which make glad the city of God. True Christians thirst for this water more vehemently than did David for the waters of the well of Bethlehem. Refreshed and invigorated by the water of life, let us follow the stream clear as chrystal, until arriving at the perfection of happiness before the throne of God in the celestial Paradise, we are welcomed to our final abode.

4. Judicious reflections, upon our own mortality, and the future state which we are daily approaching, have a tendency to prepare us for both.

He who forgets must neglect the business of life; and he who neglects cannot suceed in his employment. The great business of this life is to prepare for another; and as we have to pass from this to the invisible and eternal world, through death, it is impossible to think seriously of our personal concerns without including in our reflections, the idea of our separation from the body in order to return to God. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.* The law is universal; and there is no living man that dare flatter himself with an exception in his favour: for, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.†

It was never intended that this world should be the permanent abode of all that once breathed its atmosphere. It is only a place of preparation for another. As such it ought to be used by mortal man, while his immortal mind looks forward to the disembodied state, and to its unparalleled advantages. Persuaded that here we have no continuing city, let us live as strangers on the earth; let us treat the world as the nursery in which we are like children under tutelage : let us travel as pilgrims to the city of God. The ordinary occupations and enjoyments of life are not inconsistent with such views of death and eternity. The Christian gratefully receives the comforts of his journey, and dutifully strives to be useful to his fellow-travellers; but his affections are set upon things that are above-superior in relation both to place and to worth, to the objects of the sinner's pursuit in this present world. The petty details of the preservation of the body, or the gradual acquisition of property, can never enter into competition, in point of importance, with the glories of an everlasting and undeviating enjoyment. Since life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel, who would be content to resign for the puerilities of earthly felicity, or the anxieties and calculations of ambition and trade, the profounder mysteries, the unbounded riches of the life beyond the grave? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen: and the believer, proceeding in his Christian attainments, enjoys by anticipation his victory over the world and the king of terrors, and over all those diseases, and that anguish, which usually accompany the warfare of the last enemy.

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The present life is uncertain; and its duties must be dis charged without delay: it is, at all events, of short duration ; and we must prepare for abandoning its pleasures, and for bidding adieu to its passions, its trials, and its sorrows. Death is unnatural-an inversion of the original constitution of man: it is a stroke of violence which separates the soul from the body; in a moral point of view, it is the consequence and the wages of sin: but in the light the of revelation, it is converted by divine grace into a messenger of escape from the prison, that the saints may be introduced to the presence of their Father in heaven. You can now, brethren, deliberately contemplate this destroyer of natural life, and examine, without dismay, every feature of his character. This is indeed the work of the grace of God. Nature shudders at the touch of his cold hand. Conscious guilt inflicts horror on the soul at the prospect of intimate familiarity with him ; but he appears you with the badges of servitude to your almighty Saviour: his strength is subdued; his sting is extracted; to the Christian, there remains of the king of terrors no more than the shadow. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.* "To die is gain."† Yes! O believers, however great a loss to others, for you, to die is gain. Exhaustless wealth, invulnerability to disease, and eternal youth, are the least valuable attributes of the future state which awaits you. Intellect, clear and comprehensive; affections, ardent and in perfect harmony; society, various and exalted; sinless morality, and the presence of Jehovah, furnish a neverending enjoyment, exempt indeed from perplexing vicissitudes; but not too calm or motionless, to excite attention, or support the ceaseless career of activity for which you shall be glorified.

III. Divine influences are required and employed in the progressive improvement of the saints.

The outward ordinances are all adapted by infinite wisdom to their end: the exercises of our own rational powers are of use in their proper place: and both are means of attaining to higher degrees of sanctification and usefulness in life; but the power of the Spirit is that which gives efficacy to other means of improvement, and is itself the chief support and solace of the Christian. It is to be understood, in all evangelical discussions, whether from the pulpit or the press, that the Spirit of God blesses the institutions of religion; and that without this aid, the ordinances are dry breasts affording no milk to new-born babes; that the professor of religion is as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, destitute of life and of virtue. It is nevertheless meet, that in setting forth in order, before my hearers, the means of growth in grace, I should distinctly mention the influences of THE HOLY GHOST, as well as take for granted their existence while describing the advantages of subordinate instrumentality. The Comforter is distinctly promised to the saints both by the Father and the Son; all Christians enjoy distinct communion with him, in the exercises of godliness; and the principal design of the gracious economy which provides felicity for sinners in a Saviour, is to develope to the intelligent part of the creation of God, the glory of the Trinity.

