and yet the inhabitants do not learn righteousness, they will not seek the Lord and his strength, even his face for evermore. O! there is nothing but a divine power, that can bring a soul to love, serve, and enjoy God. Hence you may account for the failure of so many of your vows and good resolutions. Does not the recollection of promises made in former trouble and affliction, sometimes force a sigh and a tear? Then you said, If the Lord raise me from this bed, my life shall henceforth be his. If he will graciously deliver me from this trouble, I will lead a different life: his ways, his house, his service, shall be my delight. But the strength you received by that deliverance has been employed in a course of iniquity; your resolutions fled with your trouble, and return only as spectres to alarm you. Learn, then, this fundamental truth, the first principle of the doctrine of Christ: Through Christ we have access by the Spirit unto the Father.

The carnal mind, under whatever circumstances it be found, of polished life or savage barbarism, is enmity against God; it is not

subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The natural man, whether wise as Solomon, or ignorant as a heathen, discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. The blind may as easily discern the spots in the sun, as you discover the glory of God in Christ, without divine illumination. It must be revealed unto you by his Spirit. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, must shine into your hearts, to give you the light of the knowledge of his glory, in the face of Jesus Christ. By this light you will see yourself in your true character; and then your enlightened understanding will discover Jesus, in his person and worth, as an all-sufficient Saviour; together with the suitableness, excellency, sufficiency, and superiority, of the things that are eternal, in comparison with the things which are temporal, however precious in your estimation. Your judgment is already convinced that all on earth is vanity; that every thing perishes with the using; that there is not enough in all the gaieties, fascinations, and pleasures of this life,

to make an immortal mind happy; and yet your affections cleave to them, as if your bliss depended entirely on their use. What but a divine influence can unrivet the fast hold they have taken of the things of the earth, and immoveably set them on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; can make you choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; can help you to say to the followers of the despised Nazarene, I will go with you, for I have heard that God is with you; deliberately to prefer the things you now despise, associate with the people you now abhor, and walk in the ways you now avoid? Yes, you must be born from above, created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, or you cannot walk in them. Beloved, the object of this good work is to restore God's moral image, which is created in righteousness and true holiness; for as we must not appear but in the royal robe of the Redeemer's righteousness, the garment of our elder brother, so neither without our ornaments, even that of a meek and quiet

No

spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price; a broken and a contrite heart, a sacrifice which he will not despise; the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against which he has no law. A man is but as a whited sepulchre, till this inward renovation is effected, however moral his conduct, or unblameable before men his character. honours, or riches, or talents, or alms, can supply the deficiency of these heavenly graces. Nicodemus was a person with whom few could vie, in the integrity of his principles, the esteem of his character, and the amiableness of his deportment; and yet the very first lesson the Saviour taught him was, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again."

Beloved, "two cannot walk together except they be agreed." Then how unfit are you for acquaintance with God! "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And

what concord hath Christ with Belial?"

Your

body is not the temple of the living God; but sin reigns in it, unto death. There is an unholy backwardness to come into his presence. But when this good work of regeneration is begun, a divine and indissoluble union with him is produced. He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit; and hence proceeds acquaintance. Union is the foundation of fellowship, and fellowship is the effect of union. In that inimitable example of acquaintance between Jonathan and David, the Holy Ghost shews that the communion they enjoyed was founded in union of heart. "It came to pass when David had made an end of speaking, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." Then we read of the covenants they made, of the gifts they presented, of their tender converse and mutual sorrow, of the pledges of their love, and the tears they shed at their departure from each other. Union of soul produced these things, and at last drew from the pen of David an unequalled and pathetic elegy,