are the same. * Christ is the great bolocaust of his church, that sacrificé slain, burned, and ascending by fire unto the Lord. He offered up himself without spot; yet not alone, but (as the great commentator upon the Jewish ritual explains it) through the ETERNAL SPIRIT, of whom the fire was an instituted emblem. God receives by this Spirit the propitiation of Christ the sacrifice; and his people become thereby, with all their services, (according to the language of the Old Testament which the apostle uses, and, by using, explains) a sweet savour of Christ unto God. Compare 2 Cor. ii. 15. with Eph. v. 2. Here, then, we are to come the proper office-character of this MosT HIGH and HOLY SPIRIT, and may perceive, that as one of the divine persons must be God Most High, to atone and merit for the redeemed; so it is needful, that another of the divine persons should carry up the memorial of this before the throne, and apply the benefit of it to their souls. Here too we may learn, what our Lord means, when he says, no man bath ascended up to Heaven, but be that came down from Heaven, even the Son of man, which is in Heaven. John iii. 13. No man, but the God-man, could ascend as a propitiation before the throne, even He who came down from Heaven for that purpose, and who, respecting his divine nature, is ever in Heaven. We may also learn hence another most important, yet often forgotten, truth; that no service of our's can ascend up to God, but in Christ Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. We have no recommendation, and can have none, which will be accepted, but. Christ: We have no strength or grace, and can have none, but by the operation of the Holy Ghost. Thus one person in the MOST HIGH must lead us, through another, up to the third; in which act we have communion with the whole, and, hereafter, when we have parted with sin and corruption, shall have an uninterrupted and perfect enjoyment of the whole to all eternity. This is the true reception of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity; and, without it, all the rest is but as idle a subject of dispute, as the quidlibets and quodlibets of the schools. This Spirit Most High raises his people to the bigh and boly place, which his own word hath set before them. There is no possession of grace, nor progression in grace, but by him. He instills heavenly thoughts; he imparts heavenly frames; he carries on the heavenly work in the soul, which *To this effect Gregory excellently says; Una est ecclesia electorum, præcedentium et sequentium. Antiqui patres non divisi a S. Ecclesia fuerunt; quia mente, opere, prædictione, ista jam fidei sacramenta tenuerunt, &c. Apud SPANH. Hist. Christ. sæc. vi. col. 1065. is to prepare it for an eternal heaven and for God. This is called, and justly called, ascending to heaven in the mind, and the raising up of the affections to things above. All this is performed by the power of the Spirit Most High. Believ ers, under the old Testament, were privileged to wait upon the Lord for a renewal of their strength, and to mount up with wings as eagles. Is. 40. 31. They could not rise upwards of themselves in their souls, more than in their bodies; but the Spirits, who is described here under the well-known emblem of the wings of the eagle, would bear them aloft to his holy habitation. It is his office to do this. When Ezekiel was lifted up, it was by the spirit; and, by the spirit, was Philip carried through the air from the Eunuch to Azotus: And what he did for their bodies, he doth for all his people's souls. He beareth them on high. From this sinful and perishing world he lifts them up to heaven, and never fails to bless them all the way thither. In this consists the bealth of the soul; and it is remarkable, that the word nyn, which signifies medicine, or actual bealing, or bealth procured by medicine, is derived from the same root. Man's nature, in falling from God, became sick and diseased both in body and soul. The Holy Spirit works this healing in the soul, purges out its corrupt and sinful affections, and establishes it finally in the perfection of life. There is neither health, nor increase of health, without him. What a blow doth this truth give to all the pride, and power, and presumption of man! It slays unrighteousness and self-righteousness at once. It shews that there is no life, nor health, nor strength, nor activity, nor will, nor any other principle of grace and truth, in any creature, but by his immediate inspiration and “ continual help." When the soul is brought to an experimental acquaintance with this doctrine (and all God's people, more or less, do experience it,) there is an end of all strife in the conscience, respecting free-will, free-agency, inherent power, and those other absurd opinions, which the foolish and ignorant pride of fallen man hath prepared (like,so many empty bladders upon the sea) to swin by into eternity. The believer sees, that though, like blown bladders they seem large and round, and full; they are only empty fancies, or doctrines swelled out of measure with air. They are winds of doctrine, and doctrines of wind. They have neither life, nor truth, nor power: And this is evident in those who espouse them. They, for the most part, are strenuous contenders for these matters; but do nothing but talk in honor of them. The es tablished church is become heterodox, in the opinion of thou sands of its members, and it would be happy if it were not so in the esteem of many of its ministers too; especially where she declares, that "the condition of man, after the fall of Adam, is such, that be cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith, "and calling upon God: Wherefore we have no power to do 66 good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the "grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a "good will, and working with us when (dum while we have "that good will." Art. x. Alas! how many subscribe to this sound formulary e contra, instead of ex animo, and have the effrontery to justify it too! what a wretched salvo do they also make, who divide the articles into two contrary senses, and cause them to appear, deceitful and monstrous like the devil, with a cloven foot; who set the church at variance with itself, and force it to blow hot and cold, to vent error and truth, in the same breath!