daily communion with God, to get our judgment and experience still more and more confirmed in this grand leading point, on which I have been discoursing, That the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace. Thus obstinately fixed in our attachments to religion, and thus feeling the comforts of it at our hearts, we shall not be easily moved from our stedfastBut like the Samaritans we shall be able to say, Now, we believe, not because of the saying of this or the other person: for we have heard and conversed with him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world a. Let us also make it our fervent and constant request to him, who first led us into the paths of righteousness, to guide and guard our steps therein.

5. And lastly, If the way to heaven is so pleasant as hath been represented, let us think, and frequently think with ourselves, how pleasant the country must be to which it leads. It is not in my power fully to describe it, or in yours to frame an adequate idea of it. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him b. Peace of conscience, a sense of God's favour, faith in his good providence, communion with heaven, and the hope of eternal life, are sources of real comfort to the Christian in his way through this world. But O how will they be refined and improved when he gets to that better world! While we are passing on towards our home, we are not without our refreshments and pleasures. Even the services themselves, which are required of us, however painful they may seem, bring their own reward with them. And though we may now and then be greatly dejected and cast down; yet at other seasons our hearts are revived and comforted. It is pleasant, fatigued and weary as we may sometimes be, to drink of the distant streams of that river which makes glad the city of God; to taste of the grapes of Eshcol; and from mount Pisgah to take a view of the good land. It is pleasant to converse with our guide about the way we are led, and the country to which we are going; and to join with our fellow travellers in the cheerful songs, with which they entertain one another in the house of their pilgrimage. It is pleasant, in a word, to antici

a John iv. 42.

b 1 Cor. ii. 9.

pate the joys of heaven, and by faith and hope, to transport ourselves for a while to that blissful place.

But O what are these comforts, what are these pleasures, when compared with those reserved for the weary pilgrim when he is got to his journey's end! There remaineth a rest for the people of God a. In my Father's house, says Christ, are many mansions: I go to prepare a place for you b. The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away c. What inconceivable pleasure will they feel, from the hearty welcome which the Lord Jesus Christ, and his attending saints and angels, will give them! What infinite satisfaction to find themselves instantly relieved of all their complaints! And what rapturous joys, at the prospect of those delightful and improving exercises of friendship and devotion, in which they are to be for ever employed! They are at home. O blessed state! The country is fair and fruitful. The inhabitants are all holy, peaceful and happy. God himself dwells among them; and in the enjoyment of his favour and presence they possess a never-ending duration of bliss and glory. So shall they ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words d.

DISCOURSE VIII.

1

THE FRUITS OF RELIGION.

ROM. VI. 22.- Ye have your fruit unto holiness.

TRUE

RUE religion, wherever it prevails, infuses a certain vital heat or energy into the soul, which fails not to produce some substantial effects in a man's temper and conduct. It is however to be feared, that too many mistake the unhallowed flame of

a Heb. iv. 9.

c Isa. xxxv. 10.

b John xiv. 2,
d 1 Thess. iv. 17, 18.

mere natural passion, for this living principle of divine grace. Their imagination is pleased, and their affections warmed; and so they instantly conclude themselves men of religion. But alas! the genuine spirit of those truths for which they profess so high a regard is overlooked and forgot; and their zeal, like a flaming meteor, having for a while drawn the attention and wonder of all around them, suddenly expires in perpetual darkness and oblivion. Or if their pretensions to religion do not thus quickly vanish and die away; perhaps other consequences follow, which are still more fatal and dangerous. When the tumult of their passions is somewhat subsided, and they are pressed with the utility and importance of real holiness; they begin coolly to persuade themselves, that a profession of the gospel may consist with their lusts. Until at length it becomes a settled point with them, that they may be allowed to sin-horrid impiety!-because they are not under the law, but under grace.

