room while he is in glory. And truly, firs, I may fafely fay it, upon fcripture warrant, that the prefence of the Spirit with believers upon earth, is a greater bleffing than the mere bodily prefence of Chrift ; and therefore Chrift tells his difciples by way of comfort, John xvi. If I go not away, the comforter will not come ; but if I go away, I will fend him. As if he had faid, when I am gone, the Spirit will be poured out from on high, which is far better for you than my bodily prefence. 4. These breathings of the Spirit are pledges of glory, the earneft-penny of the inheritance, Eph. i. 13. After that ye believed, ye were fealed with the holy Spirit of promife, which is the earnest of our inheritance. 5. Their excellency appears from the excellent effects that they produce upon the foul; they beautify the foul on whom they fall, and make it like a field which the Lord hath bleffed; they render the foul fruitful in every good word and work, Hof. xiv. 5. I will be as the dew unto Ifrael. And what follows? They shall grow as the lilly, and caft forth their roots as Lebanon. Ifai. xliv. 3, 4. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy Jeed, and my bleffing upon thy offspring; and then follows, ver. 4. They fhall Spring up as among the grafs, as willows by the water-courfes. Quest. What advice or counfel do you give in order to our obtaining or recovering the enlightening and reviving gales of the Spirit? Anf. Be fenfible of your deadnefs, and mourn over it; for the Lord comforts them that mourn in Zion; he will give them beauty for afhes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And then follows, They fhall be called trees of righte ousness, cufness, the planted of the Lord, that he may be glorified, Ifai. Ixi. 2, 3. 2. Be much upon the mount of divine meditation, for here it is that the fpirit of the Lord breathes. While I was mufing, the fire burned, fays David, Pfal. xxxix. 23. Pfal. lxiii. 5, 6. While I meditate on thee in the night-watches, my foul fhall be Satisfied as with marrow and fatness. 3. Cry mightily unto God for thefe influences that he would pour down his Spirit from on high; for if ye being evil (fays Chrift) know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will not your heavenly Father give his Spirit unto them that afk him, Luke xi. 13. Plead the promifes of the new covenant: and particularly be much in pleading this abfolute promise of the Spirit, Ifai. xliv, 3. I will pour water upon him that is thirty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon thy feed, &c. Ezek. xxxvi. 27. I will put my Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in my ftatutes. But ftill remember, firs, that these promises are to be managed by the prayer of faith. We are to turn God's promife into prayers; for it is added, v. 37. For thefe things will I be enquired of by the house of Ifrael, to do it for them. 4. Make confcience of waiting on him in all the duties and ordinances of his appointment, particularly the preaching of the word; and beware of a legal frame of fpirit in your attending upon these ordinances, as if thereby you could merit any thing at God's hand, or as if God were obliged to you for what you do this way; for we receive the Spirit, ays the apoftle, not by the works of the law but by the bearing of faith. Gofpel-ordinances are the ufual chariots in which the Spirit rides, when he makes makes his entrance at first, or when he returns into the foul after abfence. 5. Study to have union with Chrift; for it is upon them that are in Chrift, that the Spirit of God and of glory refts. He that is joined to the Lord, is one fpirit with him. The oil of gladness that was poured upon the head of our exalted Aaron runs down upon the fkirts of his garments, upon every member of his mystical body. The groans of believers under their burdens. BEING A SERMON preached in the Tolbooth Church, upon a fast before the Sacrament of our Lord's fupper, October 27, 1720. By the Rev. Mr. EBENEZER ERSKINE. 2 COR. v. 4. We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. N the first verse of this chapter, the apostle gives IN a reason why he and others of the faints in his day did endure perfecution for the cause of Christ, with fuch an unfhaken conftancy and holy magnanimity. He tells us, that they had the profpect of better things, the folid and well-grounded hope of a` happy immortality to follow upon the diffolution of this clay-tabernacle of the body. Ye need not wonder, " wonder, as if he would have faid, tho' we cheerfully and willingly undergo the fharpeft trials for religion: For we know, that if the earthly boufe of this tabernacle were diffolved, we have a building of God, an boufe not made with hands eternal in the beavens. When the poor believer can fay with David, I fhall dwell in the boufe of the Lord for ever, he will be ready to join iffue with the fame holy man, Though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Yea, fo far is the apoftle from being damped or difcouraged at the thoughts of, death, that he rather invites it to do its office, by ftriking down the clay tabernacle, that his foul may be at liberty to afcend to these manfions of glory, that his bleffed friend and elder brother hath prepared for him above, ver. 2. In this we groan earnestly, defiring to be clothed upon with our houfe which is from heaven. He knew very well, that when he should be ftripped of this mortal body, he fhould not be found naked, as it is, v. 3. but clothed with a robe of glory and immortality. And in the verfe read, he gives a reason why he was fo defirous to change his quarters; and 'tis drawn from the uneafinefs and inconveniency of his prefent lodging, while cooped up in this clay-tabernacle, We that are in this tabernacle, fays he, do groan, being burdened. In which words we may briefly notice, 1. The believer's prefent lodging or habitation; he is in a tabernacle. 2. His melancholy difpofition; he is groaning. 3. The caufe or reafon of his groans; being burdened. 1. I fay, we have an account of the believer's prefent lodging or habitation; he is in this tabernacle. By the tabernacle here, we are to underftand the body, fo called, because it is a weak, moveable moveable fort of habitation; (as we may hear more fully afterwards.) The indweller of this lodging is the noble foul, which is faid to be in this tabernacle, while it is in an embodied state; so that the meaning is, We that are in this tabernacle; that is, we that are living in the body. 2. We have the melancholy difpofition of the poor believer, while in this lodging; he groans, the word in the original, evaw, rendered, to groan, we find taken in a threefold fenfe in fcripture. ft, It is an expreffion of grief, Heb. xiii. 17. Obey them that have the rule over you, that they may give their account of you, not with grief; or, as it may be rendered, not with groans. It is the fame word that is here used. There is nothing more ordinary, when a perfon is burdened and preffed in fpirit, than to give vent to the heart in fobs and groans; and thus ftands the cafe with the Lord's people many times, while in the tabernacle of the body. 2dly. It is fometimes an expreffion of difpleafure, James v. 9. Grudge not one against another. It is the fame word, that is here rendered to groan; and fo it imports, that the believer is diffatisfied with, or diffaffected to his prefent quarters; he does not like it, in comparison of the better habitation that he has in view. 3dly, It is fometimes taken as an expreffion of ardent, paffionate and earneft defire: Thus the word is taken in the 2d verfe of this chapter, In this we groan earnestly, defiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from beaven. I fhall not exclude any of these fenfes from the apoftle's scope in these words. 3. In the words we have the caufe or reason of the believer's groans, being burdened. Many a weary weight and heavy load has the believer hanging about |