he that doeth the will of my father who is in heaven. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." But is it not equally absurd to expect this practice where there is nothing to secure it? or to suppose that a man's life will be in perpetual contradiction to all his bias and inclinations? "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." In order, therefore, to do justice to this part of our subject, I will make two remarks, which I hope you will always remember and unite. First, principle must precede practice. Secondly, practice must follow principle. First, let us observe the manner in which these things are arranged. "I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you: and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh; that they may. walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances, and do them." Thus principle precedes practice, and prepares for it. And here I admire the plan of the Gospel; to make the fruit good, it makes the tree so; to cleanse the stream, it purifies the fountain; it renews the nature, and the life becomes holy of course. What is the religion of too many? They are like machines impelled by force they are influenced by external considerations. Their hearts are not engaged. Hence in every religious exercise they perform a task. They would love God much better if he would excuse them from the hateful obligation.

They put off these duties as long as possible, resort to them with reluctance, adjust the measure with a niggardly grudge, and are glad of any excuse for neglect. While labouring at the drudgery, they entertain hard thoughts of the cruel task-master, who can impose such severity upon them, and sigh inwardly, "when will the Sabbath be over? When shall we unbend from these spiritual restraints, and feel ourselves at liberty in the world?" Can this be religion? Is there any thing in this suitabl to the nature of God, who is a spirit? or to the demands of God, who cries, "my son, give me thine heart; serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with singing?" Behold a man hungry, he needs no argument to induce him to eat. See the tender mother, she needs no motives to determine her to cherish her darling babe; nature impels. Also the obedience of the christian is natural, and hence it is pleasant and invariable; he runs and is not weary, walks and is not faint.

Secondly, it is equally true that practice must follow principle. The one is the necessary consequence of the other. This influence will operate; if it be fire, it will burn; if it be leaven, it

will pervade and assimilate; if it be in us a well of water, it will spring up into everlasting life. The one is the proper evidence of the other. The cause is ascertained by the effect. It is not necessary to lay open the body of a tree to determine by the grain to which class it belongs: there is an easier and a surer method of judging; "the tree is known by its fruits." Some, while leading very indifferent lives, tell us their hearts are good; but goodness in the heart will appear in the life; a good conscience will always be accompanied with a good conversation; and though faith justifies the soul, works justify faith: "Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." The one is the chief recommendation of the other. It is by practice only you can shew the value of principle. Your views and feelings are beyond the reach of others; your experience is invisible; but it is otherwise with your good actions; these come under their observation; and they can form an estimate of your religion, by the excellency of its influence. And when your lives correspond with your profession; when you are followers of God as dear children; when you are humble in prosperity, cheerful in adversity; ready to forgive; willing to bear one another's burdens; attentive to the duties of your station, and unblamable in every relation, you are perpetually magnifying your religion; you adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour; you put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; you sometimes allure them, according to the instructive admonition of our Saviour: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Ad with what is all this connected? "They shall be my people and I will be their God." This shews us the blessed privilege of the righteous. For, here we are to contemplate their honour and their happiness; every thing depends upon this relation. Blessed are the people that are in such a state, yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord. "When God gave promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, HE sware by himself; when he would bless his people, because He could give them no greater, He gave himself. They are all a nation of Levites, for the Lord is their inheritance; and it is a goodly one; it gives grace and glory, and no good thing does He withhold from them that walk uprightly. It is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

Consider the meaning of the language. It is more than if He said, I will be thy friend, thy helper, thy benefactor; for these are relations derived from creatures, and, therefore, notions of limited significancy. But when He says, "I will be thy God," He takes an image from himself, and engages to do us good ac-

cording to the all-sufficiency of an infinite nature; to bestow upon us blessings which are peculiar to the Deity; to do for us what Deity alone could do; and to do it divinely; to pardon, and to pardon like a God; to sanctify, and to sanctify like a God; to comfort, and to comfort like a God;-God appearing, all along, in the manner as well as in the mercy. Consider also the nature of the claim. He is really yours. Your time is not your own; your bodies, are not your own; your spirits are not your own; but God is ours by absolute promise and donation; and we may say with the church of old, God, even our own God shall bless us. And He is wholly ours; all He is, all He possesses; the perfections of his nature, the dispensation of his providence, the blessings of his salvation, the treasures of his word, all are become our own; and what Benhadad said to the king of Israel, and what the father of the prodigal said to the elder brother, God says to each of us, I am thine, and all that I have: Son thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. And He is ours forever; the union is indissoluble; his duration is the tenure of your bliss; as long as He lives, He will be your God.

