to choose the most wholesome air and salutary food, to avoid infectious disorders, and cherish its limbs with grateful warmth, and promote by frequent exercise the expansion of its powers! What anxiety, What anxiety, if it appears to decline, instead of thriving in health and vigor! What expense or what trouble is spared to procure the most judicious advice, and find out the cause and apply the remedy? And shall we feel less care or less anxiety to preserve the life and well-being of the soul? Is not equal care requisite in the beginnings of the spiritual life to prevent the smoking flax from being quenched, and the languishing virtue from becoming extinct? Can our

virtues gain strength without exercise, or spiritual beings thrive without spiritual food? Is the young Christian able to contend with the subtle cavils of sophistry, or to resist the contagion of evil example? Can he breathe freely in the tainted atmosphere of impure communication; and will his virtues have the same genuine and healthy complexion in the world, as when protected and cherished in the shade of domestic retirement?

Examine yourselves, therefore, all you who are concerned for the well-being of the immortal part within you, both whether you have undergone this important change, and whether you are improving it to the perfection of the divine life. As to the first part of the question, much needless anxiety has formerly been incurred by weak and well meaning Christians for want of reflecting on this simple truth, that he whom we see living must some time or other certainly have been born. When we see a man walking, conversing, acting, exercising all the functions of animal life, we should think it very superfluous to inquire whether he had been born or no. Thus no other criterion is necessary to ascertain the reality of the new birth but the effects of it. When we see a man in whom holy affections and good principles bring forth the fruits of virtuous

a heritage is the Christian born! He is born an heir of glory, he expects a heritage in the land of promise, thrones in heaven; heaven is his, and earth is his, and all things are his, for God is his; and nothing can deprive him of his glorious birthright, except he himself should alienate and renounce it.—But let it be observed, the heir does not inherit immediately. He waits for his possessions till he is able to enjoy and manage them, and in the meantime this inheritor of a splendid fortune is made subject to every one that is about him. First he cannot, and then he may not, stir a step without others; he is every thing in hope, nothing in possession; his cheeks are bathed in frequent tears, his will is crossed, his appetites checked, the purposes and projects of his little heart continually counteracted; he is scourged, buffeted and severely handled, according to his childish conceptions, by his parents, masters, and tutors. Nay, he is kept under by those who afterwards will not presume so much as to approach his presence. And thus it must be with the heir of glory while he is in the nonage of this world; afflictions and crosses and disappointments are the schoolmasters to bring him to Christ. His high destination and lofty hopes do not hinder him from being lorded over and roughly treated by the children of this world, who are often wiser in their generation than the children of light. Jacob was the heir of the promises, yet he became the servant of Laban; and the seed of Abraham was long held in bondage by the Egyptians.

In the next place it may be remarked, that though the child is born, it may die. Life, mere life, is an inestimable gift, and there is an infinite difference between existence in the lowest state and non-existence; but life in its early stages is peculiarly frail and delicate; when the flame is first kindled, a breath will extinguish it. What care, therefore, is exercised to preserve the tender infant,

to choose the most wholesome air and salutary food, to avoid infectious disorders, and cherish its limbs with grateful warmth, and promote by frequent exercise the expansion of its powers! What anxiety, if it appears to decline, instead of thriving in health and vigor! What expense or what trouble is spared to procure the most judicious advice, and find out the cause and apply the remedy? And shall we feel less care or less anxiety to preserve the life and well-being of the soul? Is not equal care requisite in the beginnings of the spiritual life to prevent the smoking flax from being quenched, and the languishing virtue from becoming extinct? Can our

virtues gain strength without exercise, or spiritual beings thrive without spiritual food? Is the young Christian able to contend with the subtle cavils of sophistry, or to resist the contagion of evil example? Can he breathe freely in the tainted atmosphere of impure communication; and will his virtues have the same genuine and healthy complexion in the world, as when protected and cherished in the shade of domestic retirement?

Examine yourselves, therefore, all you who are concerned for the well-being of the immortal part within you, both whether you have undergone this important change, and whether you are improving it to the perfection of the divine life. As to the first part of the question, much needless anxiety has formerly been incurred by weak and well meaning Christians for want of reflecting on this simple truth, that he whom we see living must some time or other certainly have been born. When we see a man walking, conversing, acting, exercising all the functions of animal life, we should think it very superfluous to inquire whether he had been born or no. Thus no other criterion is necessary to ascertain the reality of the new birth but the effects of it. When we see a man in whom holy affections and good principles bring forth the fruits of virtuous

actions, we may be well assured that he is born in the gospel sense, though he may remember it as little as he does his natural birth. The operations of grace are gradual as well as those of nature; the widest flame is kindled at first by the smallest spark, and whatever is produced must be brought to perfection by slow and insensible degrees. Therefore, first, be not satisfied with merely being born. It is not enough that the child is born, it must grow too. Do you grow in grace and graces? In a healthy body the limbs enlarge and shoot out. A vigorous principle of life draws nourishment from every thing it takes; it cannot be stationary; if it does not thrive and increase, it must languish and die. It is not natural to rest in any stage, and especially in the earliest and weakest. We love children rather for the promise than the fruit. Lovely and interesting as they are, if they were to remain children we should be grievously disappointed. If, after having nursed them up to the full age of manhood, they were to retain the weakness and imbecility of an infant, instead of exciting tenderness they would raise disgust. And though the meanest renewed soul is precious in the sight of God, yet we must run and strive, and add to our faith virtue, and to virtue holiness and all the fair fruits of the spirit. Would you know, therefore, whether you are in this healthy and growing state, inquire with yourselves.

Is your taste pure and unvitiated, your appetite for spiritual things strong and vigorous, or can you not relish your sabbaths and your sermons except you meet with wit and eloquence and novelty to tickle the nicer ear? Can you not love your duty unless it sorts with your inclination? Are you various and capricious in your taste for divine things, sometimes longing and sometimes loathing? Can you not hold communion with a good Christian of plain, unadorned sense and homespun manners? Then is

the complexion of your inward man too delicate and weakly. Ye are not only babes in Christ, but sickly babes too.

Is your conscience sensible and tender? It is a bad sign when in the natural man the feeling is numbed and torpid. Conscience is the moral sense or feeling every where diffused, and tremblingly alive to every impression. Does it continue quick and lively, or is it worn away by the irritation of frequent injuries? Is any part about you palsied and callous? Then, indeed, is your soul's health in an alarming state, and you have great reason to apply to the Physician of souls for a cure.

Do you relish the word of God? I ask not do you read, though that were perhaps a question to be asked, but do you relish it? Are you revived by its promises, awed by its threats, quickened by its examples? Those who have acquired a taste for the literature of the schools, do as it were suck the sweetness from the poet's spring, and imbibe into their souls the spirit of the classic page. Do you in like manner dwell upon the conversations and the life of your Saviour? Do you cling to them like a bee to the bud, and draw out their genuine flavor and sweetness? Taste of that honey, and, like Jonathan, your eyes shall be enlightened.

Is your sense of invisible things quick and piercing? Where others see trees and suns and harvests, do you see God and Christ and glory? Where others see crosses and afflictions, set as it were in array against them, do you see graces springing and blessings dropping down upon you ? Where others see the vain and miserable politics of this world, the fretting, bustling and contention of the children of it, do you see an overruling Providence, directing and ordering all things according to its own wise and beneficent purposes ? Do you see God in every thing? Is he always intimately present to you in every scene and in every transaction, and nearer to