iatsc. xi.] ORDINARY WITNESS OF TIfE SPIRIT. 877 in our souls, lays the foundation of these evidences iet the heart with power, and makes, then" appear in the life with beauty and praise. Therefore the children of God are said to be " born of the Spirit ;" Jo/in iii. 5, 6. It is he that takes us out of the kingdom of Satan, the family of death and hell, and brings us into the family of God, and the kingdomof hiS grace. It is he that, by his divine influences, translates tts from darkness into the kingdom of Christ. It is he that takes away all trie wild and savage marks of an unclean beast from the soul, and gives it the disposition and the character of the sheep of Jesus. It is, the blessed Spirit who, byhis sanctifying and renewing work, stamps the image of God on the soul, forms the features and resemblance of the divine nature, and imprintson the heart such gracious habits and dispo- sitions as render It like to God. Thus the child of God bears the Father's likeness, as the figures engraved on the seal are copied out on the wax. And this some have called the " seal of the Holy Spirit ;" ». i. 13. and iv. 3O. And as the Spirit of God works these divine principles of holiness in the heart, so he is said to be given to us, to dwell in us ; i. e. to preserve those holy principles which belong to the children and heirs of God : And in this sense-he may be called an " earnest of their future inhe- ritance ;" Lph. i. Blessed are your souls, who have the fore- mentioned characters impressed upon you. Rejoice in your own happy state, and bless the eternal Spirit, who has stamped the likeness of God upon you ; who has begotten you again to a new life, by the power of the word working effectually upon your hearts ; who has translated you from the houshold of sin and Satan, and made you the children of the most high God, Here also we may remark, that in this we bear a re- semblance to Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son, It was by the descent of this Spirit on the blessed virgin and by the overshadowing power of the Most High, that' the child Jesus was formed ; and therefore that holy thing which was' born of the virgin, was called " the Son of God ;" Luke i. The resemblance holds yet further :. For " the Spirit was given to dwell in Christ without measue, to sane- . 3
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