The natural attributes of the Deity are sufficiently manifest in the works of creation and providence. His goodness and his long-suffering are discoverable in his treatment of offenders in this world: but it is only in the gospel we see clearly his compassion in harmony with his righteousness, and his love to sinners directed by wisdom, and applied by omnipotence, in consistency with truth and holiness.

The UNITY of the Deity is set forth to the intellectual world in all his works; but it is only in the economy of the system of grace, we are furnished with an exemplification of the distinction of persons in the Godhead. It is true, a revelation of this fact might have been made by a simple declaration from heaven. Many such declarations are found in the bible, and are believed, or rejected by men according to the degree of respect they have for Jehovah, and the measure of their knowledge of the terms in which he has seen proper to express himself unto them. Still, however, a pure declaration, that there are three equal distinct persons in the unity of the Godhead, unaccompanied with some practical exemplification, would make upon the minds of believers but a comparatively indistinct impression; while the unbelieving portion of the sons of men, would, in rejecting the truth, have to contend only with a bare speculative doctrine. God himself, in mercy to man, and in goodness to the countless millions of intelligent creatures in the universe, hath seen proper to order that a practical exemplification of this truth should be made in the presence of all, and so applied to the souls of his peculiar people as to become familiar to their sanctified understandings, and be interwoven with the very texture of their piety.

In the counsel of peace, the language of which is, "Let us deliver fallen man from his sin and misery, and bring him into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer," the plan was eternally settled, and the economy of grace established as an everlasting covenant for the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in the salvation of sinners. That there are three persons in the Godhead, is not only affirmed as a matter of fact; but the personal properties of each are declared; each assumes a distinct agency in the work of salvation: and such is the nature of the sanctification predestinated and applied, that the renewed man has access through the Redeemer by the Spirit to the Father in his public and private devotion. Without, therefore, a distinct apprehension and experience of the doctrine of three persons in one Godhead, there is no scriptural devotion either social or personal. He who rejects the Son and the Holy Ghost, from his affections and his worship, by denying to them divine attributes, whatever may be his name, is any thing but a Christian. It is correspondent with the whole design of Christianity as a revelation from God, and as a matter of experience to the saints, to behold the eternal Father sending his own Son for our redemption; to behold the eternal Son coming from the Father, finishing the work, and returning to the Father who sent him; to behold the eternal Spirit coming from the Father and the Son, by the authority of the arisen Redeemer, to quicken and to guide men in the path of life everlasting. This Holy Spirit, of whom we have already spoken as "the Spirit of adoption," is our support while walking in newness of life.

His divine influence, in the several attainments of the saints, is experienced in a threefold mode of operation. He presents proper objects to the mind-He directs the affections of the heart to these objects and he imparts strength for action in a believing view of them.

1. The Spirit presents to the saints the proper objects of pursuit.

In order to succeed, believers behove to walk according to their Christian profession. Only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel, is the constant admonition under which they act. In the exercise of faith they must take every step; for without faith it is impossible to please God. Evangelical obedience and deportment consist in a correspondence with the rules given by the Mediator. As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. The promised assistance which we have on our journey includes the exhibition to the enlightened mind of objects which ought to occupy our attention. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself: but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."*

The Holy Spirit, in the formation of the plan of redemption, took his part of the sacred economy, and agreed to apply all the blessings which God the Father promised, and the Redeemer purchased for our souls: therefore did the Saviour say, he shall receive of mine, and show it unto you. The exhibition made by the Spirit respects principally future good-He shall show you things to come. These things are, of course, the proper objects of Christian pursuit; and the gracious discovery leads believers on to their enjoyment. Spiritual blessings are all arranged in their proper order, are all placed in a strong light: and the eyes of our understanding being opened, are directed towards them, and are fixed upon them with admiration and delight. Divine things, seen and realized by that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, make a lasting impression upon the mind. They communicate to the beholder their own holy and sublime character. The vail of prejudice and error is taken away; and "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

2. The Spirit directs the affections of the heart to spiritual objects.

The Christian is a child of light, having an unction from the Holy One. He is also a child of love: for his faith worketh by love, and purifies the heart. God requires, in his law, that we should set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. He promises in his gospel, that his people shall have a new heart; and in the dispensations of grace, the love of God is shed abroad in our