Hence there will be no bondage-frames, if grace be in exercise, and God the Holy Ghost is leading the believer to a mercy seat, in, and through, the blood, and righteousness, of Jesus. Perfect love (saith the Apostle) casteth out fear. I am going, the soul will say, to my God, and Father, in Christ Jesus. I know that in myself, I am utterly unworthy to be called his son. I have been an enemy, to him, by wicked works. But he hath said, let him take hold of my strength to make peace with me and he shall make peace with me.* Lord I am come, (the soul rechoes, in reply to the gracious precept, and assurance,) and find peace in the blood of the cross,

My Brother! Pause over the consideration, of this mighty privilege, and see, what a volume of persuasions it contains, for every renewed opportunity, of drawing nigh a throne of grace, in all holy ordinances.

Are you acquainted with that exercise of the soul, which ariseth out of the view of indwelling corruption? And do you not know, the sweetness of that precious scripture, which authorizes you in your seasons of worship, to look up, and behold Him, who appears, as your Advocate

*Isaiah 27. 5.

with

with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and who is the propitiation for your sins?

Do your cold prayers, not unfrequently freeze upon your lips, and the conscious sense of the impurities with which they are accompanied, induce fear, and apprehension, how they will be received? What a relief to the mind doth God the Holy Ghost give, when he enables you by faith, to behold that Mighty Angel, before the Altar with his golden Censer, offering up your prayers, with the much incense of his own merits! *

Are your lips so closed at times, and your mind so confused, that you know not how to pray, or what to pray for? Can it fail to refresh the soul, under all, and every state of heartstraitenings, when God the Holy Ghost points to the Great Intercessor, in his adorable Character, going in before the throne in his Priestly vestments, making all needful requests for his people!

In such seasons, how very sweet is that blessed promise, and encouraging assurance of God,

*Rev. 8. 9.

God, brought home to the heart: I create the fruit of the lips, peace, peace, to him that is afar off, and to him that is nigh, saith the Lord, and I will heal him. †

Nothing can more decidedly shew the vast, and infinite importance, of the thing itself, that the soul must be brought, into an assurance, of having peace with God through Jesus Christ, and have a well grounded authority, of looking up to him as his Saviour, before there can be any real enjoyment of God in ordinances, or as the Church beautifully expresses it, to sit under his shadow with great delight and his fruit made

sweet to the taste.

But the blessed effects of such a state, are not confined to seasons of worship only; they enter, into every department of existence, and from the chief source of felicity, in all our comforts, and the grand sweetener of all our sorrows.

In social life, the approbation of our friends, is made doubly pleasing, when we are able to connect with it the approbation of our God. The conscious assurance, of being at peace with him, adds a tenfold sweetness, to the peace we enjoy in the world.

Isaiah 57. 19.

On

On the contrary, what is that which David calls, the strife of tongues, or the condemnation of the ungodly, when the soul can adopt the sentiment of the apostle, and say, it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth?

And what an accession of joy, must it give, the brightest hour, the believer is privileged to taste, in his passage through the world, to be able always to add to it, the pleasing prospect, of that day of God, when Jesus his Saviour, and Judge, is coming to receive him to mansions of everlasting felicity?

It is a well known fact, that let a sinner be placed, in the happiest situation the world can form, yet, if in the fullest enjoyment of his fancied festivity, a single thought of futurity, crosses the mind, like the hand writing on the wall, before the impious monarch we read of, this alone, is enough to throw to the ground, all the props of his happiness.

And if in the very zenith of prosperity, the sinner is made sometimes to tremble, like Felix, at the prospect of a judgment to come: what shall support the soul, in seasons of adversity?

A

1

A portion of sorrow, more, or less, must dash every man's cup with bitterness; and the happiest life of sinners, cannot find a requiem from sorrow altogether. What a most deplorable state of misery, must that man's mind have been in, when he said, I am sore distressed. For the Philistines make war against me: and God is departed from me. To be at once deprived of all resources! Given up by the world, and forsaken of God!

*

But to the believer, the consciousness of being new in a justified state before God, and the expectation of the coming of Christ, as his Saviour to close all the afflictions and trials of this life in everlasting glory, gives an inward peace, and tranquility, to the mind, which reconciles during the darkest hour, every intervining providence, and enables him to see so much of God, in every dispensation, that he is sure the termination of it, must be to the glory of the Lord, and to his own furtherance in happiness. I know Lord (he will say) thy judgments are right and that thou in very faithfulness hast afflicted me. †

In a word; temptations, and trials, and sickness, nay even death itself, is in the Christian's

inventory

Sam: 28. 15. †Psalm 119, 75.