Page:Bush burning, yet not consumed, or, The church in the furnace, yet still preserved (2).pdf/11

 There are many myſteries in nature that you know as little of as this we are preſently talking about, yet you generally believe them and ſurely the one demands as ſtrong and firm faith as the other. Oh! Cry to the Lord for the the teaching of his ſpirit that he may unfold unto you the myſteries of his grace. There is not a child, ſirs, born into the world of grace, but who muſt and will be born after this manner, there must be a world of grace dropt into the child's heart, in a way ſuitable to its nature and capacity, which, by the concurring influence of the holy Spirit, will produce a new creature. And this word of promiſe is the ſeed out of which the new man proceeds, juſt as a grain of ſeed grows in your fields or gardens. A collective body of believers do all ſpring and grow out of a word of grace. I own indeed one word of grace may be bleſſed to one perſon, and another word of grace to another perſon; yet all the words of grace are one and the ſame in kind and nature, all is the incorruptible ſeed of the word. Perhaps, believer, there is one word bleſſed to thee, and another to thy neighbour : but 'tis all the ſame ſeed that comes from Immanuel's land, the land of glory, whence all the rich and free promiſes, whereby the ſpirit operates, derive their birth and being.

Now, ſirs, examine yourſelves, if ever you were acquainted with, or partakers of a regenerating work upon your ſouls, Oh! Man, was ever grace powerfully implanted in thy ſoul? if thou art not a new-born plant of grace, thou doſt not belong to the Buſh of Jeſus Chriſt; thou art a wild Bramble to this day. Examine yourſelves my friends. Did you never find the plow of the law turning up the fallow ground of your hearts and the ſeed of the promiſe ſown there by the ſpirit of grace? Did you ever find the holy Ghost dropping grace into thy ſoul, and when thy conscience was pierced with ſtrong law terrors, that then a word of grace powerfully