the founding of God's bowels towards us, and the repeated discoveries of his love to us in Christ Jesus; the heavenly sense and divine glee that fprings up by the Spirit, under the impreffions that attend the divine presence being about our path and about our bed; the fweet rays of divinity that often appear in the word, plowing up the deep mysteries, and leading the enlightened mind, by a glorious radiance, out of one mystery into another, establishing the foul in the glorious harmony that appears in the word; when crooked things are made ftraight, rough places plain, and apparent difcords are made to harmonize; the delightful and foul-enriching thoughts of poor worms being indulged with accefs to God, and with boldness, freedom, and familiarity with him; and to hold communion and fellowship both with the Father and the Son; and, at the fame time, to fee the word of God tally with all the divine teaching, influences, and operations of the moft Holy Spirit of God upon us; and to be fenfibly under the divine fmiles of heaven; to be acquainted with the private thoughts of God's heart, which are thoughts of good and not of evil, to give us an expected end! How many tranfient visits! how many transforming views! what fympathy does the God of all grace difcover to us in trouble! what fuccour does he afford! what fupport does the heart feel in a trying hour! how fenfibly does he rent the heavens and come down to our relief! Ifa. lxiv. 1, He admits our hopes within the vail, and our af fections fections to his own right hand, where Chrift fitteth. His bleffed presence, when he shines upon the foul, casts a divine luftre upon the whole work of his hands; his brilliant perfections shine in both globes; bis glory covers the heavens, and the earth is full of his praife. Hab. iii. 3. The aftonishing condefcenfion of God, in ftooping fo low to visit us, makes us lefs than nothing. The distance and difproportion between God and fuch worms appear to be more, if poffible, than infinite; and yet charity, that believeth all things, fays, at the fame time, and that with the witness on earth and the record of heaven, "I dwell in God, and God dwells in me." The divine hints dropped for faith to catch, the mysterious leadings of his providence, the goodness that paffes daily before us, and the mercy and truth that follow us; the watchful eye of God upon us; the most minute circumstances which are so fenfibly observed by him; the deaf ear that he turns to all our exclamations against ourselves; the divine approbation; the love, the paternal embraces, which are forced upon us, which we, when self-abased, coyly fhun and try to put away, judging ourselves unworthy his clemency! These things, and thousands more, which my poor foul has enjoyed, and with which the word of God abounds, are all couched under the feal; which no natural man, however bright his parts, or however profound his learning, can touch, much less discover, and bring to the light. Natural men in the miniftry are broken cifterns, wells without water, clouds without rain, lamps without oil, and a crufe without falt. One dead discourse from a minifter of the letter is fufficient to caft the moft lively foul into a deep fleep, to lay the most enlarged faint in irons, and to make a watered garden like a barren heath. Spiritual lethargy, legal bondage, and foul-beggary, are all that ever I got from fuch minifters; and I have formerly had enough of this hard fare. They turn a house of prayer into a prifon, and freeborn citizens into flaves. The believer, as a living epiftle, has all the contents of God's laws written upon his heart, fealed and kept fecret from the world; for the men of the world can neither fee them nor believe them, though he declares them. He is fealed with the affurance of faith, which fixes his heart. He is fealed with the love of God in Chrift Jefus, which is his circumcifion, and a fure fign and feal of the righteoufnefs of Chrift being his; for love cafteth out fear, and believeth all things. Chrift, his foundation, is fealed; the covenant, and all its rich contents, which are hid from the world, are fealed alfo, and made fure to him; but not concealed, nor hid from him. Every wholesome truth, promife, or doctrine of Chrift; every reproof or rebuke that gives inftruction; together with all the cautions, warnings, and fecret counfels, which are given by the great prophet of the church; are clothed with power, impressed upon upon the foul, and fixed, as with a feal, upon his heart. For God Speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. `In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep fleep falleth upon men, in lumberings upon the bed; then be openeth the ears of men, and fealeth their inftruction; that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. Job xxxiii. 14-16. Without this fealing Satan and his heretics would foon fteal away the word fown in the heart; as we often see in men of the greatest abilities, when the word is only received in the understanding and in the judgment. These are often feduced, and led to believe the greatest abfurdities; and fo would the elect themselves, were it not for the feal which attends the word. Truth, when fealed, makes the confcience free; and fuch fouls fet to their feal that God is true. Truth, then, reaches the affections; it is received in the love of it. It is the word of healing that makes us whole; the word of faith which makes us believe; the word of power which makes us obey; the word of wisdom which makes us wife unto falvation; the word of health which cures all our fpiritual difeafes, attended with the abundance of peace; a word of light to guide our feet into the way of peace. It is the word of righteousness which makes us just; and the word of reconciliation which makes us friends. It is the promise of adoption which makes us fons; the promise of life which makes us heirs; and the promife of victory through grace which makes us more more than conquerors. All this, and much more, attends the fealing of our inftruction. Hence the impoffibility of the elect being finally deceived. Satan tries hard at the young believer, and fends the moft wife and fubtle fervants in all his intereft to do the fame: but the young believer, juft verged out of his bondage, and delighting himself in his liberty, and living upon little elfe but his divine comforts; and finding that these heretics bring nothing to his mind but confufion and bondage, which strip him of his sweet morfels; he foon begins to be afraid of them; he fhuns them, and fufpects them to be thieves and robbers: and he is quite right, for they are nothing else. And the Holy Spirit continues to revive and renew the work; this brings the foul again and again forth to the light. And every time the Lord fhines into his heart the impoftor is more and more difcovered; while he feels his own heart the more ftrengthened, grounded, and settled in the truth. By this feal the image of God is impreffed; and this is done upon the foul by the Spirit, while Jefus Chrift is exhibited to the enlightened understanding, and to the eye of faith: as it is written, But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the fame image from glory ta glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. iii. 18, Various are the views that believers have of Chrift Jefus while the Holy Spirit operates and makes this change, or impreffes this image on the foul. Abra ham, |