tals. There would be so much error, arrogance, and presumption in such a case, that no good being could be guilty of them; and the attempt itself would be frivolous and contrary to the nature as well as above the powers of an evil one. And why doth God so often claim the epithet of faithful; but because he keepeth promise for ever? The Spirit, for the same reason, is the Spirit of promise, to make good all those engagements, which he declared to the holy men of old, who were moved by him, and which fill the sacred volunie from beginning to end. He spake the promises to them; and he was well qualified to promise, because he is also able to perform. He gave them out, in antient time, by pertinent symbols; and he taught his redeemed both the sense and the experience of those symbols. This Holy Spirit signified; Heb. ix. 8. and then gave his people the purport of the sign. Carnal professors and the world at large, then, as well as now, saw the types and shadows, but took them for ends and substances. But the Spirit imparted the ultimate sense and understanding of them only to the faithful. When the Spirit of promise held forth the promised land, the multitude of mere professors thought of nothing beyond the milk and honey, the worldly ease and worldly comforts, which they might enjoy in it: But the true fews, or real confessors of God, saw through the veil of time, and were taught to consider Canaan, either as the church collectively in one body, or the everlasting residence of the church finally in one place. Concerning Jerusalem itself, they perceived the same, and knew it to be relatively only the boly city, in symbol of that Jerusalem which is above. This was the Canaan and this the Jerusalem they longed for, and in the hope of which they confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth, seeking a better country than fudea, even a beavenly, and a city which HATH foundations [solid and perpetual, which ferusalem had not] whose builder and maker is God. They knew that the land below was an appointed type of the courts above; and they enjoyed it in this frame. Upon this account, the country itself became (as it were) a sacrament to the faithful Jews, and put them in continual mind, that this was not their rest, being polluted, but that heaven only was their home, even the boliest of all, for the forerunner into which they ardently waited, even for Jesus, their High-priest, and our's. All the services of the law likewise were promises and prophecies in disguise; yet known well enough by them, to whom it was given. They were a veil of flesh; but that veil was rent in twain, spiritually by the divine teacher, when saving life and light were brought into their souls, and when they were instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom. Hence the distinction between the outward and the inward Jews; the one

having the veil upon their beart, when Moses was read, and the ceremonies given by Moses were exhibited; the other having that veil done away in Christ, and through faith in him, who was then to come. Christ himself also was promised in this way, and came veiled with human flesh; so that the carnal or outward Jews knew him not, nor saw what a divine and ineffable pearl, far above all price, tabernacled in mortal clay. But those, who were enlightened by the Holy Spirit, were at no loss about HIM, but through all the helpless simplicity of a little babe when he came into the world, beheld him by faith, and acknowledged him to be their salvation. What made the difference between good old Simeon, Anna the prophetess, with others who rejoiced in him, and Hered, with all those who received him not but sought to destroy him? The answer is; That very SPIRIT alone, who brought Simeon into the temple, at the time of his circumcision, and led others to testify of him; as may be read at large in the two first chapters of the gospel by St. Luke. And what makes the distinction between the real Christian and the nominal professor in their lives and deaths even now? Why is the one enabled to live and be happy in the things of God, to rejoice in tribulation and death, and to have ardent desires for the blessings of eternity; while the other passes his fleeting hours in the hot pursuit after dying affairs, cares neither for God nor his soul, for heaven or hell? It cannot be imputed to mere difference of natural understanding; for, usually, those who are esteemed wisest in the world, accept the worse rather than the better part, and are even prone to think the others, as Festus did Paul, mad and beside themselves. Nay, some of the very persons themselves, who have turned from what they conceived to be follies and sins bewitching others, have been people of whose learning, sense, and integrity, no reasonable man could possibly doubt, and the difference of whose conversation and conduct have been obvious to all who knew them; and yet these have frankly and seriously owned, that it was no might, wisdom, or capacity of their own, which effected this change upon them. To what then could it be ascribed? Surely to nothing else but that which they ascribed it to, in strict concurrence with the word of God; even the power and wisdom of the divine Spirit operating upon their souls. By this they lived; for this they prayed; and for the same have all the churches of Christ in all ages of the world prayed most expressly either in liturgies or other solemn addresses to heaven. The Church of England, in particular, reiterates the petitions of this kind throughout her service, and, in the deepest sense of human frailty, implores that the

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"HOLY SPIRIT may in all things DIRECT and RULE our hearts, through Jesus Christ."*

From all this it may appear, that the promises, made in the word, need the Spirit of promise to apply and explain them to believing souls; and that he doth seal this instruction, according to that degree of saving truth which is necessary for them or for others by them, proving himself thereby to be true and very God. And it is an argument which cannot be too much remembered and insisted on, that none but God could do this to myriads of creatures at one and the same instant, in various ages, nations, kingdoms, and tongues, and to the whole world of the blest, without intermission, and without end.

This Holy Spirit is, therefore, well called the Promise itself; because it was often promised under the law, that he

