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ment, the divine acceptance, the divine application of his sacrifice, is the most noble subject, that could be sung upon earth: indeed it is the subject of heaven, and will be the harmony and concert of eternity. May the Holy Ghost put our hearts in tune to join in it, and to adore and to bless the Lamb that was slain, setting up our banners as they did, Rom. viii. 31, 32, 33, 34. conquerors over sin and Satan and all their enemies. We have the same Jesus to rejoice in, and as good reason as ever believers had, to rejoice in him with a fulness of joy. When the heart feels as happy as it can be here in God the Saviour, these are some of the delightful exercises of faith in his blood:

O, what am I, that such a sinner as I am should be thus highly favoured! A child of wrath by nature, even as others, and by practice-having sinned long with greedinessagainst light and conviction-sinning and sorrowing-sorrowing and sinning from year to year-a slave to the lust of the flesh, to the lust of the eyes, and to the pride of life, every moment fit and ripe for hell. O

what a monument of infinite patience and long-suffering! spared from day to day, and at last called to the saving knowledge of Jesus. O what exceeding riches of grace are these that the Father would choose me in the Beloved, and give him to save me from sin and misery that he would send his Spirit to quicken me, and to enable me to belive that there was mercy in Jesus for me, even for me, and plenteous redemption. What sinner can be more indebted than I am, for such miracles of grace. Glory be to God in the highest. My Lord Jesus, the great God and my Saviour, gave himself for me, that he might redeem me from all iniquity, and might cleanse me from all sin. Trusting to his atonement, and to his righteousness, I am led to admire the Father's full absolution; 66 Thy sins and thine iniquities I will remember no more." Thanks be to him for this unspeakable gift. He has pronounced them blessed, and he has caused me to feel some of their blessedness, whose iniquities he has forgiven, and whose sin he has covered; and therefore I look forward

with thankfulness to the great day of redemption, when Jesus will present me to himself, holy and without blemish, as if I had never sinned. In this hope of salvation I triumph before God. Now I see the felicity of thy chosen-I rejoice in the gladness of thy people-and I glory with thine inheri tance. Unto him, who chose me in his Son -Unto him, who loved me and washed me from my sins in his own blood-Unto him, who gave me this faith and keeps me in it: for this fellowship with the eternal Three, be eternal praise. Amen.

CHAP. VI.

The believer's victory over the dominion

of sin.

WE have heard from scripture some of

the victories of faith over sin in its pollution and in its guilt. But there is still a hard warfare to be maintained against its dominion for it reigneth absolutely in the children of disobedience, and it never ceaseth to strive for mastery in the children of God; who have an evil nature, still-an old man, who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and who is to be put off every daydenied in his desires-mortified in his affections, and crucified in his appetites. Thus the commandment runs, " Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." And the new man, who is called to this warfare, is ordered to make use of Christ's fulness for promised courage, and strength, and victory for without Christ he can do nothing. Sin is himself-he is a body of sin; and he has not only to fight against

himself, but also against principalities and powers, hosts of foes, united under the banner of the God of this world, trying all their cunning, and all their force to bring the believer back into the bondage of corruption; and what he has of his own is on their side. His worst foe is his indwelling sin, which has a complete body with all its members and lusts, always enticing to something unlawful, and tempting to the commission of it. Every faculty is ready to become an instrument of unrighteousness unto sin. It is an absolute tyrant, which rules its slaves with the most cruel rigour, keeping them captive to its will, although nothing but destruction and misery be in their ways.

Thus original sin is described in the ninth article of our church-it is the fault and corruption of every man born of Adam. And notwithstanding it still remaineth in the regenerate, yet there is a promise of daily and of complete victory over the tyrant. Thus it is written, "Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace." Once sin had full do

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