absorbed by the immense importance of the business in which we are engaged. Quickness in discovering blemishes of this sort is not the gift of a pious mind; still less either levity or acrimony in speaking of them.

EVERY EVENT FRAUGHT WITH INSTRUCTION TO THE CHRISTIAN.

A SOUL has no sooner received the Spirit of God, and is truly animated by it, than all its life is almost invisible and interior; all that it does, proceeds from this divine and invisible principle which fills it. Actions, even the most common, become holy by the secret faith that purifies them; whether it rejoices or weeps, whether it may be in elevation or obscurity, abundance or want, health or sickness, it finds in all these conditions some sources of devout reflection. It looks upon every object it beholds only with the eye of faith. The events and vicissitudes of the world; the revolutions of states and empires; the fall or rise of families; the good or evil of the world; the licentiousness or renovation of manners; the fall of saints or the conversion of sinners; the weakness or energy of truth among men ; the dissension or peace of pastors and churches; the disgraces or honours of individuals;—in a word, all those eternal revolutions which the world offers continually to our view, and which only awaken earthly passions and carnal thoughts in worldly souls, are secret and continual instructions to a soul filled and animated with the Spirit of God. Every thing calls it back to the verities of faith: every thing discovers to it in a new light, the nothingness of human things, and the greatness

of eternal realities: the whole world is nothing but an open book, in which it continually beholds the wonders of God, and the prodigious blindness of almost all men.

SUBMISSION TO THE DIVINE WILL.

WHAT is the will of God? Is it any thing unjust, unworthy or dishonorable, any thing incommodious or hurtful, any thing extremely difficult or intolerably grievous, that God requireth of us, to do or to bear? No: he willeth nothing from us, or to us, which doth not best become us, and most behoove us; which is not attended with safety, with ease, with the solidest profit, the fairest reputation, and the sweetest pleasure.

Two things he willeth; that we should be good, and that we should be happy; the first in order to the second, for that virtue is the certain way, and a necessary qualification to felicity.

"The will of God," saith St. Paul," is our sanctification." What is that? What, but the decays of our frame, and the defacement of God's image within us, should be repaired; that the faculties of our soul should be restored to their original integrity and vigour; that from most wretched slaveries we should be translated into a happy freedom, yea, into a glorious kingdom; that from despicable beggary and baseness we should be advanced to substantial wealth and sublime dignity; that we should be cleansed from the foulest defilements, and decked with the goodliest ornaments; that we should be cured of most loathsome diseases, and settled in a firm health of soul; that we should be delivered from those brutish lusts, and those devilish passions, which

create in us a hell of darkness, of confusion, of vexation-which dishonour our nature, deform our soul, ruffle our mind, and rack our conscience; that we should be endued with those worthy dispositions and affections, which do constitute in our hearts a heaven of light, of order, of joy, of peace-dignify our nature, beautify our soul, clarify and cheer our mind; that we should eschew those practices, which never go without a retinue of woful mischiefs and sorrows, embracing those which always yield abundant fruits of convenience and comfort; that, in short, we should become friends of God, fit to converse with angels, and capable of paradise?

"God," saith St. Paul again, "willeth all men to be saved." "He willeth not," saith St. Peter, "that any man should perish." He sayeth it himself, yca, he sweareth it, "that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live." And what is this will? What, but that we should obtain all the good whereof we are capable; that we should be filled with joy, and crowned with glory; that we should be fixed in an immovable state of happiness, in the perpetual enjoyment of God's favour, and in the light of his blissful presence; that we should be rid of all the evils to which we are liable; that we should be released from inextricable chains of guilt, from incurable stings of remorse, from being irrecoverably en gaged to pass a disconsolate eternity in utter darkness and extreme woe? Such is God's will; to such purposes every command, every dispensa tion of God, (how grim, how rough soever it may seem,) doth tend. And do we refuse to comply with that good will? Do we set against it a will

of our own,-affecting things unworthy of us, things unprofitable to us, things prejudicial to our best interests, things utterly baneful to our souls? Do we reject the will that would save us, and adhere to a will that would ruin us; a foolish and senseless will, which, slighting the immense treasures of heaven, the unfading glories of God's kingdom, the ineffable joys of eternity, doth catch at spacious nothings, doth pursue mischievous trifles,—a shadow of base profit, a smoke of vain honour, a flash of sordid pleasure; which passeth away "like the mirth of fools," or "the crackling of thorns," leaving only soot, black and bitter, behind it?

But at least, ere we do this, let us consider whose will it is that requireth our compliance.

It is the will of Him, whose will did found the earth, and rear the heaven; whose will sustaineth all things in their existence and operation; whose will is the great law of the world, which universal nature in all its motions doth observe; which reigneth in heaven, the blessed spirits adoring it; which swayeth in hell itself, the cursed fiends trembling at it. And shall we alone, we pitiful worms crawling on earth, presume to murmur, or dare to kick against it?

It is the will of our Maker, who, together with all our other faculties, did create and confer on us the very power of willing; and shall we turn the work of his hands, the gift of his bounty, against him?

It is the will of our Preserver, who, together with all that we are, or have, continually doth uphold our very will itself: so that without employing any positive force, merely by letting us fall out of his hand, he can send us and it back

to nothing. And shall our will clash with that, on which it so wholly dependeth,—without which it cannot subsist for one moment, or move one step forward in action?

It is the will of our sovereign Lord, who, upon various indisputable accounts, hath a just right to govern us, and an absolute power to dispose of us. Ought we not, therefore, to say with old Eli, "It is the Lord, let him do to me as it seems .good to him?" Is it not extreme iniquity, is it not monstrous arrogance for us, in derogation to his will, to pretend giving law, or picking a station to ourselves? Do we not manifestly incur high treason against the King of heaven, by so invading his office, usurping his authority, snatching his sceptre into our hands, and setting our wills in his throne ?

It is the will of our Judge, from whose mouth our doom must proceed, awarding life or death, weal or woe, unto us; and what sentence can we expect, what favour can we pretend to, if we presumptuously shall offend, oppose that will, which is the supreme rule of justice, and sole fountain of mercy?

It is the will of our Redeemer, who has bought us with an inestimable price, and with infinite pains hath rescued us from miserable captivity under most barbarous enemies, that obeying his will, we might command our own, and serving him, we might enjoy perfect freedom. And shall we, declining his call and conduct out of that unhappy state, bereave him of his purchase, frustrate his undertakings, and forfeit to ourselves the benefit of so great redemption?

It is the will of our best Friend, who loveth us much better than we do love ourselves; who is