Spirit has put me upon seeking, let me by his grace find continually. He has manifested to me thy perfect reconcilation to thy people through the life and death of Jesus. It has been given me on his behalf to believe this. I have therefore taken thee for my God and my portion, and I would so walk with thee as to obtain a growing knowledge and experience of thy love. For this cause I bow my knees unto thee, holy Father. O hear and answer the prayer of faith. Give me grace to walk with thee in love all the way to glory. I ask it in the name of Jesus: for thou art the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. One Father, one family, one love. Thou receivest all thy children, whether in heaven or earth, into the same near relation, and embracest them with the same dear affection in thy beloved Son. Ο what a mercy is this! Blessed, for ever blessed be thy fatherly love, which chose me to be of thy family, and which has brought me to know that I am a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus. I thank thee for giving me the desire to live as such, and to walk worthy of my high calling. O grant me then according to the riches of thy glory, (out of thine infinite treasury of grace, and to the praise of the glory of thy grace) to be strengthened with might by thy Spirit in the inner man. He is the promise of the Father. All thy children have their new birth, and every faculty of the new man from him, and by the working of his mighty power they are kept, as well as renewed day by day: for without him they can do nothing. Of this he has thoroughly convinced me. I know I cannot call thee Father, nor believe in thee, nor love thee, but by thy Spirit.

O my God, strengthen me effectually by his grace in the inner man, for every purpose of spiritual life. Whatever he has engaged to do in thy children, let him do it in me, that through his presence and power Christ may dwell in my heart by faith. O let him continually discover to me mine interest in Christ, and

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open to me the exceeding riches of thy love in him. Holy Father, let thy good Spirit abide with me, that I may know for certain Christ is one with me, and I am one with him, and may thereby be able to maintain constant fellowship with him-he dwelling in me and I in him. O may I thus live continually by the faith of the Son of God, depending always for acceptance with thee upon his atonement and his righteousness, and so may find the happy fruit of his prayer to thee-" 0 " righteous Father, I have declared to my disciples thy name, and will declare it, that the love, where"with thou lovest me, may be in them, and I in them.” Thou didst hear, thou hast answered times out of number, the request of thy beloved Son. Lord God answer it to me. Let me rejoice in thy love, and find it to be the same to me, as to him. Let thy good Spirit root me and ground me in the knowledge of thy love to me in Jesus. O grant me to be deeply rooted in the experience of it, that my faith working by love may bring forth much fruit to thy glory, and I may become so grounded in love, as to stand unshaken, like a house built upon a rock, against every attack made upon thy love to thee. O my God and Father, my heart is naked and open to thee. Thou knowest the secrets of it. Thou seest how fervently I pray for the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. My prayer comes from a feeling sense of my want of him, and from a dependence on thy promise to give the Spirit to them that ask him. Lord, I ask. Grant me to be strengthened by him with him with every needful gift and grace in the Send him to manifest plainer and plainer my union with Jesus, in order to my keeping up communion with him: that having him dwelling in my heart by faith, I may be so established in the experience of thy love to me in him, as to be able to comprehend with all saints, what is that breadth, and length, and depth, and height of thy love. All the saints comprehend it. But the saints below less than they above. And some of them below comprehend more than others. I know

inner man.

