give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jefus Chrift? and as a fruit and confequent of this,

2. If the wind of the Holy Ghost has blown upon thy foul, he has blown away fome of the filth of hell that did cleave to thy foul, and has transformed thee unto his own image, 2 Cor. iii. Beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, thou art changed into the fame image from glory to glory, even as by the fpirit of the Lord. If you have the Spirit, the fame mind will be in you that was alfo in Chrift Jefus; for he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. You will imitate and resemble him in his imitable perfections, in his holiness, meeknefs, selfdenial, patience. He is a holy God, and wherever he comes he works holiness, and makes the foul holy.

3. If this wind has blown upon your fouls, then it has driven you from your lying refuges, and made you take fanctuary in Chrift, He has driven. you from the law, and made you confent to the method of falvation thro' the righteousness of the Son of God. I thro' the law, fays the apoftle, am dead to the law, that I may live unto God. This is the defign of all the Spirit's influences, to lead finners off from fin, off from felf, off from the law, that they may reft in Christ only.

4. If ever you felt any of the reviving gales of this wind of the Spirit, you will long for new gales and breathings of it; and when thefe breathings are fufpended and with-held, your fouls will be like to faint, as it were, like a man that wants breath; you will pant for the air of the Spirit's influences, like David, Pfal. lxiii. My foul longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, wherein there is no water; and

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Pfal.

Pfal. lxxxiv. 2. My foul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God; Oh, for another gale of his fpirit in publick ordinances.

5. If you have felt the breathings of this wind, you will not will not fnuff up the east-wind of fin and vanity, John iv. 14. Whofoever drinketh of the water that I fhall give him, shall never thirst. You will not thirst immoderately after the things of time; no, no, you will fee them to be but mere trash and vanity. You will chufe the better part that cannot be taken from you: You will feek things that are above, where Chrift is at the right hand of God.

6. If this wind has blown upon thy foul, then you will follow the motion of this wind; you will not run cross to this wind, but will go along with it; I mean, you will yield yourselves unto the conduct of the Spirit fpeaking in his word; for as many as are led by the Spirit, are the fons of God. But, fay you, how fhall I know if I be led by the Spirit of God? I anfwer. (1.) If ye follow the Spirit, then ye will not fulfil the lufts of the flesh; but, on the contrary, you will ftudy to crucify the flesh with the affections and lufts: You will be ready to cut off your right hand, and to pluck out the right eye fins at the Lord's command. (2.) Then the way wherein you walk will be a way of holiness, for he is a fpirit of fanctification, and a way of truth; for the Spirit of the Lord is a spirit of truth, and he leads into all truth. A way of uprightnefs, Pfal. cxliii. 10. Thy Spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness. (3.) Ye know, leading imports fpontaneity and willingness. There is a great difference between leading and drawing, between

between being driven by the wind, and following the motion of the wind. Sometimes indeed the wicked, a hypocrite, a natural man, by a strong north-wind of conviction, may be driven on to duty through the force of terror; but the believer, he is a voluntier, he freely yields himself to the Spirit's conduct he rejoices to work righteousness, and to remember God in his ways; whenever he hears the Spirit whispering in his ears, and faying, This is the way, walk ye in it, prefently he complies; when the Spirit of the Lord fays, come, he immediately echos back again and fays, Behold, I come unto thee, for thou art the Lord my God. Now try yourfelves by these things.

The fecond ufe fhall be of exhortation. Is it fo, that the influences of the Spirit are fo neceffary in order to our revival; then be exhorted to look up to heaven, and cry for the breathings of the Spirit. O firs, will ye turn the words of my text into a prayer, and fay, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon thefe flain, that they may live. I might enforce this exhortation by many motives; I only name them.

MOTIVE I. Confider, firs, that fpiritual deadness is very prevalent in the day wherein we live. There is a great multitude of dry bones fcattered up and down our valley of vifion; there are many that carry the marks of a deadly leprofy on their foreheads; their atheism, their profanity, irreligion, and other grofs abominations plainly declare to the world, that they are stark dead in trefpaffes and fins. And alas, may it not be for matter of lamentation, that even many of thefe, who in the judgment of charity, have the root of the matter, the principles of fpiritual life, are yet under fad decays of the

life of grace. Alas, it is not with Scotland's minifters and profeffors as once in a day it has been. I might produce many melancholy evidences of this, if time would allow. Remember these already mentioned, the general loathing of the word, &c.

MOTIVE 2. Confider the evil and danger of fpititual deadness. The evil of it will appear, (1.) If ye confider that it is a frame of fpirit, directly cross to the command of God. God commands us to prefent our felves a living facrifice unto him; and indeed this is our reafonable fervice, Rom. xii. 1. Yea, it is crofs unto the very nature of God; for God is a Spirit, John iv. 24. and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth. (2.) The evil and danger of it appears further from this, that it unfits the foul for every duty, and marrs our communion and fellowship with God. God meets the lively chriftian in the way of duty, thou meet eft him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, thofe that remember thee in thy ways; but for the man that comes to him with a Laodicean, dead, lifelefs, and lukewarm frame of Soul, he will not hold communion with that man; no, he will fpue him out of his mouth. (3.) It opens a door for all other fin, and renders a man an eafy prey unto every temptation. A dead man can make no manner of refiftance, he is carried down the ftream without oppofition. Then, (4.) It lays a foundation for fad and terrible challenges from confcience. David's fpiritual deadness brought him to that pafs at the long run, that he is made to cry out of broken bones, &c.

MOTIVE 3. Confider, that as the breathings of the Spirit are neceffary for every duty, fo particularly for that folemn work which you have before your

hands,

hands, of commemorating the death of the exalted Redeemer. I might here let you fee, how the influences of the Spirit are neceffary for every part of your work, if time would allow, without the Spirit's influences of light, you can never examine yourselves to purpofe; it is the fpirit of the Almighty that giveth understanding, how to fearch out the mystery of iniquity in the heart, which is deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked. And then without the Spirit you cannot mourn for fin; for it is the kindly influences of the Spirit that thaws the heart into evangelical tears, Zech. xii. 10. Without the Spirit, you cannot difcern the broken body of a Redeemer, for it is the Spirit that teftifies of Chrift. I will pour the Spirit of grace on the boufe of David, and inhabitants of Jerufalem; and then follows, They shall look unto me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him. In a word, you cannot exercise any grace, you cannot wrestle in prayer, you cannot have any right views of the contrivance of redemption, you cannot take hold of God's covenant, or improve any promise of the covenaut, without the Spirit.

MOTIVE 4. Confider the excellency of these influences of the Spirit. 1. They blow from an excellent corner and original; the Holy Ghost is the author of them, and you know he proceeds from the Father and the Son; fo that a whole Trinity, as it were, convey themselves with these breathings. 2. They are the purchase of a Redeemer's blood, and therefore excellent. There is not the least grace, or the leaft gale of the Spirit that is given to believers, but it coft Chrift the blood of his heart; he purchafed grace as well as glory. 3. These influences of the Spirit, as it were, fupply Chrift's

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