through this momentary scene, and by which they at once so frequently dishonor the cause of religion, and disgrace themselves in the sight of a watchful world! They would blush again to think, that the miserable slaves of lust and hell should pretend to talk of more happiness, than the children of the kingdom, who are privileged to have God's perfect peace in their hearts, and are born for his eternal peace in heaven.
Another comfort, which the believer hath a right to draw from these truths, is, that having the earnest of the Spirit irt his soul, first in quickening from the death of sin, and then , working faith, hope, ana love towards Christ; he is privileged to receive some degree of assurance from the word of God, in proportion to the evidence of this earnest from the Spirit of God, that He, who hath begun the good work, .will carryit on to perfection. The written word declares the divinity of this spiritual agent; and this agent brings the heart to the word, by which he gives his own divine persuason; so that tiie believer can say, " I set to my seal upon.God's revealed truth, and I am enabled to do it by the grace of God's enlightening Spirit: Upon this united testimony in my behalf, I believe, that God's love cannot fail, but that I am saved in Jehovah with an everlasting salvation."
Come, believer; hast thou a right to this language; and arc these thy privileges; and wilt thou, then, being the King's son, go sad all thy days? A stranger, indeed intermeddietb net with the joy of God's heritage; but thou art no stranger any more; thou hast an unalienable claim to the choicest delights of thy Father's house, and art more welcome to enjov them all, than to pass by the least of them. Thou art not straitened in Him at any time; but only in thine own powels. In thy selforiginates every cause of complaint; not in thy merciful Lord. Thou canst not exhaust an infinite ocean of everlasting good; but thou mayest, as all too often do, shut thine own mouth, and taste for a time not a drop of it. 0 the depth of unbvlief! may we all cry, as well as, 0 the depth of the riches of God! If this deep did not answer to the other, and confound it; the strongest believer in the world would not swim long upon the surface, but must be swallowed up in the dismal abyss. And yet, if the eye be but opened, and the heart graciously enlarged; here is enough and to spare of mercy, love, and faithfulness in God, an infinite abundance of such durable riches as are commensurate with the existence of God himself, and flow incessantly from his fullness. If our harp* were but in constant tune; that is, if our spirits were but in pure.• harmony, or more exact unison with God the Spirit; we should feel as well as utter the Psalmist's fervent song, which that Spirit inspired; bow
friath tby goodness which thou bast laid up* for thelH that trust in thee, before the sons of men !—.0 love Jehovah all ye bis.saints: Jehovah preserveth the faithful, and ctmpleteth, •witb exaltation him that doetb excellently.^ Be of gotd courage, and be shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in Jehovah! Psalm xxxi. 19, 33, 34.
Affli&ed Christian ; thou, who art tossed and exagitated either in body or in mind, and often in both: Here is comfort, rich comfort, and everlasting consolation, for thee? Thou, indeed, art writing bitter things against thyself: and bitter things most truly may be written of thee: Thou canst hot set down a thousandth part of the evil, which exists in thy heart, and which hath polluted thee before God, through every day of thy life. If the world did not complain of thee; if thy friends did not murmur; if perhaps the very partner of thy cares, who should be as thy right-hand, did not concur to annoy: The sense of thy own sinfulness, weakness, unprofitableness, and deserts, would be sufficient in the hand of the enemy, to harrass and perplex thy wearied soul. But, fear not, thou miserable worm. Take thine eyes from the earth, and look upward. Look, with the Bible in thine hand, upwards to Him, who sent it down, in pity and grace, to just such miserable Worms as thou art. All thy fellow-creatures have cause f«r the wofst of thy feelings; and, if mercy had opened their eyes, their hearts for a time would ache, and mourn, and droop, even as thine. Thou art alive; therefore thou canst feel: The dead in body have no sensations; nor have the dead in soul. Ask for a ray of this Spirii- to illuminate thy mind, while thou raadest his holy book, that his promises, his exceeding great and precious promises, may not be passed over unnoticed, but stand like so many angels in the way to point thee to rest, and to thy best good hope through grace. Reading by his light, thou wilt find (and O that thou mayest find it to thy unspeakable joy!) that there is not one harsh word, not one severe denial, to the weakest, the poorest, the worst returning sinner, who longs for mercy because he sees his want of it. On the contrary, just such as Vol. II. G
* nsys hidden; i. e. from the world, Hence God's wisdom is called mystery or hidden wisdom, his people are termed hidden ones, and their life is said to be hid with Christ in God. TJie world knoweth us not (satththe apostle) because it knew htm not. X
t To render this clause in a good sense, seems more agreeable to the context which is addressed te God's people, than the common and other versions which have followed the lxx• The Psalmist is proposing motives of comfort; and certainly it is a greater cause of joy to the faithful, that Jehovah will complete their salvation, than, that he will reward a proud doer, which is no part of that salvation.