-Pudet hæc opprobria nobis. By this Highest of all the spirits of the just are finally made perfect. They are fitted for their mansions, and their mansions for them, by his agency. What these mansions are we know not, and in this state of sense we cannot know; be. cause they are spiritual receptacles for the residence of saved spirits to the judgment day; and we do not understand the nature of a spiritual existence. But, hereafter, we shall know, even as also we are known. In the mean time, however, we may be sure, that, as nothing defiled can enter into heaven, our spirits shall be purified by that Spirit of Burning, through whom our forerunner and sacrifice offered up himself without spot unto God, and in whom we shall be unblameable and unreproveable in his sight. Thus the MOST HIGH raiseth his his people, from death to life, from sin to grace, from grace to glory, and then from glory to glory, world without end. What manner of love is this! Can sinners know! Can angels tell! Angels cannot tell the manner; but recovered sinners know the love. They have tasted that the Lord is gracious; and they know that taste, though they cannot fully explain it. And this thou canst testify, O believer, for thyself, and for others. Thine bands bave kandled of the world of life: Thy spiritual sense has been exercised with its perception: Thou hast been led to communion with the highest, by the fellowship of the Spirit Most High. 1 John i. 1-3. This hath taught thee to make a right estimate of thyself, and of all sublunary things; so that thou art no longer a slave to the opinions and customs of the world, which exalts low and trifling matters, and turns away from the most momentous and important concerns from concerns, which with all its madness and folly, it will allow to be important and momentThe acquisition of temporal things, what is it, after all, but an argument of poverty and want? Men court honors, titles, dignities: And what are these?-The empty ad ous. miration of the croud! And then, what becomes of that admiration, when the croud is no more?* All these things, as they begin, do quickly end in a sound. But the possession of grace is not only happiness, so far as it is used, but the pledge of an enduring substance, of joys unspeakable and full of glory. In thy right frame, fellow-christian, thou hast set this present world in view of the world to come, and compared them well together. The balance of the account is, millions against nothing, in favour of eternity. Hence, thou canst account it to be but a poor business to be wise, and rich and reputable, only for a season and in man's deceived esteem; and, then, to be found foolish, and poor, and base, throughout the never-ending ages, An heathen could justly say, respecting this world; "he most enjoys riches, who wants them least" But this cannot be said of the world to come; for the riches of eternity are indispensable, and the soul must be miserable in the extreme, which doth not possess them. He, who doth not obtain the inheritance of the Most High, must be thrust down to the lowest hell. Thus thine estimate is formed, according to the extent and perpetuity of the object, and not according to the world's advertisement, which is ever fallacious. Even the pledge of thy future portion is not to be exchanged for all, that the world contains; and much less for what any one poor worm can possess upon it. And if this pledge cannot be bartered without loss; where is the gain, if, for any thing or for all things, a man throw away the eternal felicity of his soul? How often doth thy beart, O believer, burn within thee upon the prospect of the glory, which shall soon be revealed! The Spirit Most High will cause thee to ascend both to the boliest and to the highest of all, and even now often bears thee up, above the world and all dying things, in the contemplation of these transcendent blessings. When thy frame is quick and lively, much with God, or much employed for him; what a man out of the world dost thou feel thyself? Thou seemest to be living in another element, upon a different bottom, and upon a higher principle, at such moments, than animal nature can know, or animal sense inspire. Thy enjoyment is pure and exalted, like the complacency of heaven. Then all thy heavenly graces flow. "Faith says, all these wonders belong to believers; hope cries, they then are preserved for me; and love adds, I run to enjoy them." * Acquisitio hujus sæculi, quid, nisi inopiæ et paupertatis argumentum? Afectamus etiam honores, titulos, dignitates: hæc quid? nisi vana admiratio vulgi: et qualis ista, si desit vulgus? MORN. de ver. rel. chr. c. 18. Is maxime divitiis fruitur,qui minime divitiis indiget.SENECA.Ep.14. BERNARD. in Ps. xc. Blessed be God! Thou shalt enjoy them. God never gave a gracious desire, but to fulfill it with grace, and to crown it with glory. He is faithful, who bath promised: And heaven and earth shall sooner pass away, than one tittle of his word can fail. Thou hast an unchangeable God, whose gifts and callings are without repentance, who never gave grace to be lost, and never quickened for heaven, to furnish for hell, What consolation, what strong consolation arises from this glorious immutability of thy Covenant-Lord! Sensible of thy own weakness and blindness, this is the very elenchus, the force, the life, and the marrow, of the gospel to thee. Take away this; and O what a gloom! What a melancholy horror appears! All is dark, because all is doubtful. All would be distressing, if the success of any part depended upon thee. The sense of thy incapacity, the power of thine enemies, and the very weight of glory itself, would sink thee down to dispair. Thou hast an argument for the Spirit's divinity, which the careless and the carnal professor cannot know, and feel est in thy soul (not merely fanciest in thy head) that nothing but the invincible strength of the Most High is able to quell such a wide combination of evil, and to preserve, amidst all, to the full introduction and establishment of eternal good. Nothing revives thee more, than the demonstration afforded by his word without thee, and his grace within thee, that this invincible and immutable God is engaged to bless, keep, and multiply his mercies upon thee without alteration, without remission, and without end. O how delightful is it to be assured, agreeable to those excellent lines of Dr. WATTS, that The sacred word of grace is strong, As that which built the skies : Engrav'd, as in eternal brass, The mighty promise shines; Nor can the pow'rs of darkness raze my "I may be faint and weary (says the believer,) but my God cannot. I may alter and fluctuate, as to my frames; but Redeemer is unchangeably the same. I might utterly fail and come to nothing, if left to myself but I cannot be left to myself, for the Spirit of truth hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. He will renew my strength, either by changing my weakness into strength, or by enduing me with bis own power. He is wise to foresee and to provide for all my dangers: He is rich to relieve and to succour me in all my wants: He is gracious to hear and answer all my pray |