ON HOSEA XIV.- VERSES 5 -7. 199 anointed, animated by the same life, regenerated to the same nature, renewed unto the same image, reserved unto the same inheritance, dignified in some respect with the same offices, made priests to offer spiritual sacrifices, and kings to subdue spiritual enemies, and prophets to receive teaching from God, and to have a duplicate of his law written in our hearts, 2 Cor. 1. 21. John xiv. 19. 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49. Rom. viii. 17. 1 Pet. i. 5. Rev. i. 6. John vi. 45. Jer. xxxi. 33. [5.] The sweet perfume and scent or smell of Le- banon, which ariseth out of holy duties, the grace which droppeth from the lips of the people, the spi- ritual incense which ariseth out of their prayers, the sweet savour of the gospel which spreadeth itself abroad in the ministry of his wohl, and in the lives of his servants, they have all their original in him, and from his heavenly dew. Of ourselves, without him, as we are, altogether vile and unclean, Psa. xiv. 1. Prov. xiii. 5. so we defile every holy thing which we meddle with, Hag. ii. 13, 14. Prov. xxviii. 9. Isa. i. 11. 15. insomuch that God says, I will not smell in your solemn assemblies, Amos v. 21. they are all of them as they came from us, " Gall and wormwood, and bitter clusters," Deut. xxix. 18. xxxii. 33. But when the Spirit of Christ bloweth upon us, and h is grace is poured into our hearts and lips, then the spices flow out, Cant. iv. 16. Then prayer. goes up, like incense and sweet odours, Rev. v. 8. then instead of corrupt, rotten, courageous communi- çation, our discourses tend to edifying, and minis- ter grace to the hearers, Eph. iv. 29. then the savour . of the knowledge of Christ manifests itself in the mouths and lives of his servants in every place where they come, 2 Cor. xi. 14.. [6.] The shadow and refreshment, the refuge and
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