thou art (behold thyself as vile as thou canst,) are welcome, only to Jesus; and for these poor, halt, maimed, and blind,, is the rich feast of the kingdom prepared. These thy Sovereign Lord filletb •withgood things: The rich alone, those who conceit themselves to be full and increased, He sendeth empty away. If thou seest thy need of God's mercy; it is because God hath already had mercy upon thee. Trust in' nim, therefore, and implore the gracious power of his omnipotent Spirit; thou shalt then find, that his own faithfulness to his Word shall keep thee from falling, and in the best time relieve thee from all thy impressions of sorrow. Live upon this promise, and aoon shalt thou have it fulfilled: // ye, being evil, know bow to give good gifts unta your children: bo--ii much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Ask, and receive: Seek, and thou shalt freely obtain.' . .
The omnipotence,of this Spirit is the Christian's unfailing ground of hope. . He hath, indeed, a strong Lord, and one as wise as he is strong, and present, as he is. wise. Nothing, concerning his people, escapes his notice: and all their holy cares are his own, and his own to relieve or fulfil them. O what a kind benefactor have we, wjio are saved by his gracel He saw us in our sins, and had mercy upon us, nay, loved us, when we were abominable and deformed: He loved us to purify us from our abominations, and to deck us with the beauty of his holiness. After all this cost and concern, shall he cease to love us, and be gracious I Shall his hand stpp its bounty, or his heart refrain to love? He might cease to love us, if his motives of regard arose from our faithfulness or worth; but standing, as they do, upon his own sublime benevolence; fixed, as they are, upon the rock of ages; and arising, as they have done through all eternity, from an irrevocable covenant of everlasting truth: The Father .must lose his paternal affection, the Son all the mtjrit of his suffering and cbedienqe, the Holy Spirit his operation and eftecl, and the whole Godhead change or cease to be; e'er we, who are brought into the bond of his covenant and have cast our souls upon it, can be lost .after all and sink into perdition, This is our privilege, to know that we have an unchangeable God, and that, only through him, we are kept Unchangeable too. In this view, we are made hoth happy and holy at once: Happy, because We are safe in our Gbd; and holy in him, because we are led to depend upon him, and to receive out of his fullness grace'for grace. This grace is the pledge of our interest in the covenant, and canndt be abused. Men-may pervert the notidn, but they cannot corrupt the thing^ for ^he.possession, of the pledge will always spur the diligence,
holiness, and hope of those, on whom God hath Been pleased to confer if.' '' -''
And how doth it fill every gracious heart with wonder and joy, that God should be pleased to dwell thus in very deed •with man! 2 Chron. vi; 18. That he should have thoughts of love and complacency for sinners, traitors, and rebels! *4' Next to the love of Christ, (said a good man) in taking our nature, we may wonder at the love of the Spirit, in taking up his residence in such deSled souls, and' turning a dungeon into a temple, a prison into a paradise, yea, an hell 'into an heaven." And in another place, he .adds, " to make so little grace so victorious of corruption;
this rfequireth a spirit more than human; this is -to preserve fire as in the sea, and a part of heaven as it were in hell. Here we know where to have this power, and to Whom to return the praise of it."* It is matter of wonder upon earth to every believer, that God should have mercy upon him; and he is ever ready to ask, u Why vte., Lord, why me? Who am J, and what is my father's house., that Thou bast brought me hitherto? I deserved nothing but hell 5 and thou hast placed me in the full view of heaven! I sought death in the error of my life; and thou hast giveii tne hopes' of life everlasting !"