when you paid no regard to his authority? when perhaps you had no thought of your own eternal interests? If you regarded God at all, it was merely the effect of fear, not of love. You had no relish for his green pastures, you loved to wander, and attempted to derive your chief happiness from another source.

Happy is it, if you have now returned to the "shepherd and overseer of souls." But will you not own it was the Lord who brought you back? Even since you have known the Lord, and tasted that he is gracious, have you never found a propensity to depart from him? Are you not chargeable, at least with heart-backslidings? Have you no proneness to forget the Lord? to intermit the exercise of faith and holy love? If you forsake not the assemblies of the saints, yet are not your closets seldomer visited that formerly; and your private devotions more slightly performed? Has no idol intruded into your affections? Have you no room to say, "O that it were with me as in months past!"? Cannot he whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and who declares that all the church shall know that he searches the hearts and the reins, say, "I have somewhat against thee"? If not, yet beware; you are yet in the body.

But many must own this: yea, still worse, their zeal has visibly abated: yea, they have evidently turned aside from God. Ah! foolish and ungrateful souls! how forgetful of all his benefits! Yet blessed be God for his restoring grace! Let backsliders implore it. Let us all prize it. Consider,

SECONDLY, The value of this blessing.

How great a thing was it to be brought back to God at first! Never should we have returned to him of ourselves. Sheep are seldom known, like some domestic animals, to return. Sinners never do return, and never would return, were not the good Shepherd to seek them.

"Jesus found me when a stranger," &c.

He himself is the way; never could we have had access to God, but through his righteousness. His Spirit alone guided us into the way of peace. He induced us to comply with the call of the gospel. He made us willing to return unto God.

Oh what mercy has been manifested in healing our backslidings since! notwithstanding all the baseness and ingratitude that have attended them; though we have sometimes given occasion to the enemies of religion to reproach the ways of God, or at least have not honored God as we ought to have done. And we should probably have wandered much farther, had not the Lord interposed for our restoration. Sometimes providences, surprizing and unexpected, or perhaps painful and severe, have been subservient to this purpose; sometimes stated ordinances; sometimes brotherly reproof. But whatever means were used, it was the Lord who gave them efficacy, and rendered them successful to bring us back to himself. He has inclined us to place our happiness in him, to seek him in the way he has prescribed, to return to a state of voluntary subjection. Which leads us to consider, THIRDLY, The evidences of our partaking of this blessing. Have we been thoroughly convinced of our original departure from God? its reality, iniquity, folly, and ruinous tendency? Have we been convinced that it is our duty and privilege to return home to God? that this is best, wisest, and happiest? Do we heartily acquiesce in God's method of saving sinners, in a way that shall demonstrate his righteousness and magnify his law; even through the mediation of that Saviour, on whom the Lord laid our iniquities, and who laid down his life for the sheep? Are we willing and desirous of walking before God, in the ways of righteousness; regarding his blessed word as our directory in our conduct towards mankind, as well as respecting the immediate worship of God? Do we consider the law of God as spiritual; requiring truth in the inward part; and extending to our temper, as well as to our outward visible practice? When we wander from God, are we filled with pain, and shame; and do we find that we cannot be happy till our souls are restored, and we return to the paths of righteousness? Are we conscious that we need the continual attention of our good Shepherd, to keep our minds from being bewildered with error, our wills from disobedience and rebellion, our affections from being inordinately fixed on some inferior good, if not on some forbidden object or to

prevent us from degenerating into self-righteousness, sloth, or worldly-mindedness? Do we long for farther progress in the good ways of God; to know, love, serve, and glorify him better; desiring to walk on as pilgrims, till we arrive at a state of absolute perfection? Are we conscious that

what our gracious Lord has done for us, is all of his sovereign mercy? He hath wrought it for his name's sake, and not for our righteousness' sake. All our salvation flows from the riches of his grace. Do we earnestly wish to honor God's name; and to be to the praise of the glory of his grace?

Oh let us admire and adore the Lord our shepherd, and acknowledge our obligations to his matchless goodness, as displayed both in our first conversion, and in all our subsequent experience.

May they, who are still wandering away from God, have their feet directed into the way of peace; be led into the ways of righteousness; and find them ways of pleasantness, and paths of peace.