Once more consider the final issue of the connection. The relation is intended to display the immensity of his benevolence, and of his munificence towards his people. It does much for them here; and when they reflect upon their original meanness, and continued worthlessness, and consider what they have received, they are filled with wonder, and exclaim what manner of love is this! what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me! But they shall see greater things than these. They have now only the first fruits of the spirit: the earnest of their inheritance. Their alliance with God is often concealed from others, and, I may venture to say, often from themselves too; and the advantages it produces are circumscribed by the world in which we live, and the body of this death; it has not room in which to operate, or time in which to expand. We are therefore led to look forward; and what the apostle says with regard to the patriarch will apply to all his people; "wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city."What an intimation of his goodness is here! He would be ashamed of the relation into which he has entered, if he conferred no more upon his followers than the benefits they derive from him on earth.

Behold, then, an eternity succeeding time; a new system prepared to receive them, a state of happiness in reserve, of which they can now form no adequate conception? When He has exchanged their dungeon for a palace, when He has wiped away all tears from their eyes, when He has eased every pain, fulfilled

every desire, realized every hope; when he has changed this vile body, and fashioned it like the glorious body of the Saviour; when he has entirely expelled sin from their nature, and presented them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, then the character will be fully displayed, and the relation completely justified; and all hell and Heaven will exclaim,." He has not deceived them, He has been their God!"

CHAPTER LX.

ADMONITIONS TO THE YOUNG.

Ir, unhappily, the wickedness of any of riper years, into whose hands this treatise may fall, have so long pursued a course of infidelity, as for it to be morally impossible for them to abandon it, I yet hope better things of the young. I presume you are all ready to acknowledge the importance of true and vital religion;

that if any of you were asked whether you had resolved never to

pursue it, but in the neglect of it to live and die, you would be shocked at the question. I have hope that you believe Godliness to be the one thing needful; and therefore I must advise you to turn your attention to the study and practice of religion. I know that youth is the most favourable season in which to commence it. It is a period when the mind is susceptible of the most durable impressions, and when it may be moulded as the potter moulds the clay.

I shall not pretend to hold forth real religion as an easy thing to obtain at any period of life. I believe the doctrine of human depravity; I have studied human nature; I know the images the sacred writers employ to describe the arduous nature of the spiritual life; I hear our Saviour saying, "strive to enter in at the straight gate; for many shall seek to enter in but shall not be able." But remember in time, O! young man or woman, who may be reading these lines, that if there be difficulties to encounter, these difficulties will increase with your years. Remember that the season of youth will present the fewest obstacles, whether we consider your external circumstances, your natural powers, or your moral habits. You are now most free from those troubles which will embitter, from those cares which will perplex, from those schemes which will engross, from those engagements which will hinder you, in more advanced and connected life. Your bodies now possess health and strength; the memory is receptive and

tenacious; the fancy glows; the mind is lively and vigorous; your understanding is more docile; it is not crowded with notions; it has not by one continued class of objects, received a direction from which it is unable to turn to contemplate any thing else, without violence; the brain is not impervious; all the avenues to the inner man are not blocked up. To cure a dead man, and to teach an old one, says a heathen philosopher, are tasks equally hopeless. The soul of youth is capable of deep and abiding impressions; the affections are more easily touched and moved; we are more accessible to the influence of joy and sorrow, hope and fear; we engage in an enterprize with more expectation, ardour, and zeal; evil dispositions also grow with time, and are confirmed by exercise. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." If a disorder has seized the body, does not common sense say, take it in time, send immediately for aid; by continuance it becomes inveterate and baffles the skill and force of medicine. If an enemy has declared war, he surely is no friend who advises us instead of advancing forward and seizing the most advantageous positions, to remain inactive, till the adversary striding on, gains pass after pass, and fortifies what he has taken from us, spreads over our territory, and subsists at our expense, or with impoverished resources compels us to risk every thing on the issue of one desperate encounter. Who is represented by all these representations of folly? You, young men and women, by your delays are increasing an hundred fold all the obstacles to a religious life.

Secondly, the days of youth are, of all others, the most honourable period in which to begin a course of godliness. Under the legal economy, the first was to be chosen for God; the first born of man, the first of beasts, the first fruits of the field. It was an honour, becoming the God they worshipped, to serve him first. This duty young people alone can spiritualize and fulfil, by giving Him, who deserves all their life, the first born of their days, and the first fruits of their reason and affections. And never will they have such an opportunity to prove the goodness of the motives they now possess. To behold an old man coming to make a sacrifice; what can he offer? His riches? but he can use them no longer-his pleasures? but he can enjoy them no longer--his honour? but it is withered on his brow-his authority? but it has dropped from his feeble hand. He leaves his sins, but it is because they will no longer bear him company. He fies from the world, but it is because he is burnt out. He enters the temple; but it is as a sanctuary, it is only to take hold of the horns of the altar; it is a refuge, not a place of devotion he