Imatges de pàgina
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emphatic words of Hagar dwell" for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of your hearts""Thou God seest me!" Enter deeply into the spirit which regulated the thoughts of the Psalmist :-" O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting, and mine uprising; thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways!"

Lastly, It is requisite, that we frequently take a retrospect of the history of our thoughts, for the purpose of self-examination.

With unfeigned sincerity may we say to Him, who knows the recesses of our hearts, far better than we know them ourselves" Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see (and enable me to see) if there be any wicked way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting." Awfully hypocritical would it be to offer these petitions, without the most determined efforts of scrutinizing selfinspection. At the close of every day, and still more strenuously at the close of every ampler period of our time, let us call ourselves to render an account of the employment of our thoughts. Let the detection of evil thoughts produce its proper and legitimate effects. Let it humble us in the dust of abasement; let it conduct us

to the cross of the Redeemer; let it rouse us to greater watchfulness in guarding against the intrusion of vain and evil thoughts; and let it urge us to more earnest prayer that the God of all grace would effectually control and sanctify the thoughts of our hearts, by "working in us all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power.".

In concluding this discourse, let me suggest the inquiry, whether the considerations which have been adduced, ought not to excite in the minds of some who have been now addressed, serious misgivings and apprehensions, with regard to their character in the sight of God. Does not conscience, at this moment, bring against you a most appalling charge? Does it not charge you with innumerable iniquities of thought? Does it not charge you with the additional guilt of thinking lightly of those iniquities? You cannot deny, that sins of thought are the very spring and fountain of sins in conduct. You cannot deny, that many of your sinful thoughts have been rapidly maturing into principles of action, and have wanted only the force of a besetting temptation to bring them into practical development. You cannot deny, that among the countless multitude of thoughts, which have crowded the entire space between the morning and the evening of many a day, there have been instances in which

not one single thought of God, of Christ, or of eternity obtained admission! Yet is it not specified, as one of the decided characteristics of those who are unfit for heaven, and exposed to endless woe, that "God is not in all their thoughts?" And is it not expressly said, by the authority of Him who searcheth the heart-that "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations (and therefore all the individuals) that forget God!" Oh, what must be the accumulation of the guilt contracted, if with respect to sins of thought alone, a charge can be substantiated, of a nature sufficiently heinous in the sight of God, to require a sentence of eternal banishment from his presence! Hasten, then, to his throne of grace, lest he summon thee, at an unexpected hour, to his throne of judgment! Supplicate, in the name of the only Saviour, deliverance from the wrath to come! Pray that the thoughts of thine heart, as well as the sins of thy life, may be forgiven thee. And, Oh, what an inducement to offer that prayer, is the assurance, that with the God whom thou hast insulted and forgotten" there is forgiveness!"

"Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Let those vain thoughts be for ever abandoned, which fostered vain hopes, and delusive expectations.

No longer expose to final condemnation your immortal soul, by trusting in yourselves, as though you were righteous, or by neglecting to seek an interest, by faith, in the righteousness of Jesus. Never let it be absent from your minds, that " he was made sin for us though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." "Let, then, the word of Christ,--the glorious gospel which bringeth salvation,--- dwell in you richly, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Let it be the purifier of your heart, the regulator of your thoughts. Let the treasures of truth divine be amply stored within your hearts, and let them be employed as the materials of pleasurable thought," when you are sitting in the house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you are lying down, and when you are rising up."" Then will the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus;" to whom be glory for ever, Amen.

M

LECTURE VIII.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DESIRES.

PSALM XXXVII. 4.

Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

THE desires of the heart comprise all those varieties of emotion, which connect the thoughts of the mind with the actions of the life. They are susceptible of numberless gradations of strength, from the incipient tendency, of which the mind is scarcely conscious, to the resistless impetuosity of passion. Our passions themselves, even when excited to the utmost intensity, are only the desires of the heart, under another name; for "desires rise into passions whenever they are vivid, whenever they are permanent." It is, then, to a subject by no means wanting in importance or interest that I would now direct your attention: it is to that Government of the Desires, which is essential to personal holiness. Let me endeavour to place before you, both the Inducements by which we should be urged to the attempt, and the Principles by which that attempt should be regulated.

Let

your attention be given,

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