66 his heart was in all this, he adds", Yea, I will rejoice over them to do "them good-with my whole heart and "with my whole soul." Now, it is one great part of the Holy Spirit's work and office in the souls of the regenerate to open and explain the scriptures to their understanding, to open their understanding to know the gospel as contained in them, so as to make them the foundation of their faith, and the experience of their hearts, and by this mean to bring them to a saving scriptural knowledge of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, which knowledge'contains eternal life. So saith our blefsed Lord, "This is life eternal, that they 66 might know thee the only true God "and Jesus Christ whom thou hast "sent°." And this knowledge is entirely received from the word through the divine teachings of the Lord the Spirit. It is a point of vast moment in experience to know, that what is revealed in the written word belongs to us, that God speaks to us in it, that he makes known to us his everlasting love by it, and that what he speaks to one belongs to all his saints. He said to his great favourite Moses, " Thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name"." 66 verse 41. P Exod. xxxiiì. 17. John xvii. 3. It is equally true of all his people, that they have found grace in his sight; and it proves to a demonstration that he knows them by name, when in the day of his power he brings them to an effectual knowledge of themselves and of himself as the Lord their God. As the Lord's people are the high favourites of his grace, so he delights to acknowledge them to be his peculiar ones. He says of them, "This people have I formed "for myself, they shall shew forth my "praise." He opens his whole soul unto them, "Thou wast precious in my 66 sight, and I have loved thee." Which exprefsions the Holy Ghost fills with divine energy, sets home upon the mind, and through them conveys such ideas of the Father's love as fill the believer with unutterable joy. All the communion, which saints have with the Father and the Son, is carried on by this mean, which brings them most highly to prize and esteem the sacred word of inspiration. In it they read that "God is "love." By mixing faith with the revealed account of it, they have the actual experience and enjoyment of it in their souls. By which means they become witnesses for God; setting their seals to the truth of what the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. They see Christ in the word, have a spiritual perception of him from it, believe in him by it, rest on him from the warrant they have for so doing in it, and have an inward knowledge of what he saith, "Verily, "verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that "sent me hath everlasting life, and shall "not come into condemnation, but is "pafsed from death unto life. They have a spiritual knowledge of Christ in their renewed understanding: "We "know that the Son of God is come, "and hath given us an understanding"that we may know him that is true, "and we are in him that is true, even "in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the "true God and eternal life"." And what they know of Christ in their understanding they believe concerning him in their hearts; "With the heart man be"lieveth unto righteousness." And by believing Christ dwells in their hearts. Hence the apostle prays, that "Christ "might dwell in the hearts of the saints "of Ephesus by faith." And thus faith, which John makes the evidence of the new birth, is exercised upon our Lord Jesus Christ, as our righteousness and atonement; and on God our heavenly Father, as reconciled unto us by the death of his Son; so that the state Rom. x. 10. 4 John v. 24. r 1 John v. 20. of the believer before God is truly blessed. He is manifestatively justified from all things. God hath forgiven him all trespasses. He is freed from all "The law of the spirit condemnation. "of life in Christ Jesus hath made him "free from the law of sin and death"." He shines in Christ, and outshines the angels in glory. Having received life from the spirit of Christ, he is quickened up unto life eternal. The whole body of sin within him has received its deathwound; the heart and life-giving influence in and throughout every one of his corrupt affections are mortified. So that he can sing, (though he feels them struggling within him) "There is there fore now no condemnation to them "which are in Christ Jesus"." And he rejoices at seasons in hopes of the promised glory, which the God of all grace hath by Jesus Christ called him unto, having fully invested him with a right and title to it, and a complete meetness for it and he saith, by way of encouragement to him, (let him see and feel what he may of his inward corruptions and spiritual enemies) "Fear not, I am "thy shield and thy exceeding great "reward"." As it respects the experience of a regenerate and believing person, especially when first brought home y Rom. viii. 1. w Gen. xv. 1. "Rom. viii. 2. to God by effectual calling, it consists in, and may be exprefsed as containing, the following important inward percep tions. The person feels, and is sensible of the effectual change wrought in the mind, viz. that he is pafsed from a state of darkness into a state in which God's marvellous light shines and enlightens him. He finds himself a new creature in Christ Jesus, in a new world, and entered on a new and spiritual state;that he hath a new heart given him, new affections and desires formed within him, that old things are passed away, and all things are become new. He clearly perceives, that he was once darknefs, but that he is now light in the Lord. In the light of everlasting life he clearly sees the whole world out of Christ is in the arms of the wicked one, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that by the deeds of the law no flesh living can be justified. Which truths enter into his very soul, form a truc part of his experience, and lead him to admire the grace of God in opening his eyes, in awakening his mind, and in shewing him the way to experience the blessings of pardon and salvation by faith in Christ Jesus. A true sight of sin comes from the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and is the fruit of spiritual life imparted in rege |