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known possibilities of bliss; eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." "He is the dwelling-place" of all His people in all ages: there is room in Him for all. He who supplies all with natural good here below, fills, at the same time, all the heavenly beings with the eternal effluxes of His light, and love, and joy! He is an immense, and therefore an adequate good to all.

3. A portion must be not only valuable in itself, but communicable to us. Many things may be admired which are not communicable; they may be fit for others, yet not fit for us. But God is infinitely communicable: He has the disposition, and He has the power, to disclose Himself, to approximate Himself to His creatures. We all know how much man acts upon man; how mind influences mind; how we are affected even by a look, and, much more, by the intercourse of others; how we are always either adding to, or diminishing from, the happiness of those around us, by the common powers of our nature. But the Creator and Father of our spirits has access to all the recesses of our minds. Jesus Christ said, "If a man love Me, he will keep My commands, and My Father will love him, and I will come and manifest Myself unto him; and We will come and make Our abode with him." Do not conceive of the Divine Being as residing apart, the object of remote speculation; no, my brethren! He takes possession of the heart; He fills the understanding with holy light; He says of the devout soul, "This is My rest, for I have delight therein." "Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity: I dwell in the holy place; with him also that is of an humble spirit; to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him: He manifests Himself to them as He does not unto the world." Religion may begin in fear; but, as it advances, you will feel God to be the portion of your soul, and be able to say, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none on earth I desire beside Thee." And, after all, the utmost that believers experience here of Divine comfort is, they know, but the merest scantling of what is reserved for a higher state. They lose themselves in the anticipations of hope: assured that there is no sort of proportion between their present satisfactions and those that await them in heaven. Those who speculated on the Divine Being by the light of reason, never thought of appropriating Him as a portion; this is the wisdom of the Church, and this the privilege of the saints!

4. A portion must be something present with us, something that we can bear about with us, and use whenever we desire. The safest haven is unavailing to him who is divided from it by tempestuous waves, and may be swept away in shipwreck before he can attain it. The best and wisest friend is of no avail to us, if we are separated from his counsel and comfort at the moment of need. We want a portion that may be always with us. And such a portion is God! His presence is always near; "He is not a God afar off, but a God that is nigh!" His ear is always open to hear, His hand always

stretched out to save us. He is a very present help in time of trouble-a very present help! His presence is not, like that of our human friends, confined to place; it may be every where enjoyed, and by all. As the stars, in consequence of their magnitude and elevation, are seen alike in places the most distant from each other, so God is the same to all His people; His presence is equally enjoyed by them in every scene.

5. That which is worthy to be our portion should be something unchangeable in its nature, not exposed to uncertain fluctuations. All things around us change: "all flesh is as grass ;" ail our human enjoyments vary from year to year; nothing continues long as it was; we are always losing some objects and gaining others; and one part of our life presents a perfect contrast to another. The boy despises the amusements of the little child, the man those of the boy, and old age looks back with indifference on what so deeply engaged the prime of manhood. The beautiful scenes of nature which we now behold will soon be changed, and summer give place to wintry cold and gloom. "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." "The world passes away, and the lust thereof :" all things, like the waves of the ocean, are in a perpetual flux and reflux; and where we expected most, we are often most disappointed. But God is the same now as in all past generations: "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Around Him, as the only fixed point, all creatures are ever changing and revolving, rising in creation, or falling in destruction; while He alone is imperishable amid all revolutions; and Jesus Christ, in whom He manifests Himself as the Saviour of them that believe, "is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever."

6. Lastly, a portion, to be perfect, must be eternal in its duration, capable of surviving every chance. Here the difference between God and all beside must be strikingly apparent to all. He that builds his hopes.on on God, builds on a Rock, the Rock of ages, that can never pass away. "The Eternal God is his refuge, the everlasting arms are

his support."

7. And, once more, let me remind you, that in choosing God for our portion, we return to our ancient course, we reclaim and re-enjoy our original inheritance: "Return unto thy rest, O my soul!" In calling us to fix our heart upon Himself, our heavenly Father only calls us back from our vain wanderings to our proper home; He only invites us, 66 as sheep that were going astray, to return to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls." All that depart from God are doomed to chase shadows; to wander on in vain agitation and desire, without any real advance towards the object in view; like a person in a dream that imagines himself always going forward, though he never moves. The Divine Being will abandon the creature that forsakes Himself to barrenness, disappointment, and remorse; He will darken the heaven above him, and seal up the springs of life and peace from his taste: "All that are far from Thee shall perish" (Psalm lxxiii.). When departed from God, you are lifted off from the centre of your being

And this restlessness of nature, this wretchedness to which you become a prey, this constant and vain effort to forget yourself in the pursuit of vanities, is only an indication of your fallen grandeur; a memento of your proper portion.

By way of a brief improvement of the subject: in the first place, let those be congratulated whose soul can say, with the prophet's, "The Lord is my portion; I will hope in Him." Who are the "blessed indeed," but those who are thus blessed in the " Only Blessed God?" Happy you! if such is your character and choice: "Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, who is the shield of thy strength, and the sword of thine excellency; and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee!" Life and death, things present and to come, all forms of creation, must conduce to your happiness; for God, who is yours, is "above all, and through all, and in all :" and, in having Him, you have perfect security of possessing all things. You will bless the means, though perhaps of a painful kind, the minister or instrument, that first led you to God. Cleave, then, to your divine portion! let it never be suspected, by any symptoms of decline from this, that you have detected an error in your choice; that you have repented of a repentance never to be repented of! Continue to love Him, and He will come to you, and manifest Himself to you more and more. Should death overtake you, to die will be your gain you will depart to be with Christ: "absent from the body, you will be present with the Lord;" you will exchange the vanities of time for the realities of glory: for "all things are yours!"

