;

enjoyed also sensual pleasures; sat down to feasts associated with men of various kinds; ate and drank as he says himself, like other folks, without distinguishing himself from them by any particular austerity. But spiritual pleasures had infinitely the preference with him. To accomplish the will of him that sent him, and to be useful to his brethren, was his food, his pleasantest, his darling business. The pleasure of doing good he preferred to all the accommodations of life, to sleep, to rest, and to every other comfort. He past whole nights in exercises of devotion and prayer; not from compulsion, not because it was his duty, but because it was his delight, his real life. He took part in all that happened around him; but always so that his mind was employed in reflecting upon it, and seeking to apply it by some means or other to the instruction and advantage of such as were present. God, futurity his mission from the Father, his return to him, his grand, beneficent work on earth, were ever before his eyes, and ever in his heart. Love towards God his heavenly Father, and love towards man, directing and blessing him at every step, were the soul of all his sentiments and actions, the source of his sublimest joy. Endeavour to resemble him in this, all of you who endeavor after christtan perfection and happiness! Consider yourselves not barely as sensual but also as spiritual beings; not merely as mortal, but also as immortal men; not merely as strangers and pilgrims on the earth, but likewise as the denizens of heaven; as such, look not merely to things visible and transitory but likewise still more to the invisible and eternal; strive to fulfill your whole vocation, and so enjoy every real satisfaction, every kind of felicity which God has prepared for you, both in this and in the future world.

SERMON X.

The Value of Devotion.

O GOD! father of all spirits, the life and joy

of all thinking rational beings in heaven and on earth; how precious to us is the thought of thee! How it elevates our mind! How it enlarges our heart! What light it sheds over all thy works and ways, over all our fortunes, over our present and future appointment! Yes; when we think on thee, we do what man alone, of all the creatures of the earth, can do, and what all superior beings esteem, with us, their highest honour, their purest pleasure! When we solemly approach thee and feel thy more immediate presence, then sorrow and trouble and anxious cares are put to flight; then are we in the presence of our kind and gracious parent, and feel ourselves surrounded entirely with the effects of eternal love! When we have communion with thee, then no want, no danger, no distress alarms us; then can we find all things with thee and draw from thy fullness light and power and bliss. How happy then are we, that we know thee, and can raise ourselves to thee and have communion with thee! And how much happier should we be were we enabled duly to prize the value of this privilege, and to use it in its whole extent; if we kept ourselves continually nigh thee, sought and found thee every where, and constantly walked in the light of thy countenance! Do thou thyself sustain and strengthen our spirit when it strives to rise to thee, draw thou thyself our hearts entirely to thee; grant us

ever better to understand our blessed connexion with thee, ever more intimately to feel it and ever to think and act more conformably to it! In the furtherance of this design bless the considerations that are now to employ us. Teach us to perceive and feel the dignity and the blessedness of devotion so that we may learn to revere and love it and become ever more capable of enjoying its delights. For this we pray thee in the name of our lord Jesus Christ, and, as his votaries, sum up our petitions in his words, Our fath er &c.

EPHESIANS, v, 18.

Be filled with the spirit.

DEVOTION that noblest of all intellectual pleasures, devotion undergoes the reproach, not only of confessedly wicked men, but at times likewise of better disposed persons, as promising more than it performs, as being more cried up than its merits deserve. The principles, however, on which these judgments are founded are very different. The former, the vicious man, has no sentiment, no feeling for refined intellectual pleasures. God and religion and silent meditation upon them, are matters never of any importance to him; often perhaps, irksome or frightful to him: Accordingly he rejects every thing he hears said and reported of the joys of this nature, as the effects of fancy and self deceit.-The latter, the better diposed man, does not proceed so far. The exercises of religoin are not indifferent to him,

He has suggestions and prepossesions in their favour that they may be useful and agreeable. He has observed these exercises not absolutely without pleasure. But prejudices, want of experience, imperfect examinations of the subject, prevent him from taking them for what they really are, from enjoying what others pretend to enjoy in them; and the suspicion of their being less important, and less productive, is continually increasing upon him.I have frequently, says he to himself, I have frequently heard of the value, the excellency, and the utility of devotion. Devotion, it is said, diffuses the clearest light over the understanding of man; warms his heart with the noblest sentiments, with the most delightful sensations of the love of God and man; is his best comforter in all the cares and troubles of life; procures him the purest, the sublimest joys; and brings him constantly nearer to the deity. I will believe it, says the mistaken or the feeble christian, since people say so, whose testimony is of great weight with me. But my experience, I must confess, is not in correspondence with it. I pray; I read too; I attend the church service; and I do all this with attention, and in the view of becoming better and happier. But the alertness, the pleasure, the joy which others boast, I feel nothing of. On the contrary, the performance of these duties is frequently burdensome to me, I am often forced to do violence to myself, if I would avoid distraction on such occasions; and after these exercises, I commonly find myself neither better, nor more at rest, nor more satisfied than I was before. Let a strong temptation to sin present itself, I fall as directly under it; if any misfortune befalls me, it as quickly oversets me; if I suffer any considerable loss, I can scarcely support it; am I to make any sacrifice to virtue, to forego all thoughts of revenge, or to do good to my enemy; I am as defi

cient in power and inclination to it; If I fall into danI no more know what part to take, or whom to ger, trust. Where then is the mighty advantage, the great blessing of devotion? Is it not all, perhaps, fanaticism and fancy?No; that it is not, my christian brother, my christian sister! It is truth and reason; it is really and truly what such as understand and revere it, give out that it is. The deficiency of thy experience cannot prove the contrary. It only proves, that thy devotion is not what it might and what it ought to be.

Every thing that passes for devotion is not truly such. No term perhaps is more lavished, misapplied and prophaned than this. One while it is made to signify outward, solemn usages and ceremonies; at another, the merely being present at the public worship; sometimes a cold reading or repetition of certain forms of prayer; sometimes every reflection, however erroneous, on God or religion, is honoured with this venerable name-But all this is not devotion, at most is only something like devotion, or something that may excite us to devotion. It cannot therefore have the value, produce the advantages, nor afford the joys which devotion confers upon us.-No; this is not what the words of the apostle in our text imply, the being filled with the spirit. The signification of this is much larger. It means a heart thoroughly impressed with the doctrines of religion and christianity, and a perfect confidence in them. To settle your notions on this matter, to warn you against misconceptions about it, and to give you some suggestions to worthy and fruitful devotion, is the design of my discourse to day. To this end I shall do two things: First, point out to you what devotion is, wherein its value consists, what benefit it procures to mankind; and then, what is required of a man, what he must do, wherein he must exercise himself,