first Adam. Here he finds the fupply of his bodily wants, and all that kind of provifion that fuits his animal nature, and gratifies those appetites which he hath in common with the inferior creatures. And tho' he is often, or rather always, disappointed in his expectation; yet being unacquainted with any better fuftenance than this earth affords, he only makes new experiments, perlifts in feeking his portion here below, and will continue to do fo, till, by fome means or other, he get a mind to difcern thofe fpiritual objects, and an appetite to relish thofe fpiritual enjoyments, which are the proper food of the foul, the only aliment whereby its real life and well-being can be fupported. Hence it already appears, in fome measure,

II. THAT to feparate a finner from idols, must be the peculiar work of God himself; which was the second obfervation I propofed to illustrate.

The natural man, as I just now faid, may change the object of his devotion; and having experienced the vanity of any particular idol, he may fay concerning it, What have

I to do any more with thee? Such a change as this is abundantly common, it is eafy, nay it is neceffary: it requires no exertion of strength; weakness itself is fufficient to produce it, being no other than the natural, the unavoidable confequence of fatiety and difguft. But amidst ten thousand changes of this kind, the man is only turning from one idol to another: and though he may pass from groffer ones to others more refined; from from mere bodily indulgence, to the amusements of fcience; or perhaps from the gratification of selfish and turbulent paffions, to the cultivation and practice of fome public and focial virtues; yet still he stops short of God: all the objects of his pursuit belong to the prefent ftate of things; and he afpires to no higher felicity than may be gathered from the materials of this earth which he inhabits.

Accordingly, the converfion of a finner, or the turning him from idols to the true God, is every where throughout the Scriptures reprefented as the effect of omnipotent creating power. It is called a new creation, a being born again, a refurrection, a paffing from

from death to life. Nor are thefe expreffions metaphorical, but strictly just; they are the words not of truth only, but of soberness, The apoftate creature is really dead, in the truest and most important sense of that word. For what is natural death, as it is commonly ftyled? The foul, when feparated from the body, doth not cease to exift; and though the body itself moulders into duft, yet no particle of that duft is annihilated or loft. The principal effect of that humiliating event, is to put an end to the creature's connection with a prefent world: the man ceases to be any more an inhabitant of this earth; and when we fay he is dead, this is all that we commonly mean to exprefs.

Now fin hath broken our connection with the spiritual world, as really as the feparation of the foul from the body will break our connection with this material world and therefore, without any metaphor, fin is the death of the foul or spirit of the man, whereby it is cut off from the fource of life, and utterly difabled to relifh those employments or pleasures which

alone

alone can render a fpiritual being happy. And in this state it must remain, till the fame power that gave it existence at first fhall create it anew, and reftore thofe faculties which fin had destroyed, of acting and enjoying according to its true and proper

nature.

The ufe of this obfervation is twofold: firft, That thofe who are turned from idols may, with humble gratitude, give God the glory, and cheerfully truft in him for perfecting the change his grace hath begun; and, fecondly, That they who are conscious they are ftill joined to idols, may imme diately, and without any circuit, go directly to the Fountain of life, even the Father of spirits, who is in Chrift Jefus reconciling the world unto himfelf, and cry as they can, for new life, from him who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things that be not, as though they were.

But how doth God quicken the dead in trefpaffes and fins, and feparate the finner from his idols?

to this question.He doth it by the dif covery and application of his pardoning mercy and fanctifying grace. I join these together, because they are fo infeparably connected, that neither of them can exist apart; "for whom God juftifies, them he "alfo fanctifies." And both of them are expressly mentioned in the context, as the means by which Ephraim fhould be difpofed and enabled to fay, What have I to do any more with idols?

The discovery of pardoning mercy is the first means employed for working this change. Fear is the immediate confequence of guilt, which foon degenerates into hatred, or that enmity against God which is the diftinguishing characteristic of the carnal mind. No fooner had Adam finned, than he became afraid of his Maker, and prepofterously endeavoured to flee from his prefence. This fear is the natural inheritance of his children. God appears as an enemy to the guilty foul; and fo long as he is viewed in that light, it is impoffible that he can be the object of its love. But the report of pardoning mercy prefents him in a light fo fuited

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