XXI.

THE WAY OF BELIEVERS.

PSALM XXXVii. 5, 6.

Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

It seems probable, that David, who composed this Psalm in his old age, intended it principally for the direction and encouragement of his son Solomon, who was first anointed king before his father's decease, while he was young and tender, and not without factious enemies; whose destruction is here foretold, and his prosperous reign predicted, in such terms, as may justly lead us to consider it as typical of the spiritual kingdom of the Messiah, David's greater, though remote descendant, especially as it shall appear in the latter days. But the instruction and consolation of this Psalm must not be confined to Solomon. It is inserted in the sacred canon for our benefit; and as to this clause in particular,

Solomon himself has set us an example of applying to others 'what his father first addressed to him. Prov. iii. 6. xvi. 9. The great question is, Who are warranted to take the encouragement? And the best answer is, They who are satisfied with the directions here given. I propose,

FIRST, To delineate the way of every true saint.

He

The real believer has a peculiar way, a course of his own, by which he is distinguished from other people; not a way of his own devising, but of God's prescribing; not a way he chuses for the sake of singularity, for he would be very glad for all others to walk therein. But he has a peculiar end which he pursues, different from the generality of the world; and he must take a peculiar course to attain it. His end is that which ought to be the end of all, even to glorify God and enjoy him eternally. But what can be more evident than that this is not the end which is actually pursued by most people? No; they would enjoy themselves and the world, not God; or if they want his favor, yet it is not for its own sake, but merely to subserve some other inferior end. Whereas God is the saint's chief end, his exceeding joy, and he would glorify as well as enjoy him. No wonder then that he should have a peculiar way, when he has so singular an end. has a peculiar way of thinking. Others may pretend to agree with him in the mere outlines of his creed, or in terms and phrases which he adopts; but true saints only enter into the spirit of it. He has peculiar views of God and Christ; of sin, self, the world, life, death, and eternity. He has a peculiar way of acting. Who will believe that there is any thing peculiar in your creed, if there is nothing peculiar in your conduct? "If you know the truth, the truth will make you free." Can you think differently of Christ from others, and yet feel no more influence of his love, and act no more like him? Can you think differently of sin, and yet practise it as much as others? Can you think meaner of self before God, and yet be as proud as others toward men? Can you form a true estimate of the world, and yet pursue it as eagerly as others? Can you think more of eternity, and yet be engrossed by time? No, surely.

The believer is one who walks in a different way, a narrow

way, a way which is scarcely visible to a carnal eye.

For

He

example, He would draw nigh unto God, in such a way as shall secure the divine honor. He would be so admitted to the enjoyment of God, as that God shall be glorified. Now none can thus approach a holy God but by Christ. Hence a man must renounce all dependance on self-righteousness, and yet be zealous for the practice of good works. would walk before God in the way he has prescribed; both as to every part of instituted worship, and as to the general observance of moral duties. In all the particular actions of life, he would still keep the same end in view; to glorify and enjoy God. Religion must influence our civil concerns, our connexions in life, our management of worldly business, or we give but little proof of its reality.

As the believer's end is never fully attained in this life; as it is impossible to have enough of God on earth; therefore he must be a pilgrim all his days, hold on, seek another country, and live as bound for heaven.

the Lord ap

way Or else it would be Now, whether we consider

SECONDLY, Consider the direction given him respecting his way." Commit to the Lord thy way." This presupposes a concern to take the proves, and to which he has directed us. an insult to commit it to him. the believer as to his way of thinking, his way of worship, his way of action, or his way of managing his temporal concerns, this is his great desire, to keep inflexibly to the way of truth, holiness, and obedience. He does not want to know what is any other person's way, but which is God's way; not which is the commonest way, the most fashionable, the most creditable, the most easy, the most lucrative; but the true, right, strict, holy way, which God has appointed; the way which Christ trod before us. This way he would keep, in the Lord's strength; looking to him for aid, to enable him to persevere in this good way, and hold on to the end of his pilgrimage. In this way he would walk at all events, leaving consequences with God: though he should meet with reproach and loss, the frowns of men, persecution, or death itself. He would look to the Lord to vindicate him from all unjust aspersions, which he may suffer for his name's sake. He