III.

Signs of Godliness.-The distinguishing marks of a true Christian, taken from one of my old manuscripts ; wherein I wrote as I felt and experienced, and not from any considerable degree of doctrinal knowledge, or acquaintance with the sentiments of others in this point.

1. He has a true knowledge of the glory and excellency of God, that he is most worthy to be loved and praised for his own divine perfections: Psalm cxlv. 8.

2. God is his portion: Psalm lxxiii. 25. And God's glory his great concern: Matt. vi. 22.

3. Holiness is his delight; there is nothing he so much longs for as to be holy, as God is holy: Phil. iii. 9-12.

4. Sin is his greatest enemy. This be hates for its own nature, for what it is in itself, being contrary to a holy God: Jer. ii. 1. Consequently he hates all sin: Rom vii. 24. 1 John iii. 9.

5. The laws of God alone are his delight: Psalm cxix. 27. Rom. vii. 22. These he observes, not out of constraint, from a servile fear of hell; but they are his choice: Psalm cxix. 30. The strict observance of them is not his bondage, but his greatest liberty: ver. 45.

THE END.