It is his privilege to obey, because he is saved. He works from a free spirit, and with a thankful heart. He does all his duties in faith. He is spiritual in them, acting upon the endearing motive of God's love to him in Christ, as it has been revealed to his heart by the Holy Spirit. He hopes for the acceptance of them only through the intercession of Christ: And after he has done them ever so well, he desires grace from Christ, to return him all his glory. Thus in every duty he aims. at fellowship with God in Christ through the Spirit, and seeks to present an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.

Whatever thou art required to do, remember, O my soul, that thou art under grace, and it is thy privilege to do it in faith. View the two tables in the hand of thy Saviour, and receive the ten commandments from his mouth. Happy for thee, Jesus is thy law-giver. His spirit will gospelize thine obedience. He will bring thine heart into it. He will set thee in the chariot of love, and thou shalt ride on prosperously: He will oil the wheels of duty, and they shall run easy and pleasant. Thou shalt be carried sweetly through duty, thy Beloved being present and conversing with thee in it: yea thy faith working by love to him will render fellowship. with God in all thou doest, the joy of thy heart and the glory of thy life.

O beg of thy divine Teacher thus to spiritualize thine obedience. From him only canst thou learn the two great commandments, which are the sum and substance of the will of thy God. In the first his nature is revealed, and then his worship. He is the Lord thy God, Jehovah thy Alehim; Jehovah means the self-existent Godhead, and Alehim, the persons in covenant, Father, Son, and Spirit, partakers of the same self-existence, and divine glory, without any difference, or inequality. There can be no true religion without the true object of worship, and he cannot be worshipped, unless he be known; therefore it is an indispensible duty to know the Lord God. But how shall fallen man attain to this

knowledge? He lost it by sin, and he cannot by any reasoning faculty or power of his own recover it.

It is

a matter of fact, that no man did ever by searching find out God. And attested by infallible authority, that the world by its wisdom knew not God. There is no true description of the Godhead, but what is revealed in scripture; and it is altogether from the teaching of the Holy Spirit, that any one savingly understands what is revealed. He, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, opens the eyes of the mind, sets the object before them, and gives a clear idea of it. He takes of the things of God, and shews them to his disciples. He does not lead them into abstracted reasonings about the divine nature, or what the absolute Godhead is, but his lessons are useful and practical. He teaches the knowledge of the persons in Jehovah, as they are related to sinners in the covenant of grace. Through him the Father is made known, “ Ye have received the Spirit of adop"tion, by whom we cry, Abba, Father," Rom. viii. 15. Through him the Son is believed in: for no man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. He discovers the Father's love in the Son with its rich graces and abundant blessings as it is written, we have "received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit "which is of God, that we might know the things that 66 are freely given to us of God." He makes known the Giver, and the gifts; and he is received for that very purpose. He shines into the heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of. Jesus Christ. And this is saving acquaintance with the Father and with the Son; for hereby the understanding is restored to the image of God; and the new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

O what a mercy is this! What can call for greater praise? And this mercy, O my soul, is thine. Unspeakably gracious has the Lord been to thee. He has given thee the knowledge of himself. His image is upon thine understanding. His light is shining upon it;

sons,

certainly it is as great an act, as when he first commanded the light to shine out of darkness: for hereby I believe in him, I know him to be my FATHER. O pres cious name! The love of his heart, and it is infinite: the blessings of his love, and they are numberless, he has called me to enjoy, freely, of mere grace, of his own sovereign good will-called me to the adoption of to the noblest dignity, yea to everlasting honour, to be at son of the most high God-God is my Father-my new birth is from him-that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and has fellowship with the Father of spirits. Behold! what manner of love this is! No parent ever loved, or can love a child as my Father which is in heaven loves me. And I desire in the sense of this to love him, to cleave to him with full purpose of heart, and gratefully to devote all I have and am to his service and to his glory. O thou divine Revealer of this love enlighten mine understanding and influence my affections, that I may grow in the knowledge of my Father in Jesus: For,

