Deity. This is an irrefragable proof of total blindness amid the pretended enjoyment of the clearest light.

God is a spirit, and is to be worshipped in spirit and truth. The prostration of the body is only an external index of the state of the mind. Worship is the homage of the understanding and the heart. To this all good men have addicted themselves; and where eminent piety is attained, it will be sure to manifest itself in a very eager and constant attendance to the duties connected with Divine worship.

2. But religion is not confined to the sanctuary. The service of God embraces the whole life and conduct. To serve Him is to have habitual regard to his will. That will must be consulted on all occasions. It will be our law, from which there is no appeal, and when known, cheerfully obeyed. The service of God diffuses itself through every thought and action. That religion which does not go forth with us into the world is worth but little. And all this is expressed in the resolution of Joshua.

There are three ingredients necessary to acceptable service.

First, sincerity. God requireth truth in the inward parts. If we seek the applause of men, we lose our reward. Any motive to religion less than a sincere desire to serve God, as the primary inducement, destroys our claim to the title of being his servants. If we do any thing good merely from habit, self-interest, or for the sake of our health and reputation, we are not acting up to the declaration made by Joshua. Religion has its source in the mind. It leads us to cherish habitual reverence for God, to delight in Him, and to make Him the beginning and the end. Thus a good man keeps back nothing. He feels that he is not his own, and God is all in all.

Secondly, universal obedience. No man is perfect. Yet a Christian entertains respect for the whole law. He does not in effect repeal a part, and obey the rest. He knows that the same Being who commands obedience to any part of the law, enjoins obedience to all. There is this grand principle of agreement in true religion. While we do not inculcate the attainment of perfection, yet the good man cannot allow of any sin; and a sense of his imperfection will supply ample motives to watchfulness and prayer.

Thirdly, permanent adherence. He that serves God under occasional circumstances is not a servant in deed and in truth. A true servant practises constant obedience. It is the character of a real disciple of Christ, to adhere to Him and to his service.

Those who believe, and are soon offended, are not of Christ. But they who follow the Lamb without the camp, bearing his reproach, whose life is a continued struggle against sin, and a holy imitation of his example, nobly sustain their profession, and are really his ser

vants.

There are many of you who have joined yourselves to God's people. If you have found his service to be an evil thing, draw back again to the world. But if you have found religion's ways to be ways of pleasantness, and her paths peace-if she points to a blessed im mortality, and assures you of final conquest, cling fast to her for se

curity. Never apostatize from your Master's cause. If He has brought pardon and peace to your soul-if He has called you with a high and holy calling, and sent his Spirit to give you light and life, will you, can you hesitate to obey Him? No! Such experience will bind you to the cross, and fasten you to the horns of the altar. You will cheerfully embark for eternity; and when any thing interferes with the habitual claims of this service, you will rebuke the intrusion, and, in the words of the apostle, avow your inflexible determination to live and die in it. "I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."

III. We proceed to consider the motives and reasons which may be assigned to induce you to unite in the resolution of Joshua.

1. It is our duty to serve God on account of the relation we sustain to Him, and the various mercies we receive from his hand.

This relation is most intimate; it is that subsisting between the Creator and his creatures. We can form but a very inadequate idea of this relation, because we can create nothing. We may modify the forms of almost all substances; we can cause matter to enter into new combinations, but we cannot create an atom. We may, by strong effort, control our passions, and modify our desires and thoughts, but we are unable to originate one of them. God is the Creator of all things, and most appropriately styled the Father of our spirits.

He who gives us powers of thought and action has surely a right to assign limits to their operation and exercise. He who is the giver of happiness has surely a right to appoint the means of its attainment. Shall the thing formed say unto Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? If the potter has power over the clay, to mould and fashion it according to his own will, God has a right to enforce his laws on all his rational creatures, and to demand their obedience to them.

He is not only our Creator, but our Benefactor. We derive every blessing from Him. Our health, our property, our friends, our lives, our faculties, are equally the gifts of his bounty. The capacity for enjoyment, and the sources of the supply, are alike from Him. All the endearments of life, all the streams of human happiness, flow from God.

But He binds you to his service by more unspeakable mercies. He has sent his Son into the world to reconcile you to himself, by dying in your room, by atoning for your sins, by taking away the curse of a broken law and bearing it himself. He has revealed heaven to you, that you might aspire to its attainment. He has given you the society of the saints, the means of grace, the delights of the sanctuary, and the fellowship and aid of angels. What, in short, has He not done for you as the God of creation and grace? Then serve Him with fear and trembling.

2. The constitution of our nature has no other suitable end but his service.

The grand distinction of our nature is the capacity for religion. Inferior animals have not this faculty. Hence the vast superiority of

man over the brute. We not only possess reason in a very high de gree, but the power of exercising that reason on the most momentous truths, such as right and wrong, good and evil, time and eternity.

He, therefore, who refuses to serve God, loses the grand end of life. He misses the ultimate purpose of his existence. Hence the degrading terms in which the sacred writers speak of such persons. They are described as the vassals of Satan, the slaves of flesh and sin, as aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, as those who are without God and without hope in the world.

If the Creator had not designed man for religion, He would have given him a widely different constitution. But when He created him, it was for himself. He made him to be the high-priest of this glorious temple, to offer unto Him constant praise. The other parts of creation are vocal with praise. They are in subjection to man. Surely the lord of creation was intended to answer even a higher purpose; and it is clearly our duty to serve God, and that duty, in part, springs from the nature of the constitution with which we are endowed.

