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of unvarying and unrelieved dulness, enlivened by no taste of pleasure, cheered by no comfort of love, animated by no impulse of hope. Such, blessed be the Father of mercies, is not the character of human life, when under the influence of Christian principles, acting on the affections of the renewed heart.

The limits of a single chapter will not allow us to expatiate over the wide field here opening to our view. I must content myself with pointing out those affections which take the lead in rank and influence. Consider, then, the delight arising from the affections excited by contemplating good in possession; by contemplating good in prospect; and by contemplating the Divine Author of that good, and the joint participants of that good: in other words, the affections of Joy, of Hope, and of Love.

1. Let us direct our thoughts to the nature of Joy.

In the language of an accurate writer, “Joy is the vivid pleasure inspired by the immediate reception of something peculiarly grateful, of something obviously productive of essential advantage, or of something which promises to contribute to our present or future well-being. The delight may be communicated by our liberation from fearful apprehensions, or from a state of actual distress; by obtaining some new acquisition, some addition to our stock of enjoyment; or by the full assurance of this without any mixture of doubt." Now do you not perceive how well

and how fully this delineation of joy applies to the circumstances of a real Christian, whỏ has cordially embraced the Gospel of Christ? From what fearful apprehensions, from what appalling dangers, from what actual distress is he completely liberated! He is delivered from the curse of God, the burden of guilt, the tormenting fear of future wrath, and the degrading vassalage of the most malignant enemy! He is reconciled to God by the death of his Son: his transgressions, aggravated as they have been, are all forgiven, and, “being justified by faith," he has "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. 1. Well may he yield his heart to joy, and now begin to taste of real blessedness. He has "joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ," through whom he has received the atonement, Rom. v. 11; he is encouraged to "rejoice in the Lord always," even "with joy unspeakable and full of glory," Phil. iv. 4; 1 Pet. i. 8; and he is assured that of his joy no man can deprive him.

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2. Let us advert to the nature of Hope.

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Hope has been styled the balm of life. It possesses the happy secret of anticipating the good we desire. By the pleasing emotions it communicates, we already taste the pleasures we seek." Its beneficial influence is felt and confessed in all the stages and in all the pursuits, in all the difficulties and in all the trials of human life. But where has hope such excitement or such scope as in true religion? What are the revelations and the pro

mises of future glory, which enrich the sacred volume, but the food and aliment of hope? Is it possible to cherish a good and steadfast hope of future happiness, and not find in its exercise a lively pleasure-a high degree of vivid delight? Who is the happy man, if it be not the man who, placing his reliance on the promises of an unchanging God, gives constant and successful diligence to the attainment of the full assurance of hope? Happy he must be, who, whether in sickness or in health, whether in poverty or in affluence, holds fast a hope full of immortality and full of glory; a hope of a crown never to fade, of a kingdom never to be moved, of an inheritance never to be defiled! The very thoughts and conceptions of felicity which such a hope renders familiar to the mind, must be elements of the purest joy; how much more then the wellfounded expectation of soon appropriating and eternally enjoying the full amount of that blessedness, the imperfect and inadequate idea of any single part of which, fills his mind with. unearthly and exquisite delight! But it is,

3. To the affection of Love that I wish particularly to direct your thoughts; it is to that affection especially, which is excited by contemplating the Divine Author of all the good which we enjoy in the present world, and hope for in the world to come. What is that good, in its utmost extent and amplitude, but a stream from the Fountain of blessedness, which he can widen, and deepen, and quicken, at his pleasure! He is himself that Fountain,

the eternal and inexhaustible Fountain of happiness. He is himself infinitely good, unbounded goodness; he is himself infinitely lovely, unbounded love! Angels that never sinned sing of his love with seraphic fervour and most adoring admiration; but surely our gratitude, our admiration, and our attachment should exceed even theirs! His love to them appears in preserving their high felicity, and in keeping them from falling: his love to us appears in raising us from a state of most abject wretchedness, and horrid guilt, and total ruin. His love to us appears in the person and the sufferings of his beloved Son, the Sovereign and the glory of heaven. How is it that this Lord of angels, this Ruler of the universe, appears on the throne in human form, clothed with a body like our own? Most radiant it is in glory, but still it exhibits a nature which, in itself considered, is inferior to that of angels! What is the history of this incarnation; this condescension? Oh, Christians, you know it well! You know what love it expresses on his part, what love it demands on yours. You know, to your ineffable joy, in what a lovely and attractive aspect it presents to your view the character of the Father of mercies, the Giver of the unspeakable gift! To cherish towards him the warmest love of your heart seems now perfectly natural, necessary, and delightful. You are now prepared to bless God, that he requires your love, excites your love, accepts your love. You can say, with an eminently

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holy man, "My greatest obligation to God, next to the gift of Jesus Christ and his Spirit, is for commanding me to love him with all my heart." Do you not find a sacred delight in cultivating this affection? Is not the degree of its exercise the measure of your happiness? Is there not a lively pleasure in cherishing this love to him who loved you, and gave himself for you, and redeemed you by his most precious blood? Is there not a high delight in the exercise of this affection towards him who, by his renewing influence, creates in your hearts a susceptibility of the noblest and the purest joys, and sheds abroad in your soul the love of God? "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. We love him, because he first loved us." 1 John iv. 16, 19.

But with the love of God there is and ever must be associated another exercise of holy affection. The love of the heart to the Divine Author of blessedness must be connected with love to those who are joint participants in this blessedness. "Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.-Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." 1 John iv. 7, 8, 11, 21. On the obligation

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