reconciliation to God through Christ, &c. At other times, there are a great variety of names used to mark out the various affections excited in the mind by the knowledge of the truth the various affections toward God, and toward Christ, and toward the children of God, and toward mankind in general, and toward relatives, husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants, &c. and toward enemies, and toward sin, and toward ourselves considered as sinners, and toward the things of this world, and of the world to come, &c. all which are the native result of the knowledge of the truth.

When Moses came down from the Mount, where for a long time he had conversed with the God of Israel, who manifested himself by a visible glory to him, he brought down the image of this visible glory with him, his face shone. He put a vail on his face, to hide the bright lustre thereof from the eyes of the congregation, who were not able to behold. So a vail was on the hearts of the unbelieving Jews in the apostolic age. The glory of the Gospel was hid by this vail from them, even from all that were lost.-But we ALL with open, with unvailed face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are, says the apostle, in allusion to the face of Moses, changed into the same imuge into a holy, divine, a glorious frame of heart, resembling the glory we behold.

Changed into the same image. The image of what?-Of the moral perfections of the divine nature. Doth God view himself so worthy, so infinitely worthy of supreme love and honour, and universal obedience, as infinitely good and mereiful as he is, yet sedately to judge, that the least defect in us deserves eternal wo; and that it does not become him, as the Judge of all the earth, in any one instance, ever to grant a pardon but through the mediation of his own Son, and on the sole account of his righteousness and atonement? The divinely enlightened soul has the same views, in kind, and an answerable frame of heart. 66 Righteous art thou, O Lord, when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest; for destruction is my due, and hell my proper home. And should strict justice take place, all heaven ought for ever to love and adore the infinitely glorious Majesty, crying, Amen, Hallelujah. Yea, so bad am I, that any thing better than eternal

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damnation is too good for me. It is even unmeet such vileness should be passed over by the righteous Governor of the world without a testimony of his infinite abhorrence. There could be no hope in my case, were it not for the mediation, merits, and atonement of the Son of God. It could not have been just and right, to have pardoned such a wretch, had not he been set forth to be a propitiation But now God can be just. Therefore to free grace, through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ, I look. Here is all my hope. And I give up myself to God through the great Mediator, to love him, and be for ever his esteeming it the fittest thing in the world for ever to live to his glory, and the happiest thing to delight in him as the supreme Good. Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth I desire beside thee.” And thus they are changed into the same image. And thus God accomplishes his word, I will write my law in their heart. The law written in the heart. This is another name given to the same thing, for the law is a transcript of the divine nature, the very image of God. As the law was written in indelible characters on tables of stone, by the finger of God, of old; so now, views and dispositions answerable to the nature of the law, become habitual in the heart, through the influences of the Spirit of God, according to the measure of grace received. And this becomes the genuine language of the soul. "How reasonable is it to love with all my heart such an infinitely glorious and amiable Being! And delight with all my soul in such perfect beauty! And take up my everlasting contentment in the fountain and source of all good! How fit, that I should be wholly for him, whose I entirely am! And be at his beck, whose hands formed me! And at his disposal, who is Lord of all things, and whose rectitude is absolutely perfect, and whose goodness and wisdom are infinite, and who has given his Son to die for a lost world! And how beautiful, how much to be desired, that all on earth should unite as brethren, to live in the dearest love and harmony, as one happy family, under the government of the common Father of our spirits, and who is ready to become our everlasting Father and Friend through Jesus Christ! O, that all the human race would join, with one heart, to re

pent, and return, and be reconciled to God, through Jesus Christ! Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy nume, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And thus he begins to love God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself; which was the very temper of Jesus Christ. And so Christ is formed in him. Which is another name given to the same thing, and the import of it may be thus expressed.

