Wesley Corpus

10i works of grace. The springs whence we de rive spiritual life are at least as unsearchable as those of the natural. That it is the Divine Spirit " who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure," experience and reason and Scripture convince every sincere inquirer ; but how he worketh this in us, who shall explain ? who can point out the particular methods of divine operation ? This indeed we know, that when the pas. sions are calm, and our souls are tranquil, then chiefly the Spirit of God loves to move upon the face of the waters ; yet are we not able to understand how it moves. Darkness is upon the face of the deep ; " the wind bloweth," as our blessed Lord has said, " where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth." If there be any particular work of the Holy Spirit which we can less comprehend than the rest, it seems to be his influencing one person in answer to the prayers of another: that he does pour a large measure of his blessed influ ence upon us at the request of those in whom he is well pleased, he hath afforded us sufficient ground to believe in several places of Holy Scripture. It was at the intercession of Moses that the Almighty spared the Israelites when they had made the golden calf, withheld the pesti lence which he threatened to inflict when they brought up an evil report of the promised land, and restored Miriam when punished with leprosy. When the arm of king Jeroboam (which was stretched out to seize ' a prophet for de claring the judgments of God) was dried up, it was at the prayer of the same prophet he was healed. When the son of the widow of Sarepta died, Elijah cried unto the Lord, and said, " O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again," and the petition was granted. The son of the Shunamite was also restored to hfe at the entreaty of the prophet Elisha ; and it was the intercession of Job which ob