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believe in Him, to form the medium of communication with his people. "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you; and at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of intercourse and communion, whereby the mysterious fellowship of the Father with the Son, and of these again with the believer, is maintained and by Him, therefore, the aversation of the natural mind from God is removed, and the shrinking fears of the sinner are changed into a holy confidence, and we regard Him as our Father, and there is peace and intercourse between us. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father: "-the outward and vicarious work of Christ having procured for us the adoption of sons, and opened the way of access to divine favour: the inward work of the Spirit implants in us the spirit of adoption, and encourages and prompts us to enter by that way. "The Spirit itself beareth

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witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God," and thus, personally as well as by privilege, actually as well as permissively, "through Christ we have access,* by one Spirit unto the Father." The fear of wrath is succeeded by the hope of favour; the coldness of dislike by the warmth of filial love, and we thus "draw near, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." O the love, then, of Him who has effected this blessed junction of our souls with God! Christ has come forth from the bosom of the Father, and become the Son of man, that we might be exalted by Him to be sons of God! "He suffered for us, the just for the unjust, that He might bring ust to God!" He is the one Mediator between God and man; even the man Christ Jesus partaking of the nature of both parties, He can bring both into conjunction; He is the medium of their intercourse, the channel of their communication. God dwelt in Jesus; Jesus dwells in the heart of the believer; and hereby, therefore, does God himself dwell in the believer, and the believer dwell in God.

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has the Spirit of Christ within him, has the Spirit of God, which Spirit dwelt in Christ ;* and he that has the Spirit of God is born of God, and has fellowship with God; yea," and the Father himself loveth him, and doth come to him, and maketh his abode with him!"

And how then does this all-uniting Spirit become ours? By faith in Christ.

Apart from Him, and ignorant, or mistrustful of the work which He has wrought, the condition of the soul is dark and dreary. The more we feel the majesty of God, the more we tremble at the thought of Him! The more we learn of guilt and danger, the more we shrink from meeting Him who is our Judge! Without faith, therefore, though Christ has removed the impediment without, and opened out a new and living way to God, yet the impediment within is not removed, and we are as distant from God as ever! We enter not by the way which has been provided for us; we use not the privilege vouchsafed to us; we remain still far off in the gloom of alienation-the secret distaste of our nature prevails-and we live without God in the world! But does there come to us the Gospel of Salvation? do we learn the fact, the simple, all-sufficient fact, that He, the Son of God *See Rom. viii. 10, 9.

himself, has undertaken our cause? and do we value and believe the blessed tidings? Then with faith comes hope, and with hope comes relenting of the mind, the warmth of returning life, the yearnings of a new affection, the strugglings of the heart towards Him who so has loved us! "The love of Christ constraineth us!""We love God because He first loved us!" and there is born within us that new spirit of adoptive freedom, which expands and animates the heart, and diffuses a new tide of life throughout the man. "We be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in us in due season; we, through grace, obey the calling; we be justified freely; we be made sons of God by adoption; we be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ; we walk religiously in good works; and at length, by God's mercy, we attain to everlasting felicity." O the value, therefore, of that faith which works this personal transformation ! O the blessedness of that inward work of the Spirit, which alone completes and applies the outward work of Christ, and gives us full experimental access to our Father's love and friendship! It is in the exercise of faith that the first movements of the spirit of adoption quiver in the soul; and here begins that spi

ritual communion with Christ which connects us with Him as our living head; and thereby connects us with the Father, who is one with Him, and makes the Spirit of the Father and the Son the inmate of our souls!

Brethren, would you have the life of God within you?-seek that life in Christ! Would you realize the blessing He has freely opened to you, and be introduced to personal communion with your God?--believe in Him who has procured these blessings; and in, and by this faith, they shall be yours! Thus only shall we realize access to God by Him. For what is this access of which our text speaks? It is not merely a right and privilege procured for us by another, (that is spoken of just before, v. 1.) but it is a personal blessing to be enjoyed by us, ourselves. It is not a change of state alone-from banishment to acceptance, from condemnation to favour-but it is a change of mind from fear to hope, from aversion to love, from distance to communion. And this change can be wrought only by the application of the benefit, the believing of the blessing, the receiving of the gift, the trusting with undoubting confidence in the privilege vouchsafed. All the assurances in the world concerning a person's kindness cannot quiet an anxious mind till it

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