universal attention, admiration, love, and adoring praise. He sees that this is no more than God's due; and that all who do not pay it rob him of his due. He would therefore most gladly, if he could, have all rational creatures to know and love, to worship, and obey, and delight in God, and give him the glory due unto his name. He is entirely willing that God should reign: yea he rejoices in his sovereignty; is satisfied that the throne belongs to him, and delights to think that it is eternally secured to him; that he is unchangeably glorious and blessed; that he is infinitely removed from the reach of all his enemies, that they are all in his hand, and absolutely in his power, and shall be put under his feet; that his counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure; that all shall be as he would have it, and shall issue in his glory. But he cannot but be grieved that at present such multitudes are ignorant of him; in rebellion and enmity against him; disobeying him; blaspheming him; worshipping idols, or idolizing themselves, and the creatures of his hand; framing false notions of him; serving Satan; living in infidelity, atheism, profaneness, superstition, formality, false religion, wild enthusiasm; hardened in opposition to, or abuse of his truth: Satan practising and prospering; his instruments successful and honored; God's servants, friends, and truths despised, hated, and persecuted. It grieves him at the heart to see things in this state: even as a dutiful and affectionate child is grieved to hear his good father insulted, reproached, calumniated, derided; or to see him robbed, wounded, and abused; and the more so because he cannot help it. It is as a sword in his bones while they daily say unto him, Where is thy God?

"There is much of the spirit of adoption in this. Just so far as we can heartily pray, Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; we have a right to conclude that God is our father. It is the earnest desire and hearty prayer of every child of God, that God's cause and honor on earth may prosper; that his name may be known, loved, and adored; that his kingdom may set up, and fill the whole earth; that all men in the world may be cured of their ignorance, irreligion, and wickedness; may return to God through Christ, truly repenting and believing, and may glorify God in body and spirit, with their substance and their all, and do his will as angels do. All such characters long to see God glorify all his perfections by bringing this to pass; as we are taught

to hope and expect that he will do. They rejoice therefore when ministers are sent forth furnished for their work; when religion revives; when sinners are converted; when believers stand fast in the Lord; and the cause of God prospers. These are objects near their heart.

On

"Every true believer, however weak, has somewhat of this spirit; and that in proportion to his faith and grace. He that has none of it has no love to God, but is still his enemy, however self-love may produce high affections of another sort. But every such person knows that nothing more prevents this blessed effect, than the unholy lives of false professors, or the misconduct of true Christians. This Satan improves to prejudice men's minds against the gospel; to furnish sinners with plausible pretences for despising and opposing it; to help convinced persons to quiet their consciences; and for many other bad purposes. the other hand, the sincere believer is sensible that the consistent, upright, blameless, useful lives of Christians are a great ornament and recommendation of true religion; tend to soften men's prejudices, and win upon their hearts; and are made use of by the Holy Spirit in bringing sinners home to God, through Jesus Christ. He desires therefore to let his light so shine before men, that they, seeing his good works, may glorify his Father which is in heaven; to bring forth much fruit, that God may be glorified; by welldoing to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. anxious to avoid evil and the appearance of evil; and so to do every thing as may best tend to promote the credit of religion and the honor of God. Whether he eats or drinks, or whatsoever he does, he would do all to the glory of God. This is his habitual aim. Whenever he acts contrary to it, he is grieved, ashamed, humbled, and watches more for the time to come; being especially troubled if God's name is dishonored through him.”

GOD OUR PORTION.

He is

"EVERY true believer chooses God as his portion, and expects his happiness from God himself, and not from his gifts, solely or chiefly. The law of God, commanding us to love him with all our heart, requires us to love him supremely, to live to him and his glory, as our great end, and to choose him as our portion, and expect our happiness from him alone. Thou shalt have none other gods but ve

Whatever possesses the throne in our heart; whatever we love more than, or equally with, God; whatever we seek in preference to God's glory; whatever we expect our happiness from, or choose for our portion; that is our god, our idol; and we give the glory to it, which is due to God alone. Now men, in their natural state, have no more notion of seeking and finding happiness in God, as their portion, than they have of loving him supremely, and seeking his glory ultimately. They apprehend that the gifts of God can do somewhat towards making them happy; and therefore, they desire, choose, and deify them. The worldling makes a god of his riches, pleasures, and honors. In these he trusts, on these depends, and from them expects his satisfaction. Nor are other descriptions of character a whit better, though their idolatry takes another turn. The moralist, the self-righteous, the self-wise, the enthusiast, each deifies something that is not God. One expects his happiness from his moral virtue; in which he prides himself; for which he admires, values, loves himself; in which he trusts, and on which he dotes. Another does the same by his forms of godliness; another by his knowledge and clear light; another by his experiences, discoveries, consolations, and attainments. Each takes the gift, and puts it in the place of the giver; and reposes that dependence upon it, cherishes that expectation from it, and delights himself in contemplating it in that manner, in which he ought to love, depend on, expect from, and delight in contemplating the glorious God: or rather, dressing up himself in this imagined, finery, he admires, trusts in, loves, and rejoices in himself, and is his own idol. Even in his views of heaven, his soul rests in the expectation of happiness in something which is to be conferred upon him as his own, rather than in God. And thus all agree in forsaking the fountain of living waters, and hewing out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which can hold no

water.

