Watts - BX5200 .W3 1813 v.2

2O THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. of his intercession in heaven ; for it is the appointment of God, . that faith in Christ shall be our onlymeans of drawing near to the Father. 5. The Holy Spirit preserves, and carries onhis own divine \ work in the soul. What he begun in faith, he carries on in love : What be begun in repentance, he carries on by dailymor- tification of sin. Faith and love are thefruits of the Spirit; Gal. v. 22. And it is by the.Spirit, that we must mortify the deeds of the body, ifwe would live ; Rom. viii. 13. He sanctifies us more and more, and draws our hearts still nearerto God. It is by the sanctificationof the Spirit, and by the belief of the truth, that we are brought topartake ofsalvation ; 2 Thess. ii. 13. He restores us when we wander, and brings us back, when we have gone astray : He fits us for converse with God, and awakens every grace, which he has wrought in us, into proper and seasonable exercise. He assists the soul in all its devout addresses to God, as a Spirit of prayer and supplication. By him we draw near to the Father. He gives us to taste the pleasure of religion, andpre- pares us daily for the full enjoyment of God. Hedwells in us, as a living spring of holiness, and keeps alive his own work in our hearts, through all the oppositions of indwelling sin, through all the various temptations we meet with, from Satan and from this present world, till we are brought safe to the heavenlyking- dom. He gives all the final strokes of sanctification, which may be needful at our death, freeing us from every remaining sin, and completing his own work of holiness in us. Then our bles- sed Mediator Christ Jesus, at the right-hand. of God, presents ; vs without spot or blemish, before the presence of his ownand his, Father's glory, and gives us that sensible enjoyment of those everlasting pleasures, he bath prepared for us, in that holyand happyworld. Now theduties that arise from this account ofthe operations of the Holy Spirit areas follow : In our approaches to God, in order to obtain peace and favour with him, we must pray, and wait, and hope for the di- vineinlinences ofthis blessedSpirit,to convince us of sin, to make us,sincerely willing to be reconciled to God, to give us a clear and affecting sight of Christ, in all the power and glory of his mediatioral office, and to enable us to apply ourselves to Christ, by a living faith, that wemay by him, be brought into the favour of God. We must pray earnestly to the God ofall grace, that he would workdeep and unfeigned repentance in us, by his Holy Spirit, that his Spirit might change our natures into his own like- ness, and restore his image, which is defaced by sin ; that he would send hisSpirit to mortifyall the corrupt principles that are

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=