in dependance on the Lord Jesus than they are! The full assurance of faith and hope described in Scripture, and David's experience of the forgiveness of his sins, or God's peace, spoken of in the 23d Psalm, would not be so uncommon as it is among professors of religion. Probably too many who are not without spiritual desires cannot, as they wish, bear witness to the truth of this first advantage of godliness, "the peace of God." They may thank for this the love of the present evil world. The little reality of godliness there is amidst much profession is owing to this. For be it remembered, that it is not the profession of godliness, but godliness itself that has the promises belonging to it: so that still it is true, that godliness does bring with it all the advantages that the word of God describes.

Reflect, then, you who have known in a little degree, it may be, the divine peace of godliness, and have lost it again, upon the cause of this. Your conscience bears witness to the excellency of godliness. "Oh! if I had had more of it, I should have had more peace; and if I had not left the Lord, he would not have left me." Will you, then, return to God more heartily than ever? Again you shall have God's peace. It is not, that you are to work out a righteousness of your own to justify you. There is no peace to a troubled conscience, but torment, in that way. Renounce self and come to Christ, that is repentance, that is faith. Cleave steadfastly to Christ as all your salvation and all your desire, that is holiness. Expect from Christ, both in this life, and the next, all your comfort and

happiness, renouncing all other pretenders that would rival him, and surely you will find, as it is written," thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." Yes: show us a man or woman whose mind is stayed on Christ in the gospel way, and there, there is true peace. Be that man or woman

in much worldly adversity, in rags, they are even now-setting aside the happiness of the next lifethey are now by far the happiest persons on earth. Ungodly men have no conception of the bliss of communion with God; how he fills and satisfies the believing soul. And then to see all one's concerns kindly ordered aright, by the care of infinite power, wisdom, and love; to be freed from all guilty fears and heart-devouring cares by the dear Redeemer and Intercessor-how great is this! I trust, there are persons here, who know in some real degree, what these things mean. You can witness that "godliness has promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come." But perhaps the most instructive view of this part of our subject may be, to show the want of peace attendant on ungodliness.

Say, ye careless sinners, amidst all your prosperity and jollity, are you happy? No. There is an uneasy void in your soul; you want something to fill it. You try first one thing and then another. Nothing satisfies the soul. The " peace of God" can do this for you. This is to be obtained by coming to him, as lost wretches, through the blood of the Lamb; and nothing else can do it. But besides this uneasy void, there is the sense of guilt, and the

slavish fear of divine displeasure, often embittering the soul. From this you find no refuge, but the temporary one of flying from thought. Still you are gnawed by an evil conscience.

Even those decent, but unconverted men, who by formality and external morality have procured to themselves a false peace, are not happy in it. They have nothing of that enjoyment, which results from the application of the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh peace. They know nothing of joying in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Their hope being built on self, is liable to be shaken continually. Not so the true christian's. His hope is set on the Lord; and Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Besides, if ever the self-righteous man obtain true peace, all this false peace must be destroyed, else he dies self-deceived, and his end is so much the more miserable. Oh, fellow christians, know ye God's peace? Examine what you build on for eternity. One foundation only is authorized for a sinner to rest on, that is Christ Jesus. You who are stayed on this shall have perfect peace, and be kept in it, for it is written, "Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee." I have dwelt long on this first advantage of godliness. The rest flow from it.

While the creature lives at a distance from the Creator, as all men do by nature, the state of the soul is like that of the earth at its first creation, "without form and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep." But when the Spirit of God has quickened the soul, and the Lord has caused his face to shine upon her, through Jesus, in peace and

love, as above described, then the movements of man begin to be as they should be. Order rises out of confusion, and the appetites begin to be subject to reason, the moment that reason itself begins to be subject to God. Philosophy may say fine things of the subjection of the appetites to reason; but whoever saw it in practice? In the true scholars of Christ, alone, is this brought about. Man being, then, recovered to his right state of willing subjection to his Creator, by faith in Christ Jesus, the other advantages of godliness follow according to this beginning.

The godly man, through the mighty influence of the Spirit of Christ, now ruling in him, learns the due regulation of his tempers. Receives he an injury? He can pass it by with meekness. Is he reviled and abused? He practises Solomon's method: "a soft answer turneth away wrath!" Do his temporal affairs turn out unsuccessfully? He can bear it with patience, till an agreeable change befal him. If it please his God still to afflict him, his God supplies him still with patience and inward consolations. No temporal things are of such importance to him, that the frame of his soul should be quite disordered on their account. He is seeking a better country, even an heavenly; he cannot be deprived of that. Such are some of the tempers of a godly man. I should add also his humility and lowliness of mind, by which he prefers others to himself.

I might dwell upon other branches of the christian temper: but perhaps you may say, who practises according to all this? There is in the godly an old man, we know, as well as a new, "The

flesh lusteth against the spirit, so that they cannot do the things that they would." But still so far as men are godly, so far they practise as I have described, though it must be confessed, the tempers of some require far more grace to humble and subdue them, than those of others. However, christian principles alone can produce these amiable fruits: and in all converts they do, though in some an hundred fold, in some sixty, in some thirty. To which I add, he that lays any stress on any supposed conversion, which was not followed with some measure of real change in his tempers and practice, let that man know he has deceived himself. If he had actually passed from death unto life, the alteration of his conduct for the better, and indeed of the whole frame of his soul, in some real degree, must have ensued. Such unsanctified pretenders to religion should rather submit to begin religion afresh; and as vile, blind, lost sinners, seek Christ afresh, lest they perish in their hypocrisy and delusion.

See, now, what advantages godliness has in this life, from this article. What misery and torment do pride and envy cause in the world! Need a man be more miserable than impatience of spirit will make him? What dreadful feuds, what long-protracted calamities, have desolated the earth, for want of mutual meekness and benevolence? Oh! brethren, it is not misery, it is happiness itself we exhort you to seek after, when we exhort you to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ into your souls. For the godly man, so far as his tempers are regu- › lated by it, is clear of these evils. He loves peace, and his peaceableness of disposition prevents him.