ciple, and giving it such force as that it may obtain and preserve the ascendency, and habitually govern the will. Every one may easily see the different operation and effects of this principle and its opposite, by the different carriage and behaviour of men in the world. The unrenewed man seeks his own happiness immediately and ultimately; it is to please himself that he constantly aims. This is the cause, the uniform cause, of his preferring one action to another. This determines his choice of employment, enjoy ments, companions. His religious actions are not chosen, but submitted to, through fear of worse. He considers religion as a restraint, and the divine law as hard and severe. So that a short and summary description may be given of man in his natural state-that he hath forgotten his subjection, that God is dethroned, and self honoured, loved, and served in his room.

This account will appear to be just, from every view given us in Scripture of our state and character, before or after conversion. It appears very clearly, from the first condition required by our Saviour of his disciples, namely, self-denial. "Then said Jesus to his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." All those who are brought back to a sense of their duty and obligation as creatures, are ready to say, not with their tongues only, but with their hearts, "Thou art worthy to receive glory, and honour, and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." It ought to be attended to, what is the import of this when spoken from conviction. They not only consider God as being most great, and therefore to be feared; but as infinitely holy, as absolutely perfect, and therefore to be loved and served. They esteem all his commands concerning all things to be right. Their own remaining corruption is known, felt, and confessed to be wrong. This law in their members, warring against the law of God in

their minds, is often deeply lamented, and, by the grace of God, strenuously and habitually resisted.

Perhaps the attentive reader may have observed, that I have still kept out of view our own great interest in the service of God. The reason is, there is certainly, in every renewed heart, a sense of duty, independent of interest. Were this not the case, even supposing a desire of reward or fear of punishment should dispose to obedience, it would plainly be only a change of life, and no change of heart. At the same time, as it did not arise from any inward principle, it would neither be uniform nor lasting. It is beyond all question, indeed, that our true interest is inseparable from our duty, so that self-seeking is self-losing; but still a sense of duty must have the precedency, otherwise it changes its nature, and is, properly speaking, no duty at all.

To honour God in the heart, then, and to serve him in the life, is the first and highest desire of him that is born again. This is not, and cannot be the case, with any in a natural state. But, before we proceed to the other particular implied in this change, it will not be improper to make an observation, which I hope will have the greater weight when the foundation of it is fresh in the reader's mind. Hence may be plainly seen the reason why profane and worldly men have such a tendency to self righteousness, while the truly pious are filled with an abhorrence of that soul-destroying falsehood. This, I dare say, appears strange to many, as I confess it hath often done to me, before I had thought fully upon the subject; that those who are evidently none of the strictest in point of morals, and have least of that kind to boast of, should yet be the most professed admirers and defenders of the doctrine of justification by works, and despisers of the doctrine of the grace of God. But the solution is easy and natural. Worldly men have no just sense of their natural and unalienable obligation to glorify God in

their thoughts, words, and actions, and therefore all that they do in religion, they look upon as a meritorious service, and think that certainly something is due to them on that account. They think it strange, if they have walked soberly, regularly, and decently, especially if they have been strict and punctual in the forms of divine worship, that God should not be obliged (pardon the expression) to reward them according to their works. It is a hard service to them, they do it only that they may be rewarded, or at least may not suffer for the neglect of it, and therefore cannot but insist upon the merit of it.

On the other hand, those who are born of God are sensible that it is the duty of every rational creature to love God with all his heart, and to consecrate all his powers and faculties to his Maker's servive. They are convinced, that whoever should do so without sin, would do only what is just and equal, and have no plea of merit to advance. But when they consider how many sins still cleave to them, how far short they come of their duty in every instance, they ask for mercy, and not for reward, and are ready to say with the Psalmist David, "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." To sum up this reasoning in a few words-The reluctant obedience which some pay to the divine law, is considered as a debt charged upon God, whereas real obedience is considered as a debt due to God. And therefore it must always hold, that the very imperfection of an obedience itself, increases our disposition to overvalue and rest our dependence upon it.

SECTION 2. The second part of this change.

The next thing implied in a saving change is, that the soul rests in God as its chief happiness, and habitually prefers his favour to every other enjoyment.

On this branch of the subject I would beg the reader to observe, not only the meaning and substance of the proposition, but the order in which it is placed. There must be first a devotedness of mind to God, and a supreme leading concern for his honour and glory. He must be, if I may so speak, again restored to his original right, his dominion and throne, while the creature is reduced to its obedience and subjection. In consequence of this, there is an unfeigned acquiesence in God, as the source of comfort, and a high esteem of his favour as better than life. This does not go before, nay, is hardly distinct or separated from a sense of duty, but is founded upon it, and grows out of it. When a holy soul has seen the infinite excellence and glory of the true God, loves him supremely, and is devoted to him entirely, he also delights in him superlatively.

Such a person is fully convinced that those, and those alone are happy, whose God is the Lord, and that those who are afar off from him shall certainly perish. In a natural state, as the sure consequene of sin, the transgressor flies from God, with a dread and horror of his presence. But the renewed soul returns to him with desire, and feels an uneasiness and want. that cannot be supplied but by the intimation of pardon, and sense of divine love. The warmth and fervour of devout affection is expressed in the strongest terms in scripture: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" "Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips."

It is necessary that serving and delighting in God should be joined together on a double account. Their

Influence on one another is reciprocal. It is not easy to distinguish a conscientious study to serve and glorify God, from a slavish obedience through fear of divine power, but by its being inseparably connected with a delight in God, as the choice of the heart, and centre of the affections. On the other hand, it is hard to distinguish cleaving to God as our portion and happiness from an interested, mercenary bargain in religion, but by its being preceeded by, founded upon, nay, even resolved into a sense of the supreme honor due to God for his infinite excellence. This reasonable service will then be attended with an unspeakable sweetness and complacency, and the all-sufficiency of God will be an unshaken security for the happiness and peace of those who put their trust in him.

We may often observe these two dispositions jointly exerting themselves, and mutually strengthening one another, in the language and exercises of the saints in Scripture. With what fervour of spirit, and with what inimitable force and beauty of style, do we find the psalmist David expressing himself in both views! Sometimes he makes a full surrender of himself and his all to the divine service and disposal; at other times his soul "makes her boast in God," and he exults in his happiness and security under the divine protection: "O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord.-The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places: yea, I have a goodly heritage."

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These two things are, indeed, often so intimately united, that we are at a loss to know whether we should interpret the language of the sacred writers as a profession of duty, or an expression of delight, as in the following words: "I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord." How deeply the Psalmist