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piness consists in a character conformed to that of God. But there is a constant tendency in our minds to occupy themselves with the uncertain and unsatisfactory things which are seen, to the exclusion of that secure good which is unseen. Pain, disappointment, and death, are therefore sent to awaken us to reflection -to warn us against reposing on a shadow, which will stamp on us its own corruptible and fleeting likeness-and to invite us to fix our feet on that substantial rock which cannot fail. The happiness which God intends for men (according to the Bible) consists in a particular form of character; and that character can only be wrought out by trials and difficulties and afflictions. If this were practically remembered, it would associate in our minds the sorrows of life with solid happiness and future glory. Every event, of whatever description it be, would appear to us as an opportunity of exercising and strengthening some principle which contains in itself the elements of happiness. This consideration would swallow up, or at least very much abate, the dejection or exultation which the external form of the event is calculated to excite, and produce cheerful and composed acquiescence in the appointments of Providence. "In every thing

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give thanks; for this (event, whether prosperous or adverse) is the will of God in Christ Jesus towards you." It forms a part of that system of wisdom and love, of which the gift of Christ is the prominent feature and the great specimen. Christ was given to bring men near to God, and every part of the system of Providence is ordered with the same design. The Captain of our Salvation was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" and whilst his wisdom appoints the medicinal sorrow, his heart sympathizes with the sufferer. His sufferings were not only endured in satisfaction of Divine justice,-they also serve as a pattern of the way by which God leads those real sinners whom the sinless Saviour represented, unto holiness. When two of his disciples asked him for the chief places in his kingdom, the nature of which they had much mistaken, he answered them, "Can ye drink of the cup which I drink of, and can ye be baptized with the baptism which I am baptized with ?". thus teaching, that as his own way to glory lay through sorrows, so theirs did also. His road and his glory were the patterns of theirs. Not that happiness and glory are given as an arbitrary premium for having suffered, but that the character which has been most exercised

and refined by affliction contains a greater proportion of the constituent elements of happiness and glory. Neither are we to suppose that afflictions necessarily produce this character: Indeed, the effect in many cases is the very reverse. But afflictions are important opportunities of acquiring and growing in this character; which, as they cannot be neglected without danger, so they cannot be improved according to the directions of the gospel without leading to a blessed result. The continual presence of God watching over the progress of his own work, and observing the spirit in which his creatures receive their appointed trials, is a great truth, which, if believed and remembered, would both excite to cheerful and grateful action, and would comfort under any sorrow.

Every event affords opportunities of exercising love to God or man, humility or heavenly-mindedness; and thus every event may be made a step towards heaven; So that, if we were asked what sort of a theatre the principles of the gospel required for its effectual operation on a being like man, it would be impossible to devise any which would appear even to our reason so suitable as the world

which we see around us. Were the gospel

different, or were man different, another theatre might be better; but whilst the human heart remains as it is, we require just such a process as that which is carried on here, for working the principles of the gospel into our moral constitutions. We know, besides, that the Christian character is adapted to the events of life; because it would produce happiness under those events, whatever they might be. Thus it appears, that the heart of man, the Bible, and the course of Providence, have a mutual adaptation to each other; and hence we may conclude, that they proceed from the same source, we may conclude, that the same God who made man, and encompassed him with the trials of life, gave the Bible to instruct him how these trials might be made subservient to his eternal happiness.

SECTION VI.

I HAVE already explained two causes why spiritual Christianity is so much opposed, and so rarely received with true cordiality amongst men. The first is, that its uncompromising holiness of principle arms against it all the corruptions of our nature: The second is, that it rarely gains an attentive and full consideration, so as to be apprehended in all its bearings, both in relation to the character of God and its influence on the heart of man.

I shall now mention another circumstance, nearly connected with the second of these causes, which often opposes the progress of true religion.

Many persons, in their speculations on Christianity, never get farther than the miracles which were wrought in confirmation of its divine authority. Those who reject them are called infidels, and those who admit them are called believers; and yet, after all, there may be very little difference between them. A belief of the miracles narrated in the New Testament, does not constitute the faith of a Christian. These miracles merely attest the au

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