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office, of shedding abroad the love of God in the heart, with a fullness proportioned to our wants, then the believer finds a hope, that maketh not ashamed.

The language of his heart is then changed. He doth no longer say, how shall I, a poor hell deserving sinner, venture to draw nigh to God, or wherewith shall I come before him? But taught by the Holy Ghost, he cries out: shall I fear to act faith, upon God's covenant promises, and my Redeemer's righteousness? Shall I go to my Father, in a spirit of bondage, when he hath owned me for his own Son by a spirit of adoption? Shall I exercise nothing but fear, what his very name, as revealed to me in Christ Jesus, is nothing but love?

Beg of God, I pray you, for larger, fuller, deeper manifestations of this precious part, of the Spirit's work. Having tasted that the Lord is gracious, desire to live wholly upon him. What the Apostle so earnestly prayed for, do you covet to know, the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God, And make this the standard of character, to which you are continually aspiring; to forget the things which are behind and to press forward to those that are before. Tell the Lord, you cannot rest satisfied, in present at

tainments

tainments, nor live upon past experiences. You have known a little, of his love, and therefore that little, makes you long for more. In a word, sit down contented, with nothing short of this; that Christ is fully formed in your heart the hope of glory. And this, is the hope, the text means, which maketh not ashamed: because it is the sure consequence, of the blessed operation of the love of God, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given unto us.

But what consolation, doth our subject afford, to that class of hearers, who so far from having an interest, in the hope that maketh not ashamed, are described in scripture, as having no hope and without God in the world.

Forgive me when I say, that I cannot but exceedingly fear, lest what Paul said of the Church at Ephesus may with equal truth be applied, more, or less, to many professing Churches, in our day: They are not only unconscious, of this work of the Holy Ghost, in shedding abroad the love of God in the heart, but as to any real purpose of vital godliness, have never so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.*

Acts 19. 2.

Shall

Shall I intreat you, my unawakened Brothers, to look into the state, in which you now stand before God. Have you received the Holy Ghost since you professed to believe? And do not forget this one thing, that any supposed merit, in the receiver of grace, is not only unnecessary, but impossible. None were ever made partakers of the Holy Ghost, for any worthiness in themselves. He, whose blessed office it is, to shed abroad the love of God in the heart, is no less engaged, to create the heart anew, to receive it. Both the mercy, and the qualification, for the mercy, are of him. The outpourings of the Spirit, are like the dew from the Lord, which tarrieth not for man, neither waiteth for the sons of men. §

But though divine grace, is not suspended, upon the event of human seeking; yet when Sinners, are brought within the calls of grace, God hath said, I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. †

Ask then, and ye shall receive, (for so the promise runs) seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For as a Father, knoweth how to give good gifts, unto his Children, so shall your heavenly Father give his holy Spirit to them that ask him.

§ Micah 5. 8. + Ezek. 36. 37.

May

May God graciously shed abroad his love in every heart, and fill us all with joy and peace in believing that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. ‡

Rom. 15, 13.

Sermon 7.

THE BELIEVER'S WARFARE.

Judges, 8th. Chap: 4th. Verse.

Faint yet pursuing.

THE life of the true believer in Jesus, is a series of paradoxes. Paul, the Apostle, hath sketched the strongest outlines of it, in one of his chapters to the Corinthians, when speaking of himself, and his few faithful companions in tribulation, he thus describes it; As unknown, and yet well known, as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed: as sorrowful yet alway rejoicing: as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

And

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