with candour, and doubt what the sentiments of our reformers were on these subjects.
But we will bring the matter still nearer home, and agree to have the point determined by every man's own experience. Let every one of us look back to the earliest period of his life, and see what have been his dispositions towards God. Did we, in proportion as our rational powers were expanded, employ them in the contemplation of God as our Creator, our Benefactor, our Redeemer, and our Judge ? Have we felt an unfeigned solicitude to please him, and to glorify his name ? Has every thing that is contrary to his will been hateful in our eyes, and has it been shunned by us with abhorrence ? Has it been our delight to draw nigh to him from day to day in the exercise of prayer and praise, and to implore help from him that we may mortify every corrupt affec- tion, and be gradually transformed into his image in righteousness and true holiness ? Nay, we will go no farther than this very day, and ask. Whether such w^ere the exercises of our minds when we rose from our beds, and whether we find it an easy matter to preserve our minds in such a frame as this ? Do we not find, that the things of time and sense thrust out all these holy affections, and that God, instead of being the one object before our eyes, is scarcely to be found in all our thoughts ? I speak as to wise men, and to men of integrity ; Declare the truth before God : Say whether or not ye yourselves are fallen from God ? Say whether piety be the natural produce of your souls ? Say whether you find holy and heavenly thoughts, or carnal and earthly thoughts, have the readier entertainment in your minds ? Say whether or not ye are impotent to good ; or go and try it when you leave this place : Go, and say with yourselves, ' I will bring my own mind to a state of deep humiliation for my past sins ; I will exercise lively gratitude to God for his sparing mercy hitherto ; I will look with steadfast faith to Christ as my only and all-sufficient Saviour ; and I will rejoice and delight in him as my present portion, and my eternal