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ling to cure all his diseases, and to sooth and sanctify all his griefs.

The apprehensions of the new creature concerning God are (you must not omit to observe) all humble; there is a mixture of the dependant, the sinner, the child of God, and the expectant of glory, which goes with them.

But the natural man, whether he in a manner forgets God, or hath some show of acquaintance with him, yet is altogether a stranger to such humble and becoming apprehensions of the divine majesty, goodness, patience and presence.

The careless sinner, you know, hath set up his idols in his heart; vanity, interest, and lust, are the gods he serves. Upon these he is dependent, and from the gratifications of them he expects all his happiness. Hence the God of heaven is excluded: not that he hath no apprehension of him at all; alas! he is sometimes so apprehensive of his power, majesty, and universal eye, that he cannot be easy and at peace. An apprehension he hath of God's dominion; he cannot gainsay the too evident truth, but he secretly disapproves it, he trembles at the thought, and wishes from his inmost soul there were no such Being to control and trouble him. An apprehen

sion he hath too of God's goodness and mercifulness; but how unrelenting and impious the conclusion he would needs draw from it, while from hence he takes to himself a freedom and license to commit and continue in sin, instead of melting into shame and sorrow upon the thought and remembrance of abused goodness and slighted mercy! Just so also

he apprehends of God's patience: because God delays to strike, and avenge himself, he sets his "heart fully to do evil;" every way labouring to "turn the grace of God into licentiousness," and taking occasion from the very perfections of God, to harden himself in sinning against him. Horrible imagination! You would not thus deal with God, you verily judge! But by far the most of you do, even every one among you that abideth in known sin. Look to it you shall find that I have spoken the very desires which have passed through your heart, and possessed themselves of you, although, through the wantonness of your ways, and almost total forgetfulness of God, you may not have noted them. deed, how should you note them, while you little apprehension of God's presence, that you live without him in the world, disengaged from all thought of his nearness to you, unless when unavoidably you must reflect a moment, that "there is a God that judgeth in the earth;" when either you are in a way of hearing his threatenings, or are suffering his corrections, or are made to see his providences?

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Nor are the apprehensions of the formal professor any thing different from yours, concerning the perfections and presence of God. A speculative, and (if I may so call it) a traditionary knowledge of God, a conformity to modes of worship and the externals of religion, may make a man strangely to mistake himself; and he may be ready to take it for granted, that all is well, though there be in truth nothing of humility in all the apprehensions which

he hath of God, You are often upon your knees I allow: but had you not rather (might it so be) that you were left to your own government and direction, to do as yourself should please, and, it may be, to be secure of an eternal possession in the gratifications of this life, entirely your own master, and disengaged from the submission, which now you see you must of force pay to God? Is there not somewhat in this proposal with which you could heartily acquiesce? And if so, what avails it that you pay God never so many compliments? Still you are the very reverse from the new creature, in your apprehensions about the divine Majesty. And so also, though you may talk never so finely and never so frequently of God's goodness and mercifulness, yet hath not the one or the other taught you to loathe yourself for your iniquities, and your heart to rise against sin with a sincere and loyal indignation. Just the contrary; sin and you are well reconciled, and you would as willingly continue in the practice of it, as the careless and more easy sinner, were you not afraid. The patience of God hath neither wrought with him nor you, to lament your hardness and impenitency under it: but, insensible to God's forbearance, you are presumptuous, and he is secure. The apprehension you have of God's presence with you, hath no delight in it: you know not what communion with God means; and the reflection that God is near, while it troubles and terrifies the careless, doth not please you. In a word, the only difference between you in this respect is, that formality hath blinded you, and lust hath hardened him: both of you un

humbled; he hates God, and flies from him; you dread God, and pay him a forced attention. His apprehensions of God are full of dislike and terror; and yours are without love and reverence.

There is then, you see, the widest difference between the new creature and the natural man, in their apprehensions of God himself. The apprehensions of the new creature are peculiar to him ; and the like peculiarity is observable in his judgment of all other things. We will endeavour to set out a few of them in one view.

The new creature

With regard to Christ. judges him to be "the way, the truth, and the life;" admires his power and ability to save; views and reviews, with secret satisfaction, the victories he hath gained for man upon earth, and the gifts and graces he now dispenses from his throne in heaven; considers him as the Lord of all things, and author of everlasting salvation; and knowing the utter want he has of such a Teacher, Saviour, and Lord, fixes his eye upon him with loyal and complacent regard. With full persuasion of Christ's fitness every way to effect the deliverance of fallen man, his soul is drawn unto him, and cries out, 66 Lord, and my God!"

My

Aware of the per

With regard to the Spirit. verse inclination of his nature, and convinced of his own insufficiency, to attain the least measure of that purity of heart, which shall lead him to the sight of God, he apprehends the need he has of this divine illuminator, guide, and comforter; regards him as the Lord and giver of life; approves, with wonder

and thankfulness, his unseen agency upon the souls of men; admires his fitness for these offices, as God; and blesses his condescension, that he should prepare himself a temple in the hearts of his polluted

creatures.

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With regard to sin. Looking upon the blessed God, he judges of it, as that which defiles his majesty, and would dare to attempt his throne; as what perverts all the gracious contrivances of infinite wisdom, neither suffering the Maker to inherit his glory, nor the thing made, to prosper and be happy he sees divine purity abominating it, and divine goodness abused by it; justice most righteously lighting upon it with inexorable vengeance, and mercy, only infinite, capable of forgiving it. He sees a troop of the most deformed monsters couched under every act of sin; insolent rebellion, stupid insensibility, stubborn undutifulness, forgetful ingratitude, and odious defilement. He sees

misery following upon its heels; and acknowledges how equitable God is in all the present and approaching ills, which either now attend, or hereafter await it. He views it with self-reproach, nor can express the loathsome sight he is in his own eyes.

With regard to God's law. The new creature reads therein the undoubted duty of man to God; approves the purity of soul it enjoins; and therefore, that likeness of God it would restore the heart to; admires it, because it is strict and exalted; nor could like it so well, were any thing of what others esteem severity remitted. and because it is holy, just, and good,

Just as it is, he loves it;

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