placed in Eden to dress and to keep the garden. Seneca says, "I would much rather be sick than idle." As the employment of Moses was not degrading, neither, we are persuaded, was it found uncomfortable. Lord Kaimes says, "There is no drudgery upon earth but admits of more enjoyment than the ennui resulting from indolence and inaction." We have much reason to believe that Moses felt these to be the most privileged years of his life. How much more free and happy was the shepherd of Midian than the courtier in Egypt, and the leader and commander in the wilderness! Here by the side of his innocent charge he held communion with his God, was inspired to write the book of Genesis, and to tell how "the earth sprang out of chaos"-And here, some have concluded, he composed the delightful drama of the book of Job, to encourage and comfort his suffering brethren in Egypt. However this may be, the subject adds another instance to the numerous cases mentioned in the Scriptures, in which, when the Lord appeared to communicate a discovery, or confer a distinction, the recipients were engaged in discharging the duties of their stations in life-Indeed where can we find an exception from the rule? Satan loves to meet men idle. God delights to honour diligence and fidelity. He is with us while we are with him. "To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that he hath."

JULY 7.-MORNING.

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" ROM. vii. 24.

Ir is commonly supposed that here is a reference to a cruel usage sometimes practised by the tyrants of antiquity; and which is mentioned by Virgil, and Cicero, and Valerius Maximus. It consisted in fastening a dead carcass to a living man. Now suppose a dead body bound to your body-its hands to your hands-its face to your face-its lips to your lips. Here is not only a burden, but an offence. You cannot separate yourself from your hated companion: it lies down-and rises up-and walks-with you. You cannot breathe without inhaling a kind of pestilence and "Oh!" you would say, "Oh how slowly the parts corrupt and fall off!-Oh how can I longer endure it? When shall I be free? O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This is very strong. Yet it comes not up to Paul's case. He is speaking of such a wretchedness not without him, but within.

Whatever we may think of this allusion, here is a representation of the sin that dwelleth in us: it is the body of this death, or, as it is in the margin, this body of death. It is called-a body, to intimate the entireness and universality of the evil. Thus we call a code of laws a body of laws; and a system of divinity, a body of divinity. And it is a body ofdeath, to mark its malignant effect. Gunpowder is a body of destruction; arsenic is a body of poisonsin is a body of death. It brought death into the world. It has slain all the inhabitants of the earth,

and will soon slay us. It has brought upon us spiritual, as well as corporeal, death. And it produces a deadness even in the souls of believers, and hinders the operation of those vital principles which they have received from above. By this baneful influence, the tendencies of the divine life in them, which are so glorious, are chilled and checked: and, therefore, they are frequently wandering in meditation; and stupid in reading and hearing; and insensible in prayer; and dull even in praise-Till, roused by reflection, they cry, My soul cleaveth to the dust; quicken thou me according to thy word.

For there are remains of this evil even in the subjects of divine grace. None of them are free. In many things, says James, we offend all. In all our doings, says the Church, our sins do appear. My tears, says Beveridge, require to be washed in the blood of Christ; and my repentance needs to be repented of. Those who could die for the Saviour have used the most humbling language with regard to themselves. Sometimes, says Bradford, O my God, there seems to be no difference between me and the wicked my understanding seems as dark as theirs, and my will as perverse as theirs, and my heart as hard as theirs. Yea, says Paul, at the end of so many years of advancement, I have not attained, I am not already perfect. After this, "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?"

But observe the distress this remaining corruption occasions them. It is their chief burden and griefO wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death? Paul never said any thing like this of any of his sufferings. Yet he was a great sufferer: he suffered the loss of all things; he was

once stoned; thrice he suffered shipwreck; he was twice beaten with rods; five times he received forty stripes, save one; he was in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft-yet so far from groaning and complaining, he tells us he took pleasure in all this, because it was for Christ's sake. And it is a sad evidence against us, if we are more affected with our calamities than with our corruptions. We are not required to be Stoics: we may feel our sufferings: But there is something we shall feel more if we are in a right state of mind, namely, an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

The people of the world judge of Christians by their own views and feelings; and because they love sin, and would deem the liberty to indulge in it a privilege, they think Christians are disposed to take every advantage for the same purpose. But how shall they who are dead to sin live any longer therein? Sin is their abhorrence; and, at the foot of the Cross, they have sworn to have indignation against it for ever. They have a new nature; and, as far as they are sanctified, there is as perfect a contrariety between them and sin as between darkness and light. Hence the contest within. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these being contrary the one to the other, they cannot do the things that they would. And will not this be painful? If a mechanic longed to excel in his workmanship, and an enemy stood by and marred every thing before he put it out of his hand, would not this be vexatious? Would not a man in a journey of importance, and anxious above all things to speed his way, feel a hinderance that would impede him for an hour more than an idler would the loss of a day? He

that delights in neatness will suffer more from a single stain than another would from wearing a filthy garment. Because their sentiments are evangelical, their enemies seem to think their feelings must be Antinomian: but, though this may be not made plain to others, their doctrinal views befriend holiness; and with their mind they serve the law of God: yea, they delight in the law of God after the inward man. The goodness of God leadeth them to repentance. His love is shed abroad in their hearts, and they love him in return. They grieve to think they serve him so defectively, and have still in them so much of that which he infinitely hates. How painful to think, that while they repose upon his bosom they should often pierce it too!

In a word, while many would represent the Christian, if not an enemy to holiness and good works, yet too indifferent to their claims, he is abasing himself before God for the hidden evils of his heart; and is more affected with his sins of infirmity than his revilers are with sins of profligacy and presumption. Thus you may drive a sword through the body of a dead man, and no muscle moves: while the puncture of a thorn will pain a living one all over.

JULY 7.-EVENING.

"And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, beheld the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed."

EXOD. iii. 2.

THIS exhibition was not only miraculous, but very significant. It was intended to strike the mind through the senses, and as an emblem to be instruc