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God, acting as the spirit of bondage, are taken off, never more to be laid on by that hand, Rom. vii. 15. For ye have not received the fpirit of bondage again to fear. Hereby the confcence is quieted, as foon as the foul becomes, confcious of the application of that blood; which falls out fooner or later, according to the measure of faith, and as the only wife God fees meet to time it. Unbelievers niay have troubled confciences, which they may get quieted again: but alas! their confciences become peaceable, ere they become pure; fo their peace is but the feed of greater horror and confufion. Carleffnefs may give eafe for a while, to a fick confcience; men neglecting its wounds, they clofe again of their own accord, before the filthy matter is purged out. Many bury their guilt in the grave of an ill memory; confcience fmarts a little; at length the man forgets his fin, and there is an end of it; but that is only an ease before death. Bufincfs, or the affairs of life, often give eafe in this cafe. When Cain is banifhed from the prefence of the Lord, he falls a building of cities. When the evil spirit came apon Saul, he calls not for his Bible, nor for the pries to converfe with him about his cafe; but for mufick, to play it away. So many, when their confciences begin to be uneafy, they fill their heads and hands with business, to divert themfelves, and to regain ease at any rate. Yea, fome will fin over the belly of their convictions, and to fome get eafe to their confciences, as Hazael gave to his mafter, by stiffling him. Again the performing of duties may give fome cafe to a difquieted confcience; and this is all that legal profeffors have recourfe to, for quieting of their confci. ences. When confcience is wounded, they will pray, confefs, mourn, and refolve to do fo no more: and fo they become whole again, without any application of the blood of Chrift, by faith. But they, whofe confciences are rightly quieted: come for peace and purging to the blood of fprinkling. Sin is a fweet morfel, that makes God's elect fick fonls, ere they get it vomited up. It leaves a fting behind it, which fome one time or other, will create them no little pain.

Behold

Elihu fhews us both the cafe and cure, Job xxviii. the cafe one may be in, whom God has thoughts of love to. He darteth convictions into his confcience; and makes them stick fo faft, that he cannot rid himfelf of them, ver. 16. He openeth the ears of men, and fealeth their inftruction,' bis very body fickens, ver. 19. He is chaftened alfo with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with ftrong pain.' He lofeth his ftomach, ver. 29. His life abhorieth bread, and his foul dainty

meat.

meat.' His body pines away, fo that there is nothing on him but ikin and bone, ver. 21. His fiesh is confumed away, that it cannot be feen, and his bones that were not feen, stick out.' Tho' he is not prepared for death, he has no hopes of life, ver. 22. His foul draweth near unto the grave, and (which is the height of his mifery) his life to the deftroyers:' He is looking every moment when devils, these destroyers, Rom. ix. 11. thefe murderers, or man-flayers, John viii. 44. will come and carry away his foul to hell. O dreadful cafe! yet there is hope. God defigns to keep back his foul from the pit,' ver. 18. altho he bring him forward to the brink of it. Now, see how the fick man is cured. The phyfician's ar art cannot pervail here: The difeafe lies more inward, than that his medicines can reach it. It is foul-trouble that has brought the body into this dif order, and therefore the remedies must be applied to the fick man's fout and confcience. The phyfician for this case must be a fpiritual physician: the remedies must be fpiritual, a righ'eoufnefs, a ransom or atonement. Upon the application of these, the foul is cured, the confcience is quieted, and the body recovers, ver. 23, 24, 26. If there be a meffenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thoufand, to fhew unto man bis uprightness: then he is gracious unto him, and faith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ranfom. His flefh fhall be frefher than a child's, he fhall return to the days of his youth He shall pray unto God, and he shall be favour. able unto him, and he fhall fee his face with joy.' The proper phyfician for this patient, is a meffenger, an interpreter,' ver. 23. that is, as fome expofitors, not without ground, understand it, the great Phyfician Jefus Chrift, whom Job had called his Redeemer, chap. xix. 25. He is a Meffenger, the Meffenger of the covenant of peace,' Mal. iii. 1. who comes feafonably to the fick man. He is an Interpreter,, the great Interpreter of God's counfels of love to finrers, John i: 28. One among a thousand,' even, the chief among ten thousand,' Cant. v. 10. One chofen out of the people,' Pfal. xxxix. 29. One to whom the Lord hath given the tongue of the learned, to fpeak a word in feafon to him, that is weary,' Ifa. 1. 4, 5. 6. It is He that is with him, by his Spirit, now, to convince him of fin and judgment.' His work now is to fh w unto him his uprightnefs, or his righteousness, i. e. the Interpreter Chrift his righteoufnefs; which is the only righteoufnefs arifing from the paying of a ranfom, and upon which a finner is delivered from going down to the pit,' ver. 24. And thus Christ is faid to

