more particular to ourselves, and which more nearly touches our separate happiness. Now of examples of this kind, namely, of direct and special mercies towards himself, no one, who calls to mind the passages and providences of his life, can be destitute. There is one topic of gratitude falling under this head, which almost every man, who is tolerably faithful and exact in his reflections, will find in events upon which he has to look back; and it is this. How often have we been spared, when we might have been overtaken and cut off in the midst of sin? Of all the attributes of God forbearance, perhaps, is that which we have most to acknowledge. We cannot want occasions to bring the remembrance of it to our thoughts. Have there not been occasions, in which, when ensnared in vice, we might have been detected and exposed, have been crushed by punishment or shame, have been irrecoverably ruined? occasions in which we might have been suddenly stricken with death, in a state of soul the most unfit for it that was possible? That we were none of these, that

we have been preserved from these dangers, that our sin was not our destruction, that instant judgment did not overtake us, is to be attributed to the longsuffering of God. Supposing, what is undoubtedly true, that the secrets of our conduct were known to him at the time, it can be attributed to no other cause. Now this is a topic which can never fail to supply subjects of thankfulness, and of a species of thankfulness which must bear with direct force upon the regulation of our conduct. We were not destroyed when we might have been destroyed, and when we merited destruction. We have been preserved for further trial. This is, or ought to be, a touching reflection. How deeply therefore does it behove us not to trifle with the patience of God, not to abuse this enlarged space, this respited, protracted season of repentance, by plunging afresh into the same crimes, or others, or greater crimes? It shews that we are not to be wrought upon by mercy that our gratitude is not moved; that things are wrong within us; that there is a deplorable void and chasm

in our religious principles, the love of God not being present in our hearts.

nates.

But to return to that with which we set out. Religion may spring from various principles, begin in various motives. It is not for us to narrow the promises of God which belong to sincere religion, from whatever cause it origiBut of these principles, the purest, the surest, is the love of God, forasmuch as the religion which proceeds from it is sincere, constant, and universal. It will not, like fits of terror and alarm, (which yet we do not despise) produce a temporary religion. The love of God is an abiding principle. It will not, like some other, (and these also good and laudable principles of action, as far as they go,) produce a partial religion. It is co-extensive with all our obligations. Practical christianity may be comprised in three words, devotion, self-government, and benevolence. The love

of God in the heart is a fountain, from which these three streams of virtue will not fail to issue. The love of God also is a guard against error

in conduct, because it is a guard against those evil influences which mislead the understanding in moral questions. In some measure it supplies the place of every rule. He, who has it truly within him, has little to learn. Look steadfastly to the will of God, which he who loves God necessarily does, practice what you believe to be well pleasing to him, leave off what you believe to be displeasing to him; cherish, confirm, strengthen the principle itself, which sustains this course of external conduct, and you will not want many lessons, you need not listen to any other monitor.

SERMON III.

HE life of God in the Soul of Man, as it is sometimes emphatically called, the Christian life, that is, or the progress of christianity in the heart of any particular person, is marked, amongst other things, by religion gradually gaining possession of the thoughts. It has been said, that, if we thought about religion as it deserved, we should never think about any thing else; nor with strictness perhaps can we deny the truth of this proposition. Religious. concerns do so surpass and outweigh in value

and