not use my limbs, for instance, my hands and my other members, as instruments of unrighteousness; I dare not lend them to sin, as Paul says, that we are not to make our members instruments of unrighteousness: but I must present them to God, as instruments of righteousness, to praise and glorify him. "Know ye not," says the same Apostle, in the chapter from which the words of our text are taken (verse 15), "that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot ? God forbid !" Shall I take the members that belong to Christ, and make of them members of pride, members of unrighteousness! What a shame-what an abomination! No! my members must be given up to God, as instruments of righteousness, in order to serve him with them, to the best of my ability. I dare not work, with my hands, any thing but what is good and useful to others; I dare not use my tongue for the purpose of sinful, vain, and worthless conversation. My tongue belongs to Christ; therefore it must be devoted to him. All useless words, by which he is not praised, magnified, and glorified, must be most carefully avoided; and thus I must act with all my other members. This is that real and complete service, which God requires of his people, even as we read in the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, that we are to "present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God." Thus, our senses, our eyes, ears, and all the rest, are no longer our own, who are Christians, but they belong to

Christ, because he has purchased them for his service. Therefore, since Christ has purchased my body and my senses, I must not lend my ears and eyes to hear or see any thing sinful; but like Job, I must make a covenant with my eyes and ears, that I do not desire to hear, see, taste, and feel any thing that does not lead me to God; and that I immediately apply all that I hear, see, taste, and enjoy, to the praise and glory of God, and thus praise and glorify God with my senses.

I must praise and glorify God in my body and in my spirit. Now, my heart belongs to my spirit; it is no longer mine, it does not belong to me. Your hearts no longer belong to yourselves; they are God's by the purchase of Jesus Christ, therefore, on this very account, I dare not love the world, nor that which is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. My heart belongs entirely to God; I must therefore present and devote my love, my inclinations, and desires to him; or else I commit real sacrilege. Ought I to deprive God of a thing dedicated to him, a thing which belongs with the most perfect justice to him? Ought I to steal my heart from Christ, and lend it to sin? Ought I to rob Christ of the inclinations, the noble affections, to which he alone has a right, and present them to the creature? Ought I to take pleasure in vanity? Have I not enough in Christ? Why ought I to desire any thing else beside him? This would be just as much as if I said to him, Thou alone art not enough; I must therefore have

something else for my gratification besides thee!' This be far from us! Let us delight ourselves in the Lord alone and entirely. For he alone is able to give us all that our hearts can wish and desire, both in time and eternity. Christ, who has bought our hearts, not with gold and silver, but with his precious blood, and has therefore the greatest right to them, will not have them half and divided, but is desirous of possessing them entirely. And even this is much too insignificant and little for such a lover, for such a high and lofty God. We ought therefore to make no other use of our hearts, than to devote them entirely to the love of God, so as to love God continually, with all our hearts and all their powers. Observe! we ought to love God with our whole heart; not the smallest particle ought to be taken away from him, for it belongs to him entirely.

My will is no longer my own, since Christ has purchased me, and has weaned my spirit from the world. My will is become God's by purchase and by presentation. I dare not use my will, any more, according to my own will or my own good pleasure; for self-will must no more be mentioned amongst Christians. The words, I will, and I will not, are disgraceful in the mouth of a true Christian. Our will must be resigned to Christ. We must be prepared to live according to his will, and not according to the will of the Gentiles. We must ever be ready and willing to follow the smallest intimations of his good pleasure. The pernicious and unrighteous liberty, which has remained over to us, since our

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sinful fall, we must and ought entirely to yield up to Christ, as a voluntary gift. We ought to renounce all right over our own will, in order that Christ, by his Spirit, may alone will, and not will in us, and rule and govern us according to his free option and good pleasure.

My understanding is not mine; it does not belong to me, but it is become God's by more than one right. And on that very account I must glorify God with my understanding. I dare not make use of my understanding for things, which are sinful, and which lead away from God; but I must use it solely for the glorification of him, who has bestowed it upon me for that purpose. I must employ my understanding so as willingly to submit myself to the operations of the spirit of grace, in order that I may learn to know God, and walk in filial reverence, in his most sacred presence, which is the very noblest act of the understanding, namely, contemplating God as present, glorifying God, and filially knowing it is in this way and manner that we ought to use the powers of our understandings. It is therefore

extremely shameful, to occupy our understanding so frequently and manifoldly with vain, useless, and even disgraceful and highly objectionable things. Ah, my dearest friends! is that praising God with the understanding, praising him in body and in spirit? Do we humble ourselves before God, when we thus suffer our ideas and imaginations to wander? Do we glorify him by our thoughts and meditations? Is it this, or other things that fill our minds ?

We ought to glorify our God both with our body and with our spirit. We must seek to glorify him both outwardly and inwardly. Therefore as much

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as we do not seek to walk according to our vocation, holy and blamelessly in the sight of God, as well as before the eyes of men: God is not only not glorified by us, but rather dishonoured and disgraced. when those individuals, who have the appearance being particularly devoted and attached to godliness, lead at the same time a culpable life, and act as the world does; the latter is then ready to say, 'Look, these are the people who would be better than others; who bear the name of pious saints and regenerate, and yet they are no less fond of vanity than the world, and seek after wealth and riches, and after great honours. It is all mere hypocrisy with them. It is true, they have the name that they live, but they are no less spiritually dead than other men.' Thus it is that God is not glorified, but his work and his name is only disgraced and dishonoured.

We must however not only seek to walk holily and unblameably before God, but also before the eyes of the church; yea, before each and every one, and actually show them that we are sincerely diligent in following after holiness in all its parts. But we glorify God especially, and praise him in our spirits, when we love, honour, and esteem those, who by God's grace, are anointed with his Holy Spirit and made partakers of his blessings, for the sake of such gifts and graces; when we lay all the good we have, and perform, at the Lord's feet, walk before God in the