160 FQRGIVEiVESS OF SIN. property of our minds, or their knowledge, and not of the truth known. It is certain to us, that is, we .have an assured knowledge Of it by the experience we have of it. This is the " assurance of understanding " here mentioned. And he further prays that we may come to the riches of this assurance; that is, to an abundant, plentiful assurance r and that, " to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God" owning it from a sense and experience of its excellency and worth. This is in the nature of all gospel-truths; they are fitted to be experienced by a believing soul. There is nothing in them so sublime and high, nothing so mys- terious, nothing so seemingly low and outwardly con- temptible, but that a gracious soul has experience of an excellency, reality, power, and efficacy in it all. For instance, look on that which concerns the order and worship of the Gospel. -This seems to many to be a mere external thing, of which a soul can have no in- ward sense or relish. Many notions there are about it, and endless contentions, but -what more 1 Why, let a gracious "soul, in s"implicity_and sincerity, give up him- self to walk with Christ according to his appointment, and he shall quickly find such a taste and relish in the fellowship of the Gospel, in the communion-'of saints, and of Christ amongst them, that he shall come up to such riches of assurance in the understanding and ac- knowledgment of the ways of the Lord, as others, by their arguing, can never attain. What is so high, glo- rious, and mysterious, as the doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity 1 Some wise men have thought meet to keep it veiled from ordinary "ehristians; and some have delivered it in such terms that nothing can be under- stood by them. But take a` believer who has tasted how gracious the Lord is, in the eternal love of the Fa- ther, the great undertaking of the Son in the work of mediation and redemption, with the almighty work of
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