ness which is of God by Faith." They are also following after holiness: that "holiness, without which, they know, that no man shall see the Lord." They hunger and thirst after Sanctification, no less than after Justification. While they desire to be "found in Christ," they also desire to "know Him and the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings." Sin, which they once loved and practised, and served, is now felt to be their burden, their shame, and their abhorrence; and to mortify and subdue it is their daily desire and constant aim. Taught by the Grace of God, which bringeth Salvation, they have learned to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts; and under the influence of the Holy Spirit are living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Such are the true Servants of God: such they are now such, according to the measure of light vouchsafed to them, they were in the Prophet's time. And such are the Persons described and addressed in the text. I proceed,

II. To explain the Exhortation addressed to them.

This we have already seen is conveyed in figurative language; "Look unto the rock, whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit, whence ye are digged." But

the meaning is obvious, Look back unto yourselves. Consider what you once were; in what a depth of apostacy and misery you were originally sunk. Reflect on the • natural hardness of your heart: on its insensibility to Spiritual Things; on its • dreadful alienation from God. state of things exemplified,

See this

First. In your original Conversion to God. Secondly. In your subsequent Conduct towards Him.

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1. Retrace in your memory the Circumstances of your original Conversion to God. Cannot you call to mind the time when you were living without God in the world,” walking in the flesh, and altogether carnallyminded? Perhaps you were living in the practice of gross sin, in the allowed indulgence of some unlawful passion, or in the immoderate gratification of some lawful ap petite. Or if this were not exactly the case, you yet were making the world your God, devoted to its cares, its pleasures, or its honours, choosing to have your portion in it, and looking for your enjoyments from it, At any rate Self was your idol; the God, whom you served and worshipped, and were resolved to gratify. So that in some way or other you fell under the general description which St. Paul gives of mankind, as "children of disobedience; among whom also,

(he pursues,) we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others." * It may indeed have been, that you were not entirely without some apprehensions of God, nay, without some scriptural notions respecting Him, and the way of salvation and possibly you even professed yourself his servant, and frequented his ordinances. But notwithstanding even this form of godliness, you are now sensible, that there was no spirit in it. You had no real spiritual views and apprehensions of God. No practical abiding impression was made on your heart. You saw not, you felt not that you were a lost and miserable sinner ready to perish; who had no strength, or goodness of your own; and must be saved, if saved at all, by omnipotent grace. You might perhaps allow that the Scriptures contained some statements of this kind. But every personal application of it to yourself you strongly resisted. Convictions of your own guilt and corruption and misery you would not admit: and as to spiritual, vital Religion, if you did not treat the mention of it with ridicule and reproach, yet you heard of it with indifference, or regarded it as delusion. Recollect whether in some such respects as these you did not evidence the * Ephes. ii. 3.

hardness of your heart, its alienation from God, and its insensibility to heavenly and spiritual things.

And when the season of the Lord's mercy to you drew near; when the Spirit of God, through the ministry of the word, began to dispel this darkness, and to impress new convictions on your mind: how often and how long did you resist these motions! How slow were you in admitting the truths disclosed to you! How unwilling to give up your own preconceived notions, your good opinion of yourself, your inward opposition to spiritual religion! Was not the natural pride and unbelief of your heart at this period incontestably proved? Though driven from one false foundation of hope, you had recourse to another. You tried every way of establishing your own righteousness, and of confirming your own peace; till absolute necessity compelled you to flee for refuge to the hope of the Gospel, and to cast yourself perishing on the mercy of Christ. And

even then how backward were you at believing His promises! How distrustful of His word! How long tossed, it may be, with doubts and fears, before you were brought confidently to take Him as your Saviour, and entirely to rely on His promises. Surely, in retracing the steps of your original Conversion to God (if they in any

degree resemble those which have been described), you must be strongly reminded of "the rock whence you were hewn, and of the hole of the pit whence you were digged." See the same state of things exemplified, 2. In your subsequent conduct towards God. Since the time in which you first knew Him in truth, and gave yourself up to serve Him in the Gospel of His Son, what has been the state of your heart, of its affections, its tempers, and its dispositions? Have all these been uniformly such, as this surrender and profession imply and require? Have there been no remaining corruptions, no lustings of the flesh, no relicts of the old man still abiding and working in the soul? Have the members of the body of sin been all mortified? Has every offending limb been totally cut off? Has there been no perverseness in the will; no disaffection in the heart; no coldness in devotion; no backwardness in forming good resolutions; no tardiness in accomplishing them; no yielding to temptation; no failing in circumspection and watchfulness; no backsliding in practice; no revival of former sins; no returning to former habits; no desires after forbidden objects; no fear of man; no dread of the cross; no reluctance to encounter shame and reproach for Christ's sake? Alas, my brother, has there not on the contrary been too much of