excellency purity and fpirituality of thofe means they enjoy; yet their experiences of divine things most certainly are, and indeed neceffarily must be, fimilar. So again,

4. The diversity there is of spiritual gifts infers no real diverfity as to religion itself. A circumftance I the rather mention, as the apoftle fo largely infifts on it in this context. There are differences, fays he, of adminiftrations, but the fame Lord. And there are diverfities of operations, but it is the fame God which worketh all in all. To one is given the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge; to another faith; to another the gifts of healing; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another dif cerning of Spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; but all is of one God who divideth to every man severally as he will; and every man, however characterized or diftinguished by these gifts, if he be a Chriftian indeed, hath been made to drink into the same spirit, Miracles, it is true, are now ceafed; yet the observation, fo far as it refpects that variety of talents for usefulness with which one Christian is distinguished from another, is equally applicable to the present times, * 1 Cor. xii. 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. Whatever

Whatever these may be, whether for public rule and instruction in the church of God, or for private counsel and edification, they very well confift, and indeed are only truly amiable, when connected with that charity divine love or fpiritual religion, without which the apostle affures us in the very next chapter after the text, they are all nothing. To which it is to be added once more,

5. That there may be, and often is, a difference as to the degree of religion, though it still retains the same nature. An obfervation this fo common that it needs little or no illuftration. There are, in the language of fcripture, babes young men and fathers in Chrift; fome weak, and others ftrong in faith; fome eminent for the purity of their devotion, the warmth of their love, and the chearfulness of their obedience; and others in whofe hearts are to be seen the sparks only of this divine fire. And yet Chriftians are all children of the fame father, partakers of the fame nature, and initiated into the fame religion.

Such then is the diverfity of natural and external circumftances, which often attend the experience and profeffion of religion.

VOL. I.

H

DIS

DISCOURSE III.

PART II.

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ET us now then turn our eyes from thefe circumstances to the thing itself, and inquire,

II. Wherein confifts that uniformity in religion, which our text mentions as a peculiar commendation of its real and intrinfic excellency.

By the fameness of religion is here meant, the exact fimilarity there is in the spirit and temper of all good men. As the feveral individuals of mankind are all made of one blood, and as the fame faculty of reafon in a greater or lefs degree, is common to each of the human species; so what the scripture calls a new creature, is one divine or spiritual nature common to all the people of God. And this is precifely the same now

k 2 Cor. v. 17.

it was in the beginning, and will indeed ever continue immutably the fame in every age, in every part of the world, and in every heart which is renewed by the grace of God. It is what our Saviour calls the one thing needful'. Here then our business is not immediately with the doctrines of religion, thefe being rather the objects of it, than the thing itself. Though it is most certain, that as truth can be but one, fo the apprehenfions of all good men concerning it, must exactly correfpond in regard of those particulars of it, which do immediately af→ fect the existence of the new nature in the heart. Nor can we fpeak of inward piety, without keeping in view the grand objects of it, which have been more or less clearly revealed to the minds of men, according as the infinite wifdom and goodness of God have judged most fit and neceffary.

Now the main expreffions of inward religion may be comprized in the short account of it. It firft humbles the heart of man then infpires it with divine hopes and joys-by this means refines and fanctifies it and fo makes it capable of a pure love and exalted friendship. And in refpect

1 Luke x. 42., H 2

of each of these particulars there is an exact uniformity, at least in a degree, among all the people of God. They have all been made to drink into the fame spirit.

1. Religion humbles and abases the heart before God. Where is the good man to be found, who hath not been struck with an awful apprehenfion of the truth and dignity of the divine perfections, and with a deep fense of his own vileness and unworthiness ? While faith presents the bleffed God to our view in his infinite omniscience, his spotless purity, his almighty power, and his transcendent glory, we vanish into nothing before him. The lively display of these his attributes in the works of nature and providence, in the righteous dictates of his holy law, and the propitiatory fufferings of his own Son, commands our homage and dread. We admire and wonder, adore and tremble. And fo turning our eyes inward on ourselves, traverfing our hearts through the various and fecret mazes of vanity and fin, obferving how unlike we are to the pure and perfect God, and how short we come of our obligations to his holy law, reflecting on the pollution of our natures, and the aggravated guilt of our lives; we are covered with fhame at this fad fcene,

and