and he their God. And the apostle Paul feems to allude to that expreffion, 2 Cor. iii. 3. "Forafmuch "as we are manifeftly declared to be the epiftle of "Chrift, miniftered by us, written not with pen "and ink, but the Spirit of the living God; not in "tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the "heart." The heart is faid to be the epiftle of Christ, written with the Spirit of the living God. The expreffion is of great force and fignificancy, and very comprehenfive. The power of Chrift upon the foul of a finner, as it were, copies the Bible upon him, forms Chrift Jefus, and makes his word dwell richly in him. How glorious a hand-writing muft it be! These must be beautiful and glorious characters; they make the believer all glorious within; they make the heart clean and pure; for God's words are pure, purer than filver tried in the furnace of earth; as it is expreffed Pfal. xii. 6. "purified feven times." We are clean by the words that he hath fpoken. It is on the fleshly tables of the heart this is done. When a heart is a table of ftone, the word makes no impreffion upon it. It is God himself takes away the heart of ftone; and upon the heart of flesh writes these characters, never to be blotted out any more. This is the bleffing we ought to feek earnestly from God, when we read and hear his word, that he himself may write it on our hearts, that our hearts may be thus the epiftle of Chrift, written with the Spirit of the living God. What a bleffing would it be, if we had the Spirit of God for this end, to make us know the gifts given us of God; to write that hand-writing on our hearts, affections, and the inclinations of our fouls; to make us not only know, but to love, his word, and delight in it; to lay it up in our hearts, that fo, when it dwells richly in us, it might bring forth fruit; that we may know the grace of God in truth, that fo he might be glorified, and his word glorified and magnified in our fouls; and that

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that we may not be forgetful hearers, but doers of his word, that he may blefs us in our deed.

V. I proceed, in the next place, to confider fome of the principal properties of that operation of God's power that makes his word effectual to turn finners to himfelf. Before we confider the properties of it, it is needful to acknowledge, and confider, that this is in a special manner the work of the third perfon of the Godhead, the Holy Ghoft. When the gofpel is faid to come in power, it is alfo faid, 1 Theff. i. 5. to come in the Holy Ghoft; and when it is written in the heart, it is written by the Spirit of God. The word of God is called "the fword of the Spirit," or the inftrument he makes ufe of. We should not think it enough for us, in a general acknowledgement, to feek the grace of God the Father, as if it were an indifferent thing whether we remember the Holy Spirit or not for why are we baptized, not only in the name of the Father, but also of the Son and Spirit; unless that hereby we may be bound and engaged to acknowledge, not only what the Father does for our redemption, and the Son does, but also what the Holy Spirit does. We read of fome in the Acts of the Apoftles, who profeffing Christianity, had not known there was a Holy Spirit. It was thought abfolutely neceffary to them to know this. It is grofs ingratitude not to know it; because it is the Spirit that quickens us. It is a neceffary part of religion; becaufe he is a divine perfon. The first mention that we have of the Spirit of God in fcripture is in the beginning of Genefis, in the hiftory of the creation of the world. When the world was formed in a rude form, the first thing we read of bringing it to a form is, the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. His working upon the fouls of finners that are by nature darkness, has a refemblance to that old work, bringing light out

of

of darkness, and order out of confufion. The Lord fays, "Let there be light," and there is light.