"But the word of God, though it figuratively describes the happiness of the righteous under images taken from natural good things, yet affords light enough to the humble Christian for the interpretation of the figure, and plainly enough declares that true happiness is not to be found in God's gifts, but in God himself, the fountain from which all these streams flow, and to which they lead the renewed mind. The pure in heart shall SEE GOD. With

We shall SEE HIM as

out holiness no man shall SEE THE LORD. he is, and be made like him. We shall behold his glory. True believers are all represented as choosing God for their portion; thirsting after God; longing to appear in the presence of God; desiring the light of his countenance; rejoicing in God; exclaiming, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee. And indeed nothing can be plainer, than that the all-sufficient and eternal God, of unchangeable excellency, is the only happiness which is large enough to satisfy the vast capacities of an immortal spirit. He is the fountain ever full, ever overflowing, inexhaustible, and, if I may so speak, undiminishable, from which million of worlds, continually drinking full draughts of bliss, never in the least lesson it: but all creatures are utterly incapable of affording happiness. Let a rational being have the whole world, not earth only but heaven, and every thing in it, and eternal duration secured, in which to enjoy it; and no positive evil to disturb that enjoyment; he would still be a dissatisfied and discontented creature, if not admitted to behold the glory and taste the love, and enjoy the presence of the great and glorious God. This, and this alone, can fill, and satisfy, and enlarge, and exalt, and make happy the rational soul for ever. I doubt not that every true believer, every spiritual man sees, yea feels this: and, however rational it is in itself, I am persuaded none beside can perceive it. He is happy and joyful in proportion as he can have fixed views of the divine glory, a realizing sense of the divine presence, and that kind of assurance of the love of God, which arises from a heartfelt conscious love to him. While he can thus feel the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, he is happy, and can rejoice, even though in tribulation: without it, his soul is dark, dreary, uncomfortable; nor can any worldly advantages, any recollection of past experiences, any hope of future happiness, though it may keep him from distress, make him comfortable, till this experience is renewed.-The view he has of the infinite excellency of God determines his choice of him as his portion. Self-love now takes its proper direction, and cannot be vehement and eager: The enjoyment of God is that recompense of reward to which the believer has respect in another world: where, wither one intervening cloud, or any remaining coldness or ruption, he trusts to see the glorious God, and be for

ravished with his love: and the enjoyment of God, in the earnests and first-fruits thereof, he longs for as his only solace in this barren land where no water is. To see the beauty of the Lord, to rejoice in the peculiar manifestations of his glory, is the one thing which he desires. Now he knows, both from the word of God and his own experience, that his present enjoyment of this sweet pleasure, and the confirmed hope of it hereafter, increase or decrease in exact proportion to his diligence in watching against sin and following after holiness. He finds sloth and sensuality, worldliness, pride, and wrong tempers, grieve the Holy Spirit, unfit his soul for divine exercises, prevent divine communications, make corrections, temptations, and uncomfortable experiences necessary; and consequently hinder his enjoyment of his beloved. On the contrary he finds diligence and attention to duty prepare his mind for these gracious visits, and render them more frequent and blessed. Every true believer has a little of this experience and judgment, in proportion to his faith and grace: and thereby he will be proportionably induced to follow after holiness."

LOVE TO MAN.

"EVERY true believer has a sincere disinterested love for all men. Nothing can be plainer than that, according to the Bible, the spirit of Christianity is especially a spirit of love to man; and that, without this, all other attainments, however specious, or even splendid or eminent, are of no worth to the owner. 1 Cor. xiii.-The whole law is written in the heart of every true Christian; and the two tables are inseparable. He that loveth God will love his brother also; and he is a false pretender to the former, who does not the latter: for that removal of pride and selfishness, which makes way for our sincerely loving a God of infinite holiness, who, as such, is directly contrary to our own natural character, will necessarily dispose us to love all men, in submission to his authority, and imitation of his example.

"Now this love, though not confined to, consists much in, universal benevolence and good will to all men, near or far off; strangers and enemies, as well as relatives and friends; and the vilest as well as the best of men.......He who does not forgive his vilest enemies and injurers, and