296 A RATIONAL DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL. fSERM. XVII. be who makes us willing to accept of Jesus as a Prince and a Saviour, to renew our sinful natures; to refine our hearts, and thereby to reform our lives : It is he that takes the blood of Christ, and applies it to a distressed. COflSCiCnce under the guilt of sin, and thus gives the disquieted soul rest .and peace: He takes of the things of Christ, and shews them unto us in all their glory and sufficiency for our salvation, and thereby justly obtains the nameof the paraclete, that is, an advocate for Christ, and a. comforter to us; John xiv. 26. and xv. 26. and xvi. 14, 15. He composes.the ruffles of the disturbed mind, and speaks,;all. the waves of the soul into a calm: He makes all within us peaceful and easy, under the apprehensions, of divine forgiveness through the merit of Christ. It is only the Spirit, of God That can make the disco- veries of heaven in the gospel effectual to :awaken our hope, and to raise ourjoy: He shews us how it is pur-, chased by the blood of Christ, and that it is made sure to all those that believe : He stampshis own holy image upon us, and seals us up for the inheritance of heaven. Eph. i. 13. When.ye.heard the word, of truth, the gospel of your salvation,: and believed it, ye were then sealed with the HolySpirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. The Spirit .is sent into our hearts as' à spirit of adoption, whereby we call God Father, Gal. iv. 6.., And he changes us from children of wrath into the sons and daughters of the living God; and he himself dwelling in us is a pledge and earnest of that inheritance, which, is reserved for us among the saints in light. It is:the some blessed Spirit that makes the gospel of Christ powerful' ;to mortify sin in us ; for though the words of the gospel forbid all iniquity, and require us to renounce the lusts of the flesh, and the vanities of the world, if we belong to Christ; yet it is by the Spirit of God alone that we are enabled to mortify the deeds of the body, that we may obtain eternal life,: It is he that makes the commands of Christ come with divine power and authority upon the soul, and gives the motives of the gospel power topersuade us: It' is he that renews our affections, makes us hate sin, and love God supremely, and causes us to delight in the spiritual pleasures of 4
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