willing to make, does not this argue, that each man, on the whole, is sufficiently pleased with himself; that there are, in every situation, certain comforts, and certain grounds of selfcomplacency and satisfaction, which ought in reason to be employed as remedies against discontent?

In the last place, consider the state of the world around you.-You are not happy. You dwell, you admit, among your own people. But there, say you, "How many vexations do I occasionally experience? Sometimes distressed for want of health; sometimes disappointed in my plans, and straitened in my circumstances; at other times afflicted with domestic troubles: so that I am far from being as I would wish to be."-Pray, my brother, who is there that lives in every respect just as he would wish to live. First, find out such a person; look through all conditions and ranks, and try if you can discover one who will tell you that he has no complaint or uneasiness whatever, before you allow yourself to repine at your present situation, Do you presume to indulge discontent, merely because you are included in the common lot; because you are not exempted from bearing your share of the common burden? What is human life to all, but a mixture of some scattered joys and pleasures, with various cares and troubles?

You have, perhaps, set your heart on some one thing, which if you could attain it, you insist, would put an end to all your complaints, and give you full contentment.-Vain man! will no experience teach you wisdom? Have not you had the same opinion before this of some other object of your desire; and did you not find that you was deceived in the enjoyment? Will you not then at last be persuaded that all

which cometh, like all that is past, is vanity?-Vanity, believe it, is the indelible character imprinted on all human things. As far as happiness is to be found on earth, you must look for it, not in the world or the things of the world, but within yourselves, in your temper and your heart. Let the world change into one form or another as it will, it will be a vain world to the end; and you, to the end, will be discontented. It cannot give you what you seek. The sea saith, It is not in me; and the earth saith, It is not in me. Silver and gold are to no purpose weighed for the price of it. The decree of the Almighty hath past, and cannot be reversed, that man should find his true contentment, under every condition, only in a good conscience and a wellregulated mind; in a holy life, and the hope of heaven.-You call your. self a Christian. Does not that name import that you consider yourself as a pilgrim and a passenger on earth; related in your expectations and hopes to a better world? Are you not ashamed to betray, by your discontent, a spirit so inconsistent with such hopes and expectations, and at the time when you profess to be looking towards the end of your journey, to shew so much uneasiness about all the little circumstances of accommodation by the way?-Live by faith, my brethren, and you will live above this world and its discouragements. Dwell with God, and with things divine and immortal, and you shall dwell with true wisdom. You will find nothing so great in worldly events, as either to elate or deject you. Resting upon a principle superior to the world, you will possess your spirits in peace, and will learn that great lesson of heavenly philosophy, in whatever state you are, therewith to be content.

nexion with God which blessed his primeval state. He who lives in the exercise of good affections, and in the regular discharge of the offices of virtue and piety, maintains, as far as his infirmity allows, conformity with the nature of that perfect Being, whose benevolence, whose purity and rectitude, are conspicuous, both in his works and his ways.-Worldly and corrupt men, on the contrary, estrange themselves from all that is divine. They degrade their nature by unworthy pursuits, and are perpetually sinking in the scale of being. By sensuality they descend to the rank of the brute creation; by malignity, envy, and other bad passions, they connect themselves with devils and infernal spirits. Hence they are said in Scripture to be alienated from the life of God; to be without God in the world. Though in one sense God is ever near them, as he surrounds and encompasses them on all hands; yet, in a spiritual sense, they are farther removed from him than any distance of place can separate bodies from one another.-Whereas a virtuous man, whose pleasure it is to do good, and his study to preserve himself upright and pure, is in the course of constant approach towards celestial nature. He is the lover of order, the follower of that righteousness, of which God is the author and inspirer. He accords with the great laws of the universe, and seconds the designs of its Almighty Governor. He is, if we may so speak, in unison with God. Hence piety and virtue are described in Scripture as friendship with God, as introducing us into his family, and rendering us members of his household. Strong expressions are used on this subject by the sacred writers; a good man is said to dwell in God, and God in him. (1 John iii. 24. iv. 13.) If a man love me, says our Lord, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him; and we will

come, and make our abode with him. (John xiv. 23.)

These high and magnificent views of religion, as an approach to God, may easily satisfy us how much it must be good for us to draw near to God, in this sense of the expression. It is visibly the honour and dignity of man to resemble his Creator; and surely his chief happiness will be ever found to lie where his highest dignity and honour are found. With God is the fountain of life. With him reside complete beatitude and perfection; and from him are derived all the portions of happiness and comfort, which are any where to be found among the creatures he has made. In exact proportion, therefore, as they approach to or deviate from him, must the happiness or misery of all rational creatures be. As light and heat flow from the sun as their centre, so bliss and joy flow from the Deity; and as with our distance from that glorious luminary darkness and cold increase, so, according as by alienation of nature we are removed from God, ruin and misery advance in the same degree upon the soul.

Now consider, my brethren, that there is one or other course which you must pursue. If it be not your study to draw near to God by a religious and virtuous life, be assured that you are departing from him; for there is no middle course between sin and righteousness; and let every thinking being seriously reflect what is included in this state of being far from God, and cut off from every kindly influence that descends from heaven. With shadows of pleasure, persons in this unhappy situation may be surrounded and amused; but shadows only, and not realities, they must be, as long as men have no connexion with Him who is the origin of all good. Can the stream continue to flow when it is cut off from the fountain? Can the branch flourish

when torn away from the stock which gave it nourishment? No more can dependant spirits be happy, when parted from all union with the Father of Spirits and the Fountain of Happiness.

