2. And let us know what our souls were made for. What are our souls
the Spirit. Therefore we are to pray to God that he would join his Holy Spirit, that he would reveal his secrets to us, and with revelation work an influence into our souls, that there may be a distilling of grace and comfort through the ordinances to our souls.
Prayer must accompany the ordinances; because the ordinance of itself is an empty thing unless the Spirit accompany it.
To stir us up a little to this, more and more to see the beauty of God in his ordinances, to see the glory of God, as the Scripture speaks— indeed God is not only delightful and beautiful, but glorious in his ordinances; and the ark is called the 'glory of God,' Exod. 40:34; and the knowledge of God in Christ it is a glorious knowledge, and the gospel is called a 'glorious gospel,' 1 Tim. 1:11—this will only* make us truly glorious. These things, they put a glory upon our souls. St Paul calls it 'the glorious grace,' Eph. 1:6. What a glorious thing is it when, by the ordinance of God, a weak man shall have power against the strong devil, against all the 'gates of hell,' Mat. 16:18; when a poor creature, 'flesh and blood,' by some virtue distilled through the ordinance by the Spirit of God, shall have such a strong faith in the promise of forgiveness of sins; such a faith in the promise that all such turn to his good; that God is reconciled to him in Christ; that all the gates of hell shall not prevail over a weak soul. And what a glorious grace is it when, by the use and attendance upon the ordinance of God, a poor soul shall have strength over these corruptions and sins that others are slaves to, and cannot get the victory over, that when they see the spiritual beauty in God's ordinances, they grow out of taste with all other things that others are besotted with, that are of more excellent natural parts than they, what a glory of grace is this! Therefore let us with all fear and reverence attend upon the ordinances of God, that God may be glorious in us by his Spirit, and strengthen us against Satan and our beloved corruptions.
2. And let us know what our souls were made for. What are our souls more for than to dwell in the meditation of the beauty of God? What are our souls made for, but for excellent things? and what is excellent