sent, and working in us: and that consideration may best account for St. Paul's meaning, where he says, "Work "out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it "is God that worketh in you;" and so on. There is nothing in this matter which takes off from the transporting pleasure of a clear and good conscience, grounded upon the stable support of a well spent life, the only sure anchor to rest upon, and that no otherwise than as it finally rests in the all-sufficient merits of Christ Jesus, which alone can supply the defects of our own righteousness, or render even our best services accepted.

But the greater the comfort of a good conscience is, the more solicitous ought we to be, that we proceed upon sure grounds in the judgment which we make of our own selves; and that we mistake not presumption or self-admiration for true peace of mind. Many marks might be mentioned, whereby to distinguish one from the other: but it may suffice to point out one which is the surest of any; namely, growth in goodness, growth in grace. The progress of the Christian life is gradual; and our highest attainments here are a still growing perfection. Examine your title to the comforts of a good conscience by this rule; and you shall find it will not deceive you. If we are daily improving in wisdom and virtue, gaining ground of our vices or passions more and more; if we find ourselves more patient under adversity, and less puffed up in the day of prosperity; if we perceive that we can bear affronts or injuries with more calmness and unconcernedness, and are more disposed than formerly to forget and forgive; if we have greater command over our appetites, and can take delight in temperance, soberness, and chastity; if, instead of doing wrong to any man, we find ourselves more and more inclined to kindness, friendliness, and charity; if, instead of hanging back, with respect to religious duties, we find our relish for them heightened, our devotions raised, and our ardours more inflamed; if our attachments to the world grow weaker and weaker, and our aspirations towards heaven every day stronger and stronger, the

nearer we approach to the end of our race; I say, if we find matters thus to stand, (upon the strictest inquiry we can make into our hearts and lives,) then may we, upon sure grounds, judge favourably of our present state and circumstances, and may humbly presume that God is in us of a truth, and that we are, by the grace of God, through the merits of Christ Jesus, in the high road to salvation.

SERMON XXVI.

The Nature and Manner in which the Holy Spirit may be supposed to operate upon us and the Marks and Tokens of such Operation.

ROM. viii. 14.

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

OUR present high festivala, which is of ancient standing in the Church of Christ, is peculiarly dedicated to the honour of the Holy Spirit, a Divine Person, partner with the Father and the Son, in the one eternal, all-glorious Godhead. Divine wisdom has vouchsafed herein to apprise us of the relation we bear to each Person, and the dependence we have upon them all, that we also (among other creatures) may pay our dutiful homage and adoration accordingly.

All the Persons of the Godhead are represented, in sacred Writ, as jointly concurring in our creation and preservation, and jointly contributing, in mysterious order, to our redemption and final salvation: but the present occasion obliges me to confine myself chiefly to what concerns the third Person, his presence with us, and his kind offices towards us.

He is set forth, in the New Testament, as our Comforter, abiding among usb, and as dwelling in usc :

a

Whitsunday.

b John xvi. 7. xiv. 16.

e 1 Cor. iii. 16.

and that, not with respect to our souls only, but even our bodies also, these tabernacles of clay: for they likewise have the honour to be considered as the sacred temple wherein he is pleased to resided. They are thereby sanctified, for the present, and sealed also, for the time to come: "sealed unto the day of" their " redemption ";" that is to say, marked out, and insured for a happy and joyful resurrection to life eternal. "For as many as are "led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God;" and therefore, (as soon after follows in the same chapter,) "if children, then heirs, and joint heirs with Christ—that "we may be glorified together f." In discoursing farther, it will be proper to show,

I. What it is to be led by the Spirit; or what it is that the Holy Spirit does for the furthering our salvation.

II. How and in what manner he may be supposed to act, or operate.

III. By what marks or tokens it may be seen that he does operate upon us, and that we are led by him.

IV. What is the use and improvement which we are concerned to make of the whole.

I.

As to the first particular, which relates to the Spirit's leading us in our way to salvation, it is observable, that our blessed Lord, taking his solemn leave of his disciples, a little before his Passion, consigned them, as it were, over to the care and guidance of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, who would "guide them into all truths," and would "abide with them," and with the Church after them, "for ever h." He repeated the same promise to them a little before his ascension into heaven, as appears from the history of Acts i. 5, 8.

This, however, is not to be so understood, as if the Holy Ghost were now our sole conductor, exclusive of the other two Divine Persons: for our blessed Lord, in the

very same place where he promises to send the Comforter to "abide with us for ever," promises also, that the Father and himself shall make the like abode with good Christians. "If any man love me," says he, "my "Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and "make our abode with him." Elsewhere he promises to his disciples his own spiritual presence, to continue with them, as long as the Church or the world should last. "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of "the world. Amen k." From all which it is plain, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, are equally present to good men in all ages of the Church; and that when our Lord spake of his departing, and leaving the world, he meant it barely of his bodily absence and because, from the time of his ascension, he was to be present, only in a spiritual and invisible way, as a spirit, and together with the Holy Spirit; therefore he considered his Church from thenceforwards as being peculiarly under the guidance of the Holy Ghost; though, strictly speaking, it is under the spiritual guidance of all the three Persons. Hence it is, that such spiritual guidance (which often goes under the name of grace, in the New Testament) is sometimes ascribed to the Father, sometimes to the Son, and sometimes to the Holy Ghost, as it is the common work of all; and may be indifferently and promiscuously attributed to any of them singly, or to all of them together. So we find mention made, more than once, of the "grace of our Lord Jesus Christ;" and of the "grace of God," meaning God the Father: and yet the Holy Ghost is emphatically and eminently styled "the Spirit of grace," as being, some way or other, more immediately concerned in the work of grace, and thereby uniting true believers both with the Father and the Son.

Now, for the clearer conception of what grace means, in this emphatical sense, and of what the Holy Spirit does in the work of grace upon the minds of the faithful; we