*It seems truly astonishing, how it is possible that a minister of this excellent church should venture to nullify the exercise of the Holy Spirit upon men's souls, or (what is thought at present to be the more decent fashion) to assert that this exercise is so secret, so imperceptible, so resistable, and so extinguishable by men, that they either cannot know when they have its power on them, or can suppress it at their pleasure. That the form of prayer should express or imply in all its parts the absolute necessity of the Spirit's aid, that men should read over these sound words in the desk, and then immediately after deny, reprobate, and even ridicule the whole sense of them in the pulpit, is so very shocking and horrid, that it adds a most dreadful weight to all the other profligacy and unprincipled conduct of the times. The Common Prayer beseeches God to replenish our KING with the grace of his Holy Spirit, and to endue the ROYAL FAMILY with the same Spirit. Where is the loyalty or respect in pretending to ask for a blessing, which is treated by these innovators as a chimera? The congregation is led to ask for the healthful Spirit of grace upon the bishops and clergy, that they may truly please God. Is it not horribly impious to use these words in sound, and to deny them in substance? Or can any clergyman think he can truly please God by so bold a duplicity? The people, immediately 1 after the confession of their sins, are exhorted to beseech God to grant them true repentance and his Holy Spirit. Are they then to request a mere imagination, an unfelt and unknown good, a mere non-enti ty? And is not the telling them this, in a discourse after such a petition and many more of the same kind, a wicked and audacious abuse of their time, patience, and understanding! But when Jesus Christ has said, in a very strong and particular manner, that, much more than a father to give good gifts to his children, God is willing to give the HOLY SPIRIT to them that ask him; who, what, where are they, that will be so wicked and so blasphemous as to assert, that there is no such blessing to be had, or (what is much the same) no such good to be known-Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

should be fully evidenced and manifested to the people of God upon the advent of the Messiah. Huetius, in his Demonstratio Evangelica (Prop. ix. c. 149.) has drawn out some of the most remarkable texts of this kind from the Old Testament, and paralleled them with others from the New, which shew their accomplishment. It would take up too much room to copy the texts at length, as he has done; and therefore it may be sufficient to point only to the places, which the reader may consult at his leisure.-Old Testament. Isaiah xxxii. 15. xliv. 3. lix. 21. Ezekiel xxxvi. 26, 27. xxxix. 29. Joel ii. 28, 29. Zech. xii. 10.- -New Testament. Luke xxiv. 49. John vii. 37, &c. xiv. 16, &c. xv. 26. xvi. 7, &c. xx. 22. Acts i. 4, &c. ii. 1, &c. viii. 15, &c. ix. 17. x. 44, 45. xi, 15, 16. xiii. 2, 3, 4, 9, 52. xv. 7, 8. xix. 2, 6. Romans v. 5. 1 Cor. iii. 16. Gal. iv. 6. 1 John iv. 13. with several other correspondent texts.

What consolation is held forth in this gracious title of the Spirit for the children of God: What assurance of happiness doth it contain? What a pledge of life eternal? There is not a promise revealed in the book of God, but which the believer may look to the Spirit of promise for the performance of it. He took this name for that end. He is the Spirit in the promise, and becomes inherent with the promise itself, as the very life and essence of it; and He is the Spirit of the promise, because he was a party in the divine mind who gave it, and the person in the divine nature who accomplishes it to his people. Looking to him, they can never be disappointed of their hope; for he doth not make promises, nor give his word, according to the little follies of earthly courts, but pledges himself for the performance of them, that his people may rely on him with strong consolation, and entertain a good hope through grace. None of his creatures can charge him with breach of promise: He did not make promises to break them, but to keep them. Nor did he make them at an uncertainty of issue; because no promise was ever given out, but according to that everlasting covenant, which is ordered in ALL things and SURE. So that the promise stands upon the very Godhead itself, and upon all his attributes of wisdom, love, and power: Nor can it fail, till this Rock of Ages fails, but must endure like it for evermore. O what comfort may the troubled weary mind draw from this unfailing spring! Could it but look out from itself, and lay fast hold upon the word of promise; the Spirit of promise would soon witness to his own word, and give the sweetness of it to the hungry soul. But the soul too, too often looks into itself, where it can find nothing but sorrow and sin: It seeks, in this case, the living among the dead. Its hope is risen, and it must rise from the sepulchre of self to follow after, where only it can be found. Let the word be read in faith; and there the

Lord of the word will appear. He will appear to bless in reading, and to carry, from the reading, some strength and savour into the heart and life.

"But (says the troubled Christian) I can see no prospect of help in my case. Providence seems shut up to me. All is darkness and gloom; and I cannot find one cheerful ray in the whole book to guide me on, nor one argument of comfort to support me from sinking."-How many gracious souls are in this situation! They would not be in it, were they not gra cious. Their aim would be, if they were of the world, to Beek relief in the world; and the heavenly record would have stood unopened as to them: And 'tis one good sign of a truly believing soul, when all afflictions or distresses drive it to the Bible, and constrain a longing to receive comfort and support from that quarter. Christian! Hold fast here. Remember thou art privileged to trust a FAITHFUL GOD: And when thy heart droops within thee, cry out; Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief! Do, as the father of the faithful did; against hope believe in hope, according to that which is spoken by thy God. Let go the reeds and the rushes, which float about thee in thy tribulation, and catch hold upon the arm which is stretched out for thine aid. That word, Lord, save, or 1 perish, was never uttered by any one, who perished. He will give thee strength for thy temptation, or provide a way for an escape. And the trial was sent, not for thy distress (for the Lord doth not willingly or causelessly afflict his people,) but to beat thee from thyself, from thy own contrivances, schemes, or power, and to make thee fly for refuge to him. Blessed is that affliction, which endears God to his people: And blessed are those tongues, which can thank God in the affliction, as well as for the affliction. Nor is this too much for faith, when the Spirit of promise enlivens it to embrace a promise; as it appears from the apostle's case, and from the cases of many others, who rejoiced in tribulation, knowing the happy effects of their trial. Rom. v. 3. They did not puzzle themselves about the means of deliverance; but sought first to glorify God in the present dispensation of his providence; and then to embrace those occasions of aid, which that providence put in their way. They wrestled with God, rather than with the world; and, like Jacob, they prevailed. For faith, being of the Spirit, lays hold of the promising word, energizes in the strength of the Spirit, and obtains from God, the fulfilment of his promise, and all the happy consequences which result from it. The promises contain full measure, and over measure; and have in them more than we can ask or think. Were it not for our own weakness, nothing in the world could disturb us. Winds make no impression upon

Vol. II.