Such kind of persons there were in primitive times; and this their unnatural abuse of the gospel, the apostle exposes at large in this context. Nor is it a little remarkable, that the manner in which he combats the false reasoning of these men, while it sets their perverseness and ingratitude in the most striking light, furnishes a strong presumptive evidence in favour of the doctrine of grace. Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace a? As if he had said, "The constitution of the gospel is such, that it may seem at first view as if it countenanced sin. Men of corrupt minds may turn the grace of God, so amazingly displayed in the free pardon and justification of a sinner, into licentiousness. But be assured this is not the spirit, the tendency of that doctrine, which you have been taught; nor will it admit of any such conclusion. So far from it, that this very consideration of your not being under the law, but under grace, is a reason why sin should not have dominion over you." Nor does the apostle content himself with this general reasoning upon the matter; but appeals to the re ligious affections of their hearts, in support of his argument. They had felt the powerful influence of the gospel, to move them to obedience; and so had approved themselves real ChrisVer. 15,

tians, men of sound and genuine religion. Whereas ye were the servants of sin, ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you; and so being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness a, And then reminding them of the miserable fruits of that obedience they had formerly rendered to sin, even shame and death, he tells them in the text, the case was now happily altered; for being de livered from the dominion of sin, and become servants to God, they had their fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

The metaphorical phrase of having fruit, or bearing fruit, when applied to the actions of men, evidently supposes a certain principle from whence those actions proceed, and which gives them their true and proper denomination in the sight of God. Now as in the general, there will be a correspondence or similarity between the one and the other; so the course or tenor of a person's life is represented in scripture, as the best index of the state of his mind. Upon this maxim our Saviour reasons, when he would guard us against wicked and designing men, who, under pretence of extraordinary piety and goodness, attempt to deceive and mislead us. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit: neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit b. It is God's prerogative alone to judge the heart; nay, as to the actions of others, we are very incapable in some instances of pronouncing decisively upon them, for want of clearly understanding the motives from whence they arise. But it is an unquestionable truth, that his heart cannot be right with God, the course of whose behaviour is unholy and sinful. And on the other hand, ignorant as we are of men's hearts, we are obliged to give full credit to their profession, if their conduct is answerable to it. And indeed a sense of our own liableness to err, and a disposition to think well of others, will induce us, if we are men of religion, to put a favourable construction on actions which are doubtful, and even in some respects blame-worthy.

Now the question is, What are those fruits we are to expect from a real Christian, and without which a man's pretensions to

a Ver. 17, 18.

b Matt. vii. 15-18.

that character, be they what they may, are vain and groundless? The apostle comprehends them all in the general idea of holiness, a word of much the same import with righteousness in the preceding verses. It stands opposed to sin, and signifies a conformity of our tempers and lives to the will of God. When we speak of it as a principle, we mean a fixed approbation of the things which are excellent and good, and a prevailing inclination or tendency of the heart to those things. And when we speak of the fruits of it, we mean all those various acts of the mind and of the external conduct, which spring from this principle, and are in their nature and quality conformable to it.

:

Now the holiness of a Christian is at present, in neither of these views, perfect: far from it. His judgment indeed is firmly established in favour of that which is good, and his heart is strongly inclined that way. But still he hath many evil passions and propensities to struggle with. Hence the apostle complains of a law in his members, warring against the law of his mind a and of flesh lusting against the spirit b. Nor is there a good man living, but daily laments, and often in the bitterness of his spirit, the folly and corruption he feels working within. The powers of sin and holiness, like the houses of Saul and David, are continually at war with each other. And of consequence, the fruits of holiness, that is, the various expressions of it in the thoughts and reasonings of the mind, and in the actions of the life, will be imperfect likewise. Hence the many weaknesses, failings and sins of those, who nevertheless, upon the whole, give satisfactory proof that their hearts are upright before God.

Thus much premised, I proceed now to describe the natural and genuine fruits of religion; and to shew you, as I go along, how they arise out of this principle of holiness, quickened and invigorated by the animating motives the gospel suggests. They are reducible to these three heads, the duties we owe to God -to one another—and to ourselves. Let us,

I. Consider the several expressions of religion which are required of us towards God. The first I shall mention is, FIRST, Thinking of God.

a Rom. vii. 23,

b Gal. v. 17.