—And:it is a matter of wonder, and will alvvays be a matter of wonder in heaven itself: The very angels' desire to pry into it. The love of their Maker is so deep, that, though they pry, the cannot see to its bottom: It is too vast and profound for even the capacious and subtle intellect; of anj;els. The world above is full of rapturous astonishment, anfi ndmires the love, which was ftronger than death, and the -pity, which encountered rebellion to save. All heaven exults in the effusion of unbounded mercy, and welcomes the sinner, the reclaimed, the pardoned, the exalted sinner, to his mansion of peace. And heaven sees and owns, that the whole is everlasting grace, and that its lowest tribute is everlasting glory. Let us join, beloved souls, let us join this delighted, this majestic throng, in pouring forth the richest praise of our souls for - benignity and blessings of grace showered down, not upon them but on us. Shall they therefore triumph with transport for us? And shall not we join with them to acclaim aloud for ourselves? Shall human hearts be dull; when for these very hearts all heaven is full of joy 1 —O forbid it mercy, truth, and love divine!—Come, thou gracious Spirit, for thou-only canst inspire thankfulness and praise; come and inspire theitf-irrto'erery believing soul:P (3 {til us with' tHe sein-se of that faithfulness and truth,'which
'*dr. Sibbks in his Bruised Reed j, one of the most comfortable books of practical divinity, in our language, for mourning'and af
-fficYeu Christians. His Fountain Sealed ls"anbihj?r excfellem' Svbrfc*
aJ d written in a style above his time.
Btooped so low from hearen, only for the purpose of leading us thither j nor let us dishonor such unmerited bounty, either by liring •without its power, or beneath its dignity and our own! Thou hast exalted us by grace; suffer us not to debase and degrade ourselves by sin: But complete, O complete, in thy glory all thy promises concerning us, and our everlastt ing relation unto thee! Then, with unabating ardor, shall we join the innumerable hosts above, and shout, as they shout for ever; Holy, Holt, Holy, Lord God Almighty, •who wast, and art, and art to come »thou art ivortby, O Lord to receive glory, and honor, and power ; for Thou bast created all things, andfor thy pleasure they are and were cretf* ted! Even so: Amen.
A P O N A I.
THE sense of this title hath been explained in the former volume, in which it was observed, that pur translators have usually rendered it by the word Lord, and printed it in common or small characters, to distinguish it from the word Jehovah, which also they have rendered Lord, but have placed it in Roman capitals. But though this rendering has been adopted by them in imitation of other translators; the sense of the two words Jehovah and Adonai is much more re^ mote from each other than their sound.
As this title is applied to Christ in almost every page of the Bible, because he is the ruler and disposer, the basis and. support ofhis redeemed; so is it addressed to God the Holy Ghost, for the very same reason, If Christ and the Spirit -were not persons in the Godhead; thig title would be used, to convey the idea of their respective offices and power in re, demption and regeneration, improperly and falsely ; and, con* sequently, the book of God would not be the record of truth. But as this is impossible, it will follow, that the application of this name, in its spiritual intention, is an argument or proof of the divinity of the second and third persons in the Trinity} and, therefore, all that will remain under this head, is to provie, that this application hath been made, and made by God himself. That Christ is so denominated, we have already proved; and that the Spirit claims the same title, it is jthe further purpose of this Essay to shew.
It is the office of the Spirit to reveal the mind, the will, and the things of God. This the apostle fully declares in I Cor. xii. and asserts that whatever gifts, ministrations, OF operations., are enjoyed by or wrought in the people of God,
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