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declare God's name, Pfal. xxii. 22. and to preach righte oufnefs,' Pfal. xl. 2. The phrafe is remarkable: it is not to fhew unto the man,' but unto man,' his righteousness; which not obfcurely intimates, that he is more than a man, who fhews or declareth this righteoufaefs. Compare Amos iv. 13. He that formeth the mountains, and created the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought.' There feems to be in it a fweet allufion to the first declaration of this righteoufnefs unto man; or, as the word is, unto Adam after the fall, while he lay under terror from apprehenfions of the wrath of God: which decla ration was made by the Meffenger, the Interpreter, namely, the eternal Word of the Son of God, called, The Voice of the Lord God,' Gen. iii. 8. and by him appearing, probably, in human fhape. Now, while, by his Spirit, he is the Preacher of righteoufnefs to the man, it is fuppofed the man lays hold on the offered righteoufnefs; whereupon the ranfom is applied to him, and he is delivered from going down to the pit; for, God bath a random for him. This is intimate to him: God faith, Deliver him,' ver. 24. Hereupon his confcience being purged by the blood of atonement, is pacified, and fweetly quieted: he fhall pray unto God-and fee his face with joy; which before he beheld with horror, ver. 26. That is a New Teftament language, Having an High-prieft over the house of God,' he fhall draw near with a true heart, in full affurance of faith; having his heart fprinkled from an evil corfcience, Heb. x. 21, 22. But, then, what becomes of the body, the weak and weary flefh? Why, his flefh fhall be fresher than a child's, he shall return to the days of his youth, ver. 25. Yea, all his bones, (which were chaftened with ftrong pain, ver. 19.) fhallay, Lord, who is like unto thee ?' Pfal. xxxv. 1O..

A Third benefit flowing from union with Chrift, is Adeption. Believers, being united to Chrift, become children of God, and members of the family of heaven. By their union with him, who is the Son of God by nature, they become the fons of God,' by grace, John, 12. As when a branch is cut off from one tree, and grafted in the branch of another; the ingrafted branch, by means of its union with the adopting branch, (as fome not unfitly have called it) is made a branch of the fame ftock, with that into which it is ingrafted; fo finners being ingrafted into Jefus Chrift, whofe name is the Branch, his Father is their Father; his God their God,' John xx. 17. And thus they, who are, by nature, children of the devil, become the children of God. They have the Spirit of adoption, Rom. viii. 15.