but little: O my God, increase my knowledge of thy love in Jesus. Whereunto I have attained, establish me; and keep me pressing forward for clearer discoveries of it. Help me to survey it, so far as faith is able, in its most glorious dimensions, and to praise thee for mine experience of its rich mercies. Holy Father, teach me still more by thy Spirit of the boundless freeness, and of the endless fulness of thy love-let me know thy love in Christ, which passeth knowledge. Although I cannot know it, as it is, my limited understanding being incapable of measuring the infinity of thy love, yet for this very reason let me be daily studying to know more of it-growing up into Christ Jesus by faith-abounding in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost-and increas-ing in the love of God. Holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, let me thus partake of the fulness of grace below, grace for grace, till I partake of the fulness of glory above-that I may be filled with all the fulness. which is of God, with which thou hast promised to fill thy children in earth and heaven. O magnify thy love towards me according to its greatness, and not according to my deserts, or to my prayers. I know thou canst do exceeding abundantly above all that I can ask or think, according to the power that worketh effectually in me. Thy power engaged to act for me is the support of my faith, and mine encouragement in my prayer. It is an infinite and almighty power, which has graciously begun, and has hitherto prosperously carried on the good work in my soul. To it all things are possible. Lord forbid I should doubt of thy granting the petitions, which I have been offering up unto thee in thy Son's name. That which thou hast promised, thou art able to perform. O my God and Father, set thy power to work more effectually in me. Let the Spirit of might enlarge my thoughts of, and my faith in, thy precious love. Let me experience daily, how much more thou art able to do, than I have yet obtained; to give, than I have yet asked; to increase, than I have yet thought. And whatever in

crease thou givest, may it draw out mine affections in greater love to thee, and to thy ways, and so be the means of bringing more glory to thee. For thy love in Jesus the whole family in heaven and earth is ascribing honour and praise. Accept my thanks, holy Father, together with theirs. To thee be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world with

out end. Amen.

CHAP. IV.

The believer goes on successfully, while he walks by faith in a constant dependence upon his reconciled God, and loving Father.

THE leading principle upon which he sets out is this. God is my God and Father. He is perfectly reconciled unto me, and my conscience is at peace with him through faith in his beloved Son. He loves me in him. He has manifested it plainly to me, and now my heart would cleave to him as my most tender parent. I would rest in my love to him as he rests in his love to me. It is entirely through the grace of the eternal Spirit, that I have been enabled thus to believe in the finished work of Jesus, and to experience the Father's love in him. By which means I have been satisfied of the love of the ever-blessed Trinity to my soul. Father, Son and Spirit have covenanted to make me an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ: From my belief and experience of these truths I have been enabled to choose God for my portion. His will is become mine. His appointed way is my course; and now I desire so to walk with him, as to maintain in my conscience, the of God, and in my heart the love of God. I do not expect any new title to those inestimable graces. My claim is good and valid under Christ. I would not disparage it by supposing that my close walk with God

peace

was to make any atonement for my sins, or to be the least part of my justifying righteousness. I have these already, and perfectly too in Jesus. The enjoyment of them is the thing I want. I am seeking for more of that peace with, and love to, the Father, to which I am entitled in his Son. His fulness, the fulness of him that filleth all in all, is mine. A free grant of it has passed in the court of heaven, has been revealed in the record of truth, and I by believing have accepted the grant. I am in possession of its privileges, and am enjoying its blessings. On the fulness of Jesus I live this day. Out of it I hope to be receiving every grace, which I shall want for my safe and happy walk with his Father and my Father. Bless the Lord, O my soul, for what thou knowest and hast experienced of his abundant grace which has enabled thee thus to resolve to walk with thy reconciled God and loving Father. This day thou art called upon to maintain peace with him in thy conscience, and love to him in thy heart; peace like his, flowing from the sense of being perfectly reconciled to thee-love like his, the happy fruit of his unchange able love to thee. Whatever thou meetest with in thy work or warfare ought not to lessen, but ought to exercise and to improve those graces. Never forget that he is thy God-the God of peace. He stands related to thee in the dearest and most indissoluble bond of love. He is thy Father in Jesus. Keep the sense of this always fresh upon thy mind, and thy steps will be ordered aright. Nothing will be able to stop thee in the way to heaven, or to seduce thee out of it; but every thing will bring thee forward. Whilst thou canst maintain peace and love, thou wilt go on prosperously against guilt and self-righteousness, against the wiles and assaults of thy spiritual foes, against the world which lieth in wickedness, and against every inward and outward trial. The Lord being on thy side, all these shall work together under him for thy good, and they shall be the means of making thee walk safely in the way, and of bringing thee happily to the end of its