thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live :"* and it was acknowledged in David's prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me." In numerous passages of the New Testament it is still more explicitly asserted or implied; to one only of which we shall now refer-"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."‡ § We are further taught to attribute the agency of which we speak, to the Third Person in the adorable Trinity, the Holy Spirit of God,—as pertaining to the peculiar province which he occupies in the work of man's redemption. "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me," says David in immediate connexion with the prayer just quoted, “uphold me with thy free Spirit."|| In the person of Wisdom exhorting men to listen to her counsels, God says, "Behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you."* "I will put my Spirit within you," was the promise from God under the Old Dispensation with special reference to the New. The prediction of our Lord's immediate forerunner concerning him was; "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Our Lord himself said, "Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."|| An apostle declared that the discovery of saving mercy was by "the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." And so fully had the gift been bestowed according to promise, that that same apostle could say to the Corinthian believers, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you."¶ The operation and presence of the Spirit of God are connected, throughout the New Testament, with all the results of the scheme of mercy, with the spiritual excellencies of the * Prov. i. 23. † Ezek. xxxvi. 27. || John iii. 5. new creation, with its present fruits of righteousness and peace, and with its hopes of a future more perfect and glorious state of being. Deliverance from the law of sin is ascribed to the Spirit; for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."* The fruits of the Spirit are said to be, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."+ "The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost," which is given to believers. Purification, obedience, brotherly love, are all connected with it; "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren; see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."§ By the Spirit the people of God are sealed, that is, separated and secured as God's peculiar property; "in whom also ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." By him they are enabled to know and *Rom. viii. 3. Rom. v. 5. † Gal. v. 22, 23. ŞI Pet. i. 22. || Eph. i. 13, 14. confess the authority and deity of the Son of God; "I give you to understand that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost."* From him they receive a spiritual discernment of the nature of divine things, which preserves them from error and leads. them into the truth; "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all thingsand ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." In their prayers, believers are enabled by him to desire what they ought to pray for, and are aided by his powerful intercession; "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."‡ By him they cleave to the hope of acceptance through Christ's righteousness; "for we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." And they expect that by his energy * 1 Cor. xii. 3. † 1 John ii. 20. 27. Gal. v. 5. their bodies shall be raised at last from the dust, even as their glorious Head has already by him been quickened, and declared the Son of God with power; "but if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.' 99* The Spirit who is thus the author of individual salvation, is also necessarily the agent in the greater work of building up the church, and regenerating a fallen world. "By one Spirit," says Paul," are we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." The prediction that in the latter days, "the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh,"‡ extends to the whole period of the gospel dispensation, and is accomplishing at the present time as it was in part fulfilled at the day of Pentecost. The necessity for this effusion in order to the extension of the church is plainly intimated in a prophecy by Isaiah, |