hungry to eat, or the thirsty to drink, the naked to be clothed, the beggar to come for alms, or the poor laborer for a day's work. Bid a Christian deny himself, or crucify his flesh; it is the same as if you bade him deny his enemy, revenge himself on his enemy: such revenge is sweet. But O how pleasant is it to him to be called to a life of praise; to live above in the light, in the love, in the joy of the Lord; to be searching and studying and looking into, and admiring those everlasting treasures of spiritual and heavenly delights laid up in God; to behold his face, to live in his presence, and to dwell in the light of his countenance! It is true, there is some remaining difficulty and irksomeness in the sweetest works of religion, as far forth as the heart is unrenewed and is yet carnal. "Deny myself; mortify lust; forsake my companions; withdraw from iniquity! why, what is this but to cut off my hand; to pluck out my eyes; to tear my flesh? Walk with God; seek his face; dwell in his presence! it is all one as to bid me feed on the air, wander on the mountains, dwell in the wilderness; and as much pleasure can I find in the one as in the other." It is so indeed, as far as thou remainest carnal; the Lord God and all his ways are a wilderness, a land of darkness to thee; but as much as thou hast of this new heart, so much ease and pleasure thou wilt find herein.

Desponding soul, thou sayest thou art yet ignorant, and hast little knowledge of the way of the Lord; but behold a new light to lead thee. Thou art yet carnal, and thy heart is contrary, and ever contending with

God; but the new nature will end the strife. Thou art weak and impotent, the work is too hard for thee, if thou lovedst it ever so well; but how will this be when thou art endued with power from on high?

O friend, wouldst thou indeed live this new life? then get this new heart. "But O, there lies the difficulty; how or where shall I get it?" Why, have recourse to the covenant; there it lies for thee. "But how shall I get it thence?" Why, hath not the Lord promised to give it thee? take the word from his mouth, and put it into thine own; turn the word of promise into a prayer. Doth he say, "I will give?" let thy soul answer, "Give, Lord, give me this new heart. I am weary, Lord, and thou art weary also of this wicked heart: at once ease thyself and me; take away this, and give me a better heart." Turn the word of promise into a prayer, and then turn the word of prayer into a word of faith. He says, "I will give;" let thy faith say, "Thou wilt give, I shall have it; since thou hast said, thy servant may also boldly say, thou wilt do it. Thou wilt give me a better heart. Farewell, my old sins, lusts, and companions; farewell, my old pleasures and ways; now for heaven in earnest, now welcome the strait gate, the new and living way. Old things are passed away, all things shall become new." Turn the word of promise into a prayer, turn thy prayer into a word of faith, and God will turn the word of faith into a word of command. "Be it according to thy word. Let there be a new light, let there be a new law, let there be a new power, let there no more be a spirit of

fear in this heart, but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind." And as when he said in the creation of the great world, "Let there be light," let there be a firmament, let there be a sun and moon, it was so; so when he shall say, in the new creation of thy little world, Let there be light, let there be love, let there be power-let us again make man in our image, after our own likeness, it shall be so. The Lord hath said, I will; let thy prayer say, Do it, Lord; let thy faith say, Thou wilt do it; and God will say, Amen. So be it.

CHAPTER VII.

A HEART TO KNOW THE LORD.

"I WILL give them a heart to know me.” Jer. 24:7. The knowledge of God is the first excellency of the new heart. As in the old, so in the new creation, as was said before, the first word is, "Let there be light." There is not so glorious a preeminence of day above night, as of the knowledge above the ignorance of God. As the firmament without a sun, as the body without an eye, so is the soul without knowledge. What this knowledge of God here promised is, will appear, if we consider its object and its act.

The object of this knowledge is God: not only the nature or being of God, manifested in his essential perfections, his glorious attributes, his infiniteness, eternity, omnipotence, in his personal relations, the subsistences in the godhead; but God in Christ, God in covenant; yea, the whole mind and will of God, all that which God hath revealed to us as our duty or happiness. God known in the heart, is the whole Bible opened: the law opened, the gospel opened ; duties, comforts, privileges made manifest. Christ opened in his sufferings, in his satisfaction, in his Spirit, in all the riches of his glory: the whole mystery of godliness revealed. The heart opened, man made known to himself, all the depths of the heart, all the deceits of the heart, all the faculties and pow

ers of the heart, with their motions, operations, inclinations, the rectitude or obliquities of them. Heaven opened, the crown, the kingdom known; everlasting rest, glory, honor, immortality brought to light. Hell opened, sin known, the devil known, wrath, temptation, the curse, eternal fire known. All this, even all that God is, and all that he has revealed in his word and works, are the object of this knowledge of God.

The act. To know, is to apprehend, or understand God, and the things of God: "Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me." Jer. 9:24. "That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ." Eph. 3:18, 19. This apprehension of God doth not barely denote our having received some intellectual or metaphysical notions of God, and the truths that are in him; but further, it denotes,

An approbation of him; an approving or liking the things that are excellent: "That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent." Phil. 1:9, 10.

Appropriation. The knowing of God as a reconciled God; a God, and a God to me; good, and good to me; wise, and wise for me; my Lord and my God. To know God in Christ, reconciled through Christ, propitious through Christ, this is saving knowledge. To know and not possess, to see and not eat, to know an angry God, a wrathful God, a God lost-to know