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but a shadow: the substance is my Jesus. He endears. himself daily to me by his numberless favours. I am always receiving out of his fulness some blessing, which makes him the centre of my happiness. Every look of faith discovers in him some new excellency, and brings from him some fresh kindness, and thereby engages my heart still more to its precious Saviour. And when I look forward to the glory to be revealed, when I shall see my dearest Jesus face to face, and shall be like him, and shall enjoy him, and in him all the blessings of the eternal Three for ever, O this is too big for present thought; yet it constrains me to give up my whole soul to this heavenly lover. Glorify him daily in me, thou faithful witness for Jesus, and give me continual reason to love thee with the same undivided affection, wherewith thou hast enabled me to love the Father and the Son.

The Holy Spirit is Jehovah, a person in the selfexistent Godhead, equal with the Father in every attribute. His office name is Spirit; the idea is taken from air, such as we breathe, to denote his being the breather or inspirer of spiritual life. Every thing done by him in this character tends to holiness, and therefore he is called the Holy Spirit. His office in the covenant, as well as his co-equality with the Father and the Son, entitle him to equal worship, and to equal love. For he undertook to carry into execution the purposes of the Father's love in Jesus. Their fulfilment depends entirely upon his grace. The Son has been incarnate; he has brought in everlasting righteousness, and made. the atonement of sin: the Father is satisfied with his finished work, and has demonstrated his acceptance of it: the God-man is now upon the throne of glory with all power in heaven and earth. To this the Holy Spirit bears witness. It is his divine office to apply the salvation of Jesus, and to make it effectual. He does all in the heirs of promise. The Father gave them to. the Son, the Son redeemed them, but they are in the common mass of corruption, dead in trespasses and sins,

till the Spirit of life enter into them. They feel not their guilt nor their danger, till he convince them. They are quite ignorant of God and of the things of God till he make them wise unto salvation. They cannot believe in Jesus, till the Spirit of faith enable them. They cannot rejoice in the Father's love, till the Comforter makes them sensible of it. They are without strength, until they be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man. They cannot go in their Christian course, but by a constant supply of the Spirit. They cannot hold out to the end, but from his abiding with them for ever. So that he is the Lord and giver of life. He begins the good work, and he confirms it, until the day of Jesus Christ. Every motion of spiritual life is from him, and all those, whom he makes alive, he makes sensible of the debt which they owe him. He manifests his love to them, and thereby he engages their love to him. They experience, how great the love of the Spirit is. They are sensible of their obligations to him, and desire to be thankful for them. Thus their affections return to the proper object of love and worship. They receive daily the blessings of the Father's love through faith in the Son's salvation, by the applying power of the Holy Spirit, and hereby they are reconciled to the first and great commandment; it is become the delight of their souls to love the Lord God.

Here consider, O my soul, whether thou art acting upon the principle of gratitude to the good God. If thou art, then his yoke will be easy and his burden light. Thou wilt not go to duty in bondage, hoping to gain his love by the desert of what thou doest, or fearing to be beaten with many stripes for not doing it well. Thy God whom thou servest is thy most loving friend, and tenderest father. He loved thee in Jesus, freely by grace, not by works done by thee, or to be done. Immanuel is thy Saviour: His love to thee is made up of miracles. No understanding of angels or of glorified spirits can conceive how great it is: for it passeth knowledge. Nevertheless the Holy Spirit has

revealed it unto thee. He loves thee, as the Father and the Son do, with the same divine affection. Thy debt is equal, thy gratitude should be the same to the blessed Trinity. In the sense of thine infinite obligations thou art called upon to walk in the way of duty. Love to the person, whom thou art to serve, will make service pleasant. And thou dost love thy God. He has given himself with every covenant blessing to be thine, and these blessings are to be enjoyed in thy walk with him. With this faith look at duty. It is the expression of gratitude to thy dearest friend, and it is the way to enjoy his divine friendship. He requires it out of love to thee, and would have thee to do it out of love to him. O! how exalted his duty, when communion with God is carried on by it! He would have thee to keep close to him, in order to maintain a sense of his gracious presence in thy heart, and so to walk with him as to have his love to thee confirmed at every step; and therefore thou shouldst seek to preserve a constant nearness and holy fellowship with him in every thing thou doest. This is the will of thy God. May it be thine, O my soul. Study this glorious way of gospel duty. Pray to be taught it better, and to go on in it more spiritually every day. Bring it into all thy affairs. In thy calling, as well as in the means of grace; in temporal, as well as in heavenly matters; set the Lord always before thee; and so live and act in every thing as to keep up communion with thy God and Father in Jesus, by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

