with him. Job, on another occasion, felt in the same manner. "Thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth." chapter xiii. 26. There is not any thing which the believer wishes so much to enjoy, as the light of God's countenance. This is the life of his soul, and the soul of his joy. In this will consist the perfection of his blessedness, in the heavenly state; "He shall see his face," &c. His prayer is, "Lord lift on us the light of thy countenance." Nothing renders him more uneasy and unhappy than a suspension of this. Then a gloom covers his soul, he walks in obscurity, disquieting fears annoy him, and his joy ceases. Hence his plaintive expostulations with God. "How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? Psalm xiii. 1, 2. "Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled." Psalm xxx. 7. Sin alone is the cause. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Isaiah lix. 2.

BUT sin disqualifies the soul for communion with God. It is in fellowship with God that the believer enjoys him. Then he receives from him the fruits and tokens of his love, which when suitably relished by the soul, afford it exquisite delight. Its language then is; "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee." Psalm lxxiii. 25. But unless the soul is capable of relishing such enjoyments, appreciating their value, and unless it anxiously desires them, it is unfit for the enjoyment of them. Sin indulged will soon put the soul into such a condition. It obscures its spiritual discernment,

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by means of which the beauty and excellence of such enjoyments are not seen; it tends much to quench the flame of love to God, and weakens its spiritual desires, whence it becomes indifferent about those things which tend most to its happiness. It seems very evident that such were the effects of David's iniquity in the affair of Bathsheba. When the spouse had fallen into spiritual decline, she rejected the most moving entreaties and offers of her beloved, putting no value on the enjoyment of communion with him. She recognized his person; "It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled," &c. yet she rejected, with the utmost indifference, that happy intercourse with himself, which he offered her. "I have put off my coat; how shall put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" Song v. 2, 3. Sin affects the soul, as a disease does the body, rendering it loathsome, and disqualifying it for action. The spirits subside, courage fails, food becomes nauseous, and health is impaired. Society then becomes a burden. Sin is a most deplorable disorder in the soul, defacing its beauty, and destroying its strength; it unfits it for spiritual operations, and makes it nauseate its best enjoyments. Under proper impressions of this, the believer will be afraid of the evil thing sin; he will be watchful against temptation, and shun every appearance of evil. It will be his daily study to have the body of sin destroy. ed; that he may be more effectually secured from falling into sin. His vigilance against seduction, and his exertions in mortifying sin, will be in proportion to his experience of happy intercourse with God. High enjoyments elevate the soul, raise it above the world, and strengthen its aversion to sin. When these are sus

pended and intercourse with God interrupted, the believer finds himself exceedingly unhappy, and unless he is under prevailing spiritual decline, is restless until his suspended enjoyments are restored. The pain which he feels under desertion teaches him this profitable and necessary lesson, "That it is an evil thing and a bitter to forsake the Lord his God.". With the Psalmist's anxious desire, he will form his resolution.. "O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me." Psalm ci. 2, 3. In this way will he seek the blessedness of those who walk not in the counsel of the ungodly.

8. BECAUSE it obstructs and retards his progress towards heaven.

THE Christian life is a journey, which the believer prosecutes step by step. Here he meets with many obstructions, and has to encounter a variety of difficulties. Of all those things which impede his progress none is so powerful, and none proves so effectual, as sin in himself: even the influence of other things depends much upon this. Satan and the world throw snares, temptations, and allurements before him, with a design either to amuse him in his way, or to divert him from it. Christ alone is the way, and such as would reach heaven, must walk in him, by improving him for all the purposes for which he is appointed, and for which they need him. While he is the way into the holiest of all, and no man can come unto the Father but by him; he is also the truth, and the life. Direction and strength are necessary to the progress of the believer. These he will find in Jesus; for in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge: he is the truth and the life.

Since then he hath received him he ought to walk in him, and by faith receive constant supplies of wisdom and strength to render his way prosperous.

EVERY act of sin is a turning from Christ the way. It cannot indeed affect the believer's interest in him, or endanger his justified state, as all his sins are expiated, and unconditionally pardoned; yet it will affect the strength of his faith and the warmth of his affection. It weakens the principles of holiness, and renders the exercises of religion less agreeable. His work should be to run his race, to press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and to finish his course with joy; but when he indulges sin he amuses himself, in the way, with something that is altogether foreign to his proper work. Thus his time is wasted, his attainments are impaired, and his progress retarded. Sin is represented as a burden, pressing upon the spiritual traveller, exhausting his strength, depressing his spirits, and retarding his progress. David felt the truth of this, and poured out his mournful complaint. "Mine iniquities are gone over mine head; as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. I am troubled, 1 am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. I am feeble and sore broken," &c. Psalm xxxviii.

To make progress towards perfection, and to reach heaven at last, are objects of much attention to the believer. Like Abraham and other patriarchs, he looks for a city that hath foundations-a better, a heavenly country; and, like Paul, he forgets the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, he presses toward the mark. He does not so much regard what progress he hath made, as what yet lies before him. He does not rest in any attainments. that he hath made, however extensive these may be;

but exerts himself to attain still higher degrees of them, and apprehend that for which he is apprehended of Christ Jesus. Whilst it is his prevailing desire to be like his glorious head, to depart and be with him in the blissful mansions of his Father's house, he finds that sin and its concomitants greatly disturb his tranquillity, and impede his progress; therefore, in this tabernacle, he groans, being burdened, and earnestly desires to be clothed with his house which is from heaven. This causes him to hate sin, to oppose its motions, to watch against all allurements and temptations to it, and to shun the commission of it. It is, therefore, his daily study to lay "aside every weight and the sin that more easily besets him, that he may run, and finish the race set before him." In doing this, he fixes his eye steadily on Je-. sus, the Author and finisher of his faith, and from him derives every thing necessary to expede his progress.. By faith he realizes that perfection of his nature, which he is to attain, in his complete assimilation to him, and that consummation of felicity which he shall then possess; and by a well grounded hope of this, he is instigated to attend to holiness, and to purify himself even as he is pure.

IN fine. The believer avoids the evil thing sin because by committing it he exposes the religion of Jesus to contempt. From infidels and profane persons nothing can be expected but to ridicule religion and treat it with contempt, and also to contradict it in their practice. Not unfrequently, however, does it suffer more from its professors and avowed friends. By professing it, they declare-That there is a truth and reality in religionThat the happiness of the rational creature lies in it— That it has the best tendency to promote morality and good order in society-And that it is the only way of