Christ formed in the soul." He took not on him the nature of angels. Those of them who fell, needed a Saviour as much as we. And they were a nobler rank of beings. But they were passed by: and so might we have been, and God had been for ever righteous. His law was holy, just, and good. Every mouth was stopped The whole world stood guilty before God. How free was the grace, how great was the goodness, that provided such a Saviour for such a world as this! What love to God, what love to man, induced the Son of God to become incarnate! To honour the divine law by his obedience and death, and open a way for God to communicate his grace to us, and for us to return to God, and be for ever happy in him. To thee, O Lord, I return, with my whole heart, through Jesus Christ. In his name alone I come. O, may I be found in him, and have on his righteousness, and be accepted in the beloved; and be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise to the day of redemption, sanctified wholly to the Lord! O, may I be in Christ as the branch is in the vine, and partake of his nature and spirit; of his fulness receive, and grace for grace. That the same mind which was in Christ Jesus, and brought him from heaven, and carried him through all the labours of his life, and sufferings of his death, may also be in me. The same love to God and regard to the honour of his law, the same love to a lost world and concern for their salvation. And from this spirit, from which the Son of God became incarnate, lived and died, may I always stand ready to sacrifice in his cause all my earthly comforts, and if need be, to lay down my life." And thus, in these views, a spirit answerable to the temper of Jesus Christ, and to the design and spirit of his mediatorial office and work, is formed in the soul. And we become at

heart his disciples. And he is able to save them to the uttermost, who thus come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Then that come unto God by him. Another description of the same thing. That come unto God. Unto God, the absolutely perfect, the infinitely glorious and amiable Being, infinitely worthy of supreme love and honour, and universal obedience, and the supreme good; in a view of whose glory, an inclination to come, is begotten in the soul. That come unto God by him. Encouraged by his mediation, righteousness and atonement, we are emboldened to enter into the presence of the HOLY ONE of Israel, in whose sight the heavens are not clean, and before whom such as we must needs appear infinitely odious and abominable. And thus, if any man is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature, possessed of a relish, of views, and affections, he never had before. Yea, all old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And this whole change is of God, who thus reconciles us to himself by Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. v. 17, 18.

Reconciles us to himself by Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus Christ, who has secured the honour of the divine government, that God communicates those influences of his Holy Spirit, by which our eyes are opened to behold the glory of the Lord. And it is through Jesus Christ that the enlightened sinner is emboldened to return to God. And so this reconciliation is brought about wholly through the mediation of Jesus Christ. And in it, we are really reconciled to God, against whom we were before at enmity.

Reconciled to God.-To God's true and real character exhibited in his law, and ratified on the cross of Christ. We are reconciled to it, as to a character, in itself, without a blemish, perfect in beauty; and so begin to rejoice that God, his law and government, are just what they are, from a sense of their superlative excellency in themselves; no longer disposed, as we used to be, to wish they were different from what they are; rather inclined to say, the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. So reconciled, as that now,

The divine law is cordially received as a rule of life by us,

and our hearts begin to echo to the language of holy David, in the 119th Psalm, in its commendation.

Among all effects of divine illumination, there is none more remarkable in itself, or followed with more remarkable consequences, than this, that hereby the true convert who used to be an enemy to the divine law, is brought understandingly and heartily to love it, and to make it the rule of his life. The grace of God teaches him to deny all ungodliness and every worldly lust, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Nor is there any thing which more evidently distinguishes a true conversion from every counterfeit than this. Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. For every natural man, of whatever sect or party in the Christian world, and however religious in his way, is at heart an Antinomian in this particular. He doth not, in fact, receive the divine law, in its true meaning and real extent, as the rule of his life; yea, so far from it, that if he should go about to do it, and if his conscience should in the mean time be awakened to understand it, all his religious affections would stand condemned by it in his conscience in a moment; and all his present hopes be struck dead by it at once. For there is not any one thing about him, any thought, word, or action, or any inward bias of heart, in conformity to the divine law, in a natural man. But one natural man is as really dead in sin, and devoid of all true holiness, as another. And the only thing that renders it possible for any natural man to think otherwise of himself, than that he is dead in sin, is ignorance of the true nature of the law. Without the law, sin was dead. I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. What greater change therefore, can happen, than to be brought acquainted with the divine law, to be slain by it, and yet brought to love it, as holy, just, and good; so as to receive it cordially as a rule of life! What a marvellous alteration must this make in the whole system of our views and affections, and in the whole tenour of our lives! Even as great as to be turned from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and satan, unto God.