But then we are still directed in fcripture to confider this power as the power of Chrift Jefus, as well as of the Spirit, and to confider the Spirit as the fpirit of Chrift, when we confider him as a quickening fpirit to us. We are fanctified by the Spirit; but Chrift is faid to be the author and finifher of our faith, and to be exalted to give repentance and remiffion of fin. All the fcriptures about Chrift's prophetical office teach us, that we ought to view him as the fountain of light and life. If. lxi. 1. he tells, that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, to preach good tidings to the meek, the opening of the prifon to them that were bound. The fcripture explains how thefe two different divine perfons concur to this bleffed effect of turning us to God, and working in us true faith. The Son brings us out of prifon, and fo does the Spirit.. It is Chrift the Son that pays the prifoner's debt; it is the Spirit that opens the door of the prifon, and knocks off the fetters. Two perfons may concur to a prifoner's relief two different ways. Paying the ranfom, or prifoner's debt, is the principal thing, that which in law gives right to the meffenger to open the prifon-door. It is Chrift that opens the door of the prifon to them that are bound, If. Ixi. 1.; but it is by the Spirit of the Lord he does it. And the preaching of the good tidings of the gofpel is likewife there expreffed as a mean for that end. When the debt is paid, the prifoner is free in law; but his liberty is erectually accomplished, when the Son fends his Spirit: Then the prifoner is free indeed, when the Son thus makes him free. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. It is his truth makes men free. But ftill we are to confider, that all is to the glory of God the Father, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Thus we are to acknowledge the operation of the Spirit, and the purchafe

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-purchase of Chrift's blood. He that hath heard and learned of the Father, cometh to the Son. The Son teaches, and the Father teaches, and draws to the Son by the Spirit. And now,

1. One principal property of this operation of God's power is, that it is an exceeding great and glorious operation. It is fo called, Eph. i. 19. "The "exceeding greatnefs of his power to them that be"lieve." Col. i. 11. Paul prays, that God would ftrengthen them according to his glorious power. God's power is the fame in all the manifeftations of it; but fome effects and operations of it are more glorious than others. And we are ready to judge wrong in that matter. We are ready only, or chiefly, to confider the glory of God's power in the fabric of the visible world, the motion of the heavenly bodies, the fun, moon, and ftars. But the fpirits that God has made are more noble creatures than they; and the effects of God's power relating to them are in many refpects more glorious. God's forming the fpirit of man within him, is in feveral places joined with other glorious accounts of God's powerful manifeftations of himfelf; as Zech. xii. 1. "The burden of the word of the Lord for Ifrael, "faith the Lord, which ftretcheth forth the hea

vens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and "formeth the fpirit of man within him." The work of God's power on the foul of a finner, in turning it to himfelf, is in many refpects a more glorious operation of God's power than those we moft admire in the vifible creation. There is a great difference in the operations of Cod's power. It is the fame power that makes the leaft pile of grafs, that made heaven and earth; yet thefe operations are very unequal; as Paul expreffes it, 1 Cor. xv. 41. "There is one glory of the fun, of the "moon, and of the ftars." The fpirit of man, and the other fpirits that God has made, are unfpeakably more glorious creatures, than any of the lifeless,

fenfelefs

fenfeless creatures. How glorious foever the fun in the heavens be, yet that creature is incapable to know God. It is a mean to make the world know him, and glorify him; but that glorious creature, being devoid of reafon, is not capable of enjoying God. This difference gives an unfpeakable transcendency to the spirit of man above all creatures in this lower world; and it is an exceeding glorious operation of God's power that turns that fpirit to himself. We ought to be deeply humbled on account of our fin, and loath ourselves in duft and afhes; and fo much the more, because thereby we have abused and corrupted our fouls, fuch noble creatures. But, abstracting from fin, the proudest man in the world has not high enough thoughts of the dignity of the nature of the foul of man. Abftracting from what corruption has brought upon it, the foul of man is a creature capable, not, only of knowing itself and other creatures, but of knowing that infinite ocean of bleffednefs and glory, the fountain of all good, and of enjoying him for ever. Nothing can fill a rational creature but communications from that infinite fullness which is in God. If we confider the fubject of this operation, it is a glorious work of his power turning a foul to himfelf. Let us confider alfo the effect itself. There are many different effects of God's power on the foul of man; but this is the principal one, drawing his own image and likeness on us. There is an admirable glory and beauty in the visible creation; but all that glorious beauty is nothing to the beauty of holiness, which makes the renewed foul glorious within, though, alas! but in an imperfect manner in this prefent life. All the beauty of the lifeless vifible creation is but deformity, in comparison of the beauty of the image and likeness of an infinitely holy God, drawn upon the foul. Let us confider of what confequence it is; eternal happiness depends upon it: whereas many things in the vifi

ble