make the love thereof our chief, our principal and governing love-it is to give this love the rule and ascendancy over all other loves, so that it may be, as it were, their king and governor, and keep them in subjection. It is to give unto God, and unto His kingdom, and His righteousness, the throne, the sovereignty, the dominion, over all our other affections and thoughts, and thereby over our words and actions, so that no inferior love may ever usurp and take their place; but that all other kinds and degrees of love may be ever kept in subordination to this heavenly love this first desire of our souls. Would we know, then, whether we are fulfilling the divine requirement to seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness? we must examine ourselves attentively so as to discover what is our first, our governing love. And since every love makes itself manifest by some delight, we must consider further what is our supreme, our principal delight. This is the only safe and sure rule to conduct us to this grand, this most important discovery. The question, therefore, in this is, not what we love, but what we most love: neither is it what we delight in, but what constitutes our chief delight. It may be that in some degree we love God; it may be also that in some degree we delight in God; but if at the same time we love and delight in something more than God, how plaim is it to see that the will of God is not yet fully accomplished in us; that we are not yet seeking Him and His kingdom first, or in the first place!

It appears to the natural man, when he first begins to think about God and eternal life, that in seeking after these eternal blessings, it is necessary to slay and sacrifice in himself every other love,-every other affection, and every other delight of his natural mind, in order to attain them. Thus he fancies that to love God he must cease to love every thing else, that to lead a religious life he must renounce and forsake every other of life, that to secure eternal blessings and comforts, he must way refuse to taste all temporal blessings and comforts;-in short, according to his mistaken ideas at that time, he supposes, that to become a spiritual man, he must first utterly destroy his natural life, with all its loves, all its affections, and all its delights. I do not pretend to determine how far it may be expedient that things should wear this appearance, when man first begins to think about God and eternal life. Possibly, since God and eternal life are objects of infinitely higher value and importance than any other, therefore, there may be an expediency, that for a time they should appear to require the sacrifice and even destruction of all other objects in order to their attainment. But be this as it may, one thing is most certain, that what thus

appears to the natural man, is not according to reality and truth; it is not according to the intention, the purpose, and the wisdom of God.

For it is an infallible maxim, deduced both from reason and religion, that God never destroys any life that He has created. On the contrary, He intends its highest preservation, according as He Himself declares, where he says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." it therefore be well noted,-that religion doth not require us to destroy our good natural affections, but it requires us to prevent them from destroying themselves, by separating themselves from their Divine source of life and guidance. Religion, again, doth not forbid us the indulgence of natural delights, but it forbids us to indulge them whensoever they are contrary to, and would exalt themselves above, the delights of the love of God and the righteousness of His kingdom. Religion, again, doth not command us to repress and extinguish our natural thoughts, but it commands us, and this in the most peremptory manner, to take heed that our natural thoughts do not extinguish Divine thoughts, that our natural sentiments, opinions, sciences, and speculations submit to the guidance, government, and illumination of the wisdom from above. The blessed basis of religion, therefore, to all natural affection, natural delight, and natural thought, is-"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness."

Behold here the blessed secret pointed out by God Himself for the preservation and exaltation of every kind and degree of man's life! Behold, I say, the heavenly and eternal law, within which, whatsoever is comprehended is immediately saved from destruction; but out of which, every thing must needs perish by a deprivation of its proper life! "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness;" as if it had been said let the love of God rule in and over every inferior love; let the wisdom of God rule in and over every inferior wisdom, and then every thing will be preserved within the circle of its proper life and blessing, and will truly live. Seek not, therefore, to destroy in yourselves your natural affections and delights, but rather seek, as God seeks, to sanctify and to save them, by conjoining them with, and submitting them to, their divine originals.

By the very condition of our being we are compelled to live a natural life, and we cannot possibly get rid of the necessity of being alive to natural affections, natural delights, and natural thoughts. This, however, will not hurt us, provided we are wise to act herein according to this wisdom of God; but destruction is inevitable if we neglect that wisdom. The wisdom of God herein is this, that our natural affections,

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delights, and thoughts, should acknowledge a divine law-should bow down before their divine Creator-should live in His divine life. If we submit to the regulations of this wisdom, all will go well with us. Let us enter into ourselves, and take a view of our own little world, observing especially therein what has the ascendancy. Let us teach every thing natural to be in subjection, and to acknowledge that by subjection it lives, but by rising out of subjection, it dies. In this manner the order of heaven will be restored within us; otherwise every thing in us must needs fall into disorder, and by disorder into decay and death. But remember what the order of heaven is, and what it requires. It requires that we should seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, in this world; that eternal things should be exalted in the affections above temporal, spiritual delights above natural, the love and the blessing of God above every inferior love and blessing, the divine will and wisdom above the will and the wisdom of man. Now if we attend to, and live in the practice of, this heavenly order, it will attend to us, and bring down with it the divine blessing into every thing that we intend, think, and do. It will govern, direct, and sanctify that mixed multitude of natural thoughts, opinions, and affections, which are in our hearts, until all rebellion be subdued, all disorder regulated, all evil ejected, and "the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness" be exalted in us to its due preeminence, for our everlasting blessedness and peace.

THE BLESSINGS OF CONTENT-THE EVILS OF

DISCONTENT.