3. The fact that, as wicked creatures, we are not willing to serve God, is not sufficient to justify our refusal.

Joshua seemed to be quite aware of the existence of such a disposition, and that it might be taken as the ground of excuse. "If it seem evil unto you,” said he, “to serve God, choose you this day whom ye will serve." But this indisposition cannot justify us. It is our interest to obey the precepts of the gospel. They tend to eradicate disorder from our nature; and to disobey them is to cling to this disorder with a blind and infatuated obstinacy. Nor does religion demand any sacrifice for which she does not provide an ample com pensation.

Should it appear that such a line of conduct as that we are now enforcing on you requires a fortitude and a resolution which you do not possess, be not dismayed, for the Spirit of grace and truth has engaged to supply you with all needful aid.

The doctrine of the necessity of the new birth-of our possessing a new heart and a right spirit, is next in importance to the atonement. The one implies the other, and there can be no real religion where they do not both exist.

Then consider the rewards which attend the service of God. In this life, all necessary supplies, and in the world to come, life everlasting. Hear what the Scripture saith: "Blessed is that servant whom, when his lord cometh, he findeth watching." No act of service, however trifling, however insignificant, will lose its reward: "A cup of cold water given to a disciple, shall in no wise lose its reward."

Remember, it is impossible you can be neutral. "He that is not with me," exclaims the Saviour, "is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." To-day is your own, to-morrow is in the shadow of the Divine hand. It will be disclosed-but may be not for you. It may be disclosed to you-not in time, but in eternity.

The claims of Christ are such, that to be neutral is to be hostile." Indifference to Him is opposition. His majesty is so great, that He will bear no rival, nor will He brook continuous delay. If He is not your king, He is your foe. You must serve Him, anl Him only. The state of the human heart is such that you cannot be neutral. Is it undignified to enlist in this service? Think of Joshua, one of the greatest and most eminent individuals, both for rank and ability, that ever lived. But why mention him? All the wise and good in every age have been the servants of God. They all bear the same testimony to the dignity and happiness which religion confers. Think, too, of God himself, inconceivably glorious and great, who fills heaven and earth with his glory, rules all worlds, and holds at his own disposal the destiny of every intelligent creature. Can it be beneath you to serve Him? Is it possible that his service can be unworthy your notice, whom the angels delight to honour and serve? Go and ask every one who has served God what they think of it, after long experience. Inquire whether any of his servants repented of his service when they came to die. Repented of it! No, it was their highest joy that they ever served Him at all; and their only grief, that they had served Him so little. They died triumphantly; and when looking back on the past, they rejoiced that some portion of their lives had been so employed, and they exulted in the prospect of meeting their Divine Master, and hearing Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." God grant that you, my hearers, may heartily, and at this very moment, unite in declaring that you, too, will serve the Lord.

XXIV.

THE HEART DEMANDED.*

PROVERBS, Xxiii., 26: My son, give me thy heart.

[Preached at Maze Pond, London, February 17, 1799.]

ALL kinds of false religion which have been practised in the world may be resolved into a vain attempt to supply the place of giving the heart to God. The superstitions of the Church of Rome, the fantastic ceremonies and rites practised by the Mohammedans and many classes of pagans, the penances and mortifications on which so many rely, but which cease where the light of Divine truth prevails, are but substitutes for the simple duty of giving God the heart. It is of the utmost importance to trace all religious conduct to its source, and to fix in our minds that this is the root of all piety which is acceptable to God, the giving Him our heart.

In explaining and enforcing this duty, considered as an address by

From the notes of W. B. Gurney, Esq.

God to man, I shall propose for your consideration a few of the reasons and grounds on which this duty is obligatory.

In the first place, God deserves our hearts. He is entitled to them by claims which it is impossible to resist. The favours we receive from God bind us by grateful attachment to give Him our hearts. All the blessings which we have enjoyed in the course of our existence, all we now enjoy, and all we hope to partake of, flow from the unmerited bounty of our heavenly Father. "From Him cometh every good and perfect gift." The care and tenderness bestowed by Providence upon our earliest years, it is evident, we had no share in procuring. It was God who poured that tenderness into the hearts of our parents, of which we received the benefit. It was God that conferred upon us all those blessings which have distinguished us in the subsequent years of our lives, who raised up all those connexions and friends, and endearing relations in life, from which our comforts have sprung. He is the cause of all causes, the ultimate spring of all good, though he uses second means; the Benefactor and the Author of all being. If, then, there be any claim which gratitude has upon our hearts, this claim is enforced by God.

Besides, the infinite excellences of the Divine Nature themselves are such as challenge our highest regard. All that is excellent in the creature is derived from God. The lustre of his perfections eclipses every thing in heaven or on earth. The beauty of his character is such as, when properly perceived, excites the highest admiration, and fills up the whole centre of perfection. God, separate from the benefits derived from Him, is in himself entitled to our highest esteem.

In the second place, we ought to give God our hearts, because this is the great and principal demand he makes upon us. He is not only entitled to our hearts, but he demands them at our hands. This is the principal requisition he makes of sinful men, "My son, give me thy heart." This is the sum and substance of all the precepts of the Divine law. When God solemnly delivered his laws to the children of Israel in the wilderness, this was the principal: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. This," says our Saviour, in explaining the law," is the first and great command." All the precepts of religion are summed up in this, because a love to our fellow-creatures dictates an attention to all those subordinate rules of general conduct upon which their happiness depends. "Love is the fulfilling of the law;" it "works no ill to its neighbour;" and so love to God implies a coincidence of our will with his, the patient endurance of all He inflicts, and the prompt discharge of all He prescribes-the due homage and affection of worship; not merely the prostration of the body and the language of the lips, but the expression of the heart; the root of all clearly is the heart." Man looketh at the outward appearace, but the Lord looketh at the heart." All the substitutes which men can possibly devise, where the heart is not really devoted to God, will be of no account in his sight. The language of the deepest humiliation, and the expression of the most ardent attachment, will be an abomination in