283 / 652
DISC.
xr.]
ORDINARY
WITNESS
OF
THE
SPIRIT.
273
O
the
unknown
transports of
this
hour
!
The unspeak-
able
joy
and glory
of
this
day! Faith
is
even
astonished
at
the
delightful
distant
prospect,
and
longs
till
the
Lord
appear.
DISCOURSE
XI.
THE ORDINARY WITNESS OF THE
SPIRIT.
ROMANS
viii,
lô.
The
Spirit itself
beareth
witness
with our
spirit,
that
we
are
the children
of
God.
THE
FIRST
PART.
HERE
is
a
sacred
honour and
dignity
conferred
upon
men
by
a
patent
from heaven
:
The
patent
is
the
scrip-
ture, or
word
of
God, and
the dignity
is,
that
we
are
made
his
children.
Here
are
also
two
distinct
witnesses
to
this title
of honour;
viz.
our
own
spirits,
and
the
blessed
Spirit
of
God
:
The
Spirit
itself
witnesses
with
our
spirits,
that
we
are the children
of
the
Most High.
Every
one
that reads
the
text
may
plainly discern,
that,
by
the
Spirit
itself
we
must
understand
the
Holy Ghost,
or third
person
in
the ever blessed
Trinity,
who
is
sent
to
dwell
and operate
in
the
hearts
of
christians
;
as
it
is
expressed
in
several
of
the foregoing
verses.
And
it
is
as
-manifest,
that our
own
spirit here
signifies
that
principle
within
us,
distinct
from
our
flesh,
whereby
we
are enabled
to think, reason, compare
things
together,
and
to
judge
concerning
them.
This
is
sometimes called the mind,
the heart, the conscience, the soul
;
and
it
is
termed
our
spirit
here in
the
words before
us.
The Spirit
of
God
may sometimes
operate
by
himself
alone,
in
a very
extraordinary
manner, upon the souls
of
men,
and
give
them
immediate and
divine
assurances
of
their adoption
and
their interest
in
the love
of
God,
as
his
children
;
And
this
favour
was
sometimes bestowed
-in
the
primitive days
of
christianity, when the
saints
VOL.
III.
T