however, who are "lovers of their own selves, more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."* Let us, brethren, follow the apostle, leading us by this text, to the fountain of grace for a supply whereby we may serve God acceptably. To serve God, Aargauw, is to be in subjection to him, as a servant to his master, studying to act according to his commandments. This phrase is employed in scrip. ture to signify external attention to the worship of the true God in opposition to the worship of idols. "Thou shalt serve him, and shalt not go after other gods." It is used to signify the devotion of the soul to God. "We are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit." And it usually embraces every part of religious worship-"that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life."§ To serve God, then, is to worship him with a disposition becoming the intelligent creature to exercise toward the all-perfect God, and to promote his glory by a sincere and diligent observance of the divine law. "This is a reasonable ser. vice." It is a duty incumbent on every man. It is impossible that an intelligent creature should exist, in whom it would be right to refrain from exercising a suitable disposition toward God, in whom it would be right to express a con. trary disposition. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" And shall the creature do right in *2 Tim. iii. 2-6. † Deut. vi. 13. Phil. iii. 3. Luke i. 74. resisting the divine authority? No man is independent of God. Every one is necessarily under an indispensable obligation to serve him in all things. The lawgiver demands universal obedience. "Ye shall serve the Lord your God."* God hath promised to bless, without respect of persons, all those who obey his command. ments. "Blessed is the man that doeth this, they who choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in my house, and within my walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters, also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him,—even to them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer, their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar."t God recommends to our imitation the conduct of those who have served him by the protection which he affords to them. "Is thy God whom thou servest continually able to deliver thee? My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths that they have not hurt me." And he pours out his judg. ments on those who do not worship according to his statutes. 66 They were disobedient, and cast thy law behind their backs,-therefore thou deliveredst them into the hands of their enemies."§ The service, thus recommended, extends from the thoughts and intents of the heart to every action of the life of man. Let us, through grace, undertake this * Ex. xxiii. 25. Dan. vi. 20, 22. 66 service; for not to serve God acceptably is not to serve him at all; and no service which is unaccompanied with the exercise of grace is acceptable unto him. Without grace, ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God." This is the salt which purifieth the offering, and without which the offering is an abomination to the Lord. "And every oblation shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt."* When we have shown to you that every human being is bound to serve God, and that no one can serve him acceptably without divine grace, we have placed you in a very humiliating condition. We have placed you in a situa. tion which will effectually try what spirit ye are of. If you choose to serve God, you must also choose grace; and if you desire grace, you will also desire to serve him. But if you reject his grace, you necessarily resolve on disobedience. No struggle of yours can ever extricate you from this state. Thereby you may ef fectually try yourselves. Thereby your ministers bring you to the test. Thereby the omniscient God tries your hearts. It is in vain for you to attempt to support the pride of the heart, or appease conscience, by false reasonings. If you should succeed in the deception, it would be your ruin. It is in vain for you to say, it would be unjust in God to require what he will not accept from me without grace, It is vain for man *Lev. ii. 13 to say, if I cannot serve him without grace, "why doth he yet find fault?" The reply must confound you. God answereth, no; but, "O man! who art thou that thou repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?" "Be still, and know that I am God." Submit. Humble thyself. Betake thyself to his grace. Serve him with sincerity and truth; for the service performed by the unregenerate cannot be acceptable to God, because it does not proceed from a principle of holiness, it is not accompanied with good-will to its object; it is sinful and worthy of punishment. The religious performances of an unregenerate man do not proceed from a holy principle. Until the heart is renewed by grace, it remains impure. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh,"t and that impurity is imparted to every thought and action. "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Christians possess an entirely new principle of action. It is supernaturally communicated to them. No modification of our natural principles of action can beget holiness, the spiritual principle. That alone which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. As no new arrangement of the members of the body could restore the dead to life, so no corapounding, or increasing, or any way diversifying the exercises of the natural faculties of man, can communicate that lifo whereby we serve God accepta *Rom. ix. 20. † John iii. 6, Rom. viii. 5.8. bly. "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. In the worship of God we indeed employ all our natural powers of mind, but we can no more infer from this fact that a new principle is unnecessary, than we should infer from our employing voice and gesture that no exercise of mind is necessary to devotion. The spiritual life is certainly mysterious. We know it only from its author, its qualities, and its exercises. It is highly probable, however, that when the genius of man is able to trace the line of separation between the vegetable and the animal, and between the animal and rational life; and besides describing their relations and qualities, shall fully comprehend the essence of each, that we shall also comprehend every thing relative to this new life, the highest and most important of all. In the mean time, let us be assured that "the faith which purifieth the heart is the gift of God;" and "without faith it is impossible to please him." The devotion of the unsanctified, moreover, bears no good will to its object. Services, rendered with no good disposition, can never be very agreeable to a generous mind. Much less can the unsanctified performances of sin. ners prove acceptable to that being who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil."