them to choose, on that day, whom they would serve; and that when they answered, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, he added, Ye cannot serve the Lord; for he is an holy God: he is a jealous God, he will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins. This was telling them, that they could not serve the Lord and Balaam. Stung with this suggestion, they answered, Nay, but we WILL serve the Lord. Then said Joshua, Put away the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel!

This interesting account furnishes a picture of human nature. The same things have been acted over again in the world. Religion has rarely been preserved in its purity for many generations. Such is the tendency to degenerate, that the greatest and most important reformations have commonly begun to decline, when they who have been principally engaged in them have been gathered to their fathers.

Even the apostles themselves, inspired as they were, could not preserve the churches which they had raised from degeneracy.The Lord had many things against those seven in Asia, to which the Apocalypse was addressed. We know also, that the great body of professing Christians, in a few centuries, were carried away by the antichristian apostasy; that the descendants of the Reformers have mostly renounced their principles; and that the same is true of the descendants of the Puritans and Non-conformists. Each of these cases furnishes a loud call to us to take good heed unto ourselves, that we love the Lord our God.

IV. Let us conclude with a FEW DIRECTIONS AS TO THE MEANS OF PROMOTING THE LOVE OF GOD. It has been observed already, that love is a tender plant, requiring to be both guarded and watered. It will not thrive among the weeds of worldly lusts. We cannot serve the Lord in this way if we would serve him, we must put away our idols, and incline our hearts unto the Lord God of Israel. Beware of the love of the world. He that loveth the world, the love of God is not in him. Beware of living in the indulgence of any sin; any habitual sin is inconsistent with the love of God. It was on this principle, that holy David, after declaring the omniscience and omnipresence of God, invoked his scrutiny:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Wicked actions have been found in good men, who have lamented them, and been forgiven; but a wicked way, is inconsistent with a state of grace, vitiating the very principle of religion, and turning the whole into hypocrisy. Transgression of this nature must lead to perdition. It is an affecting consideration, how many professors of religion have been found, either before, or soon after, they have left the world, to have lived in private drunkenness, cencealed lewdness, or undetected fraud.

But it is not merely by avoiding those things which are inconsis tent with the love of God, that we shall promote it; we must also attend to those that cherish it. It is by being conversant with the mind of God, as revealed in his word; by drawing near to him in private prayer; by associating with the most spiritual of his people; by thinking upon his name, especially as displayed in the person and work of Christ, that the love of God will be cherished. As our minds are insensibly assimilated by the books we read, and the company we keep, so it will be in reading the book of God, and associating with his people; and as the glory of God is manifested in the highest degree in the face of Jesus Christ, this is the principal theme for our meditation. It is by our repairing to the cross, that the love of God will be kept alive, and renewed when ready to expire.

CONFORMITY TO THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

SERMON XXII.

PHIL. iii. 10.

Being made conformable unto his death.

THE death of Christ is a subject of so much importance in Christianity, as to be essential to it. Without this, the sacrifices and prophecies of the Old Testament would be nearly void of meaning, and the other great facts recorded in the New Testament divested of importance. It is not so much a member of the body of Christian doctrine, as the life-blood that runs through the whole of it. The doctrine of the cross is the Christian doctrine. In determining not to know any thing-save Jesus Christ, and him crucified, the Apostle did not mean to contract his researches, or to confine his ministry to a monotonous repetition of a favourite point, to the neglect of other things; on the contrary, he shunned not to declare the whole council of God. The doctrine of Christ, and him crucified, comprehended this: it contained a scope, which, inspired as he was, surpassed his powers; and well it might, for angels could not comprehend it, but are described as merely desiring to look into it. There is not an important truth, but what is pre-supposed by it, included in it, or arises out of it; nor any part of practical religion, but what hangs upon it.

It was from this doctrine, that the New Testament writers fetched their most powerful motives. Do they recommend humility? It is thus: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Do they enforce an unreserved devotedness to God? It is thus: Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. If they would provoke Christians to brotherly love, it is from the same consideration: Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Do they urge a forgiving spirit? It is thus: Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Do they recommend benevolence to the poor? It is from this: For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.-Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift! Finally: The common duties of domestic life are enforced from this principle: Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.

It is in immediate relation to this great principle, that both the ordinances of baptism and the supper appear to have been instituted. As many as were baptized, were baptized into Christ's death; and in eating the bread and drinking the wine, they were directed to do it in remembrance of him. It was a wonderful instance of condescending love in the Lord Jesus, to desire to be remembered by us. Had we requested, in the language of the converted thief, to be remembered by him, there had been nothing surprising in it; but it is of the nature of dying love, to desire to live in the remembrance of those who are dear to us. It was not, however, on his own account, but on ours, that he left this dying request. He knew that to remember him, would answer every case that could occur. If afflicted, this would be our