been fully accomplished. Nor does the gift of the Holy Spirit imply Vi sions, Raptures, or any enthusiastic Appearances or Impressions; for these can be no Proofs now of Truths already communicated and proved; nor are they promised in the standard of truth to any man, because they are no longer necessary for the establishment of faith, and because the salvation of believers is carried on without them.

The Gift of the Spirit, then, must be understood agreeably to the declarations made in the Scriptures concerning his office in the Covenant of Grace; which declarations import all that is necessary to be known and realized for the conversion, edification, and final happiness, of those persons who are interested in it; or, in other words, the whole Church of God from the beginning to the end of the world. It does not imply or impart any new revelation,

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revelation, but enables the mind to understand and digest, so far as is necessary for each man's particular welfare, the revelation already given and established, which contains in it the whole plan and accomplishment of human redemption.

Accordingly; we find, that the great leading objects of this Paraclete, this Promise of the Father, this Sentone of the Son, this indispensable Agent of Salvation, are such as these ; -to enliven, to enlighten, to renew the soul, and to translate it from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son -to impress upon it, as a mean to this end, a deep sense of the spirituality and condemning force of the Holy Law, by which the soul feels its bondage, beholds its ruin, abhors itself with Job "in dust and ashes," and is made, more or less, cuttingly or keenly alive to the horrible nature of sin and to the inborn

.

sinfulness

sinfulness of the heart, in all its desires, passions, and powers. This operation is called in the holy Scriptures a quickening with Christ, a resurrection from the death of trespasses and sins, a new life from the dead; because, till this solemn event passes upon the soul, it is without true sense or knowledge of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit, of its own real state and condition, of the deep malignity of sin, of the falsehood and folly of self-righteousness, and of the purport of the Scriptures, which point out these truths, and which, plain as they are in themselves, are not understood and cannot be understood by the natural man, nor by any man, but as he is taught by the effective and internal energy of the Holy Ghost. When this first and very essential work is, according to the divine purpose, wrought within the soul, the Holy Spirit carries on his sacred office, by presenting the grace and

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and glory of the Gospel to the eyes of the mind, and by establishing that principle of life, which is called the new man, the inner man, the newbirth, a new creation, &c. and then he enables the soul, through this principle of gracious life, both to receive faith as his free and blessed gift, and to act faith by his influential power; and then afterwards, in the course of faithful acts, humbly and meekly to embrace Christ in all his offices, for pardon, righteousness, peace, sanctification, and redemption. By the precious gift of this living, or lively, faith in Christ, the darkness and doubts, always incident to man's fallen reason, are gradually dispelled, and the mind lifted up above the vain janglings and disputes of ungracious and unenlightened men, destitute of the truth, to whom the gain of nature in one way or other is all the godliness they know or desire. In this way it is,

that

that these words are verified; he that is spiritual, judgeth all things, (i.e. all things relative to spiritual life,) yet he himself is judged of no man-of no man, unacquainted with this gracious faith, which is both the activity and principle of that spiritual life. In doing this great work for the soul, the Holy Spirit imparts light, silences doubts, casts down reasonings, which are at best but coloured doubts and often impudent blasphemies, and fixes the heart upon Christ as its only rock and refuge, with an ardent desire to renounce all help and all hope beside this Lord of Glory. The Holy Spirit, in farther carrying on this business, raises love to Christ within the breast, and a sanctified affection to every person, truth, or circumstance, which appears to belong to him. The happy partaker of this mercy is framed, by succeeding degrees of growth or edification, into the image of Christ; deB 6 lights