CONTENTMENT is the basis of all good. No moral, spiritual, and celes

tial order can subsist upon any other foundation. It is that which contains all other virtues, and keeps them together. Destroy this bond and every superior principle perishes. Faith and trust in Providence can have no place in the mind, where this virtue is wanting; love cannot kindle its celestial fires of purity and holiness, and disinterested affection; innocence and peace cannot unveil their countenance, and diffuse their heavenly sunshine and serenity within and without the soul. Without contentment, the internal or spiritual cannot operate into the external or natural; in the latter there are commotions, anxieties, cares, wars, and rumours of wars; and how can serenity abide in the storm; how can peace dwell with war; how can light abide with darkness? The sum and substance of what the Lord teaches respecting "care for the morrow," is comprised in the term CONTENTMENT.

It is known that Providence is universal, and that even the minutest particulars of man's life are under its merciful guidance and protection. The hairs of our head are all numbered. Every man is, consequently, born into those circumstances in which he may attain the end of his being. These circumstances are infinitely various; they are not the same with one as with another. Here the natural mind, judging from its own ideas of comfort and happiness, often "judges according to appearance, and not a righteous judgment." It is apt to consider that those circumstances are the best, which are marked with the greatest amount of earthly good, and civil refinement; the external may thereby be enriched with worldly plenty, and polished with elegant accomplishments; but the internal may remain undeveloped, and leanness may possess the soul. Lazarus, placed in circumstances to the natural mind in every way uncongenial and distressing, came eventually into heaven; the rich man, on the contrary, failed of his happy destiny. Every plant grows in the spot where the influences most congenial to its development are especially active. The orange tree and the vine do not grow in the plains of Britain, but in the southern climes of Europe and Asia, where the circumstances are congenial to their growth. The divine Husbandman has placed every thing in the position most suited to its nature and development. But man is, in an especial sense, a plant which our heavenly Father delights to tend and to cultivate. It is true that children, placed by birth in circumstances vicious and uncongenial to moral and spiritual development, appear like the tender plant of a genial clime, placed amidst the frosts and snows of an inclement latitude. But we know from the doctrines of the New Church, that there are internal influences and circumstances, as well as external; and that there are angels attendant upon all children, however repugnant to moral and spiritual order the external circumstances may be by which they are surrounded. And this internal force often counteracts the external, and makes even the most uncongenial sphere subservient to the growth of moral and spiritual good. Still it must be greatly deplored, that as the parent is the first and essential medium, in the hands of Providence, for the training of the child, the circumstances in which many children are placed, owing to the vice and continual neglect of parents, are so uncongenial to the growth of goodness in the soul.

One great cause of discontentment with our lot, is the seeking of our gratification solely in external things. An inordinate desire of earthly good seems, in the order of things, to be the commencement of evil in the soul. Most men seem deeply concerned about the doctrine of truth, but the doctrine of good does not so much interest the mind; and yet

this latter is of infinite importance. There is natural good, moral good, spiritual good, and celestial good; all which are very distinct;-and yet how little is known respecting these different kinds of good! There is no genuine contentment and happiness to be found but in spiritual and celestial good, which is imparted to us solely by the truths of religion, and by a life according to the precepts of the Word. It is this good which is the very essence of all saving faith, of all virtue and holiness; it is the "salt of the earth," which preserves every thing heavenly in man, and by which we are kept constantly in association with heaven, and in conjunction with the Lord. But in externals, or in the mere love of self or of the world, there is no contentment of spirit. In the inordinate desire of earthly good, a plain is laid for every evil to operate. Ambition, avarice, and voluptuous desires of every kind become rampant. Pride, vanity, and criminal sensuality revel without control, except that which the world imposes on its votaries,-a sense of honour. * Hence springs envy towards those who possess more of earthly enjoyments than ourselves; anger and malice towards those who hinder us from acquiring it; revenge towards those who have deprived us of it; falsehood as the means of gaining and securing it. In a word, to the disposition of acquiring sensual and earthly enjoyment, irrespective of moral and spiritual good, may be traced, with no great difficulty, nearly all the sins committed by mankind. This sensual and inordinate desire is the serpent which originally commenced the temptation to evil, and which is constantly carrying on the deadly employment.

* 66 "The law of honour is a system of rules constructed by people of fashion, and calculated to facilitate their intercourse with one another; and for no other purpose. Consequently, nothing is adverted to by the law of honour, but what tends to incommode this intercourse. Hence this law only prescribes and regulates the duties betwixt equals; omitting such as relate to the Supreme Being, as well as those we owe to our inferiors. For which reason profaneness, neglect of public worship or private devotion, cruelty to servants, rigorous treatment of tenants or other dependents, want of charity to the poor, injuries done to tradesmen by insolvency or delay of payment, with numberless examples of the same kind, are accounted no breaches of honour; because a man is not a less agreeable companion for these vices, nor the worse to deal with, in those concerns which are usually transacted between one gentleman and another. Again; the law of honour, being constituted by men occupied in the pursuit of pleasure, and for the mutual conveniency of such men, will be found, as might be expected from the character and design of the law-makers, to be, in most instances, favourable to the licentious indulgence of the natural passions. Thus it allows of fornication, adultery, drunkenness, prodigality, duelling, and of revenge in the extreme; and lays no stress upon the virtues opposite to these."-Paley's Moral Philosophy. Here is a definition of that honour by which so many profess to be governed!!