fealed by the holy Spirit of promife, which is the earnest of the inheritance: But thefe things I have not time to infift upon. So much for the fecond thing.

The third thing that I propofed here, was to fpeak a little to the manner of the acting or operation of these influences, or how is it that this wind blows upon the foul.

I answer, 1. then, the wind of the Holy Ghost blows very freely; the Spirit acts as an independent fovereign, John iii. 8. It doth not stay for the command, nor ftop for the prohibition of any creature; fo the breathings of the Spirit are fovereignly free as to the time of their donation, free as to their duration and continuance, free as to the measure, and free as to the manner of their working. And then, 2. he breathes on the foul fometimes very furprizingly. Ere ever I was aware, fays the spouse, my foul made me like the chariots of Aminadab. Can thou not feal this in thy experience, believer, that fometimes when thou haft gone to duty in a very heartless and lifeless condition, perhaps beginning to raze foundations, and to fay with Zion, the Lord hath forfaken, and my God hath forgotten, a gale from heaven has in a manner furprized thee, and fet thee upon the high places of Jacob, and made thee to cry with the spouse, It is the voice of my beloved! behold! he cometh leaping upon the mountains, Skipping upon the hills: His anger endures but for a moment, in his favour is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. 3. These breathings and influences of the Spirit are fometimes very piercing and penetrating. The cold nipping north-wind, ye know, goes to the very quick. The fword of the Spirit pierces to the divid ing afunder of foul and spirit, of joints and marrow,

and

and is a difcerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Wind, you know, is of a very feeking, pe netrating nature; it feeks thro' the clofeft cham bers: So the Spirit, which is the candle of the Lord, fearcheth the lower parts of the belly; he makes a discovery of these lufts and idols that skulk in the fecret chambers of the heart. 4. The breathings of this wind are very powerful, ftrong and efficaci ous; who can oppofe the breathings of the wind? Some winds have fuch a mighty force with them, that they bear down, overturn and overthrow every thing that stands in their way; fo the Spirit of the Lord fometimes, especially at first con verfion, breaks in upon the foul like the rushing of a mighty wind, as he did upon the apoftles, breaking down the strong holds of iniquity, cafting to the ground every high thought and towering ima gination of the foul, that exalteth itself against Chrift, with a powerful and triumphant efficacy: He masters the darkness of the mind, the contumacy and rebellion of the will, and the carnality of the affections, the enmity of the heart against God, and all the spiritual wickedneffes that are in the high places of the foul are made to fall down at his feet, as Dagon before the ark of the Lord. 5. Although he acts thus powerfully and irrefiftably, yet it is with an overcoming sweetness, fo as there is not the leaft violence offered unto any of the natural faculties of the foul; for whenever the spirit comes with his faving influences, he fweetly overcomes the darkness of the mind; the finner becomes a voluntier, and content to lift himself a soldier under Christ's banner, Pfal. cx. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. No fooner does Christ by his Spirit fay to the Soul, Follow me, but

immediately they arife and follow him. Behold we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. Then, 6. There is something in the breathing of this wind that is incomprehenfible by reafon, John iii. 8. Thou heareft the found thereof, but thou cannot tell whence it cometh, or whither it goes, fays Chrift, so is every one that is born of the Spirit. There is fomething in the operation of the Eternal Spirit, and his influences, beyond the reach, not only of natural, but of fanctified reason. Who can tell how the bones are formed in the womb of her that is with child; fo far lefs can we tell, how the Spirit forms the babe of grace in the heart; how he preferves, maintains and cherishes the smoaking flax that is not quite extinguished. We may in this cafe apply the words of the Pfalmift in another cafe, and fay, Thy way is in the fea, thy path in the deep waters, and thy footsteps are not known; and that of the apostle, How unfearchable are his judgments, and his ways paft finding out! 7. These influences of the Spirit are fometimes felt before they are feen, as you know a man will feel the wind, and hear it, when he cannot fee it: So it is with the Lord's people many times, on whom the Spirit breathes ; they feel his actings, they are fenfible that he has been dealing with them; and all that they can fay about it is, with the man that was born blind, One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, yet now I fee: The kingdom of heaven comes not with obfervation.

The fourth thing propofed, was to fpeak a little to the neceffity of these breathings. And here I fhall fhew, (1.) That they are neceffary. (2.) To what things they are neceffary.

(1.) That they are neceffary, will appear, 1. From

the

the express declaration of Chrift, John xv. 5. With out me ye can do nothing; that is, without the aid and influences of my Spirit: He doth not fay, without me ye cannot do many things, or great things, but without me ye can do nothing. 2. It is evident from the express acknowledgment of the faints of God upon this head, 2 Cor. iii. 5. We are not (fays the apoftle) fufficient of ourselves to think any thing of ourselves; but our fufficiency is of God. It is he that must work all our works in us and for us. 3. It is plain from the earnest prayers of the faints for the breathings of this wind, Cant. iv. 16. Awake O north wind, come thou fouth, and blow upon my garden. Pfal. lxxxv. 6. Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee. They are promised in the covenant, and therefore neceffary, Ifai. xliv. 3. I will pour waters on the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy feed, &c. Ezek. xxxvi. 27. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my ftatutes. Now, there is not a mercy promised in the covenant that can be wanting.

But, fecondly, To what are these breathings neceffary? I anfwer, they are neceffary, 1. To the quickening of the elect of God, when they are stark dead in trefpaffes and fins. Can ever the dry bones live, unlefs this omnipotent wind blow upon them? It is ftrange to hear fome men that profefs Chriftianity, talking of the power of their own wills to quicken and convert themselves; they may as well fay, that a dead man may take his grave in his two arms, and lay death by him, and walk. No man, fays Chrift, can come unto me, except the Father who hath fent me, draw him. Oh, what a dead weight is the finner, that a whole Trinity muft draw; for

both

both Father and Son draws the finner by the breathings of the Holy Ghost. 2. These influences are

neceffary for the fuitable difcharge of every duty of religion. You cannot read, you cannot hear, you cannot pray or praife, you cannot communicate to any advantage, unless the wind of the Holy Ghoft blow upon you; it is the Lord that must enlarge our steps under us, and make our feet like hinds feet in the ways of the Lord. 3. They are neceffary for accomplishing our fpiritual warfare against fin, Satan, and the world: We will never be able to combat with our fpiritual enemies, if he do not help us; it is he only that must teach our hands to war, and our fingers to fight, fo as bows of feel may be broken in pieces by us. Without the Spirit we will fall before every temptation, like Peter, curfe and fwear that we never knew him. 4. They are neceffary to the exercise of grace already implanted in the foul. As we cannot work grace in our hearts, fo neither can we exercise it .without the renewed influences of the Holy Ghost, Cant. iv. 16. When this wind blows, then, and never till then, do the fpices flow out. But I fhall not stand on this; the Spirit's influences are neceffary to all the ufes mentioned upon the second head, for conviction, illumination, renovation, confolation, enlargement, mortification of fin, and for affurance of our adoption.

The fifth thing that I propofed upon this head, was, to give you fome of the feafons of thefe influences of the Spirit; for the wind, you know, has its feafons and times of blowing and breathing. I fhall only name a few of them to you.

1. The Spirit's reviving influences, they blow very ordinarily in a day of converfion; this, as you were hearing, is a feafon when this wind breathes VOL. II.

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