When God is thus become the dear object of thy happy heart, then every way wherein his love is to be enjoyed will become delightful. The time, the place, the means of meeting with him will be greatly desired and much longed for. Thy heart cannot but be where thy treasure is. Thou wilt want no spur to duty, no whip to drive thee to ordinances. It will be enough that the Lord is there. As when he said to Davidseek ye my face-his heart replied-thy face, Lord, will I seek. His heart said it. His affections were set

upon God, and he was ready to seek, wherever God was to be found. No hunted hart ever panted more after the water-brooks, than his soul did after God. His hope in doing any thing was to have God's gracious presence with him. And his happiness in it was to have communion with God. This is gospel duty. And what a glorious privilege is it! O that it may be my happy experience thus to meet God in all his ways, and to enjoy him in my daily walk. That thou mayest grow in this divine fellowship, consider, O my soul, some of the duties of the first table, and learn to practise them upon gospel principles. The first and chief is PRAYER, which consists in keeping up daily converse with thy God upon all occasions. This is the breathing of the new born soul. It wants to draw the air of heaven, and to live in its own proper element. There is a way opened for it unto the throne of glory, and the children of God may approach it with boldness: for it is a throne of grace and he that sitteth upon it loves to hear and to answer their petitions. He is their Father. "I go, says Jesus, to my Father and to your Father; my Father himself loveth you; ask what ye will of "him in my name he will do it." This is the beloved object of prayer a reconciled Father in Jesus-whose heart is full of tenderness to the complaints and miseries of his family-his promises are the declarations of his pure love a dependence upon his fulfilling them does honour to his truth and faithfulness, and always brings down the blessing. The Holy Spirit abides with the children of God to teach them thus to pray in faith. He helps their infirmities in prayer, strengthens their graces, and bestows on them their comforts. He enables them to come with boldness, and have access with confidence. Whatever their Father has freely promised to give them in Jesus, they can asking faith, nothing wavering: for they know his promises cannot fail. They find them daily fulfilled, whereby their holy familiarity with their Father increases. He draws nearer to them, and they draw nearer to him. This their mutual inter

course may be interrupted, but it cannot be entirely broken off. God is always disposed to hear, although, the believer be not always able to pray rejoicing. It is still his privilege, although he may not find any great delight in it; but if he continue to make constant use of his privilege, his delight will return, and God will fulfil to him the gracious promise-I will make them joyful in my house of prayer.

Thus the child of God learns to love prayer, yea, to pray without ceasing. He lives under his Father's eye, and in a dependence on his Father's care for him night and day. And he has hereby as true and lasting fellowship with the things of God in his soul, as he has with the things of this world in his body.

O what an exalted privilege is this! How highly is prayer hereby ennobled! It is not a law duty to an absolute God: but a gracious intercourse with a covenant God.-Not practised that he may love us: but because he loves us not to make us his children: but because we are his children. It should be performed always in this faith. If there be infirmities in it, such as wandering, coldness, or the like, we are to remember, that we are not heard for the goodness of our prayers, nor answered for the fervency of them. That which makes our persons accepted obtains acceptance for our services also. We and all we do are only accepted in the beloved: "For through Jesus Christ we have an access "by one Spirit unto the Father." Ephes. ii. 18. our access is through Jesus Christ. Trusting to his finished salvation we enter into the presence of the Father, and, guided by the Holy Spirit, we pray in faith. Whatever we ask in the Son's name we know that we have the petitions which we desired of him. This spiritualizes prayer, and puts glory upon it: because there is heavenly fellowship with God in it, with the Father through the Son, by the one Spirit.

These are some of the privileges of Christian prayer. Thou goest, O my soul, to meet thy God in it-to converse with thy Father-to call on him for the fulfilling

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