life or power in them. The heart, in that case, may be as dead to God, and as much in and of the world as ever.

He is called the Spirit of Christ, because. he not only is one with him in Jehovah, but also takes of the things of Christ and shows them to his people. Thus, where his Spirit dwells, Christ is said to dwell, because of their inseparable union. If Christ dwell in our hearts by faith, it is therefore because the Spirit of Christ is in us, and God is in us of a truth. It was the Spirit of Christ in the Apostle which enabled him to say, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

To thee, then, O thou Holy Spirit of truth, and