"the day of my diftrefs, and was with me in the way "which I went."

Fourthly, What were your feelings, O christians, when, convinced of fin, you were first led to seek falvation through our Lord Jefus Chrift? Ah! return, ye affecting moments, and remind us of an experience which has long been fled. O, what strivings against fin! O, what indifference to the world! O, what engagements to ferve God! You were willing to follow wherever He should lead; you gloried in the reproach of his cross 66 having food and raiment," you were "therewith content." One thing was needful, one concern engroffed you; "Say unto my foul, I am

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thy falvation." And And you fucceeded; and you have a good hope through grace; but to what is all this bleffed experience reduced? To this dullness in hearing; to this deadness in prayer; to this murmuring and complaining under trials; to this fear of man which bringeth a fnare; to this eagernefs for the things of the world: "Go, and cry in the ears of Jerufalem, "faying, thus faith the Lord, I remember thee, the "kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, "when thou wenteft after me in the wilderness, in a "land that was not fown: Ifrael was holiness to the "Lord, and the first fruits of his increase." "Never"theless I have fomewhat against thee, because thou haft " left thy first love; remember therefore from whence "thouart fallen, and repent, and do thy FIRST WORKS." "Arife, and go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and "build an altar unto God, who answered you in the "day of your distress, and was with you in the way "which you went."

Christians, ye who are always ftrangers and pilgrims upon earth, look forward to a heavenly country. Ah! when you have reached home; when you have escaped all the dangers to which you are now expofed; when you poffefs all the goodness promised you in the word of truth; then no forgetfulness, and no need of memorials. All your mercies will arise in view; you will perceive innumerable instances of the divine goodness, which you are now unable to discover, and all will be feen with their enhancing qualities and circumftances. You will blefs Him for all the difpenfations of his providence, for the dark which now perplex, for the painful which now distress, for the alarming which now terrify; "God of all grace, and Father of mercy, thou haft answered me in every day of distress; thou haft been with me in eve"ry way I have travelled; thou haft fuffered me to want "no good thing; and here I raise an altar, such as I "could not rear in yonder world, where I was encom"paffed with infirmities. Now I fhall ferve thee day "and night in thy temple, without imperfection, and "without end. Bleffed are they that dwell in thy "house, they will be still praifing Thee." Amen.

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SERMON IV.

THE NATURE OF GENUINE RELIGION

EZEK. xi. 19, 20.

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new Spirit within you: and I will take the ftony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh; that they may walk in my ftatutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

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:

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fought out of all them that have pleasure therein.” It is pleafing to obferve Him as the God of nature, "renewing the face of the earth," "crowning the year with his goodnefs," "opening his hand, and fatisfying the defire of every living thing." It is edifying to "trace Him as the God of providence, fixing the bounds of our habitation," affigning every man his station, qualifying him for the fphere in which he moves, and fometimes "raifing up the poor out "of the duft, and lifting the needy out of the dung"hill, that he may fet him with princes, even with the "princes of his people." But it is much more pleasing and edifying to contemplate Him as THE GOD OF ALL Here He "excelleth in glory." Here "He "fpares not his own Son, but delivers him up for us all.'"

GRACE.

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Here "He faves us by the washing of regeneration, "and the renewing of the Holy Ghoft, which he sheds "on us abundantly through Jefus Chrift our Saviour." Here we behold Him, from the ruins of the fall, making the finner "an eternal excellency, the joy of many generations." All this "purpofe and grace" He has given us in a way of promise; and of all the promises with which the fcripture abounds, no one is more momentous than the words which we have read. "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new fpirit within you; and I will take the ftony heart "out of their flefh, and will give them an heart of "flesh; that they may walk in my ftatutes, and keep "mine ordinances, and do them; and they fhall be my people, and I will be their God."

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Behold a full reprefentation of a fubject which deserves all your regard. See genuine religion developed in four effential articles. I. Its Author. II. The difpofition it produces. III. The obedience it demands. IV. The beffednefs it enfures.

I. Obferve, my brethren, how expressly God appropriates this work to HIMSELF; "I WILL GIVE "them one heart, and I WILL PUT a new spirit within "you ;" and fo of the reft. For real religion is of a DIVINE original. It never would have had an existence in the world without the revelation of God; and it never will have an existence in the foul without the operation of God. There is indeed fome difficulty attending the difcuffion of this fubject. For the more fpiritual any work of God is, the more remote will it neceffarily be found from human comprehenfion. Our

Saviour compares this influence to the operation of the wind, which of all the phenomena of nature, is the leaft apprehenfible in its effence, and the most fenfible in its effects. "The wind bloweth where it lifteth, "and thou heareft the found thereof, but canft not tell "whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; fo is every "one that is born of the fpirit." The doctrine has also been much abufed. It has often been fo managed, as to make the finner, while in his natural state, to appear unfortunate rather than criminal, and to render the use of means and exertions needlefs. The facred writers do not inform us where, precisely, diligence and dependence unite, or how they blend through the whole course of the christian life; but they affure us of the reality and the conftancy of their union; they inform us that there is no inconsistency between the command and the promise; that it is our duty as well as privilege, to "be filled with the spirit ;" and that we are to "work out our own falvation with "fear and trembling; FOR it is God that worketh "in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure."

This being premised, we proceed to establish the doctrine we have advanced. And the proof is by no means difficult; it is as fimple and obvious, as it is convincing. For if "all things are of God," is religion to be excluded, and to form the only exception? Springs up "the river of the water of life" from a fource on this fide "the throne of God and of the "Lamb ?" If in HIM we live, and move, " and have "our" natural "being," do we derive from an inferior principle our spiritual life?—a life fublimely called "the life of God," to remind us of its origin, as well