OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESSs 293 exercised. Hence the great thing which we desire, labor for, and pant after, is spiritual strength and abil- ity for the discharge of ourselves in a due manner with respect to these things. This is that which every true believer groaneth after in the inward man, and which he preferreth infinitely above all earthly things. So he may have grace sufficient in any competent meas- ure for these ends; let what will befall him, he desir- eth no more in this world. God in Christ is the found tain of all his grace. There is not one drachm of it to be obtained but from him alone. And as he doth communicate it to us of his own sovereign goodness and pleasure ; so the ordinary way andmeans whereby he will do it, are the duties of his worship. Isa. xl, 28-31. ' Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, - neither is weary '1 There is no searching of his understanding, He giv- eth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength : they shall mount up with wings, as eagles ; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.' All grace and spiritual strength is originally seated in the nature of God; (v. 28,) but, what relief can that afford to us, who are weak, feeble, fainting ? He will act suitably to his nature in the communication of this grace and power ; (v. 29,) but, how shall we have an interest in this grace, in these operations l Wait on, hirn in the , ordinances of his worship, (v. 31.) The word, as preached, is the food of our souls, whereby God administereth growthand strength to them. (John 25*
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