The character of the true Christian is here most fitly drawn —
[There are many unbelievers whose moral characters are unexceptionable : they abstain from open iniquity, and they perform many acts of righteousness. But the distinctive mark of the believer is, that " he loves righteousness and hates iniquity." He looks upon sin as the worst enemy of his soul. Not contented with suppressing the outward acts of it, he strives to mortiiy its inward motions. The existence of sin within him is his pain, his burthen, his grief. He abhors it ; he lothes himself on account of it : he often cries with anguish of heart, *' O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me ? " As for righteousness, he considers it as the health and felicity of his soul. It is the very element in which he desires to live. Were he possessed of it in ever so high a degree, he would not be satisfied, as long as there were any measure of it which he had not attained. He would be " holy as God is holy," and " per- fect as God is perfect." We repeat it, that this is the distinctive character of a true believer. Others, whatever their conduct be, have no real hatred of secret sin, no unfeigned delight in the secret exercises of religion : but in the believer these dis- positions radically and abidingly exist.]
On this account God vouchsafes him the richest communications —
[Who amongst the sons of pleasure can be compared with the Christian in respect to real happiness ? The happiness of the carnal man is only as " the crackling of thorns under a pot;" it blazes for a little time, and then expires in smoke. Let a true Christian be bereft of all that the world holds most dear, and be reduced to a condition the most calamitous in the eyes of carnal men, yet would he not exchange states with the happiest worldling upon earth : he would spurn at the proposal with contemptuous indignation.
But it is not merely over the ungodly world that a lively Christian has this advantage : " he is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows," above those who in an inferior degree participate the same heavenly calling. Occasional cir- cumstances of temptation or of darkness may indeed for a time reduce the m^ost eminent Christian below the standard of his weaker brother : but in the ge?ieral it will be found, that the more we have of the divine image, the more we shall abound in heavenly consolation : they will have most of heaven in their souls, who have the greatest meetness for it in their hearts and lives.
And though these holy joys are not bestowed on account of the believer's merits, yet are they strictly and properly a reward for his piety : they are a reward of grace, though not