Would we speak to God of his everlasting love, in his choosing the church, adopting the church, accepting the church, in Christ, to be everlastingly holy before him in love? And where shall we find any form of words, like those which God hath himself provided in those scriptures for this purpose? Speak we of redemption, by the sole work, righteousness, sufferings, and death of the Lord Jesus Christ? And what so sweet, so blessed, and so suited, as those most blissful scriptures, which tell the Lord what the Lord hath first attested to us that "we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace!" Eph. i. 7.

Speak we of regeneration, and all the blessed love tokens of grace from God the Holy Ghost; and where shall we find any thing in all the stores of human learning, equal to those sweet and precious scriptures, which in numberless parts, tell the church, that all these come from that one divine source of divine manifestation, in "the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, shed upon the church abundantly through our Lord Jesus Christ." Titus iii. 5, 6. The Lord grant to every regenerated child of God, (and it is of such only I speak) a right understanding in all things; and very sure I am, that he will find with me, the truth of that blessed scripture in this, as well as in all other occasions, that "if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ; to whom be praise and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen." 1 Pet. iv. 11.

THIRDLY.-Scriptures for drawing nigh to God, in his Trinity of Persons, for what he is to his people, and they to him, in covenant relations in Christ.

GOD THE FATHER.

I. "

They shall call on me, and I will hear them; I will say it is my people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God," Zech. xiii. 9.

"I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house," Isa. xlii. 6, 7.

"Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward," Gen. xv. 1.

"That the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith," Gal. iii. 14.

"This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise," Isa. xliii. 21.

"But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself," Ps. iv. 3.

"For the Lord hath chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it," Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14.

"For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure," Ps. cxxxv. 4.

"For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance," Deut. xxxii. 9.

"For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," Rom. viii. 29, 30. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of

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children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will; to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved," Eph. i. 5, 6.

"Israel was holiness unto the Lord and the first fruits of his increase; all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them saith the Lord," Jer. ii. 3.

"I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them," John xvii. 9, 10.

"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his," 2 Tim. ii. 19.

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"Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God," Isa. lxii. 3.

GOD THE SON.

II. "My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies,” Song ii. 16.

"Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits," Song iv. 16.

"I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me,' Song vii. 10.

"Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard. For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant," Isa. v. 1, 7.

"I will mention the loving-kindness of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses. For he said, surely they are my people, children that will not lie; so he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love

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and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old,” Isa. lxiii. 7—9.

"Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory," Eph. i. 14.

"Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot," 1 Pet. i. 18.

"He hath purchased with his own blood," Acts. xx. 28.

"Neither by the blood of goats, and calves, but by his own blood, he entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us," Heb. ix. 12.

GOD THE HOLY GHOST.

III. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" 1 Cor. iii. 16.

"What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost!" 1 Cor. vi. 19.

"For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people," 2 Cor. vi. 16. See also Lev. xxvi. 12. Rex. xxi. 3.

"God be merciful unto us and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us. God even our own God shall bless us," Ps. lxvii. 1, 6.

"Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not; thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting! We are thine, thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name," Isa. Ixiii. 16, 19.

"And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with

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them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily!' Luke xviii. 7, 8.

Now let the regenerated child of God (for it is of such only I speak) again pause, and while he beholds before him some few of those precious scriptures, (and they are but a few indeed compared to what might be gathered) which I have selected on this most blessed of all the articles of our holy faith, the Lord's union with his people, in his Trinity of Persons; let him say with what words like those of the Lord's own words can the renewed souls of God's children come before the throne of God, when at any time the Holy Ghost is there leading them, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ" in prayer and supplication, with thanksgivings to make their requests known unto God!" Was not this the very design for which Jehovah in his Trinity of Persons went forth, in acts of creation, to raise up a church for communion with himself? And did he not constitute his dear Son the head of the church, and his people the body, "that in him all fulness might dwell, and through him all his members might have access by one Spirit to the Father?" Eph. ii. 18. Hence, putting yourself into those covenant relations, which holy scripture so very fully and so very blessedly shews, in becoming our God and our Father; we are in so gracious and peculiar a manner his own, as none but the chosen in Christ can be called; and derive the privileges and rights belonging to our adoption character, as children by Jesus Christ to himself, Eph. i. 5. Hence all those blessings which are promised in the bible to Christ and his seed! Hence God in his Trinity of Persons hath made himself over, in all his fulness of blessedness to his people in Christ! Hence the blessedness to which they are chosen is not to kingdoms or empires, not to a mere consecration to the Lord's service, or to honour; no, nor even to any thing of holiness or happiness abstractedly considered in themselves; but to such a nearness, and oneness, and