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newing of our mind. Then he intimates that one branch of this renewing is a divine confidence, which he calls a perfuafion in the mind. Then he tells us that fuch have the mind of Chrift, being partakers of the spirit of power and of a found mind; and then he is exprefs in the whole, and screws us up to the higheft key, calling it the mind of the Spirit. And this accounts for what I have often been amazed at, and in a moft fingular manner was exercised with, in one day, not long fince. I found, in the early part of the day, much undeserved and unexpected indulgence in my approaches to the Lord. I had received fome accounts of fuccefs in the ministry, and fome cheering rays of the Lord's countenance, and not a few fimiles of his providence. My foul moved in concert with the fweet impreffions, and nothing was uppermoft in my mind but God my Saviour, his goodness to me, his work in me, and my expectations of future blifs anticipated by faith, and already in hope. Soon after this, in the fame day, things counter to all the above indulgences occurred, and I found my mind as inflexible, ftubborn, envious, and as rebellious as the enemy of fouls could make it, which covered me with fhame and confufion; and, if I do not forget, I had no lefs than three of these changes that fame day. At this time Paul's law in the members and in the mind came fresh into my thoughts; and upon thefe I meditated, pondered,

and exercised myself at times for a month or fix weeks before I began to preach upon these subjects; and I came to this conclufion, that, when we are, as John fays, in the Spirit, faith, life, power, and heavenly things, are uppermost, yea, all in all and at other times, when in the furnace, there is the reverfe of all these. John, in his Revelation, twice mentions being in the Spirit; "And immediately I was in the Spirit." And again, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day;" which fhews that thefe indulgences were not perpetual, and that at certain feafons he was in some things the reverfe of this; and what can that be but being, in fome fenfe, in the flesh? which is the only oppofite to being in the Spirit.

That faculty of the foul, which is called the mind, is but one, although we read of a carnal mind and a fpiritual mind. The Spirit is faid to transform us by renewing the mind; and to have the mind fpiritual is life and peace. The life of the Spirit is in the mind, and peace with God in the confcience. And, to raise our thoughts ftill higher, he fays this is the Spirit of a found mind, and then he says, "We have the mind of Chrift;" and, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Chrift Jefus," and, laftly, he exprefsly calls it the mind of the Spirit, because he is the fole and whole controller, influencer, and operator in the mind of the believer, and produces all the lively exercises, motions, delights, pleasure, and fatisfac

tion, which are enjoyed under his quickening and comforting administration.

And this is a wonderful mystery, that the mind of the Spirit, life, peace, and heavenly things, fhould be fo fenfibly and fo deeply felt and enjoyed, as to make the foul a heaven upon earth, Jeremiah xxxi. 26; and then, in less than an hour after, carnality, enmity, rebellion, wrath, and bitterness, should work fo powerfully in the felfsame part, Lam. iii. 15.

But this is Paul's touchftone; "They that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit," Rom.viii. 5. The believer fets his heart upon thefe, be his inward frames what they may; and the things of the Spirit, that he minds, and feels, and follows after, are the following-He highly prizes the promised affiftance of the Spirit helping his infirmities in prayer; he knows without this there is no freedom of fpeech or of foul, no enlargement, no energy, no boldness, no access, no pouring out the foul before God, nor cafting our cares and burdens on him, no troubles left behind, nor refreshings brought down. The foul returns from the well of falvation with the pitcher empty, and covers his head because there is no water.

2. The grand evidences of the believer's adop tion are the things of the Spirit, which a child of God fets his heart much upon; and thefe are, firft, the Spirit's cry of "Abba, Father," with a full perfuafion in the heart of the truth of it; and

likewife the witness of the Spirit, he bearing witnefs with our spirits that we are the children of God.

3. The liberty of the Spirit, or deliverance from legal bondage and flavifh fear, is highly efteemed by the believer alfo; "Reftore unto me the joy of thy falvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit."

4. The confolations of the Spirit, fpringing from a lively hope, from the powerful application of the promises, from a fenfe of God's gracious prefence, and of his acceptance and approbation of us in Chrift Jefus. These are highly prized by spiritual men, and the reverfes of them are a fore trouble; "The Comforter that should relieve my foul is far from me," Lam. i. 16.

5. The graces of meeknefs and humility are highly prized by the believer, for in the exercise of these he finds the greatest access to God, and the sweetest union with him; and he is then in the best frame to receive any inftruction, impresfion, or love-token, from him. "Seek the Lord, all ye meck of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; feek righteoufnefs, feek meeknefs," Zeph. ii. S.

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6. The love of the Spirit is a moft choice treasure to the child of God, because it is the bond of the covenant, the marriage ring, the badge of the chriftian profeffion, and the nobleft member of the new man. It enlarges the heart, and makes

the face to fhine; it purges the heart of its idols, of fear and torment, and of all the mercenary meanness which reigns and rules in the beggarly souls of fervants. "Let him kifs me with the kiffes of his lips; for thy love is better than wine," Song i. 2. I might have added patience,fubmiffion, joy, peace, light, life, knowledge, &c. for the believer minds all these things, and these are the things of the Spirit.

Now the apoftle fays, "With the mind I myfelf ferve the law of God;" by which he means not the moral law, but the law of faith, or the gofpel, which he declares when he fays, "God is my witness, whom I ferve with my spirit in the gofpel of his Son," Rom. i. 9. Serving under the law is ferving in the oldness of the letter; but Paul ferved in the newnefs of the Spirit, Rom. vii. 6. And indeed I believe that the Holy Ghost, by his implantation of grace, and by his operations on that grace, is the fole agent of every branch of religious fervice which is acceptable to God through Chrift; and this Paul owns; "I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,' 1 Cor. xv. 10. Paul's labour and fervice were performed by grace; and the Spirit of grace was the efficient and moving caufe of all Paul's fervice. The Spirit prepares the heart, and creates the fruit of the lips. By faith Paul fpake as the gofpel does, Yea and amen. The love of Chrift conftrained,

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