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August 24.

NAt

(237) St. Barth. or Nathanael.

Athanael anfwered and faid unto him, Rabbi, thou art the
Son of God, thou art the King of Ifrael, John i. 49.

A Beginning of Grace, which, perhaps, appears very small and inconfiderable in the Eyes of Men, is capable of bringing us intirely unto God, when he sheds abroad his Light and Love in our Hearts. This Faith of Nathanael is much to be admired, and yet it is but a fmall Specimen, as it were, of that which the Son of God was to produce in the Hearts of fo many Jews and Gentiles. Let us fhew towards this divine Mafter, the Humility proper to Difciples; towards this only Son of God, the Refpect and Reverence of true Christians; and towards this King, the Obedience and Submiffion of faithful Subjects; That Jesus may fay of every one of us, as he did when he faw (Bartholomew) Nathanael coming to him, Behold, an Ifraelite indeed, in whom is no Guile.

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Take my Nature's Strength away,
Every Comfort, every Stay,
Every Hind'rance of thy Love,
All my Power to act or move:
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Fain I would be truly still,
Fain I would be without Will,
Simple, innocent, and free,
Free from all that is not Thee.

THE

'HE Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jefus Chrift, John i. 17.

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The Law was given to awaken, admonish, and to cause the Sinner to seek after Grace; Grace is given to perfect and fulfil the Law by Love; and Truth to disperse the Darkness of Idolatry, the Shadows of Judaism, and the Hypocrify of all Unbelievers. The Servant can do no more than barely publish the Law, and declare the Will of his Mafter; it belongs to JESUS CHRIST, the true God and Saviour of Souls, to take full Poffeffion of them by his Grace, to cause them to love Him as he pleases, and in them to accomplish the Truth of his Promifes, by changing Hearts of Stone into Hearts of Flesh. Lord, do Thou take away the Stone out of my Heart, that Hardnefs which I often feel.

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TH

HE next Day John feeth Jefus coming unto him, and faith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the Sin of the World, John i. 29.

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Bebold here, not the Lamb of the legal Paffover, but him who was typified thereby; not the Lamb, which being offered every Year, and every Day, could not take away Sin, or juftify the Sinner, but him who, being once facrificed on the Crofs, taketh away all the Sins, not only of the Jews, but of all the World. I adore Thee, O JESUS, as the proper and peculiar Victim of God: It is in, by, and with Thee alone, that we are accepted, and permitted to praise and adore him. Grant us thy continual Grace fo to do all the Days of our Life.

Did Jefus for the World atone?

“Yes, for theWorld of the Elect:” Love could not die for fome alone,

And all the wretched Rest reject : For the whole helpless World that lay In defperate Wickedness, he dy'd, And all, who will believe it, may,

With me, be freely juftify'd,

Charg'd with the univerfal Load,

The Sins of every Soul and mine,
By Faith I fee the Lamb of God,
The bleeding Sacrifice divine:
My Sins, transferr'd from me to him,
Shall never be by Juftice found,
All carried down that purple Stream,
All in that open Fountain drown'd!

AND John bare record, faying, I faw the Spirit defcending from Heaven, like a Dove, and it abode upon him, John

i. 32.

CHRIST is the only Perfon worthy to receive the Fulness of the Holy Spirit; and St. John receives the firft Knowledge of fo great a Mystery. The more a Man is filled with the holy Spirit, the better is he able to judge in what Fulness CHRIST received it in order to communicate it. Faith, Purity, Sincerity, Meeknefs, Love, Fruitfulness in good Works, are the bleffed Graces with which Christ and the Holy Ghoft would inspire us; the one the Emblem of a Lamb, the other that of a Dove Grant, O Jesus, that may not be of the Number of those upon whom thy Spirit only defcends but does not abide.

ome Holy Ghoft, all-quick'ning Fire,
Come, and my hallow'd Heart infpire,
Sprinkled with the atoning Blood;
Now to my Soul thy felf reveal,
Thy mighty working let me feel,

And know that I am born of God.

Thy Witnefs with my Spirit bear.
That God, my God, inhabits there,
Thou, with the Father and the Son,
Eternal Lights coeval beam,
Be Chrift in me, and I in Him,
Till perfect we are made in one.

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ESUS answered and faid unto him, Verily verily I fay unto. thee, Except a Man be born again, he cannot fee the King dom of God, John iii. 3.

The firft Step towards returning to God is to renounce our Birth derived from Adam, and to be born again in Jefus Chrift. We must afterwards renounce ourselves, our Will, our Inclinations, and the Prefumption we have of our own Strength, that we may receive new from Jefus Chrift. The Knowledge of the Corruption of our Nature, and of the Neceffity of our being renewed by Chrift, is the very firft Thing which we must learn in the Christian Religion.

The Truth, and Bleffednefs, and Need Marks of this Birth, they all are vain,

Of this great Change I know:

But can witnefs it indeed ?
Can I the Tokens fhow ?

(q)

Without the Spirit's Pow'r, 1

Then only am I born again,

When I love Sin no more.

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