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"cess by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and "rejoice in hope of the glory of God; and not only "so, but we rejoice in tribulations also, knowing well "that tribulation worketh patience, and patience ex"perience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not "ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in "our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given unto us.

What privileges! how many, how free, how blessed are here declared to be the portion of the justified man, which he is to enjoy in his reconciled God! Each of them tending to establish peace in his conscience, and love in his heart, that he may delight himself in God and in his ways. The first and chief blessing in experience, which draws after it all the rest, is the Spirit.

The Holy Ghost is given unto him, to be a witness for Jesus, and shed abroad the Father's love through him. He comes as the Spirit of life to quicken the soul, which had been dead in trespasses and sins, and to bring it to the knowledge of salvation, which he does, secondly, by the gift of faith.

Being justified by faith. He enables the sinner to believe in the finished work of the God-man, and to trust to the free grant of it in the word of God: whereby he sees himself fully justified: Through the atonement of Jesus freed from sin and guilt; through the righteousness of Jesus entitled to life and glory, and therefore, thirdly, he has

Peace with God through Jesus Christ his LordHe sees God is at peace with him-perfectly and continually reconciled. The peace is everlasting which was made through the blood of the everlasting covenant. The belief of this quiets and satisfies the sinner's conscience; which being purged by the blood, and justified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ his Lord, is at peace, is freed from guilty fears, and is reconciled to God, yea to the justice of God, who can now be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly. To what high honour is he then called! He is admitted into friendship with God, and has,

rent.

Fourthly, Access by faith into this grace, wherein he stands-access to a mercy-seat, to which he is invited to come freely, as a beloved child to an affectionate paBoldness and access with confidence are required and commanded. "Let us come boldly to the throne "of grace: having boldness to enter into the holiest "by the blood of Jesus," let us by faith make use of that new and living way, which he hath opened for us. O what a mercy is it thus to have access to a gracious Father! how much is the mercy increased by his settling his children in it! We STAND in it, says the apos. tle, denoting the being fixed in a state of perfect acceptance, conferred by sovereign grace, brought into it by unchangeable love, and kept in it by the power of a faithful God. How strengthening to faith, how encouraging to hope! for,

Fifthly, We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Faith relies upon the truth of what God hath promised, and hope waits for the enjoyment of the good in the promise, but more especially for the glory which is to be revealed. This hope of glory is full of rejoicing: because every thing which hope looks at and draws its joy from, depends on the truth and faithfulness of a covenant God. There can be no failing on his part, and therefore on the believer's there can be no disappointment: On this ground hope casts its anchor, both sure and stedfast, and finds all safe during the storms of life, yea, has many a sweet foretaste of the promised glory, brought into the soul by these very storms: for,

Sixthly, We rejoice in tribulations also. These are so far from taking away the joy of the justified man, that they tend greatly to increase it, and to make it more holy, as well as more happy. Tribulations produce a plentiful harvest of blessings, they bring forth

Patience, giving occasion to exercise the graces of the Spirit, to find the truth and the power of them, and thereby working submission under the cross to the will of God. "It is good for me, says David, that I have "been afflicted;" his troubles brought him to God

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"Before I was afflicted, I went astray." His troubles kept him near to God, dependent on the divine strength to bear them with patience, and for an happy issue out of them. Whereby he learnt

Experience, which follows suffering and patience. Tribulations teach us what we are as sinners, and what God is to his reconciled children. They make us sensible of our weakness, and of our being strong only in the Lord-of our misery, and of his comforts-of what we deserve, and of what he saves us from-they bring us to live out of ourselves, upon the sure mercies of a covenant God: whereby our hope in him being tried, and by trials confirmed, we discover his love to us in suffering, and by daily experience become quite® satisfied, that our

Hope is the grace of the Holy Spirit: for it answers the scripture-character: it rejoices in tribulation. It has good reason so to do. It experiences God's faithfulness. Every thing promised being made good to us in time, we thereby grow up into the full assurance of hope, that we shall not fail of receiving the promised glory. And this

Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given unto us. He is given to satisfy our hearts of the love of God to us, and to lead us to study the nature and the perfections of his love. Behold! what manner of love, what a free, full, sovereign, and everlasting love, the Father hath bestowed upon us. It is actually bestowed and enjoyed by the power of the Holy Ghost. He shows us, how the Father loved us, even when we were without strength; yea herein God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were sinners and enemies, he gave his Son to live and die for us, much more then being now justified, we shall be saved from wrath, and brought to glory, through him. How does this commend and set off the love of God! It is the first cause of all the graces here mentioned, and bestows them upon the most unworthy. Faith, justification by

faith, access to God, standing in a justified state, rejoicing in hope of glory, and rejoicing in the way to it even in tribulations, because they exercise and improve patience, and put our graces to such trials, as convince us, that they are the true graces of the Holy Spirit, and that we shall never be ashamed of our hope in God. In this golden chain of experience love is the uppermost link. It was the first, and draws after it all the rest. The free love of the Father gave his Son for us, and with him gave us all things. The same love has now given his Spirit to us, and he has enabled us to know and to believe, that we are justified, have access to a reconciled God, stand accepted before him, &c. and that he is our loving God and Father in Jesus. The sense of this warms the heart, and sweetly and powerfully influences the affections to delight in, and to walk in love with such an exceedingly gracious and merciful God.

In this delightful portion on scripture the Holy Spirit teaches us, how he brings sinners to know that God loves them. It is by believing in the righteousness and atonement of the Son of God. Hence spring peace and love-peace with God in the conscience, and love to God in the heart. There is an inseparable connection between those two graces. The one cannot exist without the other. Whoever knows the God of peace will find that God is love: for being justified by faith, he will thereby see that God is at peace with him, and himself in a state of free acceptance before him, in which he shall stand and be kept safe, until he receive the promised glory. The hope of which will be confirmed by his daily experience of God's faithfulness, making all things, even tribulations, work together for his good in the way to glory; thus will the Holy Spirit satisfy him of the love of God to his soul. And the persuasion of his love begets love. It softens the hard heart. warms the cold heart. It works kindly upon all the affections, and by setting before them every possible good to be enjoyed in their reconciled God, it mightily dis

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poses them to seek their supreme happiness in walking humbly and closely with him.

Attend then, O my soul, to this scripture. Meditate upon the experience of which it treats. Pray for it. Pray for more of it. And above all, observe the great truth here taught thee by the Holy Ghost, namely, that thou canst not have any true love of God, but what arises from the sense of his being at peace with thee in Jesus. O beware of false teachers: for there is great reason. Many talk big of their loving God for his own inherent loveliness. A fundamental mistake. Mystics, Quakers, natural religion men, dreaming metaphysicians, and the motley tribe of moralists, and deists, pretend to love an absolute God, without viewing him in the covenant of grace, or as he has revealed himself in the incarnation of his Son. There has been no love of this kind in any heart upon earth for near six thousand years. Adam in paradise might love him thus. But when driven out of paradise for sin, he could love him so no more. The promised seed of the woman, the word made flesh, became then the object of his faith, and the only ground of his love. The scripture has clearly determined this-" We love him, because he first loved 66 us-And in this was manifested the love of God to"wards us, because that God sent his only begotten "Son into the world, that we might live through him." When the Holy Ghost has taught this love of God to sinners, and by believing has manifested it to their hearts, then they love him upon christian principles, and sinners cannot love him upon any other. They love him for that infinite mercy which led him to send his only begotten Son into the world to finish the salvation of his people. They love him for sending the Holy Ghost to enable them to see the everlasting sufficiency of this salvation, and to believe the record of God concerning it; whereby they come to experience how much the Father loved them. This is heaven begun. The Father's love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost is the foretaste of glory. Whoever enjoys it has

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