duty easy and delightful, and bring us at last to the enjoyment of uninterrupted and everlasting happiness.

Thus you see, that the influence of the divine Spirit is, in a way agreeable to the frame of human nature, gentle and persuasive; not controuling or obstructing the use of reason, but by the use of reason influencing the will, moderating the affections, and regulating the whole conversation. It is no argument against the reality of such divine aids, that they are not distinguishable from the operation of our own minds, and that we feel them not in a sensible and striking manner. How difficult is it in our own character to distinguish what is natural from what is acquired; to distinguish between the natural treasures of the mind, and those foreign stores which she imports from education. The Spirit of God acts in such a manner as is most agreeable to the faculties of the mind. It is in this manner also, that God acts in the material world. Whatever is done in the heavens, or in the earth, or in the sea, is brought about by Divine Providence. Yet all that chain of causes and effects, from the lowest up to the throne of God, we call by the name of the course of nature. But what is this? The course of nature is the energy of God. II. I observe, concerning the influence of the Spirit, that its reality is only known by its operation and effect upon our lives. "Marvel not," said our Lord to Nicodemus, "that I said unto you, Thou must be born again, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit." That is, as if he had said, the influences of the Spirit are indeed imperceptible to sense, and cannot be distinguished in the precise moment of their operation, but they are visible and certain in their effects, and in the fruits which they produce. A life of obedience and holiness, therefore, is the proof, and the only proof, that the Spirit dwells in us. The fruit of the Spirit, say the Scriptures, is goodness, and righteousness, and truth. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, and temperance. The life, then, ny friends, the life is the criterion and test by which we shall know if we are born of the Spirit. There are indeed other marks, easier attained, which some people have found out to themselves. A light within, a Call from heaven, a secret voice, and an extraordinary

impulse, these are often the effects, not of a divine favour but of a weak understanding, and a wild imagination, and often of something worse, even of arrant hypocrisy, and unblushing impudence. These indeed are the marks of a spirit, which hath often appeared in the world, but which is very different from the spirit of God. These are the symptoms of that intolerant and persecuting spirit, the offspring of darkness and of demons, which, excepting a few favourites, pursues the human race with unrelenting hatred in this world, and consigns them over to eternal pains in the next. This is a spirit which hath slain its thousands. Fire and sword marks it approach; its steps are in the blood of the just, and it shakes the rod of extermination over the affrighted earth. But the Spirit of God is the spirit of love. It fills us with affection and benevolence towards all our brethren of mankind. For he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him.

This doctrine of the Spirit dwelling in us, and assisting us to perform good works, furnisheth a strong argument for humility. Why boasteth thou, O man! What hast thou which thou hast not received? From God descendeth every good and every perfect gift. We can do nothing of ourselves, not even so much as to think a good thought. It is by the grace of God we are that we are. He graciously accepts of our sincere endeavours to please him; and at last rewards those services, which by his grace he enables us to perform. Let us therefore be sensible of our own imperfections, and give all the praise to him.Let this stir us up to activity in our Christian course.The proper use and improvement of this doctrine is not to sit still and take our rest, because God gives us his Holy Spirit, but relying on the assistance of his Spirit to move forwards in our Christian race. Seeing God worketh in you, therefore, work out your salvation. Up, therefore, and be doing, seeing the Lord is with you. You not only act with the force of Providence on your side; you have not only the Captain of Salvation fighting with you; but you have also his Spirit within you, leading you on to victory.

III. Let us express our gratitude and praise to this divine Guest, who vouchsafes to be our guide and our comforter; let us be careful not to grieve and offend him by wicked actions, lest he withdraw himself from us: and let

us always remember. that He, who is a pure and a holy Spirit, cannot dwell in polluted hearts, and in temples that are not his own.

SERMON XXII.

ISAIAH XXVI. 20.

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee.

WITHOUT viewing these words in connection with

what goes before or follows after, I shall consider them as containing an exhortation to religious retirement. Man was intended by his Creator for society. All the powers of his frame, the faculties of his mind, and the qualities of his heart, lead him to the social state, as the state of his nature. But although man was made for action, he was also intended for contemplation. There is a time when solitude has a charm for the soul; when weary of the world, its follies and its cares, we love to be alone, to enter into our chamber, to shut the door about us, and in silence to commune with our heart. Such a retirement, when devoted to pious purposes, is highly useful to man, and most acceptable to God. Hence the holy men are represented in Scripture as giving themselves to meditation; hence Jesus Christ himself is described as sending the multitude away, and going apart to the mountain.