In him the Father only is to be known. He is his Father, as our covenant head, and therefore ours in him. God is not a Father to any, but in Christ. The name

Father respects Christ, as the first-begotten, and then all his seed. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, and depends for its adoption on the Father of their Lord Jesus Christ. He undertook to be made man, to live, and to die for the many sons, whom he was to bring to glory and in consequence of his undertakings it pleased the Father to lay up all fulness of grace for them in the God-man, their covenant head. And it pleases the Spirit to witness of this fulness, and to enable believers to receive out of it grace for grace. Thus he reveals Immanuel to them. They know him, and are one with him. He is their Lord and their God, and by faith they live in him and upon him. Trusting to his atonement and righteousness they have peace with their reconciled Father, and they enjoy his love shed abroad

in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. Waiting in the appointed ways they grow in the knowledge of the wonderful person God-Jesus. They see more of the divine glory of his salvation work, and by depending on it daily they enjoy more of the things which accompany salvation. Thrice happy are they, whose acquaintance with Jesus is thus increasing. Their happiness has a boundless subject. They may study on, and they will find in him new worlds of delight to eternity. O ye highly favoured, read and adore the wonders already wrought for you; among which these are not the least: "We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true, "and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus 66 Christ, who is the true God and eternal life." Blessed knowledge! they have an understanding given them, and they are savingly acquainted with the Father and with the Son by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. Jehovah is their Alehim. Thus they learn the first part of their duty, which leads them to the

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Second, Namely, to love the persons in the Godhead, because they stand in this most endearing relation to them. They love the Father, who is their Father in Jesus. They have not only heard of, and believed in, but have also enjoyed his precious love. It has been shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost! who has overcome all resistance to his love; yea has made enmity itself yield to it. Having purified the conscience by faith, he then purifies the heart: He pours into it a sense of that love, which gave his co-equal Son for them, and all the blessings in earth and in heaven with him. Thereby he draws out the affections in holy desires to be more united to the Father of mercies. It is the property of love to desire to be united to the beloved object. The Holy Spirit has discovered the object, and has given the desire, and he fulfils all the desires of his own creating. He teaches all the chil dren of God to know their Father; and to experience his love to them in his Son, and then they cannot but

love him. He creates the new heart for this very purpose; and makes it sensible that the Father's love is all received through the Son, and therefore the Father and the Son are beloved with an undivided affection.

What

The Son is his office name. It should never be heard without putting us in mind of the wonderful love of our God in his undertakings. He covenanted to be made flesh. What a miracle of love is that! He engaged with his Father to be the surety for his people, to do their work, to suffer their punishment, and then God and man, one Christ for ever, was to have all fulness of covenant blessings to give his people. The Father has no love, the Spirit bestows no grace, but what comes through Christ. A believer is therefore taught in every thing he does to have fellowship with Christ. His safety, his happiness, his hopes of happiness to-day and for ever are blessings to be received out of Immanuel's fulness: for he is the head over all things to the church which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. And while the member is receiving life and sense and happiness from the fulness of the head, he will have fresh motives to love his divine Saviour. can fix his affections, if gratitude to Jesus cannot? He has every thing in him, that can win the heart. He has beauty to engage love, blessings to increase love, glories to increase love to him for evermore. He is beauty without a rival. Whatever is charming in any earthly object is but a ray from him, and should lead to him; it is but a beam to point out the matchless graces of Immanuel. And so is the loveliness of heavenly objects: saints and angels have nothing beautiful, but what the love of Jesus has put upon them. He is the Lord and Giver of all their glory. How glorious then must he be; He is mine, says the believer, and my property in him makes him indeed glorious in mine eyes. Once I saw no beauty in him, that I should desire him; but now he is my beloved and my friend. I can see every thing truly lovely in my Lord and my God. Whatever else courts my heart appears to be