* God hath de. *Hab, i. 13. clared that "love is the fulfilling of the law," while "the carnal mind is enmity against God."+ This enmity is not a mere occasional disgust of certain religious acts or ordinances; but a total opposition of heart toward the attributes of the God of Israel. The sinner dislikes the holiness which is opposed to his own mpurity, the grace that would humble his pride, and the justice that requires the punishment of his guilt. He hates the sovereignty, and the covenant, and the law of God, because these require that he should deny himself. I shall not assert that the natural man is uncapable of exercising good will to any object except from selfish considerations, or that true religion prohibits every exercise of self-love; because neither of these assertions would becorrect. Instances of disinterestedness frequently occur in the conduct of those who are destitute of pie. ty; and the divine law given requires of man that he should love his neighbor as himself. But the devotion of a man who does not love God cannot please the Creator. True "faith worketh by love.' And Jehovah said, "Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, therefore wo unto them.§ (To be continued.) Rom xiii. 10. THE PROVIDENCE OF THE MEDI- among the persons of Deity. God the Creator is the Sove. reign of the universe. Creation gives an undeniable right to go vernment. Every created intelligence is under law to God, and owes him the homage of allegiance. Right to govern belongs to the Creator; obedience is the duty of the creature. Creation is the work of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: the Sovereignty of creation is thus naturally and necessarily vested in the Godhead. The perfect equality of the persons of the Godhead place them on the footing of perfect parity in the right of government and authority. The government of the universe which naturally and necessarily belongs to the Godhead is transferred by gift to the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Matt. xxviii. 18. The power of government thus delegated to the Son of God could not be given to him, as he is the Son of God. As such, he "is God over all, and blessed for ever," and of course has a natural and unalienable right to it, in respective of donation, "I and my Father are one.' The delegation of government unto the Son of God, has respect to a conventional relation, existing Man, the subject of God's moral government, having by his transgression of the divine law, unfitted himself for discharging the obligations which he owed to his Maker, and reduced himself to an inextricable state of guilt and misery, God who is rich in mercy has made provision for bringing back part of mankind in dutiful allegiance to himself; and se. curing for them complete salvation. This provision is based on a covenant, entered into by the persons of the Godhead. Whatever is done in virtue of this contract is predicable not of the essential character of God, but of his economical character, constituted for the display of his free and sovereign grace. The conventional relation of the covenant of redemption places God the Father in the situation of sustaining the rights of Deity; the Son in the situation of representing elect sinners; and the Holy Spirit in that of being the sanctifier and comforter of redeemed men. These distinct relations of the Godhead are abundantly evident from scripture. The relations of the first and second persons are recognized in the 8th Psalm: "I have made a covenant with my chosen ; I have sworn unto David my servant." And the relation of the third person of Deity to the covenant is implied in the parting promise of the Redeemer: "But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.' The covenant of redemption, Nor is as we have now ascertained, dience in this character. it any derogation to the glory of All things are subjected to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has received from the Father all power in heaven and in earth. It is bestowed upon him as the reward of his voluntary obedience unto death for sinners according to the will of God. "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. ii. 8-11. The delegation of power to the Mediator involves nothing derogatory to the character of either the Father or the Son. It is no derogation to the essential honor of the Son of God that he has received the government of the universe; because he has received it as Mediator between God and man and on account of his obe. No difficulty is ever felt in understanding how one man may act as the delegate of another, without involving the destruction of right belonging to the delegating party. The authenticated agent of a commercial company, does as far as is committed to him all its business; nor is this ever supposed to interfere with the original and natural rights of the company. Neither is there any difficulty respecting the agency of the Mediator in the dispensation of providence. The government of the Mediator is universal; all created being is subject to it without one solitary exception. No doctrine is more unequivocally taught in scripture than this. It admits of no evasion while the decisive authority of scripture is acknowledged. "For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him." 1 Cor. xv. 27. The exception which is made in this text secures beyond the power of misapplication and prejudice the universality of the Mediator's authority. If the government of the Me. diator were limited to the church, he could have no moral right to |