a full and accurate delineation of men's characters, such as we might look for in a set discourse : never- theless, in the brief notices here given us, we have what is abundantly sufficient to distinguish the saints from all other people upon the face of the earth. They are here described,
1 . In plain terms —
[Two things we are told concerning them, namely, JVIiat company they affect, and, IVhat employment they delight in. They have no pleasure in the society of ungodly men. They are aware that " evil communications will corrupt good manners ;" and that the surest way to avoid infection, is, to come as little as possible in contact with those who are diseased. They see how fatal, and yet how common, is the progress of sin ; that to walk, however occasionally, in the counsel of the ungodly (who are. destitute of any religious principle), is a prelude to standing in the way of sinners (gross, open sinners), and, at last, to sittingm the seat of the scornful, who despise and deride all true piety. Hence, fearing lest, by unnecessarily associating with the wicked, they should be drawn to adopt their principles, and to imitate their conduct, they either withdraw from them altogether, or contract their intercourse with them, as much as will consist with a due discharge of their social and relative duties.
Privacy, and reading of the holy Scriptures, are more con- genial with their feelings, than the noise and vanity of the world. In the blessed word of God they see all the wonders of redeem- ing love : in that, they find the charter, by which they are en- titled to an everlasting inheritance. There they behold thou- sands of exceeding great and precious promises, which are as marrow and fatness to their souls: thfere also they see marked out to them the way in which to please, and honour, and glorify their God : and, by meditating on these various precepts and pro- mises, they find their souls cast, as it were, into the very mould of the Gospel, and gradually transformed into the image of their God. Hence they delight to ruminate on the word of God ; yea, " day and night" they make it their meditation and their joy : like Job, they " esteem it more than their necessary food."]
2. By a beautiful comparison —
[In consequence of thus " eschewing evil and cleaving unto that which is good," they become like a tree planted by the canals in Eastern countries, which flourishes with incessant ver- dure and fruitfulness ; whilst all that are less favourably situated, are parched and withered by drought. The godly are " trees of righteousness, of the Lord's planting :" their roots are con- stantly watered by that '^ river which makes glad the city of God :" and by the fertilizing influences of the Spirit of God
they