instruments of Providence, in bringing about national happiness. But all of us can be pious, and by servving the Lord with fervency of spirit, can become universally useful to our country and to the world. By piety, like the Prophets of old, we can shield our country from the wrath of Heaven; we can interest Omnipotence on its side, and even derive blessings to ages unborn. A good man is the guardian angel of his country.

I shall only add on this head, that by serving the Lord here, we have an earnest and anticipation of the happiness of the heavenly state. It is a pleasant reflection, and well worthy of our most serious thought, that we are now entering upon a course of life that will be our employment through eternity. As man is a progressive being, gradually tending to perfection, it is a law of his nature, that he should endeavour to act beforehand, the part to which he is destined in a higher state of being. The child, from his earliest years, anticipates in sport the employment of maturer age, loves to imitate the actions of men, and is pleased with the name. We are all of us children, with respect to our future existence; and should it not be as natural for him who is born from above, to act over the exercises and enjoyments of that state of being to which he is advancing? Piety is the beginning of heaven in the mind: Here the sun faintly beams, as in the dubious twilight; there he shines forth in full meridian glory. What an inestimable privilege then is this, which God hath put into our power? A life sacred to piety, and to the observance of true and undefiled religion, introduces us beforehand into the world to come, and gives us an acquaintance with the state and society of the angels and blessed spirits who dwell in light.

I come now to the second thing proposed, which was, to explain that fervour of spirit so requisite in the exercises of devotion, and enforce it with a few arguments.

By fervour of spirit, in general, is meant an uncom. mon application of mind in the performance of any thing, a warmth bordering upon transport, that moves every spring of the heart, and carries all before it, to gain its end. So that by a fervency of spirit in serving the Lord, must be understood, an ardent and active desire of loving the Lord, of worshipping him in sincerity, and obeying his commands with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. It consists not in a few transient fits and starts of natural devotion, when we are in jeopardy, without help of man; neither is it a wild blaze of religious passion, that flashes and vanishes much less shall it be profaned by confounding it with those furies, Enthusiasm and Superstition, who would drench a country with innocent blood, under pretence of serving the Lord. "Cursed be their anger, "for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. O 26 my soul, enter not thou into their secret."

True fervour of spirit proceedeth from above. It is a beam from the Father of lights, pure and benign, which at once enlightens and warms the mind. It is a ray from the Sun of Righteousness, bright even at the beginning, and which shineth more and more, unto the perfect day. It is a temper wrought into the heart by the Holy Spirit, compounded of love to God, and of zeal for his honour, attended with charity to man.

This fervour of mind, in its full extent, is one of the brightest ornaments of the Christian. It enters into the heart, and engages the whole man on the side of devotion; it gives a double measure of force and alacrity to that religion which before was sincere. In a word, it is to the spiritual life, what health is to the natural; it makes that spirited and cheerful which otherwise would only breathe and move. Conscious that religion is his grand concern, the fervent Christian will set about the duties of it with suitable ardour and intenseness of mind. The passions and affections which God hath given man, as the springs

of action, will in him be exerted to their noblest purpose, to inspire him with alacrity and cheerfulness in the ways of the Lord. He will be in pain till he has performed his duties of devotion, and labours of love, holding nothing too dear, which will procure to him that robe of holiness, which is beautiful in the eyes of Heaven. He feels in his heart all the devout affections and desires so passionately described by the holy Psalmist, which we know not whether to admire most as beautiful strains of poetry, or raptures of devotion."As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul "thirsteth for God, yea, the living God: when shall "I come and appear before God? How amiable are thy "tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, "fainteth, for the courts of the Lord. For a day in "thy courts is better than a thousand. The desire "of my soul is to thee, O God, and to the remem"brance of thy name. With my soul have I desired "thee in the night, yea, with my spirit within me "will I seek thee early. My soul waiteth for thee, "O Lord, more than they that watch for the morn"ing; yea, more than they that watch for the morn ing."

To engage us more effectually to the performance of this part of our duty, let us consider the general obligations we lie under, as rational creatures, to serve the Lord with fervency of spirit, and then the parti cular obligations that arise from Christianity.

And, in the first place, as the Almighty is the Creator of the world, and the Father of the human race, he is likewise their Preserver, and the Author of or der and harmony in the universe.

In his Providence, he takes us, the children of men, into his particular tuition, in giving us, from his immediate hand, all things requisite for our subsistence, well-being, and delight, in this world, our well or, dered habitation; in making nature spontaneously unlock to us her hidden stores; in causing the wide creation, one way or other, administer to our plea

sures, as if heaven and earth contended which should be most liberal of their favours to happy man; and, n fine, admitting us, above all the other inhabitants of our earth, into the plan of his creation, and making us spectators of that beauty, original and supreme, the image of himself, which he hath poured forth over all his works.

But when we consider his particular Providence, with respect to every one of us, our obligations will be infinitely heightened. Here we discern the finger of God. His goodness lent a favourable ear to all our feeble cries and complaints, when we were upon the breast; he guarded us from a thousand dangers and diseases which hung over our heads, and cut off more than one half of our equals in age; he hath led us, as it were, by the hand throngh the various stages of life, affording us many deliverances, and many tokens of his loving-kindness, which only ourselves and Heaven were privy to; and when all things in the world seemed to combine against us, he was a friend that never failed. Seeing then he upholds our existence, and is the parent of so many mercies, has he not, as our Supreme Benefactor, a title to the service of our whole lives, and to all the fervour of our spirits?

This will appear still more, in the next place, when we consider the superior obligations which we are laid under by Christianity. While many nations are sitting in darkness, and the shadow of death, on us hath the Sun of Righteousness arisen, in full glory. We are let into the mystery kept hid from ages. We have seen the Deity, in human form, descending up on earth, to teach the benighted nations the knowledge of salvation; to set a pattern of goodness and perfection for the world to imitate; and, by expiating the guilt of sin upon the cross, to finish our redemption. We have now a new and living way opened into the Heaven of Heavens, by the blood of JeLife and immortality are brought to light, and promised to all who sincerely believe and obey the gospel. So that we may now rejoice with the Poet

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of Israel," As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is the mercy of the Lord towards us; for as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he " removed from us all our iniquities: He redeemeth "our lives from destruction, and crowneth us with loving kindness and tender mercies."

When we are obliged to any of our fellow-creatures for an important favour, what pleasure is it to a generous heart, to be able to make the least return! If our benefactor be above us in his station in life, if he bestowed the favour without any solicitation on our part, and promises still to continue our friend, shall we not take every occasion of shewing that we are not ungrateful, and search for opportunity of serving him, as for hid treasure? What thanks, what praises, what services, shall we not then render to our Supreme Benefactor, who had translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his Son; who delivered up his Son unto the death for us, and with him freely gives us all things!

We have abundance of ardour and zeal in our temporal concerns. We rise early, and sit up late: we deny ourselves the pleasures and comforts of society: we forego our native country, and all the dear connections of early life: we traverse the whole terraqueous globe, expose ourselves to the mercy of winds and waves, and bear alternately the extremities of heat and cold we breathe in the regions of infection. and of death, to amass a few pieces of shining dust, whose acquisition costs us such sore trouble, and whose possession gives us so little happiness. Almighty God! shall we be thus fervent and zealous in every temporal, in every trivial concern, and remain cold and dead unto thee !-Ifthus we continue, my brethren, the very heathens, issuing forth from their regions of darkness, will set up a tribunal and call us before them: "The men of Nineveh shall rise "up in judgment with us, and shall condemn us; be"cause they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and "behold a greater than Jonas is here! The Queen of