the things which tempt you from the testimonies of the Lord, with the loss which they will occasion, and the evils which they will entail upon you. You may now, perhaps, justify the pre- ference which you give to sin : but say whether you will not one day be ashamed of it ? Say whether, in that hour when you shall be bidden to depart from your Saviour's presence, and to take your portion for ever in a lake of fire, you will not be ashamed of the choice which you have now so unwisely made, and of the hopes which you now so presumptuously cherish? Peradventure you now laugh at the idea of an enlargement of heart, and deride the course to which it leads : but will you do so in that day? Will you not rather lament that you followed the course of this world, instead of prosecuting the ways which lead to heaven ? I would say then to you, " Seek now the Lord whilst he may be found, and call upon him whilst he is near." There is no repentance in the grave, nor any reversing of the sentence that shall soon be passed upon you. Begin, then, the course which David ran, and prosecute it with the ardour that filled his soul. So shall you possess with him the joy that is set before you, and inherit to all eternity the rest that remaineth for the people of God.]
Ps. cxix. 34. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my zvhole heart.
A SPIRITUAL discernment essentially differs from the mere exercise of our intellectual powers. A man may have the richest stores of human know- ledge, and the most discriminating faculty in various branches of science, and yet be under the dominion, the allowed dominion, of his own lusts and passions. But spiritual knowledge is always accompanied with gracious dispositions : and for the sake of its prac- tical effects alone is it to be desired. This appears from what St. Paul says respecting the intercessions which he continually offered before God in the behalf of his Colossian converts : " We do not cease," says he, "to pray for you, and to desire that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; that ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasi?iga." In a foregoing part of
a Col. i. 9, 10.