three are distinct in personality, so is their voice and teftimony diftinct in the confciences of all true believers.

Paul tells us that by faith we come to the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of fprinkling, that fpeaketh better things than that of Abel, Heb. xii. 24. This voice fpeaks pardon, and perfect cleanfing, from all fin; it fpeaks peace with God and confcience; it fpeaks reconciliation and friendship with the Almighty; and it fpeaks nearness and accefs to God with boldness, freedom, and familiarity. The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God, being made nigh by the blood of Chrift, who were far from God by wicked works. Now faith is a coming to this Mediator, and to this blood of fprinkling, which fprinkles the heart from an evil confcience, and purges the confcience from dead works; for God purifies the heart by faith.

The voice of the Spirit, and his teftimony in the confcience, are diftinct alfo. To every one that receives Christ in faith and affection, to them gives he power to become the fons of God. And this power is the Holy Spirit, which produceth a birth that is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; and, when this regenerating and renewing work is performed, the Spirit proclaims our fon

ship, and claims the parentage of heaven upon it; for, being predeftinated to the adoption of children by Chrift Jefus, we are called Chrift's feed (Ifa. xliv. 3); yea, we are called fons and daughters (Ifa. xliii. 6); previous to our converfion by virtue of God's choice of us, and of his decree of predeftinating us to the adoption of fons: "And, because ye are fons, God hath fent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, father," Gal. iv. 6. This is the voice of the Holy Spirit, who is our inward helper, and an interceffor in our hearts, and whofe cry is not from a foul ftomach, nor does it favour of a ftinking breath; not from an evil conscience, nor from a mind blinded by Satan and hardened in pride, like that of Balaam (Numb. xxii. 18); or like that of the pharifees, who faid, "We have one father, even God," John viii. 41. All fuch claims fpring from ignorance and arrogance, from infenfibility and rafh prefumption, and therefore our Lord palms them upon another parent, being the feed of the ferpent, and a generation of vipers; for they were haters of Christ and of all his followers, which is the characteristic of the ferpent's feed, the image of Satan, and the evident token of perdition.

A graceless profeffion generally stirs up the carnal enmity of the finner's mind; and where this works guilt fticks faft, and where fin re

mains the fentence of God falls; fuch are condemned already (John iii. 6); and where the fentence falls there the wrath of God abides (John iii. 36); and the fhew of the countenances of fuch doth witness against them (Ifa. iii. 9.

A fallen countenance is a fure fign of guilt and condemnation (Gen. iv. 6); and a defperate countenance an infallible index of an hard heart, a ruined ftate, and an inward war with the Almighty (Ifa. xiii. 8); and it is eafy to discern, even in the law, what is meant by the tokens of perdition and of falvation; and what is meant by the image of God, and the image that God deipites; for the ten commandments know of no other claffes of men than haters and lovers of God: "I will vifit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and fhew mercy unto thousands of them that love me," Exod. xx. 5, 6.

But our cry and claim upon God is not our own; the Holy Spirit is the spirit of promise to us, and the spirit of adoption in us, and is the fruit and effect of Chrift's mediation, and of his being accepted of the Father in his office of mediator, and in every other office he fuftains, and is fecured to us by an everlasting covenant; and as a comforter, and as the spirit of grace and of glory, he is to abide with us for evermore.

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The cry of " Abba, father," by the Spirit is always owned and honoured, and is attended to both in heaven and earth, God owns it, and honours it, as in the cafe of the prodigal: "I will arife, and go to my father," fays he: "This is my fon," fays God: "Thou art the Lord my God," fays Ephraim: "Is Ephraim my dear Son?” fays God; "is he a pleasant child?" &c. God honours the faith that makes our fonfhip manifeft, and he attends to the prayers that are put up to him in the name of a father, and under the Spirit's influence; and this by answering them. The Spirit not only cries " Abba, father," but he witneffes to our adoption, and makes our own confcience do the fame; " He bears witness with our fpirit (fays Paul) that we are the children of God;" and, by the fentence of juftification paffed in the confcience by the Spirit, he bears witness to the righteoufnefs of Chrift being im puted to us; and this righteoufnefs without the law is witneffed both by the law and the prophets, Rom. iii. 21. This is juftification in the name of the Lord Jefus, and by the Spirit of our God, 1 Cor. vi. 11.

The cry and testimony of the Spirit is acknowledged upon earth alfo; the accufations and reproaches of Satan are filenced by the Spirit of God; and all his charges, whether true or falfe, are fapped at the foundation; and our adoption of fons is manifeft in the confciences both of

faints and finners, as the scriptures witness: And their feed fhall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that fee them fhall acknowledge them, that they are the feed which the Lord hath bleffed," Ifa. Ixi. 9. My dear friend fees here how our adoption, and the witness of it, are fpread and made known abroad in the world; all that fee them fhall acknowledge them, that they are the feed which the Lord hath bleffed.

The voice of God the Father is the voice of love; he promises to circumcife our heart to love him with all the heart and with all the foul, that we may live. This love is fhed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghoft which is given unto us; and its voice is, "Yea, I have loved thee," (Jer. xxxi. 3); and this is a cleanfing us from all idols; for, when the whole heart and whole foul loves God, there is no room left for them. The Father's voice of love in the heart gives the finishing ftroke to fpiritual death; God circumcifes the heart to love him, that we may live; the blood of Chrift removes the fting of death, and his righteousness imputed takes away the fentence of death; but nothing but love will caft out the fear of death. This is our enlargement and our freedom, being now drawn, and not driven; running with delight, and not dragging in chains; conftrained by divine goodness, and not purfued by wrath. The mean, low, fervile