reflections, as are expressed in some forcible passages which I shall borrow, without feeling the need of an apology, from the incomparable Howe:-"Oh, what a soul have I, that can love any thing else, that can love trifles, that can love sin, but cannot love God or Christ, the most desirable good of souls! What a monster in the creation of God, is this soul of mine !"

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Oh, my soul, thou hast in thee other valuable things: thou hast understanding in thee; judg ment in thee; wit in thee; perhaps learning and considerable acquirements; but thou hast not the love of God in thee. How great an essential dost thou want to all religion, to all duty, to all felicity! The one thing necessary thou wantest ; thou hast every thing but what thou wantest more than any thing, more than all things. And Oh, my soul, what is to become of thee; where art thou to have thy eternal abode? To what regions of horror, and darkness, and woe, art thou going? What society can be fit for thee? No lover of God !---No lover of God! What society, then, can be fit for thee, but that of infernal accursed spirits, that are at utmost distance from him, and to whom no beam of holy, vital light, shall ever shine to all eternity! Thou, Oh my soul, art self-abandoned to the blackness of darkness for ever. Thy doom is in thy breast, thy own bosom; thy want of love to God is thy

doom, creates thee a present hell, and shews to what place thou belongest !"

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Let, then, a due fear and solicitude be set on work in thee: for consider thyself as one shortly to be arraigned before the supreme tribunal, and remember that this is the critical point, upon which thy judgment turns:--this is a trial upon the most fundamental point; for as all the law is comprehended in love, if thou be found guilty in this point, that thou wast no lover of God, thou wilt be convicted of having been a perpetual underminer of his whole government, and of the whole frame of his law, a disloyal creature, rebellious and false to the God that made thee!-It may be, thy want of love to God was heretofore a great secret; but now out comes the secret,--disclosed to that vast assembly, angels and men! Here was a creature, a reasonable creature, an intelligent soul, that lived upon the divine bounty and goodness, so many years in the world below, and hid a false disloyal heart by a plausible shew! And dost thou think, that all the loyal creatures, that shall be spectators and auditors in that great day, will not all conceive a just and a loyal indignation against one convicted of not loving God, that gave him breath and all things?"

"And yet do not despair. God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself, that sin may not

be imputed. He is in Christ, to captivate souls to his love. He is in Christ, to conquer enmity, to subdue disaffected hearts. Therefore, do not despair. Despair that ever you can be happy without loving God, but do not despair of being brought to love him. You have to do with him who is the element of love, the God of love, the fountain at once both of loveliness and love!Apply yourselves, then, to him who is incarnate love. Turn yourselves towards him; open your souls to him, and say to him: Lord, flow in with all the mighty powers of thine own love upon my soul: mollify this obdurate heart, and turn it into love.' He can quickly do it, and draw thee into union with himself, so that thou shalt dwell in God who is love, and God shall dwell in thee. Then the foundations are surely laid, for all thy future duty, and all thy future felicity. Then how pleasantly wilt thou obey, and how blessedly wilt thou enjoy God for ever and ever!"

LECTURE VII.

THE OPERATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HOLINESS

IN THE EXERCISE OF SELF-GOVERNMENT.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE THOUGHTS.

JEREM. IV. 14.

How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

WHEN this pointed interrogation was addressed to Jerusalem and to Judah, their Chaldean invaders were about to spread desolation over the land, as the punishment decreed by God for iniquities, which they were still unwilling to abandon. The rapid approach of Nebuchadnezzar, and his devastating army, is represented as combining the fierceness of the lion, and the swiftness of the eagle, with the resistless force of the whirlwind, when suddenly the heavens are overspread with darkening and portentous clouds. "The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place, to make this land

desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste without an inhabitant.-Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind : his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us, for we are spoiled!" One way of deliverance, and only one, yet remained within the limits of possibility. That way might have been opened by true repentance and unfeigned contrition, by the abandonment of sin, and the purification of the heart. To this method of averting the judgments of their offended God, and of arresting the progress of those enemies, who menaced them with captivity and death, they are faithfully and affectionately urged." O Jerusalem, wash thine "O heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?" There had commenced at Jerusalem some appearance of external reformation; but the hearts of its inhabitants retained a defiling love of sin, and a prevailing inclination to vile idolatry vain thoughts, evil desires, and debasing affections, still obtained a dwelling-place, as welcome guests, even in their inmost souls. Not more inimical to the peace and safety of Jerusalem, were vain and evil thoughts, than are such thoughts to your best interests and to mine. Be assured that the right regulation of the thoughts enters deeply and essentially into. the nature of personal holiness and happiness.