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namely, the Spirit of his Son, which brings them to God, as children to a father, to pour out their complaints in his bofom, and to feek neceffary fupply, Gal. iv. 6. Because ye are fons, God hath fent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, cry: ing, Abba, Father.' Under all their weakneffes, they have fatherly pity and compaffion fhewn them, Pfal. ciii. 13. Like as a father pitieth his children: fo the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Altho' they were but foundlings, found in a defart land; yet now that to them belongs the adoption, ' he keeps them as the apple of his eye,' Deut. xxxii. 10. Whofoever purfue them, they have a refuge, Prov. xiv. 26. His children thall have a place of refuge." In a time of common calamity, they have chambers of protection, where they may be hid, until the indignation be overpaft,' Ifa. xxvi. 20. And he is not only their refuge for protection, but their portion for provifion, in that refuge, Pfal. cxlii. 5. Thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living.' They are provided for, for eter nity, Heb. xi. 16. He hath prepared for them a city. And what he fees they have need of for time, they fhall not want, Mat. vi. 31, 32. Take no thought, faying, What fhall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal fhall we be clothed ? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Seafonable correction is likewife their privilege, as fons fo they are not fuffered to pafs with their faults, as happens to others, who are not children, but fervants of the family, and will be turned out of doors for their mifcarriages at length, Heb. xii. 7. If ye endure chaftening, God dealeth with you as with fors: for what fon is he whom the Father chafteneth not? They are heirs of, and fhall inherit the promises, Heb. Nay, they are heirs of God, who himfelf is the portion of their inneritance,' Pfal. xvi. 5. and joint heirs with Chrift,' Rom. viii. 17. And because they are the children of the great King, and young heirs of glory, they have angels for their at tendants, who are fent forth to minifter for them that shall be heirs of falvation,' Heb. i. 14.

vi. 12.

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A Fourth benefit is Sanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. But of him, are ye in Chrift Jefus, who of God is made unto us wifdom and righteoufnels, and fanétification.' Being united to Chrift, they partake of his Spirit, which is the Spirit of holinefs. There is a fulness of the Spirit in Chrift; and it is not like the fulness of a veffel, which only retains what is poured into it; but it is the fulness of a fountain, for diffufion and communication; which is lways fending forth its water, and yet is always full. The

Spirit of Chrift, that fpiritual fap, which is in the stock, and from thence is communicate to the branches, is the Spirit of grace, Zech. xii. 10. And where the Spirit of grace dwells, there will be found a complication of all graces. Holiness is not one grace only, but all the graces of the Spirit: it is a conftellation of graces; it is all the graces in their feed and root. And as the fap conveyed from the ftock into the branch, goes thro' it, and thro' every part of it; fo the Spirit of God fanctifies the whole man. The poifon of fin was diffused through the whole fpirit, foul and body of the man; and fanctifying grace purfues it into every corner, 1 Theff. v. 23. Every part of the man is fanctified, though no part is perfectly fo. The truth we are fanctified by, is not held in the head, as in a prifon; but runs, with its fanétifying influences, through heart and life. There are indeed fome graces in every believer, which appear as topbranches above the reft; as meeknefs in Mofes, patience in Job; but feeing there is in every child of God, a holy principle going along with the holy law, in all the parts thereof loving, liking, and approving of it; as appears from their univerfal refpect to the commands of God: it is evident they are endued with all the graces of the Spirit; becaufe there can be no more in the effect, than there was in the caufe.

Now, this fan&tifying Spirit, whereof believers partake, is unto them, (1.) A Spirit of mortification. Through the Spirit, they mortify the deeds of the body,? Rom. viii. 13. Sin is cru cified in them, Gal. v. They are planted together (namely, with Chrift,) in the likeness of his death, which was a lingering death, Rom. vi. 5. Sin in the faint, tho' not quite dead, yet is dying. If it were dead, it would be taken down from the crofs, and buried out of his fight: but it hangs there as yet. working and ftruggling under its mortal wounds. Like, as when a tree has got fuch a ftroke as reaches the heart of it, all the leaves and branches thereof begin to fade and decay: fo, where the fanctifying Spirit comes, and breaks the power of fin, there is a gradual ceafing from it, and dying to it, in the whole man; fo that he no longer lives in the flesh to the lufts of men.' He does not make fin his trade and, bufinefs; it is not his great defign to feek himself, and to fatisfy his corrupt inclinations: but he is for Immanuel's land; and is walking in the high-way to it, the way which is called, The way of holiness : Though the wind from hell, that was on his back before, blows now full in his face, makes his travelling uneafy, and often drives him off the high-way. (2.) This Spirit is a spirit of vivification to

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then;