out, and hate you, as not belonging to them. They will stare at you as an odd, unfashionable stranger, and wonder you do not copy their example.

"If ye were of the world," says Christ, "the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John xv. 19.

I hope you now know what it is to have Christ formed within you. And in what heart among you is this holy thing conceived and growing? Where are the followers of Jesus? Surely they are not so like the men of the world, the followers of sin and Satan, as to be undistinguishable. Oh! how many impostors does this inquiry discover, false pretenders to Christianity, who are the very reverse of its great Founder! And as many of you as continue unlike to him now in holiness, must continue unlike to him for ever in happiness. All Christ's heavenly companions are Christ-like; they bear his image and superscription.

Before I dismiss this head, I must observe that the production of this divine infant, if I may so call it, in the heart, is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not the growth of nature, but a creation by divine power. It is the hand of God that draws the lineaments of this image upon the heart, though he makes use of the gospel and a variety of means as his pencil.

But you would inquire farther, "In what manner does this divine agent work; or how is Christ formed in the hearts of his people?"

I answer, The heart of man has a quick sensation. Nothing can be done there without its perceiving it; much less can Christ be formed there, while it is wholly insensible of the operation. There is indeed a great variety in the circumstances, but the substance of the work is the

same in all adults. Therefore, if ever you have been the subjects of it, you have been sensible of the following par

ticulars.

1. You have been made deeply sensible of your being entirely destitute of this divine image. Your hearts have appeared to you as a huge, shapeless mass of corruption, without one ingredient of true goodness, amidst all the flattering appearances of it. In confidence of this discovery, your high conceit of yourselves was mortified, your airs of pride and self-consequence lowered, and you saw yourselves utterly unfit for heaven, that region of purity, and ready to fall, as it were, by your own weight, into hell, that sink of all the pollutions of the moral world. This is the first step towards the formation of Christ in the soul. And have you ever gone thus far? If not, you may be sure you have never gone farther.

2. You have hereupon set yourselves in earnest to the use of the means appointed for the renovation of your nature. Prayer, hearing the gospel, and other divine ordinances, were no more lifeless, customary formalities to you; but you exerted all the vigour of your souls in them. You also guarded against every thing that tended to cherish your depraved disposition, and hinder the formation of Christ within you. Then you durst not play with temptation, nor venture within its reach. This is the second step in the process. And have you ever gone thus far? If not, you have never gone farther; and if you have never gone farther, you can never reach the kingdom of God in your present condition.

. 3. You have been made sensible of your own weakness, and the inefficacy of all the means you could use to produce the divine image upon your hearts; and that nothing but the divine hand could draw it there. When When you first begun your endeavours, you had high hopes you would

do great things; but, after hard strivings and strugglings, after many prayers and tears, after much reading, hearing, and meditation, you found no great effect followed; nay, the corruption of your hearts appeared more and more, and hence you concluded you were growing worse and worse. Thus the blessed Spirit convinced you of your own weakness, and the necessity of his influence to work this divine change. He cleared away the rubbish of pride and self-righteousness from your hearts, in order to prepare them, as a clean canvas, to receive the image of Christ. And have you ever been thus humbled and mortified? Have you ever been reduced into this medicinal self-despair? It is the humble heart alone that is suspective of the image of the meek and lowly Jesus. Pride can never receive its lineaments, nor can it be carved on an insensible stone.

4. Hereupon the Holy Spirit enlightened your minds to view the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and the method of salvation revealed in the gospel. The bright beams of the divine perfections shining in that way of salvation, the attractive beauties of holiness, and all the wonders of the gospel, struck your minds with delightful astonishment and you viewed them in a light unknown before. Hereupon you were enabled to cast your guilty, corrupt, helpless souls upon Jesus Christ, whom you saw to be a glorious, all-sufficient Saviour; and with all your hearts you embraced the way of salvation through his mediation. The view of his glory proved transformative: while you were contemplating the object, you received its likeness; the rays of glory beaming upon you, as it were, rendered your hearts transparent, and the beauties of holiness were stamped upon them. Thus St. Paul represents the matter, "We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor.

iii. 18. Thus your hearts retained the image of his glory, like the face of Moses after he had been conversing with God in the Mount. You contracted the temper of Jesus Christ, and imbibed his spirit: he was formed in your hearts, and began to live and act there. The life you lived in the flesh, you lived by the faith of the Son of God. Now your minds took a new turn, and your life a new cast; and the difference began to appear even to the world. Not knowing the divine original, they knew not whose image you bore. Therefore the world knoweth us not,

saith St. John, because it knew him not. 1 John iii. 1. This, however, they knew, that you did not resemble them; therefore they looked upon yon as odd sort of creatures, whose tempers and manners were as different from theirs as if you were foreigners; you soon became as speckled birds among them, and they were weary of your society, and you of theirs. Brethren, have you ever been the subjects of divine operation? Has Christ ever been thus formed in your hearts? I stand in doubt of some of you, though blessed be God, there are others who give good grounds for a charitable hope concerning them, by their apparent likeness to Christ.

5. If Christ has ever been formed in you, it is your persevering endeavour to improve and perfect this divine. image. You long and labour to be fully conformed to him, and, as it were, to catch his air, his manner, and spirit, in every thought, in every word, and in every action. As far as you are unlike to him, so far you appear deformed and loathsome to yourselves. While you feel an unchristian spirit prevail within you, you seem as if you were possessed with the devil. And it is the labour of your life to subdue such a spirit, and to brighten and finish the features of the divine image within you, by repeated touches and re-touches.

VOL. II.-54

By this short view, my brethren, you may be assisted in determining whose image you bear: whether Christ's or Satan's, whether Christ's or the world's, whether Christ's or your own. And let me tell you, if you cannot determine this, you know not but you may be in hell the next hour; for none shall ever find admittance into heaven who are not formed after the image of Christ. The glorious company upon Mount Zion are all followers of the Lamb: they are like him, for they see him as he is. A soul unlike to him would be a monster there; a native of hell broke into heaven; a wolf among lambs; a devil among angels. And can you hope for admission there, while you are unlike him? The two grand apartments of the eternal world are under two opposite heads; the holy Jesus presides in the one-and the Prince of devils, the prime offender and father of sin, in the other. Both apartments are thick settled with colonies from our world; and the inhabitants of both are like their respective heads. Therefore, if ye resemble the Prince of Heaven, with him you shall dwell for ever; but if you resemble the tyrant of hell, you must for ever be his miserable vassals. Therefore push home the inquiry, Is Christ formed in my heart, or is he not?

If he be, then rejoice in it, as a sure earnest of the heavenly inheritance. None ever went to hell that carried the image of Christ upon their hearts; but the heavenly regions are peopled with such. His image is the grand passport into that country, a passport that was never disputed; and, if you bear it, the celestial gates will be flung wide open for your reception, and your human and angelic brethren, who have the same looks, the same manner, the same spirit, will all hail your arrival, and shout your welcome; will own you as their kindred, from your visible resemblance to them; and you will immediately and natu