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13. But still let it be carefully observed, (for it is a point of no small importance,) that this faith is only the faith of a servant, and not the faith of a son. Because this is a point which many do not clearly understand, I will endeavour to make it a little plainer. The faith of a servant implies a divine evidence of the invisible and the eternal world; yea, and an evidence of the spiritual world, so far as it can exist without living experience. Whoever has attained this, the faith of a servant, "feareth God, and escheweth evil;" or, as it is expressed by St. Peter, "feareth God, and worketh righteousness.' In consequence of which he is, in a degree, as the apostle observes, "accepted with him." Elsewhere he is described in those words: "He that feareth God, and keepeth his commandments." Even one who has gone thus far in religion, who obeys God out of fear, is not in anywise to be despised; seeing "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' Nevertheless, he should be exhorted not to stop there; not to rest till he attains the adoption of sons; till he obeys him out of love, which is the privilege of all the children of God.

14. Exhort him to press on, by all possible means, till he passes "from faith to faith," from the faith of a servant to the faith of a son; from the spirit of bondage unto fear, to the spirit of childlike love: he will then have "Christ revealed in his heart," enabling him to testify, "The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me," the proper voice of a child of God. He will then be "born of God;" inwardly changed by the mighty power of God, from "an earthly, sensual, devilish" mind, to the "mind which was in Christ Jesus.' He will experience what St. Paul means, by those re markable words to the Galatians, "Ye are the sons of God by faith; and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." "He that believeth," as a son, (as St. John observes,) "hath the witness in himself."

The

Spirit itself witnesses with his spirit, that he is a child of God." "The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto him."

15. But many doubts and fears may still remain, even in a child of God, while he is weak in faith: while he is in the number of those whom St. Paul terms "babes in Christ." But when his faith is strengthened, when he receives faith's abiding impression, realizing things to come; when he has received the abiding witness of the Spirit, doubts and fears vanish away. He then enjoys the plerophory, or "full assurance of faith;" excluding all doubt, and all "fear that hath torment." To those whom he styles young men, St. John says, "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." These, the apostle observes in the other verse, "had the word of God abiding in them." It may not improbably mean the pardoning word, the word which spake all their sins forgiven; in consequence of which, they have the conciousness of the divine favour without any intermission.

16. To these more especially we may apply the exhortation of the apostle Paul: "Leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ," namely, repentance and faith, "let us go on unto perfection.' But in what sense are we to leave those principles? Not absolutely; for we are to retain both one and the other, the knowledge of ourselves, and the knowledge of God, unto our lives' end but only comparatively; not fixing, as we did at first, our whole attention upon them; thinking and talking perpetually of nothing else, but either repentance or faith. But what is the perfection here spoken of? It is not only a deliverance from doubts and fears, but from sin; from all inward as well as outward sin; from evil desires, and evil tempers, as well as from evil words and works. Yea, and it is not only a negative blessing, a deliverance from all evil dispositions, implied in that expression, "I will circumcise thy heart; but a positive one likewise; even the planting

all good dispositions in their place; clearly implied in that other expression, "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul."

17. These are they to whom the apostle John gives the venerable title of fathers, who "have known him that is from the beginning;" the eternal Three-One God. One of these expresses himself thus: "I bear about with me an experimental verity and a plenitude of the presence of the ever-blessed Trinity." And those who are fathers in Christ, generally, though I believe not always, enjoy the plerophory, or "full assurance, of hope;" having no more doubt of reigning with him in glory, than if they already saw him coming in the clouds of heaven. But this does not prevent their continually increasing in the knowledge and love of God. While they "rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks," they pray in particular, that they may never cease to watch, to deny themselves, to take up their cross daily, to fight the good fight of faith, and against the world, the devil, and their own manifold infirmities; till they are able to "comprehend, with all saints, what is the length, and breadth, and height, and depth, and to know that love of Christ which passeth knowledge;" yea, to "be filled with all the fulness of God."

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HYMN.

AUTHOR of faith, eternal Word,
Whose Spirit breathes the active flame :
Faith, like its Finisher and Lord,
To-day, as yesterday the same:

To thee our humble hearts aspire,
And ask the gift unspeakable:
Increase in us the kindled fire,
In us the work of faith fulfil.

By faith we know thee strong to save:
(Save us, a present Saviour thou!)
Whate'er we hope, by faith we have,
Future and past subsisting now.

To him that in thy name believes,
Eternal life with thee is given;
Into himself he all receives,

Pardon, and holiness, and heaven.

The things unknown to feeble sense,
Unseen by reason's glimmering ray,
With strong, commanding evidence,
Their heavenly origin display.

Faith lends its realizing light,

The clouds disperse, the shadows fly;
Th' Invisible appears in sight,
And God is seen by mortal eye.

12

SERMON CX.

ON THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.

"Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord."
JER. Xxiii. 24.

1. How strongly and beautifully do these words express the omnipresence of God! And can there be, in the whole compass of nature, a more sublime subject? Can there be any more worthy the consideration of every rational creature? Is there any more necessary to be considered, and to be understood, so far as our poor faculties will admit? How many excellent purposes may it answer? What deep instruction may it convey to all the children of men; and more directly to the children of God!

2. How is it then that so little has been wrote on so sublime and useful a subject? It is true, that some of our most eminent writers have occasionally touched upon it; and have several strong and beautiful reflections, which were naturally suggested by it. But which of them has published a regular treatise, or so much as a sermon, upon the head? Perhaps many were conscious of their inability to do justice to so vast a subject. It is possible, there may some such lie hid in the voluminous writings of the last century. But if they are hid, even in their own country, if they are buried in oblivion, it is the same, for any use they are of, as if they had never been wrote.

3. What seems to be wanting still, for general use, is a plain discourse on the omnipresence or ubiquity of God. First, in some manner explaining and proving that glorious truth, "God is in this and every place;" and then, applying it to the consciences of all thinking men, in a few practical inferences.

I. 1. Accordingly, I will endeavour, by the assistance of his Spirit, first, a little to explain the omnipresence of God; to show how we are to understand this glorious

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