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adoption, but the spirit of adoption, which brings with it the heart and temper of a child to a Father of purity and love; who delights in the law of God after the inward man, and hath that inward man wrought in him by the Spirit of Holiness, delivering him from the bondage of corruption in his outward man or fallen nature; who enjoys the grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghoft, not only in the ordinances of religion, but also in his general conduct and converfation in the world. The profeffor, who knows not, and who experiences not, the power and love of thefe things in his foul, may talk, and argue, and write, and preach, about grace and falvation, and, "about it and about it," again and again, for an age, if he lived fo long;; but he would really understand and pofSefs nothing truly of this great matter. Such an one hath not the proper FAITH of God's elect, but a cold, dry, fpeculative,, unproductive notion. He cannot be in

Chrift,

Chrift, as a new creature, or creation; for he lies dead, overwhelmed, unpurgedfrom his old fins of corruption and carnality. Or, to ufe the Apoftle's figures, he is one, who feeds himfelf without fear-a cloud without water-a lamp without oil-a tree, whofe fruit withereth, or without fruit-a raging wave of the fea, foaming out his own fhame—a wandering ftar, to whom is referved the blackness of darkness for ever. Nor can he, in that awful condition, know this important fecret of the Lord, nor this indifpenfable fign of his covenant, that thofe, who are actually pardoned through the blood of Chrift, are gracioufly fealed by the Spirit of Chrift to the day of redemption. None but fuch receive from God true power over inward and outward fin; and this power of God, thus given and thus working in them, turns into a moft convincing teftimony, without which no real Chriftian can endure to live, that in deed and in truth they are the children of God, chofen in Chrift,

Chrift, effectually called by his Spirit, freely redeemed and fully juftified, and fhall finally be faved from wrath, through the faithfulness and omnipotence pledged in their behalf by the three Persons in Jehovah. Whoever hath not this teftimony, is but the shadow of a Christian. And, therefore, whether a man be styled an Arminian, or Calvinift, or any thing else; unless he hath the grace of God truly within him, he is and must be in reality an Antinomian. He will either pervert the law of God in its intentions, or oppofe it by facts. Let this then be written in capitals, to be feen and known of all men; IF ANY MAN HAVE NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE

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§ 89. O how great a thing is it to be a Chriftian! What a mercy to be preferved from erroneous principles, and from finful practices! What a fweet deliverance

fiverance to be kept from, or to overcome, through faith, the intoxications, the fnares, the abominations, of the world, the flesh, and the devil! And yet, who is fufficient for all this, but that allfufficient ONE, on whom the help of his people is laid for this very end? May you and I, dear reader, conftantly look to the gracious High-prieft of our profeffion, who can be touched, as a Brother, with the feeling of our infirmities, being once in all points tempted like as we are, yet without fin; and may we come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need! Let me add, that, thus coming, we shall never be denied, never be fent empty away. Our head-stone Shall ere long be brought forth with Shoutings and with the triumphant cry of, GRACE, GRACE, unto it.*

§ 90. And

*This figurative prophecy, in Zech. iv. 7. was alfo in another view literally fulfilled. The LORD of

Hofts

§ 90. And what is the Chriftian life, but a life divine, begun, continued, and ended, by the fovereign agency of God the Holy Ghoft, of whofe office, in several points of view, we have now been treat

Hofts did bring forth the top, or chief, or head, flowe with fhoutings, when the heavenly multitude fang, at the birth of Jefus, Glory to God in the highest, &c. An earthly harbinger was likewife exprefsly appointed, whose very name should farther teftify, GRACE, GRACE, through this Head-Stone to the long-expecting Church of God. For the word JonN fignifies Grace perfonified; a perfon, who, as a herald, was to proclaim Grace and Truth about to appear through Jefus Chrift. His office, therefore, was to preach the baptifm of repentance; fignifying, by the outward fign and washing of water, the internal washing of regeneration and gracious renewing of the Holy Ghost, whofe difpenfation, when the miffion of the Saviour fhould be fully accomplished, was to introduce (the prophetic fhadows of the law being then

C) the full difplay and efficient power of

vereign kindness and mercy. To all this benignity of the Godhead the Apostle strikingly alludes in Eph. i, 9, 10. and iii. 2-11. which, with Matt. xxi. 1—13, the reader will do well to compare and confider.

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