they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." The state of unregeneracy, the Apostle represents as the condition in which men are habitually "fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind;" and he adds the awakening representation of their being "by nature the children of wrath."-"If," adds the Apostle, "ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds (and consequently the desires) of the body, ye shall live." Who, then, really believing these statements, will not feel the indispensable necessity of the aid of the Holy Spirit, to sanctify and to regulate the desires of his heart? Who that knows human nature, and that knows himself, will think it possible to make any commencement, or any progress, in the arduous work of the right government of his desires, without the renovating influence of that grace, which can work in us" both to will and to do" according to the good pleasure of our God?

Secondly, Let us cherish those desires which in their very indulgence will promote our happiness.

In order to this, what better directory can there be, than that which is given us in our text:

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Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give

thee the desires of thine heart."

What is the import of this comprehensive counsel? It is as if the inspired Psalmist had said: "Direct thy views and thy affections to the Author of being and of blessedness. No longer employ thyself inhewing out broken cisterns, which can hold no water;' but resort, with ardent desire and grateful delight, to the fountain of living water.' Delight and solace thyself in the admiring contemplation of the chief good, and the chief joy of all who have discovered the secret of happiness." And is there not to be found the highest delight in the manifestations of divine glory, and especially of divine love? Is there not delight in beholding the justice which governs the world, and the holiness which adorns the throne of Deity, blended with the mercy which "blotteth out transgressions," and "the love which passeth knowledge?" Surely there is delight ineffable in being authorised to say, "This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death.-O God, I will praise thee: thou wast angry with me; but thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold, the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation!"

Cherish such delight as this; and its effect, in regulating the desires of the heart, will be equally powerful and salutary. It will induce a

progressively ardent desire to discern more of "the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ;' to spend your days more constantly in the light of his countenance; and to attain higher qualifications for his service on earth, and for his immédiate presence in heaven. Now, if in these desires themselves there are elements of true delight, so also will there be in the studies and the efforts and the prayers and the thanksgivings which they will dictate, and still more in the progressive attainment of the things desired. And in all this there is no danger of mortifying and heart-withering disappointment. When we desire these things, and ask them at the throne of the heavenly grace, we desire and we ask according to the will of God; " and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." Thirdly, Let us cherish those desires which will most effectually repress and exclude the evil inclinations of the heart.

Delight thyself in the Lord, as thy chief good, and then thy prevailing desire will be to glorify thy God, by every affection of thy heart, and every action of thy life. Delight thyself thus in the Lord, and thy most pleasurable desire and expectation for the future, will spring from the hope

of seeing God, and of being for ever with him. Thus wilt thou attain a spiritual mind, a heavenly temper, looking and aiming not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; remembering that the things which are seen are temporal, but that the things which are not seen are eternal. Thou wilt cultivate the desires and the affections of a pilgrim and stranger upon earth, "desiring a better, that is, a heavenly country;" and rejoicing in "the hope of the inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Realizing the presence of an invisible God, and the prospect of an invisible world, thy heart will be brought under the transforming influence of that faith, which is " the confidence of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen." Actuated by this principle, thou wilt disentangle and divest thyself of every weight which would impede thy career, in running the race that is set before thee. Thus will thy conduct gradually approximate to that which, it may be presumed, would be the course of an angel's life, were one of the angels of heaven to become an incarnate inhabitant of earth; or rather it will bear a progressive resemblance to the course of life actually exhibited by incarnate Deity, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men, full of grace and truth; being holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners.

"The love of the world," it has been well observed, "cannot be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world's worthlessness. The heart cannot be prevailed upon to part with the world, by a simple act of resignation. If the throne which is placed there, must have an occupier, and the tyrant that now reigns has occupied it wrongfully, he may not leave a bosom which would rather detain him, than be left in desolation. But may he not give way to the lawful sovereign, appearing with every charm that can secure his willing admittance, and taking unto himself his great power to subdue the moral nature of man and to reign over it?--In this case there is something more than the mere displacement of an affection. There is the overbearing of one affection, by another. But to desolate his heart of all love for the things of the world, without the substitution of any love in its place, were to him a process of as unnatural violence, as to destroy all the things that he has in the world, and give him nothing in their room. So that if to love not the world, be indispensable to one's christianity, then the crucifixion of the old man is not too strong a term to mark that transition in his history, when all old things are done away, and all things are become new.'

* Dr. Chalmers.

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