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Christian. He thus supports him under his burdens. He thus assists him in the most important duty of prayer. He thus teaches him what is the right matter, and what the due manner of supplication. And the humble Christian pouring out all his desires before God, confessing unto him all his sins, adoring his perfections, pleading his promises, dedicating himself to his service, and longing for the fruition of his salvation, is kept in humility and faith, in watchfulness and dependence, in holiness and joy; and is at length brought by the mercy of God to that full redemption, both of body and soul, after which he has so long and perseveringly sighed.

Before we close this subject, it may be proper, I. TO MEET THE DIFFICULTY WHICH IT MAY OCCASION TO A TREMBLING CHRISTIAN.

There are, perhaps, many who may be ready to despond under the idea that they have never reached the heights of devotion which have been above described. They have been strangers to these unutterable groanings; and they fear, therefore, that they are strangers also to prayer and to the intercession of the Holy Spirit. You must observe, then, that there are various degrees in Christian attainments, and that you may be truly devout, though you have not yet advanced so far as to understand the full meaning of some parts of our subject. If you are, indeed, repenting of your sins, believing in Christ Jesus, and obeying the commandments of God, be encouraged to go forward. Already the Holy Spirit must have aided you in your infirmities, or you could not thus have sought and found his grace.

But you are further distressed because you conceive the language of the text to imply some sensible influences of grace, some illapses of the Spirit, some positive and distinct impressions which you have never felt. There cannot be a greater mistake.

The agency of the Spirit, mighty as it is, is yet seeret and imperceptible; and cannot be directly distinguished from the operations of our minds. It is discerned in its effects. It acts in a manner suited to our rational and accountable nature; and is constantly to be tried by the written word of Holy Scripture, and by no other rule. Even the inexpressible emotions to which we have alluded correspond with the revealed will of God; and lead, not to enthusiasm, but to the fulfilment of that will; not to visions, and raptures, and voices, and external and audible groanings; but to purity and humility and devotion and the love of God.

Rely, then, on the silent and sacred guidance of the Holy Spirit. Implore his inspiration, and do homage to his work. Let nothing deter you from persevering prayer-no sense of weakness, no temptations, no fears. Thus shall you be further assisted in the duty. You shall be enabled to lay open your wants, and to plead your whole cause before God. The time will perhaps come, when, in the holy elevations of devotion, you shall feel more than any words can express; and when, in your exercises of sorrow for sin, of faith in Christ Jesus, of love to God, and desires of the heavenly felicity, you shall attain an enlargement of thought, a copiousness of expression, a humility and yet a fervour and confidence of mind, which shall lead you to bless and adore the mercy of your Saviour. And even in your present early stage of Christian piety, the promised aid of the Holy Ghost under your infirmities is surely more calculated to inspire you with encouragement, than the circumstance of your low attainments in spirituality of devotion, is to fill you with despair. And besides, you have this additional assurance of being heard in your petitions, that these petitions are suggested by this blessed influence. God himself is the author of them. Our heavenly Father does

not listen to them as new and strange, nor reject them as absurd; but kindly receives them as suggested by his Spirit, and agreeable to his will; He that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Let, then, the sense of your infirmities lead you to a more entire reliance on the Holy Spirit. God afflicts us with trouble, and awakens us to a sense of our misery, not that we should pine away with grief, but that we should seek his grace and obtain relief by prayer. And the safest state of mind in which we can be, is that of humility under our deficiencies, and eager desire after greater attainments in devotion, and every other Christian duty.

II. BUT WHAT SHALL I SAY TO THOSE, WHOM THIS

WHOLE ARGUMENT MUST CONVICT OF LIVING WITH

OUT PRAYER? Such are assuredly without God and without Christ. Prayer is the breath, as it were, of the soul. When Paul was struck to the earth by the Saviour on his way to Damascus, the first evidence of his conversion was, Behold, he prayeth ! And in every age, the first indication of spiritual life is prayer. And yet you continue strangers, in fact, to this holy exercise. You are contented with the offering of the lips, without any movement of the affections. You join in the public prayers of the church, but you never confess your sins from your heart, you never once unite with holy fervency in the petitions of our devout Litany. In your families you live without prayer, though you call yourselves Christians. And as to your closet, you are strangers there; or at best a few formal words suffice to satisfy your consciences. You never pray with feeling, with importunity, with constancy, with spirituality; that is, you never pray at all. Witness your reluctance to secret devotion. Witness your indifference in it. Witness vour frequent omission of the duty. Wit

ness your entire unconsciousness of all those infirmities which the best Christian most knows and laments, because he is most in earnest about his salvation. Witness your ignorance of the work of the Holy Spirit," and your contempt of the doctrine of his grace. Witness your reliance on your own understanding and your own powers for serving God. Allow an honest appeal to be made to your conscience. Would you not treat with ridicule a humble Christian who should speak, with whatever sobriety, of the help and intercession of the Holy Spirit in prayer, and of the groanings that cannot be uttered, which flow from it? Then surely your hearts must be wrong before God.. Surely all is yet to be begun in you as to religion. And it must begin at this point-THE WORK AND ILLUMINATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Prostrate, then, yourselves in contrition before the throne of mercy. Ask of God that gift of his Holy Spirit which he has promised to all that seek it. Be once in earnest, and you will soon perceive the unnumbered diseases and infirmities of your soul. The aid of the Holy Ghost will then appear to you the most desirable and suitable of all blessings. What you now despise or disregard, you will then value above all price, and seek with intense solicitude. Nor shall you seek it in vain. It is the gracious office of the Holy Spirit to help your infirmities. He will condescend to teach you and to guide you in the ways of repentance, justification, holiness, obedience, and joy; he will be to you a comforter and sanctifier, will intercede in your heart here, and prepare you for eternal glory hereafter.

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SERMON XIV.

THE PROMISES OF GOD.

2 PETER, i. 4.

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

THE manner in which the privileges of the Christian are connected with the possession of holiness in every part of the Bible, is very remarkable. The corrupt heart of man sometimes attempts to separate the two, but the Sacred Scriptures constantly exhibit them in union with each other. The plan of salvation is altogether holy in its design and in its tendency. The death of Christ was a most solemn display of the justice and righteousness and purity of God. Repentance implies a hatred and renunciation of all sin. Faith is a spiritual and holy principle. The blessed Spirit of God is the author and source of sanctification. The commands of God are holy, just, and good. His threatenings are designed to guard us against transgression, and to evince his abhorrence of iniquity. His promises also, as we learn in the text, are given us with the express intention of rescuing us from the corruption of the

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