A good man, who is always endeavouring to draw near to God, lives under the smiles of the Almighty. He knows that he is under the protection of that God towards whom he aspires. He can look up to him with pleasing hope; and trust that he shall receive illumination and aid in his progress to perfection. His virtues may as yet be imperfect, and attended with many failings; but his approach towards God is begun. The steps by which he draws near to him may be slow; but that progress is commenced, which in a future state shall be more successfully carried on, and which shall continue to advance through all eternity. They go on, says the Psalmist, from strength to strength; every one of them appeareth before God in Zion. (Psal. lxxxiv. 7.) Hence, by a very beautiful and instructive metaphor, the path of the just is described in Scripture to be as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (Prov. iv. 18.) It is the dawn of a glorious morning, which increases by degrees to meridian splendour; and as the morning dawn, though dim and feeble, is nevertheless a ray of the same light which forms the brightness of noon-day, we are hereby taught to conceive, that the piety and virtue of good men now, is a degree of celestial nature already imparted to their souls, and differs from its perfection in a higher world, only as the twilight is inferior to noon. The path of the wicked man is directly the reverse of all this. Degraded by his vices, he is constantly declining more and more in a downward course. His path, instead of being as the shining light, is the dusk of evening begun:

that darkness of the infernal regions to which his nature is tending, increases upon him gradually, till the shadows of night close upon his head at last, with endless and impenetrable gloom. Thus fully is verified what the Psalmist had asserted in the verse preceding the text, Lo! they that are far from thee shall perish; while his own fixed sentiment he immediately declares-but it is good for me to draw near to God.-I proceed

II. To consider the other sense inwhich we may be said to draw near to God; that is, in acts of immediate devotion.

There are two ways by which these contribute to bring us near to God. The first is, by their strengthening in the soul that power of vital godliness and virtue, in which consists our chief resemblance to God; for it is never to be forgotten that all our devotional exercises are subservient to this great end. Herein consists their whole virtue and efficacy, that they purify and improve the soul, raise it above low passions, and thereby promote the elevation of the human nature towards the Divine. When they are considered merely as external services, which we are obliged to perform, but to which we address ourselves with cold and backward hearts; or when the glow of affection which they excite is merely momentary and soon forgotten; they cannot be held to have any influence in bringing us near to God. It is only when they are the service of the heart, when they are the genuine voice of the soul to God, when they serve to kindle those sacred aspirations which continue to breathe throughout the rest of life, that they assist us in rising towards heaven, and alliance with God.

When our acts of devotion are of this nature, they form the other sense in which the words of the text are to be understood. We therein draw

near to God, as we enter into the most immediate intercourse with him, which the nature of our state admits. In one sense we cannot be said to be nearer to God at any one time than another; as at all times his presence equally surrounds us; in the fields, as in the temple; in the midst of the world, as much as in the retirement of the closet. But when with serious and devout affections we address ourselves to God, in prayer, and praise, and solemn worship, we then bring home that Divine presence to our feelings, and formally place ourselves in it. We may then be truly said to draw near to God: approaching to him through a great Mediator and Intercessor; sending up those prayers to which we are encouraged to believe that the Almighty is lending a gracious ear; resigning ourselves to his conduct, and offering up our souls to him; exercising, in short, all those acts of faith, love, and trust, which become dependant creatures, towards their Sovereign and Father.

This intellectual correspondence of the heart with our Maker and Redeemer, is termed, in the language of divines, communion with God. And, if there be truth in religion at all; if a Supreme Being exist, who is in any degree accessible to his creatures, and who is gracious to the good; it must be admitted to have a foundation in reason and truth. There must be just ground to think, that the worship of pure and holy hearts is acceptable to him; and the gospel gives us full reason to believe, that the energy of his spirit is concerned in stirring up within them the sentiments of devotion.

At the same time it is incumbent on me to warn you, that the satisfaction which on such occasions we feel, must not be grounded merely on a belief which we allow ourselves to entertain, of some communication which we had received directly from

God. In the warm and transporting moments of devotion, there is always a hazard of our mistaking the exalted efforts of our own imagination, for supernatural impressions from heaven. It is much safer to judge of the acceptance of our services, by an inference which we can warrantably draw from the state of our hearts and life, compared to God's written word. To the law and the testimony we must always have recourse in judging of our state; and then only the testimony of God's Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God, when we can discern in ourselves those declared fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. (Gal. v. 22.)

Carrying along with us this caution, it will be found that, on many accounts, it will be good for us to draw near to God in exercises of solemn devotion.

First, it is evidently good for us to discharge those duties of worship, and to give proof of those pious affections, which are unquestionably due from us to our heavenly Father. If we be wanting in these, we are clearly deficient in one essential part of religion. Morality without piety constitutes a very imperfect character. It is neither stable in its foundation, nor universal in its influence; and gives us no ground to look for the rewards of those whose prayers, together with their alms, come up in memorial before God.

But, besides the obligations from duty which we are laid under to such religious exercises, it can clearly be shewn that they are in themselves good for us, on account of the im provement, the satisfaction, and comfort, they enable us to enjoy, in a devout elevation of the heart towards God and celestial objects.

When we reflect on the languor