2. But there are others who have not made this choice: they may not have determinately refused it, but they have never seriously chosen this good part. And what can they expect, who have no relish for the friendship of God; who prefer any other object to Himself; who practically say to the Almighty, in the spirit of their daily conduct," Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways?" Must there not be a congeniality formed between the heart and God, a susceptibility of His favour and love, to make us happy? Earnestly pray, then, "that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power in them that believe !"

And, since none can come to Christ except the Father draw him, pray that God would draw you to that Saviour who is the way, the truth, and the life! Break off all alliance with sin: retire within yourself, and ask your soul whether it will not be better for you, to all eternity, that you should choose God for your portion! If you think you can be safe without an interest in the Divine perfections; if you believe you can be truly and permanently happy without a participation of the Divine fulness, abandon yourself to a life of vanity and sense! But if, on the contrary, you are assured by all experi

ence, as well as by the word of God, that you can be secure only in His protection, and satisfied only with his favour, which is better than life, give yourself up to Him as His property; choose Him as your portion, here and for evermore !

XVI.

SEEKING GOD.*

1 CHRON., xxviii., 9: If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever.

[Preached at Cambridge, January 17, 1802.]

To find God is the greatest blessing that man can enjoy, for it is the great earnest of eternal life, which is, "To know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." More is included in finding God than persons in general imagine. Were many people in this Christian country to be asked if they had found God, they would be startled at the question, and exclaim, "How can it enter into your imagination that we have not found him?" But, if we consult the dictates of Divine revelation as well as our own experience, we shall see that it includes much more than a mere belief in his existence. The apostle declares, "By this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments; and he that saith he knoweth Him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." You see that, from the manner in which the Apostle John stigmatizes the persons he mentions as liars, that an acquaintance with God which is saving, must sanctify the heart and refine the passions. It is not, then, so common to find God as many persons imagine. Besides, the knowledge of God is said to be “hid in Christ,” and we are assured that “no man knoweth the Father but the Son; and he to whom the Son shall rereal him." The language of the Apostle Paul, who was such an adept in the school of Christ, is, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus." When the knowledge of God was communicated to Moses, it was veiled; but in Jesus Christ the veil is taken away; and now, without a veil, we behold as in a glass the glory of God, changing us into the same image from glory to glory. It is a transforming and sanctifying knowledge. The great object of that discovery relates to the stupendous plan of man's redemption, through Jesus Christ. The gift of so ineffable a person shows our immortality, and stamps an unspeakable grandeur upon our nature. It manifests the greatness of that love from which it proceeds, while the death of Jesus Christ displays the malignity of sin, and the purity, the holiness, and the depths of the

From the notes of John Greene, Esq.

Divine character. It is not so much intended to discover his natural as his moral perfections-his holiness-his justice-his mercy. The love of Christ in particular ratified and revealed his mercy; and by it we see the infinite value of all those mercies which are conferred on true believers. They who are convinced of their misery and unworthiness, by faith in him receive justification, and are made heirs of eternal life. They are brought nigh to God; have peace with him; enter into covenant with him; renounce the dominion of sin and concupiscence, and pass their lives in the holy works of righteousness, having "fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." From that distance in which they were originally, they are brought into nearness to God, and look up to him in the same way as an affectionate child regards his parent, whose tenderness and care form the chief part of his felicity. While others are speculating about religion, these individuals have found, and are enjoying it; while others are entertaining themselves with ingenious notions and maxims, these are 66 come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to God the judge of all." By being united to Jesus Christ, they have their portion with him. Considering this present state as but a journey, they solace themselves with portions of his presence and of his Spirit; and thus he gives them such manifest tokens of himself that they are imboldened to look up to the majesty of God, as both His God and their God, his Father and their Father: this is to find God.

We shall consider from these words, First, The necessity of seeking God; Secondly, The manner in which it is to be accomplished.

If the blessing of finding God is of such importance, as connected with the hope of eternal happiness with Him, why are there so few persons that will seek it? The answer is easy: because there are so few in comparison that are willing to be earnest. The advantages, indeed, are infinite; but they can only be secured by the greatest ardour in the pursuit. "If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest for her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." This assiduous search, my brethren, is not common. Conscience will sometimes admonish as to the necessity of it, but these impressions soon subside; or they proceed till their efforts become so feeble that men are ready to imagine there is nothing but fanaticism in all such pretensions. But the Scripture asserts they are attainable. Let none suppose otherwise because he has not found them; but let each one ask himself if he has lifted up his voice in prayer for their bestowment. We have lost, my brethren, by the fall, that instinctive and lively sense and influence of God which confined our first parents within the limits of duty, and are now in a state of alienation from God. The great design of revelation is to bring men back to Him; hence Jesus Christ is the repairer of our misery: He speaks "peace to them that are nigh, and to them that are afar off," and makes them one with God. He might have manifested

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