night, the door fhut, and his children with him in bed; yet if he be importuned, if his bleffing be folicited by earnest prayer, he will give all that is neceffary to be received, no want shall remain unfupplied : For he filleth the hungry with good things. 11. The nature of which benefit is explained, and the method of receiving it illustrated by verfe the thirteenth, where it is faid, "If a fon fhall afk bread of 66 any of you who is a father, will he give a ftone? "If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts "to your children; how much more fhall your hen 66 venly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that afk "him." This fimilitude, which contains the fenfe of a contraft, does honour to its author, and indicates the frecness and fulness of the bleffings which are to be received. If ye who are malus, evil, to whom, to do good should feem a ftrange thing, know, i. e. have the understanding and inclination to give profitable and pleasant things to your children; how much more, fhall GOD who is bonitas, goodness itself, and whofe nature and property is to do good, give good things, all good things to them that afk him§. 12. Forafmuch then as this incomparable account of the Almighty, exhibits in a clear light, how willing he is to enrich his creatures with heavenly things; if the command be obeyed, if he be fought in the manner and meafure fignified by thefe fayings, the bleffing is fure; the combined efforts of earth and hell cannot fruftrate the defign; the Holy Spirit, the root of re generation, will be imbibed in fuch fort, as to eradi Cate every irreligious thing. § Mat. vii. 11. 13. And this prescript exhibiting the neceffity of earneft, urgent, repeated applications to GOD for promised benefits; the nature of regeneration, or the re"newal of the foul in righteousness and true holiness, alfo requires that the mind be retain'd in that fervice and in things which have influence in the fuccefs of prayer. The natural motions of the mind towards external things must be reftrained, and the rifing of wrong tempers inftantly fubdued, and the outward occafions of evil, things which work upon and attract the affections, and ftir up and irritate the tempers declined, (for a permiffion, much more an indulgence of thefe, retard, if not totally hinder, the foul's progrefs in holiness) as facilitators of this bleffed bufinefs; and the mind continue exercised in drawing near to, and wreftling with GOD, for ftrength and comfort for its fupport and encouragement in recovering moral rectitude and a meetnefs for glory. 14. Which procedure, agreeing with our Lord's command, and the nature of regeneration, so likewise with the condition of man as a free agent, and in-a ftate of imperfection. For, the foul having an active and felf-determining property; and imperfect believers poffeffing contrary affections, (good and evil, or a degree of both) which have their respective objects, purfuits, and fatisfactions: As fuch, while the foul is thus evenly poized, hangs in equilibrio, its motion and tendency is determined by the exertion of the felf-determining power, in favour of one or other of the objects which folicit its attention and affection: Which doctrine evidently iffues in this conclufion, viz. That fpiritual profperity depends on a proper and diligent exertion of man's free, active, moral nature in things religious; religious; and that the principal impediment to that profperity is inactivity and idlenefs. To prevent which, or cut off all occasion of its fatal effects; to reftrain evil motions and weaken their fpring, and facilitate the work of grace, refiftance must be made to the evil, and in favour of the good motion, proportionable to the strength of the evil principle; which resistance must be reiterated or kept in action, fo long as the oppofition continues: Which will be more or lefs, till all evil be deftroyed in the foul. 15. If then the law of truth, which is in part infcribed on every believer's heart, be obeyed in the dictates and defires arifing from it; if it te fully com plied with, as thereby the motions of the carnal mind. will be reftrained, and the animal fenfes and appetites obliged to obferve due decorum, the work of grace will proceed; fuch will die daily to the life of corrupt nature, and grow up into CHRIST in all things, into a bleffed conformity to his holy, happy mind: For the irradiating rays of his fpirit will expel the remains of nature's darknefs, by transforming the foul into the image of him who is light itself, and his mollifying and refining influence remove all hardnefs of heart and contrariety to GOD, and principle it with purity and perfection correfpondent to the image and will of GOD: When, having expelled all that is contrary to himself, grace will reign in the foul with out oppofition and interrption from within. 16. In which condition, as the quality of the foul is one, its tendency is one alfo. Being created anew, it is capable of obeying the Lord in all things: And. to fuch his commands are not grievous; for the foul having having recovered its native freedom, that wherein the firft man was formed, it acts without reftraint; holinefs is the fpring which determines its motion towards that which is good. But 17. Notwithstanding, as free agency, and ignorance, in many things, confift with the highest degree of moral rectitude, it is poffible to err in judgment, and, in confequence of it, to make a wrong choice. Moreover, evil fpirits having access to the mind, and fug. gefting things contrary to its intereft, it may, by that means, be rendered erroneous. And the foul refiding in the body, and being influenced by earthly things, through the outward fenfes, may be prejudiced in its peace and purity thereby. The appetites likewife, which have for their object and end the things of life, by reafon of the connexion fubfifting betwixt them and the rational fpirit, renders a deviation from duty and detrimental effects, poffible: For though purfuits of, and fatisfactions arifing from temporal things, confift with the highest degree of love to GOD; yet as regard to them may become irregular and immoderate, fo proportionably as animal affection prevails, religious affection, love to GOD and goodnefs, will decline. Hence then it being neceffary to keep the body under, by reftraining the animal appetite and fenfe, and to refift temptations refulting from Satan and other things; it is alfo needful to live in the perpetual exercife of in the use of instituted ordinances, and to regugrace, late the whole conduct according to the rule of Gon's word. 18. However, though in this ftate of purity and perfection, it is poffible to deviate from the right way Q (for (for fo angels and Adam did); yet being capacitated for fuch fervice as the Almighty expects from fouls rational, holy, and immortal, it brings forth the fruit of love, joy, peace, &c. (II.) 1. Now ayawn, Love, is the firft fruit of the fpirit, of fpiritual nature renewed by the HOLY GHOST. They who are initiated into the favour and family of GOD, especially all who are renewed after the image of him who created them, are furnished with that divine difpofition. Love is the natural, infeparable effect of holiness imprinted on the fpirits of the completely regenerate; from which iffues an inceffant afcending of the foul unto, and perpetual communion with him whom the pure in heart always fee, inafmuch as the spirit of man needs no motive (though it has many) but likeness to God, to make it unite with him. From a correfpondence in quality, arifeth reciprocal affection, loving and being beloved. Hence, holinefs of heart being that wherein the divine image chiefly confifts, fupreme love to GOD, the fountain of true felicity, is characteristic of that blessed condition. 2. Which love is the spring of practical obedience, the fource of words and works pleafing to GOD; it is, in its effects, the discharge of that duty which is incumbent on all mankind, being the end of the commandment, according to which God is to be ferved: For, this is the love of GoD, that we keep his commandments." This, (keeping his commandments) is the delineation, practical use, teft, qriterion, and proof of love to GOD. Love (or a lover of GoD) has respect to GoD as a spiritual holy being, as its author * I. John v. 3. and |