An opinion once prevailed in the world, and in many parts of it still prevails, that all virtue consisted in such a retreat; that the perfection of the Christian life consisted in retiring from the world altogether, in withdrawing from human converse, in shutting ourselves up in the solitude of a cell, and passing our days in barren and unprofitable speculation. Such notions of a holy life have no foundation in the word of God. Moses and the prorhets, Jesus and the apostles themselves, acted a part in

public life, and enjoin their disciples not to withdraw from the world, but to go about doing good; not to wrap up their talent in a napkin, but to improve it by their industry; not to put their light under a bushel, but to make it shine before men. The retreat, therefore, which Scripture recommends, is temporary and not total; is not the retreat of a monk to his cell, or a hermit to his cave; but of men living in the world, going out of it for a time, to return with greater improvement. To retire at times into the closet for these purposes is of general obligation upon all Christians. To induce you, therefore, to the practice of this duty, I shall now shew you the advantages which thereby you may expect to reap.

The advantages attending religious retirement are these: it takes off the impression which the neighbourhood of evil example has a tendency to make upon the mind; it is favourable for fixing pious purposes in the mind, and strengthening our habits of virtue; it brings us to the knowledge of ourselves; it opens a source of new and better entertainment than we meet with in the world.

1. Religious retirement takes off the impression which the neighbourhood of evil example has a tendency to make upon the mind The world, my friends, is not in general a school of virtue; it is often the scene of vanity and vice. Corrupted manners, vicious deeds, evil communications, surround us on every side. From our first entrance into life, we become spectators of the vicious, and witnesses to the commission of sin. This presence of the wicked lessens our natural horror at a crime; it renders the idea of vice familiar to the mind; and insensibly lulls asleep that guarded circumspection, which ought always to be awake. Besides this contagion of evil example, the unhappy proneness of men to imitate the manners of those with whom they live, adds strength to the temptations of the world. Our favourable opinion of the person extends to the action he commits: and by our fatal fondness of imitation, we do what we see done. Our way, then, in the world lies through snares and precipices: we see and we hear at the peril of our souls. The contagion, in which we live, transfuses itself into our own minds. How often is the purity of the closet lost amid the pollution of the world! The good resolutions of the morning give way to bustle and business, or to the career of pleasure; and the day, that began with innocence and devotion, ends in vanity and

vice. Temptations in every form assault your innocence, and the adversary of your soul is for ever on the watch. One false step may send you to the bottom of the precipice. One word spoken in passion hath given rise to quarrels that have lasted through life. A single glance of envy, of revenge, or of impure desire, hath raised a conflagration which could only be quenched by blood. To avoid the pollution with which the world is infected, to keep off the intrusion of vain and sinful thoughts, enter into your chamber, and shut the doors around you. There the wicked cease from troubling, there the man, who is wearied of the world, is at rest. There the glare of external objects disappears, and the chains that bound you to the world are broken. There you shut out the strife of tongues, the impertinencies of the idle, the lies of the vain, the scandal of the malicious, the slanders of the defamer, and all that world of iniquity which proceeds from the tongue. In this asylum your safety dwells. To your holy retreat an impure guest dares not approach. Enjoying the blessed calm and serenity of your own mind, you hear the tempest raging around you and spending its strength; the objects of sense being removed, the appetites, which they excited, depart along with them. The scene being shifted, and the actors gone, the passions which they raised die away.

II. This devout retirement is favourable for fixing pious purposes in the mind, and strengthening our habits of virtue. We are so formed by the Author of our nature, that the material objects, with which we are surrounded, raise ideas in us, and make impressions upon us merely by their own nature, and without any assistance from ourselves. There are motions in the body which are involuntary and spontaneous, and there are impressions in the mind which are as much out of our power. At the presence of certain objects, we feel certain passions whether we will or not; we cannot command the emotions which arise in the mind; on many occasions we are merely passive to the influence of external things. When imminent danger threatens, or the shriek of jeopardy is heard, the heart throbs, the blood takes the alarm, and the spirits are agitated without our direction or consent. As the nature of the plant is affected by the soil where it grows; as the nature of the animal is affected by the pas ture where he ranges; so the character of the man who