"if we be dead with Christ, we believe, that we' shall also live with him." Again; still keeping the same sense in view, and no other sense: "if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection;" once more, but still observe in the same sense, we are buried with him by baptism unto death: our old man is crucified with him." The burden of the whole passage is, that if we hope to resemble what Christ is in heaven, we must resemble what he was upon earth: and that this resemblance must consist specifically in the radical casting off of our sins. The expressions of the apostle are very strong; "that the body of sin may be destroyed. Let not sin reign in your mortal body; obey it not in the lusts thereof;" not only in its practices, but in its desires. "Sin shall not have dominion over you."

In another epistle, that to the Colossians, St. Paul speaks of an emancipation from sin, as a virtual rising from the dead, like as Christ rose from the dead. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things, that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." In this way is the comparison carried on; and what is the practical exhortation which it suggests? "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, evil concupiscence, and covetousness" which is an equivalent exhortation, and drawn from the same premises as that of the text; "purify yourselves, even as he is pure."

The Scriptures then teach, that we are to make ourselves like Christ upon earth, that we may be come like him in heaven, and this likeness is to consist in purity.

Now there are a class of Christians, and, I am ready to allow, real Christians, to whom this admonition of the text is peculiarly necessary.

They are not those, who set aside religion, they are not those, who disregard the will of their Maker, but they are those, who endeavour to obey him par. tially, and in this way: finding it an easier thing to do good than to expel their sins, especially those, which cleave to their hearts, their affections or their imaginations, they set their endeavours more towards beneficence than purity. You say we ought not to speak disparagingly of doing good; by no means; but we affirm, that it is not the whole of our duty, nor the most difficult part of it; in particular, it is not that part of it, which is insisted upon in the text, and in those other scriptures, that have been mentioned. The text, enjoining the imitation of Christ upon earth, in order that we may become like him in heaven, does not say, do good even as he went about doing good: but it says, "purify yourselves even as he is pure." So saith St. John; "Mortify the deeds of the body, let not sin reign in you, die with Christ unto sin, be baptized unto Jesus Christ, that is unto his death, be buried with him by baptism unto death, be planted together in the likeness of his death, crucify the old man, and destroy the body of sin; as death hath no more dominion over him, so let sin no more reign in your mortal bodies." So St. Paul. All these strong and significant metaphors are for the purpose of impressing more forcibly upon us this great lesson: that to participate with Christ in his glory, we must participate with him in his humiliation; and that this participation consists in divesting ourselves of those sins, of the heart especially, and affections, whether they break out into action or not, which are inconsistent with that purity, of which he left. us an example, and to the attainment and preservation of which purity, we are most solemnly enjoined to direct our first, strongest, and our most sincere endeavours.

SERMON VI.

TASTE FOR DEVOTION.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit; and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.-John iv. 23, 24.

A TASTE and relish for religious exercise, or the want of it, is one of the marks and tokens, by which we may judge, whether our heart be right towards God or not. God is unquestionably an object of devotion to every creature, which he has made capable of devotion; consequently, our minds can never be right towards him, unless they be in a devotional frame. It cannot be disputed, but that the Author and Giver of all things, upon whose will, and whose mercy, we depend for every thing we have, and for every thing we look for, ought to live in the thoughts and affections of his rational creatures. "Through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born: thou art he, that took me from my mother's womb: my praise shall be always of thee." If there be such things as first sentiments towards God, these words of the Psalmist express them. That devotion to God is a duty, stands upon the same proof as that God exists. But devotion is an act of the mind strictly. In a certain sense, duty to a fellow-creature may be discharged, if the outward act be performed, because the benefit to him depends upon the act. Not so with devotion. It is altogether the operation of the mind. God is a spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit, that is, in mind and thought. The devo tion of the mind may be, will be, ought to be testified and accompanied by outward performances and expressions but, without the mind going along with it, no form, no solemnity can avail, as a service to God.-The question is, whether their mind, and thoughts, and affections accompany the mode, which men adopt or not. I do not say, that modes

of worship are indifferent things; for certainly one mode may be more rational, more edifying, more pure than another; but they are indifferent in comparison with the question, whether the heart attend the worship, or be estranged from it.

These two points then being true; first, that de votion is a duty; secondly, that the heart must par ticipate to make any thing we do devotion: it follows, that the heart cannot be right toward God, unless it be possessed with a taste and relish for his service, and for what relates to it.

Men may, and many undoubtedly do, attend upon acts of religious worship, and even from religious motives, yet, at the same time, without this taste and relish, of which we are speaking. Religion has no savour for them. I do not allude to the

case of those, who attend upon the public worship of the church, or of their communion, from compliance with custom, merely out of regard to station, for example's sake merely, from habit merely; still less to the case of those, who have particular worldly views for so doing. I lay the case of such persons for the present out of the question, and I consider only the case of those, who, knowing and believing the worship of God to be a duty, and that the wilful neglect of this, as of other duties, must look forward to future punishment, do join in worship from a principle of obedience, from a consideration of those consequences, which will follow disobedience; from the fear indeed of God and the dread of his judgments (and so far from motives of religion), yet without any taste or relish for religious exercise itself. That is the case I am considering. It is not for us to presume to speak harshly of any conduct, which proceeds, in any manner, from a regard to God, and the expectation of a future judgment. God, in his Scriptures, holds out to man terrors as well as promises; punishment after death as well as reward. Undoubtedly he intended those motives, which he himself proposes, to operate and have their influer.ce. Wherever they operate, good ensues; very great and important

good, compared with the cases, in which they do not operate; yet not all the good we would desire, not all which is attainable, not all which we ought to aim at, in our Christian course. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but calling it the beginning implies that we ought to proceed farther; namely, from his fear to his love.

To apply this distinction to the subject before us; the man, who serves God from a dread of his displeasure, and, therefore, in a certain sense by constraint, is, beyond all comparison, in a better situation, as touching his salvation, than he, who defies this dread, and breaks through this constraint. He, in a word, who obeys, from whatever motive his obedience springs, provided it be a religious motive, is of a character, as well as in a condition, infinitely preferable to the character and condition of the man, whom no motives whatever can induce to perform his duty. Still it is true, that if he feels not within himself a taste and relish for the service, which he performs (to say nothing of the consideration, how much less acceptable his service may be), and for devotion itself, he wants one satisfactory evidence of his heart being right towards God. A farther progress in religion will give him this evidence, but it is not yet attained: as yet, therefore, there is a great deficiency.

The taste and relish for devotion, of which we are speaking, is what good men, in all ages, have felt strongly. It appears in their history: it appears in their writings. The Book of Psalms, in particuar, was, great part of it, composed under the impression of this principle. Many of the psalms are written in the truest spirit of devotion, and it is one test of the religious frame of our own minds to ob serve whether we have a relish for these composi tions; whether our hearts are stirred as we read them; whether we perceive in them words alone, a mere letter, or so many grateful gratifying sentiments towards God, in unison with what we ourselves feel, or have before felt. And what we are saying of the Book of Psalms, is true of many reli